What would you do with a clone?

[ACSRS: Itsumo no Gonin de]

Uiharu, Saten, Haruue and Joule were walking together down a path in a park. Joule still had her sketch pad with her but was on a diffrent page.

The park was hot today and Joule was humming. Saten had complained about it being too hot and as Joule was humming anyway she formed a link to the rest of them to make them feel a little less hot. Saten would have practiced her ability at the same time but she didn't want to stick her arms out in a public place.

They all came down a path to see Misaka and an electrified Kuroko.

"What are you guys up to?" Uiharu asked cautiously. Haruue looked at Kuroko and complemented "Great looking tan Shirai."

Joule stopped humming for a moment to speak "I think it's more likely to be char than a tan."

The friends got drinks and Saten started off "So what is the plan today?"

"I wouldn't mind doing some shopping," Misaka admitted "there are a few things I need for our field trip."

Uiharu lit up "Yeah, that's right it's coming up soon isn't it? So where are you going Misaka?"

Misaka looked up as she thought "I'm pretty sure it's called Liberal Arts City."

"Oh yeah?" Uiharu asked surprised "The artifcial island off california?"

Misaka nodded confused but Haruue explained "We were picked for our class and it's going to the same place. But..."

Joule sighed "I wasn't picked, meaning you five will go off without me."

A moment of silence passed as Joule looked away and back again "Take pictures and bring me souvenirs!"

The tone of her voice showed she was making a joke to break the silence and everyone got back to talking.

Saten admitted she needed a new swimsuit but thought that she should wait do to not having a lot of money. "This would be a great time to have a big stack of money cards." Saten spoke with confidence. Uiharu cut her off from saying more "You can't be serious!"

Joule then asked "What happened to the money cards you had Saten?"

The overdramatic sigh from Saten answered her question before she had even spoken "Uiharu confiscated them after you left."

"On that subject," it looked like Uiharu was on a roll "Joule, if you have any left over from your hunt with Saten, please hand them in to judgement when you can."

Joule shrugged and nodded

Saten had a curious look on her face as she asked "What has even been going on with that case lately."

Kuroko shrugged "There have been no new developments in a while but it has only been a few days."

"I see." Saten was deep in thought.

"You're obsessed with it aren't you?" Uiharu asked.

Saten put her hand on her chin and took a thinking look "Well, I am kind of hooked on it yeah. It's like I can sense something bigger lurking in the shadows behind it."

"So are you basing that on anything?" Kuroko asked incredulously

"Just my sharp instinct as an urban legend hunter!" Saten boasted.

As Kuroko turned away she spoke "You're starting with that again?"

"Again?" Saten questioned "What do you mean again?"

Joule pondered "Honestly, how many adventures have we been on that we only got into because of Saten's rumours?"

Kuroko stopped for a moment as Saten began counting on her fingers "Major events or all? If all then Dr Kiyama was the undressing woman, We found the Level-upper, Poltergeist wasn't actually a ghost but we did hear about it from rumour and then this with the cash cards."

Misaka laughed "Maybe we do spend to much time around rumours but this conversation has gone on a while, Shall we all go shopping then?"

She stood up and continued "The daylight isn't going to last forever."

Everyone began following after her.

[ACSR: Taisetsu na Tomodachi]

The friends walked to Seventh Mist

Misaka stocked up on provisions for the school trip, Uiharu and Haruue bought a new rice cooker (With Misaka helping them get a discount) and then later they all went to look at swimwear.

Haruue wanted to buy one but she had never bought any for herself before so Misaka offered to help her pick.

As Misaka dressed Haruue in a lot of swimwear that looked to young for her, Uiharu spoke quietly "Misaka is bouncing off the walls today, what has gotten into her?"

Saten said that she had noticed it to and then asked Kuroko if she knew what the cause was.

Kuroko looked contemplative but just shook her head.

Later on they sat outside a cafe with drinks. They were talking about the shopping trip.

Uiharu was saying "We really lucked out with the rice cooker, didn't we Haruue?"

Haruue nodded while Saten was looking around.

Saten nodded as if she was sure and then looked at Joule "Hey, isn't this where we saw Misaka's doppleganger?"

Uiharu looked up "The look-alike you mentioned, are you still thinking about that?"

Joule nodded as Saten went on "I'm serious, she was nearly identical!"

There was a silence for a moment before Saten asked in excitement "What if she is your long lost twin?"

Misaka was shocked for a moment before calmly returning to her drink.

Uiharu spoke up suddenly "Speaking of look-alikes, I heard a crazy rumour from Konori earlier."

Saten acted hurt "You don't trust me to be your source of rumours? For shame! For shame!"

Uiharu waved her away and spoke "It was something about using cloning technology to mass produce level 5s."

Uiharu stopped as she noticed that she was as bad as Saten with some rumours but Joule spoke softly "Academy city has cloning technology?"

Kuroko nodded "I don't know much about it but as far as I know they are capable of cloning humans, this is scientific cloning though so it starts with an empty brain and as a baby. In theory there would be no difference between a person and a clone that grew up natrually."

Misaka leaned on an elbow "Cloning huh? That's an old rumour for academy city. Now if I had a clone what would I do?" She opened her eyes and looked around "How about you Saten?"

"If I had a clone?" Saten parroted then thought "First of all, I would have her take care of all my summer homework."

Kuroko spoke up then "I would leave mine in our room, then I could break curfew without getting in trouble."

Haruue suggested "With my clone I could eat enough for two people." Uiharu followed up "That is a great idea, if you didn't know what to eat at a restaurant you could just have both."

Misaka spoke with a smile "What if you have it backwards and you need to share with your clone?" The looks of shock and terror on the two faces was quite the sight.

Misaka then turned to Joule "What about you?"

Joule thought, for her this question was a lot greater than for the others. She eventually decided to laugh it off has a joke "A backup singer maybe?"

There was some laughter at that before Kuroko turned to Misaka "It's your turn now sis, what would you do if there was a clone of you wandering around the city."

Misaka pondered but eventually just muttered "That's a good question."

The 6 of the left after a bit more time as the sun was begining to set.

Saten bemoaned the end of the day "At this rate summer vacation will be over just as fast!"

Uiharu spoke with more happyness "It's getting close to festival time huh?"

Misaka agreed "Oh yeah, it is that time of year."

"Doesn't really feel like it hear in the city though." Uiharu pointed out saddly "Barely anyone goes back home for it."

Misaka showed the bright side "It does give us more time to spend together though."

Saten agreed and it looked like Joule was in deep thought.

"Let's enjoy ourselves instead of counting the days," Misaka turned around winking "There is plenty of summer left."

End of chapter

While writing the chapters I have the urge to add more snark to some lines but in some cases I just don't have a person in the right mood to snark.

You'd think they would have figured out that "All rumours are true" by now though.

Joule actually hasn't been to any form of autumnal festivals in her own world, not many were held anymore.