In the background
[ACSRS: The Usual 5 People]
The 25th became the 26th and Joule found out that... it was actually quite peaceful.
On the way to school, she saw the girl with ringlet curls who was in Shokuhou's group run past her. Wait, wasn't that the wrong way for Tokiwadai?
"Hmm." She heard Lumen hum softly as she watched the level 4 run past, "That's... Hmm."
"What is it?" Joule asked "Something to do with her?"
"You mean you didn't see it?" Lumen sounded surprised but after a moment her voice returned to it's normal tone "If I see it again, I'll bring it up."
Well that was vague. Lumen saw something strange in her AIM field? That or she saw something else that wasn't obvious to normal eyes.
After waiting a moment, Joule shrugged and kept walking.
Joule went to school, spent a day there learning and then left with GV and her friends.
GV had work to do, as usual. He had said it was something about a missing person case. Not that he'd say it but it seems that even he was taking less stressful jobs after everything that happened during Daihase.
It wasn't a mission to find and capture someone after all, or something that would inflict permanent damage. Not that he'd taken on any sort of mission involving killing since getting to Academy City.
Regardless, Uiharu had to go to the Judgement office so she and Saten gave her a wave as they began walking.
"So..." Saten began with a sly smile "Want to help me track down Indian Poker cards?"
Joule gave a shrug "Sure, I don't see why not?"
Saten had a few spots in mind. There were parks and cafés that were rumoured to be places where so called "Dream Rankers" hung out.
"Dream Ranker?" Joule asked.
Saten shrugged "It's the term used for people who make and trade the cards around. There's meant to be a really skilled one called BLAU but he's never sold cards twice in the same place."
Joule nodded and they kept going.
They took a train to get around more quickly to the various places that she'd heard mention of.
As they walked, they came across a familiar face in a park.
"Hey, Misaka!" Saten called out as they approached her. Misaka looked up, some sort of card in her hand. Saten's eyes went wide at the sight of it and she asked "You found one, where?"
Misaka shrugged "Hokaze gave it to me."
"Hokaze?" Saten asked with confusion and it clicked for Joule, Saten hadn't ever met the girl with ringlet curl hair. She'd only seen her for a few moments during the festival and that had been wiped from her mind. Joule wondered if that card had anything to do with why Hokaze had been running the wrong way to school today.
Joule spoke up to help Saten "A friend of one of her rivals."
As she explained that, she could hear a soft snort from Misaka.
Saten looked at the card in Misaka's hand analytically "Well, I doubt it's a trap, see it's colour? Orange is meant to be a happy dream. I doubt it could hurt you in any way."
"They can hurt users?" Misaka was a little shocked and Saten shrugged.
"There are always rumours within other rumours. It's not common but some people claim there are... Evil Cards!"
"Evil cards?" Misaka noted in a slightly sarcastic tone "Is that really what the rumours call them."
Saten nodded "It's said that people who use them change in personality, kind people becoming malicious, that sort of thing."
Joule was now a lot less sure on her previous idea to try out cards for herself. Misaka though turned back to the card.
"This one should be safe though, right?"
Saten nodded and Misaka pocketed the card.
After a little more proding from Saten, the level 5 agreed to join their little search party. It wasn't that helpful though as they still failed to find any sellers on that day.
As they ate in a café, Saten asked Misaka to share with them if the card really worked and, if it did, what sort of dream it was.
Misaka hesitated "I'm fine telling you if it works..."
"Oh...?" Saten suddenly looked more interested "There's something on it that you wouldn't want to share...?"
"Nothing lewd." Misaka snapped quickly, but quietly. She was blushing though.
Ah, probably Gekota then.
After that, they spent a little time in an arcade. Misaka was amazing at the games and she wasn't even using her power.
She just kept winning and getting prize tokens out of the machines.
"Wait... are those?" Joule asked quietly as she saw the shape and size of the coin.
Misaka grinned and mimed tossing one of them into the air "Yeah, I figured out that they work the best for it. When balancing small size with long range shots, this was the happy medium I found."
After that though, they headed home.
GV was already home and they chatted for a bit before bed.
Honestly, today had been really peaceful. Maybe they could make it to the end of the month without trouble?
Of course, it wasn't going to be like that. If she looked back on the day in the future, she'd realise that it was just the start of the next incident.
End of chapter.
Nothing much happens on the 26th, at least that Joule would see. Thus this chapter ended up being a little short.
Ah well, next one's going to be longer at least. If I try and get everything I want to put into it in, it might be over 1.5k.
