AN: Hello readers! Don't have all much to say today other than that you're able to see the poll votes now, as I decided to move it from closed to open today. Mostly due to currently having a five way tie for the top three.

So, I will keep the poll open, if any of you want to vote on it you can before I completely close it sometime later on today or Sunday, depending on when I hopefully finish and upload chapter 10 of COF.

I hope you enjoy this chapter and thanks for all the support so far!

And also, just wondering about the consensus concerning the chapter lengths you've seen so far...I generally can go overboard on occasion, so if it's too much, just let me know

Please leave a review about anything you liked, think I should work on, or any questions in general! I will answer them at the end of the next chapter:D

(A couple days have passed in comparison to the last chapter btw)


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 3: Annoying and Tiring Shenanigans

July 13th , 6:00am

It was early morning when Misaka and Shirai were getting dressed for the day. Misaka was currently in the bathroom showering, while Shirai was on her bed finishing up her hair. Neither of them had saw Asher yet, which was not at all surprising, normally, but the past couple weeks had been different since she had to do tutoring sessions at 7:00am at a high school located somewhere within their district.

"Hey Kuroko…." Misaka called out from the bathroom as she was washing up. "Can you go and make sure Z is awake? If she misses her tutoring session again today, the Head Resident may make her do it for another week and today's the last day she has to go."

"Already on it, Sissy!" Shirai responded as she walked out of the room, walking just next door to room 206.

"Zierdan!" She called out as she knocked on the door. "Are you awake?"

When she didn't hear an answer, she decided to just teleport inside, not surprised that the girl in question didn't even try to come to the door.

When she looked around the decently clean room, she saw Asher still completely out on her bed as she faced the wall.

Letting out a small sigh, she walked over and turned on the light switch, hearing a low groan from the sleeping girl as she put a pillow over her face.

"Why do you always turn the lights on when you come in here, Kuroko?" Asher asked groggily as the pillow on her face muffled her voice. "I didn't answer the door just so you could teleport in here and do that…."

"You know it's time for you to be awake, Zierdan." Shirai said with some annoyance in her voice . "Sissy sent me over to make sure you were awake, though I knew you were most likely still asleep."

"Glad I'm meeting your expectations.," Asher groaned. "Now allow me to continue doing that for the next hour or two…."

"Zierdan, you only have like 30 minutes to get ready. If you don't get up yourself, I will be forced to get you up by other means…." Shirai said as she stomped over to her bed.

Before she was about to shake her awake, she saw the girl below her cringe slightly as she covered her ears.

"Please stop talking so loud. It's way too early for that," Asher asked her, even though she was talking in her normal tone of voice. "And It's making my ears and head pound just listening to you…."

After getting slightly confused, she looked over and saw Asher's Anti-Amps charging on her desk, not realizing until now that she didn't have them on. She knew that during the night, her sound sensitivity would be higher than usual, having to use them to filter out the sound so that she could sleep comfortably.

"Did you forget to charge them again?" Shirai asked, as she lowered her voice.

"No and Yes," Asher said as she turned over to where Shirai saw the tired bags under her eyes. "I did charge them, but they just stopped working in the middle of the night, meaning the rechargeable battery is probably broken. So, I had to use the backup one that unfortunately wasn't even charged enough for a minute of use."

"Why didn't you ask Sissy to charge it up for you? You know she would have done it with no complaints." Shirai asked

"It was around 1 or 2 in the morning when it happened." Asher said as she rubbed her eyes. "Meaning you two were most likely sleep by then. I didn't really feel like bothering her just to charge my battery. It's illogical since I can sleep without them if I need to."

"Right, even though you currently look like you didn't even sleep at all." Shirai said with one of her eyebrows quirked up.

"Well that's not true since I did get some sleep." Asher said sleepily as she closed her eyes. "You shouldn't make assumptions based off how I look right now. You know I'm not a morning person…."

"True," Shirai said, though still looking at her skeptically. "Then what time did you go to sleep after they stopped working?"

"I'd say around 5 or 5:30." Asher said, hearing the girl in front of her grumble in frustration.

"You know it's like 6 in the morning right?" Shirai said with a sweat drop, wondering if the girl in front of her needed a hospital or was just being her normal self.

"Yep, 6:05 to be exact and 5 minutes longer than you should've been in here." She replied, turning back over to face the wall, hoping the girl behind her would catch the hint.

"But Zierdan, you do know what today is right? Shouldn't you try and consider what I'm asking you to do?" Shirai asked with a fake whine.

