Performing

[ACMI movie: I'll sing for those people's sake]

Joule sat watching the screen that showed the stage, she along with Arisa and most of the other Idol candidates were still in the waiting room.

The first girl's performance had been a bit stop and start. She had kept in sync with her chosen song but it hadn't left much of an impression. The second girl was currently performing.

It contained a lot of skipping, Joule noted. The Though Saten had shortened the skirt of her outfit to make movement possible, that amount of skipping would likely cause her to fall.

The moment she thought that, the girl put a foot down wrong and tripped. There was a small collective gasp around Joule as the second girl got back to her feet. She ran off stage quickly to hide the embarrassment. The group could hear something like quiet sobbing through the clipped on microphone. Whoever was doing the sound tech noticed and switched her microphone off.

Joule continued to watch as two more girls peformed, she noticed a slight fear on them as they went out and returned but they looked confident on stage. Maybe the second girl tripping worried them?

The fifth girl also suffered an accident, as she peformed a pirouette she tilted and fell onto the ground, she however was able to roll and turn it into part of the act. Still when she returned to the dressing room she didn't sit with the rest of them, instead she hid in the back.

Strangely the sixth and seventh also had problems, the sixth jumped into the air as part of her performance, when she did that her balance was off so she landed badly on her back. She had to be taken to hospital. Girl 7 didn't even perform, she said something about this all being cursed and went to sit with the crowd for the rest of the time.

"Something seems wrong." Lumen muttered. Joule nodded and Arisa looked over "What is it Joule?"

Joule repeated what Lumen had said and Arisa closed her eyes to think, meanwhile Lumen spoke again "I'm going to check out the peformance hall."

She beat her butterfly wings and set off. Arisa finally opened her eyes and spoke "I mean, maybe they didn't practice enough?" Her eyes then narrowed "Where did your other butterfly pin go?"

Joule was honestly supprised but she tried to play it off by looking through the clothing bag by her feet "Took it off for a moment, that one is less comfortable to wear."

"I can still hear you." She heard Lumen mutter through their link but Arisa nodded "Fair enough, just remember to put it back on before yoru turn."

[ASG1: One With the Electronic Waves]

Lumen examined the stage, hiding up near the roof where few would look and switched her vision.

Lumen could now see waves. Electromagnetic waves were the easiest, so she could see GV sitting with the rest of her friends. Misaka gave out the same kind of waves as GV but they were more compressed and a slightly shorter distance away from herself.

She looked around for septimal waves before remembering that the espers here didn't use septima. Looking for specific brainwaves would be nearly impossible with this many people and at this range. Easier just to focus on the current performer. She watched as the eighth girl entered the stage and peformed her song and dance. She didn't trip or stumble, she just peformed and left.

The nineth girl was the next to stumble, Lumen payed attention to her brainwaves as she peformed, she honed in on reading the input/output of the brain. Just before she stumbled there was a moment where she wasn't able to feel her center of mass.

It was an Esper doing this, likely a telepath. Joule had never read the handout that Kuroko had given her about the proper use of powers outside of development time but she was fairly sure that using them to cheat in an event was against the rules. Lumen passed the information to Joule then wondered how she would go about using it, telling anyone would only prove she could have been the person doing the cheating.

She decided to tell Kuroko, Lumen flitted over to her. As she flew over, Misaka glanced up at her in surprise. Lumen settled herself and did the telepath version of ringing the doorbell. Kuroko let her in and Joule told her of her suspicions.

[ACSR: Sakubou]

Kuroko muttered something about "Whoever is doing this is really petty." Before getting up quickly and teleporting. Through Lumen, Joule told the others about her suspicions. Before the tenth girl's peformance started there was an announcement that it would be delayed for some time due to a "technical fault" likely that was just a lie that was being used to allow Kuroko to investigate.

She teleported back to grab Uiharu and then they both left. Only a few minutes later they came back with a suspect in mind. Kuroko searched the crowd as Uiharu explained (Lumen listening in for Joule's benefits) "The girl's who tripped were all friends that had been talking about this event for the last few weeks, in their school there was a girl with a low level telepathic ability called 'Blackout', Blackout dulls senses but at this bully's level all it can do is-" "Cut off their sense of balance?" Misaka cut Uiharu off.

Uiharu looked slightly annoyed but nodded. The group heard a commotion somewhere near the back of the seating area as Kuroko grabbed the suspect. Uiharu took this time to continue "In addition the eighth idol was a friend of the bully, she knew she wouldn't fall."

