AN: Hello readers (I know that I said I probably wouldn't come back for a while but, I couldn't stop myself due to the upcoming event(s) foreshadowed in this chapter).

I have returned with an interlude of sorts that will set up the events that will occur in the next chapter. We haven't moved to Big Spider yet as there are some important items that probably need to be taken care of during some of the days before it.

It won't be long, but after reading this, you'll probably see why we haven't moved on to it yet:)

Anyway with that, I hope you enjoy this chapter as it is a small break from all of the action that was given in the last chapter.

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 33: The Aftermath of the Level Upper

July 24th, 9:00PM

School District 17 Prison Facility

Silas was staring up at the ceiling of his jail cell before he heard footsteps come to a stop, looking over at the woman standing there with an amused smirk on his face.

"Took you long enough, Yomikawa. I was starting to think you somehow forget about me." He remarked before taking note of the bandages located on her cheeks and hands. "Guess you and Anti-Skill actually went off to do something for a change?"

Yomikawa let out an annoyed sigh. "What is it that you want, Silas? I would like to go home sometime tonight."

"Now that's no way to talk to someone you asked to do a favor for you." He said as he waved a piece of paper in the air. "You kept me waiting for so long, I almost felt inclined to rip it up into shreds in your face. Still do, to spare you from the burden that you're trying to take on so callously without any actual idea of what you're actually going to be dealing with."

"That's honestly ironic coming from the man that hardly knows anything about the girl who's supposed to be her stepdaughter. I probably know more about her in the 3-4 years I've known her than you have twice that. So, don't even try to tell me Zierdan is some type of burden when you didn't even want to get to know her in any way, shape, or form." Yomikawa said as her eyes narrowed. "I want to relieve the burden of you from her and give her an actual chance of having a family that loves her for her and not to exploit her for her ability and intelligence."

"Surprising coming from you when you literally faced death right in the face the other day. I thought it would be the very moment you realized that it's a mistake to trust a husk trying to play at being human." Silas said in amusement, smirking even further when he saw Yomikawa's lips get firmer and firmer. "She's a powdered keg just waiting to explode one day, yearning to fill that hollow soul of hers with something but only to find she will never be fulfilled no matter what she finds. If no one is there to control that lust hidden inside, there will be no one on this Earth that would be able to control her when it's unleashed. You and everyone should have praised and thanked me for holding her off as much as I could."

"You are completely and utterly delusional if you believe that you did anything but traumatize that girl, Silas! No matter what I or her friends do now to help her, those scars you inflicted on her will never go away, only lessen! They're so deep that even amnesia didn't prevent her from being scared of the man that littered her nightmares!" Yomikawa yelled angrily as she looked down at the ground. "She was so paranoid, anxious, and afraid every single time she woke up at the hospital for such a long time that the few people she trusted were the only ones to calm her down. If we weren't able to be there, they had to sedate her due to how weak her heart was from all of those damn trials you did on her! It was so damaged that they nearly thought she was going to need a heart transplant or risk it failing at some point in her life!"

"How is it my fault that weak-willed girl couldn't handle the very thing that she signed up for?" Silas asked with a shrug. "She was wanting to control her ability, so I showed her the very method that was the best and only way to fulfill that wish. It's not my fault that her mind and body were too weak to handle it."

Yomikawa's face was beginning to get red with rage as her hands clenched at her sides, biting down on her cheek in an effort to regain her composure and remind herself of why she was here.

He was the last hurdle she had in order to become Asher's legal guardian, something that she had wanted for so long in order to provide the girl that she loved dearly some level of peace and stability in her life. She knew that Silas knew this, knowing that the man was purposefully getting under her skin by saying the right things that he knew would lead her to exploding at him. She had already amused him enough as it was at this point. She didn't want to do it for any longer.

After a few moments of settling down, she let out a sigh as she sent a stern gaze at the man looking right back at her with a prideful glint in his eyes.

"Are you going to actually sign it, or do I need to take you to court where I will run your reputation even further into the dirt by revealing everything that you did in greater detail?" Yomikawa threatened, seeing something flash in Silas's eyes before he looked away.

"Tch, is that the only thing you can put on the table?" He scoffed. "As if you can do anymore than what has already been done to it."

Silence fell between them for a while before Silas let out a sigh, looking over at Yomikawa with a rare look of seriousness on his face. "After sitting on it for a while, I decided to maybe humor you on this foolish idea of yours, but only if you do one of three things for me." He said, raising one finger up in the air. "The first would be if you'd allow me to have another meeting with Zie-"

"No, next." Yomikawa said as she cut him off. "You've already seen enough of her, so there is no way I'm allowing her to sit through your abuse another time. You had your chance to say whatever you wanted, which is something I know and promise will never happen again if I have any say in it."

