A kind betrayal

[ACSRT: Strawberry Yakisoba]

In the morning, Joule had woken up and after saying a quick "See you later" to the others, she went over to her and GV's rooms.

As she left, she heard a groan from Saten behind her.

"Make breakfast."

"I'm not that good at cooking." Joule told a half truth. It was early and neither of them would question it as the excuse it was. She'd see them later anyway, maybe soon enough to actually come back and make breakfast.

When she got to her rooms she got ready for the day, sure she could have done this at their rooms but she didn't want to use their things without asking. Plus she just felt a lot better doing it here.

What was on the schedule for today? Well... only really one thing. She was part of a race later today that was basically just a short dash. Might be interesting. Other than that she had a lot of time to relax today after the previous day's chaos.

As she pulled on today's clothes, her phone began to ring. Was it the doctor? He had said GV would be fully healed around this time.

She pushed and arm through a sleeve and hopped over to the table where she had left it. She answered the call and put it on speaker mode as she continued pulling on her clothes.

"Hello?" She asked after there was a moment of silence from the other end.

"Good morning Joule!"

[ACSRT: Mental Out]

She didn't recognise the voice but the sound of it was familiar, the same strange happiness that seemed like a mask. It was Misaki.

Strictly speaking, that shouldn't worry Joule but the level 5 still scared her. The fact that she had likely taken control of someone's mind to place this call only made her worry more.

When she didn't say anything for a moment, Misaki spoke again.

"Joule?"

She took a breath "Yes?"

"I need that favour now. Strictly speaking I could have asked last night but I was busy, I hope you don't mind?"

Joule doubted she really cared but she tried to calm her voice anyway.

"Sure, what is?"

"You ready? I'll give you the details later but I'm going to need you to betray Railgun."

...What?

"No."

Misaki let out a little laugh over the phone before becoming more serious.

"Joule, let me just tell you that it will result in her being in less danger than the alternative. On that note, try to ensure she spends time with you and the others where you can. She's safer as part of your group then she is when she is on her own right now."

"Is someone targeting her?" Joule asked, what sort of person would target a level 5 but not endanger them with weaker people around?

"Not as such," Misaki noted "more that she's going to walk her way into a situation and make it worse if she investigates too much."

Misaka investigating? Well, the last two times that had happened was connected to her sisters and the remains of tree diagram that was connected to that project that involved her clones.

"Are the sisters involved?" Joule asked.

There was a smile in Misaki's voice as she went on "Oh, you caught on quick. They are. Again though, Railgun getting involved in this is likely to make more trouble, not less."

Joule took a breath and asked "So when will 'Later' be?"

"Ah yes. It should be in an hour or two. I'll find you and explain in person."

Right, discuss in person with the person that could just force her to do it.

"Joule." This time it was Lumen's voice, Not Misaki's "Joule, I'll keep you safe. I'll warn you if she does anything."

"Anything else I should know?" Joule asked.

"Don't tell your friends?" Misaki noted "Getting any of them involved will cause problems. Don't make that happen yourself. Additionally I won't meet with you if Railgun is with you, as long as she is with you though she is somewhat safe though so that shouldn't be a problem. Oh, and don't undo the brainwashing I did on your friend."

She dropped the last bit with a kind of "By the way" energy that it hit Joule in the face.

"What?"

"It was just to set up the meeting." Misaki gave a small sigh "If you can't get Railgun to spend the day with you all i'll need to use it."

The call ended and Joule looked down at the phone.

That favour was not worth it, not at all. She hadn't even won that stupid scavenger hunt. Yet, Joule knew that Misaki would likely have had to do this one way or another. The fact that she had this sort of advanced warning at all was a good thing.

She wondered for a moment how Misaki had learned about the sisters but Lumen pointed out "You're asking how the telepath with the most power and, at least according to Misaka, the worst personality learned something."

"Okay, but why is she involved in it?" Joule asked as her head fell "Unless they tried to make clones of her too or something."

"To be fair," Lumen noted "if we use the sisters as a basis, Mental Out clones probably wouldn't be nearly as strong as the original."

Joule shrugged as she opened the door back out in the hall. Whatever it was, it was risky.

Regardless, the question remained. Would a betrayal of Misaka's trust in her be worth it if it saved all of them.

From what? Misaki hadn't told her.

"I guess we'll have to just see what happens." Joule murmured quietly.

Her decision wasn't made. She would need to talk with Mental Out more first.

End of chapter.

Fun fact; This is actually version two of this chapter. In the original, Misaki was a lot more direct in what she wanted Joule to do but I figured she wouldn't be that direct over the phone even if she was using a proxy.