AN: Hello readers! I've returned after another extended break with Chapter 50, which has literally been sitting in my docs since back in May when it was supposed to come out...
Sorry for dipping in and out of existence for this past year. Currently in my last year in college, though it's mostly been due to me hitting massive walls with my writing. I think I have a remedy that may help with it that I'm going to begin this month to see how it works:
I'm basically going to take one month to write chapters for either CSG or COF (my Black Clover fic), release them the month after, and then continue the pattern with the other. My MHA fic and CSG side story will be written on the side and will come out randomly throughout those months as well. This will hopefully allow my uploads to be a little bit more constant, where I'll have around 2-3 months between uploads, though hopefully upload 5-6 chapters for the month before I go on break with the series.
After this chapter, I did get chapters 51-54 roughly drafted out, though my goal is to hopefully get to or close to the end of the Poltergeist arc (which should be around Chapter 56-58) by mid November. Been keeping an eye on how much of an episode I'm able to fit inside a chapter, and it seems I'm able to get around half (more or less) of an episode into a chapter on average.
The hope is that the Sisters' Arc will start sometime in January or February of 2023. It just depends on how long I'll take to write for COF.
So that's my plan currently. There's something else I want to note, though I'll probably add it at the end since this AN is running long:)
Now without further adieu, I'll release you all to read this chapter. I hope you enjoy it!
As always, please leave a review on anything you liked, think I should work on, or just any questions in general! I enjoy reading them and I will answer them at the end of the next chapter:)
TLDR of AN: Took another extended hiatus due to writer's block. Apologies. I have a new process for chapter uploads starting this month. Goal is to get through to the end of Poltergeist by mid-November:)
Disclaimer: I do not own A Certain Scientific Railgun/Magical Index or any of its characters...the only things I own are:
1. My characters and
2. my ideas
Chapter 50: Poltergeists? Uiharu's New Roommate
About a year ago…
Misaka rushed inside of District 7 hospital, clutching a bag at her side.
Earlier, she had been called to the office in the middle of 4th period. They didn't really give her any specific details, but there was an emergency at the hospital involving Asher in some way. She barely kept herself composed enough to get her stuff before she took off, holding her bag tightly at her side that had chocolates she was going to give Asher after school.
She knew the girl hadn't been doing well these last few weeks. Various scenarios went through her head as to what had happened that she didn't stop running even when she made it to the front doors of the hospital. She sprinted passed the desk, down the hall, and up the staircase to the 2nd floor.
She hesitated a bit once she made it into the hallway, her eyes wide at the group of nurses and other medical personnel scattered in front of her friend's room. She jogged forward, stopping once she was right in front of Asher's doctor, her eyes frantic.
"Wh-What happened? Where is she!?" Misaka asked through rushed breaths. "Is she okay!?"
Heaven Canceller raised his hands and placed them on the Electromaster's shoulders, attempting to stop her before she rushed into the room blindly. "Woah, woah, easy." He said as calmly as he could. "Everything is okay. Take a moment to calm down."
Misaka hesitated though did as she was asked, taking in a few deep breaths. She looked up worriedly into his onyx eyes "What happened?" She repeated in a calmer tone. "She didn't have a bad reaction to that medicine you've been giving her again, did she?"
"No, no. it isn't that. Her body has been taking the medicine okay." He said with a smile, it falling slightly a moment after. "You already know that she hasn't been sleeping well these past few weeks. By my estimation, this is the 5th or so straight day she hasn't really slept more than an hour or two. Her mental state is starting to deteriorate because of it. She's paranoid her stepfather is going to come take her any minute. She complains of seeing things that aren't there or hearing her mother. And that's just on the surface. I decided it was best to sedate her to prevent it from getting any worse. Before we could, though, she freaked out and her control over her ability slipped just a bit and broke some of the medical equipment. She forced the nurses to leave and have kept anyone from entering since."
Misaka's eyes fell slightly. "I knew she was going to crack at some point. I had hoped I would be there when she did though."
"I know…I'm hoping she'll calm down a little if she sees a familiar face. Just be aware that she has gotten a little bit more unstable emotionally since the last time you saw her. Even the smallest of things may set her off."
Misaka nodded. She walked over to the door and prepared to go inside. She let in another deep breath and put her hand on the handle. It seemed to automatically lock in place.
"Zierdan it's me." She said gently. "Please let me in. I just want to see that you're okay."
It took a couple moments before Misaka didn't feel any resistance on the door. She walked inside and immediately paused from seeing multiple pieces of medical equipment either completely destroyed or damaged scattered on the floor. She looked around to find her friend within the dark room and closed the door behind her, going over to Asher who was huddled in the corner.
Asher didn't seem to notice she was there. Her eyes were focused on the floor and her hands squeezed the back of her neck as she rocked herself back and forth.
"I c-can't go b-back. I can't. Pl-Please don't make m-me go back there….pl-please…." She kept mumbling. It almost seemed like she huddled in on herself further the closer the Electromaster got to her.
Misaka's heart broke. She heard the fear and overwhelming amount of exhaustion layered in her voice. Her entire form was shaking, and her skin was so pale even in the darkness of the room, paler than Misaka had ever seen her before. She got closer, though not too close. She didn't want to accidentally freak her out even more.
She sat down on the ground and raised a gentle hand to her shoulder, feeling her trembling stall instantly. "Z…" She said softly, forcing a smile on her face when tired, bloodshot blue eyes turned to look at her.
"M-MK?" Asher stuttered in surprise.
Before Misaka could even respond, Asher basically jumped on her. Misaka was too shocked to react at first, feeling Asher's arm encircle her, tightly. She slowly returned the gesture and looked over at Asher, worried. Even with her and Yomikawa at times, Asher had rarely allowed anyone to be close enough to hug her like this nowadays. Or went so far as to do the action herself.
"Y-You're here early. Isn't today a school day?" Asher asked.
"Yeah," Misaka responded lightly. "I decided to leave a little early to surprise you. I also brought some new chocolates from that place you like by the dorm to try with you."
Asher flinched a little in her grasp. She knew part of that was a lie. Misaka made it too easy for her to pick it apart, so she knew she did it on purpose. She tried to ignore it, though, wanting to go along with it for now.
