After-lunch happenings

[ACSRT: Strawberry Yakisoba]

GV was wandering around. Saying it like that made one think that he didn't have a care in the world or maybe that he was lost in life without a purpose.

No, he was just wandering around because Academy City was so crowded right now that he was having trouble finding a good place to get to work.

He didn't have anything on until quite a bit later and Joule had wanted to hang out with her friends between events so he had left her in their safekeeping.

While they were watching her, he could look into other things such as why Joule had less events. If this was some sort of plot it would be better to solve it sooner rather than later.

So then why was he wandering around? What method of investigation did he plan to use?

Hacking. Specifically he planned to hack one of the city's terminals. They were all over the place but with how many visitors Academy City had right now it was hard to find one that no one was looking at or using.

There were connection hubs all over the place in Academy City. Now, the common reason why they were all there was so that there would be back-ups in case of disaster but GV had found enough spyware in his time in the city that he always made sure to check. The first step of any good hack on the city's services was ensuring the city couldn't spy on you.

But to remove the spyware he'd need to hack the hub itself and that could very easily get spotted right now. Thus the wandering.

He sighed and sat down on a bench that was still warm from the last guests to sit down.

...Was that a woman running past? He had just looked up and she had sprinted past, something like a signboard under her arm.

Coming out of an alley nearby he also saw someone he knew. Touma Kamijou ran out and was soon met with that fire mage he had seen during the Endymion incident.

[ACMI2: Chase]

Something magical was clearly going on. Should he just shove himself in?

He was still looking for a way to pay back Touma's help during the time that the scientist kidnapped Joule so he could see if he needed help.

The flame mage was with someone else too, someone GV hadn't met before but was almost certainly aware of magic if the company he kept was any indication. That guy and the flame mage ran after the woman who had run past him even as he stood up to go talk to Touma.

Touma himself was waiting a moment as if deciding if he should go. GV ran over to him.

"Touma, what's going on?"

He looked over as if surprised to see him.

"GV-" a moment passed as if he was making a decision before Touma nodded "Can you help us with something?"

As they ran together after Touma's friends, Touma filled him in on the basics.

That woman was transporting a powerful magical relic for some sort of transaction and it was the kind of dangerous thing that needed to be stopped.

GV was fine helping. This seemed like a good use of his time.

They caught up with the other two at what looked like a bus terminal.

"It's just a servicing station." The guy in sunglasses corrected when Touma noted that very thing.

The four of them headed in until one of them set off some sort of magic trap. The other two used Touma as a shield to block the spell. It was kind of a dick move but you couldn't deny that it worked.

"GV, head around and keep eyes on her!" The guy in sunglasses said. The fact that he knew he was called Gunvolt kind of worried him. That he wasn't using one of the fake names meant he either learned it recently or from an enemy. Or both.

Regardless he headed around and dashed around the side of the station to sprint after the woman. She seemed a little surprised to see him and more surprised to see his ability in full use. She grunted and ripped a piece of paper in her hands. A moment later the ground rose up into a wave easily a story tall which bared down on him.

He flicked his hand and spoke quickly "Sacred sword agleam, Barbarous and bathed in blue, Cleaving right from wrong!"

He couldn't wait to let her get away.

"Luxcalibur!"

The sword split the wave cleanly but he couldn't admire his work. He needed to keep going. The woman hadn't actually gone that far in the moment it took him to destroy the wave.

She had headed into an alley and then there she was preparing three paths to confuse which way she had gone. Unluckily for her GV forced her to make the choice in sight so she had to keep going.

Touma and the others were catching up so GV ran through the door after her but allowing them to see him do it. It cost him a few seconds that the woman could have used to slip away.

Down the corridor he shot like a bullet until he burst through and out into a wide open area that was crowded with people. He couldn't use his ability out here without being seen and that would cause problems.

He still caught sight of her though. She was heading across a bridge to his left. Touma had followed him out but it seemed that the other two had doubled back to find something.

Unfortunately for them though, they lost her only a little later when she vanished into a large crowd. They couldn't go straight after her without making a fuss.

Luckily, Touma got a call just then. Apparently the others had a way of tracking her with magic now.

That was helpful.

End of chapter

A bit of poorly written back and forth at the end but the chase needed to end before the chapter did.