No AN...Part 2 of Double upload:D


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 5: Past and Present Circumstances

July 13th, 11:30AM

They finally made it upstairs after showing Uiharu and Saten around the dorms, going down towards Misaka's and Asher's room. They were slightly shocked that Asher didn't decide to immediately go into her own room, after she had casually walked passed it and stood beside Misaka's door.

"Didn't you say that you were going to go to sleep after you got here, Asher?" Saten asked slightly confused.

"I did, but that was under the assumption that MK and Kuroko were going to be the only ones next door. Those two are loud enough as it is and with you two in there with them, I probably wouldn't be able to get any sleep even if I tried." Asher said matter of factly as she ended the illusion around her to show her casual wear.

"Yeah right…" Misaka said with a deadpan. "All you're going to do when we get in there is fall asleep on my bed, leaving me having to be the one who wakes you up when you end up sleeping the day away."

"I'm guessing that happens a lot." Uiharu said with amuse in her voice after seeing Asher sweatdrop from what Misaka had said to her.

"On occasion," Asher said with a sigh. "I never intend on doing it, it just ends up happening, but I'll try not to do that today MK…."

"Alright, I'll hold you to that," Misaka said skeptically as she opened the door of her room, only to walk in and see Shirai flying up in the air, wearing her birthday suit.

"Sissy! You're home at last!" She said happily as Misaka was taken aback in shock.

Before she had any time to react, she saw Shirai slam down onto the ground hard, as Saten and Uiharu looked inside and sweatdropped, hearing the girl groan out in pain.

"What just?" Uiharu and Saten said simultaneously before looking over their shoulder at Asher who stood behind them, stoically staring off towards the side.

"Owwwwwww…." Shirai groaned. "What was that for, Zierdan? Are you still upset about this morning?"

"Upset is one word for it, Kuroko." Asher said as she casually stepped over her and promptly sat on Misaka's bed. "Along with annoyed, irritated, angry, frustrated. If I need to continue I can…."

Well that happened in record time, Misaka thought to herself, hearing Uiharu and Saten laugh nervously behind her.


"Wowwwww!" Uiharu said aloud in disbelief as she walked around Misaka's and Shirai's room. "I can't believe that I'm actually in her room! It's so amazing!"

"The room is so stylish and chic." Saten said in the same amount of disbelief.

As they walked around the room, Misaka was sitting on the bed with a deflated Shirai and a tired Asher, who currently had her back against the backboard of her bed with her arms crossed, blearily staring at the other girls in slight amusement.

"Did you seriously have to greet us like that, Kuroko?" Misaka asked in slight annoyance, after the girl had changed back into something more decent.

"I didn't expect company, since I thought Zierdan was going to go to her room when she got back. Why did you bring her and Uiharu and Saten along?"

"We all happened to run into each other on my way here." Misaka replied. "They came along with me while I did some shopping, and I invited them to come see our dorms."

"That would be the case in terms of Saten and Uiharu, MK, but if I remember correctly I was more or less forced to come along with you…" Asher said, seeing Misaka send her an annoyed glance before hearing Shirai let out a small gasp.

"Shopping?" Shirai asked, seeing Misaka's face light in surprise before she looked away.

"Just for a little while…" Misaka trailed off, seeing the happy faces of Saten and Uiharu as they sat on Shirai's bed from across from them.

Asher was sitting behind Misaka and Shirai, trying her best to stay awake though feeling herself slipping as she kept having to force her eyes open. It wasn't making it any better that her head was starting to ache, whether it was due to her own exhaustion or just something else entirely.

She let out a small sigh as she rubbed the side of her face, which seemed to get the attention of two of the people in the room with her, noticing how quieter she was in comparison to the usual.

"Asher, are you good over there?" Saten asked amusedly. "I thought you said you weren't going to go to sleep in here."

"Yeah…I'm fine…" Asher replied sluggishly as she straightened herself up on what she was laying against. "I was just resting my eyes for a second. Is there something you need from me?"

"No, we were just slightly surprised when you didn't say something against what Shirai was talking about earlier, relating to her exotic underwear that we found in her box, but Misaka beat you to it." Uiharu said amusedly, causing her to look over at the two and seeing Misaka squeezing the life out of her cheeks.

