Author's Note: Finally, a new chapter is out. This episode's a short one as well. Expect all chapters of episode 5 to come out in the next few days (of a total of two or three at most).

This episode is actually something I've wanted to write for a while: a get-together at Yumi's house. No action, no XANA, just the Lyoko gang having a good time and bonding. I always remember chapter 23 when Yumi hints at a get-together at her place, but we never get to see it on screen. This episode is just me trying to scratch that itch. I hope you enjoy it!

Meeting at Yumi's

Saturday. Odd and Ulrich walk towards Kadic's main entrance. Before reaching it, they are intercepted by Sissi.

Sissi: Where do you think you're going?
Ulrich: We're meeting with some friends.
Sissi: Are you authorized?
Odd: That's right.

Sissi looks at them suspiciously.

Odd: You can ask your dad or Jim: we're clear.
Sissi: Oh yeah? And can you tell any more details?
Ulrich: (impatient) Why do you wanna know more details?
Sissi: C'mon, Ulrich! I've tried to be nice to you and your little friends these days. Answering my question would compensate somewhat, wouldn't you say?
Odd: (mocking) Wait, wait, you were nice to him for convenience? You definitely need friendship lessons!
Sissi: Look who's talking, you buffoon! You'll see what my friends will know about you!
Odd: Who, those two big guys? Yeah, go ahead and bribe them so they agr…

Ulrich hits Odd in the ribs with his elbow.

Odd: Hey! What was that for?
Ulrich: (ignoring Odd) Sissi, thank you for your friendly approach with us these days, and for caring about me when I got hurt.

Sissi holds her stance.

Sissi: Okay?
Ulrich: We're just gonna hang out with some friends, that's all.
Sissi: Oh… I see… And where?
Ulrich: At Yumi's place…
Sissi: Yumi?

Sissi frowns and tries to hide it.

Sissi: Oh… That's good… Jeremie's going as well, right?
Ulrich: Yeah.

Odd looks around cautiously. No one else is around.

Sissi: Sounds like fun… Well… Have a good time.
Ulrich: (raising an eyebrow) Uh… Thanks, Sissi.

Sissi steps aside. Ulrich and Odd walk towards the door slowly, looking at her. The latter looks around once again.

Odd: Bye, Sissi!

After leaving the school, the boys quicken their pace. They cross the first street and start walking normally again.

Odd: Hey, Ulrich, what was that with the elbow?
Ulrich: It meant 'be quiet'.
Odd: But why? Sissi came to annoy us – annoy you, by the way – just for the sake of it.
Ulrich: Yeah, but she was alone and outnumbered.
Odd: Well, she tends to outnumber us when she meets us, doesn't she?
Ulrich: Do you like it when she does that?
Odd: Of course not!
Ulrich: Me neither.

Odd thinks about it for a second.

Odd: Okay, I see your point.
Ulrich: Besides, she could've come with her minions, and she didn't.
Odd: That's true, but why?
Ulrich: I dunno, but it might be something good, don't you think?
Odd: At least that frees us a bit from the usual stress.

Sissi sits within Kadic's forest, with her back against a tree that wasn't reached by the fire, close to the edge that the fire left. Herve joins her shortly after.

Herve: Ah, Sissi, there you are! I've been looking for you everywhere.
Sissi: Maybe I didn't want you to find me, did you think about that?
Herve: Oh, okay, sorry, Sissi. I'll leave you alone, then. (starts walking away)
Sissi: Herve, wait.
Herve: (stops and looks back) Yes?

Sissi waits before she continues.

Sissi: What do you see in Yumi?
Herve: (surprised) …Me? Well, nothing, honestly.
Sissi: Is she pretty?
Herve: Nah, she's mostly insipid.
Sissi: Are you sure?
Herve: Of course!
Sissi: And me, am I insipid?
Herve: Of course not, y-you're the opposite of that!

Sissi scratches her head.

Sissi: And what does Ulrich see in her, then?
Herve: (bothered) …Ulrich? That guy's a freak, I wouldn't be surprised that he saw something in her.
Sissi: Watch out, Herve, you're speaking out of place.

