Telepath connections

[ASG: The End of the Long Night]

Joule stayed by Haruue as did Saten and Uiharu while Misaka and Kuroko went to ask questions to the woman who saved her. According to Kuroko it seemed like the woman was in charge of Multi Active Rescue so she would be a good person to ask about this sort of thing.

Meanwhile Joule hummed. She was trying out a trick she had read about in a telepath book, two tricks technically but the that the trick from the book currently wasn't doing anything. She was trying to calm Haruue down so she had formed a mental link with her and she pushed calm feelings through it.

Joule didn't like forcing emotions on to people, it reminded her too much of when Sumeragi used to control her. It was worth it here as Haruue seemed to be reacting well to it. The path was one way only, joule didn't want to risk hearing her thoughts while she wasn't in full control of them.

The link had been easy to make, Haruue was a reciever telepath after all.

Eventually the ambulance arived and Haruue was taken in, Saten shouted to Misaka and Kuroko about how they would ride along with the ambulance and Haruue and the three friends all got in after Haruue.

At the hospital Haruue was put through a number of checks. All they could say is that she was tired, Joule's humming had brought her out of any shock the situation might have caused. The odd thing was she didn't seem to remember anything around the time of the earthquake.

As they were on the way to Uiharu's apartment, Haruue woke up mumbling "Where am I?"

Uiharu's voice was soft "We are in a car, heading back to our dorm room. How do you feel?" Haruue had a slight smile on her face as she replied "I'm fine, I hope I didn't cause too much trouble."

Saten spoke up, her voice wasn't as soft as Uiharu but she was still keeping the volume down "No trouble at all!"

Haruue looked away from all of them, at her legs and spoke quietly "I'm strange, now you know do you dislike me?"

Almost as one voice Joule, Saten and Uiharu assured her that they still liked her.

They arived at the dorms and they all got out, while Joule, Uiharu and Haruue went towards Uiharu's rooms, Saten left to the store to pick up a watermelon.

A few minutes later they were all sitting around Uiharu's table eating watermelon. Saten complained about that on short notice it was impossible to get a watermelon from outside the city.

After finishing their watermelon slices and checking that Haruue was okay, Joule and Saten got up to leave. As they closed the door behind them they could still hear Uiharu and Haruue talking.

[ACSR: Judgement no Katsudou]

Why Saten had decided the Judgement branch was a good place to meet up was beyond Joule but there she was with the friend group (Minus Haruue and Uiharu who were apparently having a boat trip somewhere) sitting the room.

Kuroko and Misaka were both on the same computer and they were wispering between themselves.

Joule heard a quick lightning charge and looked over to see that Misaka had hacked passed a password protection. She sauntered over to see what they were looking at.

As she approached she heard Kuroko say "Ability is Telepathy, psychological responsiveness, level 2."

Joule asked "Are you looking up Haruue then?"

Kuroko and Misaka turned quickly in surprise, they must not have heard her approach, Misaka nodded and made place for Joule to stand to look at the information they had found about Haruue.

Kuroko looked back at the screen as Misaka pointed out "So it is as she told us, level 2 telepathy, that won't be the cause of the poltergeisting. It isn't strong enough."

"Hold on a moment Misaka" Kuroko stopped her before pointing to a box where extra information was kept about the ability "Look at this."

Special Note:

Has demonstrated ability above her level when exposed to certain wavelengths.

Misaka and Kuroko looked at each other in worry while Joule kept thinking.

It was Joule who pointed out the extra step they were missing "Telepathy cannot cause earthquakes. Even if she is a core piece, she is the trigger. We need to find the load, likely a telekinetic that Haruue knows."

Kuroko thought for a moment before correcting "Or a group of telekinetics, I don't think a single would have the power to cause an earthquake."

As they all thought, Saten joined in with some pointless but funny comment. As there was laughter, Joule heard beeping. Konori answered the phone and listened for a few moments, she asked to confirm if she had heard right a few times but her voice was quite until she spoke in suprise "A large scale Poltergeisting event?"

The friends looked over in shock, apparently Saten had heard more from Konori on the phone then Joule had as she repeated the name of the park before finishing "That's were Uiharu and Haruue are!"

[ACSR: Sakubou]

They were too slow to reach the park before the ambulances left so they met up with Uiharu in the hospital, she was unhurt with the exception of a scrape on her knee. The same couldn't be said for the many other wounded people in the room.

When Saten asked where Haruue was, Uiharu said that she was evacuated first so she would be around here somewhere.

Uiharu smiled as Saten pointed out how unlucky they were to get caught in two events. She then said the thing that basically assured Joule's thoughts on the cause of the events "Haruue didn't get hurt, she just passed out."

Misaka, Kuroko and Joule glanced at each other and Kuroko stepped forwards to ask "Uiharu, think back. Before the event started, do you remember Haruue behaving strangely in any way? Like what happened during the fireworks show?"

Uiharu looked a little worried "Why are you asking?"

Kuroko put her hand to her chin as she went through what they knew "Haruue is a level 2 telepath, but according to our investigation her level can shift sometimes. If you saw any irregularities in how she acted then-"

She was cut off by Uiharu "Why." Kuroko looked up, cut off from what she was saying she waited for Uiharu to finish her question. Uiharu wasn't looking happy "Why are you investigating Haruue?" When Kuroko tried to start Uiharu cut her off again "No way, you can't suspect Haruue of being involved in this."

As it looked like both of them were worried Joule cut in "We don't suspect her of doing it intentionally" Uiharu was quiet for a moment before asking "What then?" softly

"If, and that is a big If," Kuroko started cautiously "It might be that when her ability fluctuates it influences the start of the event. As she cannot control these she cannot be held knowingly responsible."