Saten whistled quietly "How did so many people from the same school make it into the contest?" Uiharu just sighed "Dance school that does ability development on the side."

Joule watched as the tenth girl performed, it was back on and almost her turn so Lumen had flew back and made the offer again. Joule hid somewhere back in the room and used a hair tie she had asked Arisa for to tie her hair into a pony tail. Lumen melted away, becoming part of her again before appearing in the form of the large bow that she had in her own hair.

She joined Arisa again just as the tenth girl finished, Arisa was surprised at her new look before smiling "Nice ribbon, good luck out there."

[[ASG2: Iolite]]

Joule nodded and walked onto the stage.

As her song began she only sung but when the song picked up she swung her arms wide, allowing the wings on the back of the outfit dance. She herself then started dancing. As the light was on her she couldn't see the crowd that she knew was before her. All the better.

Lumen spoke quietly, guiding her steps and finding good times for her to take a breath.

Finally the song calmed down and she returned to simply singing while moving her other hand.

In the end when the song was drawing to a close she made the wings flap again as she finished the dance.

A loud cheer went up and she bowed before running off stage.

Ladylee Tangleroad watched the peformance from backstage and raised an eyebrow at the levels of AIM detected as the girl had sung before watching the miracle maker head for the stage.

Elsewhere in academy city, inside the windowless building, Aleister Crowley read the results from the hidden AIM detectors. He knew that Joule had been holding back but looking at the spikes here...

If she showed this much power in testing she might be reclassified as a level 5. Maybe that was it though? Maybe she didn't want the attention that Level 5s got?

He would have to give some sort of incentive when she was next tested. He would have to think on it.

At this rate there was a chance that both of them were Level 5, the boy had done well against Accelerator... but...

They didn't seem perfectly like espers. They boy's ability to heal his broken leg during the Accelerator battle for one thing and then the fact that his sword could cut through the first rank's defense.

They both generate AIM, so they aren't likely to be mages but... It was still something to think about.

[ACSR: Taisetsu na Tomodachi]

Joule clapped as Arisa finished her song. It had been truely great.

They got the scoreboard out and tallied the votes then.

1st place; Arisa

2nd place; Joule

After that it didn't really matter. Joule was given a warm reception from her friends when she returned in her normal clothes. Lumen had returned to being the second hairpin as Joule had returned Arisa's hair tie.

Floating on that warm feeling she left with her friends, she really didn't care that she had only gotten second place. Arisa had shown how skilled she was.

As they walked back they split with Haruue and Banri who headed off for their new rooms. GV had also left after telling Joule to not stay out too long. Saten tried to get him to stay so she could embarrass Joule but he had left. The remaining group took a shortcut that Saten told them about through a park.

As they reached a flower patch Misaka stopped them "What is that down there?"

They looked where she was looking to see a little girl sleeping in the flower bed.

Saten spoke her mind freely "Wow, she's adorable."

"Don't just stand there staring at her" Kuroko spoke and teleported down the stairs to the girl. They all raced to catch up to her at the flower bed. They all moved her to a bench.

Uiharu took a closer look at the girl who opened her eyes slowly. "Hi sleepy head," Uiharu spoke kindly to the girl as she sat up and rubbed her eyes "why were you taking a nap in the park?"

Joule noticed the girl had a lollipop stick emerging from her mouth. Uiharu continued "If you tell us your name maybe we can help you?"

The girl looked at Uiharu and slowly sucked on her lollipop. Uiharu continued when she didn't respond "How old are you?"

Misaka had a go when that failed to get a response "Can you tell us where you live? Your school? Your homeroom teacher's name maybe?"

Kuroko noted "This doens't seem to be working."

Joule pointed out "Maybe she was told not to talk to strangers?"

Saten pushed Uiharu out of the way and knelt down to the girl's level in a kind voice she asked "Let's make a trade okay? My name is Ruiko, now it's your turn. Do you think you can tell me your name?"

[ACSRS: Febri]

The girl continued to move her lollipop around her mouth for a few moments before she took it out and spoke quietly "I'm Febrie."

A collective "Aww" could be heard from the friends at that.

Saten continued talking to Febrie "That's a very pretty name. Okay then Febrie, what else can you tell us? Anything goes. Pick something."

Febrie looked at Saten and spoke two words "Mikoto Misaka?"

End of chapter

Due to the idol event this chapter was actually quiet long.

Either way, yes meeting Febrie. For some reason, before looking it up on the wiki I didn't think about the E at the end of her name, I thought it was just Febri (Like the song's name)