The click-clock of the childish Gekota alarm clock that Misaka Mikoto had bought at some silly rummage sale would have annoyed Kuroko in her current emotional state, as she sat on the edge of her bed, but something else eclipsed that feeling with little effort; concern and worry for her Onee-sama. Misaka Mikoto slept across the room from her, but she hardly rested peacefully. The pain and anxiety on her face made Kuroko wince in sorrow, torn on what to do.
Misaka tossed and turned, her expression constantly shifting and tightening, her body twisting as if she was in some unimaginable agony. Kuroko stood and began to pace back and forth, before reaching over to shake her sleeping partner, only to be repaid with a numbing jolt of electricity that bounced through the room and fried the Gekota alarm clock. Kuroko whimpered a little as she looked at her Onee-sama, who was still asleep, tossing and turning, her attempting to calm her only rewarded by the silencing of the clock.
Kuroko hopped a little on her feet as she tried to get the feeling back in her limbs after peeling herself off of the floor, which took several minutes of involuntary muscle convulsions. Misaka shocked her a lot, yes, and maybe, just maybe, she deserved it sometimes, but that was one of the most painful she'd ever endured.
"Ow ow ow…" She whimpered out quietly, biting back tears of pain, her voice a shudder of her emotional restraint to fight off crying from the pain. "Onee-sama… why…" She whined quietly, shaking her hands a bit to get some more of the numbness out.
And through it all, Misaka's expression consistently worsened in anxiety and distress, not stirring for a moment from her slumber. Kuroko could only wonder in worry at what kind of nightmare might torment her to be that defensive in her sleep…
In the troubled Railgun's dreams, or rather, her intensely vivid nightmares, Mikoto endured the torment of death. Over and over again. Always changing, always painful and terrifying. Shot to death, ripped apart, crushed, thrown, and so on and so forth. And while she felt every death, she was cursed to be some kind of bizarre observer, watching herself die over and over. She hugged herself as she tried to block it out, storms of electricity jolting out around her defensively as if trying to shield their creator from the horrific pain and trauma that she was repeatedly subjected to. A cry of pain echoed out through her dreams, separate from her own screams of agony- a scream she recognized. She spun around, and was treated to the sight of Kuroko lying on the ground in the black floating void with her.
Kuroko looked up at Mikoto from the ground, her face burned with electrical discharge, whimpering up at her. "Onee-sama…. why…" She whimpered out in pain, coughing up blood as she slid to the ground. Mikoto rushed to her best friend, shaking her viciously. "Kuroko? Kuroko! KUROKO!" She shouted her name, over and over again. Once again, she felt like time was on a repeat, where she could watch one of the most important people in her life die a death caused by her. Tears streaked down her face as she put her hands to her ears to muffle her own echoing shouts of Kuroko's name that resonated through the void.
She inhaled sharply as she gasped for air, before letting out a scream.
Kuroko braced herself as she reached for her roommate once more, preparing for the shock, but needing to wake her up with the expression on her face contorting from anxiety to terror- fruitlessly, as Mikoto's eyes burst open, letting out an electrical charge through the air that Kuroko managed just barely to teleport out of the way into the corner of the room, Mikoto letting out a blood curdling scream as she woke covered in sweat.
There was a pained silence in the room as Mikoto sat in bed, the only sound being her hard panting as she tried to refocus on where she was. Kuroko only hesitated for a moment, before rushing over to her. "Onee-sama!" She grabbed on to Mikoto, who spun around quickly, her face a sweaty mess with tears on her face. Kuroko didn't even get a word out before Mikoto grabbed her face rather suddenly, staring into it with a panicked intensity that made Kuroko blush. This was held for but a moment before Kuroko overheard the sounds of people in the hallway talking, which caused her to spin around toward the door as a heavy knock was heard. Kuroko didn't even get a chance to run over and answer it before it was slammed open, the Dorm Mistress standing there with a mixture of anger and intensity. Her eyes scanned the room, seeing Kuroko half-way to the door, and Mikoto sitting in her bed. She quickly covered her face to conceal her tears.
To Kuroko's credit, she didn't miss a beat, intercepting the Dorm Mistress an situation.
"Terribly sorry, Dorm Mistress! Just some bad food from earlier today, I think." Kuroko said, lying through her teeth. The skeptical look on the Dorm Mistress face said quite a bit about how much she was believed.
"Shirai, step aside." Was all she said, brushing Kuroko aside and striding toward Mikoto, who had taken the time to wipe her face quickly.
"A-Apologies, it's like Kuroko said, I think something I ate… disagreed with me." Mikoto quickly joined in on the rather absurd lie. The Head Mistress gaze was leveled on her, accusingly, doubting her words.
"...Do inform me if you need immediate medical aid. See the doctor tomorrow." She said in a tone that commanded, and did not request. Mikoto only nodded quietly, not wanting to push her luck with this small amount of mercy she was being given.
The Dorm Mistress filed out of the room, Kuroko closing the door behind her with a bow. On the other side of the door, she could be heard herding the other girls back to their rooms. Kuroko let out a sigh as she rested her forehead against the door for a moment, before looking over at Mikoto who had returned to resting her face in her hands.
"Onee-sama…" Kuroko said quietly, before approaching the bed. Mikoto looked up at her after washing her face clean, and her eyes fell on the burns on her roommates pajamas, along with some redness from the electric shock and slight twitching that Kuroko was still trying to control.