"That's gr-great." Asher replied as they parted from each other. She sent her a small smile. "Your visits always seem to make my day, Mikoto."
Misaka didn't allow her smile to fall when she felt her heart clench yet again.
'How is it even possible for someone to look thinner than they were just a few days ago?' she thought.
When she had held her, it honestly felt like she was holding onto nothing from how much weight Asher had lost in the past 2 months alone. Sleeping troubles had ruined her eating habits due to how much stress she was constantly under. It was a miracle to get her to snack on something, let alone convince her to eat a full course meal at times.
And, secondly, Asher was too quick to accept her statement as the truth. She must have known why she was here, but oddly didn't try to say anything directly about it like she normally did.
"I'm glad." Misaka responded, her eyes falling slightly. "Are you okay? Your Doctor told me you were having some trouble sleeping again."
"Really? He tends to exaggerate the details. I've slept, probably just not long enough for him to be satisfied." Asher casually stated as she raised a hand up to her neck. "I'm fine. There's nothing you need to worry about."
"Zierdan…" Misaka couldn't stop anger from escaping into her voice. Some part of her felt guilty but her patience was already wearing thin. Asher's blatant attempts at downplaying how bad situations were when it came to her well-being had always bugged her to no end.
"Where's that chocolate you were t-talking about?" Asher asked as she rose to her feet, using the wall as support. "It'll be interesting to have something other than this hospital food 24/7."
"Zierdan!" Misaka shouted. She grabbed Asher's hand before she walked away. "Stop pretending everything is okay when it isn't!" Her face softened a bit. "Not when you were literally sitting here in a fetal position just a minute ago. Even if I didn't know what happened earlier, I would've still noticed that there's something wrong."
Silence filled the dark room until Asher let out a deep sigh and gradually fell back to her knees. "You're o-one to talk." She mumbled tiredly, the earlier cheerfulness sapped in mere moments. "You pretended first, so it was only logical for me to as well."
Misaka let go of Asher's hand, seeing the teen slump further into the wall. She crawled over and crouched right beside her. "Come on, talk to me." She pressed when Asher didn't say anything else. "I want to help, but I can't if you don't tell me what's going on."
Asher's lips ran firm. She tried to force herself to explain what was wrong. But it was almost like her entire body refused to utter a word about it. There was a chance voicing it would make it become a reality, no matter how illogical that thought was.
"No-Nothing is going on, Mikoto." Asher responded, clenching her hands at her sides into loose fists. "I'm fine. Everything's fine. I'm just running low on energy as usual."
"You call not sleeping for almost 4-5 days straight normal?" Misaka asked with worry layered in her voice. "It's not healthy for you to keep going on like this, and I know you're smart enough to know that. The medical staff here are trying to make it so you can sleep. I know you don't like being forced, but it may be the only way for you to-"
"NO!" Asher yelled. She slammed her fist into the wall next to her, causing Misaka to jump. "I don't ne-need anyone's help! I can sleep on my own ju-just fine. I just h-haven't felt like sleeping lately, okay!? I'm al-alright! Th-There's nothing wrong with me, so can we just change the subject!?"
Misaka sat there for a moment in shock. Even with the doctor's warning from before, she still hadn't expected her to snap so quickly. Asher barely ever raised her voice, even in anger. She wasn't hurt by it though, only growing more concerned.
"No, you aren't." Misaka said gently, seeing Asher's body grow tense. "And telling yourself that you are won't change that."
"Stop. Please don't say anything else." Asher mumbled, almost pleading.
"You know there's something wrong. You've tried to think up various ways to fix it. But everything you've done so far hasn't worked." Misaka continued, ignoring Asher's request. "You always deflect and deny a problem when you don't want to trouble anyone with your issues. Or…when you don't want to admit to yourself that your logic on its own can't fix this."
"B-Be quiet." Asher's jaw went rigid. Her voice trembled in ever growing rage. "Th-That's not true."
"It is, and I'm not going to sit here and let you lie to yourself. You're not fine. You haven't been fine since you woke up from your coma. Honestly probably even earlier than that or the project. Now that Silas is gone and you don't have someone constantly beating you down, you don't have to keep protecting yourself from being hurt by ignoring how you're really feeling. Ignoring your feelings aren't going to make them go away. It's only going to make it worse and make you feel even more miserable than you already feel. It's okay to let yourself feel sometimes."
"Tch, shut up. I told you to stop talking, but like always you don't listen!" Asher shouted through clenched teeth. "You don't know what you're talking about. You don't know anything, Mikoto!"
"I do. Probably even more than you do." Misaka pressed further, unfazed. "Can you even hear yourself anymore? You're probably the most patient person I've ever met. You rarely lose your temper or raise your voice at anyone. But in the past 5-10 minutes, you've shown more emotional expression than I've seen in the past 5-6 years I've known you. You just yelled at me, told me to shut up basically twice now, and I'm still trying to figure out what I did to deserve that. But you're fine right? That's the biggest load of crap I've ever heard from you before."
Asher's eyes widened slightly. She bit the side of her cheek and lowered her head, tears gathering at her eyes. "O-Oh, I'm s-sorry." She mumbled, slumping even further into the wall next to her, her body barely upright. "I do-don't know what came over me…I-I di-didn't mean to yell at you."
She was honestly confused. This had started happening a lot recently. One minute she would feel fine and the next angry or upset. It was like there was this impulse that would just come over her in a split second, and she wouldn't even realize it was building until she exploded at the seams. She couldn't control her emotions anymore, not even when Misaka was around.
"I know." Misaka said softly. She took Asher's left hand into her own and squeezed it gently. "I know you don't feel like yourself right now with everything going on. But that doesn't mean you can ignore your own health. You need to sleep. It'll make you feel better."
"I c-can't." Asher responded as she gripped the side of her head. "Every time I close my eyes, I ju-just see Silas. Whether it's fr-from his experiments, or one of his lectures. O-Or st-standing there and watching him ki-kill…" She winced and pressed her hand into her head even further, feeling Misaka rub soothing circles into her back. "It's a con-constant loop. H-He's always the illogical constant…"
"I don't w-want to go back. If they put me under, I-I might get stuck. An-And I-I…don't want to be there by myself."
