Destiny and those that change it.

[ACSRT: Childhood Days]

Picking up right where he left off, Miyama continued to explain.

"We don't know much about my ability just yet but it seems to be based on calculations in a three-plus-one dimentional framework. And normally that pathway I predict can't be altered."

Uiharu got what he was getting at first.

"But Shirai's teleportation is based on eleven dimentions."

"Nine-plus-one-plus-one, if we're using that terminology." Shirai corrected before nodding at Miyama again.

Joule shook her head, not quite understanding the second "Plus-One" of Shirai's comment but she continued the question anyway.

"So, do you think it's her access to higher dimentions that lets her defy your ability's... fate?"

Miyama went to get something from his pocket as he answered "Well, it's all just theoretical..." He pulled out... wait, Joule had seen something like that recently.

"What is that?" Shirai asked but it was Joule who answered.

"A penlight, I've seen Yumiya use some."

Miyama nodded before explaining "I like to carry it around for times like these, it makes it easier to concentrate when using my second stage."

...Joule had read something about that in a psychology book but she couldn't remember the details.

"I could have been lying to you," Miyama noted as he turned it on and pointed it at his eye, "But a demonstration will prove I'm telling the truth. So I'm going to use my power to predict something that isn't recorded in the app yet." As he finished speaking, he clicked the penlight back off and Joule felt... something as the boy grunted, his eyes going wide.

His head fell and he held the camera up to his forehead and the world...

Joule felt a distortion. One she'd never seen herself before, one that typically needed Joule to be looking through Lumen's eyes.

The camera clicked and the distortion evened out. Everything was normal again as a picture slid out of the side of the camera.

As the photo took a few seconds to develop, Miyama covered his eyes with his hat.

"...Go ahead and scan that photo with the app." He instructed, his voice sounding weaker than before.

Uiharu did so and there was a pause while it was analysed. Finally...

"Here it is, less than a kilometer, south-south-west of here."

Shirai nodded "Let me tag along to confirm this for myself."

"It looks like it happens in 40 minutes." Uiharu noted and Joule glanced at Miyama as her friend spoke only to see-

"Miyama, you're bleeding!"

The other two looked over quickly, Konori was the first to react though, rushing in from the other part of the office with a medical kit.

"It's not serious." Miyama tried to object "It isn't a problem."

"I'll be the judge of that." Konori spoke as she checked for other injuries "Overuse of abilities can be life threatening in the wrong situation. You haven't even told the scientists researching your ability about your second stage have you? That means you don't know what its safe limit is!"

He remained silent as she worked but when she looked around to suggest bringing him to a hospital, he objected.

"Please don't! I still don't want people to know!"

Uiharu spoke quietly but with a determined tone "Regardless, don't neglect your health."

Shirai nodded "We know a trustworthy doctor. Konori, do you mind bringing him there for a check-up. We'll go to the scene of the accident."

Miyama tried to object again but against the rest of the room, eventually he gave up and Konori began bringing him to Heaven Canceller's hospital.

The other three set off for the site.

"It's in the river." Uiharu reported "Someone will fall in and won't be able to get out."

Shirai nodded, thinking out loud.

"I could jump in after them and teleport out?"

Joule shook her head, coughing from a tickle in her throat before giving her thoughts.

"If they're having trouble swimming, then they'll be thrashing around. trying to get a grip on them without being hit would be hard."

Uiharu nodded and looked to the stores on the side of the street. Seeing one, her eyes lit up and she pointed.

"What about those then?"

What she was pointing at were some flotation rings.

She continued, explaining the idea "We toss those into the river when the person falls to help them stay afloat and then you teleport them out once they're not thrashing?"

Shirai nodded.

"It's not a bad plan."

Five minutes and around four thousand yen later-

"I'll bill judgement."

-They each had a ring.

Each needed to be inflated though. Joule wanted to help but it was making her cough. After a little debate, Uiharu helped inflate her ring as they got to a bridge overlooking the river.

"How long now?" Shirai asked.

Uiharu checked the app.

"About five minutes."

As they sat there, overlooking the flowing water, Joule pondered something.

"So, Miyama said that if someone tries to change these fates normally, it fails. Right?"

"Right." Shirai nodded.

"Then... something feels wrong." Joule looked to the side "Let's say he'd had that vision then got these same rings and threw them in when the person fell in. Wouldn't that still stop the problem?"

Uiharu tilted her head to the side.

"I guess it... would?"

Shirai was quiet for a moment as she looked off the side of the bridge "I wonder if what matters is the moment of the accident instead of the results? The person falling in the river would be the accident and we'd only be providing aid after it had occured."

"That doesn't work though." Joule continued after taking a drink of water from a bottle she'd brought from the Judgement office "The accidents were, as he told us, the tragedies. In this case, wouldn't it be the person drowning?"

Shirai just shrugged at that "We'll see what he says when he's finished his check-up. Ah, there!"

She pointed, a young girl had lost her hat and it was hanging on a tree over the river. Everyone waited patiently until-

"Ah, she's in!"

As Uiharu spoke, Shirai was already moving. Instead of just throwing the rings, she took the time to teleport them next to the girl. Once the girl grabbed on and got a tight grip, she teleported herself in and got the girl out.

They comforted the girl and her friend, both of whom had panicked badly. But now the danger had passed.

"Well." Shirai nodded "Let's check on Miyama."

End of chapter.

And I'm back! Nothing much to say here.