Herve looks at her, frowning, and keeps quiet.

Sissi: There must be something about her. Is it the way she dresses? Her exotic traits?
Herve: Sissi, I don't think you should worry too much about what Ulrich…
Sissi: Silence!

Herve keeps quiet. Sissi sighs.

Sissi: Looks like I'll have to do something I didn't want to: know her more closely.
Herve: What for?
Sissi: Well, to understand what she has that Ulrich likes. I'll have to befriend her somehow, which I don't like at all… But it's for a better cause, isn't it?

Jeremie is at Yumi's house. Both are arranging some cables in the living room. The doorbell rings.

Yumi: Must be Odd and Ulrich. Be back in a sec!

The girl gets to the main door and opens it. The two boys wait outside.

Yumi: Guys! Welcome, come in, please.
Odd: Hey, Yumi!
Ulrich: What's up?
Yumi: Jeremie's already here. We were arranging a few things.
Odd: Fantastic, can we help?
Yumi: You'd better ask Jeremie about that.

Yumi's mother shows up in the hallway. She looks at the newcomers.

Akiko: [(in Japanese) Yumi, remember telling your friends that they have to take off their shoes.]

Ulrich puts his hand on Odd's shoulder to call his attention.

Ulrich: We have to take off our shoes, Odd.
Odd: Oh! Why?
Ulrich: House rules. C'mon, there's a shoe holder right here.

The boys take off their shoes. Akiko looks at Ulrich, puzzled.

Akiko: [(to Yumi) Did your friend knew, or he heard me?]
Yumi: [Probably he knew beforehand]
Akiko: Good afternoon, boys, welcome to our house.
Odd: Hello, Mrs Ishiyama.
Ulrich: [(in a comprehensible but somewhat rough Japanese) Good afternoon… Mrs Ishiyama. Thank you for… the hospitality.]

Yumi looks at Ulrich, surprised.

Akiko: [(raising her eyebrows) Ah, I see you talk Japanese!]
Ulrich: [Just… a bit. Uh… It's a… beautiful language.]
Akiko: [Well, French doesn't have much to envy it, if I'm honest.]
Ulrich: [Oh… I didn't understand that… I'm sorry…]
Akiko: (chuckles, then talks in French) Come in, boys, make yourselves at home. There's a toilet here to the right, so you can wash your hands.

Odd and Ulrich take turns to wash their hands.

Yumi: (to Ulrich) Hey, I didn't know you spoke Japanese.
Odd: Oh, so he really said something?
Yumi: He got quite right the first thing my mother said.
Ulrich: (scratching the back of his head) Yeah, well… I studied Japanese for a while.

The kids head to the living room; Jeremie (also without shoes) looks at something on his laptop, which is connected to several cables.

Odd: Ah, the man of the moment!
Jeremie: What's up, Ulrich, Odd? Careful with the cables.
Ulrich: Hi, Jeremie. Been here for a while now?
Jeremie: About ten minutes, no more than that.
Ulrich: Need any help with the setup?
Jeremie: I think I'm almost ready, thanks, Ulrich.
Ulrich: Okay, Yumi, how does this work?
Yumi: Um, mi mother's gonna prepare some snacks for later. For now, we can listen to Jeremie's news.
Odd: Oh, there's news?
Yumi: Yeah, well, given that we've been outside of school, we've been able to go to the factory for longer in the day. Jeremie's done some things that can be of everyone's interest.
Ulrich: Tell us, Jeremie.
Jeremie: (types some more, then leaves the laptop aside) Okay. Gather round.

The kids make a circle, sitting down on the floor. All except Odd sit on their knees. When he sees this, he changes his posture so that he's also sitting like the rest.