Today was the day that Shirai considered to be the anniversary of when she had became roommates with Misaka after Misaka's roommate was more or less 'convinced' to leave, allowing her to room with the girl of her dreams and meet her fairly blunt but nice best friend.

Shirai knew that they tended to argue on occasion with Misaka usually having to diffuse the situation, but she knew that this could be able to most likely tug on Asher's heart strings enough to motivate her out of the bed.

Which probably could have worked today too...

If only Asher hadn't had about 1-2 hours of sleep the night before….

"Nope not really." Asher said bluntly as Shirai fell comedically to the floor.

"Well it sounds like you're not tired enough to talk to me this way," Shirai stated as her eyebrow twitched angrily. "Meaning you can at least get ready to be somewhat on time. So you need to get up or…."

"Or you're going to force me, right? " Asher said with a sigh as she sat up from her bed. "If you're trying to save me from the Head Resident then thanks, but there's probably nothing you could do to convince me to leave my bed unless you dragged me out of here."

As Asher looked over at her, thinking she was going to give up and leave, she saw an evil glint appear in her eyes as she walked towards her with her hands out.

"Oh that's a nice idea," Shirai said menacingly, ignoring the look of realization appearing on Asher's face. "Thanks for giving it to me, Zierdan…."

"Kuroko, don't you even dare!" Asher shouted as she scooted away to the wall next to her, unable to stop her since she couldn't really focus on making any of her calculations due to how much her head was pounding.

But it was too late as when Shirai touched her, she disappeared, leaving Shirai inside her room with her appearing in an undesirable location…..


Misaka was almost done with her shower, before she heard a recognizable pop of a teleport as someone fell on top of her, instinctively shocking the person she perceived to be Shirai.

"Kuroko I've told you a million times to stop doing that!" Misaka said angrily as her brows twitched in anger and her face heated up slightly.

When she finally looked down, she was shocked to see Asher below her completely drenched and dazed as she laid on the shower floor.

"Zierdan! What are you even doing in here!" She asked as her face heated up even more in shock, covering herself up with a towel and turning off the shower.

"That's the first thing you ask, Mikoto?" Asher groaned still not moving from her spot. "I think…you nearly knocked...me out with that….and I didn't even do anything wrong…."

"What do you mean by that? You're the one jumping me while I'm taking a shower!" She shouted, hearing the girl below her let out another groan.

"I know you're angry but please quit talking so loud," Asher grumbled. "My ears literally feel like they're about to fall off. And how do you think I got in here, since I don't think I remember my esper power allowing me to teleport…."

After a couple moments of her saying that, a look of realization came on Misaka's face.

"She didn't…" Misaka said with a sweatdrop, remembering she had asked Shirai to go and wake her up.

"My thoughts exactly…" Asher said. "Until I found myself in the air and the girl who has known me the longest happened to be showering at that time, and decided it was best to nearly annihilate me with electricity thinking I was the pervert…..when I was actually the victim in this situation."

I guess you win this time Kuroko, she thought to herself, hearing multiple apologies run out of Misaka's mouth in rapid succession.

Since I'm sure as heck not going back to sleep after that….


45 minutes later…

Asher was currently on her way to the place that she had to get to in about 10 minutes, wearing a noticeable frown as water dripped down her face from her wet hair. She was currently wearing everything but her Tokiwadai Uniform (a dark blue hoodie and athletic shorts and tennis shoes) without a care in the world as she had been able to slip out with it before Misaka, Shirai, or even the Head Resident had noticed.

She knew that the Head Resident would probably punish her again if she was caught doing this, but due to what Shirai had done to her earlier, she wasn't really in the mood to care.

She better be glad that I couldn't send her out the window with that stunt she pulled, she thought to herself as she narrowed her eyes slightly and adjusted her Anti-Amps in her ears.

Even though today was the last day for her heading the tutoring sessions at a high school within the 7th district, today was probably the worst day for it to be so after her Anti-Amps decided to randomly give up on her sometime last night, which was apparently the night her hearing sensitivity decided to pick up more than it usually does, not allowing her to fully filter out the sound to a comfortable level to go to sleep.

So now she was currently: sleep deprived, angry/annoyed, in pain from her ears and head pounding, wet since her hair still hadn't dried after taking a surprise shower, and completely cared less if her punishment was extended from not wearing the uniform she didn't like at times due to all the attention it usually drew to herself...

