Farewell
[ACSR: Stand still (ED2 of Railgun S)]
Saten sobbed as she held Febrie's hand "I can't take it. She's growing up so quickly."
"Come on Saten stop, you promised you wouldn't cry and now your going to make me-" Uiharu, who was standing a bit behind her, also broke out into tears.
They were all standing out on a runway of Academy City's Airport. Enough time had passed that Heaven Canceller had finished analysing the Chemicaloids to understand what exactly needed to be fixed. Of course the two girls were still sucking on lolipops, as they were leaving the city to be reconditioned they still needed them for now. At least that is what GV had relayed to Joule.
GV himself wasn't here. He was starting his own investigation into what actually happened on the first. He had sent well wishes.
Joule herself was with Misaka and Shinobu by the small plane that had been arranged to take Febrie and Janie out of the city. She watches as Kuroko gave Janie a good luck charm and smiled.
Misaka nodded at Joule before asking "Can you join them for a moment? I want to talk to Shinobu about something."
Joule shrugged before wandering over to Saten and Uiharu who were weeping while hugging Febrie. She was curious but she didn't want to pry into whatever Misaka wanted to talk about.
Febrie looked a little lost for words so Joule tapped Uiharu and Saten on their shoulders. The two looked round to see her smiling. They dried their tears over the course a few moments before standing up.
Joule smiled down at Febrie before ducking slightly so they were at the same sort of eye level "Are you okay Febrie? Are you excited about the plane trip?"
Febrie grinned and nodded "It's like when Misaka jumped while giving me a piggyback ride right? Flying through the air?"
Saten nodded emphatically "It's just like that, except you stay in the air much longer."
Janie wandered over with Kuroko and the group backed off a little bit to allow the sisters to talk.
Saten sniffed a little "Do you think we will see them again?"
Kuroko shrugged "I don't know, Sis told me that they are moving oversees with Shinobu but they might come back on vacation when they are older."
While they continued to talk Lumen spoke telepathically to Joule.
"I figured out that 'thing' from the 30th."
Joule didn't know what she was talking about and so replied "What thing?"
Lumen gave a sigh before being even more cryptic "On the 30th, you asked me to look into something. I have figured out what it did."
Joule was getting annoyed at this point "What? Did something happen on the 30th that I don't remember? We rescued Janie from where she was trapped and reunited the two sisters."
[ACSRT: Mental Out]
Lumen was silent for a few seconds before sighing again but this time it sounded like she was worried.
"Is that really all you remember? It was only a few days ago."
Joule stopped then and ran through her memories.
On the 29th, Misaka had told them about the fact that Febrie had a sister who was trapped somewhere. In the morning of the 30th, Misaka and GV had helped Febrie use her ability to find Janie.
"Was that really all that happened?" Lumen asked.
Joule finally realised what Lumen was talking about "I've been made to forget, someone messed with my head."
Lumen filled her in on STUDY and everything else she had forgotten.
"Then, after the missile was shot down by Misaka, you all rested on blankets. Do you remember now?" Lumen finished.
Joule nodded, as Lumen told the story the memories reappeared but they were fuzzy. She looked at her friends who were still talking about the sisters and mentally muttered "They don't remember do they? Do they even remember that the Janie and Febrie are Chemicaloids?"
Lumen gave a mental head shake "I don't think so. I managed to get a good look at your mind while I was telling you what happened so I can see what that Esper did."
The memories of the Esper came back to Joule, The girl with sparkling eyes.
Lumen continued "She somehow told your brain to not transfer the memories to long term storage. It isn't perfect though as the memories were still stored but not the connections to them."
She looked at Misaka and Shinobu who were still talking "Shinobu has to remember at least right?"
Lumen replied simply "We have to ask. Also, if you can't remember it yet the Esper said that Misaka asked her to check up on you, we can ask her too."
Joule nodded.
[ACSR: Determination]
She walked over to the two of them with a forced smile.
Misaka nodded to her as a greeting but it looked like the two of them had just finished talking about something.
Joule had two choices here, she could try and prod around the issue or she could be direct.
"Be direct." Lumen advised.
"Misaka, do you happen to know a Telepath with sparkling eyes and blond hair." Joule asked simply.
Misaka cringed slightly before offering a slow "Yes?"
"Did you ask her for a favour?"
Misaka cringed harder at that "Yes?"
Shinobu raised an eyebrow as she looked between the two of them.
Misaka held her hands up quickly before Joule could ask anything else "Sorry, I didn't think she would go over to you guys too. I only asked her to use her power on 'Those that would spread rumours'"
[ACSR: Stand still (ED2 of Railgun S)]
Shinobu chuckled "Well that's one explanation then."
Misaka just gave a quick bow to Joule "Sorry, I am really sorry. I didn't want people to go after the two of them."
Joule sighed "I understand your reason. It's fine. You should still have checked with us though."
Misaka looked up then "How did you remember by the way? Did her power wear off?"
Joule shook her head "Telepathy trick, I have a memory back up." It was a lie but not too far off.
Lumen chuckled slightly at that so Joule thought she was fine with being referred to as a 'trick'.
Misaka nodded "Makes sense. I'll tell you more about her later if you want."
Joule started to leave before Misaka asked her to wait.
"Please don't tell them all of it. Saten might spread rumours or tell Uiharu. Uiharu and Kuroko would have to report it to Judgement if they remembered."
Joule nodded and returned to the others.
A few minutes later, Shinobu and the Chemicaloids boarded the plane and took off. They all waved goodbye as the plane took off and they saw Febrie waving back happily.
After seeing them off Misaka was the first to break the silence.
"Okay, should we get going?"
End of chapter.
Basically a chapter dedicated to Joule calling out Misaka's favour.
It certainly came back to bite her in season 3