AN: Hello readers! I have arrived with another chapter:)
Don't have much to say other than two things:
One, the poll for the name that Asher's other personality should be given (currently known as Sky at the moment) is up. It should last for at least a couple weeks depending on the frequency of uploads after my finals are done (which will be next week thankfully).
And two, this story is somehow 2 followers away from reaching 100 and 31 away from reaching 200 reviews, which is unbelievable to me T.T. Thanks to everyone who has followed/favorited this story over the course of these last 7 months. I appreciate every last one of you.
Well with that, I'll let you go onto reading this chapter. I hope you enjoy it as it is pretty chill in comparison to the last few.
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 37: Kongou's Accidental Arrival
July 26th, 9:00AM
Exterior Tokiwadai Dorm
Asher let out a sigh as she looked up towards the sky, leaning her back further against one of the columns in front of her dorm. She had woken up that morning with her stomach not wanting to destroy itself as much as it had last night when she made a small slip of judgment when it came to eating all of that cake at the Pasticceria Manicagni with Misaka and Shirai.
She honestly doesn't know what came over her when she was there, practically stuffing her face in some type of effort to lower her stress is what she logically assumed. There was just so many emotions in her chest that she couldn't keep inside of herself for much longer after the talk she had with Shirai, Saten, and Uiharu that Misaka would probably not have been able to calm her down if she had allowed herself to let all of them out simultaneously.
Even if it was pretty hard for her to talk about, it was almost like a massive weight was lifted off of her shoulders after she had confided in them things that she had only let Misaka know. It just struck a chord in her to see how much her friends really cared and how accepting they were of her even after she had made a mistake that had nearly costed them their lives and the entire city.
Even if it was relieving, though, it still drug up some darker feelings and thoughts back into her mind since she hadn't said anything about what happened to her in such detail for such a long time. It wasn't enough to where she was afflicted by any nightmares or flashbacks. However, it did bring her mood down a ton to the point where she was just going to stay in her room the entire day, giving her an excuse to actually get some of her summer work done.
But…
It was almost like a certain Electromaster knew she was going to do this and convinced her to hang out with her since they hadn't done it in a long while with just the 2 of them. They decided to just go wherever they wanted before they would meet up with Shirai to eat lunch back at the school.
She was currently waiting for Misaka to come down. She thought it was sort of illogical for her to wake her up as early as she had and told her to come down at a particular time for her to not be here. But she didn't mind at the same time as it gave her some time to be alone with her thoughts before she went wherever Misaka was going to take her.
As she sat there, she didn't notice a bus that goes back and forth from the Exterior dorm and Tokiwadai Middle come to a stop a little ways away from her since the sound in her ears was turned down pretty low. A girl with black hair and just a bit taller than Asher was walked out from its doors, bearing a fan that she brought up triumphantly to the front of her face that hid the prideful smile on her lips.
"Kongou Mitsuko has finally arrived at her destination!" She announced to the world as she raised her fan into the air. She paused for a few moments before a nervous look shined in her eyes. "At least she hopes she did…"
The girl known as Kongou Mitsuko was a new transfer over to Tokiwadai after she had felt the school she was at before was not up to her overall standards as a Level 4 within Academy City. She had come to this school just in time for one of the system scans that the Middle Schools around here schedule to do around the same time, with her passing with flying colors as she knew she was going to do in the first place.
But even with that, the little amount of time she had been here was not enough for her to fix some of her troubles when it came with direction as this was probably the 5th or 6th time this week that she accidentally confused the Exterior Dormitory for Tokiwadai's Interior Dormitory where her place of residence was actually located.
She looked around to find someone to confirm this, seeing Asher standing on a pillar not too far from her. "Hmmmm, I wonder who that might be. She may be able to assist me." She said to herself.
She walked and called out towards the gravity esper in hopes she would acknowledge both her existence and a classmate in need. Which Asher did, since she had been loud enough to bypass the sound limiter in her Amps. But since most people from her school didn't normally approach much less talk to her face in such a way, she logically concluded that Kongou was talking to someone else.
That is, until the girl in question was right next to her and tapped her on the shoulder to gain her attention. Some actual surprise came over Asher's face for a few moments before she realized she couldn't understand anything that the esper was saying, letting out a sigh that caused Kongou to pause.