Silas laughed a little at that as he raised his second finger. "Hmm, I'm starting to like this strong will of yours. To think you would reject something that would easily allow you to gain the very thing that you want. Now for my next option…" His face fell slightly as he looked towards the ground. "Can I go see…Himari?"

Silence fell between them for a few moments before Yomikawa let out a sigh as she crossed her arms.

"Morally and legally I can't allow you to do that either." Yomikawa stated. "I would need to ask Zierdan if she would be okay with it, and we both know the answer she would give. And due to the agreement to your sentence, you're not allowed to leave this facility for any reason."

Silas let out a sigh of his own, knowing that was going to be her answer no matter how many times he asked. Before this expression could be seen on his face for any longer, he let out a chuckle that didn't have its usual snark, wearing a smirk that didn't even reach his eyes.

"Well, it seems we've come to our last and final chance for you to be able to take that dangerous girl fully into your life. But if you're so dead set on it, I'll sign it right here and now as long as you promise me that it will happen." Silas said.

"What is it?" Yomikawa asked, feeling somewhat tense of the unreadable glint that fell in his eye.

"Well then if I can't go visit my late wife, then I guess I'll just have a visit with someone else I've known for a long while, though, she may honestly be about as or even more dangerous than Zierdan is when she's upset or angry with me." He remarked in amusement.

"If you can, I want to get to see my good ole 'friend' Kikyou Yoshikawa sometime tomorrow."


A little while later…

Yomikawa's Residence

"Um, excuse me Aiho?" Yoshikawa said over the phone in either dismay or sarcasm. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but it just sounded like you said Silas Wright, the one man in this entire universe that I despise inside and out, wants me to come visit him."

Yomikawa let out a nervous laugh, twirling the ends of her hair nervously as she tried her best to keep her longtime friend somewhat calm in her request.

"Yeah that's sadly the truth." Yomikawa stated. "It'll only be for-"

"Hell no, I refuse to even do this. Whatever twisted game he's trying to play with you, that psychotic man is only doing it for whatever helps him. He's not trying to do it for your interests, so you shouldn't believe a single word that comes out of his mouth."

"But Kikyou-"

"Oh, don't even try to 'But Kikyou' me, thinking I'm going to change my mind on this. There's a lot of things that I would gladly do in this life for you Aiho but seeing the very man that killed one of my dearest friends is something I don't want to do any day of this week, especially tomorrow. Why would you want me to even do this knowing how I feel about him along with you sharing the same exact feeling because of what he did to both Himari, Zierdan, and even her biological father?"

Yomikawa fell silent at that as her eyes dropped a little, looking down at the paper in her hands that had a line filled with the last name that she had needed for such a long time.

"Kikyou, this is for all of them." She replied, trying her best to not let her voice tremble. "I gave him my word that I would try to convince you of doing this in some way, which is something that I would never in my life do if I didn't have a proper reason for it. He said that if I did this, he would finally let her go. He even signed the papers to allow me or... even us if you change your mind about it to officially adopt her and be her legal guardians."

It sounded like Yoshikawa dropped whatever she was doing as it seemed like the phone went silent for a while, hearing her let out a heavy sigh after a decent span of time. Yomikawa could only imagine the conflicted expression on her face, knowing that there was some part of her that understood her reasons for wanting this for Asher as much as she did.

"Kikyou? Did you get-"

"Yes, I understood. You don't have to repeat that." Yoshikawa said, cutting her off before she could continue. "I never understand why it's always me that damn man wants to see. Or why he uses Zierdan as some type of bargaining chip whenever he wants to. I would say that he should rot in hell for being the absolute jerk he is, but I guess saying it to his face would be even more amusing to me. So…I'll come. Just tell me what time, so I can be mentally prepared."

Yomikawa hummed as her answer before her face fell slightly. "I'm sorry about this. I know this isn't some type of thing you would ever want to do, and I just sprung it up on you in the worst form possible. But I just…"

"You don't have to explain at all. Honestly if you would have started with that, I would have said yes without any hesitation. She's about as important to me as she is to you. I know that this would help her out tremendously, so doing something like this is trivial if it means it will allow Zierdan to finally begin moving on somehow."

Yomikawa's face fell even further, knowing what the woman was trying to imply. She had let her know that Asher's memory of the both of them had fully returned, along with the worrying stuff involving her mental state in terms of how she still feels about Himari's death.