She would have taken her skateboard today, but when she tried to ride it earlier, it also decided that was the time the wheel was going to break, which added another thing to her list she felt she didn't deserve whatsoever.

And now, she was going to the one place where she knew that most of the people there she was going to "help" were going to just sit there and not listen to her at all, probably going to push her further in this bad mood of hers.

As she turned the corner, she saw a group of people a few years older than her blocking the way, causing her to let out a sigh, noticing how rotten her luck was today. When she had taken this route for the first time a few weeks ago, she had decided to ignore them completely as they shouted snide or perverse remarks regarding her Tokiwadai uniform and appearance.

After they actively pestered her day in and day out to the point of them trying to attack her from one of her remarks she had said to them a few days ago, she had decided to take Misaka's advice by knocking them down a couple pegs, seeing now how it didn't work in her favor.

"Well well if isn't the one and only Asher Zierdan." The one she perceived to be the leader said to her. She was tall with brown hair that was pulled back in a pony tail and wearing a blue jacket.

"Did you really think you were going to get away with what you did to my guys a few days ago?" She continued.

"I really don't have time for this today…." Asher said with a sigh as she stoically stared at them, with no interest in her eyes. "And I think you have the wrong person since I for one am not wearing a Tokiwadai uniform, which if you didn't know is required for them to wear basically all day annoyingly enough."

"I don't think I would be able to mistake you for anyone else, GravShift. Those blue streaks in your hair and stupid devices in your ears kind of give you away." She said with a smirk as her group of boys started to encroach and surround her, with Asher herself not even moving an inch.

"You could be right," Asher said as she narrowed her eyes. "Though if I am who you say I am, I don't think it would be smart for a couple of low ranked espers to attack a Level 5 unprovoked like this. It could lead to some unfortunate circumstances like it did a few days ago…."

"So I would suggest you think against it." She warned as her eyes flashed purple before coming back to their original color, causing some of those around her to step away in fear.

Unlike Misaka, who she knew would shock groups like this around her instantly, she always tried her best not to fight if it wasn't needed, finding it as a waste of time and energy.

Even though the pain in her head had dulled considerably in comparison to this morning, she knew any lapses of her concentration could lead to devastating circumstances if she wasn't careful, convincing her more that it wasn't the best option to fight them again.

As the group remained silent, Asher proceeded to walk in the same direction she was trying to do a couple moments ago, before feeling a hand land on her shoulder. When she looked up, she saw the group leader looking down at her with an amused smile on her face.

"Boss, I don't know if this is a good idea…." A guy said nervously from next to her. "Even with our abilities boosted, do you really think we can take her?"

Ability boost? What does he mean by that? Asher thought to herself, before feeling the leader grip her shoulder tighter than she had just previously.

"Shut up and just stand back if you're afraid!" The girl above her ordered as her smirk seemed to grow. "This middle schooler needs to learn her lesson for trying to take out my gang!"

"You do realize that they were the ones who tried to attack me first right?" Asher deadpanned as she looked up at her with a blank stare.

"I know and I apologize for their actions, but it's my duty as their leader to avenge them from defeat no matter how stupid they were!"

That doesn't make any logical sense at all… Asher thought to herself, not hearing someone walking to the group from behind.

"Oh there you are, Asher!" A boy voice rang out behind her, causing Asher to sweat drop, realizing just who it was.

He would be just as late as I am about to be. He didn't even show up yesterday, she thought to herself, seeing everyone turn their heads.

"I've been looking all over for you!" He said as he casually grabbed her hand.

Even though it was unexpected, she allowed it, feeling her face heat up slightly due to the close contact, as she stoically stared at his back.

Before he could move any farther, one of the gang members stopped him in his tracks.

"Whatcha think you're doi-?"

"HEY ANTI-SKILL!" The boy holding her hand shouted as he looked at the noticeably empty space behind the gang members. "I NEED SOME HELP HERE!"

As all the gang members looked behind them, panicked, the boy who held her hand quickly ran them down the crosswalk, hearing the gang members chasing them from behind after they had realized that they were tricked. As they ran, Asher saw that they were about to run by an alley, immediately pulling the boy in that direction.

"Asher, what are-?" He was about to ask before she put a hand over his mouth.

"Be quiet for a second, Kamijou…" She whispered, as she closed her eyes, focusing on the area they had just came from.

He saw the streaks in her hair glow purple, before seeing a projection of them run down the area outside, hearing the gang members pass them without them realizing it.

"There they are!" Someone shouted.

"Don't let them get away!"