Asher sat there with her head hanging low in defeat until she felt Misaka wrap her arm around her back and gently brought her own arm around her neck. "You won't be." She said, forcing her to her feet. "You have me silly."
Asher's tired eyes widened in surprise. She looked over at Misaka and saw a wide smile on her face. She felt the electromaster slowly guide them over to the bed towards the center-right of the room.
"I'll be here for as long as you need me, so you don't have to worry. We're long overdue for a sleep over anyway."
Asher stared at her for some time until a genuine laugh came out from her lips. "Oh, right. That nearly slipped my mind." She joked, tiredly smiling. "Thanks."
"You don't have to thank me for anything, Z. But you're welcome."
August 5th, 9:00AM
Outside the Exterior Tokiwadai Dorm
Saten was skipping joyfully down the sidewalk with a wide smile on her face. She could barely contain her excitement after what she had heard from Uiharu earlier that morning.
Her closest friend was getting a roommate, and she was so excited to meet her!
She even had to restrain herself from running over to her friends when she saw them from afar. Misaka was sitting on a bench conversing with Shirai, who was standing next to her, while Asher was lying on the other side of the bench seemingly asleep.
Her eyes met with Shirai's first, who sent her a wave with Misaka following behind her as she rose to her feet.
"Hey Saten!" They both greeted. Saten sent them a wide smile.
"Hey you two!" Saten looked over at Asher, who hadn't moved an inch from her position. "Is something wrong with her?"
"No, it's just Zierdan being Zierdan as usual." Shirai lightly dismissed. "Sissy literally had to drag her out of bed and force her to be ready before you got here."
Asher's eyebrow twitched slightly, though she didn't move. Misaka saw this out of the corner of her eye and let out a small laugh.
"She's still a little tired from all she had to do for the festival yesterday. Pair that up with waking up earlier than she'd like, and well...She's a bit cranky."
Saten giggled, especially when she saw Asher's eyebrows crease into a frown. She walked over and stood right above Asher's face.
Asher didn't have to open her eyes to know that it was her, sighing deeply before she opened her blue eyes and tiredly stared right back into Saten's brown orbs.
"Hey…" She said with a yawn, rubbing her eyes.
"Morning, Miss Cranky Pants." Saten replied, laughing a little when Asher groaned.
"Not you too." She said. She slowly sat up on the bench and fixed her hair. "Why is it that you all take enjoyment in needlessly teasing me at illogical times? It's not my fault that I'm not a morning person."
"Not being a morning person is an understatement." Misaka sighed. "You've honestly gotten worse since we were younger."
"If Sissy and I didn't get you out of your room every so often, you would probably have no problem napping 24/7." Shirai added.
"I don't understand what you two are trying to get at." Asher deadpanned. "My sleeping habits should be the least of your concerns from how much you both get into trouble. It would be more logical to say that it's your fault I'm like this in the first place."
Before things could escalate, Saten quickly stepped in. "Come on guys, we're going to be late meeting up with Uiharu!" She playfully whined. "You all have your own unique quirks. You wouldn't be you without it, so let's just leave it at that."
There was a drawn-out silence for a second or two until each of them sighed.
"Fine…" Misaka and Shirai said after a few moments. Asher sent a mute nod.
Saten smiled and skipped away and each of the girls followed right behind her. Asher increased her speed a bit to be at Saten's side and sent her a slightly amused look.
"You seem to be in a good mood." She commented as she put her hands in her pockets. "Is there something else about this meeting with Uiharu that we don't know about?"
"Hmmm, well," Saten trailed off, joyfully turning around to look at her friends. "I guess I'll go ahead and tell you guys so you can be prepared."
As they continued walking, she explained the exciting news. It left them shocked for a few moments until Misaka spoke up first.
"A new roommate?" Misaka repeated. When Saten hummed, she continued on. "Who also happens to be a new transfer student from District 19?"
"Correct!"
Confusion grew on Misaka's face as she turned to Shirai. "That's strange…" She mumbled.
"Yeah, especially since it's in the middle of the term." Shirai added. "Transfers normally come in at the start of the year or the beginning of the term."
"Meaning she probably had a logical reason to transfer. Or the school board gave her a special exception." Asher said ahead of them. She sighed and stoically looked at them over her shoulder. "It may not happen too often, but it's possible. My former roommate transferred to a completely different school in the middle of the semester if I remember correctly."
"I think that was a special exception in itself." Misaka stated with an annoyed look on her face as she crossed her arms. "It's not every day that you happen to be the niece of Tokiwadai's director."
"True." Asher sighed, turning back around. "Low chances are that Uiharu's roommate is the same way."
Shirai let out a nervous laugh when she saw some electricity spark from Misaka's hair. She turned to look at Saten, who was downright bursting at the seams with joy. "What has gotten into you Saten?" She asked. "You seem to be pretty excited for this."
"Of course, I am! Uiharu's getting a new roommate, automatically making her my friend too!"
Before Saten could continue, Uiharu shouted her name from afar. As she waved, they each saw a girl standing beside her they assumed was her new roommate. She had short brown hair, brown eyes, and was around Uiharu's height, maybe just a tad bit taller.
She seemed a little anxious at first. Uiharu guided them to the front door of their dorm and started introductions.
"Okay so," Uiharu began as she gestured over to her roommate's direction. "Everyone, this is my new roommate, Haruue Erii." She turned and gestured over to the other 4 girls. "Haruue, these are my friends. On the right is Shirai Kuroko. Then next to her are Misaka Mikoto and Asher Zierdan. Those three go to Tokiwadai Middle School. And right next to Asher is Saten Ruiko, who's actually in our class at Sakugawa."
"Hello!" Saten, Misaka, and Shirai said simultaneously while Asher sent a silent wave.
Haruue bowed. "Nice to meet everyone."
"Same here." Saten said. A confused smile came on her face when she glanced down at the large stack of packages in front of them. "Mind telling us why your stuff is just sitting out here?"