"Oh guess I missed that….." Asher said tiredly as her eyes closed again. "If you're wanting me to save her from MK, then you're unfortunately asking the wrong person."

Saten and Uiharu sweatdropped at that, seeing how fast that idea was thrown out of the window, even though they knew it was a slim chance that she would help them.

Thankfully at one point, Uiharu was able to think of a way to diffuse the current situation.

"Oh you know what would be a good idea, Misaka?" Uiharu asked as she rose up from the bed. "How about you show us some old photo albums if you have any! I would love to see some pictures of you, Asher, and Shirai in grade-school!"

"Great idea! So would I!" Saten said, trying to follow her lead, as Asher let out a small sigh, laying herself flatter on the bed while turning her body towards the wall.

This is the exact reason why I didn't go in my room, Asher thought to herself, feeling herself slowly falling to sleep as the corners of her vision darkened.

What's the point in avoiding noise, when it was still going to happen in the first place whether you were in or not in its presence?


When Misaka went to go grab her album on her desk, she looked over and saw Asher laying sideways on her bed, resting her arm under her head. She laughed slightly to herself at the sight, knowing that this was going to happen eventually, walking around to look at her front and seeing Asher's eyes closed.

She laid a hand against Asher's forehead, as she moved a few pieces of her light blonde hair away, making sure that she was just tired and not on the road towards getting sick. It wasn't all that hot right now, but she did feel and look a little feverish.

After a couple moments of the extended contact, she saw Asher's eyebrows scrunch up slightly, seeing her blue eyes crack open, glazed over due to sleep.

"Mi..ko…to?" She asked tiredly.

"Caught you..." Misaka said softly with a smile. "Are you feeling alright?"

"Yeah….I am….my head is just starting to hurt a bit…." Asher mumbled. "I thought resting my eyes…would help, but I guess I fell asleep instead….Do you want me to go to my room now, because I can if I need to…."

"No, you can go back to sleep." She said as she watched Asher's eyes close again. "I'll wake you up if I need you for something."

"Alright…." Asher said as her body relaxed. "If…you….say so…"

After Asher settled back into sleep, she heard Shirai ask, "Hey Sissy, did you find what you were looking for?"

She proceeded to teleport over to her, noticing now that Asher was sleep on her bed.

"Great," Shirai groaned as she facepalmed. "She always seems to fall asleep on your bed, Sissy."

"Who, Asher?" Saten said with amuse in her voice as she and Uiharu walked over and saw the girl in question completely out. "It was only a matter of time."

"Yeah, I had a feeling she was going to end up falling asleep, even if she didn't want to admit it." Misaka said with a smile, adjusting the Anti-Amp on the ear that was facing them to turn the volume down on her hearing. "We should be able to talk as normal though. I've lowered the volume enough that she shouldn't be disturbed even if we talk a little too loud."

She walked back over to her desk as each of them followed her over there, pulling out her photo album and watched as they went through each of her pictures.

"Awwwww! How adorable!" Saten and Uiharu said simultaneously, causing Misaka to slightly blush from behind them.

When they scrolled over through a bunch, they found a picture of her along with Asher at the park when they were a couple years younger, with both them wearing the brightest smile they could make on their faces.

"Aw, is this you and Asher during your grade school days?" Saten asked seeing Misaka nod her head. "How old were you two in this picture?"

"Hmmmmm, I think Z just turned 10 a couple of weeks before in that picture, meaning I was 9 at the time since she's nearly 6 months older than me." Misaka replied. "It was our first time actually hanging out somewhere outside of school."

"Oh really, Sissy?" Shirai asked. "But how come? I thought you and Zierdan knew each other much earlier than that…."

"Yeah we did in a way since we both went to the same grade school, but she wasn't all that open when it came to talking to anyone in any of our classes, including me sadly." Misaka explained. "I would always see her in passing or in class, as well as hear rumors revolving around her, mostly due to how high of a level she was at that time, even though she was only 6 or 7."

"Oh yeah, you told us just a second ago that you started out as a level 1 before you became a level 5. So, what level was Asher at during that time before she rose to that level as well?" Saten asked.