Until she knew it sounded like they were far enough, she took her hand off of his mouth, and dispelled what she had done, quickly pulling them back outside before any of the gang members on the other end had notice….


A few minutes later...

Asher was leaning against the wall out of breath as the boy next to her, Kamijou Touma, was breathing just as hard as she was, slumped over on his knees.

"Why is it that I seem to see you everywhere I go, Kamijou?" Asher said as she looked at him with one of her eyebrows quirked up, seeing him raise his head up with a slight smile on his face. "I see you enough at these sessions as it is."

"I'll take that as a thanks. Sounds like you finally remembered what my name was after nearly 2 weeks of me coming to your tutoring sessions." Kamijou said with amuse in his voice.

"Wonder if that's a good thing or bad thing, as I don't tend to try and learn names of people, unless they're either annoying enough that I can't help but to or tolerable enough that I like them to an extent…" She said bluntly, seeing the boy next to her sweatdrop.

They began to walk towards the school, knowing they were probably going to be late, with silence falling between them for a couple moments.

"Hey Asher…." Kamijou stated, breaking the silence as she gave him a sideways glance.

"How did you do that back there? " He asked with curiosity in his voice. "I know your ability has something to do with gravity, but that didn't look like gravity to me."

"Do you happen to know what a gravitational lens is?" She asked as she looked back in front of her.

"Nope…"

"Well you should, since I went over that about 2 days ago. Sounds like Tsuchimikado and that other annoyance are starting to wear off on you…" She said bluntly, causing him to sweatdrop again.

"But it's basically where I can condense the gravity to bend the light in the area I lay out. I usually only do it around me since it's a little easier with the gravity field that I naturally have around me. I can do it from a distance away from me too, though it requires some more focus since I need to visualize the image I want a little more." she continued.

"Oh yeah I remember that…." Kamijou said with a nervous smile, looking off to the side

"Well that's a lie if I've ever heard one." Asher said with some amuse in her voice. "Something that is true is that Fukiyose is starting to seem to be more tolerable than you now Kamijou. It seems she's the only one who at least tries to listen to me."

"Why are you being so mean to the person who rescued you?" He whined as he had fake tears in his eyes. "You could at least give me some more gratitude."

"To be more precise, you saved the pride of the gang members from before." She said as she looked over her shoulder.

"I wasn't in that much danger since I could have probably taken them out if I had needed to. The only thing I'll thank you on is that you prevented me from having to do so."

"Well I guess I'll take that…" Kamijou said with a groan as they entered the high school doors. "Wish a certain esper I know had that type of thinking. All she wants to do is shock people first and ask questions later."

"That sounds kind of familiar, so I can say I know the feeling." Asher said aloud, thinking back to all the times she either watched or found people shocked senseless from messing with Misaka.

"Really how co-"

"Touma Kamijou and Zierdan Asher, why am I not surprised that the both of you are late?" They heard a teacher's voice say from afar.

When they looked over, they saw two teachers standing there. The one who called them was fairly tall with black hair pulled in a low ponytail. In contrast, the woman standing next to her was fairly short with pink hair that came down close to her shoulders.

"Morning Miss Yomikawa and Miss Komoe!" Kamijou said with a wave as Asher sent a small wave of her own.

"I thought we agreed on that you could change into casual clothes when you get here, Asher?" Yomikawa said as she quirked an eyebrow towards the girl, leaving Kamijou somewhat confused, since that was the only thing he normally saw her in most of the time when he got here.

"I've had a pretty bad morning, Miss Yomikawa and I was already running late, so I just threw on the first thing I saw…." Asher sighed as she gave her a tired look. "I've had probably about 1-2 hours of sleep, so that was the last thing on my mind to be quite honest with you."

"Okay fine," Yomikawa groaned, hearing Komoe laughing a little behind her, knowing there was no use in arguing with the girl in front of them.

Asher had come there multiple times before, as the Head Resident seemed to always make it her punishment to tutor different groups of high schoolers of their school. This had probably been the longest amount of time she had been punished, but since she had been doing fairly well with following the rules up until now, they were going to give her a pass today as it was in fact her last day this span of time.

"Can you at least tell us why you were late today?" Komoe asked.

"It was probably the same group from before right?" Yomikawa asked, seeing the girl nod her head.

"Yeah that's right," Asher sighed as she rubbed the back of her neck. "I apparently made the leader mad, so she decided to come for me herself. Kamijou intervened before she had the chance though."