Uiharu let out a nervous laugh. She explained to them how she hadn't planned for the movers to beat her here before she picked up Haruue at the train station. They must have grown tired of waiting for her to come back and just left the boxes here for them to move in themselves sadly.
They were about to come up with an idea until Shirai stepped up and easily teleported the objects inside.
For the first time since they were there, Haruue perked up and let out a surprised gasp.
"Wow!" She marveled as they walked inside and saw the stack of boxes in the middle of the room. "I've never seen an esper with a teleporting ability before."
"Heh, well…" Shirai began with a prideful smile. "It's not surprising. Not to sound immodest, but there's hardly any teleporters with my kind of power, even within Academy City."
"Careful Kuroko before your head becomes even heavier than it already is." Asher sighed, ignoring the look of irritation that appeared on her face.
Before she could make a comeback, though, Misaka quickly directed their attention elsewhere.
"Hey, let's go ahead and put this away everyone."
They all agreed (Shirai reluctantly so). As they opened each of the boxes, Asher causally used her own ability to sort all the items into piles. Haruue grew even more amazed and immediately let the gravity esper know how cool she thought her ability was.
It caused Asher to immediately freeze up and Shirai to instinctively teleport some things to safety when they went into freefall. This and Asher's silence left Haruue relatively confused, even more so when some of the girls snickered a little when Asher turned to face away from them.
"Did I say something wrong?" Haruue asked, concerned.
"Not at all, don't worry Haruue." Uiharu managed to say in between laughs.
"Yeah, Zierdan just gets easily embarrassed sometimes." Shirai remarked with a smirk. "You must have caught her off guard. Even a simple compliment can short out her brain."
"Sh-Shut up, Ku-Kuroko." Asher mumbled, her face growing bright red. She let out a long sigh when she heard all of them, including Haruue, laughing even more when the red blush grew down to her neck.
A small while later...
It didn't take them long to put all of Haruue's belongings away. They all let out sighs of relief when Saten broke down the last box and put it into the scrap pile.
"That should be the last one." She said, wiping the sweat from her brow. "Great work everyone."
"Yeah, thank you." Haruue anxiously said, bowing again. "This would have taken much longer without you all here. So, I'm grateful for your help."
"It's no problem." Misaka said with a bright smile as she put her hands on her hips. "It seems we got done earlier than expected. I'd say now is a perfect time to go have some fun and show Haruue around the city."
"I agree!" Uiharu cheered, missing the look of surprise come over Shirai's face.
"You shouldn't get too excited, Uiharu." Shirai said as she crossed her arms. "Did you already forget that we have to attend that joint conference today?"
Uiharu opened her mouth in shock as everyone else stood there, confused. Even Asher perked her head up from the window she had been using to look at the clouds.
"Joint conference?" Saten mumbled across the room. "For what?"
"Judgment and Anti-Skill have a meeting together this afternoon. Most likely to discuss the recent earthquake incidents parts of Academy City have been experiencing." Shirai explained.
"Really?" Misaka asked in shock, narrowing her eyes when Shirai nodded her head.
This left her a little bit on edge. She had believed that the earthquake from last night was just a random occurrence. To hear that it could be tied to a recent string of them left her wondering even more if that's possibly what has been bothering Asher recently, last night especially.
She hadn't even confronted the gravity esper about it just yet. Due to her usually being a heavy sleeper, she was able to quietly slip out of her room before either she or Shirai had awakened. She must have not remembered anything last night, so there was no use in putting even more stress on her. She could tell that it was starting to wear her down.
She tried her best to mask these rushing thoughts on her face. However, Asher was already able to notice that something was up, seeing how tense she got in just a few seconds all the way from where she stood.
She was about to walk over and bring it up before her attention was drawn over to Saten when she heard her say her name.
"Well, while you two are at the conference, Misaka, Asher, and I can go ahead and show Haruue around." Saten suggested.
Everyone but Uiharu seemed to be okay with that, the girl in question looking over at her friend in complete dismay.
"But Saten!" She cried.
Saten sent her a reassuring smile. "It'll be fine, Uiharu. We'll meet back up with you guys when you're done."
Uiharu frowned even more before she let out a sigh. She sent Haruue a hesitant smile. "Don't worry. Saten can be a little too much to handle at times. But Misaka's nice and Asher will keep them on task. I promise, Shirai and I will join you as soon as we're done."
"What, too much to handle?" Saten repeated in confusion. "What is that supposed to mean?"
As Uiharu turned around to explain, Misaka stood there quietly in deep thought until she heard Asher sigh quietly next to her.
"What's up?" Misaka asked. Even with Asher's stoic face, she could see either hesitance or anxiety in her expression.
"Nothing…" Asher said as she rubbed the back of her neck. When she looked over and saw Misaka's unconvinced look she let out an even longer breath. "I don't know. I just feel a little nervous I think."
"Nervous?" Misaka asked. She was about to ask why before she noticed that she was trying her best to avoid looking at something. She turned and only saw Haruue there, taking barely a second to connect the dots.
"Oh, I see."
Asher's eyes narrowed somewhat in frustration. "Illogical I know." She mumbled tightening her grip on her neck even more. "I don't know why it's happening now of all times. I've been fine since I've been here. But now since it's just going to be you, Saten, and me with her, I guess…"
"There's no need for you to explain or get so down on yourself." Misaka said as she softly nudged her in her arm. "You may try to act like you're cool and laidback all the time. But Saten and I know you're shy and anxious around new people. So don't worry. I bet you'll find it easier to be around Haruue in no time."
Asher stood there, silent, before she smiled slightly, lowering her hand from her neck. "Alright. Sounds logical enough."
"Misaka! Asher!" Saten called out from afar. Both Level 5s looked over at her, seeing her wave. She was standing by the door with Haruue at her side. "Ready to go?"
"Yeah!" Misaka responded. She walked towards them with Asher right behind her, following her out the door and descending the dorm steps.
"Soooo," Saten hummed as she skipped down the stairs. "Any ideas on where we should go?"
"Your choice, Haruue." Misaka chimed in, seeing the girl in question look over at her in surprise.
"Me?" Haruue mumbled.