"Well you see…." Misaka said with a nervous smile. "Z was already considered to be an intellectual child prodigy at the time, nearly competing with college level students at that age. If I remember correctly, she started out as a level 4."

"Wait really!? At age 6 or 7!?" Saten, Uiharu, and Shirai shouted in surprise as Misaka nodded her head to confirm.

"Yeah, though, due to having such a high level at that age, it discouraged most people from wanting to talk or be around her, and since she was already not trying to talk to anyone, she just kept to herself most of the time." Misaka said as her expression fell slightly.

"From what I gathered after a year of seeing that, most people just labeled her as just a blank slate. Someone just incapable of perceiving or feeling any emotions, mostly due to how it seemed like she wouldn't react to anything. I almost thought that as well after a while, since every time I tried to talk to her or get her involved with something in class, she would just give me the cold shoulder and act like I didn't exist. But I stopped thinking that about as quickly and tried again and again anyway…."

"What led you to not giving up when she never tried to talk to you?" Saten asked.

"You could say that it was my own stubbornness that prevented me from doing so…" Misaka said as she laughed under her breath.

"Instead of seeing it as impossible, I saw it as an obstacle to get through in trying to get her to say at least a sentence to me. So, for about 3 years I did just that: sat with her during lunch, walked to and from school with her, sat with her in class, and just tried to ask her questions." She replied smugly as Shirai sweatdropped slightly.

"So you became her stalker until she most likely told you to stop, right? That sounds like a Zierdan thing to do…." Shirai concluded before Misaka quickly turned around in disbelief.

"No it wasn't like that at all, Kuroko!" She said with annoyance in her voice. "It's not like I followed her every day, or did all of those things I listed off at the same time!"

Before she said anything else, they heard Asher let out a small moan, thinking she had woken up due to the volume, only to see her turn over to lay on her back, settling right back into sleep.

Misaka sighed in relief, allowing herself to calm down somewhat as she turned to look at Uiharu, Saten, and Shirai.

"As I was saying, Kuroko, I wasn't trying to stalk her. I was just trying to give her much needed company. It didn't take much for me to tell she was lonely, but she just didn't know how to express that all that well. She may have been book smart, but even now, she has always had a hard time when it comes to expressing herself emotionally. Back then, with her thinking that it was just not a logical thing for her to do so…."

Or something Silas always tried to force her to think. Something I wish I saw earlier than I had, She thought to herself, as her hands clenched slightly, though unnoticeable to those around her.

"One day, she finally caved, even though I hadn't done anything different…" Misaka continued.

"And then after that, she started actively talking to me or at least tried her best to. She was still not used to talking to people, so it took a while before she was comfortable around me to do so, with it more or less relying on me asking questions about her to where she would respond by answering them. She already knew about me personally since that was how I would try and pass the time when I tried to get her to talk all those times before."

"You could say that's when we formally became friends in a way." Misaka finished with a small smile.

"Awwww, such a heartwarming story!" Uiharu said as tears fell from her eyes.

"I guess that's why she tends to gravitate towards you a lot," Saten said with amuse in her voice. "No pun intended by the way…"

"That's our Sissy for you," Shirai said with confidence in her voice. "Always looking out for those in need!"

"Now, I won't take all the credit for our friendship." Misaka stated. "Z has also helped just as much as I did for her. For one thing, I probably wouldn't have gotten up to a status of a level 5, if she hadn't been there pushing me along the way."

She turned towards the others and said, "Well that's enough about that for now. Is there something else we should do for the time being?"

"Oh, how about we go through Shirai's photos next!" Uiharu said excitedly.

"I'd be glad to show you them, or at least I would be if I had something to show for your viewing pleasure." Kuroko replied. "But I sadly don't have any photo albums for you to view…."

As Uiharu looked over at Shirai in confusion, Saten went over to Shirai's bookcase to do some snooping. That is where she found a book that indicated some sort of photo album, though, she didn't have an idea of what type of photos could be in it….

"I'm a girl who doesn't like to seize the day, not worry about my future. I try to stay in the present and savor each-" Shirai continued before looking over at Saten and seeing what was in her hands causing her eyes to widen in panic.

"What about this?" Saten asked before Shirai tried to stop her to no avail, as she walked over to show Uiharu and Misaka what was inside.

