A/N: Hello! I'm finally back! I have no excuse. I had a writer block. It was hard to put myself back again in the story. I guess that vacations don't do good to me. But here's the new chapter for you. Thank you for being so patient.

Enjoy!

Notice:

"Ryoma…" : normal conversation;

"Au secour! Aidez-moi s'il vous plaît!" : French conversation.

"Ryoma…" a voice called.

Ryoma snapped her eyes open.

"It's you again!" Ryoma said. "Who are you?"

"Ryoma…"

This time, the voice was behind her. Ryoma turned on her heels. In front of her, a light shined.

"Who are you?" Ryoma asked again.

The light became brighter and a person appeared in front of Ryoma. It was a young woman. Ryoma looked at. It was a woman around thirty. She had brown hair and gray eyes. She was dressed in a simple white strap dress down to her knees.

"Ryoma…" the woman said. "Finally, I meet you."

"Who… Who are you?" Ryoma asked again.

The woman simply smiled.

"Who I am is not important. The most important thing here is you, Ryoma," the woman said.

Ryoma cocked an eyebrow, not understanding. The woman simply chuckled.

"Why do you always call me?" Ryoma asked.

The woman turned her head away, as if she was watching at someone somewhere.

"It is time for him. And only you can make him do it," the woman said, her expression gentle and her voice soft.

"Huh? Him? Who?" Question marks popped up on Ryoma's head.

The woman chuckled again, then turned her head to Ryoma. She examined Ryoma from the head to the toe. Ryoma didn't move, letting the woman watching her. Somehow, Ryoma felt that the woman in front of her wasn't a bad person. There was like a maternal love emitting from her.

"I understand why he is so found on you," the woman said, smiling again, but in a particular way.

A very particular way.

Ryoma opened wide her eyes.

'There is something… familiar with her smile,' Ryoma thought.

Beep beep beep beep bee-!

Clack!

Ryoma pressed the button of her alarm clock. She dropped her arm on her bad, grunting. Her eyelids still felt heavy. Suddenly, something wet lick her face. Ryoma opened her eyes to meet with two blue orbs.

"Meow…" Karupin greeted.

Ryoma smiled. She put her hand on his head and pet him.

"Oyayou, Karupin," Ryoma said, scratching behind his ears.

"Purrrrrrrrr…"

Karupin felt like in the 7th heaven. His mistress was the best ears-scratcher in the world. The door of Ryoma's bedroom opened. Ryoga silently stepped in to see her already wake up. Ryoga frowned. Lately, he didn't have to wake her up himself. It worried him a little bit because it was unusual. Ryoga walked to Ryoma's bed and sat on.

"She appears again?" Ryoga asked, mentionning about the woman in Ryoma's occuring dream.

"Hn," Ryoma nodded while sitting up, taking the fluffy cat in her arm. She pet Karupin while remembering about her dream again. "This time, I talked with her."

"What did you say?"

". . ." Ryoma tilted her head, thinking again. "I don't remember."

Ryoga sligthly felt in anime style, sweat dropping.

'I should have expect this answer from her,' he thought.

"Anyway, go wash your face and get change. Breakfast is ready. Kaa-san made your favorite today," Ryoga said as he stood and left her room.

Ryoma grinned and jumped out of her.

Ryoma took the tamari (soya sauce), the wakame (seaweed), the gyuunyuu (milk) tofu and the miso and put them in her basket.

"Taroko (pollock), saba (makerel), tarabagani (king drab), nasu (eggplant), goya (biter melon), daikon (Japanes white radish), hakusai (Chinese cabbage), takenoko (bamboo shoots), shimeji (mushroom) renkon (lotus root), negi (onion)…" Ryoma read over the shopping list Rinko gave her. "I think I have everything," she concluded.

"No, you forgot one thing," Ryoga said, appearing with a 2L bottle of soya milk. "You drank all the tounyuu this morning."

Ryoma pouted.

"I'm a growing girl," she said.

"That doesn't give you any excuse!" Ryoga replied as he took her basket. "Come on, let's go and pay."

