AN: Hello readers! I have returned again a little bit early for this next chapter!
We have surprisingly reached 80 reviews since the release of the last chapter, which is both shocking and nice to see for something I've only worked for nearly 4 months on...
Thanks, as it's nice and uplifting to read every last one of them each and every time:`)
Well that's all I have for today, so I hope you enjoy this chapter where I can say that we FINALLY move on to July 20th at some point briefly. The pacing will hopefully (*crosses fingers*) start to pick up a bit after this but we'll see as I can't ever predict how much I am going to write lol.
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:)
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 24: Mission Failed On All Sides But One
July 19th, 7:45PM
Outside of JonaGarden's
Asher was running a full sprint with Shirai right behind her as they made their way over to Misaka's destination. She had been able to find the Electromaster's electromagnetic waves fairly quickly due to how active they were in the area, signaling to the both of them that there was a chance that she was fighting someone.
Even though it wasn't a total surprise to them, it was worrying more than anything due to where Asher knew Misaka to be.
Of all places to use those electric abilities of yours, Mikoto, why is it that you do it near one of the Main Power Substations within this part of the district? She thought as she let out a sigh, turning to look at Shirai over her shoulder.
"I suggest that you go ahead and teleport over there, Kuroko. I'll be fine getting there on my own as I can probably keep up with you by lowering the gravity around me to increase my speed." Asher remarked as Shirai looked over at her skeptically.
"Zierdan you know you're not supposed to be using your ability today or probably even tomorrow." Shirai stated as irritation seeped into her voice. "You're only supposed to be using it for-"
"Emergencies only…I know that pretty well since that's probably the 100th time I've heard it today." Asher sighed before her stoic face grew serious. "I get that you and even MK are concerned that I'll overwork myself again. But unless you want there to be a massive blackout from her probably not knowing there being a Substation just waiting for her to fry and destroy, then I think this is a better time as any for me to use my ability at least as a backup to try and stop it from happening…"
"That is the main reason why I'm asking you to go on and get there first to at least warn her. Even with how fast I can get with just altering amount of hold gravity has around me, you'll still faster as of right now due to my current handicap…" Asher explained as she turned back around, missing the look of surprise fall on Shirai's face. "I know it's probably not all that shocking from the amounts of times I say it any regular day, but I'm legitimately exhausted of most of my energy to even try to attempt complicated calculations to do stuff with my ability that I can usually do without any issues as I can…admit that I'm still recovering from what happened yesterday. It really took a lot out of me and I'm still dealing with the side-effects…"
"And even if I could just push myself to be the first one to get there, I know that I can trust you to at least do it for me, so I can save my energy in case things get out of hand to where I'll need to cancel her electricity somehow."
Asher slowed down to a stop, not looking behind her to be able to see the starstruck face of Shirai as she came to a stop as well.
"At least that's what I want to logically believe is the case anyway." She continued before turning around and wearing a small smile on her face. "You can tell me otherwise if you want, but is what I said right in terms of your capabilities vs mine right now, Kuroko?"
A silence fell between them for a while with Shirai feeling more and more surprise rush into her system from the esper in front of her doing the unthinkable…
To get Asher to admit whenever she was at her limit on something was nearly an impossible feat if it wasn't gone about the right way to goad her into saying it.
For her to just come out and say that without being forced or pushed a little by Shirai herself, was enough to show that it must be severe enough that even she can't shrug it off like she usually does.
Or, something even more shocking, was that she was allowing herself to lean on those she trusted a little bit more to lessen the stress that she always tries to put onto herself when it comes to situations like these where she probably believes she's the best suited to do it and ignore other routes of engagement.
There was just some type of new light about her that Shirai couldn't describe but at the same time liked to some extent from how…happier or even more relaxed and open she seemed in comparison to the last couple days, maybe even in the last month that she has known her.
It was enough to even bring a smile on her face after a while when she walked past her, laughing a little under her breath due to the question that she had just asked.
"Honestly, do you really have to ask that of me? Me, Kuroko Shirai, partner to the great Level 5 Ace and Jack duo of Tokiwadai: Railgun and GravShift? Of course, I can do what you asked of me. It's a little insulting to even hear such a question put out so casually by you of all people." Shirai remarked amusedly as confusion grew on Asher's face from the name she had just heard.
"Jack? What that's supposed to-" Asher tried to say before Shirai began to teleport ahead.