When they did…well….apparently to Misaka's surprise, it held multiple pictures of her, in which were taken with neither her permission, nor with her knowledge, causing her to get angry at each passing picture as her face heated up more and more from off-hand embarrassment.

It was then, she got to the last picture, that she knew to be the most recent as she saw Asher and her in the shower together, after she had teleported her in there with her in an horrible effort to wake her up.

She used that damn time as a photo op moment!? Misaka thought to herself, with Uiharu and Saten seeing her starting to shake in anger, as Shirai attempted to sneak away behind them.

"Kuroko you!" Misaka yelled, before running and grabbing her by her cheeks.

"It's a good thing you like to live in the present so much because right now your future is looking fairly bleak right now! And how dare you use Zierdan as a distraction for me not to notice you this morning! You better be glad she isn't up right now or she probably would have sent you halfway across Academy City from seeing that!"

"No you've got it all wrong, Sissy!" Shirai complained.

Unnoticed by them during this, Asher had woken up due to the current situation, opening her eyes to stare up at the ceiling in slight annoyance.

I fall asleep for just a little while, only to wake up to an even more chaotic situation than before, Asher thought to herself, trying to ignore Shirai's explanation as for whatever she did, as a way to keep her sanity intact.

When she sat up from the bed, she felt instant vertigo, her head pounding more than it had been before, causing her to groan in pain unknowingly as she adjusted the noise in her ears to actually be able to hear what was going on around her.

Why does my head hurt so much? I don't think I overused my ability too much from manipulating the light around me and I took my meds this morning, she thought to herself, as she opened her eyes to see the constant shifting the room was doing around her, causing her to close her eyes again.

I better not be getting sick or this will be one heck of a day….

"Good afternoon, Asher, how was your beauty rest?" Saten said with amuse in her voice, seeing Asher cringe slightly due to her volume which Misaka noticed right away.

"It was great, until MK and Kuroko woke me up from all of their arguing." Asher said bluntly as she clutched the front of her head, turning to look at the two in question. "My Anti-Amps were nearly set at 0, and I could still hear the both of you. So, what happened this time?"

"Would you like to explain it to her, Kuroko?" Misaka asked skeptically, seeing the girl in question pale slightly after remembering the picture she had of the two of them.

"Oh nothing," Shirai said with a nervous smile. "It was just a small disagreement, that's all…."

"Right, like I would believe something like that..." Asher said with a sigh as she let her arm sit on the bed under her and tiredly stared at the ground. "But I don't have all that much energy to pry into it, so count yourself lucky, Kuroko."

She tried to rise herself from the bed, only to initially fail, causing her to nearly fall onto the ground as she felt Misaka's arms catch her.

"Woah hey are you doing okay, Zierdan? You starting to seem off-balanced all of the sudden." Misaka asked in alarm, feeling that the girl in her grasp was even hotter in comparison from what she had felt earlier.

"I'm alright…thanks for asking…." Asher strained as she slowly straightened back up. "My headache has just gotten a little worse, so I think I'm going to lay back down in my room for a while."

She walked away slowly, focusing all her concentration on each step, trying to not stagger or trip over her own feet.

"Okay, well I hope you feel better later." Misaka said with slight concern in her voice, as she watched as she leaned on her door knob. "I'll come check on you in a couple hours, alright?"

"Okay and thanks again, MK, and see you later Uiharu and Saten," Asher said as she closed the door behind her quick enough that they didn't have time to reply back.


Asher was standing outside the hall with her back leaning against the wall, as the room seemed to shift around even more and more, trying to catch her bearings.

She slowly walked over to her door to open it only to see that it was locked, and only realizing just now that when she left this morning, she had accidentally left her key inside.

She could usually get by this by using her ability but right now she was having a hard time managing her focus to do such a task, struggling to create such specific dimensions with the haze over her brain.

This isn't making any sense, she thought to herself, tiredly laying her forehead against the door in front of her.

I wasn't feeling this way when I got back to the dorms earlier, and now it feels like I'm just getting worse and worse.

She heard familiar footsteps coming from behind her, hearing it come to a halt as she sent her a sideways glance. She would usually be tense at this moment, especially since she was not wearing her uniform, but right now she was having a hard time as it was just keeping herself upright right now.