"Uh-huh, you're our honored guest. Is there anywhere special you want to go?"
"Well, hmmmm," Haruue thought for a moment. "I honestly don't know. I think I'm too unfamiliar with this district to really say or know a place we could go to."
"Oh true."
Saten turned and smiled at the gravity esper walking beside Misaka. "Do you have any ideas on where we could go?"
Asher only thought about it for a couple seconds, her face resigning to its usual stoic expression. "Not really." She sighed, seeing Saten pout almost instantly.
"You can try harder than that." She whined. "Remember our talk the other day? You need to start asserting your ideas more, Asher. "
"I agree." Misaka said before Asher could respond. She looked back and saw some surprise on her face. "Not everyone can just look at you and know what you're thinking like I can, Z. You have some great ideas locked in your head. You may think this is trivial to use your energy on most of the time, but just try and humor us once in a while."
Asher's eyes narrowed as she sighed and looked off to the side, casually rubbing her neck. She honestly didn't understand why they wanted her input so badly. Like Misaka said, she didn't feel like it was logical to waste her energy on this when they had ideas probably far better than hers.
Her ideas were better suited for working through complex situations, not something so casual like where they should go. She knew there weren't that many people who would rather find a place to stare up at the sky all day or take a nap like she did. It made this simple question more complex, since it needed some kind of creativity, which she greatly lacked.
She thought on it for some time, mostly drawing a blank once again. "I don't really have a specific place in mind. Although, I'm always up for going to get something sweet to eat."
Her answer may have been fairly broad, but it was the only thing she could come up with on the spot. She was relieved to see that her friends didn't seem to really mind. It even led to Saten coming up with a great idea.
She proposed that they go back to the crepe stand they had ate at the first time her and Uiharu had hung out with them and Shirai.
"This is starting to become a place where friendships are made!" Saten said aloud as each of the girls enjoyed their crepes.
Her attention was mostly taken over to Haruue, seeing her pleased expression as she ate her delicious treat. She seemed to like it so much that she didn't even notice the left-over cream that remained on her face.
"You like it?" Saten asked, hearing Haruue hum in response. "Good! Though, you got a little bit of cream on your face…"
As Saten grabbed a napkin and handed it to Haruue, Misaka looked down at her crepe somewhat sadly. "It sucks that the others weren't able to come with us." She mumbled.
"It makes me wonder." Asher said aloud. She was lying on a bench not too far away from them, staring up at the clouds with a narrowed look. "What's happening that both Judgment and Anti-Skill need to be involved? I know Kuroko said it was about earthquakes that have been reportedly happening recently, but there must be more to it than that."
"Well, I didn't want to really get into it earlier." Saten began, a mischievous look in her eyes. "But there's actually been a rumor going around about these so-called earthquakes. For one thing, people have started to call them Poltergeists."
"Poltergeists?" Misaka asked.
"You're joking." Asher deadpanned.
"No really, it's true! I couldn't make this up!" Saten passionately shouted.
"So what? Furniture has been moving on its own like in some horror movie?" Misaka asked as she crossed her legs. "Sounds pretty shady if you ask me."
"Exactly! Well, minus the horror movie part." Saten refuted. "There have been no reported P waves or S waves. So, it was totally some kind of paranormal phenomenon, guys!"
"Let's say that hypothetically this is true." Asher sighed as she raised up. "What would be the cause of this…paranormal event as you call it?"
"It has to be a pulse from an alternate dimension or a planet that's never been discovered before now. OH! It could even be some kind of underground experiment that the government has tried to hide up until now and someone decided to leak it to the public!" Saten explained, causing both Misaka and Asher to sweatdrop. She quickly dug into her pocket and brought out her phone to show the forums that had cryptic ideas of when the next earthquake would come.
"See?" She said, looking over at Haruue. "Aren't you from District 19, Haruue?" When Haruue nodded, more interest and excitement lit her gaze. "I heard there were several outbreaks of poltergeisting over there. Can you tell me what it was like?"
Before Haruue could answer, Misaka uncrossed her legs and crossed her arms, narrowing her gaze slightly. "Saten, you shouldn't be getting so excited about this." She ridiculed. "Whatever they are, chances are they could potentially be dangerous for others to be around if they aren't careful. So, you shouldn't wish for them to happen."
"Heheh, true." Saten nervously laughed. "Sorry. Got a little too excited there."
"Well, in any case," Asher began as she rose to her feet and walked over to stand beside her. "I think it's a stretch to believe in a paranormal dimensional or otherworldly threat. The board would have probably put Academy City on lockdown if that was the case. Though, it still brings up some questions on the actual cause of these Poltergeist incidents."
Saten's phone began to ring in her pocket. She picked it up and turned to the side as Asher proceeded to sit down next to Misaka. She turned and was about to say something before she stopped herself.
Misaka's eyes were narrowed in thought. It looked like she was thinking about as hard as when she caught her the last time looking like that. She stared at her for some time before she sighed and lied back into the bench.
"Something wrong?" She questioned, seeing Misaka jump out of the corner of her eye.
"What?" Misaka squeaked in surprise. She noticed that it was Asher who asked the question and quickly regained her composure. "Oh nothing! You kind of just surprised me."
"Really? That's the illogical excuse you're going for? If someone as emotionally stunted as I am can surprise you that easily without using much energy to, I can honestly say I would be a little disturbed." Asher looked at Misaka with a stoic but also soft expression. "It's your turn. You've been spacing out more than I have for the last couple hours. Explain."
"Well, you see…." Misaka began, squirming under Asher's hard stare.
Before Asher could press her too much, Saten's voice interrupted them.
"Oh Uiharu, you and Shirai are out of the conference?" Saten asked. She paused for a few moments, nodding along to whatever Uiharu was saying on the other line. "Well, if you're there and we're near the crepe stand, then how about we meet up somewhere in between?" She paused again and narrowed her gaze before they widened. "Yeah, that'll work! We'll meet you both there shortly."
Saten turned around with a wide smile on her face. "That was Uiharu. She asked if we could meet up with them at the arcade, which isn't too far from here."