"Aw, how thoughtful of you Kamijou!" Komoe said with delight as they began to walk into the classroom.

"Oh Hi Kami!" A guy in the back with blonde hair and sunglasses called out from the back of the classroom. "Nice of you to join us! And it seems you brought the blank-faced middle-schooler with you as well…."

"Shut up, Tsuchimikado!" Fukiyose yelled from towards the front. "Why are you always trying to pick fights with her!?"

"Settle down," Yomikawa said with amuse in her voice. "He's probably upset that this is her last day tutoring for a time since summer break is coming pretty soon…."

"Right like I would ever miss-" Tsuchimikado tried to say before feeling his desk flip over.

"Owww! What the hell was that for!" He yelled, looking over at the girl who gave him a stoic look as Yomikawa sighed behind her, hearing most of the people in the room laughing.

"Asher, you know better..." Yomikawa said from behind her.

"Sorry, small lapse of judgement." Asher said casually. "Is there any specific topics you want me to go over with them today, Miss Komoe?"

As they discussed up front, Kamijou felt a light tap on his shoulder when he sat down at his desk, looking over and seeing his friends, Aogami and Tsuchimikado, giving him a sketchy smile.

"Kami, guess what we found out," Aogami said.

"What?" Kamijou asked as he turned to look at them, not listening to Asher as she started talking to the people that were in there.

"It seems our tutor goes to Tokiwadai Middle School. You know that private school with all those girls in it? You have to at least be a level 3 to be able to get in." Tsuchimikado stated.

"Wait really?" Kamijou asked with a surprise look on his face.

Isn't that the same school that Zapper goes to? He thought to himself.

"How did you find that out? She didn't even tell us that when she started tutoring our group a few weeks ago." He questioned.

"Oh well, when you weren't here yesterday, we looked through that bag that she sometimes brings with her when she was talking to Miss Komoe out in the hallway and saw the uniform in her bag." Aogami said with a pervy smile on his face, as he relished in the fact that they had done that.

"And get this, rumor has it that she's a-"

Before Tsuchimikado could finish, two books came out of no where, flying through the air and instantly hitting the faces of both Aogami and Tsuchimikado as they fell on the floor, completely dazed.

As Kamijou and the rest who were there looked to the front in surprise, they heard Asher let out a small sigh, seeing her eyebrow twitching in frustration as she messed with the device in her ears, noticing that Yomikawa and Komoe had left a few moments before.

"Why do there seem to be perverts everywhere I go?" She said mostly to herself as she rubbed the side of her head, feeling a stress headache starting to develop on her right temple. "I thought you caught the hint earlier that I am not in the mood for your annoying shenanigans today, Aogami, Tsuchimikado, and Kamijou…."

"Hey! Why did you rope me in with them!?" Kamijou asked as he raised up from his seat. "I didn't even do anything!"

"You were talking to them when I was actually trying to talk just now, meaning you were being just as annoying, however, since you didn't go through my bag without my permission yesterday, I decided to not throw a book at you, even though I thought of doing so for a second there." Asher said casually before going back into what she had been going over before that interruption.

"Damn my rotten luck…." Kamijou groaned as he sat back down, semi-paying attention to what Asher was going over today.


About one hour later...

After the session was over, Kamijou and Asher left and proceeded to leave. Since Kamijou had to go this way to his dorm, he would usually walk with her before he got there. At first when he started doing this a few weeks ago, she wouldn't even try talking to him when he asked her questions, only receiving small nods or yes's or no's here and there.

But as he did it more and more, she seemed to be more open to it, with him usually starting the conversation and them talking practically all the way until he had to walk down another crosswalk to his dorm.

"So Asher I have a question…" Kamijou said, hearing Asher let out a sigh next to him.

"Is it about what that annoying blonde and blue-haired pervert said earlier concerning my things?" Asher asked with slight annoyance in her voice.

"Yeah, I'm guessing you were able to hear them then…" He said with a sweatdrop, knowing that she was referring to Tsuchimikado and Aogami, who had left with book shaped bruises on their faces.

"Clear as crystal," Asher said as she pointed to the Anti-Amps in her ears. "Even though I use this to mostly dampen the sound around me, I can still raise the volume if I need to. You three were acting suspicious, which prompted me to do just that."

"I promise I don't condone what they did…" Kamijou said genuinely. "But is it true that you go to Tokiwadai? From what you told us, you would be in your 2nd year there."

"Yeah I do….."