"Good afternoon, Head Resident." Asher greeted stoically.

"Asher, where is your uniform?" The Head Resident asked as she crossed her arms.

"It's inside my room. I decided to wear something more comfortable when I got back to the dorm, since I'm not feeling all that great right now." Asher replied as she went next to her door and sat on the hallway floor.

"Hmmmmmm," the Head Resident said as she contemplated her answer. She knew that the girl in front of her was a repeat offender of that rule, but for some reason she did detect some truth to what she said, especially from the current state she was in right now.

She bent down to feel her forehead, seeing her close her eyes as the area under her hand was blazing under her fingertips.

"How come you're not laying down in your room, Asher? It feels like you currently have a fever." The Head Resident asked as she saw her eyes open slightly.

"I accidentally left my key inside…." Asher said tiredly. "I was about to text Mikoto about it, but that was when you showed up, and since I don't have a roommate, there isn't really any other way for me to get in there…."

She nodded her head at that, rising up to her feet and pulling out a ring of keys for that floor and finding the one to unlock Asher's door.

"I have opened the door for you." the Head Resident stated as she looked down at her. "I suggest that you go in there to get some sleep."

"Thanks," Asher said as she rose up to her feet, seeing the Head Resident beginning to walk down the hall. "And I will…."

When she opened her door, she staggered inside her room, promptly laying on her bed until she heard some shouting from next door, pulling a pillow over her head to muffle the noise.

It worked for a time, before she heard a large explosion from an electrical blast that she was familiar of, causing her to stagger back over to the door slightly annoyed.

"Hehhehheh! Did you forget that I can just teleport away from you, whenever I want to?" She heard Shirai say, causing her irritation to skyrocket as she reopened the door, knowing that the teleporter was most likely at fault for causing this standoff between her and Misaka.

"Did you forget that I'm literally trying to sleep in here? What heck did you go off and do this time, Kuroko?" Asher asked angrily as her eyes quickly shifted into purple, sending a small wave of gravity towards her, but watched as she just teleported away.

"You know that something like that can't work on me either, Zierdan" Shirai said with a prideful smirk, seeing the usual stoic girl in front of her, completely infuriated. "You can't write your dimensions fast enough to figure out where I'll teleport to."

"And who the heck said that, because I sure didn't," Asher asked as she sent her a small glare. "It may take me a few or a couple more calculations than usual, but figuring out where you teleport in a closed space like this one, would be easy to figure out if I actually tried to for once."

"It doesn't matter all that much really." Shirai said with a smirk as she watched the two Level 5's seemingly team up against her. "Because you won't stop me from making sure that I have Sissy all to myself today!"

Shirai saw their glares narrow even further towards her, before watching them both look above her and seemed to instantly pale from whatever they saw, with her becoming somewhat confused.

"Is something wrong?" Shirai asked before hearing the familiar voice of the Head Resident ring out behind her.

"According to Dormitory Rules, Part 9, the use of esper abilities inside the dormitories are strictly prohibited, something I would think you yourself would know quite well Shirai." The Head Resident said sternly as she turned to look behind her in fear.

"Good Afternoon, Head Resident! Your outfit is looking quite stunning today!" Shirai said nervously as the girls behind her straightened up just as nervously as she did. "I assure you, we haven't forgotten the rules as we weren't just casually using our powers because we had a very good reason to do so."

"Oh is that so? There were unavoidable circumstances, were there?" The Head Resident asked as she readjusted her glasses, seeing all of the girls nod their heads to confirm.

"Yes exact-" Shirai tried to let out before feeling the Head Resident grab her neck and twisted it to knock her out.

"Well too bad…." The Head Resident stated as she threw the teleporter off to the side.

"Kuroko!" Misaka and Asher yelled in concern before the Head Resident was right in front of them.

"If I made allowances for these so-called emergency situations, the dorm would fall into utter chaos. Meaning rule breakers must be punished without any exceptions, as that is how order will be maintained. Don't you think, Misaka and Asher?" the Head Resident asked as she towered over them.

We are, Misaka thought to herself as tears nearly fell out of her eyes.

So screwed, Asher thought to herself as she paled at the thought of the punishment that was going to be given to each of them.