"It's ironic that I have to say this to someone as introverted and quiet as you are Zierdan, but we need to do less talking and more action so that we can make sure to keep Sissy on her best behavior!" Shirai yelled aloud as she traversed farther and farther down the sidewalk.
It wasn't too long to hear footsteps running right behind her, turning back and seeing a purple vibrance encircling Asher's form as she ran faster and faster.
"Still always listening to only parts of the things I say it seems." Asher said with a sigh as amusement trickled into her voice. "I told you before that you're faster in terms of speed right now, but I could probably still be able to keep up with you. That is, if you at least waited for me to say I was ready to go. If I hadn't already prepared myself to do it, I would've still been trying to catch up with you without any chance of actually reaching you like this."
Shirai laughed at that as she smiled back down at her. "I'm shocked that someone as lazy as you are can even attempt such a thing with one of only 58 teleporters within the city. Just another thing to check off the list in terms of what you and Sissy can do with your abilities." She turned back around to look back in front of her. "Well I'm going to go more ahead. I'll try my best to stop her with whatever she's doing, but please be sure to get there in a timely manner even with that being the case."
Asher hummed in reply as Shirai disappeared again, sensing her popping in and out of the air as she got closer and closer to where Misaka was. A rare chuckle escaped her lips after she was still thinking over what Shirai had called her before and attempted to question her on.
The Jack of Tokiwadai huh? As in a "Jack of all trades" from what it seems like…That's a new one I don't think I've ever heard of before in relating to naming myself. She thought to herself.
It has some logic in it I guess, even if it came from someone who seems to not have any at times…
Now that I think about it, it's probably logical having some type of card associated with me, considering the other two have nicknames associated with them as well for some reason or another.
Even though she can also apply her ability in many areas as much as I can, Mikoto already has the Ace to her name. And then there's Misaki or so called "Queen" of Tokiwadai which makes sense because of that ability of hers.
Even if I'm not usually one to bind myself to the number of names that we all seem to have…
The "Jack of Tokiwadai" doesn't seem all that bad in comparison to the ones I've already been called before.
In an Alley Somewhere Within the 7th District…
Misaka was standing in the center of an alleyway with electricity sparking around her as a prideful smile fell on her face.
After she had seemingly convinced the guys who were rumored to have used the Level Upper from before to give her intel on it, she left Shirai and Asher behind to come here along with them in hopes they would willfully give it to her without too much of a hassle.
However, her patience wore thin when they attempted to rob her instead, figuring out that she was a student of Tokiwadai…
Also just as unfortunate was that they didn't know that she was also the Level 5 Railgun at the same time, which probably became more apparent from the strong blast of electricity she surged into their system. It was right around that time that the leader, who she was currently going up against, came here to aid her…
At least that's what she thought had happened anyway.
She had gotten the boys of the group to apologize to her, but then turned right back around and instigated a fight that Misaka honestly wasn't trying to get into.
She had given her multiple chances of walking away from this, but made the mistake of taunting her into giving her "best' versus the level of skill and power that she had already shown her…
Now finding herself in a position where she couldn't refuse the bet in an effort of definitely showing her some semblance of her best to prove that it shouldn't have been asked in the first place.
"That sounds like a challenge," Misaka remarked after a while, seeing the older girl smirk in response as she began to raise her hand in the air. "I'm happy to go ahead and take you up on it."
It was at this moment that Shirai teleported in with Asher not too far behind her as she was nearly there.
Shirai's eyes widened at seeing how much electricity Misaka was letting off, watching in concern as the sparks got closer and closer to the lines for the Power Substation that was close by to them.
"Sissy, hold on!" Shirai called out.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know Kuroko. But this shouldn't last too long." Misaka replied without even turning to look at the teleporter behind her.
"No, I really don't think you do at all! You really need to stop!"
Asher let out a curse as she slid into the alley, pushing forward even faster as she approached Misaka from behind without any fear of the massive amounts of electricity coming off of her.
"Mikoto! You have to stop this right now!" Asher shouted, causing Misaka to flinch at the immense amounts of seriousness within her usually stoic voice.
But it was already too late as her electricity was already armed to strike and dispel into her attack, something Asher knew to be the case as she ran and grabbed her wrist.
"Zierdan what are you…Hey wait! You know you can't do that right now, so stop it!" Misaka began before her eyes widened in to shock as she tried to stop her from doing whatever it was in her weakened state.
