Please excuse the long delay- high school is an ass, and my mother won't let me on the computer much. I've also put my CL fanfic archive on hold. Sorry that this chapter couldn't be longer, but enjoy!

Also, Fanfiction(dot)net is eating my dividers and dashes… So if parts run together continuously, it's because of that. Yeah. Sorry.

Lastly, there's a sadistic, monstrous hurricane headed in my direction- I live in Florida- so updates just MIGHT be a bit slow.

Disclaimer. I don't own.

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Chapter 3

Jeremie could hardly believe his good fortune. Life seemed to be smiling on him, after all. The girl he was so devoted to was finally with him and he wasn't going to be separated from her any day soon; X.A.N.A was gone and their problems were all over. He looked down- yes, down; the growth spurt that had made its appearance over the summer wasn't quite too unimpressive- at Aelita, and she turned her gaze to meet his; unconsciously, he pulled her closer to him, and her smile only widened.

They were walking around the streets in the nighttime, reveling in one another's presence and doing their utmost to spend their time wisely and with each other. Odd, Ulrich, and Sissy had long since returned to their dorms, but neither Jeremie nor Aelita could sleep well while their thoughts were occupied. Aelita sniffed the air lightly, another small smile escaping from her. "Remember the last time we were here, Jeremie?"

"I don't think I'd ever be able to forget." At that, her cheeks flushed pink. Their footsteps were quiet against the pavement in the still French night; there was no one else outside in the late hour, and the only sounds were cars passing by every now and then or the nightingales calling softly to each other across the trees lining the community.

They drew close to the Ishiyama residence, and the pair of teenagers stopped outside of the fence around the house. Aelita smiled with a blush, eyes lowered, and she leaned over on tiptoe to give Jeremie a kiss on the cheek; at the last instant, though, he turned his head slightly and her lips caught the corner of his instead. They pulled back at the same time, blushing furiously, and found cracks in the pavement quite interesting for a few moments. His voice broke the silence first.

"I guess I don't have to tell you what a kiss is, right?"

She shook her head. "I did research." Her gaze remained obstinately on the ground in front of her, refusing to look at him. He reached over and lifted her chin with his hand, forcing her to turn her eyes to his.

"I didn't mind that, you know."

She smiled, and turned towards the house. "Good night, Jeremie. And," she tossed back as an afterthought, "I didn't mind it, either."

He grinned, and turned to walk away. The door of the house opened, and Yumi's mother stood there with a slightly worried look upon her face. "You must be Aelita! Yumi told us to wait for you. We're glad to have you stay with us-" at this, Jeremie inwardly smirked; due to turning back time, she didn't remember that Aelita already had met them before- "but do you know where my daughter is?"

She craned her neck and looked behind the girl on her doorstep. "Jeremie? Is that you? Did you see Yumi at school today?"

Jeremie and Aelita exchanged confused glances. "Yes, I did, Mrs. Ishiyama- isn't she here?"

The delicate Japanese woman shook her head. "She left an hour ago, saying that she was going for a walk, and hasn't been back since."

"That doesn't seem much like her…" Aelita trailed off.

Mrs. Ishiyama wrung her hands. "She's changed since the last time you've written to her." (Aelita was posing as Yumi's visiting pen pal.) "After we visited Japan this summer, she's been acting differently. It's her cousin's entire fault; I swear she's a terrible influence on her…" she trailed off, frowning, then continued. "Could you go to the park and look for her? I'm sorry, but I'm afraid something might have happened to her. She knows self-defense, but she's still a child."

Aelita, surprisingly enough, declined. "Do you mind going alone, Jeremie? I am a bit tired after traveling. Thank you for your hospitality, Mrs. Ishiyama."

The older woman started. "Oh, I'm sorry! You must be exhausted! What have I been thinking? Your room is upstairs to the right, next to Yumi's."

Jeremie blinked, not understanding why Aelita wouldn't want to look for her friend, but accepted her explanation. "I'll go, then. 'Bye, Aelita." His eyes held a question, but she gave a near-imperceptible shake of her head. Yumi did need what privacy she could get, the calm before the storm.

Besides, they needn't have worried. Yumi was perfectly fine- just a bit preoccupied.

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Twang.

Thunk.

The echo of quivering wood filtered through the dense trees in the nearby city park's forest. It was seldom visited, and was therefore a good place for Yumi to collect her thoughts and be by herself.

She narrowed her eyes at the elusive target. Her aim was off. She narrowed her eyes at her rebellious hand, which was shaking slightly. That wasn't supposed to happen. She turned her back to the wooden board meters away and closed her eyes, inhaling slowly, trying to center her mind and calm down. Her eyelids snapped open suddenly, and with a sudden movement, she spun around. With a furious heave, she let her energy fly.