"How come you didn't tell us that on your first day and change out of your uniform before you came in the classroom? When we walk together, you usually stay in the clothes you currently have on, even though you guys are most likely supposed to wear them." Kamijou asked.

"To answer the first question, I'm not huge on the attention it receives when I wear it too far from Tokiwadai. It sometimes makes me uncomfortable when random people try to talk to me so I try avoiding that if necessary, and as you saw earlier, my uniform can indicate or make people assume how powerful my abilities are, with them either fearing it, praising it, or just wanting to test it by messing with me." Asher said as he nodded.

"So basically you use it to make yourself more comfortable in a way while also maintaining your cover as a potentially high level esper." Kamijou concluded.

"Yeah basically," Asher said as she looked at him. "My personality makes it hard for me to talk to people sometimes if I don't really know them all that well, leading to fights if I say the wrong thing, or them just not really wanting to be around me if they either recognize who I am or find me unfriendly. I just try lessening that as much as I possibly can, even though I don't do it as much as of late since I tend to get in trouble for not wearing it..."

"To answer your second question, Miss Yomikawa understands why from getting to know me after I started tutoring at your school for the span of times my Head Resident forced me to. So she made a compromise by allowing me to wear casual clothes in front of you guys to and on the way back to my dorm to make me more comfortable…"

"Even though I sometimes didn't wear it to the school, she usually understands why and gives me a pass most of the time by just having me talk to her and Miss Komoe sometimes after the tutoring session." She said, finishing her explanation.

"Oh that makes sense," Kamijou replied as he looked down the crosswalk. "What doesn't make sense is to why people find you unfriendly. You seem like a decent person, even though I've only known you a couple weeks..."

"I know you probably learned my name before you started to actively say it today, meaning you were probably just teasing me for all that time by not saying it or pretending you forgot." He continued jokingly.

As Kamijou looked over at Asher, her usually stoic face seemed to be a little downcast as she looked towards the ground slightly.

"I actually really didn't remember, until just now. So…sorry for that," She replied. "I wish it was just me playing around but I can say for certain that it isn't. It's hard for my brain to remember names and faces of people sometimes while also connecting it with the inherent information I learn about them..."

"Even though I've gotten better, you've been one of hardest for me to keep tabs on, but it's not unusual for that to happen at times. It's more or less due to an incident 1-2 years back that ended up giving me some bad damage in the areas of my brain that handles that among other things."

"Among other things?" Kamijou said under his breath.

"For example, as you know, my ears can get too sensitive for the sound around me at times, to the point where that will end up being the only thing I can think about at that given moment if it gets too much for me to take. The medicine that I have to take every morning helps by stopping me from getting to that point in conjunction with my Anti-Amps if the sound is still too harsh for my ears during some days…"

"At my worst, I can get pretty unstable from being overwhelmed by all the noise around me, so I try to avoid that from happening the best I can, as it could create a bad situation for those involved or if someone is trying to help me in regard to that. At my best, it will just either leave me with an excruciating headache or pain in my ears..."

"As for your question, there are some reasons that I can think as of why people tend to avoid me, though I don't really want to go into them right now, as it involves something that I'm also still having a hard time remembering." Asher stated as she looked away from him as she rubbed the back of her neck.

"Can we talk about something besides that?" She asked in a low voice. "I know I usually answer your questions the best I can, but I just can't bring myself to answer that one right now…."

Surprise grew on his face for a couple moments, noticing that the girl next to him was either upset or nervous for some reason. Over the time he had gotten to know her, he noticed that she would usually rub her neck whenever she felt uncomfortable with something, using it as a sort of comfort spot at times.

"Yeah sure," he responded with a smile, hoping it would lighten her mood.

"Is there anything you want to know about me?" Kamijou asked, hearing the girl laugh a little under her breath.

"Even if I couldn't remember your face well, I still was able to keep track with what you tell me, connecting it to your face and name after a while of you doing so. I think you more or less gave me enough to know about you, since you did force me to talk by walking with me for almost no reason at all. I'm all for awkward silences, but you didn't seem to like them." She said bluntly with amuse in her voice.

"I'm not trying to be a creep or anything. I just wanted to get to know my tutor…" He groaned. "It probably seemed stalkerish to you. If it did then I'm sorry."

"No it's fine," Asher replied. "I knew you were just trying to get me to talk, since that is what most people try to get me to do. Someone I know did something similar to your method, though it took her a lot longer to get me to talk to her as I was being a lot more stubborn in comparison to how I am now."

