Victory Celebration.

[ACSRS: The Usual 5 People]

As people cleared away in defeat, some people who apparently worked at the prison (but had apparently not been required to come in for the test, apparently for safety reasons) approached.

"We'll take Miss Iizuka for now that the test is over, she has a change of clothes back inside."

Iizuka, the fake prisoner sighed "Actually, could I stay outside a bit. My legs are numb after everything that happened."

The guard frowned "Are you sure, in your prisoner disguise?"

"Sure, pulling my normal trousers back on would be a nightmare right now."

The guards just shrugged to each other and looked to Misaka's group "There'll be a press conference shortly out in front of the prison, you'll all want to head there to get your award."

Misaka smirked "Thanks."

As the guards walked away, their sighs could clearly be overheard.

"That was meant to be impossible, the boss is probably throwing a fit."

Joule was no longer watching through any monocles, and it seemed that Misaki was done too.

"How did your friends do?" Joule asked as Misaki stood up "They did alright, they got the chance to get out and do something for a change which I bet they enjoyed, but I've now got some work to do too."

"Shall we come?" Joule asked, the awards ceremony's live presentation on her computer tablet.

"Hmm." Misaki glanced away and placed her finger on her chin "No, you should probably go and congratulate your friends. Don't worry about me."

She spun with slow deliberate steps (likely to avoid tripping) and headed off, Hokaze and Yuuri (Who'd also been part of the watch party) left, each giving waves to GV and Joule as they stood up to leave too.

The festivities would be going on for quite some time so there was plenty of time to reach them.

Joule still felt uncomfortable about the fake prisoner though. There was something off about them. She hadn't any real basis for the worry though, she hadn't been anywhere near her to read her mind or anything like that.

All she had was a gut instinct she was trying to rationalise.

It was still around ten or eleven in the morning, so there should even be some time before Uiharu and Shirai needed to leave to work today.

She found her friends chatting while walking through stalls.

As Joule waved, they called her over.

"We did it!" Saten whooped "And you helped of course, how much of a cut of the prize money do you want."

"Ah?" Joule blinked "Umm… I wasn't really thinking about that. But… you've gotten the prize money already?"

"Yeah." Misaka nodded, holding up a small letter which looked like it had something bulky inside "Here, it was arranged to be a cash card which would make it easier to split up. We just need to go to a bank."

Uiharu scratched her head "I still don't know about the divisions you all suggested."

"Oh come on, we wouldn't have done nearly so well without you." Saten announced while putting an arm around Uiharu's shoulder "You were the real MVP, you deserve to have more than the rest of us."

The ratios suggested so far was that Uiharu would get half of it, and the other half would be divided between everyone else, with small amounts now set aside for Joule, GV and maybe Shokuhou for helping supply them with the equipment that kept them in communication."

"What are you going to use all your money for Uiharu?" Saten asked.

Uiharu thought for a moment "Some new electronics after my old ones were broken, after that though… I'm probably just going to donate the rest."

"Eh? Isn't that a waste?" Saten asked "You should keep the rest in an account in case you have more trouble in the future!"

Uiharu tilted her head "But, well, I'll obviously use it to pay taxes too."

"That's not the problem." Saten looked shellshocked "You… you do understand the value of money right? Half a billion is nothing to scoff at. Don't just throw it all away."

"You make charity sound like a bad thing." Uiharu noted with a note of confusion "Besides, I didn't win with my power alone after all. There were other people, beyond just our group, that were invaluable to succeed. Like the people in that robotics club."

She scratched her cheek "And I'm a bit afraid of having that much money in my possession."

Shirai nodded "That's a good attitude, donation to good causes would work well if you don't want to hold onto it."

There was a not from Misaka but she also asked "Just so you don't regret this later, what's the plan if you hit some snag that you could have fixed with that money later?"

Uiharu smiled, "I could always hack an online bank to get as much as I wanted."

…Joule and the others were all silent for a moment, Saten and Shirai stepped away from Uiharu, Shirai even pulling out a set of handcuffs.

"Umm…" Uiharu looked between them "Are you all okay? It was just a joke."

Misaka blinked "Ah, was it? You just said it with such a straight face."

Shirai put the handcuffs away and just tapped Uiharu on the shoulder "Maybe we should just get to work a little early today-"

"Wait no," Uiharu panicked for a moment "I need to get a new computer first!"

Shirai sighed and looked to Misaka "Sis, can I have the winnings. Uiharu and I will grab her a computer and then head to our office."

Misaka tossed her the envelope and the moment Shirai had caught it, she, the envelope and Uiharu vanished.

"Well then." Saten mentioned after a moment of silence "Let's have a look around and see if this little event has any good merch!"

Joule raised her hand at Saten's cheer "Um, do you all have money on you?"

"Nope." Saten admitted quickly.

Misaka sighed, pulling out her ID "Level 5 budget, pay me back later."

As they walked away, GV decided to leave them alone. He had seen something odd in the crowd as the group had been talking that he wanted to investigate. A man in a mask pulling a little girl aside.

He was just going to take a look. As he left, he heard a snatch of the conversion Joule was having.

"How much money do you actually have Misaka."

Misaka took a moment to reply "Ah, the level 5 Budget… I think it's a few million yen a month?"

"What." Saten's reply was deadpan, "I only get about thirty thousand yen a month."

"So this is academy city's wage gap." Joule mentioned, wisely not mentioning the fact that as she and GV were level 4s on the verge of level 5s, they got a massive stipend together. Still less than Misaka's though.

End of chapter

Ah? I think I forgot to upload last week's chapter. Oops. I better upload that one and this one at the same time. That's annoying though.