Chapter Text
Chapter 1
November, 2007
Location: Paris, France
A content breeze trailed along the light blue sky, happily playing with the white clouds that slowly drifted along. The air was crisp, but not chilled to the point that no one wished to be outside, it was a normal part of Autumn. The breeze twisted downward, its tail playing with the changing leaves the trees proudly displayed their colors, standing out everywhere you looked, it was quite the sight.
It seemed that Spring and Autumn were the most popular seasons in Paris. Spring, due to the sight of everything coming back to life, trees and flowers blooming everywhere... and the feeling of love in the air. Autumn was popular due to the colors the trees turned, so vivid and beautiful... and it was the best time of year for baked goods! Citizens and tourists alike were frequently seen walking along the main streets, going into various shops to buy whatever they needed or caught their eye. Autumn was quite different in France compared to other countries, students weren't given a vacation for Thanksgiving like students in the United States did. However, students were given a short vacation to spend time with their families, but that was still a few days away. One could feel the excitement in the air around the schools though, just about all of the students were eager to enjoy themselves for a week and half.
Even the students of Kadic Academy were looking forward to the vacation, the teachers had been mainly teaching lessons that didn't result in homework, or had their students watch movies. No one was complaining though, anything was better than a pile of homework that needed to be done by the time they came back from vacation. The bell rang loudly, signaling the end to classes for the day. Dozens of students rushed out of the classrooms and outside to enjoy the beautiful day, even the students who lived on campus wanted to be outside before the weather decided to turn for the worse. The sound of students happily talking about their vacation plans filled the air as a content breeze danced by, moving the branches of the beautifully colored trees that lined the large campus.
A golden leaf from one of the trees was gently plucked off and twirled along the breeze, making circles as a female exited the building with a sigh. The Asian female sported short black hair and hazel eyes, wore a long sleeved black shirt with light blue and purple stars, gray jeans and black shoes. She adjusted her backpack as she breathed in the fresh air, glad to finally be done with classes for the day... considering her last class consisted of her teacher telling long stories of his travels across India and China when he was twenty-eight.
"Hey, Ishiyama! Over here!" a voice called
The female turned to the source to find a blond male waving at her, the purple spot in his hair standing out like a 'You Are Here' sign. The female rolled her eyes, Odd Della Robbia was by far the only person she has met that found ways to test her patience.
"Come on Yumi! Let's go enjoy the day!" another voice yelled
A smile crossed Yumi's face when she saw a pink haired female standing by a tree waving at her. Standing nearby was a blond male with glasses, smiling as he waved her over. Now there was more incentive to be anywhere near Odd... Aelita Schaeffer (Hopper to the other students) and Jeremie Belpois would balance everything out and make sure Odd didn't annoy her too much.
"Hey guys." Yumi greeted, jogging over
"How was class?" Aelita asked
"Really boring and way too long." Yumi replied "Makes me glad we're going on vacation soon."
"It's gonna be awesome! I can't wait!" Odd gushed "My Mom makes the best food!"
"Dial it down, Odd." Jeremie said
"Got any plans for vacation, Jeremie?" Yumi asked with a smile
Jeremie grinned "I sure do."
"And he won't let me in on the plan." Aelita playfully pouted
Yumi blinked, it wasn't like like Jeremie to plan something and not tell Aelita about it, but it was highly possible that Jeremie wanted to surprise Aelita. Yumi couldn't help but smile a bit, she was willing to bet that Jeremie was planning to romance Aelita a bit.
"Wow, he makes plans to have you stay with him and his folks and he doesn't tell you what's going on... paint me surprised." Odd stated
Aelita giggled "It's okay, it's just making me more excited."
Yumi looked at the group, doing a mental head count and came up one short. Perking up, she started looking around the campus, hoping to spot a familiar head of scruffy brown hair.
"Where's Ulrich?" Yumi asked
"I haven't seen him since lunch." Aelita replied
"Same here." Jeremie said
"What about you Odd?" Yumi asked
"Haven't seen him since the last class we share." Odd responded "Do we even want to find him? I'm still not too happy about keeping that secret from us for so long... you think you know a guy."
The others knew what Odd was referring to without thinking about it too hard. A few days after they finally defeated XANA and shut down the super computer Yumi, Aelita, Jeremie, and Odd received a cryptic text from their friend Ulrich Stern to meet him on the far side of the park. Yumi had known instantly that it had to be important if they were meeting there, that way no one could follow them.
