A Toast of endings and new starts.


[ACSRS: The Usual 5 People]

"Alright! A toast to our dear friend Shirai's complete recovery!"

Joule raised her cup as Saten proposed the toast and smiled.

"Chears!"

They sat down at the table in Shirai's judgement office, she was finally out of her wheelchair and Saten had proposed a small party to celebrate.

It was the 25th of september and they had all gathered and collected party food that now sat on the table. Prawns on toast, cheese sticks and cakes all sat waiting to be eaten.

"Oh please," Shirai noted "You're making too much of it."

She'd been sighing dramatically when the party had been suggested too.

"Not to mention it's a little late, I got out of the hospital a over a week ago."

Uiharu gave her head a slight tilt as she answered "Yes we know, but with the Daihase festival going on, we never got the chance to properly celebrate."

That and she had to use a wheelchair while doing more normal things. This was to celebrate that instead, which is what Misaka then pointed out.

Naturally, Misaka's words got her to stop complaining as she grabbed a small skewer from the table to eat what was on it.

Konori sighed as she watched all of that. She had a drink too of course as they weren't about to leave her out "Why are we doing this here of all places?"

"Come on, it's not like anything else is going on." Saten pointed out to her before continuing on to refill her drink.

Konori nodded "I guess it's okay this once, Shirai still has patrols to do later though."

Shirai nodded as she swallowed "I know... something about that case at Tokiwadai, right?"

Misaka slid forwards on her seat slightly and asked "What case, the thing with people finding notes stuck to their back?"

"Something like that." Shirai nodded "I haven't heard the full story yet."

Konori sighed and shrugged "Well, as long as you do it."

There was a lull in the talk for a moment as everyone ate some of the food before Saten perked up again.

"Okay, so, not to jinx anything but..." That last word was streached for a few seconds before she continued "How long does everyone think it will take for another adventure to begin?"

Shirai groaned and sat back "Please don't even remind us. The end of the Daihase was peaceful enough but with everything else-"

Slowly, Joule raised a hand "I hope it will at least wait until October."

Misaka chuckled as she agreed "I hope so too. With everything else, I've had my fill of excitement for the rest of the month."

Just before another lull began, Shirai turned back to look at Saten "Well, have you heard anything from rumours?"

Saten perked up and pulled out her phone "Yes! I even saved a few." She pulled up a list and scrolled through it for a moment before she began reading.

"There was a popular one about Academy City's underground line, that one is starting to die off now though. No one found anything new about it during Daihase and what with it also first showing up before Endymion went down... well, it's gone quiet." She paused before scrolling some more.

"Bust upper is back in the rumour cycle."

Misaka looked up "You talked about that one back in the Liberal Arts City didn't you?"

Saten nodded at the question before explaining "I did, but it's the sort of rumour that keeps coming back, kind of like the Level upper back before... yeah."

"So it might be true?" Misaka pushed forward and the table bumped slightly.

Shirai smilled "Oh sister, you don't need to search for something like-"

The next few seconds involved at least two teleportations and left everyone except Misaka on the floor.

"Ow..." Joule complained as she climbed back up "My legs hurt."

"Sorry about that." Misaka said apologetically.

She quickly fixed Saten's phone from the zap it had taken and passed it back to her so she could keep reading.

"Looks like it's being mixed with a new rumour this time, have you heard of Indian Poker?"

Around the room, she got head shakes from everyone "Well, in this case it's a rumour that's mostly true."

She grinned "I've heard about them from very trusted sources, apparently they showed up near the end of Daihase. They're cards that allow you to experience someone else's dream."

"Experince a dream?" Joule parroted "Allowing two people to see the same dream?"

Saten nodded "It reacts with the electrical signals of your brain and it has aromatic compounds too. You can take the film off the card and place it on your forehead as you sleep and you'll experience the dream."

"Okay...?" Misaka nodded "How does that related to Bust Upper?"

Saten wagged a finger "I'll get to that in a moment, first: The rumour says that there are some people better at making the cards than others, these people make 'S-rank' cards that are particularly nice of have side effects, things like teaching you a skill."

"Okay?" Shirai focused more one what was being said "And a rumour claims that one of those S-ranked cards can increase your breast size, right?"

"Right." Saten confirmed.

There was a pause in the room as everyone thought through what that meant.

Joule thought about Lumen. She had never really thought about it before but...

"Maybe GV would pay more attention then?" Lumen suggested mentally to her and Joule nodded.

"Well..." Misaka sat back "Maybe... if I can see how one works..."

After that there wasn't much else that happened at the party. Shirai had to leave to do her patrol eventually so when she set off, everyone else left too. As they were leaving though, Misaka caught Joule's eye.

Yes, they weren't going to forget this in a hurry.


And here everything starts.

This is both the start of the Poker card arc and the Astral Buddy arc. It's good that Daihase really is over, finally.

Though we are going right from one big and complicated arc to another. This arc is very... mixed in with other arcs.

Ah well, in better news I now have found a place to read NT online. Good.