Each of the girls nodded. Misaka was especially happy since that was her way out of the conversation Asher was trying to push. However, before she could stand up, she felt Asher softly grab her wrist. She looked back, seeing Asher looking towards the ground until she sighed and let go.
"Take some time to think of a more logical answer. We will discuss this later, Mikoto." She said. She stood up and walked over to Saten.
Misaka dryly swallowed and nervously followed behind Asher, though with at least a foot or two between them.
I don't know whether to feel relieved for dodging a bullet or worried of Z's new found assertiveness, she thought, paling slightly.
About 15 minutes later…
The Railgang was able to regroup at Playland GAU, a well-known arcade located within the heart of the 7th District. Everyone other than Haruue was well-acquainted with this place, both of the Level 5 espers especially.
After a loose suggestion that Asher made some time ago, Misaka would from then on come here to restock on her arsenal of coins for her railgun shots. She tended to bring Asher along to lessen any suspicion. They had been there so many times that Asher had probably played around 90% of the games at least once or twice.
The gravity esper was currently walking around the arcade, alone. When they had entered, she quietly broke away from the group without fully realizing it herself. She roamed aimlessly for some time until she stopped at a familiar game and inserted a coin.
She stood there and played for a while, hardly paying attention as her narrowed eyes stared blankly at the screen.
There was this weird feeling in her chest that had been growing more and more since last night after that whole meeting with Shokuhou. Even hours later, she still couldn't remember what had truly happened, just knowing that whatever had must have also involved Misaka in some way.
She thought back to one of the last things the Mental Out esper had told her, still not forgetting the despondent look that fell on Misaka's face right after.
I know I said I trusted Misaki's judgment, but, she thought, lowering her gaze to her hands.
I had hoped that would stop Mikoto from being worried about me. But it's almost like pretending to not be bothered for not remembering has only put her more on edge.
She has been doing well keeping the others from not being suspicious of her. She nearly fooled me. She's usually one of the main talkers in any group she's in, so….seeing her fall into the background like I do today was just illogical to witness.
She didn't seem to be sad or angry about anything. Just, stressed. At least, I think that's the right word for it.
Waiting for her to come to me would probably be the most logical thing to do but after what happened with Big Spider….
Her heart clenched, remembering how the Electromaster cried into her chest, apologizing for things she had no control over.
As she kept going backing and forth in her head, she didn't notice Saten standing some distance away from her. She had noticed that Asher had disappeared fairly quickly. Misaka did as well and did her best to relieve her of any worry when she saw her looking around somewhat frantically.
"She does that a lot when we come here. Especially when she needs time to herself to think." she remembered the older girl saying. "Don't worry. I have a general idea of where she is anyway.]
After Uiharu suggested that they take a group photo with Haruue, Misaka directed Saten to where Asher would most likely be. She smiled when the Electromaster's prediction turned out to be true and quickly walked over to her. But she stopped in her tracks after seeing the distant look in Asher's eyes. Even in the little time she had known her, it was already natural for her to catch the esper like this from time to time. She knew that it usually was a good idea to get her attention after a while. If she or the others let her decide, she would probably stay stuck inside of her head for hours on end.
She tapped her shoulder, seeing some light finally come back into her blue eyes. Surprise filled them for only a moment, gradually becoming more relaxed when they met with her brown orbs.
"Hey Saten." Asher stoically greeted. Nervousness immediately grew in her gaze when the younger girl just kept on staring at her. "Something wrong?"
"Why did you walk off on your own?" Saten asked with a mixture of fake irritation and genuine concern in her voice. "You could've at least told one of us where you were going."
Asher opened her mouth to say that she had before she realized she actually hadn't.
"Oh, sorry." Asher apologized. She raised one of her hands to rest on her neck. "I didn't realize I zoned out for that long."
"Yeah, you were pretty quiet by the time we got here." Saten remarked, relaxing her gaze. "Is there something going on?"
"No," Asher automatically said with a slight smile. "You know how I am. Getting lost in my head for an illogical amount of time is unfortunately a normal thing I tend to do."
Saten stared at her for a few moments before she smiled as well. She turned around and simultaneously grabbed Asher's hand. "Well come on! The others are waiting for us. We're going to take a group picture with Haruue."
Asher didn't protest and sent her a silent nod. She followed at a comfortable distance, trying her best to keep her face stoic and push down the blush trying to fall on her cheeks.
She didn't understand why she was getting so flustered all of the sudden. Oddly, she knew that for once it wasn't out of embarrassment. Saten did things like this all the time, to her especially, so she was pretty much use to it by now.
No matter how hard her brain tried to figure it out, though, it never came up with answers. It wasn't helping that her heart was beating erratically, or how warm and gentle Saten's hands were around her wrist.
This hadn't ever happened before, or at least she didn't remember if it had. And no matter how illogical this feeling was rising up in her chest, some part of her knew that she actually liked it to some degree.
As fast as those feelings came on, however, they left just as quickly when they made it over to their friends, around the time Saten let go of her hand.
Some of those feelings did linger as she stood next to Misaka and Shirai during the group pictures. It kept her mind somewhat in a daze, enough that she hardly noticed when the pictures got done. Or when they migrated over to a vending machine.
What the heck was that? She thought as she looked down at the ground.
I felt completely normal before. But after, it honestly felt like my heart was about to burst.
After she stared at the ground for a prolonged period of time, she felt a hard poke in her side. She winced and grimaced, sending an annoyed look at the culprit right next to her.
"Oww." She groaned, rubbing her side. "Did you really have to poke me that hard, MK? Jeez…"
"Sorry, but I exhausted all of my options." Misaka shrugged. "You completely checked out."
Some surprise grew on Asher's face. "I did?"
"Indeed." Shirai said a few feet away from her. "You probably had one of the blankest looks I've seen from you in a while."
"Misaka and Shirai tried calling your name a dozen times, and you didn't look at them. Misaka even snapped her fingers near your ear and waved her hand in your face and you didn't even flinch." Saten remarked as she raised up two fingers. "That's the second time in the past hour someone has caught you zoning out into oblivion."
"Which isn't necessarily illogical…" Asher sighed as she put her hands into her pockets.
