Resolve

[ACMI: Destiny Begins]

"They've arrived at the hospital." Uiharu told Joule. The latter was clutching her phone tightly between her hands.

GV had been attacked and while the ground team when to his aid, Oriana had managed to get to Tsuchimikado while they were distracted.

Tsuchimikado himself had managed to stay fairly safe so he was still helping but GV hadn't been in a good way. His skin had started to flare up red and white, signs of acid burns.

The frog-faced doctor had promised he'd be better by tomorrow morning but that didn't stop Joule being worried for him. Apparently another friend of Touma had been hurt as well. Joule had to be honest, she didn't care as much about that.

Oriana had crossed a line.

Then again, if she'd been paying more attention to him and less time searching she might have been able to help him. Together they could use their Septima to heal him of anything short of death... perhaps even that. To do that though, she would have needed to have been paying attention to prompt him through it.

If he was in too much pain or otherwise couldn't focus, he wouldn't be able to perform the healing.

They hadn't known that acid messed with his powers in that way but it was clear that it worked on him better than even water. It didn't just ground out his Flashfield and Prevasion but the acid had made him unable to use his skills properly.

Joule's thoughts ran in circles as she held the phone.

"Joule?" Uiharu's voice came over to her again, her event with Satan had ended so she was getting back to work.

"I heard you." Joule's voice lacked feeling.

Lumen appeared and Uiharu caught the flicker before Lumen established a mental link and appeared in full.

"She's not doing well, but that should be obvious."

Uiharu stood up from her chair and headed over to Joule. Oriana was still running but she didn't have a lead right now anyway. Her friend needed comfort and Uiharu was willing to give it.

She brought some tea and rice balls and sat at Joule's side.

"Did you have lunch?"

Joule gave a nod and passed her the tea.

"Drink, it'll help."

Joule took a sip slowly.

Uiharu nodded "He'll be fine, you heard the doctor."

Joule gave a nod and spoke softly "I feel like I could have helped more."

Uiharu tilted her head "You helped us find him when he was hurt. If not for you we would have had to work off the phone and cameras and it would have delayed us reaching him."

Joule pulled into herself a little "GV has a healing ability..." She explained her worry from earlier and Uiharu laid a hand on her "You were panicking, it's understandable to make mistakes. You helped us get to him."

"Now you're just repeating yourself." Joule mumbled into her arms.

Uiharu shrugged "What's done is done. No permanent damage was done and we still have a chance to catch Oriana."

Joule didn't do anything for a few moments but after that she nodded. Lumen smiled down at her as she stood up and looked towards her floating friend.

"Lumen-"

"Already off." The fairy-like singer said as she waved and shifted back into butterfly form.

Joule nodded at Uiharu who went back to her computer.

With almost perfect timing, A call came in from the current ground team. They had figured out some information about the cross.

"It uses the night sky, the stars, as part of it's workings." Tsuchimikado explained with a slight tint of pain to his speech "There will be a spot that Oriana needs to reach and a time that she needs to be there at. If we can get there ourselves we can take the cross from her."

"So what are the properties of said time and spot?" Uiharu asked, pulling up a search tool.

"Biblical records tell us Peter died on June 29th, besides which our current coordinates are very different. They will be looking for spots that can work around those differences."

After a quick search the only thing Uiharu could find was "Virgo's apparently in both skies?"

"Wouldn't be enough." Tsuchimikado noted, "When it was done the first time it was with the sumemr constellations, not the autumn ones."

"Then I don't have much. I'm sorry." Uiharu apologised.

Tsuchimikado's laugh could be heard easily after that "Don't worry. There's a team in england working on it."

Joule looked out the window. It was about half past five but the sky was already starting to show signs of orange. When the sun set, the stars would come out.

She wouldn't allow the person who hurt GV to get away with their plan. She wasn't strong or very fast. In fact it could be said that her songs were her only weapon. In that respect...

She flipped her phone open and nodded to Uiharu who tilted her head in confusion.

The phone rang twice before it was picked up.

"Hello?" It was Touma.

"Touma, where's Index?"

Touma sound surprised to hear her but answered "I think she's with Misaka and Kuroko?"

Joule thanked him then dialed Misaka.

"Joule?" Misaka sounded tired about something.

"Is Index with you?"

"The nun? Yeah."

"Can you pass me over to her? I need some help that I think she can provide."

"Sure." Misaka's voice sounded a lot stronger all of a sudden and the phone was passed. As it was Joule could hear a muffled "Joule wants to ask you something."

"Joule?" Index's voice sounded out and Joule took a breath.

"If I wanted to make a song that could shut off a target's magic, how would I go about doing it?"

End of chapter.

My self imposed rule of refusing to just rewrite scenes from the actual show unless there would be a difference is starting to mean that large sections are getting the cut. Ah well, it means that we can get on to the Railgun things faster.