Purple immediately flooded around them for a couple of moments as a power struggle occurred, stopping just as fast as it began as Asher was launched a dozen of feet away into the fence located behind Shirai, grunting out in pain as she crashed to the ground.
D-Dang…it…I wasn't able to raise it fast e-enough. Asher thought to herself as she saw her world go dark for a while.
Electricity immediately overtook the area as purple light gradually turned blue in color, letting out a rumbling crash as soon as it hit the ground and sent it discharging every which way into the electrical grid around them and turned it off.
That was the least of Misaka's and Shirai's worries at this point as they both turned back with a look of horror on their faces as they saw Asher laying face down on the ground completely still with smoke rising up from her body.
"ZIERDAN!" They both screamed out as Shirai teleported over to her with Misaka close behind, ignoring the older girl who was taken aback at the amount of destruction the Electromaster had done to the ground in front of her.
"H-Hey, are you alright!? Say something!" Shirai yelled as she shook the unresponsive esper slightly.
Misaka came onto the ground next to her and turned Asher on her back. Her entire body was trembling right now, feeling a wash of emotions encompass her from fear of her indirectly shocking her body enough to knock her out or even damaged her heart enough to cause it to stop.
No no no no no! Not again, Misaka thought in a panic, bringing two fingers to try to find a pulse on Asher's neck as she found herself thinking back to something close to this in which she was on a road close to death if nothing had been done to prevent it.
Oh god, please don't let this be happening again!
After a few seconds of this extended contact, Misaka and Shirai both let out sighs of relief when they heard Asher groan a little under her breath as her face scrunched up in both pain and discomfort.
"Nnnnghhh, please stop ye-yelling….Tch…th-that hurt more than I thought it was going to." She groaned as she cracked her blue eyes open to see the disheveled girls above her. "I h-hate that it seems to always happen in just m-my direction whenever I attempt it like that…"
"Zierdan! Th-Thank goodness! " Misaka said as a relieved smile came on her face, before she and Shirai began to fire questions at her.
"What is your name, age, and your birthday!?" Misaka rushed out as Asher's face fell in confusion.
"Um, Zierdan Asher, I'm 14 years old, and my birthday is October 28th. But why do you nee-"
"Where are you, what are our names, and how are you feeling!?" Shirai questioned, cutting off Asher from saying anything further as she was on the verge short-circuiting from how many things she was trying to process at this moment.
"Please calm d-down…Coming cl-close to a s-sensory overload because of it. B-But as for your questions, I'm in an alley with you, Kuroko Shirai, and Mikoto Misaka. And right now, I think I'm alright. I used a couple of barriers to slow myself down before I crashed into whatever that was. I still hurt to some extent though, but I'm pretty sure all that just happened was that I just got the wind knocked right out of me." Asher remarked as she sat up into a sitting position.
"It was not a pleasant experience to go through whatsoever…"
Misaka and Shirai both sighed out in relief again, seeing that Asher looked relatively fine with a chance of some sort of concussion still there but lowered for right now.
"Yeah no kidding. I don't think my heart has ever dropped so fast before." Shirai stated aloud as Misaka nodded in agreement.
"Zierdan, I can't believe that you even tried to do that!" Misaka shouted in disbelief as the esper in question remained unfazed. "If you thought I was going to hit that girl, I wasn't going to no matter how much she was asking for it! But even with that in mind, you shouldn't have even dared to try to cancel out my electricity with your gravity when you shouldn't even be trying to control it in the first place!"
"Y-Yeah I know." Asher stated as she cringed at her volume, reaching her hand to take out her Amps that seemed to of stopped working due to the electrical blast. "I thought that I had enough processing power to calculate the minimum amount of gravity I needed to use in relation to the amount of Electricity you were using. Which I did, but just couldn't raise my gravity fast enough to prevent a reaction from occurring. That apparently led to me flying in the air with my ability canceled out for a few moments which prevented me from trying to stop until it was pretty much too late."
Misaka's eyes narrowed at that explanation for a while before she released a sigh, rising up to her feet as she rubbed the bridge of her nose.
"What was the logic behind in potentially, but hopefully just nearly sending you back to the hospital?" Misaka asked as she and Shirai helped Asher to her feet and began to help her walk when she wasn't able to really to do it by herself. "Sure you may be better at doing it from a distance, but you know that I have the advantage when it comes to canceling out our abilities up close."