"Hold on a second…." Asher sighed as she brought both of her hands to her ears to adjust her Amps. "Sorry, I thought you were talking to someone else. And I had my volume down pretty low, so I couldn't hear you all too well."
"Ah! I see!" Kongou said with a smile before some interest fell in her eyes. "What are those?"
"These?" Asher asked, pointing up to her Amps. Again, there weren't many people who actually showed any interest in anything about her, so she had to confirm it, with Kongo doing the exact opposite of her expectations yet again by nodding her head. "Oh, they're Anti-Sound Amplifiers. I usually just call them Anti-Amps or Amps for short though. I have a severe sound sensitivity, so I need to wear them from time to time to manage all of the sound in my surroundings."
"Mmmhmmmm," Kongou hummed before she brought one of her hands out. "Can I see one of them?"
Asher hesitated for a moment or two before she complied, handing the Amp located in her right ear over to the girl. Right as she did, she instinctively brought her hand up to the back of her neck.
"Wow, this is pretty high end. They must cost a fortune." Kongo marveled. "You must take really good care of these with the good condition they're in currently."
Asher remained silent at that comment, looking off to the side as she sweatdropped.
Yeah, they would be considering I got new ones the other day. If I wasn't a Level 5, I probably would've gone broke a long time ago from how many times I've accidentally broken them without meaning to." She thought, letting out a sigh in an effort to stop her face from heating up.
Asher tried to not let on how nervous this out of the blue social interaction with a random person was making her, though Kongo could automatically see it with how much she was rubbing her neck.
She handed the Amp back to her, bringing out her fan from the side as the gravity esper looked over at her in slight confusion due to the act. "You don't have to be so nervous around me." She said, pointing her fan right in Asher's direction. "I don't want those around me to be so blinded by my presence."
Asher's face immediately heated up from the statement, instantly putting her hands in her pockets in an effort to suppress showing any form of nervousness. "I'm not nervous a-at all." She stuttered stoically. "I may be wrong, but logically anyone would be nervous for some stranger coming up to them out of nowhere, though. Especially how casually you did it with someone like me."
"Oh, where are my manners: I'm Kongou Mitsuko, 2nd year transfer of Tokiwadai Middle School." Kongou announced with a smile. "Might I hear the name of the one I'm currently speaking to?"
That makes sense. She probably hasn't been here long enough to know any of the overall rumors about me. Asher thought, logically coming up with reasons why Kongou didn't seem to be all that unsettled by her presence.
Whatever this is probably won't last long. However, it is a bit uplifting I guess is the word for it that she's doing this. It may waste a considerable amount of energy talking to people, but it's better than hearing what they have to say about you behind your back.
"Asher Zierdan." Asher simply remarked. "I'm also a 2nd year. You must be above average to some extent to transfer here during this point of the term. I've heard the test isn't all that fun to waste any energy on any given time in comparison to how easy regular Entrance Exams tend to be."
Asher looked somewhat confused when she saw some form of a blush appear on Kongou's face, seeing her become flustered enough that she looked away from her.
"I-It is nothing to make any sort of fuss about, that I can assure you. I wasn't all that particular on what school I wanted to go to, but my family just insisted for me to go to Tokiwadai, so here I am." Kongou said almost triumphantly, though it was considerably lessened in Asher's eyes from seeing how red her face was getting.
Asher thought and tried to make what she just said sound like a compliment, but she hadn't expected someone who seemed pretty confident in themselves to get flustered so easily. She doesn't do it all that often, or at least she doesn't notice when she does it, but she was actually trying to be nice to a random person for once and not ignore them as she usually does or leave right after she helped them.
To be honest, this reaction almost reminded her of Shokuhou for some reason or another, seeing Kongou as a lighter version of the Mental Out esper in comparison. She could tell that there was something hidden behind her statement that she couldn't quite narrow down, only finding it amusing that she was able to somehow cause it in the first place.
This was especially seen when she couldn't keep the feeling restrained, letting out a genuine laugh from her mouth that only caused Kongou's face to grow even redder.
