A Question of War

[ACMI: The Thing You Wanted]

By the time Kanzaki showed up, it was already all over.

She'd come hoping to help, but now sat to the side. Of course, she'd thanked everyone for their work here. At least the others now knew she would have been there if they'd failed to use their ace.

She'd come running when she'd heard the danger, but since it had passed without major issue she was now feeling bad about how much she'd worried. She had honestly thought that everyones' lives would have been on the line if she was late.

In a worse situation, GV supposed that might have been true.

Touma also tried to show up later, having also not realised that the battle was open. Amakusa worked as a group to drag him back to the hospital while minimising pain. Misaka turned out to have been standing in the small park that led to the area they'd battled Acqua in. She'd been trying to stop Touma going in since he was injured but... and that was when she shut up and refused to tell the rest of the story.

She walked back with the rest of them and they found Index still in the hospital room. It looked like she'd cried herself to sleep.

Now that there was no need to hide Touma in this random hospital, GV sent a message to Heaven Canceller. It was basically just a note that Touma had gotten himself hurt again and that they'd probably bring him to his hospital. While some Amakusa members ran off to get transport, GV changed back into his normal clothes.

One stolen ambulance later (apparently that was just a normal thing the Amakusa were willing to do) and they were off back to the surface.

The children, that being GV, Index and Misaka rode in the ambulance. At their destination they found a sleepy Shirai who'd gone home at some point. She just came to pick up Misaka. GV knew he should be heading home too, but before he went away he found Kanzaki to talk with.

She'd been filled in by her old friends so she was probably the best one to ask about this.

"Why did this all happen?"

Not just "Why did Acqua attack?" That question had been answered as he overheard talk between members of the chuch. It boiled down to "Touma scares the Church."

But no, the question was "Why did [this] all happen?" The entire event. Starting from the begining that was a few points.

"From what I've heard from various contacts in Necessarius, it seems Acqua is a member of the Right Seat of God to turn their focus away from England. Whenever they're looking at Academy City, he's not looking at Acqua's home."

GV sighed "So Touma was just an excuse?"

"Not entirely." The saintess frowned "I actually expect Acqua believed that Touma's right arm was the cause of coming conflict. War is coming, and it's coming because of Imagine Breaker."

"Not because of Academy City?"

Kanzaki shrugged at that question "Oh of course Academy City is part of the cause, it's the side everyone else is scared of. But without Touma... well. We can suggest 'what if' scenarios until the sun comes up but it doesn't help."

The saintess stood and nodded to GV.

"Off with you now, you're young and should get as much sleep as you can. Isn't it a school day tomorrow?"

Technically it was a Sunday tomorrow though as midnight had passed. It was a Saturday today, but that was a school day in academy city. She was right, mostly.

GV nodded and turned away. Before he started walking though, Kanzaki spoke once more.

"Thank you. If not for you, they could have been hurt more."

GV nodded, not turning.

"I think now I've returned the favour to him at least."

He headed home. The lights were off inside and Joule had left a covered plate of food and a note.

"You probably wouldn't want me to stay up any longer while healing so I've turned in. You better apologise for keeping me waiting in the morning."

GV smiled, uncovering the food and eating. He then washed up and before heading to bed, checked in on Joule.

She was in bed, snoring lightly. He shook his head with a smile and went to his bed on the other side of their small shared room.

This had been a long night, and he was glad it was over.

End of chapter.

Not quite 1k words but at least it had some extra stuff thrown in. We'll not be seeing most of the rest of the wrap up as now we need to focus on the arc that I accidentally skipped because I lost track of which meta-arc was which; We need to conclude the indian poker card arc.