The end of a long day

[ACMI: The Thing You Lost]

They all decided to meet up in Touma's hospital room to discuss what had happened.

Touma was in bed, obviously, with Index sitting angrily next to him. She'd finally gotten the full story from both Joule and Touma and was annoyed that Touma hadn't been the one to ask for help.

"A magician Touma, A magician! And you didn't think I could of helped?"

Turns out, she had known the requirements for the cross of peter the whole time and if any of them had bothered to ask her, she could have told them it's requirements and that it could be used from outside the city.

Misaka looked even more tired than Touma, apparently she had been worrying herself crazy once she was told she couldn't help. Only now the problem was over, she could rejoin them.

Kuroko was there too using crutches. Apparently she was almost healed and would be fine with them. Misaka hadn't told her why they were not allowed to help but it seemed that it was worrying her. After all, Uiharu was allowed to help.

The logical conclusion? Someone high up didn't want high-level espers fighting magicians. When someone had said that out loud, Misaka had nodded quietly.

GV, for his part, was somewhat healed. He was covered in bandages, including one over his eyes, but he was in there with them all.

"It was good to hear that the plan was stopped anyway." He commented, slightly muffled by a bandage around his chin "Though it does raise questions of if it was intentional."

Stiyl and Tsuchimikado weren't here to offer an answer to that but Misaka carefully offered "They... I think they're fully able to do that if they knew what was going on."

"The thing is," Joule noted "Weren't those fireworks a fixed part of the plan from months ago?"

Saten nodded, she'd been asleep but when she heard about what had happened she'd come along to hear more about it "They were. The same timing and everything."

"Which either makes it an accident," Uiharu noted "Or an example of amazing forethought. Did we ever learn when the cross was taken?"

Joule shook her head "No, for all we know it could have been a week ago or the start of the year."

"Do you think the man behind the scenes knew about the plan to use the cross when the planning was going on?" GV suggested.

Joule nodded "That could work."

They moved on from that miracle and on to Touma's foe.

"What happened to Oriana?" Misaka asked.

Touma shrugged "Stiyl took her, something about how their church might be able to get information out of her."

Uiharu frowned and muttered "I doubt they did that legally."

"They probably run the english government behind the scenes." Saten chuckled as she continued "Or maybe the queen is a mage."

"Not quite." Index notes with a shrug "At least I don't think so. The queen is a magic user though, no question there."

That started another round of questions which ended up with Saten miming holding a sword and saying "Ex- caliber!"

Joule had wanted to stay at the hospital that night as the apartment would feel so empty while GV was still healing. GV though convinced her to take up an offer that Saten had offered.

"You can stay at our place? It'd be fun, like a sleepover!"

...Joule had never had a sleepover before.

So she, Saten and Uiharu had all headed back. She grabbed some spare bedding from her and GV's apartment and took it down to Saten and Uiharu's room. Once there they had dinner together and chatted.

"So what did you do with the rest of your day Saten?" Joule asked.

She grinned "I was searching for shadow metal."

That made Uiharu nod "I remember, you got caught and-"

"And I was told very strictly not to do it again." Saten sighed "I didn't even find anything that worth it."

Turns out that she'd managed to chat with Misaka and Kuroko too during all of that too.

"So, in the end, thoughts on shadow metal?" Joule asked.

Saten sighed again "It probably doesn't exist. It would still be a lot cooler if it did though."

Facts.

They settled down to sleep at some point later.

"Night."

"Night Joule." echoed back two voices.

Still, in the back of Joule's head, she remembered Misaki's words.

"I'll call on you sometime this week. Enjoy yourself until then."

That second part, 'enjoy yourself until then'.

It had an implication that she wouldn't enjoy the favour but-

"Don't worry, I think it's more likely to keep you and your friends out of danger actually."

It would be worth doing. Right?

...Saten ended up waking her up later to chat "In a sleepover way" but Uiharu forced her to go back to bed.

End of chapter.

The Index Daihase arc crams a lot into a really small amount of time.

Anyway, now for the first switch, Index 2 episode 14 to Railgun T episode 4