"F-First, I may be a little dizzy and unsteady right now, but I'm mostly fine. I think I'm hurting more from crashing into my barriers than being hit by your electricity, and as I said, the wind was just knocked out of me so I don't need any medical attention." Asher explained.
"And secondly, you were the main reason why I intervened. Not the person you were fighting from before. If you gave Kuroko some time to explain before trying to deal a final blow to that girl's pride, you would've realized that you should have probably done it elsewhere." She finished bluntly.
Confusion lit up Misaka's face as Shirai let out a sigh, looking over at her with a sideways glance.
"For someone known to be able to detect electromagnetic waves fairly well, I find it surprising that you don't know what we were trying to stop you from doing." Shirai stated.
After Misaka failed to recover her shoes that were stuck within the asphalt due to being lost because of her attacker's ability, Asher and Shirai explained what the Electromaster had apparently been oblivious to her being close to in the first place.
She stomped away as they were passing the sign to the Substation, feeling her irritation and some embarrassment spike when Asher released a sigh from behind her.
"I don't really get why you're annoyed and upset MK..." Asher said stoically.
"I mean, this is why we were trying to tell you not to do it." Shirai added as Misaka clutched her hand at her side into a fist.
"It's not my fault is it?" She began before turning around and slamming her hand on the sign of the Power Substation that they were standing next to. "How was I supposed to know that something like THIS was even here? I may be able to sense EM waves with my radar, Kuroko, but do you understand that they're basically everywhere around this city!?"
"Like we said, we knew there was one. Which again, we tried to warn you about, but you just wouldn't listen to us..." Asher and Shirai replied together as grumbles of frustration (mostly towards herself) came out of Misaka's lips.
"But you two can't just show up at the last second like that and expect me to know what you were even talking about! You two didn't even tell me about this thing then and there so I'm sorry for not realizing about it any sooner than now!" Misaka explained before she looked down at her bare feet. "And what am I going to do about my shoes!?"
"I'd say that's a problem for you to figure out Sissy." Shirai stated as Asher hummed in agreement.
Misaka let more grumbles slip from her mouth before walking back towards Asher to aid in Shirai helping her to walk, increasing their pace slightly enough to hopefully make it to the dorms before the Head Resident would realize that they hadn't made it there yet.
By the Entry Gates of Academy City…
The surge of electricity went through the electrical grid of multiple parts of the city, leading to blackouts within those affected areas.
One of the entry points within the city was affected by this event, increasing the chances of anyone being able to enter due to this rare breach in security.
Someone took advantage of this unknowingly as she rushed through the gates. She continuously looked over her shoulder, seeing no one but knew she was being followed at the same time.
I have to hurry…I can't allow them to acquire these grimoires! She thought to herself as the bottom of her white robe and headdress flew in tandem with the wind she was picking up as she ran and ran without any chance of stopping.
After she had gotten out of view, there were two others that rushed through the gate right behind her, stopping in their tracks as they looked around and saw her nowhere in sight.
The one who had long red hair sighed and looked up towards the moon in the sky, bringing out a cigarette out from his black robe and lit it to put it into his mouth.
"Kanzaki," He said aloud to the woman standing in front of him. "How much longer do we have now? With her now in that city, there's no telling where she'll go."
The woman known to be Kanzaki Kaori turned back to look over at him, instinctively keeping one of her hands resting on the sword at her side.
"After tonight, we'll only have about a week left until the 28th to erase her memories again." Kanzaki replied as an unreadable emotion filled her voice.
Silence fell between them for a while, feeling conflicted about what they were doing but knew at the same time that this needed to be done for the sake of their friend.
"Come on, Stiyl." Kanzaki stated as she turned back around. "We should keep moving before she gets too far away from us."
The boy that she had spoken to, Styil Magnus, sent her back a nod as they both continued on with their mission granted to them by their Church, Necessarius…
To reset the memory of the girl known as Index Librorum Prohibitorum before her life would come to an end on the day in question due to being destined to being overwhelmed by all of the memories within her head.
July 20th, 8:00AM
Saten was staring absentmindedly at the computer screen in front of her, laying her hand into her hand after a while as she let out a sigh.
She kept thinking back to the conversation she had with Uiharu the night before relating about their or (more specifically) her dreams regarding the Urban Legend of the Level Upper.