["I didn't have to know. If I actually had some piece of logic and a backbone to question his intentions during that time, I would've realized that he was using me and probably her as well for his own amusement or some type of twisted mind game. If I had just declined his offer for that damn experiment and not have allowed his manipulation to make me scared of myself, she would still probably be here and I or others wouldn't have to question my mental state practically every waking moment of my life for all the crap I've gone through."]

The anniversary of her death will come up in October. Even if two years seems like a long time for some, I bet it still hurts her about as much as if it had happened yesterday. Yomikawa thought, looking over to one of the pictures she had with the girl somewhere on her desk.

"Yeah I hope so." Yomikawa said after a while.

They chatted for a long time that night, just catching up with the other had been doing until they said their goodbyes.

Yomikawa lied flat on her back within her own bed, feeling somewhat guilty that this is what had to happen in order for Silas to release the last bit of hold he had on Asher. She hoped or knew pretty well, however, that Yoshikawa would have little to no patience to entertain any of Silas's antics.


Judgment 177th Branch Office

Uiharu was sitting at her computer nervously, waiting on Saten and Shirai to finally be able to make their way here. Saten had been released from the hospital a couple hours ago and just went to her dorm to freshen up while Shirai promised that she would be able to sneak out of her dorm without either of the Level 5's being suspicious of her absence.

This plan was going well so far, with the main part making its approach fairly quickly due to the document that she had scanned and pulled up right on the computer. She had cross checked some of what Kiyama had said about Asher's stepfather, seeing that she was correct in the fact that he was serving a life sentence in the same facility that she knew Asher and Misaka had visited alone the other day.

Everything was adding up, something that had the adverse effect on the girl's conscience as it felt like she was digging into Asher's secrets behind her back. She would have brought it to her attention first, maybe even invite her and Misaka to sit down with them and sort it out…

But in the little time that she had known both of the espers, she knew that if they didn't have all of their facts straight, there was little to no chance that Asher would try to even confirm any of it along with the Electromaster who had her back first and foremost in these type of situations.

Kiyama's words from before about the state it had put Asher in also rang through her head, knowing that the girl would have never told them to save them from worrying about her in any way.

[If it hadn't been for Railgun's efforts to stop her heart from going into cardiac arrest, that girl would have probably died before she received any aid. And that isn't even including what happened thereafter because of it..."]

What happened? What lead to push someone as strong as Asher so far that she nearly died in Misaka's arms? Or would make her fall down to the 5th ranked position? Uiharu thought as her eyes fell down to her hands that were shaking out of either anticipation or anxiousness.

She sat there for a while before she heard the door open from the side of the room, looking over and seeing the smiling face of Saten come towards her.

"Hey Uiharu!" She said happily. "Has Shirai gotten here yet?"

Before Uiharu was able to respond, it was as if on cue the teleporter appeared right in front of them, not even flinching since it honestly didn't surprise them anymore.

"Sorry if I was late. The Head Resident was stalking my and Sissy's room." Shirai stated apologetically. "Oh, and she and Zierdan will definitely not make an appearance here any time soon since it sounded like they were chatting about something serious in Zierdan's room before I left."

"Remind me again why we're doing this behind their back again?" Saten asked. "It may not mean a lot coming from me, but I just don't feel it's right to hide something that sounded pretty important from the text you sent me."

"I second that. It felt weird having to lie to them before I left by saying I was leaving to go finish the case on the Level Upper." Shirai added.

"Yeah I know, I don't want to do this either." Uiharu said before her face fell, looking over at the computer sitting in front of her. "But I think it's for the best. We won't be hiding it from them too long, to the point where I almost asked them to come as well. But I wanted to hear your thoughts on this first."

Saten and Shirai looked over at the computer screen she was looking at as some form of interest lit up both of their faces.

"This is the document that Dr. Kiyama gave you before if I remember correctly, right?" Shirai asked, seeing the girl nod her head.

"Does this 'Project WaveInflux' have to do something with the Level Upper in some way?" Saten concluded, again seeing a small nod come from the girl below them.

"From what it sounds like, it's research on a waveform device that is said to be an earlier iteration of the Level Upper created by someone else." Uiharu began as she clicked over to a tab to show a man with brown slicked back hair and grey eyes holding some type of award next to another woman. "It was created by this guy, Silas Wright."

Before either of them could question that, Shirai's and Saten's eyes widened when they glanced over at the blonde haired woman standing right next to the man, seeing a distinct image of someone they knew well enough from the small smile on her face.