Jeremie: There are several things I want to inform you guys. The first – which should concern you – is that Aelita and I managed to automate the process that assigns each of you your shields, weapons and powers. Now, if you go back to Lyoko, you'll immediately get your gear once virtualized.
Odd: That's awesome!
Yumi: Isn't it?
Ulrich: Thank you, Jeremie.
Jeremie: (gestures like it's not important) It's nothing, really, it takes out a lot of work from me. Moving on: in other news, we've been amplifying a bit the graphical possibilities that the super-computer offers. This has allowed us to generate a few aesthetic tools that you may be interested in.
Odd: Explain yourself, Einstein.
Jeremie: You can now customize your looks on Lyoko, in particular with regards to clothing and weapons.
Odd: Wow, cool!
Ulrich: Interesting.
Yumi: We already tried it with the boomerangs I use: now they look like fans and they're just too cool.
Odd: Oh, how you tease me, you guys! What if we go to the factory right now?
Ulrich: Hmm, we could go tomorrow, before going back to Kadic.
Odd: We better have a good time today, then!
Jeremie: We also tried creating some clothes for Aelita, based on the ragdoll elf that we gave her the first day.
Ulrich: Well well.
Odd: And how did it go?
Jeremie: Well, why don't you see for yourselves?

The kids look at Jeremie with surprise and expectation. Jeremie takes the laptop, raises its screen and turns it towards the rest. Aelita is shown on the screen, now with a pair of long, pointed ears.

Aelita: (her voice sounds through a pair of speakers in the room) Hello, everyone!
Yumi and Odd: Aelita!
Ulrich: Hi, Aelita!
Aelita: It's always a joy to see you.
Ulrich: Wait, you can see us?
Aelita: Yep.

Jeremie points at a small camera that stands on a shelf.

Odd: We have a full setup! Good job, guys!

The kids spontaneously wave at the camera. Aelita chuckles and waves back.

Ulrich: But how did you manage to get her here?
Jeremie: It wasn't hard, honestly: we just had to configure a private network channel between the super-computer and mine. She's still at the factory's computer, but she can use this one as a proxy.
Aelita: That's right.
Odd: Clever!
Ulrich: Didn't expect less from you.
Jeremie: We should update about Aelita as well.
Odd: What's that?
Jeremie: Aelita, would you do the honors?
Aelita: Sure. Well, on the one hand, we've been looking into the possibility of materializing me. Unfortunately, the task still looks too complicated, so there aren't many great milestones reached, with the exception of what was said before.
Odd: Don't worry, Aelita, we have faith in you two!
Ulrich: Yeah, if somebody can do it, it's you.
Jeremie: I hope you're right.
Aelita: The other thing we wanted to tell you about is our current state with respect to my father.
Odd: Your father?
Ulrich: Aelita's looking for her father, remember?
Odd: Ahh, the "Where's Waldo" guy, right?

The rest, except Aelita, look at him sternly.

Aelita: What's that?
Odd: A bad joke… We'll tell you some other day.
Aelita: Well, moving on: what we know up until now is that my father has a few degrees in the area of theoretical physics, with some applications in computer science. At first we thought he was a mathematician or a computer scientist by formation, but he derived to that area later in his career.
Ulrich: As if it wasn't much, right?
Odd: What about your mother's background?
Aelita: We haven't been able to obtain information about her, mainly because I can't remember her last name.
Odd: Wow! I hope you can remember it soon.
Aelita: I hope so too. In any case, I don't recall that she was an academic, so it's possible that it's a bit harder to get to her.
Odd: I understand.
Aelita: Unfortunately, there isn't much info about my father as well. Except for his PhD thesis, there aren't any publications authored by him in the worldwide web. That's why our best bet is to look for clues in the city. I'd like to ask for help with that, given I can't look on my own in the real world.
Ulrich: Of course, Aelita, you can count on us.
Odd: That's what friends are for!
Yumi: See? Told you they wouldn't even flinch!
Aelita: (grinning) Thank you so much, everyone.
Ulrich: Any clues that we can follow for now?
Aelita: Sadly, no. It's hard, but there must be something. Nobody runs away just like that and builds a super-computer while at it.
Odd: That is true. We'll get to it then!
Aelita: Thank you.

- END OF CHAPTER 19 -