"Hey, what's so funny!?" Kongou exclaimed, only making Asher laugh even more as she just couldn't regain her composure. "Was it something I said? Did I do something wrong, Asher!?"
It was around this time that Misaka was coming closer to the front doors of the dorm. She paused when she heard her normally stoic friend laughing almost uncontrollably as she looked over at her leaning most of her weight on the column beside her.
"It's your face. I wasn't expecting it to get as red as mine illogically does! Ahahahahaha!" Asher said in between her laughs. "I don't know why but it just caught me off guard with how confident you just were, ahahahaha!"
"Hey, it isn't nice to laugh at someone's face in such a way!" Kongou exclaimed in embarrassment.
Misaka smiled as she viewed this interaction from afar. She had no clue who Asher was talking to even if she was wearing their uniform, but it was nice to see such a rare sight of both someone trying to talk to Asher, as well as hearing her allowing herself to do something like her laugh so openly.
She had been pretty down this morning, with Misaka wanting to change that by taking her around the 7th District in an effort to cheer her up. Especially due to the news that Shirai had relayed to her last night about Yomikawa having all the documentation arranged for her adoption and taking her out of Silas's custody. The woman had yet to say when she wanted to reveal this to Asher, but to see how almost dejected the esper had been before almost got her to convince Yomikawa to do it today in an effort to change her mood for the better.
Though with what she was seeing now, Misaka knew she didn't have to do that anymore.
A little while later…
It took a while, but Asher was finally able to regain her composure and apologize for her behavior that border lined illogical.
"Sorry about that. I don't know what came over me." Asher sighed, almost resigning back to her usual stoicness even though a remnant of a smile remained on her face. "But I honestly needed that, so thank you."
Before Kongou could say anything in response, she saw a girl with chestnut hair walk up and hug Asher from behind. Asher didn't look all that surprised about it, looking back casually as if she knew she was there from the beginning.
"Oh, hey MK. You know about 10-15 minutes have passed from the time you told me to be down here?" Asher asked bluntly, with Misaka letting out a nervous laugh.
"Yeah, sorry for that." Misaka replied as she unwrapped her arms from around her. "I was just trying to get things in order before we left for probably the entire day." She looked over at Kongou with a sideways glance. "Soooo, you wanna introduce me to your new friend?"
Both Kongou and Asher stiffened up from the way she phrased it, with the latter recovering enough in an effort to not show it.
Asher turned to Misaka as she waved her hand over in Kongou's direction. "This is Kongou Mitsuko and from what I can remember she's in the same year as we are, though just transferred here a small while ago." She replied before she did the reverse with Kongou. "Kongou, this is a close, impatient, hotheaded, and at times childish friend of mine, Misaka Mikoto."
She barely got that phrase out before feeling a massive hit on the top of her head, instantly wincing as a strained smile crept onto Misaka's face.
"I said 'introduce' Zierdan. Not casually slander my name." Misaka said as her eyebrow twitched with Asher only letting out a small grunt of pain in response.
"S-Sorry Mikoto…"
As she watched this slightly amusing exchange, Kongou took some notice in the Electromaster's name, finding herself thinking it was familiar to her for some reason or another. Before she could fully figure it out, though, Misaka directed her attention over to her.
"So why did you come over here, Kongou?" Misaka asked. "It makes sense that since you just transferred over here that I haven't met or seen you before. But it is kind of perplexing that we haven't seen each other in passing here at the dorm specifically."
"Well, I mostly came over here to get something at my dorm before I do something later in the day." Kongou responded. "But even now it seems I'm still afflicted with confusion. It's supposedly within walking distance but I can never find it, and then when I use the bus I'm still lost."
"From that, it sounds like you live in the Interior Dorm then in the Garden of Learning." Asher stated. "The Bus at the School takes students to the Exterior dorm."
"EH!? Really!?" Kongou gasped in surprise, deflating when Asher nodded to confirm. "This whole place is so confusing for me to figure out. I've been here for almost a month and have yet learned the ins and outs of this place and even the School Garden."
Misaka contemplated on that before an idea popped up in her head. "Hmmmmm, that makes sense considering you probably haven't had anyone to show you around. Though, since me and Z have been here for a while, how about we show you around before we take you over to your dorm to hopefully clear up any confusion?" She proposed, seeing surprise flash onto Kongou's face while Asher just let out a small sigh in response.