"Um I'm either crazy, or that's an older version of Zierdan standing right next to him." Shirai pointed out as she leaned on Uiharu's chair.

"Not too far from the truth since that's her mother." Uiharu remarked. "Her name is Himari Asher-Wright, meaning Silas is Asher's stepfather."

"That's pretty obvious. I don't think I could mistake those blue eyes and blonde hair for anyone else's." Saten said with a small laugh. "With this being in Academy City and all, I wonder if we could get an in-person look at Asher's near doppelganger someday."

She was about to say something more before her expression fell slightly, seeing some level of hurt in the girl's faces next to her as they grew eerily quiet.

"Guys? Is there something wrong with what I said just now?"

Silence fell between them for a little while longer before Shirai stepped up to say the news first as she let out a sigh.

"It's sadly too late for that. From what Zierdan has told me before, her mother died sometime 2 years ago." Shirai said solemnly, seeing Saten's expression fall even farther.

"October 1st to be exact." Uiharu added. "Her father has also passed even earlier than her mother did."

Saten gripped onto her arm nervously as it felt like a small pit fell into her stomach. "Oh…I didn't…"

"If it hadn't been a rare break in her guard, I wouldn't have known either Saten." Shirai stated as she laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. "From what Sissy has told me and…from what I've witnessed in the last month of knowing the both of them, Zierdan's past hasn't been the best."

"I've always known ever since me and Uiharu met her, that there was something breaking her down bit by bit that she tried her best to not let anyone to see." Saten dejectedly remarked. "But I never would have guessed that she had to grieve over the deaths of both of her parents. Sometimes I forget with how mature her and Misaka are that they're only just a year older than all of us. Meaning that it must've hurt greatly when it happened."

"I understand why she hasn't told us anything about this as I would probably be inclined to do the same thing." Shirai said. "But from what you told the both of us, Uiharu, there must be something either more devastating or adds onto what she has already gone through."

Uiharu slowly nodded, clicking back on the tab to go to the front page of the research notes of the experiment.

"Apparently from what Dr. Kiyama said, Asher started doing this experiment sometime after she became a Level 5, and it lasted for a total of 2 years up until her and Misaka's first month in Tokiwadai."

"Wait, hold on a second." Saten said in confusion. "Two years ago? If I remember correctly, aren't Asher and Misaka currently in the beginning of their second year at Tokiwadai? My math may be wrong, but 2 years would be setting them both back at least sometime in their last year in grade school."

"Normally you would be right, but Sissy, Zierdan, and the other Level 5 at our school were each given the opportunity to transfer into Tokiwadai early on some type of early admission program." Shirai explained. "You could say it technically was their first year at Tokiwadai, but it didn't fully count as an actual school year, only credit that they could put towards something later in either high school or even university." Her eyes narrowed slightly as she brought a finger up to her chin. "This correlates with the rumors I've heard about relating to something that happened between Sissy, Zierdan, and the other forementioned Level 5, Shokuhou Misaki."

Saten's eyes widened in realization as it made some sense to her now, allowing their friend to go on with her explanation.

"According to Dr. Kiyama, whatever happened during this led to her stepfather being arrested and given a life sentence for his actions." Uiharu explained. " It…also led to Asher having to be hospitalized from the critical state it left her in. Enough that…she was clinically deceased before she even arrived there that Misaka was able to fix with a defibrillate blast to her heart but ended up still leading her falling into a deep coma for a few weeks."

A deafening silence fell in the room as Saten and Shirai's face went pale.

"What do you m-mean that she was clinically deceased, Uiharu?" Saten said with fear layered in her voice. "That has to be wrong or stretched out in some way. Asher's alright physically. She has to be, r-right Shirai?"

They both turned to look over at the teleporter who wore a heartbroken expression on her face as most of everything began to click inside of her head.

"I'm not sure if this is the event that caused it, but…the reason she has a high sensitivity when it comes to sound that nearly forces her to wear her Anti-Amps nearly every day, is because she has an extensive amount of damage in her brain that deals with something like processing visual and auditory information, heightening the chances that she can get overloaded from not being able to organize and process it as effectively as she should. She takes medicine for it, but I've seen what happens if she accidentally forgets taking it one day and it's not the greatest sight to see as she's almost at the mercy of her own mind in a way and can get lost in it so easily." Shirai replied.

