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 next few days were ones of acclimation for Yumi. The first day after arriving she spent recovering from jet lag. The next three she spent recovering from culture lag.

Yumi had thought she had grown up in a traditional Japanese household back in France, but living with the Satos showed her she still had a few things to learn.

The first thing that had to change was her wardrobe.

Yumi usually wore black all the time. She never even thought about it at home, but here it caused a minor uproar. Her uncle got a hard look on his face when she came down for breakfast the first day she wore her normal clothes, Aunt Sayuri blanched and looked away from her. Kichi just smiled and asked who died. Yumi got the message, and a few minutes later, 'spilled' some of her breakfast on her clothes. She apologized profusely for being so clumsy and went back to her room and changed into something less offensive.

Another thing she had to get used to was moderating her conversation. Yumi was generally direct, almost blunt, in her speech. If you asked her a question, she gave you a direct answer. It gave her parents fits sometimes, but her friends always appreciated her frankness. Her aunt and uncle weren't so appreciative.

Yumi adjusted. She was the guest here, and it wasn't like she hadn't expected it, she was just hoping her family here might be a little more flexible than her parents. It turned out her parents were the flexible ones.

By the end of the week, Yumi was getting out and about with her family. Since Mr. Sato worked all day into the late evenings, and Kichi was either at school or the Nihon Ki-in(1) or studying with Akira Toya, Yumi spent a lot of time with her aunt.

Sayuri Sato was a small, delicate woman, with a core of folded steel. No matter what the subject was, Sayuri was able to verbally bob and weave and steer a conversation in whatever direction she thought was best, and always so politely. Yumi could see the resemblance to her father in Sayuri, by her stubbornness. She quickly found out that her aunt had made it her mission in life to keep Yumi here in Japan according to the wishes of her brother, Yumi's father.

Yumi would help her aunt with the housekeeping, the shopping, and they would talk. Sayuri would tell her stories about her father when he was a young man, how he did so well in school and would try and help his parents and her out when he graduated from college. Yumi then asked her aunt about her mother.

"Your mother is a gracious lady, and you look so much like her," her aunt replied.

"How did she meet my father, she has never said any thing about that to me," Yumi asked.

"Oh, they met while your father was in college," she responded.

"Was she attending there?"

"He met her at college."

Yumi was starting to get a strange vibe from her aunt.

"Where did they get married at? What was the wedding like," Yumi tried next.

"Yu-chan(2), they got married in Kyoto, where your mother lived, it was all kind of sudden. What is the word the gaijin(3) use, 'eloped.' Your mother and father eloped together. Now, has Kichi told you about her surprise?"

Yumi decided not to press the subject any further and replied, "no, obasan(4), she hasn't."

"Well," her aunt started happily, "Kichi has talked with Toya-sensei and the two of you are going to his house next week. Kichi has her normal study session there and Toya-sensei agreed to give you a sort session!"

"That's wonderful!"

Yumi was genuinely pleased. The one piece of bait her father used to get her to go to Japan was the possibility of meeting Akira Toya, one of the youngest and fastest rising professional go players in the world. She had hoped that it could be arranged, and now it had. That visit looked to be the high point of her entire trip.

"Oh, yes, it is! Now, let's finish up here. We've got to go shopping. You should look your best when you meet Toya-sensei. And there is a school here I want to show you. It would be perfect for you."

"Yes, obasan," Yumi replied. If Toya-sensei was the bait, then this school was the hook. She had to be very careful not to end up on the stringer...

Actually, the school wasn't that bad. If she had to describe it, it was a young lady's finishing school. The kind of school upper class families sent their daughters to in order to prepare them for life in their social caste. There were all kinds of intriguing things about it that appealed to Yumi, if it wasn't for the fact she was perfectly content where she was in Paris.

Aunt Sayuri and the Headmistress of the school put the full court press on her. It was all Yumi could do to remain noncommittal. Finally, the interview ended, Yumi was given some brochures and booklets about the school, including an orientation guide, and they left.

Sayuri was less than pleased at Yumi's reaction to the place.

"This school would be perfect for you, Yu-chan. It would make your father so proud if you went. He alone couldn't get you into a school like this."

"What do you mean by that, obasan," Yumi asked, an edge creeping into her voice.

"I meant no offense, but your father doesn't have the, connections, other than my husband, to get you into such an exclusive place. Your father is sacrificing a lot by asking your uncle to help. Would it cost you so much to even consider it?"

"I don't know, I'll have to think about it," Yumi said.

"I know you will make the right decision in the end."

"Anata(5), I just don't know about that girl! I took her to the school today, and you would think I was showing her a prison," Sayuri said to her husband later that evening.

"Sayuri-chan, it was never a sure thing in the first place. I'm not even sure I can get her enrolled there."

"But you must! My brother is pleading with you! I am pleading with you! Do this for him."

"I helped your brother get a job in France when he couldn't find one here, and it cost me dearly. Now he comes to me again, asking me to fix his problems. What will be the butcher's bill be for this favor?"

Sayuri just bowed her head in silence.

"Now, okāsan(6), don't be like that. I will see what I can do."

"Thank you, otōsan."

Yoshi Sato turned the conversation around in his mind. He knew why her brother wanted his daughter back home. Just the last few days had about convinced him that the girl was no more than a barbarian. She had just about turned the whole household upside down in just the few days she had been here. And to even think about not following her father's wishes...

Well, the apple didn't fall very far from that tree, did it, he thought to himself.

Mr. Ishiyama had defied his own parents' wishes when he married his wife. And it cost him dearly. His parents disowned him. The only one who would even speak to him was Sayuri. And it had been Sayuri all those years ago that pleaded with him to help her brother find some kind of work before the two of them starved to death.

Yoshi was a young man then, newly married and besotted by his wife. So he arranged for Mr. Ishiyama to get a job with a French computer manufacturer, translating documentation into Japanese. When word got back to Sayuri's family, they didn't take it very well.

They managed to somehow slow his rise in the company he worked for. It could have been just a small word, spoken in the right ears, and Yoshi was pigeonholed. The only way he ever got around their influence was when he brought a severely over-budget project in, saving the company literally billions of yen. That got his career back on track.

Now his wife was asking him to put his head on the chopping block again. Heaven knows the girl needs the help, but does she really want it? Yoshi decided to find out, and soon.

At least the finding out part would be pleasant.

Notes:

(1) Nihon Ki-in; headquarters of the Japanese Go Association.

(2) Yu-chan: affectionate reference to Yumi.

(3) gaijin: "foreigners" specifically Americans or Europeans. Non-Japanese Asians are not referred to as gaijin.

(4) obasan: "Aunt".

(5) Anata: literally "you." Used as "dear" from wife to husband. It is not used from husband to wife.

(6) okāsan: "Mother."