"You will?" Kongou asked. "I don't want to be a bother to the both of you. It sounded like you two were going off somewhere before I came into the picture."
"No, it's fine. We have to go over to the school at some point anyway and the Garden is on the way there." Asher spoke up before Misaka could even say anything, raising one of her hands to rub the back of her neck. "The place may annoy me at times, but I can still at least see why it's interesting to most of the girls here as well as why it's logical to know your way around there."
As a smile grew on Kongou's face, some surprise fell on Misaka's. She knew the esper would probably accept doing this, but to say she would vocalize it without even a groan or any semblance of a complaint was another thing entirely. She always tried to let on how much energy she would expend doing something like this, trying her best to hide that she honestly would want to do it herself.
Misaka didn't take too much time to think through it, though, as she let out a small laugh under her breath that went unnoticed by the girls in front of her.
Even if we've known each other for years, Z still finds ways to somehow surprise me. Misaka thought as they began to walk, seeing Asher actually having a conversation with Kongou with her entering in it every so often.
This is proof as any for her though…
That she has changed by allowing herself to be…well just herself without the walls that she builds to not make herself vulnerable to being hurt.
She probably doesn't realize she's doing it, more likely just liking how the feeling of Kongou genuinely interacting her makes her feel.
Garden of Learning
A few hours later…
Misaka and Asher took Kongou everywhere they could think of to show the new transfer around one of the main places she was probably going to be in, the Garden of Learning, which is the main area that most of the girls that go to the 5 elite schools located there hang out.
Kongou could tell that they both were well acquainted with the area, even showing her a pet shop that she could go to in order for her to get stuff for her pet snake, Ekaterina.
As they went along with Misaka in the front while Asher was right behind her, she could tell that the both of them drew eyes over to their general direction for some reason or another that Kongou herself was trying to figure due to it honestly looking like it was for different reasons.
For Misaka, it looked like some form of admiration where others would greet her everywhere they went. They didn't seem too close to be considered her friends, just knew enough about her she guessed that would push them to do such a thing for her. She could see the reason why from the overall confidence and niceness the Electromaster had exuded during the entire time they've been out here. But it also seemed like there was some sort of detachment due to the admiration almost going to the extent that she seemed untouchable.
For Asher, however, it was different and something she could tell that the esper had expected. It wasn't as apparent in terms of Misaka so it could have been easily missed. But she would hear murmurs from time to time when people passed about her or see certain looks that wasn't anywhere close to the ones they made when Misaka was in view.
She could tell that it was putting a damper on the gravity esper's mood even when she noticed her turn down her volume probably to hear the sound in her proximity. She went from looking up at the path in front of her to bringing her head down as she kept her hands in her pockets, knowing they probably wanted to be at the spot she presumed to be for some form of comfort on her neck. She didn't know what they were saying about her due to how quiet their hushed tones were, but she could conclude that due to Asher's sensitive hearing that she could hear them word for word.
I wonder what that's about, Kongou thought as her eyes narrowed slightly. She didn't know how she could do it, but she had always been able to feel the subtitles in the air about people to get a gauge of who they are or the morals they stood and were fueled by. It helped in an array of situations, especially when it came to those who tried to lie to her.
But for some reason with Asher, the air around her was complex to the extent that she was having a pretty hard time picking it apart. She had an aura of passiveness about her with the stoicness she has, but at the same it was contradicting that passiveness was driven by something and faltered only at times when she couldn't keep it up anymore.
She could tell right then, however, that there was a certain sadness and alienation about it. Something she knew she just couldn't allow to stand for much longer.
She picked up her pace enough and surprised Asher by tugging her along until she was in between her and Misaka.
"Kongou, what are you doing?" Asher asked in genuine confusion, with Misaka quirking an eyebrow in her direction.
Kongou let out one of her patented laughs, letting go of Asher's arm to bring her fan up to her face. "Haha, well, the two of you may be instated as my tour guides but that doesn't mean we have to be in a line. I'd say being side by side is much better in my opinion."