The brother and the sister stepped out of the super market, each carrying shopping bag. But as they were going to cross the street, a girl ran pass in front of them.

"Au secour! Aidez-moi s'il vous plaît!" the girl called.

"Huh?" Ryoma turned her head to see three big boys running after the girl.

"Ah!" the girl screamed as she tripped and fall.

Her three pursuers laughed manically as they walked to her. But as one of them - a skinny guy with long sunglasses and spiky green hair - was going to touch her,

Splash!

"What?" the three guys yelled when they saw themselves covered with some wet and white… paste thing. They were covered with tofu. Ryoga had threw one of his shopping bad to their head.

"Why you?" the guys forgot about the girl and turned to face Ryoga and Ryoma, angry.

"Ah!" Ryoma yelled when she clearly saw their face. "My tofu!"

"Chibisuke, it's their fault!" Ryoga innocently said while pointing a finger to the guys.

Ryoma clenched and fists and growled.

"Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Why you!" She grew into a bid giant she-devil from Hell, fire dancing in her eyes and around her. The three guys got scared and ran away. However, Ryoma didn't forgive them. She chased after them, yelling and dancing her fists in the air. "Come back here! Give me back my tofu!"

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Someone help!" the guys screamed for help.

Ryoga and the girl watched them disappearing at a corner of the street.

"Ouf! That was close!" Ryoga said, wiping the sweat on his forehead. "She and her Japanese food… But sometime, it's not such a bad thing that she has her PMS." Ryoga brought his attention back to the girl and approached her. He put the remaining of his shopping bags down and crouched down next to her. "Are you alright? Did you hurt yourself?" he nicely asked.

"Ah…" the girl only said, hesitantly pointing her finger to where Ryoma disappeared. She was still looking at the direction where Ryoma turned.

"Don't worry about her. It's more for them that you should worry for, since it is her who is chasing after them," Ryoga said. "Here, let me help you."

He took the girl's arm and slowly helped her up.

"Aie!" the girl winced.

Ryoma looked down to see a red spot on her right leg and a blue one on the ankle. She scratched herself when she fall and probably twist her ankle too.

"Ah! Don't move." Ryoga looked around, searching for a comfortable place to sit. He spotted a bench under a clock. "Here. Let me help you go there so I can take a look at your wound." Ryoga brought her to the bench and helped her sit on. "Now, let me see your leg." Ryoga went on one knee and carefully took her right foot in his hand. The girl slightly pulled on her long skirt to make it easier for him. Ryoga examined her ankel and slightly try to make it move. The girl winced again. Ryoga immediately stopped. He pulled out from his back pocket his handkerchief to wipe the blood on the knee, then wrapped it around her ankle. When he finished, he stood up and said, "The scratch won't be a problem, but you really twist your ankle. You won't be able to walk for a while. You should take care of it as soon as you can before it gets worst."

The girl looked up at him.

"Je vous remercie beaucoup," she said.

"Eh?" Ryoga said.

"She said 'Thank you very much' in French," Ryoma translated, appearing next to him.

"Oh! Chibisuke, you're back," Ryoga said. "What about them?"

"They bumped into a policeman so they ended up in his office."

"Lucky guys!" Ryoga said. Those guys were spared from Ryoma's fury.

"Why bad guys always got so lucky?" Ryoma groaned. "At least, I got the policeman to make them pay for my tofu," Ryoma said, showing the money she hold in her hand. "I'm going inside again," she said as she entered the grocery again. "How dare they? Destoying my tofu!" Ryoga and the girl heard her mumbled between her teeth.

"Are you sure you don't want me to hold it for you?" Ryoga asked, pointing to the shopping bag which contained her newly bought tofu.

Ryoma pulled the back against her, refusing to leave to him.

"It's fine. I can hold it myself," she said. She wanted to make sure that her tofu would be saved until they reached home.

'I don't trust you,' her eyes were saying.

Ryoga shruggred his shoulders. Ryoma ignored him and turned to the girl, who was still sat on the bench.