"From what Dr. Kiyama said, Saten, she was considered clinically deceased because her respiratory system ceased and had to be restarted again through the use of getting her heartbeat under control." Uiharu added. "As sad as it sounds, from what Shirai said and everything we know about Asher, it's all adding up to being true in more ways than one. With this document holding the secrets towards everything that caused all of it."

Uiharu was about to click down her mouse to open the document before she felt someone softly grasp her wrist, looking up and seeing Saten's conflicted gaze.

"Are we sure we really want to do this you guys?" She asked. "There will be no turning back once we read even one word from this thing. Once Asher finds out about this, how do you think she's going to react to us knowing about this information that she used all of her energy to hide from us? There may have been a really good reason for it."

"I get what you mean Saten…but if we don't do this, do you think Zierdan will ever get to a point where she'll trust us enough to not keep us at arm's length for our sakes?" Shirai asked. "She has been making strides to do better, but I still think there's just something holding her back from going all the way and actually genuinely share a part of herself that only Sissy has seen. How would we be able to properly comfort her at times when she needs us, if we don't have a level of understanding of what actually upsets her? That stoic face of hers is finally beginning to crumble when she's around us, but it's still there no matter what we do, meaning there's something more we have to do to actually open her up longer than a mere 5-10 seconds."

Saten thought on this for a moment or two, racking her head on if this was the best decision for all of them to make. Asher was an innately quiet and caring person that kept enough secrets from most people around her that stopped anyone from trying to see past the bluntness and stoicness used to keep it hidden.

She's strong in her own way but to say she's as confident as someone like Misaka or Shirai was pushing it because she is very much self-conscious of all of her words and actions any given time from the cautiousness that stems from her timid personality.

She's a great person to know in Saten's eyes and she didn't want to break the level of trust that she had with her for a second time this week through digging into a part of her past that she didn't want anyone to know as she didn't want it to see the light of day.

But…

After thinking on it for a while, her mind was pulled into the intervention the gravity esper had done for her the other day, in which she revealed more of herself than she had ever done before.

["…I always felt like an outcast and never tried to connect with others, as I was repeatedly told that no one wanted to do it in return because of my ability that others perceived as dangerous and the part of my personality that prevents me from being able to understand people as well as I should…."

"I grew…to hate myself and my ability during that time. And disliked others in the same sense as they never seemed to want to care that I was alone, and I d-didn't want to be but…didn't know how to vocalize it to others. People never paused to acknowledge my humanity just for the fact that my level intimidated them. ]

I need to know…I want to be able to understand what she went though as she did with me, Saten thought as her resolve began to strengthen.

To hate yourself, is something I can say I understand to a degree. But it almost sounded like in that instance that she didn't want to exist at any capacity, because she was felt so alone in this world.

She may have wanted to say it then, but….maybe she wanted to spare me from feeling as sorry as I already did for her in that moment.

After a minute or two of calming her rushing heart, she looked over at both Uiharu and Shirai with a look of determination on her face.

"Okay, after thinking on it, I agree with you Shirai." Saten remarked. "She may not want us to know about it, but as her friends…we need to find some way to let her know that she can trust us to be able to handle anything she needs us to. And this is probably the first step in making that happen."

Shirai and Uiharu nodded at her as they all turned towards the screen bearing the bolded letters of "Project WaveInflux."

Uiharu hesitantly raised her finger to press down on the mouse button to open the first page of the document, coming down after a few moments to begin a story that they would have never been able to fully prepare themselves to read.


Tokiwadai Dormitory

Misaka and Asher were conversing with each other inside of Asher's room. They had been doing that for a while mostly to get all of the pieces of the puzzle together on Kiyama's true intentions of the Level Upper, where Asher was the one who still required some answers.

Misaka tried the best as she could to explain what happened with the woman through the weird connection she created with her before with her electricity as she had created enough in the air that allowed her to connect with her mind in a way from creating an electric current between the both of them.

Asher didn't say much or question a lot of things at first as she told her of Kiyama's tale, honestly finding it quite accurate to who she pegged her to be before whatever happened pushed her to nearly lose her way.

But she couldn't help it as one point after Misaka revealed something she hadn't expected…

"Wait, you saw my mother in her memories?" Asher asked in surprise, seeing the Electromaster nod her head.

"From what it looked like, they were genuinely close, at least during this experiment they were. With that older man, it seems like she also oversaw this experiment along with him. Does that surprise you at all?"

Asher went silent for a few moments, before hesitantly shaking her head, bringing one of her bandaged hands to rub the back of her neck.