Asher remained silent, not really knowing how to even respond to that. Though, Misaka got a small idea what the girl was probably doing as she smiled in her direction and turned her sight to the path in front of them.
"Yeah, I second that." Misaka said after a while. "We're all friends here, so it would be best for us to walk side by side with each other."
Again, the Electromaster used the same word from earlier so casually with Kongou in the picture that she knew now that it hadn't been an accidental use of the term before.
"Friends?" Kongou questioned. "Do you really see me as your friend, Misaka and Asher? We've only just met."
Blushes appeared on both Asher's and even Misaka's face, with the latter looking away from how flustered the question had made her.
"W-Well," Misaka began as she looked down at the sidewalk. I mean y-yeah, we may have not known each that long. B-But that doesn't mean we can't be because of it. So ye-yeah, we do see you as our friend, right Z?"
Asher let out a sigh in response as her blush deepened to the extent that it had even spread to her neck, with her hand already placed on the back of it. "I-It may seem illogical I guess considering we only met about a few hours ago. But….I've learned these last couple of weeks that if you actually have a good connection with someone, it doesn't really matter how much time you've known them for some type of attempt in a friendship. So, y-yeah, I do believe it is logical for us to as well like MK does."
Kongou's eyes widened in surprise before she covered her face with her fan as a smile crept onto her face. She started to giggle after a while from seeing both of the esper's reactions to her question, especially with Asher as she even started to walk faster to outwalk the both of them. Her laughs grew to be progressively louder to the point that Asher couldn't ignore it anymore as she sent a flustered sideways glance in her direction.
"Now I'm starting to want to take what I said back Kongou. You're being very illogical right now…" Asher sighed.
"Haha! The only reason you're saying that is because you can't take payback that was well-deserved because of earlier!" Kongou stated triumphantly. "And the look on your face is even worse in comparison!"
It was enough for Misaka to snap out of her flustered haze and start laughing at her friend as smoke was starting to rise from Asher's face when she let out a resounding sigh.
"I just can't ever win in these type of situations…" Asher said mostly to herself, letting out a small chuckle after a while as a small smile remained on her face.
Tokiwadai Middle School
About an hour later…
After they said their goodbyes to Kongou when they showed her the sign that directed her to the Interior Dormitory, Misaka and Asher went on their way to meet up with Shirai at the school for lunch. They were almost there before Asher stiffened up when she felt someone trying to prod in her mind purposefully, letting out a sigh before she stopped in her tracks.
Misaka turned back to look at her in confusion when she did, seeing the esper looking off somewhere.
"Is there something wrong Z?" Misaka asked.
"No, not necessarily something for you to worry over anyway." Asher replied. "It's just something I need to check out really quick. I'll meet up with you and Kuroko shortly."
Misaka looked at her skeptically before she nodded and sent a small wave in Asher's direction as she began to walk off. "Okay, see you in a little bit." She said.
Asher waved without turning to look over at her before putting her hands in her pockets, going down a side hallway that was mostly out of view for anyone to see. She laid her back against one of its walls, sending a sideways glance over to the esper that was standing right next to her.
"Is that the only way you can get my attention nowadays, Shokuhou?" Asher asked, sighing when she heard her let out a laugh under her breath as she put the remote in her hand back into her bag. "How would you feel if I just blindsided you by lessening the gravity around you without your permission?"
"Well good thing I wouldn't have to endure something like that. It usually takes a bit more of a push for you to retaliate in such a way in comparison to your counterpart. And even then, I don't think you would ever build up the nerve to actually hurt me, Asher." Shokuhou responded.
"That would be a logical conclusion, though, if my memory serves me correct, I nearly did pin you up against a wall because of that ability of yours not so long ago." Asher retorted, seeing Shokuhou instantly sweatdrop. "It may not have been on purpose, but you still shouldn't ignore the possibility of something like that happening again in my opinion."
"I thought you said that you would forget that!" Shokuhou pouted as she crossed her arms.
"And I thought I told you to stop peering into my head without permission. Seems like we've both disappointed the other." Asher deadpanned.