Several Hours Later….

Asher was laying her forehead against the desk in her room, completely annoyed by her current situation...

Due to the events earlier, she was roped into punishment with both Misaka and Shirai after they had all been caught using their esper abilities in the dorm.

Her punishment wasn't as severe, in comparison to theirs since she hadn't destroyed her door and that the Head Resident knew she wasn't feeling all that well.

But to say that it was annoying, was an understatement….

She was currently under "dorm arrest" until she was able to finish doing all of her summer work, which was something she had been trying to finish for almost 5-6 hours now, since she said that if she checked and saw that she wasn't working on it when she wasn't finished with it, she would add another day to her punishment. She was nearly 90% done with it, as she was nearly done with the work from her last class.

She would have probably been done by now, but she was having a hard time fully concentrating on it, since she had apparently gotten some type of cold, that had gotten a little worse as each hour passed, with her currently sweating after her fever felt like it had skyrocketed.

After resting her aching head for a couple moments, she let out a sigh as she rose back up to finish the last couple problems of her work, which would allow her to finally be able to go and take a nap, since Misaka and Shirai had been sent out to go and clean the pool at the school.

Even though It took her about 20 minutes to do so, she was able to finally finish as she looked at her phone to check and see what time it was.

Great, there goes any chance of me taking a nap. It's nearly 6, so I might as well go to bed, she thought to herself as she just walked over to her bed and laid herself flat against it, deciding to just take a shower when she woke up in the morning.

Before she could close her eyes, however, her phone started to ring.

Sighing to herself, she reached over for her phone on her desk and looked at the caller ID, accepting the call as she put it up to her ear.

"Yes, Mikoto…." She said tiredly.

"Hey Z," Misaka said on the other end. "I was just calling to check on you, are you feeling any better?"

"Not really since my head is killing me….." Asher said as she rubbed the side of her temple. "But I think my fever is about to break, since I'm sweating so much, so hopefully I'll feel better in the morning. How did cleaning the pool go?"

"It was pretty boring, and it took me and Kuroko forever since neither of our abilities can really help all that much to make it go faster. I gave Kuroko your gift by the way, and it looks like she really liked it."

It took her a second before she realized what she was talking about. The other day, she had purchased a picture frame to frame the first picture that the three had ever taken together, being told by Misaka herself, that it was a good thing to get for the teleporter for today.

She had asked Misaka if she could hand it to Shirai for her, mostly due to knowing that she was also going to hand her the gift she got for her as well when they were out.

"I guess that's one good thing to hear about her today. How did she react to the gift you gave to her?" Asher asked, hearing a nervous laugh come from Misaka.

"Let's just say that she liked it as well and leave it at that…."

"Alright, I don't feel like trying to figure out what that means, so I'll just take your word for it."

"That's probably for the best." Misaka replied. "Anyway, do you need me to get you anything to eat or any medicine while me and Kuroko are out? We should be heading back shortly."

"I don't feel like eating anything right now…..but some cold medicine would be nice if you could get me some…" Asher said, feeling herself getting more and more tired as time went on.

"Okay, I will try to find you some, so just try to get some rest before I get back." Misaka said.

"I will and thanks…." Asher said as she closed her eyes.

"You're welcome Z, see you later." Misaka replied with Asher only humming in response as the call ended, with her already completely out.


One hour later….

Misaka made her way over to Asher's room, after she and Shirai had made it back to the dorms a couple minutes ago. She was about to knock on her dorm, before realizing that the door was already unlocked, prompting her to just go inside.

When she walked in, she just saw Asher laying face down on her bed, with her right arm hanging off the side of it.

Laughing to herself at her current sleeping position, she walked over to the side of her bed and felt her forehead, feeling how much she was sweating in comparison to when she had checked earlier.

She softly took the Anti-Amps out one of her ears and inserted the thermometer that she had with her into it to see if her temperature had gone down at all. When she took it out, she saw that it read 37 C (99 F), meaning that it had gone down some from what it had been earlier.

After she had removed it from her ear, she heard Asher let out a small groan below her, as she rolled over onto her back, and looked up at her blearily.

"Hey…Mikoto….how long have you been in here…." Asher asked tiredly, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"Not too long, since I just got back," Misaka replied as she put the medicine in front of her face. "I got you some cold medicine that should hopefully help out with the headache you have."

