Kazakiri

[ACMI: Destiny Begins]

As the golem fell to the ground, the girl who kicked it flipped away from it and landed beside them. She looked a little taller than Index and she wore a school girl's uniform. Her hair was long and brown. The most notable thing was she was missing a large section of her right leg, just under her knee. Her skin was broken as if she had been made of some type of glass and there was nothing underneath. Joule could see right through to the underside of her skin which was a strange purple colour.

"Hyouka" Index called out happily. As she did so she glanced down and saw the wound as well. At the sight of that her eyes went wide.

Hyouka had yet to look behind at them but at Index's call her leg repaired itself as new skin simply appeared to hide the hole. Joule blinked and asked "What's that?"

"Run," the girl named Hyouka ordered "Hurry and get out of here. It's too dangerous, you have to go."

As she spoke the golem lifted itself back to it's feet and gave out a roar. The hole in it's chest became a vacuum, sucking up scrap from the area to repair the damage done to it. As Joule and Index felt the pull, Joule ducked to the floor and made herself more stable so she wouldn't get pulled. As she went down she pulled Index down with her who tripped. As they were still being pulled Joule grabbed onto a light post near to the side of the road they were on which was holding in place.

Index looked like she was in shock and the girl named Hyouka stood in the pull as if she couldn't even feel it. The golem gave another roar and Index started to yell.

"Come on, we have to get out of here Hyouka!"

"I need to stay." Joule and Index could hear her over the wind "You get out of here."

"What do you mean stay?" Index asked in confusion and desperation "What are you planning to do?"

"I- I have to stop the monster." Hyouka answered simply.

"You can't!" Index yelled over the wind "You don't seriously believe you can defeat that thing do you? If you fight it head on, there is no way you'll survive!"

There was a moment where all Joule heard was the wind pulling towards the golem's chest before Hyouka spoke again.

"It's all right." Hyouka turned to look at the two of them and Joule thought she looked like she was anguishing about something "I'm no more human than this stone monster."

It was said simply but Lumen nodded and spoke, she was in human form and sitting beside Joule now "She doesn't have anything underneath her skin, she is constructed out of AIM fields. That means it is likely that-"

Lumen was cut off by Hyouka glancing her way as if daring her to finish the sentence. Index hadn't heard anything that Lumen had said so she glanced around.

Lumen continued quietly after returning to butterfly form "She can see me. I think she would even be able to touch me if she tried."

Hyouka turned back to Index with a sad smile "I'm really sorry for not telling you about it until now."

The golem stepped forward causing the earth to shake before it raised a fist. It brought it down in a punch aimed at Hyouka alone. Index called out her name in fear for her but Hyouka was ready.

Her arms outstretched, Hyouka caught the fist.

[ACMI: Impatience]

She gasped in pain as glowing lines, like cracks, started forming around her arms.

"Can't you help her?" Joule asked Lumen mentally. Lumen gave the mental version of a shrug "There isn't much I can do for her. She is similar to the AIM burst, there is a limit to her strength based on the AIM fields that make her up."

"Then can't we do something there? Which fields make her up?" Joule asked quickly. Lumen just gave another shrug.

"All of Academy City. She is made of a small part of each Esper's AIM fields."

Hyouka gave a cry and the lines vanished from her arms and she began to push the fist back. She glanced back at Index and Joule just as the golem raised it's other fist. She wouldn't have the power to block a second fist. Hyouka grimaced.

Joule heard running behind her and she turned to see a boy she had heard Lumen talk about before. The boy with the power to negate other powers.

"Kazakiri!" Touma called out. He ran to her side.

Index called out his name in joy.

"I told you. I told you I was going to prove that it didn't matter if you're human. You're still our friend-"

He jumped and punched to meet the punch of the golem.

"And I won't let it end like this!"

There was a sound like breaking glass then another one much deeper. The rumble of stones falling apart. The golem was falling into pieces.

They were all in shock. As the golem fell to the ground, dust was thrown into the air in a dust cloud that could be seen above buildings.

[ACMI: The Thing You Lost]

It took a few moments for the dust to finish falling. In that time Saten returned with Misaka. Misaka had quickly realised the pile of debris was Touma's fault but she still blushed around him after walking to join them.

Index had been the first to notice that Kazakiri was missing. She had vanished in the same moment that the golem fell apart.

Kuroko had shown up after that and seeing that Misaka was blushing standing next to Touma she jumped to conclusions. She blamed Misaka for the debris and realising how many friends were around she quickly teleported them all away leaving only Index and Touma.

Kuroko had let Saten and Joule go but she started to yell at Misaka things about being careful.

Joule wandered around the city, heading vaguely in the direction of home. While she walked she spoke to Lumen mentally.

"We never did learn what was going on today."

"Nah, but I did meet someone like me. That has to be a positive." Lumen's voice was light but it seemed that it did have an impact on her.

"Do you want to meet up and chat then?" Joule was joking but Lumen looked sad at the question so Joule asked "What? Is something wrong?"

"She's falling apart as we speak. Her physical form was weak in the first place, I can see the fields that formed her shifting into a new shape. Her existance, as it was, was a miracle."

"She's dying?" panic filled Joule's voice.

Lumen gave a mental head shake "Nothing says she can't appear again but there is nothing that says she will either. From what I can see, her "Self" will stick around. It seems to a fixed at this point. Her memories and identity... I'll need to look for them, maybe we could talk if I found that but I don't know how well she would be able to respond."

They were quiet for a moment as they walked. When they got home they looked out towards the sun set.

"Her physical form has vanished." Lumen reported "Those pieces of power have returned to their owners"

"And her mind?" Joule asked quietly.

Lumen paused before closing her eyes "I don't know. I know it's somewhere in the city, likely that way-" Lumen waved her arm towards the city center "But I can't see it."

Joule took a breath and spoke in a more light voice "Well, it doesn't matter. We barely met her after all."

She was sad, Kazakiri Hyouka had saved their lives and then vanished. She wasn't dead though so she didn't know if she should mourn. But they only knew her for those few minutes while she was saving their lives. Like the idea that a hero saved you and then died. The only emotion she could feel was sad gratitude.

A while passed at home before GV came back and Joule told him what had happened. Lumen just continued to look out the window.

Joule needed to be rested because tomorrow Febrie and her sister would be leaving with Shinobu. They were leaving Academy City in the afternoon and Joule's friends would continue to prepare for their trip to Liberal arts city.

End of chapter.

This arc was strange to write. Joule got involved in the "Final battle" of the arc but had no idea about any of the context.