New home

[ASG: The Muse's Tears]

As Joule walked to school, the fact that stood out the most in her head was that she missed monday's work and would have to make it up. GV was walking by her side but he seemed to be relaxing so she didn't disturb him.

Who could she ask about yesterday's work? Uiharu and Saten were still away in Liberal Arts City until the tenth but apart from them and GV she didn't really know anyone at school. Even now, almost three months after coming to Academy City she still kept to herself most of the time. Back when they lived in the other world she did go to school but never really was able to get close to people due to fear of them figuring out who she was.

Maybe she could find someone else who she could talk with? Or could she just ask the teacher for a copy of yesterday's work?

She continued walking, becoming aware of Lumen who had manifested on top of her hair clip. Joule took a moment to fix her hair into bunches so Lumen would be able to hide better. Lumen sent a small thanks over their connection as she propped herself in place on the empty hairclip.

At lunch, GV stuck around instead of leaving like he usually did on school days. They ate together in the lunch hall.

Joule had been given a copy of yesterday's work when she asked so she started work on it now. GV however just kept a watch out. It seemed he was guarding her today.

"Our hero." Lumen sighed dramatically and Joule blushed as she continued her work on advanced mathmatics.

The rest of the day felt oddly lonely. GV watched out for her and chatted with her when she started the conversation but it felt like he was focusing too much. Her friends were away too so she couldn't chat with them either. Their time zones were 7 hours apart.

After school they headed to their new home to continue setting up. Joule had been right in that they would have to share a bedroom. The living space was much smaller than the last apartment. They now only had three rooms; a bedroom, a bathroom and a small kitchen area.

They had put their beds on oppisite sides of the bedroom and placed their chests of drawers beside them. Their old table would have taken up too much room so GV had sold it to buy a smaller one that could still fit both of them.

It was 5 PM by the time they were done setting it all up. GV's new laptop sat on his chest of drawers while Joule's things were mostly inside the drawers.

Joule sat back on her bed and looked out the window towards the horizon. It was just after midnight in Liberal Arts City so her friends were likely asleep.

Her phone rang. Joule quickly checked it to see who it was an was amazed when she saw it was Uiharu calling.

Lumen hummed for a moment as Joule answered.

"Hi Joule, lost my phone but Uiharu lent me hers." Saten sounded really tired as she greeted her.

Joule frowned "Hi Saten, Isn't it past midnight for you?"

A sigh came from the phone before Saten answered "Yes, it is. Long story but we are coming home early. Could you please bring us some food when we get home, we'll pay you back?"

Joule nodded even though Saten couldn't see her and answered "Sure, but what happened?"

Saten grunted "Sorry, I'm really to tired to tell the story tonight. I promise I'll try to tell you tomorrow."

Joule heard Saten end the call and Lumen raised an eyebrow to her "What sort of adventure did they get into?"

Frowning, Joule used her phone to search online. There wasn't really any news about Liberal Arts City but Lumen spotted a curiocity.

"Joule, can you search by newest again quickly?" When she did so, Lumen frowned before asking "Can you check a social networking site quickly?"

Joule pulled up a social network and noticed the same thing that Lumen had.

"Media lockdown." Lumen confirmed out loud. They had seen it before, when Sumeragi needed to hide something big they typically shut down public communication channels. With the lockdown in effect they could try and hide the problem before it spread. There were flaws though.

Joule checked news on the mainland. Liberal Arts City was offshore California. By checking California's news...

She found it quickly. Stories of loud noises coming from the direction of the floating city, stories of ships not arriving at port when the should, that sort of thing. Nothing concrete though.

Joule sighed and put her phone away. She could just ask about the full story when they got back. Before then she had shopping to do.

End of chapter

Little bit of a shorter chapter today. Mostly to calm down again.

Meanwhile, far off in america, the Liberal Arts City arc just ended.

Next week will have a chapter of the side story instead of this story seeing as how I just finished an arc and it has been almost half a year since the last side story chapter. Look forward to that.