"No, it doesn't." Asher said as her face fell slightly. "Her position had her as the overseer or head of a lot of projects around that time, so she probably looked over 4 to even 5 more in comparison to how much of a workaholic she was. I barely saw her come home and sleep most of the time from her staying in the office so late in the day or at night…most likely from Silas's insistence for her to."

Misaka was about to go on with the story before she was interrupted again, looking over at Asher's hesitant glance.

"We haven't gotten to the part that pushed Dr. Kiyama over the edge, but it…must have been bad for that illogical woman to stop at nothing to revive those children in any way she could. This takes place or at least happens sometime before 2 years ago, so…In your opinion do you think whatever happened at the end was something my Mom knew would occur, but didn't care at the same time?" Asher questioned.

Even though she only died just two years ago, it almost felt like Asher didn't know much about her mother. She didn't have that many memories with her after Silas came fully into their lives, driving such a wedge between that they were basically strangers. It was something she had always regretted, wishing she had been the one to do something to stop it from happening after they began to grow their bond again just a week or two before her untimely death.

She wanted to feel like she knew who her mother was as a person, but she knew it wasn't logical for her to accurately gauge whether or not she was someone like Silas or whoever was responsible for allowing those children to nearly die because of his or her efforts.

Misaka solemnly smiled at this as she shook her head. "I don't think so. From the times I've met your mom, I never thought she would be capable of doing something like that to a child from having a child of her own. Dr. Kiyama's memories back this up to some extent, as I honestly believe that she was the person who had prevented it from happening sooner and allowed Dr. Kiyama to be a teacher to them. Whoever was in the position above must have been responsible and pushed for it after…she passed towards the end of the experiment."

Asher didn't try to comment on that as she let out a long sigh, laying her back against the wall behind her and signaled for Misaka to continue with her story.

When she had finished, she looked over at the tense expression on Asher's face, seeing one of her hands trembling as she brought it to rest on the back of her neck.

"I'll never understand why some people value life so little. I'll never be able to see any sort of logic in that no matter how much I try." Asher said softly as she looked towards the ground. "They didn't even ask for something like that to happen to themselves, and…they may never wake up if no one does anything to help them."

Misaka laid a hand on her shoulder and sent a reassuring squeeze, smiling warmly at her when her blue eyes looked in her direction. "They already have people like you and me along with the others that care and want them to wake up someday. I was able to save you, didn't I? Meaning there is hope that we'll be able to save them as well, together with Dr. Kiyama."

Asher released a sigh before returning a smile of her own. "Right," She began to say after a light chuckle. "If we put all of our heads together, we should be able to figure something out."

After a while, they noticed that it was starting to get late and said their goodnights to each other as they were both pretty tired from the draining day they just had. Asher lied on her back in her bed trying to digest everything that had occurred that day along with what she learned, continuously being pulled to one strange instance of what happened when she heard someone's name from Kiyama's mouth that somehow related to her mother in some way.

["Yes, I did. But it shouldn't be surprising. Who wouldn't come to know the woman that was just one position under one of the top researchers of the city: Kihara Gensei?"]

Kihara Gensei, Asher thought to herself, flinching slightly when some pain still came from her head just like it had before.

The name sounded so familiar to her but at the same time so foreign. It was like her mind wanted to allow her to remember, but something was blocking the memory from even trying to come to the surface.

She must have known this person or at least someone related to him to actually have some level of recognition that her face blindness or memory damage didn't fully cover up.

She thought on it for a while before releasing a sigh as she turned onto her side. It was going to waste a lot of her energy by forcing her thoughts to go in circles with this, going to sleep to put it behind her until tomorrow.


A few hours later...

Judgment 177th Branch Office

Silence.

That was all that filled the room inside of the Judgment Office as soon as Uiharu had turned to the last page of the experiment they knew to be Project WaveInflux…

An experiment that they had learned throughout its many pages that Asher had endured in which broke her down in so many damaging ways that Uiharu only concluded was the cause of maybe why she had fallen to the 5th rank spot after it.

The man they knew to be Silas Wright, the head of the experiment itself, took many notes relating to this fact to where they could see that he didn't care to any extent of what he was doing to his own stepdaughter, only taking interest of the power she was gaining as her mentality crumbled to pieces right in front of him.

She was hospitalized over 50-100 times within the two years of undergoing those trials, each time with her condition growing worse and worse as she began to lose herself and succumb to the very thing she had wanted to prevent from what it sounded like after they had looked up a classified account relating to the aftermath: The day that Asher was named the near Calamity of Academy City as she would have nearly destroyed it if it hadn't been for Misaka's efforts to snap her out of whatever had happened to her involving what they could only conclude to be some type of second personality that was developed from the strain she had undergone.

