The characters Yumi Ishiyama, Mr. & Mrs. Ishiyama, Ulrich Stern, and others are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

The characters Koyo Toya, Akiko Toya, Akira Toya and Hikaru Shindo are based on characters from the manga 'Hikaru No Go' by Yumi Hotta and Takeshi Obata. I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.

The flight from France to Japan seemed to take forever. Yumi Ishiyama tried to pass the time reading the magazines she bought at the airport, but she quickly read them from cover to cover, even reading the fine print on the masthead of the magazines.

Part of her was looking forward to arriving in Japan. She hadn't been there in years, and despite the row she had with her father when he told her of the trip, she was glad to be going.

Another part of her was worried about her father. Sunday afternoon, when she returned home from spending the weekend with her friends, she found a message from her mother stating that she had rushed her father to the hospital. A later phone call revealed that her father had kidney stones, and he was in the process of passing them out.

Yet another part of her was worried about her boyfriend, Ulrich Stern. The past two weeks had been a trial for the both of them, really for all of Yumi's friends. But on that Sunday, Ulrich had accompanied her back home. And he went from being just her boyfriend, to being more.

She smiled and shifted herself in her seat as she remembered that afternoon, then evening, then night. Leaving Ulrich was the only other dark spot on this trip. Especially leaving him with her mother.

Her mother knew about them, having found them together Sunday night. She never said a word about it, either then or the next day. And that's what had Yumi worried. If she had walked in on her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend in the same situation, she would have definitely reacted, and loudly!

But there was nothing she could do about it thousands of miles away from France, and at forty thousand feet in the air. She could only pray that everything would work out, or barring that, that Ulrich at least got a little head start.

Yumi leaned back in her seat, trying to find a comfortable position to try and sleep. There was still a long ways to go.

Yumi's flight landed in Tokyo the next morning at 9 am. She was stiff and tired, and just a little frustrated. When she did manage to sleep, she dreamed of Ulrich, which did her no good as he was a quarter of the world away from her.

But she gathered up her things and filed out of the plane with the other passengers, walked up the skyway ramp to the terminal proper. When she got in the terminal, she was assaulted by a barrage of unfamiliar, yet familiar sights, and sounds. She looked all around her, bewildered. Nothing made sense, not the signs, not the people. She almost panicked before she realized her problem.

Everything here was Japanese.

All of the signs were in kana or kanji lettering, with a little Western script below them (sometimes). Most of the people were speaking in Japanese, not French, or English for that matter. The shock immersion into her native culture had caught Yumi off guard. For years, most of her life really, she had to channel written and spoken words through a translation processor in her mind, from Western to Japanese. She had been doing it for so long, it was a shock when she no longer needed to.

Taking it slowly, Yumi looked around again. That sign was the direction to the main terminal complex. That one showed the way to the baggage claim area. One of the storefronts along the other wall was selling treats to eat. The PA system just announced the arrival of a flight from Seoul, which it then repeated in English.

Then the PA called out for a Miss Yumi Ishiyama, arriving from Paris, to meet her party outside of the security screening area. That message got her going. She went down to the baggage claim and retrieved her luggage. Then it was to Customs, and she was through.

Her aunt, uncle and cousin were waiting for her just beyond the security checkpoint. They were holding a sign, 'Yumi Ishiyama,' and doing everything they could to catch her attention. She ran over to them, then stopped. She stood before them and bowed. They returned her bow and smiled. She had almost ran up to them, dropped her things, and gave them all a hug, which would have embarrassed them all.

"Welcome home, Yumi," her aunt said.

"Thank you, aunt Sayuri, it's good to be back," she replied.

"You remember your uncle and cousin?"

"Yes, thank you Sato-sama for inviting me to stay."

Yoshi Sato replied, "it was nothing. I was only too glad to do it for my wife's brother."

"I bet you don't remember me," said the young woman with them, Yumi's cousin, Kichi, "I think that last time I saw you, you could barely walk. Of course, I wasn't that much older!"

Yumi just smiled.

Mr. Sato began gathering Yumi's luggage and said, "we had better get you home now. I'm late for work as it is, and I'll have a hard enough time explaining it to my supervisor."

They all helped with Yumi's bags and left for the car.