A small silence fell between them before Asher let out a sigh, taking notice that the Mental Out Esper was alone. "That clique of yours always seems to be absent whenever you want to talk to me like this. Which is sort of surprising I guess since I don't remember telling you that I was coming anywhere near the Garden today, let alone the school."
"Well considering you're not much of a talkative type with that many people around, I find it a little bit better to grace you with just my presence. In terms of your arrival, there was a lot of buzz going around with two Level 5 espers being spotted inside of the Garden at the same time with someone else. Considering you two are the only Level 5s I know of that are usually together, I just had a feeling it was the both of you." Shokuhou responded. "My turn, how come you didn't tell that lovely Electromaster that I was the one you were coming over to confront?"
"Because I would rather be a part of a conversation than illogically trying to mediate the both of you. I barely have any energy to watch something like that, let alone trying to even attempt to stop it." Asher replied, with Shokuhou letting out a small chuckle in response.
That lightness didn't last long, though, with Shokuhou's face steadily fading into a serious one as a small shadow came onto her features. "I'm sort of surprised you came over here to the point that you even talked to me." She said, clenching her gloved hands together to hide some of her nervousness. "The Doctor told me what happened to you about a week ago after the headscan. When your thoughts nearly imploded on you due to some sort of chemical imbalance that occurred from the extreme amount of stress you went through."
"You're not going to even mention what you did two days before. When you did the one thing I thought you would never do on me and completely took control of my mind?" Asher asked as some form irritation etched her voice. "You of all people should know how damaged I am after what Silas did to me all these years. Everything I lost because of him messing with my head day in and day out over and over and over again. You've seen things that happened that probably Mikoto doesn't know about due to those headscans. Seen me at my lowest. Seen me where I almost gave into the darkness even before the day the experiment ended…"
"Even if I'm reluctant to do those headscans of yours, I do trust that you know what you're doing for the benefit of preventing me from snapping completely a second time. But I can say for a fact that I didn't appreciate what you did under the guise of some illogical bet. If you were going to do that, you should've just told me beforehand at least." She finished.
Shokuhou flinched at every one of her words as her lips ran a very thin line. "I know… It probably would have been better on you." She stated.
"Don't forget Mikoto. I don't care how much you may dislike each other, at least acknowledge that probably seeing me like that and knowing she wasn't there to help me through everything that day was hard on her as well." Asher said darkly as her eyes narrowed ever so slightly. "What seemed like just an hour or two for me when I finally woke up from that induced sleep was probably an eternity for her. She was alone. All by herself as she didn't tell anyone else that actually happened that day. Just like how she basically was when I was in a coma for two whole weeks, blaming herself each and every day for it when it wasn't even her own fault to begin with."
"And due to that, you most likely hate me for what I did, don't you?" Shokuhou asked.
"I don't." Asher said without any form of hesitation, enough that it even surprised the girl next to her.
"Why?" Shokuhou pressed. "I wouldn't blame you if you did. Especially since I don't have that many regrets for doing it either."
"Because even though what you did is one of the most underhanded things that I've experienced from you, at the same time I….understand why you did it even if it was illogical. Especially after all of my thoughts turned against me a few days after." Asher explained. "Honestly, the entire situation was mostly my fault, and that's not even me just saying that just to say that. All of that pent-up stress was probably because I kept suppressing those memories into oblivion ever since the last head scan you did on me before that one. I was…afraid. I feared to know what happened and what I did to everyone those last few weeks….even what I did to you without meaning to."
Shokuhou's eyes widened at that before her eyes fell slightly, knowing what she was talking about as she thought back to it for a time.
2 years ago…
Shokuhou was sitting in the back of the class, looking out a window as the teacher drabbled on and on with whatever she was saying. She let out a sigh after a while, honestly wondering why she even physically chose to come here that day from how bored she currently was.
This went on for a while before she felt a random headache hit her out of nowhere, letting out a small wince as she grasped the side of her face. There was a distinct sound that was coming through her ears that was enough to be distracting, looking around and noticing that she almost seemed to be the only one being afflicted by it.
'Wh-What's going on?' she thought before it clicked when she looked over at the one esper whose mind almost felt like it was calling out to her somehow. She hadn't been able to even get on the surface of her mind for weeks, barely even getting some sort of connection before it felt like her mind was going to split open. It always seemed to be one-sided as well, as it almost looked like she didn't even notice she did it.
