Origin I: the rubicon

“Ulrich!” Jeremie Belpois shouted. Ulrich looked up from his lunch and made a halfhearted effort to send a signal to Jeremie so they could sit at the same table. Although they were in the same grade, Jeremie was a year younger than he was, and sometimes grated his nerves with his… well, Ulrich wasn’t sure. There was just something about the blond that rubbed him the wrong way. “Remember when you were de—“

“Ssh,” Ulrich hushed the younger boy, looking around the cafeteria room nervously. Apparently, nobody overheard them. The children around them were still absorbed with their own conversations.

“Right, right,” Jeremie said dismissively. “I was just thinking about last night.”

Ulrich tensed. Last night was a complete disaster. The black blobs, whatever they were, defeated him on the virtual world and it was only through sheer luck that Jeremie was able to drain the virus of memory before the attack could continue. “What about it?”

“We need someone else to go with you,” said Jeremie seriously. The German blinked at him, and then pinched himself. Yep. Still real.

“If you say so,” said Ulrich. “Do you have anyone in mind?”

Jeremie nodded seriously, and pointed at a table near the far side of the room. Ulrich followed his gaze. The only table occupied in that corner was one occupied by a girl. The girl's hair was in a high ponytail, sticking up in the air angrily. She wore all black, save for her red shirt, though she also wore a black vest over that shirt. Come to think of it, she looked vaguely familiar.He squinted to get a better look. Then his fork clattered onto his tray.

“You can’t be serious,” Ulrich hissed, slapping Jeremie’s arm down before the girl could notice him pointing at her. “That’s Yumi Ishiyama.”

“I know,” said the blond genius, sniffing. “But I hear she’s a good fighter, so that could be useful.”

“Yumi Ishiyama, Jeremie. That’s Yumi. She’s not the friendliest of people in the world, you know.”

Jeremie raised an eyebrow. “Well, the only other person I could think of was Sissy.”

“Sissy?”

“She’s loyal to you,” he said solemnly. “If you told her the secret, she’d never tell anyone. Not even her cronies.”

“She doesn’t have the right personality for it,” snapped the brunet. “She’d probably faint the moment she got on Xanadu.”

Leaning across the table, Jeremie raised an eyebrow at Ulrich. “So what is the right personality, then?”

“Serious, focused, dedicated… not going to say anything stupid… not going to fall in love with me…” Ulrich ticked off his list.

“Yep. That’s Yumi alright.” Standing up, Jeremie cocked his head and looked down at Ulrich. “Are you coming?”

“If you want to kill yourself, I’m not coming.” Oh. Now he remembered why he didn’t like Jeremie very much: he was hopelessly naïve.

“Suit yourself,” Jeremie said with a shrug, and walked towards her table. Ulrich sulked for a moment, and then sighed. Turning around, he watched the scene cautiously, just in case Yumi tried to fight Jeremie.

Jeremie was almost at the table now. Ulrich frowned. The table was completely isolated from the other tables. The school certainly gave her a wide berth. He continued to watch. Jeremie was talking now, and Yumi looked rather… bored. Completely and totally uninterested. Five minutes later, Yumi looked up from her lunch, snapped something at Jeremie, and pointed her fork at his throat.

When he came back to the table, Ulrich half expected Jeremie to say, “Yes, she says she’ll join.” Instead, he shook his head.

“It’s a no go,” he said. Ulrich sighed.

“I told you so,” he said, and went back to eating. Secretly, while Jeremie rattled off a list of candidates, Ulrich watched Yumi. Her face had a pinched expression, as if it was fighting gravity to keep herself from frowning or maybe showing sadness. He was too familiar with that kind of look. A few weeks ago, when he looked in the mirror, that expression would be on his face. Then he and Jeremie found Xanadu, and things began to change.

‘It’s easier to smile these days,’ Ulrich thought, spearing a meatball.

Maybe that was why he didn't mind being around Jeremie.

---

Ulrich and Jeremie found Yumi waiting for them at “their” spot by the vending machines.

“What do you want?” Ulrich said harshly. Jeremie put a hand on his shoulder.

“So is that a yes?” Jeremie said smiling slightly. Yumi offered her hand to Jeremie, and after a moment, Jeremie took it.

“Why not?” she sighed. “It’s not like I have anything to do with my life.” Then her eyes narrowed. Jeremie’s face suddenly looked pained. “But if this is a joke, I’ll smash your glasses and then reconfigure your face so no one will recognize you when they peel you off the pavement, got it?”

Jeremie smiled through the pain. “Yep,” he croaked. Yumi released his hand, and moved closer towards Ulrich. Ulrich felt himself take an unconscious step back, and then steeled himself. He took two steps forward, so they were very, very close. He could see her a lot better now. Anger was written all over her: in her posture, in her eyes, in the set frown on her face. But there was also… loneliness.

“Ulrich Stern,” he said evenly. He offered his hand. She shook it firmly.

“Yumi Ishiyama.”

“Nice to meet you,” he said, and he made an effort to smile. To his surprise, she smiled back.

“Yeah. Same to you.”

---

Author’s Note: …well, there goes the color theme. Possibly more Origins to come. Most likely not.