"I hurt you." She said quietly, as she saw the wounds her unconscious electric defenses had inflicted. Kuroko blinked and looked at what Mikoto saw, before giving her roommate a smile and waving it off.
"Oh this? It's fine, it's fine!" She said with a smile, hopping over to Mikoto's bed. Mikoto seemed unconvinced, but Kuroko simply waved it off some more.
"Don't worry about it, just a little shock when I tried to wake you up, you looked so distressed in your sleep! But, if it makes you feel better, you could always give me a kiss in return!" She said, leaning over as if to kiss Mikoto who pushed her head away gently.
"Well… clearly you're fine." She said with a weak smile, somewhat cheered up by Kuroko's antics. "You should get to sleep." She said to Kuroko who gave her a smile and a gentle nod.
"As you wish, Onee-sama." She said, walking over to the bed and laying back down, though in her heart, filled with concern.
As both laid back down, neither slept another wink that night.
The next day, Mikoto had done as told, and reported to the hospital to check in with a doctor. She was fortunate enough to get the Gekota-faced doctor she'd met during the Level Upper incident, which helped cheer her up a little. Kuroko, in the meantime, had chosen to come along, and no amount of objection from Mikoto seemed able to dissuade her. Now she sat in the lobby, patiently awaiting the return of Mikoto.
"Misaka-san." The doctor spoke up, breaking her out of her thoughts, realizing she'd drifted away from the conversation.
"Sorry, you were saying that… uh…" The doctor patiently sighed before he restarted his sentence.
"I was asking you if you'd had any similar nightmares recently, and if you had eaten anything out of the ordinary, or had experienced any other notable change in your lifestyle." He asked with all the patience of a saint.
Mikoto took a moment to think, listing off the things she'd eaten recently, the things she'd recently done, but none of it was out of the ordinary. Despite this… this was the fourth night in a row that she'd had this reoccuring nightmare, though the inclusion of Kuroko was a first. Through her explanation, the doctor listened and took notes of what she said, nodding a bit.
"For now, I believe it is best to keep an eye on things, and to carefully monitor anything different that may crop up during your daily routine. We won't just sit here and do nothing, of course. We'll take some blood samples and see if anything can be found there before taking any more significant measures to address this problem." He explained to her, Mikoto silently nodding. After taking several vials of her blood and given the instructions to take it easy, she departed out of the office and met back up with Kuroko who was patiently sitting in the waiting room for her.
Kuroko hopped up and restrained herself from leaping on Mikoto, giving her a smile instead.
"What did the Doctor say?" She asked, looking Mikoto over in concern. Mikoto meanwhile looked kind of… wobbly. She just gave Kuroko a smile.
"Just need to keep an eye on what I eat and run some blood tests. Let's go get something to eat on the way home." She smiled, quickly moving to exit the hospital before Kuroko could make any concerned objections.
They stopped at a ramen shop on the way home, taking a seat as Mikoto balanced herself, very much noticing the concerned looks Kuroko was giving her, and how close she was, like she was afraid Mikoto might topple over. Once they'd gotten seated, they both grabbed a menu, while Mikoto stared at it, not reading, but her mind simply wandering once again as she thought of those dreams that rattled through her head. Kuroko ordered her food, and gave Mikoto a light touch on the shoulder to knock her out of her thoughts.
"O-oh, sorry. I'll have, uh, same thing Kuroko ordered." She said absently to the cook. The young man smiled at her, his fox-like facial features a little off-putting. She remembered some student she'd run into once who looked like that.
"Coming right up." He said politely before turning and starting their food. Mikoto looked to Kuroko, who was eyeing her intensely, scowling at her. Before Mikoto could even get a word in, Kuroko cut her off.
"You know, you can ask me for help any time, Onee-sama." She said, her expression softening a bit. Mikoto winced a little at the comment, biting her lip.
"It's just some bad dreams, Kuroko. Don't worry, I'll let you know if it gets any worse, or if you can help in anyway." Mikoto gave her roommate and best friend a smile to help mollify her. Kuroko returned the smile, puffing herself up proudly.
"See that you do, Onee-sama! Shirai Kuroko will always be here for you!" She says with a big proud grin, which made Mikoto laugh a little, her roommates antics, tame as they were today, cheering her up a bit. Their food was delivered by the fox-faced chef who went back to serving other customers, while the two girls happily ingested their food before packing up and heading back to their dorm so Mikoto could rest and replenish her blood supply.
Kuroko had settled in to do some homework, watching as Mikoto laid down, sighing a little, looking pale from her experience. She periodically would glance over her shoulder, walking over and asking her roommate if there was anything she needed, and generally fussing over until Mikoto had to threaten her with bodily electrified harm to get her to simply rest, which Kuroko relented to after just a tiny shock.
Now, Kuroko had burned through her homework and simply watched Mikoto sleep, somewhat protectively, hoping no nightmares would bother her this day. Her hope was not to be fulfilled. Within a couple hours of drifting off, just as Kuroko made her way out of the shower, it was clear that Mikoto was already suffering from nightmares, even worse than before as she tossed and turned in her sleep.
Having prepared for this, Kuroko dove under her bed and grabbed some rubber gloves, jumping as she heard a rather intense thunder boomed overheard, causing her to smack her head on the underside of her bed. She grabbed the gloves and slid out from underneath, rubbing her head and teleporting to the window, looking up with wide eyes as a thunderstorm seemed to have conjured itself seemingly out of nowhere. But she knew better.
Kuroko dashed over to her Onee-sama, with a not unsound fear that her night terrors were about to wipe Tokiwadai off the map.