"In what way?" Kamijou asked.

"I thought that, logically, if I'd just ignored her all together, she would just go away, but to my surprise, it just motivated her more and more until she somehow succeeded. I also thought she had another motive, as at the time, she was trying to increase her level to the point it is now, and I was fairly high in regards to mine already. But again to my surprise it wasn't true…." Asher continued.

"I think that is the most I've ever heard you talk about someone other than yourself or things that annoy you." Kamijou jested, hearing Asher let out a sigh.

"You make it sound like I'm being self-centered. I was just trying to tell you of another experience to compare to your 'stalker tendencies.'" She replied, causing him to sigh, seeing that one coming.

"So does your friend go to another school around here? I can't imagine someone like you, Asher, hanging out with someone like the Railgun of Tokiwadai. Even the elusive GravShift who I heard goes there."

"You don't need to imagine it, since that happens to be the case." Asher stated matter of factly as Kamijou stopped in his tracks. When she turned around, she saw a complete look of disbelief on his face.

"What?" She asked.

"So let me get this straight: you're insanely smart to the point that even the hardest concepts in quantum physics is child's play to you, your esper power allows you to do a crap ton of things that I didn't even think something like gravity could even do, and now you're telling me that you know two level 5 espers. You're joking right?" Kamijou asked, seeing the girl in front of him remain unfazed.

"I'm not usually one to joke around Kamijou, but yes that is what I'm saying more or less. Other than the two level 5's you're referring to, as I do know two, with one not being by choice, but it seems you have the wrong two depending on your stand point as it is kind of weird to refer to myself in the third person." She said as she turned back around.

"What do you mean by that?" Kamijou asked even more confused. "I already know who zapper is….but-"

A look of realization appeared on his face, looking over at Asher as she looked over her shoulder.

"Why didn't I notice this before?" He said as he slumped down in defeat. "You're GravShift aren't you?"

After silence hung in the air for a couple moments, he heard Asher let out a genuine laugh as she turned herself around to look directly at him.

"Why did you have to say it like that?" Asher said with amusement in her voice. "It's not my fault that you didn't know."

"Kinda hard to know when you literally didn't even say anything. At least Zapper gave me a direct answer by shooting her Railgun to my face…" Kamijou groaned.

Before she could say anything, she sensed the girl in question running up to them from a little ways off, shouting at Kamijou from afar.

"There you are! I've been looking all over for you!" Misaka said as she started running towards them.

"Oh crap, Asher, I need to-" He said before turning around and seeing the girl in question not even there.

Did she just leave me? He thought to himself, before remembering that a certain Electromaster was nearly over to where he was standing.

"Damn my Rotten Luck!" He said as he ran away, with Misaka close behind.

"Get Back here!" She yelled.

After hearing both of them go far enough, Asher stopped hiding with her light projection as she leaned on the wall behind her, sweat dropping slightly.

"Sorry Kamijou," She said aloud. "If Mikoto found me with what I'm wearing in the mood she's apparently in, I probably would have gotten another unfortunate thing to add to my lengthy list…."

As she turned to depart, she stopped in the middle of the path, before sighing to herself and turning back around, going in the direction they had just ran.

Even with that, I guess I feel somewhat obligated to save you from her.


MEDICAL REPORT

CREATED: Approx. 2 Years Ago

SCHOOL DISTRICT 7 HOSPITAL

Personal Info:

Legal First Name: Zierdan | Legal Last Name: Asher-Wright

Age: 12 | DOB: October 28th | Blood Type: B | Height: 162.5 cm

Natural Hair color: Light Blonde w/ Blue Highlights | Natural Eye Color: Blue

Current School: Tokiwadai Middle School (1st year)

Esper Power: Gravity Dimensional Shift (read her esper file to find specific applications)

Level: 5 | Former Ranking: 4th

Current Ranking: Undetermined due to unknown amount of damage concerning personal reality

Parental Background:

Biological Mother: Himari Asher-Wright (Status: Deceased) Biological Father: Ryo Asher (Status: Deceased)

Current Guardian: Undetermined

Former Guardian: Silas Wright (Status: Alive/In Anti-Skill Custody)

Condition of Patient:

Critical

Patient is currently comatose after suffering major damage to her brain and central nervous system due to a strong electrical charge used to destroy the device forcefully implanted into her brain. I was informed by her friend/classmate, this was essentially the only way to destroy the device before she lost control of her abilities again due to the effects of the waveform device installed into her mind through the use of an esper ability.

