Academy city tour

[[ACSR: Uiharu Kazari]]

Joule wandered through the park she had come to before glancing at her map, GV and her had already found a room and he was considering what schools they should go to. She had already told him her opinion and left their rooms to tour the city, for the first time in her life she had the chance to wander a city and act like a normal girl without needing to fear for her safety and she was going to do it.

She held up her map, comparing it to the park's map to try and get an idea of where she was. Once she knew where she was she turned and continued walking. Attractions in the city were many but some of them required permissions she just didn't have yet to get to so they had to be mentally crossed off the list.

It was also the weekend so most places that people hung-out were quite crowded, this park was fine because it was large but if she wanted to go anywhere in particular their would likely be a wait. She sat down on a bench to consider where she should go.

She felt a flutter as Lumen's butterfly form landed on her head, Lumen then asked "Why don't you just ask someone what things there were to see on days like this? There are many students around here you could ask."

Joule considered it for a few moments before replying to Lumen by thinking "I don't know any of these people though, just coming out of the blue to ask them would feel weird."

A chuckle could be heard from Lumen as Joule looked up, there was someone there with long black hair looking at her. Lumen spoke as if she knew what Joule was thinking (which she did, technically) "I think she noticed your hair, Light purple does seem to be an odd colour don't you think?"

In a panic Joule raised her map to hide her face from the girl that was looking at her. Though Joule couldn't see it, the girl smiled and began to walk over to her.

Joule almost jumped when the girl spoke from right behind her map "Hello there, who are you?" the tone was light and joking. Lumen spoke up in her head at this "It seems you can't avoid talking now, say hello and try to make a friend!"

Joule slowly lowered her map, she considered asking this girl to leave her alone but she didn't want to sound rude so she answered her "Hello, my name is Joule."

The answer was slow and cautious but the girl with black hair lit up with a smile and introduced herself "My name is Saten, good to meet you!" before sitting besides Joule on the bench.

"I don't want to pry but I am very curious," Saten held her hand up as if admitting some fault before continuing after a moment with what was likely the first of many questions in her head "Your hair is pretty, what sort of dye did you use?"

Joule blinked a moment before admitting it was her natural colour. This was a slight shock to Saten "Natural purple hair, that must be the result of some sort of experiment right?"

Joule shuddered for a moment and Saten caught on that this wasn't a subject she liked so she quickly spoke again "Don't think I'm interrogating you or anything, I am just waiting for a friend and I was curious about you." A moment passed before she apologised again "I'm sorry if I started this while you didn't want to talk."

Joule thought for a moment before shaking her head "It's fine, apology accepted." She smiled slightly and, thinking about what Lumen said earlier, she admitted "I'm new to academy city and don't know many places yet, do you know of anywhere that is fun?"

Saten smiled again (She never quite stopped) before replying "When my friend arives you are free to come with us, we are going shopping and then for karaoke"

Saten was surprised when she saw the shy girl's eyes light up at that but the girl's voice didn't change much apart from becoming a little strained as if she were holding back an emotion like great joy "Yes please, can I come with you?"

Eventually Saten's friend showed up and Saten introduced Joule to her, The girl was named Uiharu and Joule's attention was quite captured by her flower-filled headband.

The three of them began walking to their first destination for shopping, A large shopping mall called Seventh mist. Joule had a slight spring in her step which Lumen was chuckling over, she hadn't actually expected to make any friends yet. At that Lumen started laughing properly and, giving a mental poke to joule, she spoke "That makes you sound lonely you know?"

Joule smiled at that but continued her conversation with the two girls. So far it was basically going over what she had said with Saten, so Uiharu could avoid repeating questions. They were just going over how purple was a natural hair colour when Uiharu stopped for a moment and asked "Hey Joule, is that butterfly pin in your hair moving?"

Joule was shocked for a moment as Saten looked confused "Butterfly hair pin?" Saten asked before looking at Joule again. It was clear that while Uiharu could see Lumen's butterfly form, Saten could not. As this was likely going to get close to her ability if they learned about Lumen she just parroted "What Pin?" while quickly asking Lumen to fade away as she turned her head to obscure her from the girls.

By the time she turned back to them the "Pin" had disappeared and Uiharu thought she must have been seeing things. So they continued onward, This time Lumen was hiding as a very small butterfly on her back that could be mistaken for a part of her shirt's pattern.

The three of them continued on before they finally got to a new question, Uiharu asked "if you're new to the city are you going through ability development or are you just on holiday?"

