Awakening in sorrow


[ACSRT: Dream Ranker]

Joule woke up the next morning, she looked sleepily out of the window to the side of her bed and sighed.

She felt "It" now, whatever it was that had made her its host. It was a weight when swallowing, a numb feeling, and a strange fuzziness in her eys when she looked at herself in a mirror to the other side of her bed.

On the other hand, she wasn't really feeling that bad anymore. She wasn't parched (But she did make sure to drink some water from a cup beside her bed) and her powers felt... more normal.

But Lumen still didn't appear. When Joule called to her normally constant companion, Lumen didn't respond at all.

Joule felt cold. She didn't know what to do.

Lumen... when they had first moved to GV's old house in their homeworld, Lumen had constantly embarrassed her. She'd admitted secrets to GV that Joule had wanted to hide. Over time though, she became more like a big sister, watching out for Joule. She did the things that Joule wanted to do herself, like help GV on his missions.

Even now here, in this world, Lumen has constantly been cheerful, a familiar light. Now that she had more people to interact with comfortably, Lumen had become her closest ally.

And now... she could be gone forever.

Joule didn't bother to stop the tears as they started to feel. It felt like a piece of her had been ripped free, and depending on your interpretation that was exactly what had happened.

Where had Lumen gone? The scientific part of Joule's mind said that she had simply ceased to exist, but Joule wouldn't allow that, couldn't allow that.

Did Lumen have her own soul?

Elise had been able to revive pieces of her own mind or soul, so were fragments of an Adept's souls their own entities? Had Lumen gone... on?

She wanted to believe she was wrong about all of this, that Lumen was still somehow okay but...

"Please..." Joule prayed "Be okay..."

It wasn't likely.


[ACSRT: Little by little]

When someone came to check on her, she had a checkup with the frog-faced doctor again, using the same machine they had last time.

The "Tumour" had changed. It now looked something like a bat that had grabbed onto her neck with its wings. Even so, when Joule admitted her throat didn't even really hurt anymore, Heaven Canceller worried all the more, though he put on a brave face for her, she could tell.

But she wasn't showing any obvious symptoms (Other than the already noted loss of her companion) so she left with GV when he arrived after school. She was however given instructions to return the moment something looked wrong.

Her phone got a text from her friends that they were meeting up to have tea and to ask if she was well enough to come. She sent that she was and they prepared to leave.

"Hmm?" She looked around as they stood in the park area to the side of the hospital "Are there less of Misaka's sisters around today."

GV shrugged "I can't really tell, they always seem to blend into the background a little here."

"I'm still here, reports Misaka 10032."

They both jump as they saw the sister sitting on a bench.

Joule blinked a few times and asked "Was I right then? Are some of the sisters missing today."

"You are, Misaka notes, some of my sisters are on an away mission today." The sister reports.

"Will they be okay?" GV raised an eyebrow "I don't think your big sister will like it if you all get yourselves hurt."

"There isn't any need to worry. We have agreed not to tell her, Misaka notes explaining their genius plan."

...That didn't seem to be the best option but the two adepts decided to leave it aside. The sister just continued to fill the silence.

"Misaka apologies, the attempt at humour fell flat it seemed. But rest assured that those that went did so of their own will. Not because anyone ordered them to."

She had been joking? the lack of facial expressions made that hard to tell.

Well, Joule would leave it alone then "Stay safe, all of you."

"Of course."

The two headed off, GV was spending today as her guard and... in all honesty he was here to check for medical problems.

She made it to the cafe they had told her about last, and was surprised to also see Misaki and Hokaze there.

Since everyone had met everyone else before, it was actually relatively friendly.

Misaka and Misaki were even sitting at the same table, granted they weren't talking to each other but they didn't seem to be angry either.

Their silence was broken seeing Joule arrived. Misaka was extatic to see her and Misaki cracked a smile that said she had been worried too. She did seem to read something off Joule though that soured her expression slightly.

"Your hair isn't symmetrical." She noted, one eye closed.

Joule froze, she'd put her hairclips on like she always did, puting a butterfly clip on one side so Lumen could take the other slot.

Most people would fail to notice. Uiharu and Saten couldn't see Lumen unless she was making an effort after all. But a level 5.

Misaka realised too, a moment after Misaki had said it.

Joule nodded and took a breath before forcing a smile "Never mind that for now, Let's worry about it after the problem is sorted."

There was a chance, a fraction of a fraction of a chance, that Lumen was okay, and just too weak to respond at all. Joule had chosen to grab hold of that hope.


In a hospital room back at Heaven Canceller's hospital, a girl woke up from a strange dream.

Kuriba had dreamed of her Doppelganger talking to her, but that shouldn't be possible. Not unless it was words made up by her guilty mind.

But she had spoken to her, a proper conversation.

It hadn't felt like she was talking to herself, yet her Doppelganger's mind hadn't been included in the opperation.

It was almost like...


"A soul isn't anything like that!" Index was complaining to Touma, who was trying to ignore her.

"Besides," Index changed the topic "I think I might have gotten it wrong earlier."

"Hmm?" Touma looked over, Index accepting something was her fault was reason enough to pay attention.

"I told them the robot would be left empty, I think now it might be more fair to see it was nearly empty, like how even after a cup is empty, the walls of the cup are still wet."

"And that means what exactly?" Touma asked with a sigh.

"The robot was likely very lightly haunted!" Index declared with a finger raised "Only, not nearly enough to actually do anything. Just enough to carry some residual thoughts and memories... completly useless unless they're somehow made whole with their doner again."

Touma just sighed. He wasn't even really involved in this one, why did Index need to talk to him about this instead of going to one of her other friends?


End of chapter.

I was originally going to have a Kuriba, Index, Joule and Misaka discussion about why the Doppelganger's soul had stayed with her but... eh. Not massively important.