Clouds gather
[ACMI2: Tea time]
Joule felt a bit left out now but rationalized it as a good thing.
Not long into the search, Misaka had made an excuse to "go check out one of their leads on her own."
She and Saten had argued but the level 5 had been running away before they could convince her otherwise.
"Every time." Joule sighed "Every time they leave us behind."
"They?" Saten asked "GV too? Is it just something that powerful electromasters do?"
Joule shrugged and admitted "I do understand their reasoning. They don't want to pull us into dangerous places. When I first met GV..."
Saten nodded, remembering what she'd heard of Joule's story "I get it."
They still had leads to follow up that Misaka hadn't claimed. One was a card trader that Saten knew about and had gotten her cards from.
"Hey there Dog!"
She greeted the man with a raised head as he sat on the cloth in an alley. Joule had no idea why he was called Dog but the man grinned regardless "My best customer, come looking for something specific again?"
Saten nodded "We've heard rumours of cursed cards. Haunted cards."
The rumour had been spreading. Even if the assault's interrogation had been kept to law enforcement, bits had leaked out."
"Nah." The man shook his head "I don't have anything like that. At least nothing that's been traded to me like that."
"Someone might have tried to fake something else over it?" Saten held her hands up like she was begging "Can you look through your unreliable cards?"
The man gave a nod with a raised eyebrow "Sure, but for something like this, you're paying extra. Three good nightmares or something... special."
No direct money changed hands but Joule followed Saten as she left.
"To explain:" Saten raised a finger "He'll be looking through his cards. He can only check one every half an hour so there'll likely be a few hours before he finds one in the best case. While he looks, we find something to trade for it should he find it."
"Three nightmares or that special thing?" Joule checked.
Saten nodded "Special cards are the sort of things that have rumours just about them. Things like the Bust Upper."
She laughed as she shook her head "He'd probably give most of his collection in trade for something like that though. There are some other cards seen as special that people know exist though. Things about ability development. I've heard of a card that helps low levelled telepaths reach level 2."
Joule looked over at that "It sounds like the level upper."
Saten shook her head "Not quite. It's just teaching best practices. It doesn't magically improve your level. I'm actually looking for a telekinesis version. It probably wouldn't be enough to boost my level but I do want more tips for how to use my ability."
She was still limited in a few ways. Compared to Kongou, Saten's version of Aero Hand was somewhere between level 1 and 2. The former officially but she could pass some of the tests that were for level 2s.
Either way, nightmares were easier, apparently.
Saten had a collection book that she picked up from her room containing most of her cards and she sorted through them quickly.
"Not enough nightmares." She finally declared as she finished flipping "I've only really got this one."
She showed a card with the tag "Cave chase - Yourself"
"It's not that rare of a nightmare but it is one of the better quality ones." She admitted "I got it by trading- no, wait. Doesn't matter. We need more."
They went between traders, swapping cards for others as lunch passed uneventfully. As the day crawled on though, Lumen whispered to Joule.
"Something's wrong."
[[ACSRS: So, I Decided]
With a slight tug from her friend to look the right way, they looked to the skyscrapers in the next district over.
Above them, a storm had gathered. A storm that was localised just above there and hadn't been in any forecasts.
Joule and Saten came to the thought at the same moment.
"Misaka!"
They quickly ran towards the storm. Then they realised that it was actually quite a ways away and took the bus instead.
Just as they got to the building that the storm had been at its strongest above, it was already breaking apart.
"We should have called Shirai." Saten moaned quietly as they ran for the lift.
They spent a minute or two in there as the lift rose before finally running out onto the roof.
There...
"Umm..."
People turned round to look as Saten had spoken. It wasn't Misaka.
Hokaze, Shokuhou, Ghost girl, Sogiita and Shirai.
"Well..." It was Hokaze that spoke as the Joule and Saten stepped forward.
Joule tried to give a smile "We thought the storm was Misaka. Sorry."
The moment was broken as Shokuhou broke out into a chuckle and quickly covered it up "No, no. It's fine."
Shirai nodded... why was she with Shokuhou anyway. She looked embarrassed about something.
"I think sis wouldn't want you coming to somewhere dangerous like this, but she'd think the same about me coming so I don't blame you for coming."
As Shirai spoke, she turned away. It seems they'd gotten here as the situation was wrapping up.
For lack of someone better to talk to, Kuroko explained the generalities to them.
"Hokaze was attacked by Sogiita, probably because of that TV thing earlier, he thought she was some leader of a criminal group."
"Probably?" Joule asked.
Shirai sighed "He claimed he didn't know why he thought that..."
In that moment she looked up "Might it be more tampering by the master mind?"
She went on to explain that Shokuhou had asked her to bring the level 5 here to end the fight. She'd then used a remote to stun him. After he had broken through the mind control... somehow, Hokaze had ended the fight and made peace.
"If he could be affected by Shokuhou though, he could have easily been made to do this just like the other people that targetted them..."
But as they talked, Joule's ear caught a sound like a crackle. She turned just as some sort of cloud funnel appeared right above Hokaze.
"What?"
End of chapter.
And yes, I did squish multiple chapters into one exposition. Kuroko did leave some things out too. There was no way team "let's hunt evil cards" could have been here to watch the events themselves.