Asher was sitting a little ways away from her with her head bowed, clenching onto her pencil with her left hand so tightly that it was about to snap. She was trembling visibly, but not enough for the teacher to fully notice a potential bomb about to blow up in her classroom.
Shokuhou took a chance and brought out one of her remotes, clicking onto a button that connected her with Asher's mind where she was nearly overloaded with such chaos that she was unable to sort through it during the short time she was in it.
It was concerning considering it was so much that Asher didn't even notice her enter her mind as her entire being was focused on the undying noise that almost felt like it was going to cripple the esper into unconsciousness.
Shokuhou sent a skeptical sideways glance over there for a while before she used her remote to control the teacher of the class to formally allow her to take Asher out of the classroom without much suspicion.
So, she did and walked out as Asher notably stumbled out along with her. The gravity esper didn't get too far before she braced herself against the wall, with Shokuhou standing right next to her with her arms crossed.
"I've tried my best to go on and ignore whatever this 'is' that's happening to you. But now it's starting to give me random migraines out of nowhere which I very much wouldn't want to have. And I feel that it's probably fair for you to give me an explanation." Shokuhou said with some annoyance in her voice before looking back and seeing that Asher wasn't even paying attention to her. She walked up and put her gloved hand onto Asher's shoulder. "Hey are you even-"
It was at that moment that the blue streaks in Asher's hair instantly shifted to red, with Shokuhou immediately being forcefully yanked and pushed hard into the wall behind her. Some semblance of fear flashed into Shokuhou's eyes when she saw Asher's hand pull back, glowing an intense shade of purple and turning into the shape of some sort of short blade.
"Hey! What the heck are you doing!?" Shokuhou gasped as her sparkled eyes met with unfocused red ones, hearing incoherent murmurs from her mouth. It was enough to get her to pause for a few moments, before calling out her name. "Zierdan?"
That was able to cause Asher to stiffen up as recognition fell into her eyes, shaking her head in some effort to reorient herself. Blue steadily began to creep back into them as the light started to fade from them at the same time. "M-Misaki…I'm s-sorry…but I th-think I'm about…to…." She mumbled out before she began to fall forward.
Shokuhou was barely able to catch her before she passed out of nowhere, looking down at the esper in complete confusion as sweat fell down the side of her face. She was heavy but at the same time was light as she looked almost as if she had hardly eaten anything or slept within the last few weeks, especially with how pale her skin seemed from this close.
Shokuhou let out a sigh, using one of her remotes to call someone she trusted to come and aid in taking the unconscious esper somewhere for her before Misaka would catch them like this.
"What kind of trouble did you end up getting yourself into now, Zierdan?"
Present…
"Still keeping that on your conscience?" Shokuhou asked after a while. "It may have been surprising, but I know that you weren't completely all there at that moment."
"That doesn't excuse the fact that I could've seriously harmed you. I should've taken that sign and finally saw that what I was doing to myself was wrong. How would I have controlled my ability if I could hardly control myself?" Asher said before her face fell even further. "I also can't get the look on your face out of my head. I know I may scare a lot of people at times but…I would have never thought that I would have been able to see you look at me like that because of something I did or was about to do to you. If you hadn't snapped me out of that headspace in that moment…I-I probably w-would have…h-have…."
Asher trailed off before she looked at the ground dejectedly, not noticing the amount of trembling that her hands were doing at her sides.
Shokuhou's face softened ever so slightly before she hesitated for a small while, bringing her own hand and clasping one of Asher's. She didn't look over at her when some sort of surprise fell on her face. "Stop. We've both done things in our lives we're not proud of." She said aloud. "As the strongest mental esper in the city, I've done things with the human mind than you can probably think imaginable, both for good and for bad. For instance, the only reason Silas Wright even has the ability to think for himself and hasn't had his mind turned into mush is because of you. If you had died or never wanted to regain your memories back, he would have met a fate to which he would've wished he had died that day and I would've done it to him without any kind of remorse."
"And that," She continued. "Is the one thing that separates the both of us. You may be the bluntest, laziest, and short-termly stubbornest person I've ever interacted with. But I know you're actually backed by some form of morals versus just circumstances like I am."