Joule shyly replied "Ability development." Uiharu nodded while Saten asked what her ability was, Joule was shy in her reply again "Level 2 Telepath."

Saten clapped her hands together and asked "Could you show us?" Joule shook her head she replied "Can't my ability can't be controlled that easily yet."

Uiharu was thinking to herself before speaking "How long have you been in academy city? It normally takes a while to get to level 2 and you normally have the control to use it properly by that point." Joule looked supprised for a moment before replying "A few days" in a slow voice meant to hide a little bit of embarrassment.

The two girls look at her in surprise before Saten asks "Have you even been to a session designed to improve your abilities yet?" Joule simply shook her head. At that an overly dramatic cry came from Saten before she continued "So I spend years trying and I'm level 0 and I meet a girl who got to level 2 with barely any effort?"

At this Uiharu pats her friends back slightly, consoling her before she spoke "It's ok Saten, I think many people would be like you if they heard that."

The conversation drifted back onto more normal topics, some Joule couldn't give much input in as she didn't know the city very well but it was still a good way to learn about the city.

Seventh Mist was big, once the girls were there they spent some time looking round. Gunvolt had calculated spending money on a daily basis so Joule did have a little money to work with.

Their first stop was in some of the many clothing stores in the mall, what occurred next could best be described by a montage of the girls trying different outfits, very little was actually bought by Uiharu and Saten but Joule needed to add things to her nearly empty wardrobe so she picked up somethings. In addition to the clothing, Uiharu found an actually blue butterfly hairpin which Joule bought at Lumen's insistence.

After the clothes they went around to look at things that each one of them liked which ended up at a computer store (Uiharu) and a music store (which both Saten and Joule found fun).

They then had lunch in a restaurant in the mall, that looked like it served good cakes. As the three ate they chatted about more stuff in academy city, they also told Joule about the school they went to, Sakugawa Middle School.

If her friends were going there then that made Joule want to go there too so she decided to look into it and ask GV if that was the one she could choose.

All the shopping done, the three went to a Karaoke bar that Saten knew about. According to her it had some of the best songs available in the karaoke places she had been too.

They entered and paid before getting their room. Saten very quickly making a few song selections before the other two had even looked at the song options.

Joule had gone to karaoke once before with some members of QUILL (that had been a strange evening) but she had ended up not singing because everyone was worried that she might be overheard. With that not being a problem here she picked a few songs she had learned about with Saten in the music store and waited. Saten had a few songs first, one she asked Uiharu to do back-up vocals for but finally Joule's song came up.

[[ASG: Nebulous Clock]]

She started singing and the other two were shocked for a moment. Joule's singing, while in some places stuttering from her lack of confidence, was beautiful. As she sang it felt like they were watching an up-and-coming idol rather than that shy girl that they had met earlier.

Eventually getting over their initial shock they smiled at each other, now understanding why she had wanted to come with them so desperately.

She had wanted to sing with friends, her shyness had made her unable to talk to people but because of Saten she had been able to meet friends today.

As the song was coming to a close, Uiharu saw the butterfly pin behind her ear. She wandered when she had got it out as Uiharu had not seen her get it out of the bag.

The three friends left the karaoke bar after a few more songs, they shared contact information so that they could talk again and left.

Joule talk 3: Friends

[[ASG: Cyanotype]]

Joule had gotten home from her tour around the city while GV was still looking over the pamphlets, apparently he hadn't made much headway.

GV looked up as she entered and smiled "Did you have a good day?" He could see the spring in her step that said she had.

Joule nodded "I made friends and sang karaoke with them!"

Gunvolt smiled, it was good that she made some friends in Academy city. He knew she had made some friends at her old school but she was always afraid about getting too close to them.

Joule continued "I also learned what school they were from, can I change my choice GV?" He nodded quickly and when he saw her point to Sakugawa Middle School he smiled. It was a small school that was out of the way, not one that was commonly in the public eye, it also accepted both genders so GV could be nearby if he was needed.

Gunvolt nodded and said "It will be fine, I can get us enrolled there so you can be with your friends"

He saw the bright smile light up her face

*You feel a little closer to Joule*

End of chapter

So Joule makes friends, Yay

As a fun fact; Joule might be the oldest of her new friends, Uiharu and Saten are somewhere between 12 and 13 whereas Joule is firmly 13. Joule is the shortest of the 3 though. These facts brought to you by the wiki's of the respective series that I read through while making this chapter.

The reason there was no chapter last week was it was mother's day and I didn't have the time to write this chapter then.