Uiharu was still quiet, in her mind she wondered how the friends she trusted could accuse Haruue in any way. Joule quickly spoke up "It is only a possibility." Misaka nodded "Data analysis will need to be done."

Kuroko looked at her friend and spoke "It's just that she has been in the area of every event so far and when in the area she goes into a trance."

Everyone was quiet for a moment as another voice spoke behind them "It is certainly possible that a telepath is the one tampering with the AIM fields."

As they all turned to look, Joule realised she didn't know the woman who was speaking. Kuroko quickly whispered to her that it was the woman from the robotic suit from before.

The woman continued what she had been saying "As the possibility exists we cannot write it off"

The woman looked around the room before turning to someone else from Multi Active Rescue and giving them some orders.

Uiharu was very slightly shaking. As she asked "What now?" the Woman spoke over her "As I was saying, A telepath could indeed be responsible but they would have to be level 4, I doubt your friend could reach high enough for that. Even ability fluctuations are normally only a one level boost if that, A level 2 would never really get strong enough. We should still look into it though, just to be safe. Who is this friend of yours?"

Kuroko answered "A transfer student called Erii Haruue." Uiharu wasn't happy about Kuroko pointing out Haruue as a possible suspect to MAR.

The women turned and sent a message for a car to be bought over to the hospital to take Haruue. As Uiharu reacted again the woman spoke to her "Think of this like it's proving her innocence. It really isn't likely to be her unless a freak coincidence were able to push her to level 4." the woman smiled "Don't worry, we have an excellent staff of specialists at the lab, she is in good hands. Also, you know you shouldn't shout in a hospital." Uiharu still looked upset.

All of them had travelled to the MAR office but Uiharu had refused to sit with any of them, Saten had tried to offer a drink and Joule had hummed a lullaby to calm her but she was still too worried for either to have much of an effect.

They all sat there worring until the woman (Who had said her name was Therestina) approached and anounced the tests were over. Uiharu was desperate to hear the answer but Therestina said it would still be a while till they got the results.

Therestina turned and spoke "Now follow me." Kuroko looked worried about something but they all followed Therestina as she walked down the hall to her office.

The friends looked around the room, admiring it's decoration.

After a while they all sat down and Therestina introduced herself in full as the director of MAR. Misaka and Saten were shocked.

Therestina looked over at Kuroko who was leaning against the wall by the door "Appart from Shirai over there I don't know any of your names." So they all introduced themselves. The director was suprised that Misaka, 'Railgun' was one of the ones in her office and she also seemed to have heard of Joule but only in passing.

Uiharu was desperate to see Haruue so when she introduced herself she added "Haruue isn't some kind of criminal!"

Therestina looked at her for a moment before saying "Lets try something." she pulled out a tube of sweets and asked Uiharu "What is your favourite colour?"

Uiharu was taken aback for a moment "I like all colours really, if I would need to pick a single colour though," she paused for a second "I would pick Yellow."

Therestina repeated "Yellow huh" as she shook the tube of sweets. She took the cap of the tube and shook out a sweet, A yellow one.

"There," Therestina pointed out "I'd say that was a good sign. Let's go see your friend."

She stood up and the others followed her out of the room in a little confusion.

As they walked Joule asked "Do you use that tube like a hand-held schrodinger's cat experiment?"

Therestina laughed slightly "That is the basic idea, just a portable AIM tester. If someone wants something then they influence the result. If everyone in the room expected yellow then yellow there shall be."

She continued chuckling as they walked passed rows of doors, inside each one was a miniature hospital room. They passed one in which Kongou was staying and Saten waved to her as she called out to them.

Eventually they came to a room that overlooked a MRI scanner that it looked like Haruue was in. Therestina asked the person stationed there if the results were in, at his yes she began looking through the information.

Uiharu was the first to speak "Well, what does it say?"

Therestina looked up and smiled "You can relax, she isn't the person responcible." A sigh of relief passed through the friends (other than Kuroko) at that news

She continued "She is only a level 2 like you guessed and without the ability to send she cannot be responcible for this effect."

Kuroko was quiet for a moment before asking about the record that showed her abiltiy increasing under specific conditions, Uiharu got angry at her be Therestina answered calmly "It is to do with her partners, she has a limited number but her ability lets her pick up on them regardless of distance but it is limited to hearing them and only them, she can't speak back. Regardless she can't tamper with AIM fields."

They walked with Haruue as she was taken to a room in the lab where she could sleep on a bed. They all stayed with her, even Therestina who surely had better things to do.

[ACSR: Chiisana Nozomi]

A few hours later she woke, Uiharu assured her that everything was fine. Haruue reached for her neck and Uiharu gave her a pendant that Joule realised she had seen Haruue wear before. "This is important to you right?" Uharu asked her.

Haruue smiled "Yes a memento of a good friend."

Uiharu looked questioning "You mean the one you told me about earlier?"

Haruue nodded as she held the pendant and closed her eyes "Yes that's right, I can hear her." At that Misaka looked at her "Like her voice?", Haruue nodded.

"That sounds like telepathy." Misaka muttered, she looked to Joule who nodded before turning back to Haruue who was talking "It's only once in a while, but when I do hear it, I get lost in it somehow."

Kuroko muttered something as Uiharu asked "is there a picture in the pendant?"

"Yes," Haruue opened the pendant and showed it to Misaka who gasped as Haruue continued "Her name is Banri Edasaki"

Misaka and Joule reacted to the name, Misaka spoke quickly "It's that girl! I've seen her before!"

Joule understood, she had been thinking about it recently too. The girl that Dr Kiyama had looked after.

Haruue looked happy "You know who Banri is?"

Most of the others looked at each other in confusion and Misaka didn't want to talk about it right then so Haruue simply continued "There is something else, I'm like her."

"I'm a child error too."

End of very long chapter

Episode 22 next week