She tried her best to play off her desire as nothing but a fantasy of hers, but…
She just couldn't keep thinking about the possibilities of what could happen if she actually acquires the Level Upper for herself to finally gain the power that she wanted so desperately in order to be useful when it came to the livelihood of her friends.
She always felt helpless whenever she was around them during situations where there was trouble involved as each of them had something that they could bring to the table...
Misaka and Asher were both Level 5's within a city only filled with 8 of them, graced with powerful abilities and intellect that they potentially had every problem put out in front of them solved without too much of a hassle.
Shirai was also a high leveled esper as she was only one level below the both of them, having the ability of a teleporter that was also rare to see within this city. She was also affiliated with Judgment, trying her best to go around and protect those within this city to bring justice to those who were trying to do the opposite of that and disturb the peace.
And even though Uiharu was only a level above her own, she was also affiliated with Judgment in the same sense as Shirai was, using her extraordinary computer skills to work behind the scenes but also having the courage to go out in the field to help those in need.
And then there was her…
A Level 0 who honestly just happened to know each of them and always seemed to be the one in harm's way whenever she was around.
She hated feeling this way about herself, constantly feeling selfish for her own self-loathing and some inklings of jealousy towards her friends whenever peril arose, and she couldn't do one single thing to help any of them.
She had seen Shirai take out guys bigger than her without any trouble….
Seen Misaka cut through anything with her Railgun and remain humble within her celebrity status of being a Level 5 esper along with Asher resembling qualities that were both similar and different in nature but were well-rounded enough to allow herself to do the same with her own abilities when push came to shove to require the energy to do so.
And then, she had seen Uiharu, seemingly about as powerless as she was, not fear what was being put up against her…
What could she do in comparison to each of her friends other than witness their countless feats and acts of heroism?
What could she do when there would be a day when they would need her help, even though that day never even seemed like it would ever come?
She didn't know how to voice this to any of them, always feeling herself pulling herself back from doing so for knowing that most of them would not be able to understand these feelings and didn't want to bother them with something as pointless as the argument of her own self-worth.
As she felt someone needed it more than she did….
The only person that she felt that she was actually helping and almost felt like she was helping herself at the same time as she knew she was needed in order to help whatever seemed to be inflicting the esper in ways that she refused to give to them, knowing Misaka was probably the only keeper of those secrets.
Asher had her worried for a time as it almost seemed like she was falling down the slope faster than she was, seeing her internally struggling with something darker than her own struggles that she just couldn't bring herself to confide in her, Uiharu, and probably even Shirai.
Saten had seen her as the only one who most likely could understand what she was feeling…
This emptiness and unfounded guilt within herself that she knew shouldn't be there but found herself unable to argue against having…
Unable to remember a time at this point of not feeling them to some degree…
Saten had sat there staring at the screen for a while, looking at the vague results in regard to the existence of the Level Upper as she hadn't been able to find anything concrete when she had tried each and every time.
"Maybe it is nothing more than just a rumor…" She sighed aloud, bringing up her music player to her face. "Guess I'll download some more songs, considering I'm already here."
When she began to move her mouse again, she froze in complete shock from finding a hidden link within the title of the page, hesitating for a couple moments before she pressed it.
Her eyes widened when words lit up the center of the screen…
Reading over and over again that the song was given the name Level Upper...
"C-Could this…Could this really be the…" She said in disbelief as she rose up to her feet in shock with a smile unknowingly crepping up onto her face.
Is this really the Level Upper that I've been…No, we've been searching for!?
A few hours later…
Summer had officially started in Academy City today, allowing Misaka and Asher to roam around together without any thoughts of having to go to school to do classwork…
Or at least that was just in Misaka's case as Asher had drawn the short straw accidentally due to her missing school these last couple of days.
Even though it didn't seem all that bad at first, she hadn't thought of what would happen in the long run, not realizing the amount of work that had piled up from her absence. Since she had already finished her summer work during the punishment that the Head Resident had given her a week ago, the teachers at her school thought it was justified in giving her about as much work as that had been, sighing at the idea of how much energy she was going to waste in even doing it.
She had been so wrapped up in these thoughts that she didn't even notice Misaka looking back at her with an amused smile on her face while also wearing a solemn look in her eyes.
