Flames and blossoms.

[ACSRT: Childhood Days]

Miyama was still unconscious when they got there. Heaven Canceller gave them all a brief overview of what was wrong. It was basically the same as before though. His power had used up enough of his blood cells that air was struggling to get to the brain. He was recovering now and the doctor said there wouldn't be any long term effects.

So all of them just sat in the lobby as the sky outside turned orange.

Joule felt... off.

There was a feeling. She couldn't be sure without forming a telepathic link with her, which she wasn't going to do, but Misaka was probably still worrying more about her than Miyama.

Could she... did she have a way to talk Misaka into leaving the matter alone? Not using her power, obviously. But just normal talking?

What words would she use?

She'd have to convince Misaka that the problem had passed, that she was perfectly safe. The latter was surely the truth anyway. All she had to do was make sure that she believed the former too.

"If you try it, I will tell her." Lumen warned, the quiet whisper coming from where the butterfly clip was sitting, holding her hair in place.

Why was Lumen being so unreasonable? This wasn't anything serious. Nothing serious lasts more than a day or two in this city. All the villains that could do something lack patience.

"That reasoning is awful." Lumen complained "The level upper incident took longer than a week and STUDY had been working for ages before we encounted Febrie. Maybe you're just at the start of a problem that we could cut off if you got it checked now rather than later?"

Or you could not assume everything was a conspiracy. There was no major problem going on. Well, there was the fire... or whatever the thing at the park would be. Then there were also the indian poker cards. Neither of those things were related to her in any way though.

"Saten." Joule asked, trying to prove a point "Have thre been any new rumours recently."

Her friend blinked and looked at her phone. She moved through a few pages to get to her rumour board.

"Uhh, More about the Poker cards? There are rumours about really bad cards, those probably come from that thing from before..."

By which she meant the cards that had created to spread the rumour of the "Ghost girl" back when they were dealing with Yuuri Senya.

"There are some about what happened at the end of the month, most people have no idea what was happening when everyone fell unconcious."

Magic was quite strange.

"Anything else?"

Saten flicked through a few more rumours before pausing.

"Huh."

"Huh?"

"Apparently, there is, and I quote 'something going on' with the dark side of academy city."

...

Misaka looked over and pointed out "That is the vaguest rumour I think you've ever told us."

"Probably." Saten agreed.

As Joule looked back, she heard the elevator ding on the other side of the waiting area. On impulse, she glanced over at it.

"Miyama?"

It was him, he looked frail and shaky but he stopped when she said his name.

"Miss Joule?"

Everyone looked over them. Joule stood up to help him.

[ACSRS: So, I Decided]

"Why are you out of bed, what's wrong?"

He shook his head.

"There's something else, something I didn't tell them. I didn't think they'd help."

Joule tried to help him sit but he shook his head "I have to go, I need to go!"

Misaka walked over, her face serious.

"Tell us, let us do this for you. What didn't you tell them?"

Miyama hesitated and Joule bent down to look him in the eyes.

"Please, tell us."

A familiar sensation passed over Joule and Miyama blinked and nodded.

"Okay."

Joule sighed. it was good that he would tell them at least.

"There's a stray dog in the park today. He was the first prediction that I gave for the park and I'm worried. He's my friend but Judgement probably wouldn't focus on helping him because he's a stray. So I need to go help him."

There was a pause. Misaka sighed and Saten gave a smile.

"Did you really think they wouldn't help a stray dog?"

He looked up in surprise.

Misaka paused as she got out her phone.

"Actually, can one of you call Uiharu. Kuroko is likely in the thick of whatever's going on already."

Saten nodded and began dialing while Miyama looked around with a little surprise.

"You think they would? I thought they'd have to be focused on getting the people out."

Misaka smiled "If I know my friends, they would have been working hard to make sure they know how to evacuate everyone as soon as possible. There will be time to save them and your friend."

Miyama's head fell, tension still filled him but it seems he knew he had been childish.

"Hey Uiharu, sorry for interupting but we've got news from Miyama." Saten was talking on the phone quietly "Mmm, yes, yes he did... he said that the first warning he saw was of a stray dog who he's friends with. He's worried you wouldn't have tried to help him. Yeah. Yep. Cool, I'll ask him."

Saten lowered the phone from her ear and smiled at Miyama "Don't worry, they're on the case, they just need to know what the dog looks like." Then she passed him the phone and he began talking into it, describing his friend.

Joule smiled. It seemed this would all turn out well in the end.

She itched her face as she looked around. Her eyes felt slightly itchy. Had she been awake that long already? It wasn't really that late, was it?

End of chapter.

This small chapter of the poker cards arc ends next time.

In other news, if this was animated, when Joule asked Miyama to tell them what the problem was, you'd be looking at the back of Joule's head and Miyama's face so you could see his nod.

This is for no specific reason at all, just a fun fact. Right?