Pulling the thread

[ACSR: Plot]

Gunvolt, Misaka Mikoto and Mitsuari Ayu were not a trio one would expect to see wandering around Academy City's school garden during school hours. That said, no one smart would get in the way of a level 5 and two other dangerously powerful espers so they were free to investigate relatively freely.

Their destination was the Tokiwadai dorms and the Dorm Supervisor within.

"Something to consider." GV began "While we're not attracting that much attention just walking around, are people likely to have a problem if I head in with you?"

He intended to head in regardless, but if people caused a fuss about a boy entering the girl's dorms, it might signal to whoever was holding Joule that he wasn't giving up the pursuit.

"Don't worry." Mitsuari mumbled as she tapped on a smartphone "No one will remember us being here."

"That's quite the ability." Misaka muttered quietly. She still seemed curious about the relationship between Mitsuari and Shokuhou but GV had specifically forbidden her to bring it up.

"It's what we need for something like this." GV looked to the side, taking note of how people were glancing their way before looking away "They're still seeing us though."

"Yeah, it would be too much trouble to block everyone's perceptions before they noticed us. So they're just prevented from remembering." Mitsuari explained simply "It's clean and it means I don't need to worry about who we may run into around each corner."

They walked in silence for a bit before Misaka thought to ask "Mitsuari-San, GV said you've been out of education, did you previously go to Tokiwadai?"

"Well I am wearing their uniform aren't I?" Mitsuari noted back with a sigh "Yes, though it has been a while. This uniform is getting a little small."

…GV hadn't noticed but then again he didn't look at Mitsuari that kind of way normally.

"Do you think you'll come back one day?" Misaka asked.

Mitsuari shrugged "Maybe when everything else is dealt with. I might be able to have a normal life again."

…There was a sense of empty pain in her voice. As if a normal life were only a thing that hypothetically existed but couldn't be proven.

As they continued down the road, they came upon the dorm. There was a card reader on the gate that led to the front door and Misaka frowned.

"She should be here today, but I stay in the dorms outside the school garden so my card won't get us inside. We could always just…"

She nodded as GV walked up to the pad and waved his hand across it. Blue lightning jumped to the pad and the gate swung open.

"I'm shocked their digital security isn't better." Mitsuari remarked as they headed on through.

Misaka smiled "A system not being designed to resist electromasters doesn't make it bad. There's basically only one type of system I've found that I can't break in this city and my friend makes it."

"Huh." Mitsuari muttered as they headed inside. She looked around, holding her thumb on her phone's touchscreen as she surveyed the room inside. After a moment to process the data, she spoke up "There are four people inside the dorm right now. Two girls who were sick, one who's skipping class and the dorm manager."

"Let's try to avoid the students." GV noted "Best not to leave any sort of trail if we can avoid it. Is there any way to prevent us leaving any trace for object-reading espers?"

"I've been doing that already." Mitsuari nodded "I don't know how well it would stand up to detailed inspections, but it will hide our identities even if the changes are noticed."

They took a winding path through the dorm to avoid any of the students and wound up tracking down the manager on the top floor.

The dorm manager glanced back as they came into view, her eyes widening slightly at seeing the three of them. As she looked from GV to Misaka though, her expression soured into one of annoyance.

"It was something serious then?" She asked, turning around.

Misaka nodded "It was, I'm sorry but can we ask you where you got the letter you gave to me?"

Her eyes flicked to GV and then Mitsuari. The latter of whom tapped something on her phone and gestured in the Dorm supervisor's direction "She won't lie now."

"You are breaking the law right now." The Dorm Supervisor told her with a dark look. Misaka paled slightly but GV just stepped forward "We're solving a kidnapping. And we'll leave no trace of our presence. I think it's justified."

"A kidnapping?" The supervisor suddenly looked worried. "Was the letter some kind of threat?"

She seemed legitimately worried now it was implied that she was involved in something illegal. She told the team what she knew though.

"The letter arrived with my morning mail. It had a note on it that I was to deliver it in the way it was." IE- via Misaka.

GV furrowed his brow "You wouldn't just deliver a random piece of mail without reason. What if it had something dangerous for me or Misaka."

The Dorm housemistress nodded "I had a reason to believe it was safe, thought it did confuse me too."

"What was it?" Misaka asked.

The Housemistress glanced out the window "The sender was an acquaintance of mine, they work for the city government and have helped secure grants for the child error facility I help work at."

Well, that was their next clue then. GV asked for the contact's name and contract information about them and once they'd explained about the contents of the notes, the supervisor handed the information over.

"Just one more thing." She said as the team turned to leave "If you can, leave it to law enforcement. It is meant to be their job, not yours."

Misaka nodded "I intended to ask a branch of Judgement for help on the investigation once school was over."

"Anyway…" Mitsuari held up her phone as if to take a picture of the manager "You won't mention us being here today to anyone, just to be on the safe side?"

She hit the button to take the photo and the manager nodded slowly. GV could recognise the signs of a telepath in action by this point.

The team left the building and began making plans for how to contact the next person up the chain.

End of chapter:

I think I'm going to try alternating back and forth between GV and Joule's perspectives. The trick will be finding something new for Joule to be doing each time attention returns to her.