She hadn't shown it to either Asher or Shirai this morning when they were within their room, but she hadn't gotten a lot of rest during the night as she found herself stuck in some memories in the past each time she had attempted to close her eyes.
Asher flying back into that fence last night was just an image she couldn't get out of her head, especially when she fell down to the ground almost appearing lifeless when she had been unresponsive for a time…
Throwing her back into a moment 2 years back when she had found her friend in the same position after she had used her electricity and had found her unable to wake up as easily as she had in comparison to last night.
2 years ago...
Misaka's vision was completely out of focus when she found herself laying on her side on the ground, completely dazed and confused as she couldn't rise fully from her semi-conscious state.
'What h-happened?' she thought to herself before the pounding in her head reminded her of the hard hit she took a little while ago.
'Tch…Never mind, I th-think I remember now…'
'Just before I finished destroying that sound device in Zierdan's head, some of the gravity condensed in herself expelled out of nowhere too fast for me to get out of the way in time…'
'It launched me a couple feet from her and I guess when that happened I must of hit my head on something to cause me to black out from what I can tell….'
'Just another thing to add onto our list of injuries: a mild concussion.'
She laid there for a while, slipping in and out of unconsciousness from how tired she was but also trying to collect enough of her energy to get her body to move and check on Asher who she knew needed medical attention.
She must've ended up blacking out again at some point, though, as she found herself on her back as someone tried to shake her awake again, hearing herself moaning in pain from the movement itself and cracked her tired eyes open.
When her vision cleared up enough, she could see Yomikawa standing above her, wearing a look of concern on her face. She seemed to be talking to her, but there was an intense amount of ringing in her ears for her to even hear her clearly as her voice sounded too muffled to get an idea on what she was saying to her.
She felt herself slipping back into unconsciousness again, until there was someone's voice that finally split the tired and exhausted haze in her mind and the ringing in her ears.
Hearing something that she had never wanted to hear at any capacity in her life…
"Aiho, we're losing her! If you don't get her up in the next few moments, we may need to rush Asher to the nearest hospital, or she isn't going to last much longer! Her pulse is going to end up stalling out at the rate she's deteriorating and that will mean it will be too late for us to administer an electrical charge high enough to force her heartbeat to go back to normal!" A woman's voice called out, causing her to abruptly sit up.
"Wait what's…" she began to say before seeing the limp form of Asher a little ways from her as the woman who had shouted stood above her as her voice held a combination of both panic and urgency.
"No, Zierdan!" Misaka called out as she ran and stumbled over to where she was in haste. "What's wrong with her!?"
When she had arrived at her friend's side, she could immediately tell she wasn't doing all too well…
Her skin was deathly pale, almost comparable to a ghost as it almost seemed like all the color in her face had been drained of anything and everything. Her eyes were cracked open ever so slightly, barely fluttering or even blinking at times to tell her that she was most likely unconscious to some degree.
But the most alarming part of the situation was how harsh, shallow, and low her breathing was becoming, with this almost being one of the only indications that she was actually alive but that she was also on her last leg.
"Oh, so glad of you to wake up from your nap to join us, Miss Railgun." The woman said jokingly though wasn't able to hide the amount of panic in her voice. "But to sum it up, I'm about 100% sure that due to the strain Asher's body has endured from the transformation she was undergoing, her heart is going into cardiac arrest due to the backlash from it. For how long it has been like that, I don't know but at the rate her heart is going and how fast she's deteriorating right now, we may not have long before she…"
"Ends up dying from it entirely if we do nothing in an attempt to fix it."
Misaka's eyes widened at that as she recoiled from the thought of Asher ever being gone within her life happening right here and now. The idea of losing the one person that understood her most out of probably anyone within this city nearly shattered her world as her body started to shake even more.
"She c-could….she could die from this?" she mumbled under her breath, feeling guilty by the fact that she hadn't even thought that her electricity could maybe send her body over the edge into practically destroying itself to the point of…death.
"She could…I-I could be the one w-who…"
"Hey," She heard a voice say from beside her, bringing her gaze over to the woman next to her who had determination burning within her eyes. "You need to keep yourself calm or Zierdan's fate is practically sealed in that she will die due to that damn stepfather of hers, not that you tried to save her from the plan that she was indirectly coaxed and very much forced into doing by him."
Before Misaka could even reply to that, Yomikawa ran up to aid them as her eyes widened at a new development that had just occurred as she went down to put two fingers under Asher's nose.