"But it's not completely logical either, Zierdan." Shirai added, an eyebrow raised.
"True." Asher gently conceded with a sigh. Her sigh gradually faded into a drawn-out yawn. "Meaning I must be running low on energy."
"Why do I have the feeling that if someone asked you that question any time of the day, you would give them the same excuse?" Shirai said with a sigh of her own.
Saten and Misaka giggled as Asher stood there unfazed. Their heads immediately swerved when a resounding thunk sounded aloud. They saw Haruue standing there holding her forehead in pain.
All of them sweatdropped. Uiharu quickly rose to make sure the girl was okay.
"Oh dear! You ran right into it." Uiharu said in concern.
"You alright, Haruue?" Saten asked as Uiharu crouched down next to the girl.
Haruue nodded and pointed up towards the wall behind the glass. "Look up there." She said.
All of the girls looked at where she was pointing. It was a poster advertising the firework show that was going to happen tonight.
It got the gears running inside of Misaka's head.
"Oh! I have an idea." Misaka said aloud as she turned and smiled at Saten, Shirai, and Asher. "We should all go to it, guys!"
"Yeah! We can even dress up!" Shirai added.
Everyone seemed elated at the idea. Well, everyone other than Asher who just sighed. Whether it was because they had been out all day or the thought of the illogical amount of people that were most likely going to be there, she didn't really find the event very desirable to attend.
"Well, I'm going to stay at the dorms and go to bed early." Asher said aloud as she turned to walk away. "You guys have fun-"
"Hey, not so fast!" Misaka tightly grabbed the back of Asher's collar. "Nice try. But when I said all of us should go, that included you, Zierdan."
"I know…" Asher groaned, sending a tired glance at Shirai and Misaka. "Though, have either of you even thought about how we're going to go in the first place? It's too late to send in a request to the school to extend our curfew today, and I highly doubt the Head Resident would stretch the rules for us."
"Crap, I completely forgot about that!" Misaka groaned as she laid her head in one of her hands. Shirai let out a sigh.
"Curfew extension?" Uiharu asked aloud as Haruue rose up to her feet to read the last few words on the poster.
"It says here that curfew is already going to be extended to 21:00 tonight to allow all students to go."
"Which would be true if we weren't Tokiwadai students." Shirai stated. "They can be fairly strict, especially with random extracurricular activities outside of curfew hours. We have to send in a request but it's too short of a notice to do one today."
"Meaning?" Saten asked, bracing for the news.
"Meaning, the only option we have is to sneak out." Asher responded. "Which shouldn't be hard. It's the question of how we prevent the Head Resident from noticing we aren't there."
"We'll cross that road when we get to it." Misaka said. "We'll get there by any means necessary!"
Shirai pumped her fist. "Yeah!"
Asher stood there and sighed.
The Sakugawa girls nodded, though, still worried for the possibility of them being caught. They all then decided to leave the arcade, splitting up to go to their respective dorms to get ready for the fireworks show.
A couple hours later…
Tokiwadai Dorm
It was finally time for Misaka, Shirai, and Asher to commence their escape plan. They waited for the Head Resident to do her preliminary rounds and pretended they were doing something that wasn't too suspicious. Misaka and Shirai decided to act like they were working on their summer work, while Asher pretended she was napping.
They all heard when she came in, trying their best to not look too tense. They committed to their act even when she left to go to the other rooms. They believed (and very much hoped) that the Head Resident would check on them around the same time she did every night, which would be around the time the Firework show ended.
All seemed to be running smoothly for the girls.
Well...
Except for when they were about to leave.
Misaka and Shirai teleported into Asher's room, both wearing their own yukatas. Misaka wore a golden yellow yukata with an orange-green striped sash while Shirai wore a purple one with a red and black checkered sash.
Asher, however, wasn't wearing one, instead looking semi-formal in her long-sleeved blue shirt and black pants.
The only one who seemed notably surprised was Shirai as Misaka stood there and chuckled. They had decided earlier with the others that they would all go in yukatas for the event.
"Zierdannnnnn…." Shirai groaned as she looked down at her with a frown. "What on earth are you wearing?
"It's fairly obvious, Kuroko, so it would be illogical for me to say." Asher bluntly remarked as she emptied out one of her dress shoes, ignoring the irritation that came across the teleporter's features. "Is there a problem?"
"Of course, there is!" Shirai said through clenched teeth. Misaka got in front of her and sent Asher a tense smile.
"What Kuroko meant to ask before, is where is your yukata?" Misaka asked, seeing Asher look up at her in confusion. "We all agreed to wear one tonight, remember?"
Asher looked at her for a prolonged period of time, almost as if it was taking a moment for her brain to process Misaka's question. Her eyes widened after a while before she glanced away in some sort of embarrassment. She began to fidget with her amps and looked down at the ground.
"Oh, that's what you guys were talking about." She sighed. "To be honest, I didn't really know what a yukata was, though, didn't really want to admit that I didn't. After looking it up, I knew I didn't have one in my closet, so I decided to try wearing the next best thing."
The irritation on Shirai's face gradually fell when she heard that as Misaka sent the gravity esper a soft look. It was sometimes easy to forget that even for someone as smart and attentive Asher was, she was still fairly inexperienced when it came to anything outside of her intelligence. She had gotten better over the years with Misaka's help. But with how Silas raised her early on, it dramatically slowed her development socially and on normal life in general.
Something as common knowledge to everyone like a yukata was a complete foreign term to Asher, which she had a hard time admitting at times due to her own embarrassment and feelings of incompetence.
"I must look ridiculous." Asher mumbled glumly, rubbing her neck nervously. "Sorry. I hope it won't ruin our outing tonight."
"There's nothing you need to apologize for, Zierdan! It's okay!" Shirai said, frazzled.
"Don't worry. No one's night is going to be ruined by a long-sleeved shirt and some pants." Misaka said lightly. "Though, if you want, you could try wearing one of mine? We're around the same height and size, so it should fit you easily."
"Really?" Asher asked, seeing Misaka nod.
"Uh-huh. But I know you usually don't like getting dressed up just for fun. None of us will be upset if you go out wearing what you have on now."