The only external injuries I can see are burns most likely due to the nearly fully powered shock of the Electromaster. Other minor injuries seen were most likely sustained before the experiment, Project WaveInflux, was forced to occur due to the rough care of her former guardian addressed within her personal records.

The damage that was dealt to her brain was mostly within two main areas: the Temporal Lobe, which focuses on mostly auditory and information organization of the brain, and the Frontal Lobe, which focuses on the overall personal makeup of a person as a whole (such as personality, emotions, behavior, etc.)...

The Frontal Lobe seems to only have sustained minor to medium damage. Meaning I'm more concerned about the extensive damage suffered within the Temporal Lobe as it runs the risk of her memories being either corrupted or completely wiped. The chances of this happening are over half, but I have figured out a way to lower it some by requesting the aid of the Level 5 Mental Out to hopefully piece her overall memories back to how they were if it does occur, even though some memories may still be very much lost…

Her personal reality seems to remain relatively intact, even after the strenuous circumstances pertaining to the device that was used to cause her to go out of control mentally and react badly to the stress physically as her body had undergone high levels of exhaustion and pain.

Patient was on the course towards Level 6, until it was disrupted by either her or an unknown occurrence.

Unfortunately, it did not stop the experiment from occurring, as she still displayed signs of hazardous increases, as she nearly condensed the gravity into herself to essentially come to a cusp of the creation of a black hole, that could've been large enough to wipe Academy City off the map.

Only time will tell if there was any damage sustained to her personal reality due to this fact, leaving her current ranking as the current 4th ranked up for possible revision...

Even with what is listed above, I am confident of the fact that she will make close to a full recovery under my care…..

Signed by: Heaven Canceller

End of Report


Word Count of Chapter: 7075 |Page Count: 14 pages |Reviews: 9 | Followers: 13 |Favorites: 14


Review Replies

Ritzelhax: Thanks for liking my story so far! I understand your point about big chapters vs small 2-3k chapters. I think I lean towards larger chapters more due to the fact that I also like reading big chapters vs smaller ones. So far it seems people are okay with it I think, but if I need to, I'll reduce the size if it starts to become too much. I tend to just write the chapter with at least a 5k-6k word goal in mind and to where I think it should end, but I do know I can overdo it sometimes in that regard though so thanks for the advice:)


Bornkiller9: Thank you! (Glad that people were able to catch onto Touma and hope that you enjoyed her interactions with him in this chapter). In regards to Mikoto's and Asher's relationship, they do currently just have a strong bond from knowing each as long as they have. They pretty much know each other inside and out while also recognizing their inherent differences in terms of how they go at things….

In regards for how Asher feels about her, she knows that she likes her for the kind of person she is. But in terms of stronger feelings other than that, she wouldn't be able to tell as of now if they're any, as she tends to stray away from expressing herself emotionally. She just knows that she generally likes Mikoto's company as she tends to be the most comfortable in it, usually trusting her judgment when it comes to those she adds to their circle of friends…

In regards to the scene in Chp 2, it's another thing that adds to their bond from Asher's standpoint, which you'll see bits and pieces of during later chapters:)


drak3n: Thanks! (and sorry again for the small misunderstanding concerning your name) It took a hot minute to situate everything out, but I thought it was crucial to show Z as a character who can be seen as a Level 5 and as a challenge without being inherently too OP that she could just mop the floor with someone like Accelerator without too much difficulty


Blankow: Okay first: thanks for saying this has potential:`)... I honestly wasn't planning on releasing this story until much later, but decided to do a random trial by fire to see if it would be well received. Seems like it worked since it does seem like people are fairly interested in it, which makes me happy:`)

I hope this chapter gave you some insight on Z's interactions with Touma as he will pop here and there due to him knowing both her and Misaka. The memory loss will be interesting, I think, since Z can understand that feeling to some degree..

Z's teasing is probably the one thing Misaka can't stand about her (in a good way), as Z always finds it pretty funny, so I'll be looking for you guys to see that as well…

To answer the 1st question, you are correct that there are now 8 level 5's, with the top 4 currently maintaining their same spots, while everyone after Z was shifted 1 spot back, meaning Misaki is now the 6th ranked and Gunha is the 8th ranked, since she (Z) is now the 5th ranked.

For the 2nd question pertaining to why Z calls Misaka 'MK', It's just their thing more or less that they developed when they started to be friends, which you will get to see in future chapters:)


Thanks for all of your reviews!

PurpleClover99