We've Lost Yumi!

Karen

White flew out alongside Pink-Gold to meet the others. Kind Bronze was a little late in their get-together, but he flew over quickly. Kind Bronze explained something over breakfast, and then they split up for a while. When they met up again at lunch time, Dark Gold seemed very upset about something. After lunch, they went off to the factory and…blue.

Then they came back…without Dark Gold. White went off with Strong Bronze and Little Brown, and they all curled up near a tree. A little rat ran over with something in its mouth, and Little Brown took it with a cry of excitement. Then someone else contacted Strong Bronze, they went back and…more blue.

Finally, they had Dark Gold again, and the rest of the day went fine.

I opened my eyes. We were going to lose Yumi for a while? Should I tell the others?

"So what's happening today, Karen?"

I looked at Aelita. "Um…I'd rather not talk about it."

Her eyebrows went up. "That bad, huh?"

I nodded. "And what's worse, I can't see how to change it; the problem's in Lyoko."

We walked over to Ulrich and Odd.

"Hey, Aelita. Where's Einstein?" Odd, of course.

"I haven't seen him yet today."

Then Ulrich used some of his usual snide-sounding talk. "Speak of the devil," and he pointed. There was Jeremie, running over with a…red mark on his head?

"Sorry I'm late!"

Odd asked, "Let me guess: you fell asleep at your computer again?"

Jeremie was surprised. "Yes, but how could you tell?"

"You've got an imprint from your keyboard."

That set us laughing. Then Jeremie explained. "I was up all night working on a new program."

"Ulrich?" I didn't know that voice. I looked over, and saw a little boy.

Ulrich apparently knew him. "Yeah, Hiroki, what is it?"

"Um…can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Uh sure."

Jeremie explained a new program over breakfast and Ulrich gave us an inside view of Hiroki's love life. The boy was in love with Milly. Isn't love fascinating?

Jeremie added, in reference to his new program, "And the best part is, now all that's left is to test it!"

Ulrich

As we walked away, Odd and I, we suddenly ran into Hiroki.

Or rather, Hiroki ran into Odd.

As the kid dashed away, with Yumi hot on his heels, I picked up a book from the ground. "Is this yours, Odd?"

I got my answer even as Odd answered me: no. There was a picture of me in the book!

"This belongs to Yumi, doesn't it?" Odd guessed.

I closed the book. "This is Yumi's diary. No wonder she was chasing Hiroki."

"Hey, this is your big chance to find out what she thinks of you."

"Oh, no. What's in this diary is none of my business. Besides, I already told you we're just friends."

Odd smirked. "Are you sure?"

I stopped. "No, Odd. No I'm not. Especially not after that talk that she and Karen had during Jeremie's crash course."

Just before lunch, I almost gave Yumi's diary back to her, but then Hiroki ran over and apologized for not finding her diary. And Yumi, well…

"Well, until you find that diary, you can consider yourself an only child."

As she walked away, I realized something, and pulled Odd away from the others. "Odd, if I gave Yumi her diary back, she'll still be mad at Hiroki. So instead I'm going to hide the diary and let Hiroki find it. That will be getting two birds with one stone: Yumi gets her diary back, and Hiroki gets his sister back."

I gave the diary to Odd to hide and went to find Hiroki. I suggested that maybe the groundskeeper raked the diary into a pile of leaves by accident and the kid took off.

Thanks to my hints, Hiroki found the diary – well, the cover, anyway. As if that wasn't bad enough, Yumi showed up right then!

She took one look at the empty cover and said, "Hiroki, I'll never forgive you!" Then she stormed off.

I looked at Odd.

"Hey, don't look at me, good buddy. It was all there when I hid it."

We went to Lyoko to try out Jeremie's new program. As we were going up in the Skid, Karen said, "I've done this several times, and it's still amazing!"

As soon as Jeremie inserted the program, though, our sonar bugged up! Then three Kongres showed up and started blasting at us. Aelita released us to fight, and all of us blasted away the fish-face freaks. But when she called us back, Yumi didn't come!

"We can't look for her now. We have to go back."

"What? No!" I thudded my fist against the window of the NavSkid. "We can't just leave her out here!"

Aelita answered me. "No one's leaving anyone behind. But we can't risk all of us being virtualized permanently!"

I sighed. "You're right. Let's go."

When I asked how long it would take to find Yumi, Jeremie started getting technical.

I couldn't stand it. "How long until we can go to Lyoko again?"

"Hey, I'm doing the best that I can!"

Aelita tried to cool me down. "Don't worry. I'll be helping him."

I walked away, with Odd and Karen trailing after.

"So…can I guess why Yumi was so mad?" Karen asked.

"Hiroki made off with her diary and then he lost it."

Karen was very quiet after that. Then Kiwi ran over with something in his mouth.

"Whatcha got there, buddy?" Odd took the something from Kiwi's mouth and suddenly got excited. "Ulrich, this is Yumi's diary!"

"What?!" I couldn't believe it!

"Yeah! Kiwi must've seen me bury it, but he thought it was a game, so he dug it up and buried it again, right where we're sitting!"

"Oh, that's great: now we have Yumi's diary, but we don't have Yumi!"

Yumi

I was floating in the digital sea, slowly losing power, calling frantically for someone, anyone, who might be able to hear me.

"It's so cold here." I shivered. I couldn't stop thinking about all the moments I've spent with Hiroki. Then I saw a Kongre coming towards me.

"Okay, I've only got one torpedo left, so I'd better make it count." I tried to fire it, but… "Oh, no! I don't have enough power!"

I dodged one of the Kongre's shots, put the power of my shields into the torpedo, and tried again. That worked, but now I had to run from two more! In a short time, though, I couldn't run anymore.

"It's over." The Kongre was staring in my front windshield. But he wasn't firing. "What's he waiting for?" Then it looked off to its right and took off. When I looked, I saw a NavSkid flying towards me, and since it wasn't quite the same design as my own, I didn't have any trouble guessing who was flying it!

It fired at me, I screamed – and the Skid got in the way!

Then I heard Aelita's voice. "Did you really think you could go running off without us?"

"Am I glad to see you guys!"

The NavSkids were released, and they chased out the Kongres and William. After about three minutes, Jeremie called all of us back.

After supper, I went into my room, and I found that my diary was lying on my bed! Hiroki stopped in my doorway and said, "Um, Yumi? I'm really, really sorry I took your diary."

I walked over to him. "Thanks for bringing it back, Hiroki."

Hiroki stared at me for a minute. Then he asked, "Are you in love, Yumi?"

"Ugh! Get out of my room!" I shut the door in his face laughing.

A/N: Karen obviously doesn't say much in this chapter. Don't worry, she'll be more active in the next chapter.