"Okay…thanks….I'll take it when I wake up later…." Asher replied as she closed her eyes, before feeling Misaka shake her slightly.

"If 'later' means tomorrow morning, then I think that isn't the greatest idea. There's a high chance that you'll still be pretty sick if you wait that long." Misaka advised, with her not even trying to open her eyes back up.

"I'll just sleep in then if that happens," Asher remarked. "I don't have anymore tutoring sessions to do. I finished all of my summer work, and it's Saturday, giving me the proper excuse to 'sleep my day away' as you said before…."

Misaka let out a sigh from that, resorting to using her back up plan to hopefully convince her reluctant friend.

"You know, after you left my room earlier, we decided that tomorrow was a great day to show Uiharu and Saten around the Garden of Learning." Misaka said sweetly, seeing Asher's eyebrows raise slightly but didn't see her eyes open yet.

"A great place indeed, for most people. But you know that I'm not usually a part of said group." Asher responded. "There's way too many people there, and some of them can be quite annoying to interact with, so I'll pass on that."

"Yeah, that's what I thought you were going to say." Misaka replied with a shrug of her shoulders. "Oh well, that's too bad since we were going to go to one of your favorite places here in Academy City, the Pasticceria Manicagni, since Saten wanted to go taste their cheesecake."

The room went silent for a moment with Asher having to take a second to process that...

"Seriously?" Asher asked as one of her eyes cracked opened slightly, seeing Misaka nodding her head to confirm.

It's working! It's working! Now time to reel her in, Misaka thought to herself happily.

"Yeah, but if you don't want to go, it's fine." Misaka said as she began to walk towards the door. "I just assumed you would have wanted to go there, since if I remember correctly, you love their ciocolata, but in any case, if you want to sleep in tomorrow you can. We won't try to disturb you."

Before she could get to the door, she heard Asher let out a sigh as she sat herself up in her bed, and grabbed the cold medicine off of her desk.

"What time do I need to be up in the morning?" Asher groaned.

"I'll let you sleep in as much as you can, so I'd say to be up at least by 10." Misaka said with a smile. "If you're not up by then, I'll be the one to go and wake you up tomorrow, so don't worry."

"I guess I can agree to that." Asher said as she let out sigh and took the medicine.

After she did, she laid back onto her back as Misaka was about to walk out and close the door.

"Goodnight, Z!" Misaka said triumphantly, with Asher letting out a couple laughs from hearing it in her voice.

"Goodnight, Mikoto the Manipulator…" Asher replied as she turned over towards the wall, loud enough for Misaka to hear as it caused her face to heat up.

"Hey! I'm not being manipulative!" Misaka called out slightly annoyed.

"Then what do you call what you just did?" Asher stated with amuse in her voice. "I may be sick, but I'm not stupid.."

"I know that! But I would say it was more of a small bribe more than anything." Misaka stated.

"And I would say that a bribe and manipulation are just two different words with the same meaning…" Asher retorted back, hearing Misaka let out a few grumbles.

"You must be feeling better if you're able to hold a conversation with me like this." Misaka said as her eyebrow twitched in annoyance from her use of logic, hearing Asher let out a couple more laughs.

"Night, Mikoto..." Asher repeated as a correction from what she had said earlier.

"Night Zierdan..." Misaka responded as she finally closed the door, leaving Asher to sleep peaceably in her room that night with no complications at all.


Word Count of Chapter: 6274 |Page Count: 12 pages |Reviews: 13 | Followers: 21 |Favorites: 17

Hope you enjoyed this double update!

(Sidenote: "ciocolata" is Italian for "chocolate" just in case you didn't know what Asher was getting bribed with;)


Review Replies

Kaore Ryu: Glad that you like the story so far and Asher's character...I know I haven't revealed all that much about her backstory but I promise it will be given (and the roles the kiharas played as well), but for right now in bits in pieces, with this one having some context from Misaka's eyes when they were younger...(I didn't want to overwhelm you guys with her backstory from the get go lol, so I'm sorry for all the questions you probably have surrounding it...they all will hopefully be answered in due time :)

Thanks for your review!

PurpleClover99