Asher thought it over for a few moments before letting out another sigh. "True. But I'll probably be teased about it whether I do or don't wear it." She responded. "Let's see what you have, and I'll make a decision then."
Before Misaka could even ask, Shirai teleported out of the room and returned a second later with a pile of yukatas from Misaka's closet. There had to be at least 5-6 in total, causing Asher to sweatdrop.
"When you said spare, I thought you meant 1 or 2. Not a whole collection of them."
"Don't worry, I can assist you with trying them on. We'll have a flash fashion show, and then we should be able to meet up with the others on time." Shirai stated.
"Flash fashion show?" Asher asked, not seeing Misaka grow pale beside her. "How are we going to do-"
Asher's eyes widened when Shirai loosely gripped both her shirt and pants, immediately feeling them disappear as they teleported to some place in the room. The gravity esper didn't even have any time to react as the teleporter forced one of the yukatas onto her.
"Here is Yukata #1!" Shirai said proudly. She glanced at it for a few seconds before swapping it for the next one in the stack.
Asher stood there frozen as her face heated up with either embarrassment or rage in record time. When she swerved to nearly jump on the teleporter, Misaka immediately rushed up and covered Asher's mouth, trying her best to cover her angered ramblings and threats.
"Z, please calm down!" Misaka whisper-yelled, seeing the esper look at her in genuine disbelief. "I know what Kuroko did wasn't right! But please, if you tear into her right now, the Head Resident is going to catch us!"
While this was going on, Shirai stared at the Level 5s anxiously, feeling sweat coming down her face. More so when Asher's irritated purple eyes looked at her with unrestrained fury.
It took 2 full minutes for Asher to calm down to be rational. She tightened her fists at her sides so much she almost drew blood. Misaka slowly uncovered the esper's mouth and backed away a bit, keeping enough distance between them to stop any kind of retaliation.
Asher stared at Shirai silently for a moment and let out an annoyed huff. The purple faded from her eyes. She stomped over to the yukata pile and randomly pulled one from the stack. She then walked over to her bathroom and slammed the door behind her.
Both of the girls sweatdropped. Shirai nearly knelt down in relief.
"I think I may have taken that a little too far too quickly." She sighed as Misaka sent her a deadpan.
"You think?"
Word Count of Chapter: 9077 |Page Count: 18 pages |Reviews: 249 | Followers: 172 |Favorites: 146
AN: So the second thing I wanted to cover is related to a rumor I've heard going around about the possibility of the FanFiction site shutting down. I mostly saw this after reading an author note of a fic that I read consistently. I did some of my own research to find anything related to that possibility, though I didn't find anything clear on whether those rumors are true or not:(
But in any case, if this site were to shutdown in the future while I'm still updating this fic or this fic randomly disappeared for any reason, I created an account over at Archive of Own months back that I will probably start cross-posting all my fics to. I will still mainly use this site (FanFiction) as my main platform for posting, though it wouldn't hurt to have some kind of backup even if it never happens.
I was able to get the same name (PurpleClover99), so if anything happens, you can find me over there for updates on the situation or chapter uploads. Nothing has been posted there just yet. Though, this will give me the chance to begin editing the beginning chapters of CSG, which is long overdue lol.
That's basically it for that note, so I hope to see you during the next chapter! I'll go over the usual poll update concerning Sky's name at the end of Chapter 51;)
Review Replies
OzmaGale: You're welcome! :)
matejfilipfort:. I'm pretty sure that Asher will be involved in Academy City Invasion, Acqua of the Back, and World War III arcs since Academy City is directly involved (if my memory serves me correctly since it's been a while since I've seen the last few seasons of Index). Since I've only primarily watched the animes of the A Certain Series (Railgun, Index, and Accelerator), I'm not totally familiar on the arcs in New Testament. So I'm not completely sure on how/if Asher will be involved in the rest of the arcs you've listed. But once we get closer, I'll try to catch up on those arcs and figure out her role then.
So long story short, if the arc has a direct impact on Academy City in some way, chances are that Asher will be involved depending on how much it affects the Science side or any of the characters she has close relationships with (such as Kamijou and future characters).
LostNeko120:. Thank you! Sorry for the long wait yet again for this chapter T.T.
Yeah, Sky's/Sora's heart is in the right place, but she may need to learn that what she did to Kenji (even though he's not a particularly nice guy himself) wasn't the right thing to do.
With Misaka's and Sky's/Sora's relationship, it will honestly be the question of who will cave first. They're both stubborn in not liking/trusting the other, so someone in the Railgang may need to act as some sort of moderator between them lol. If Shokuhou and Misaka can work together, though, there's a small ray of hope that they can do the same.
If I don't add a mini arc in between, we are about 7-9 chapters away from starting Sisters.' I'm scared as well. Not ready to play the "who will break first" game for that whole arc T.T
You're welcome! Like I said in the AN, I'm going to try and be more consistent with uploads for this month, so Chapter 51 should hopefully come out some time next week:)
Bornkiller9: Thanks! After 2 years of writing CSG, it has finally made it to Poltergeist.
Both looking forward to and scared for writing Sky's interactions with the Railgang. Opening up Asher will probably seem easy in comparison to getting her on their side (Misaka's especially). If Misaka has the patience of a squirrel, Sky has about the same amount of patience as 20 squirrels.
Similar to Asher helping Misaka, an OC helping Touma is an interesting thought. I'll think about it. Maybe delving more into the Magic side of Academy City in that way will help me understand the system better:)
n9ko: Thanks! Love that you're enjoying the story so far! Developing Saten's and Asher's relationship has slowly been growing on me. Enough that I can finally say 50 chapters in writing this fic, that I'm pretty sure the Saten x Asher ship is the one that I'm settling with (unless something drastic happens in the next few arcs and I change my mind lol). To stay true with the friendship tag, Asher's friendships with the others will still be the main focus. Though, the romance with Asher and potentially other characters will still be developed on the side.
So long story short, Saten will still cause Asher to fall into a shy blushing mess in chapter 500 of this fic (if I actually ever reach that high lol).
Thanks for your reviews!
-PurpleClover99