They knew that the details could have been twisted in some way since it came from an account that almost killed their friend, not even knowing the extent of the damage she suffered as the research notes ended before they arrived to that. Uiharu could have hacked in and looked into Asher's medical records to see, but…

She felt that they had learned enough at this point as they were all overwhelmed by the information they had just read already.

Shirai rose to her feet with a shadow on her face, going to walk over to the door before she felt Saten firmly grab her hand.

"What are you about to go off and do, Shirai?" Saten asked, even though she knew full well what the teleporter was going to do.

"What do you think? I'm going to drag Zierdan's lazy butt here to explain to us why she was hiding something like this from us!" Shirai shouted angrily. "That man supposedly known as her stepfather, tried to turn her into a weapon and exploited her relationship with Sissy to do it! I can't believe that I didn't know or have any inkling of knowing and she was keeping something like this to herself when it clearly is something that traumatized her immensely!"

"Shirai, we get why you're angry," Uiharu began as she quickly got up to hold back her other arm to prevent her from leaving. "But think through this, we absolutely can't do this to her right ow."

"And why can't we!? She and even Sissy has hidden it long enough!" Shirai argued.

"Shirai think for a moment!" Saten said raising her voice.

Shirai stopped at this as she had never heard Saten's tone as serious as it was right now towards her. She went silent as she looked over at her friend, seeing her gaze just as conflicted as she felt inside.

"If you understand that an event like this would be traumatizing, do you really think it would be a good idea to not only confront her about this as angry as you are, but also do it today of all days?" Saten asked as her eyes fell to the ground. "We all know that Asher struggles with managing her anxiety at times, so do you think something like this would push her over the edge for the second time today?"

Shirai's eyes widened from hearing that as she looked away, biting down hard on the side of her cheek.

"I know it was my fault that it happened, but I will not do this with you tonight for that very reason as I don't want to be the cause of it for another time." Saten continued. "Allow at least one night to make sure that it won't happen from us doing this to her. I know that you're upset that she didn't tell us, but that's only because you care about her as much we and Misaka does."

"Please listen to Saten, Shirai." Uiharu pleaded, seeing the teleporter's resolve waver from seeing the tremble from her hands. "If we do this now, there is a very high chance that she'll have an anxiety attack from being reminded of something like that after how stressful today was for her due to having to fight Dr. Kiyama and that creature alongside Misaka. Let's do it sometime tomorrow where we'll all be able to settle down from what we just read in order to be in the mindset to help her, not lecture her from not telling us this, alright?"

Shirai was silent for a very long while, with both of her friends behind her patiently waiting for her answer. Her hands were clenched tight at her sides before she let out a regretful sigh, looking over at the both of them with a stern expression on her face.

"Fine, I won't do it." Shirai stated as she crossed her arms, seeing relief spread on Saten's and Uiharu's features. "But I will not wait another day. We will be doing it together sometime in the afternoon tomorrow, or I will be confronting her alone when we get back to our dorms tomorrow night."

Saten and Uiharu nodded over at her in agreement, both wearing the same looks of determination even in the face of something like this.

Yes, they may still be having second thoughts on this, not wanting to see any level of hurt of grief on either of the Level 5's faces from being forced to recount this tale.

But…

They knew that they had to move past this for their sake…

To finally be able to break down the barriers that Asher always had on herself completely.


Word Count of Chapter: 7080 |Page Count: 12 pages |Reviews: 136 | Followers: 83 |Favorites: 69

Sooo, quick question to those who have seen the anime: Does anyone want the episode where Misaka and the others are invited to do a bikini/swimsuit photoshoot of sorts in a chapter?

In comparison to the manga, Kongou Mitsuko has already been introduced, with this being a prominent episode where she, Wannai, and Awatsuki are introduced to the rest of the Railgang (Episode 13).

Just wondering if you all would want to see their interactions with Asher, along with Asher being forced by the others into participating in this entire thing :)


Review Replies

Bornkiller9: Thank you, I'm happy that you enjoyed it and were able to catch up:)


InsertWeirdUsernameHere: We'll hopefully make it to Sisters' someday (Hopefully at least around the late 30 or 40 mark). Nice to hear that you liked the ending and Big Spider & Poltergeist are up next, with Therestina's grand entrance on the horizon.


Blankow: Yeah, maybe we'll make it to Sisters' before the 400k mark lol.

Just gotta love that everyone other than Silas knows that's he's too arrogant for even his own good.

