Chapter 19: Without him

Nine days of doubt was just a fraction of the time she would spend thinking about what had occurred back then. The past nine days, she had trouble with sleeping, because every time she fell asleep, she was visited by Hiroki and Milly, in which Hiroki looked more like a polymorphic specter and in which Milly resembled Nearly Headless Nick the most. So she stared, for the ninth time in a row, into the flames of the campfire.

And even though she would like to forget, she couldn't help but remember. She remembered how it started, that half year ago, when the misery had fallen upon her at high speed. First Odd, somewhere in the first four months. She wasn't sure if he actually survived, but after not having shown himself for so long, he must have not survived that first period. Then she heard about Aelita's condition. Jeremy was no doctor, and her situation was deemed hopeless. Aelita was followed by Hiroki and Milly… her little brother and their friend…

So many good people have lost their lives because of XANA, and because of his current situation, Ulrich might as well be the next person added to the list. And that's why Yumi had promised herself she would keep taking care of him, despite whatever might happen, until she herself couldn't anymore.

Someone was behind her – she heard footsteps. She only turned around, however, when the person was standing right behind her, and she came eye to eye with a young wounded boy covered in dirt, holding a very familiar weapon in his hands. "Ulrich?" She was surprised to see it was him. His eyes showed a gaze of confusion, as if he himself didn't know what was happening. Soon, she was hit by the saber, and the world around her darkened, and for the first time in nine days, she wasn't dreaming nightmares about Hiroki and Milly.

That morning, she woke up with an enormous head-ache. She lay on the ground, close to the ashes of the burnt out campfire. Yumi grasped her head while she stood up and analyzed the situation. The sunrise had a grey color – if the sky got an even lighter grey , it would soon be midday – and it was just a normal November morning. As she looked around, she tried to remember what happened the other day. Someone knocked her out, yes, but who, why, and why her? When she looked around for Ulrich, she couldn't find him, triggering her memories, remembering at last. He knocked her out with his katana, with a look in his eyes that was unfamiliar. She saw nowhere a sign of XANA, but it somehow hadn't been a look Ulrich could've given her, but most likely a stranger's. She wanted to believe he had no bad intentions, or else she would have never woken up again.

She put her hand at her mouth when her eyes caught sight of the saber on the ground, and a memory replayed in her head.

"I cannot trust myself. Only if you trust me for 100 percent, give it back. I'm counting on you." Yumi nodded, picked up the katana and put it down on Ulrich's lap.

"I trust you, Ulrich, don't be so childish!" Ulrich grinned, and slowly picked it up at its handle. A shiver went down his spine, but he kept holding it. He had the control. He controlled the weapon. He was master of his weapon and fears. And still…

"Take it from me if I'm starting to go crazy." he reasoned, "I'd rather see you handling it than me hurting somebody."

"What if you flee?" Yumi wanted to know, and Ulrich shrugged again.

"I won't. I'll take it with me for temporary separation, but you can have it if I'm not coming back."

No. It was simple like that. No, this could not be happening. No, he never said these words. No, Ulrich will come back. Wait; where did he get the energy to stand up, knock her out and walk away? Or how did he even plan this, and why?

Yumi shook her head. She didn't know what happened, but she did know XANA had nothing to do with it, not this time. That's why she decided to pay Kadic a visit, to try and find a clue as to what happened to Ulrich. There was a big chance he didn't go that way, and yet she continued to walk to that place, just to be sure. If there is a clue, she'd be thankful. If not, she had expected that.

With a firm walk, she reached the Academy within five minutes. It looked exactly the same as she visited it nine days ago with Ulrich, expect nobody was to be beheaded or xanafied, and expect another big difference: Ulrich himself. He lay a few feet from the borders of the school terrain, in a way as if somebody had thrown him there in that position. His face and every other part of the skin that was visible was very, very pale, and even though his right arm was mostly covering it, Yumi could still clearly see it – there was big hole in his stomach. For some moments, the world stopped spinning. A Krab, she thought, XANA killed him. Odd, Aelita, Milly, Hiroki, and now Ulrich…

Her heart filled up with anger and grief as XANA sent a Megatank to welcome her at Kadic. From that moment on, she knew no mercy to anyone or anything that had something to do with XANA, and she threw her fans in that Megatank's direction just before it opened up its shell, not even giving it the chance to charge up, or to close its shell again. After retrieving her fans, she ran away from that cruel place, with only grief left in her heart.

Once she got back into the camp, she finally let the tears of sorrow flow. She curled up on the ground, and no monster could come close to her, and often she would throw the saber out of her sight, away from her, only to retrieve it later because it was one of those few links with Ulrich left. The tears were not solely meant for Ulrich, but also for anyone close to her, for anyone she knew who died or suffered because of that hideous A.I. And she realized that, now Ulrich is out of his way, she could be the next one he would want to get rid of, alongside Jeremy and Aelita.

She had to leave the surroundings of Kadic immediately.

Quickly, she packed all of their few possessions, and now also had to pack those things that had been Ulrich's once: his present from the Jeremy (the saber) and off course his cellphone. She put this phone on and noticed it still was showing the message from Jeremy. Because she had nothing better to do, she pressed 'play' and watched the video. However, the device didn't have enough energy to play the whole message and it stopped halfway through. She kept it anyways, because it had been Ulrich's.

Yumi knew where to go. To the factory. Hopefully they wanted revenge, too, because that was all she would want to focus on.

Oh! What's this? A Tuesday update? Well, let me explain - I'm leaving for London tomorrow with school (4:30 AM), and I won't be back until Saturday 10th. And we're with host families, and I'm sure I won't be able to get onto the family's computer to update this storty, since it's a school travel... so it's an early update, yay! Will Yumi ever reach the factory? Will Jeremy soon recover his memory, if possible, or does he have to cope with Jim's bad yet useful explanations? Update's on Thursday, as usual, May 15th, checking things in the factory. On with the reviews:

Bluedog197 (Yeah, I'm quite mean, probably the darkest fic I've written so far, and your theory about Odd is interesting, by lack of better adjectives I could possibly use... anyway, thanks for that review and see you (write you?) the fifteenth!)

See ya next time!

-Dutchwriters2