Twang.

Thunk.

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Jeremie raised his head suddenly. What was that?

Nearby, Ulrich- not asleep as everyone had thought; he had instead utilized his substantial martial arts grace to sneak out of the school and take a walk to clear his head as well- heard the hollow sound as well. He listened carefully, and dropped behind a nearby shrub in a crouch as he heard the approach of a person; bemusedly, he watched as the individual coming up the path proved to be none other than Jeremie. Sighing, he stood, straightened, and dusted himself off. Jeremie gave a start. "Ulrich? What are you doing here?"

"Good evening to you, too," he returned dryly. "Shouldn't I be asking you that?"

Jeremie dismissed this comment with a wave of his hand. "I walked Aelita to the Ishiyamas' house but Yumi wasn't there. Her mother asked me to go get her. She's supposed to be around here somewhere.

At hearing that Yumi was missing, Ulrich felt a sudden stab of fear in his chest. He shook it off quickly- he wasn't supposed to be worried about this girl; he didn't care for her anymore…right?- and interjected, "You've had one heck of a day, Jeremie. Go back and get some sleep. Dream of Aelita, or something. I'll look for Yumi, and I promise I'll get her home, okay?"

Jeremie started to protest, but a head-splitting yawn cut off whatever he was about to say and only proved Ulrich's point. "Sure…that actually sounds good. Thanks. See you later." He turned around and walked back up the path where he'd come from.

Ulrich nodded to himself. Now, to the task he had appointed to himself; where was Yumi?

"Kuso!"

Ah. There she was. He started off in the direction of the vicious-sounding Japanese curse that had given her position away.

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She made a formidable but oddly exhilarating sight, he thought hazily. But he didn't know this girl.

Yumi was standing at the base of a tree, gripping a rather long recurve bow- old-fashioned, wooden instead of plastic and titanium- so hard that her knuckles were turning white visibly even in the dark evening, glaring at a target nailed to a tree some distance away (that was pincushioned with equally antique wooden arrows) so murderously that if looks could kill, not only the target would be smoldering, but the trees around it would be aflame as well. The snap of the bowstring and the impact of the arrows were the sounds that had drawn attention.

He prided himself on his stealth, but Ulrich hadn't predicted that Yumi's senses were quite acute; she heard the quiet rustle in the grass that he made with his steps. Without turning to see who it was, Yumi's most basic instincts were activated. It all cut down to this: she was hunted; the hunter was an enemy, and whoever made the first move would survive.

In the span of less than one second, she dropped to one knee and reached to the heel of her boot. With one fluid motion, she threw something sharp and silver off to the side towards the shadow he stood in. Ulrich's own training kicked in and he dodged the object, which planted itself- whing!- in the tree that he'd been standing under barely milliseconds before. He swung his gaze to it; it was a small dagger, easily hidden, and the same that she'd used earlier in the day. He spun toward her.

She wasn't looking at him; still, the old Yumi would have been aghast, apologizing profusely for such an error on her part; this new side of her (maybe a new person entirely) merely raised an eyebrow and sauntered over to the tree. She yanked the dagger out of the tree's trunk and slid it back into her lifted boot with a smooth click. Still staring pointedly in the other direction, one corner of her lips twitched. "My bad."

He could only gape at her.

She raised an eyebrow. "It's not wise to sneak up on me, I suppose- but sorry, anyway."

Ulrich sighed, and rubbed his forehead. "We need to talk."

She paused, and then her eyes snapped up to his. "So talk."

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(Translation: kuso- sh-t!)

Next chapter: Much stuff is explained but things get infinitely more confusing. Muahahaha.

Thank you for all of the reviews, everybody; I'm flattered that I've gotten more than 15! Linii-chan, thanks (he WOULD hug her to death! ); painin uranus, I'm glad that you've decided to stick around; Yumigirl06, thanks- Yumi has so much potential in the show; Raze, the Dragonic Knight- we'll see, won't we? Enya/Dry Tears- thanks so much- same to you, your story's so underrated; mornstar, thank you (I corrected it, MS Word didn't show it- thanks!) very much- I shall take that cookie and raise you some ice cream. XD

Thanks also to Kay, Sanity-Stealing-Lawn-Gnome, Scorpio Serpent, codelyoko-rx, Nyala (lol), yingfacherryblossom, inulyoukai, Ruth, and anyone else I missed.

I'm a bit worried- I have both Ulrich/Sissy and Ulrich/Yumi fans reading this; no matter whether I make this U/S or Y/U, I'm always going to make half of my readers mad. Ouch. (sigh) Don't hate me, guys, okay? Please?

Random person: They'll hate you anyway.

Artemis: (daggers)

Please review! I'll update as much as I can with school in mind!