When they arrived, they found Ulrich sitting under a tree looking nervous about something... which wasn't like him at all. After everyone sat down, Ulrich had them promise that they wouldn't that they didn't trust about what they were about to hear. Once they promised, Ulrich proceeded to tell them a secret that only his grandparents and a few cousins know about. It turned out that Ulrich is a Shapeshifter! Something that he had discovered when he was five years old when he was at his grandparents house. His grandfather told him to NEVER tell his parents, because they both believed that Shapeshifters were freaks of nature. Ulrich told the group that he learned everything he knew about being a Shapeshifter from a select few from his hometown, and the first question that was asked was surprisingly from Aelita.
"Which Shapeshifter are you?"
"A wolf." was Ulrich's reply
As Ulrich explained more, he pulled an old looking pamphlet out of his pocket titled: Facts About Shapeshifters. They took turns looking it over, all of the surprised about all the things a Shifter needed to do in order to stay happy and healthy. Yumi felt like her brain was about to explode! Ulrich had been keeping from this from them all this time? Why would he do that? Didn't he trust them? Tired of hearing the questions fill her brain, Yumi finally spoke up.
"Why would you keep this a secret for so long, Ulrich?" she had asked "Don't you trust us at all?"
"I trust you guys with my life." Ulrich immediately replied
"Sure doesn't feel like it, man." Odd had huffed
"Shapeshifters are very rare and the numbers are falling every year because they are being killed, sold off to the Underground, or are hunted down." Ulrich had explained "We have to be very careful who we tell because if someone we tell turns against us.... it could mean our doom. I wanted to tell you guys sooner, but with XANA around, it never felt like the right time... that's why I'm doing this now. Because the world is safe, you all are safe and to a wolf... pack safety is number one. I'm so sorry that I kept it to myself for so long and I don't expect you to forgive me right away and if you don't that's okay.... but I know without a doubt that my secret will be safe with you."
Yumi had to admit, part of her felt very betrayed, but when she went home for the night... she sat down on her bed in her room and took time to herself to think about what Ulrich had said. After a while, it all started to make a lot of sense. Ulrich didn't keep it from them for this long on purpose or because he didn't trust them. He kept it to himself because he didn't know for sure that all of them would survive their fight with XANA. Ulrich wanted to make sure that his group of friends, his pack, were all safe.
So when Yumi returned to Kadic after the weekend was over, she spoke to Ulrich in the dorm he shared with Odd and told him that she understood his reasons for keeping things so close to his chest and didn't blame him for how things were handled. Ulrich's entire face broke out in a grateful smile and hugged her tightly, whispering 'thank you' in her ear several times. Breaking out of her thoughts, Yumi shook her head when Odd was still going on and on about feeling betrayed by his best friend.
"We know why Ulrich kept it to himself for so long, Odd." Yumi stated "The point is, he told us, he feels comfortable about us knowing."
"He's known us for how long?" Odd asked with a snort
"Ulrich's reasons are quite solid... and he's right, I did some research." Jeremie paused looking around "Shapeshifters once numbered into the hundreds of thousands for ages, but in the 1700's people started viewing them as wrong, immoral, and even evil. Shapeshifters were being killed in droves! It got to the point that they went into hiding... or didn't tell anyone about their abilities out of the fear of being killed."
"Ulrich knows that we would never hurt him or sell him out." Odd argued
"That's why he told us." Yumi replied
"Only after we defeated XANA!" Odd huffed
"We all knew from the beginning that there was a chance that XANA could kill us... that any one of us could be done in by that evil virus." Aelita said "Ulrich wanted to be one hundred sure that were all okay. He considers us his pack, he's a wolf... he's protective of his friends... of his pack."
Odd shook his head "Well, you guys can go track him down, I'm going to enjoy the day under my favorite tree."
With that, the blond went off, Yumi shook her head as Aelita and Jeremie continued to follow her.
"I guess we know where Odd's priorities lie." Yumi stated
"He's still upset, I guess." Aelita replied with a shrug "It's only been two weeks since Ulrich told us, Odd still needs to process."
"Come on, let's go see if we can find Ulrich." Jeremie offered
Yumi smiled "I think I might know where he is."