"K-Kikyou," Yomikawa said shakily, bringing both her and Misaka's attention over to her from how weak her voice had gotten.
"I th-think she…just stopped breathing."
A silence fell all around them for a few moments as Kikyou rushed and bent her head down to listen to Asher's heartbeat, closing her eyes to focus in on the sound she so desperately wanted to hear.
Misaka waited with anticipation crushing her soul as she felt her own heart racing inside of her chest, hoping that she would be able to find one.
The silence lasted nearly longer than it should have before Kikyou flinched as she hurriedly rose up from laying on her chest and frantically began to take off the outer part of Asher's uniform.
"It's faint, but her heart is still beating meaning we still have time before it stops and to get her breathing again." Kikyou stated before looking over at Misaka next to her. "I know you probably don't want to do this and mostly exhausted at this point, but we don't have time to go and get a defibrillator. You need to send a shock into her heart to get it off the abnormal beat it's doing right now in order to get it working enough for her to survive the trip to the hospital."
Misaka nodded her head at that, instinctively raising her right arm only to wince under her breath for forgetting that the bone was either bruised, broken, or shattered to some degree, raising her other arm to be placed on Asher's chest.
'Please work…'
She sent a shock into Asher's body, feeling it jump from the force of the pulse. When she stopped it, Asher's body went about as still as had been before, with her chest not even rising an inch to show that her breathing was still stalled.
'Please work!'
She did it again…which led to the same result.
'Please don't leave me now after I literally j-just saved you and got you back, Zierdan!'
She did it again and again with the same result, feeling her losing the strength to continue as well as the thought of losing Asher becoming more and more real as time passed.
"Zierdan please breathe! Please, Please, Please!" She cried out as she sent a surge greater than the rest that she had just done before.
"PLEASE, I CAN'T LOSE YOU AGAIN!"
This time, it was enough for Asher to gasp out for air, coughing harshly at the ends of her rushed pants before she fell still again as a low moan sounded out from under her breath. Her breathing was still erratic and obvious that it was hard for her to do, but it was enough to know that she was genuinely breathing by herself again for relief to fill Misaka's system.
Misaka let out a shuddering breath from witnessing that, feeling her adrenaline practically go down to zero out of nowhere that brought her pain and exhaustion into focus as she let out a soft wince.
She began to tip off to the side as her eyes closed, feeling arms keep her from falling over any further as she fell unconscious.
Present…
I really thought she…was going to die that day. And that I was the main reason for that happening entirely due to my electricity, Misaka thought as her eyes fell, proceeding down the sidewalk with Asher following right behind her.
I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life, with what happened last night almost yanking that fear back into existence without any warning that it would happen in the first place…
I hope that I never go through something like that again with her, because I don't know if I would be able to take it if…
I'm not able to save her for a second time.
As she continued to dwindle in her thoughts for a little while longer, they were shattered immediately from hearing another sigh being let out behind her, unable to stop the small laugh that came from her lips as she looked back and saw Asher pouting behind her.
Reminding her to stay in the moment and not the past trying to pull her backwards…
"Awww, still loving the fact that you missed school these last couple days?" Misaka teased as Asher visibly deflated even further.
"Shut up and No. It's going to take me forever to finish that illogical amount of work." Asher groaned. "My back is also killing me right now. I couldn't even sleep on it last night."
"Well you're lucky that the only thing you got from hitting that fence as hard as you did was just a massive bruise in the shape of it. Hopefully that cream you picked up at the store will help out considering you're probably going to be sore for a little while."
"Yeah I guess so. It's just going to be a little annoying dealing with for however long that takes." Asher replied as she stoically looked over at her. "It seems none of us were all that lucky last night, though, considering those perverted annoyances didn't really give you that much intel."
"Tell me about it." Misaka responded as they began to walk onto a crosswalk. "I did all that and ended up with basically nothing."
Before they continued on with their conversation, Misaka noticed Asher stiffen up as she looked over her shoulder at the open area behind them. Misaka's eyes widened in surprise when Shirai appeared without any word or warning.
"Oh Kuroko." Misaka said as she began to approach them. "What are you doing here? I thought you said that you were going to do some Judgement work today."
"Yes I was, but now we have a new problem on our hands that we most certainly have to look into." Shirai said urgently.
"What happened?" Asher questioned as they both began to follow behind the teleporter.
