Possession Unknown.

[ACMI: Despair]

GV sat on a chair by the side of Joule's bed.

Beside her, the vitals monitor was beeping softly.

"Physically she's exhausted." He remembered Heaven Canceller's words "But she'll recover from that easily. What I can't explain is the effects on her mind."

Something with a will of its own had become a parasite on Joule, sapping her power and weakening Lumen to the point of near non-existance.

GV hated that thing, whatever it was. He was angry it wasn't something he could kill. Joule was in danger and there was nothing he could do.

Index was apparently working through her archive to find out more about the spirit, and she promised to have something workable within a few days.

It was getting late in the day, GV didn't have specific work today so he could go to bed at a reasonable hour for a change... if he wanted to. But he wouldn't, because he wanted to know how to help Joule.

Joule's friends had come round to check on her and he'd explained to them the basics.

Doctor Kiyama had even come round and she'd given an overview of the problem, explaining how a magical thing could be interfering with her AIM. She'd needed to talk to Index to get some of the finer points of the magic worked out though.

In short, the parasite was feeding on Joule's "Power." That unique power that acted like AIM, Magic and Saintly powers all at the same time. The power that GV now suspected to be Septimal power.

Joule's Septimosome was an unknown power source, whatever it was that had latched onto her likely did it partially because there was some sort of link between Joule and the thing. Index claimed it was likely that the spirit, whatever it was, had some sort of ability related with singing.

With nothing he could do though, GV stood up.

He needed a walk, and to pick up some sort of food for himself.

Leaving the hospital he found a place that sold good quality noodles and ate there. As he walked back, he tried to think of who else he could ask for help.

"Hyouka, maybe?" He noted out loud.

They hadn't heard from the AIM being in a while. He'd hoped she'd show up again after the issue at the end of last month, but it seemed no one had seen her.

Who else? Was there anyone in this city who knew more about this sort of thing? Was there anyone else who'd experienced something as strange as this?

In a cell at a prison, a girl sneezed. She wiped her nose with her wrist and checked the calander. Not long now.

As GV returned to the hospital, he returned to Joule's bedside.

He stayed there as the evening dragged fully into night. Eventually a nurse came and told him visiting hours were over.

They would help Joule. Everyone he knew with any ability in the field was working to help her.

Someone would figure it out.

Besides, she'd probably wake up by the morning. She'd still be sick but better that in a coma.

...

As GV continued to walk home though, he heard an explosion.

[ACSR2: Frenda]

Now an explosion wasn't too strange to hear in Academy City. You could probably hear one or two a night depending on where you lived in the city and if any of the various dark side teams were working near you that night.

But in this case, the explosion was near the top of a skyscraper and GV could barely makeout someone, a boy by the outfit, hanging on to the wall of the skyscraper below the point of the explosion.

...

He sighed and decided to take a look.

End of chapter.

It's a short one but I wanted one more transition chapter between the stuff with the possession before moving on to the Doppelganger in the evening.

Edit: Shit, forgot to post this one at the normal time. I only noticed just before I went to start writing the next chapter. And I didn't get any messages because FF net is currently being dumb and their emails aren't working so no one could point it out to me.