An angel and an evil spirit.

[ACSRS: Daily Kuroko]

The mood in the room had shifted instantly.

Yumiya's mouth opened and closed like a goldfish before she managed to squeek out "No... she heard all of that?"

Hokaze's blush was bright "Umm... thank you for the kind words. The curtain... is thin."

As she mouthed a slow and painful "Noooo..." Yumiya tried to hide under her bed covers.

At the same time, Shokuhou strolled over and sat beside Hokaze's bed before grabbing a plate of fruit, spearing a slice of apple and holding it out to Hokaze.

"Say ahh..."

As Hokaze took a bite, Joule looked away awkwardly and she and Misaka shuffled away from the power play.

"Is it good?"

"Yes." Hokaze stuttered out. Joule pittied her, being used in the power play would have to be stressful if she understood what was going on.

Shokuhou went on to feed some chocolate that she'd somehow smuggled in the room to Hokaze.

The look on Yumiya's face was torture and Shokuhou hugged Hokaze while smirking at the other wounded girl "She is mine."

Their retreat from the room had put Joule and Misaka behind the pulled back curtain again.

Finally though, Yumiya had had enough.

"Yooou! It's all because of you!"

Shokuhou looked away as the girl's tantrum began.

"That I ended up this way!"

But before the most powerful telepath in the city could respond, the TV of the room flicked on.

It showed a picture of Hokaze, swathed in light. It was the Halo of light that had formed around her during the final blow of the fight.

And Joule later learned that someone had hacked this bit of video, the final blow, onto every screen in the city for a few moments.

"Wha- What is this?" Hokaze was in shock but it was Yumiya who figured it out.

"Houjou!"

She looked down towards the ground continuing "Do you always have to do things this lazily? Why would you do this?"

Tears fell from her eyes and no one was really sure how to interupt her.

"I'm worried, this will probably make them more mad at you about this.

Eventually she calmed down but didn't explain it. Shokuhou did though.

"So, you wanted everyone in the city to know how brightly the vice leader of my clique could shine?"

Yumiya looked away, basically confirming it.

The greatest telepath just shrugged.

Joule and Misaka finished evacuating the room and went back to their other friends. They'd seen the broadcast too on the monitor in the waiting room.

So, what had they learned?

"Well there is definitely someone pulling strings." Misaka noted. She'd really got into helping this investigation now she knew that both Kuroko and Joule had been pulled into one of her rival's messes.

They had gathered in the Judgement office to discuss things. Misaki hadn't come but Hokaze was there along with the ghost girl.

Hokaze nodded at Misaka's point, a light blush still visible "Someone exploiting people's feelings to target the clique. I've actually got a suspect in mind. I'd forgotten about her earlier but she's involved in this case too. She was a telepath but I don't know if she grew strong enough to pull something like this off."

As she spoke, Uiharu pulled open the power database and turned back "What was her name?"

Hokaze shook her head "A moment, I just want to say why it might not be her first. To the best of my knowledge she's never met the queen."

"I see. She'd lack motive." Kuroko nodded in understanding "Regardless, who was it."

"Mitsuari Ayu. She was part of the same facility as myself and Yumiya."

"Ayu..." Uiharu nodded as she scrolled down the list "Here we go. Telepath, level 3, full ability title: Mental Stinger... Ah, it's a lower levelled version of Mental Out!"

Hokaze turned quickly "Really?"

There's a motive right there. Envy of level 5s from lower levels. It was such a normal motive that it was the same as the level upper incident. Assuming that was all there was to it of course. Just having the same ability didn't really prove anything.

"In other news," Kuroko noted as she checked her phone "We have more reports of possible tampering."

"What?" Joule asked.

"Early this morning there was a case of unprovoked assault and battery. While he was being questioned, he claimed an evil spirit had convinced him to do it. Apparently..."

She looked up and directly quoted the report.

"He claimed that 'it was that card, using that made me go insane'."

"A card?" Saten blinked before her hands slammed on the table "An Indian poker card? An Evil Card?"

"A modified card." Joule noted "Like the one that Shokuhou mentioned."

And an evil spirit?

Joule's eyes turned to the ghost girl. They knew she could possess people who were asleep. What if there were others like her?

She voiced her thoughts and Uiharu hesitated "Multiple people having identical powers are rare. Something as rare as her... projection power? Something like that should be one of a kind."

They continued to talk but Hokaze eventually left with thanks. The rest of them would keep on investigating. If there were more "Evil cards" about then Saten was on the case!

No really, she basically dragged Joule and Misaka along to help her look.

There were more rumours spreading too. Hokaze's final blow was the talk of the town. Very few people knew who she really was.

Joule hoped that she'd be safe. She had actually started to think of her as a friend.

End of chapter.

And we're getting in to the end of Astral buddy.

I say, even though there are 11ish chapters left in the story. It's really closer to the 2/3rds mark.