"It's about Kaitabi Hatsuya," She began as she paused in her footsteps, turning back to look at the two Level 5 espers behind her.
"Without any real reason as to why, he fell unconscious during an Anti-Skill Interrogation and has no indication of when he'll end up waking up..."
Word Count of Chapter: 6995 |Page Count: 13 pages |Reviews: 84 | Followers: 63 |Favorites: 52
I know the bit with July 20th was brief, but I thought it would be best to save the hilarity known as Kiyama Harumi for the next chapter lol.
Also, Chapter 2 of Asher came out some time last week, so head over to that if you want to read it as well if you haven't as it has two characters in there that haven't been given a lot of context within CSG yet;)
Review Replies
Blankow: Yeah, you're definitely right that Misaka is most likely not the best one to tell her, something she probably can't admit to herself as well. She hasn't done as much confrontation as she has, but Asher knows full well that Misaka is about is bad in carrying the burden by herself. She doesn't pry into it as she doesn't like others doing it to her and doesn't like seeing Misaka upset. This dynamic however, will be strained in some way and fashion within the Sisters' Arc (whenever we happen to get to it at least lol).
Kuroko is definitely an underrated character. I honestly didn't think all that highly of her at first, but it gradually changed overtime to the point to where she's probably one of my favorite characters right now. Glad that I was accurate in both of their characterizations. They both can be similar on how they go about things at times, so it took a while to make their differences more apparent for their understanding to come into question. They seem to argue or "disagree" as they say for their own amusement now, always coming to some sort of consensus when it comes to Misaka that drives the Electromaster insane at times.
Oh the harem war…
The one thing I actually didn't think would be possible to happen for a character as stoic and emotionally distant as Asher is lol. She has grown to be a little bit more open in terms of those she trusts so maybe the time will come when a pairing will finally become official one day.
Thanks!
Someoneluck: Wow, lol that's hilarious. And funny that you said that as I literally had the same thought that would probably happen when I wrote that XD
I know the flashbacks may have been oddly placed, but I thought it was probably the best time and place to explain their relationship to give hopeful understanding of how they're friends and argue about as much as Misaka yells at Touma at times.
Oh my, I had completely forgot of how Touma has all the Sisters and Misaka for his harem:O
I wonder if Asher will be able to get them on her side as well…
Thanks!
velvetsthetic:
Chapter 22
Yeah the Asher x Accelerator ship was one of the first ones to make it into the shipping bag. I'm not going to go into all that much about it now relating to them to not spoil anything, but you've made some pretty good points.
I'll just leave you with this thought though: one thing that does connect them in a way is their relationship with both Yomikawa and Yoshikawa…
Whether that will make any sort of difference in terms of that will remain to be seen in the near future.
Chapter 23
Yeah, it was my intention for Asher to be pretty rude to get Kuroko to leave her alone there. She was pretty upset by what happened during Misaka's intervention probably just as or more so in comparison to Kuroko and blamed herself for how it wasn't working between them even though Kuroko was just at fault as she was.
Thanks! It's nice to hear that you're excited for Asher's own little mini series!
So regarding Time Dilation…
Exactly how that or if that'll be implemented is still up in the air as you are right about it most likely being a Level 6 ability. The closest thing she has done close to it is that she can increase her speed with her gravity and slow things down by increasing it's hold on certain things, but a full on time stop is probably too OP even for her to just pull out of nowhere, so if it does (not saying it will though) happen, there will be a good reason for it.
I'd say that Asher has her own trump card, but since she refrains from using her ability unless it's absolutely necessary, it's not seen all too often at a destructive scale in comparison to Misaka's railgun. One that has been seen to some capacity lies in the fact that she can take control of the gravity of certain things depending on certain circumstances such as connecting to it via touch, detection, calculation, etc.
I'd say that's one out of a few she has as a backup as she can stop people from being able to move to the point of not being able to breathe due to the sheer force she can project when push comes to shove.
You don't have to apologize for voicing your opinion btw. I like hearing them from you guys as it helps in the long run of things of bettering the way I tell the narrative of this story over time:)
Homcomru: Thanks! It's nice to hear that you enjoyed reading my story after that point in Chapter 10:`)
I know it can be slow at times, but it's nice to see that you all still enjoy it to some degree. The pacing will hopefully get faster over these next few chapters.
Thanks for your reviews!
-PurpleClover99
