A certain 4th grade student.

[ACSRT: Childhood Days]

It was now the second of October and GV had headed out on a mission after school.

Joule, left alone, had to find somewhere safe to spend the day.

Misaka was having another tea party with Misaki. Hokaze hadn't even had to trick them into this one, they'd both gone knowing the other would be there. Even then, it was still early days with them. Whatever Misaki had against Misaka was still lingering in her but she seemed to be trying at least.

...Hopefully this didn't cause a fight or anything like that.

So instead of hanging around with her, Joule was spending this afternoon in the Judgement office.

Well, she wasn't allowed to patrol with Shirai and Uiharu but there was nothing stopping her from staying here where it was safe and making tea. A lot of tea. Her throat had been hurting more today. The strain from singing had never lasted this long before. Maybe she had a cold too? A combination of things might have caused this at least.

Konori was here too, so Joule had someone to rely on in that regard too.

At around five in the afternoon, Shirai and Uiharu got back and there was a boy with them. He looked to be around ten years old.

"Hey there." Joule nodded "Want me to make some tea for you all?"

"Yes please." Shirai nodded as she got out a datapad.

The boy looked a little unsure but he shook his head "Just some milk please."

Joule headed over to the counter, refilling the kettle and pouring some milk for the young boy.

As the kettle was heating up, she turned to pay attention to Shirai and the boy who were sitting at the table. Uiharu had gone to the computer to look something up.

"Shaei Miyama." Shirai read from the datapad "4th year at Matsuume Elementary, Age: 10. Precognitive Esper, level 2."

"Yeah." Miyama nodded and held up a small camera that he had hung around his neck, he quickly thanked Joule as she brought his milk over before she went back to watch the tea. Getting back to the camera though, he continued "I use this instant camera for my power."

Shirai looked up from the datapad "Which is psychic photography that sees future events, Right?"

"Yeah, pretty much." The boy's voice sounded really tired as he spoke "But it's not really Thoughtography. What shows up is a marbled pattern that's impossible to understand."

"Question:" Joule looked over "What is Thoughtography?"

It was actually Konori that answered that "It's a power somewhere between ESP and Telekinesis. It creates photos from places that the Esper in question can see with their ability. No, let me rephrase that. They don't see it themselves, the photo is the only way it's seen. Generally it's treated as a telekinetic ability of a level below what the same ESP ability would be."

Miyama nodded "From what I know, the ability to see a snapshot of specific events in the future is a level 3 ability. Either way, my ability isn't Thoughtography. Thoughtography creates a picture anyone can understand. Mine can't be understood unless you run it through a special machine they have at a research facility. Once you do, you can make out a hazy image. Although, it's only ever pictures of tragedies. On top of that, it only predicts things in the near future. But... that much is written in the back, right?"

Joule brought everyone their tea.

"There's more then?" Shirai asked "What we saw today wouldn't have been possible with just a hazy image."

"Umm... what did happen?" Joule asked.

Uiharu looked over and explained quickly "We were using a treasure hunting-style app that showed the times and places of places where people got hurt. Some of them were listed as things that would happen in the future. Using those predictions, Shirai was able to stop someone from getting hurt by a crashing car."

Ah, Joule could see it now. Unless one of the pictures had a clock in it, there'd be no way to tell when it would happen.

"Yeah." Miyama brought things back to Shirai's point "I don't know if it should be called a second stage or something, but if I focus my mind to a higher level, I can make photos with additional information. It's just the time and location but it's much more solid."

Miyama quickly explained how he used that treasure hunting app, a tool made to help Thoughtography espers, to analyse his second-stage photos instead of going to the research lab to get them analysed. Doing that is what made the markers of future events show up to be found.

"I suppose there's no harm in that." Shirai noted "As long as you're getting the information quicker, it shouldn't matter."

The boy gave a soft grunt before he looked up again.

"I have a request of you all. Umm... Ribbon girl, Flower Girl, Hair clip girl and..." He looked at Konori, apparently not having given her an identifier.

They all quickly introduced themselves.

"Shirai, Uiharu, Joule, Konori. Could you keep my second stage a secret?"

"Why do you want us to do that?" Uiharu asked.

The boy turned his eyes to her and explained "If all you had was the bank's description, you wouldn't think much of my ability."

"Ah." Shirai nodded "But if people knew you could tell the time and place, they might want to misuse your ability which would put you in harms way. Is that what you're trying to say?"

Miyama nodded and Joule deeply empathised with him. They all agreed to keep it secret.

"Thanks." He gave a tiny smile before his face went back to looking just slightly sad "But even the secret part of my ability isn't all that useful. I can be anonymous with the app and that's one reason I use it. But there's another: I wanted to find an Esper who can alter the fates of events I predict."

"Someone who can alter fate?" Uiharu repeated, somewhat confused.

There was a slight pause before he explained "Foreseen events are basically etched in stone. Actions taken to change them can only make a small degree of difference. The core of the event will happen no matter what."

"So basically, there's no way of escaping fate? Is that what you mean?" UIharu understood the concept.

Miyama glanced to the side though, towards Shirai.

"Something like that. I don't know if anything as occult as fate is real-"

Joule wondered if she should ask Index about that at some point.

"-But there might be some causative principle at work. Unfortunately Precognition is a poorly understood field. But every prediction has proved to be unavoidable. Until the one you changed today."

His eyes were now looking straight at Shirai.

End of chapter.

And now we start the poker card arc properly. I moved these events from the 27th of september to the 2nd of October. I'll just say that Kuroko and Uiharu didn't find anything on the 27th patrol (Same day as the original tea party between Misaka and Misaki)

So yes, this is just the 27th again but Joule's looking from the other side. This is purely to work around Astral Buddy's interruption.