In my head, the construct that Asher created seemed pretty cool, but not going to lie, on paper it might have sounded odd to some extent XD. Asher isn't the most creative person in the world though, so she probably wouldn't have cared as she would see it of the logical sort for her to do.

I was trying to give Asher something that may relate or work well with Misaka's iron sand. Wind manipulation seemed to fit this perfectly with her level of control she has over her ability. She most likely will have an easier time with making plasma, but only time will tell if that could be the case.

I won't say much about it now since it is a little ways off, but the occurrence with Kazakiri is something I plan to adapt in this story once we get there as it is another place that the Science side and Magic side can meet again;)

Thanks!


LostNeko120: I'm glad that you enjoyed this chapter as much as you did! It was one of the ones that I was looking forward to the most to write. Love the music in Railgun, so I understand wanting to hear it for the atmosphere as I do it at times as well.

I hope you liked finally getting Yoshikawa into the present of the story. Among the many events set to happen tomorrow, her talk with Silas will definitely be seen within the next chapter or the one after it.

The reactions of Asher's past with the others was briefly seen within this chapter. They will be in full force within the next chapter when the confrontation occurs that may or may not go well even with Misaka involved.

Nanoha is actually something I have never heard or seen before. It's kind of funny to see how many characters a voice actor does along with trying to recognize each of them in a variety of shows.


MisakaPhenex:

Chapter 24

Hmmm, yandere Misaka. I don't know if I find myself interested to see it over tsudere Misaka or terrified of the thought itself of a Level 5 Electromaster who is already trigger happy when it comes to Kamijou 1000x's more so and attempt to take down his harem...

I don't think the already unlucky boy deserves such a fate that him or even Asher wouldn't be able to control.

Chapter 32

The idea with the clone machine being able to fix Asher's brain damage is also another interesting idea. The only thing that would probably prevent her from doing it is her particular dislike/fear with anyone messing with head in such a way. Due to what happened during Project WaveInflux, she doesn't like anyone going up there to any degree if she can help it.


Ho4qin: Even though it wasn't a full dive into their feelings, the confrontation with Saten, Uiharu, and Shirai for Asher and Misaka will be during the next chapter. Asher may be opening up, but getting what happened during WaveInflux would definitely help relieve her to some extent. The question is just if this will go as easy as each of them want it to.

I know it would be convenient to give Asher's personality some sort of name. She will be given a permanent one at some point, though I'm honestly trying to figure out what name to even give her. That side of her was referred to as 'Ash' during the experiment by Silas, but I don't think she would like to take on any name that he gives her. The hidden power that Asher has will also come eventually, though those two options are interesting in their own right.


velvetsthetic: From the beginning of this, I was going to have the Level Upper connect with WaveInflux in a way. Since Silas was about as connected with Gensei as Kiyama was, he gained the knowledge to try to attempt an early version of the Level Upper but was too ambitious and arrogant for his own good to actually succeed as Kiyama was able to.

From this chapter you know now that Uiharu, Saten, and Shirai are going to be confronting mainly Asher with the information that they have with WaveInflux. Asher is pretty tough to crack with these types of things since she doesn't like when people pry into her affairs no matter how much they may care for her. With someone like Misaka or even Yomikawa, it annoys her slightly, but she won't make that much of a fuss about it. Only time will tell in the next chapter if they have the same courtesy as they do.

Cool that you connected that Asher does opt to play the defensive role in most situations if she can help it. She tends to also give her opponent a lot of chances in leaving the altercation with their pride intact as well unlike Misaka who usually shocks unlucky groups like those without that much of a good warning.

So, when it comes to Asher controlling the gravity of others, she can do it remotely through her calculations. But it is a lot easier for her to connect with someone fairly easily if she's blocked or it's too complicated for her somehow if she touches them. Due to Kiyama's control over 1000s of esper abilities with the Level Upper, Asher wasn't able to control the gravity field around her as she normally can. Sorry for the confusion! If there is any more confusion, I'll try to provide a better answer for it in any way I can;)

With Misaka's Railgun comes Asher's Gravity Crash. This is considered to be Asher's signature move at a full scale with AIM Burst. It has appeared from time to time on smaller scales before this when she stops someone from moving by quickly intensifying the gravity around them. Wind has also been added to her arsenal, just adding more to why she is deemed the Jack of all trades with her ability.

I'm happy that I was able to grant some amusement with the interactions Asher and Saten had in the end. I've been working up to that for a while now, and it's nice to see something like that come together:)

Thank you!


Thanks for your reviews!

-PurpleClover99