"Allez-vous bien? Est-ce que vous pouvez marcher?" Ryoma asked. (Are you alright? Can you walk?)

"Oh! Vous pouvez parler français! Comme je suis heureuse! Je crois que je me suis fait une entorse, mais ça devrait aller. Merci de vous en inquiéter," the girl answered. (Oh! You can speak French! I'm so happy! And I think I twist my ankle, but it should be fine. Thank you for worrying.)

"Que vous est-il arrivé? Pourquoi ces garçons vous poursuivent-ils?" Ryoma asked. (What happened to you? Why did those guys chase after you?)

"Je n'avais pas d'argent sur moi à leur donner et je ne voulais pas les suivre. Alors, ils se sont faits menaçants," the girl andswered. (I didn't have money on me to give them and I refused to follow them. So, they became brutish.)

"Oh. Je vois. Et…" Ryoma said. (Oh. I see. And…)

"Hey! Would you two stop a moment please! I'm still here, you know!" Ryoga interrupted.

"Oops. Sorry," Ryoma said.

Ryoga rolled his eyes.

"So what happen to her? Why those guys were after her?" he asked.

"Oh. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be so rude," the girl spoke in Japanese.

"Ah! You can speak Japanese!" Ryoga exclaimed. "I thought you could just speak French."

"My mother is Japanese so I know Japanese. It just that I feel more comfortable speaking in French."

"So, what happen to you?" Ryoga asked again.

"I got separated with the people who were with me. Then, I got lost. When I was going to call them on my cellphone when someone bumped into me. I dropped my cellphone out of the window and a car crushed it. That was when those guys appeared," the girl explained.

"That's a kind of an unlucky day for you, today," Ryoma said.

"Hn," the girl nodded, agreeing. "I just came here from France last week. I'm not still very used and I'm a little bit desperate right now." She sighed.

"Well, you fall victime of a group of bad guys," Ryoga said. "From what you said, it's a very common trick for bad guys who want money fast. Usually, they do this to foreigner, and you are obviously a foreigner. And from your clothing and the way you maintain yourself, you are not a commoner too."

"Aniki, you have your cellphone?" Ryoma asked.

"Where's yours?"

"Since I was going with you and you have yours, I left mine at home," Ryoma answered.

"Ha…" Ryoga rolled his eyes and searched in his pocket. "Okay, here it is." He flipped his cellphone open and… "Ara? The battery is dead."

"Ha…" This time, it was Ryoma who rolled her eyes.

"Here, why don't you go with us at home? I can carry you. It's not very far," Ryoga proposed. "Then you can call your people and tell down to come to fetch you."

"Is it alright?" the girl asked.

"Sure it is," Ryoma replied. "Beside, we finished our commissions."

"Then thank you very much. You save me," the girl said, smiling. "By the way, I haven't ask your name yet."

"Echizen Ryoga, yoroshiku," Ryoga introduced himself. "And this is my sister, Echizen Ryoma. She's a freshman of Seiyou Academy."

"Yoroshiku," Ryoma said.

"Oh! So you're a freshman. You're only two years younger than me. And here I thought you were still a middle junior school grader. You're so short," the girl said, clapping her hands.

"Hmph!" Ryoma ticked an eye.

"Pfffffft! Hum hum hum hum!" Ryoga snickered behind his hands. "Hmn hmn hmn hm-… (STOMP!) OWw-…! Hnnnn…!" A painful stomp on his foot from his little sister (in the two meanings of the term) told him it was better to stop laughing.

"Huhuhu!" the girl chuckled. She introduced herself. "My name is Lavinia de Lavoiselle, and it is also a pleasure for me to meet you. Please, take care of me."

A/N: School is starting again. This fall, I have a hectic schedule. I start at 9 in the morning and finish at 9:30 evening, and for four days a week. I also have Saturday and Sunday classes. I only the Friday afternoon after 6 p.m. free. Which is why my updating rate will slow down. So please, don't be surprised if you won't see a new chapter by the end of a week. I will still try to spare a little bit of time to continue writing this story. So please, be very patient with me. Thank you.