She unclasped her hand from Asher's and began to walk away from her before she stopped and looked at the esper over her shoulder. "I'm…sorry for what happened to you after that headscan, by the way. It was definitely something I hadn't thought would occur. Which was the main reason why I wanted to meet up with you today."
She tried to fully leave after that before she felt something grab her wrist, looking back and seeing Asher right there.
"It's alright. But…Misaki, have we ever interacted with each other before Tokiwadai?" Asher asked, seeing something unreadable flash in Shokuhou's eyes as a small chuckle escaped from her mouth.
"And why would you ask such a ridiculous question as that, Zierdan?" Shokuhou asked.
"It's just, something about our almost illogical relationship, I guess." Asher replied. "It almost feels like I know you but don't know you at the same time. But then you can read me like a book and say things that my own logic can't beat at times somehow, since you can pick it apart about as much as Mikoto can. And then, I can almost understand why you do whatever you do for me or the logic in what you're saying almost to the extent that we've known each other much longer but…I just can't get out of my head the reason why. Almost like it's blocked in some way."
"Well isn't that interesting," Shokuhou said playfully as she walked out of Asher's grip. "I guess that's just something that logical mind of yours needs to figure out for yourself as I have no actual clue what you're talking about. It could possibly be from how connected we become during the headscans, where a part of me could also be given to you and you to me in turn but other than that, I have nothing else I could give you as an answer."
As Shokuhou walked out of view, Asher could tell there was something hidden behind her words that forced a sigh out of her mouth as she turned to go find wherever Misaka and Shirai were.
Shokuhou stood nearby and out of sight for a time until she knew the esper was gone, letting out a sigh of her own in some form of relief of the events that had just occurred.
["It's alright. But…Misaki, have we ever interacted with each other before Tokiwadai? ]
Now that, Zierdan, is a can of worms that even you wouldn't want to open at this moment. Even if we only met in passing from time to time. She thought before she walked off the wall to meet up with the members of her clique.
There's no telling what that executive mom of yours was the head of or took note of in that research probably inside of that locked box that the Doctor has yet to give you for some reason or another.
That old man probably has too much interest in you as it is because of that woman and your ability, probably thinking you're the key in finding that research for him when he has no business in having it in the first place.
I don't want Exterior to be added onto the list on top of that, as Gensei is someone neither you nor that Electromaster would ever want to deal with. Especially with that granddaughter of his being the central one involved in WaveInflux in place of him during its later stages.
A little while later…
Asher finally made it over to where Misaka, Shirai, and her had agreed to meet up with each other at one of the outside table areas around Tokiwadai Middle School.
When she came closer, she started to hear some form of commotion of cries that she knew automatically were fake from hearing Shirai's whines among them.
What is that pervert trying to get Mikoto to do this time? she thought as she let out a sigh.
Scratch that, what is she going to convince Mikoto to do that I always seem to be illogically roped in every single time?
"Ugh, alright," She heard the Electromaster say, already causing Asher to get anxious to whatever she was agreeing to. "If you honestly think I won't be too bad at it, I guess I'll help you out."
Great, just what I logically concluded would happen in the first place…
As she finally came around the corner in view to see Misaka literally have Shirai in some type of submission hold for whatever perverse thing the teleporter had said too quietly for her Amps to even pick up, she saw two girls standing off to the side watching the interaction from afar.
All she could really tell was that they were Tokiwadai girls from their uniforms. Due to her minor form of face blindness, she never really used too much energy to remember the faces of people unless she had to or if they made a big enough impression on her that she couldn't help but to remember who they were.
Though, when they saw her come into view, she could instantly tell that they knew who she was, seeing the same look in the eyes of the girls in front of her that she had seen enough times that she had lost count. It instantly made her uncomfortable, with her stoic face falling ever so slightly that she could tell that it surprisingly made the other girls look away for some reason she couldn't quite narrow down.
This feeling seemed to lessen, however, when Misaka realized she was there, automatically smiling over at her as she causally let Shirai out of her hold.
"Oh! There you are, Z." Misaka said, cheerfully enough that it brought an inkling of a smile on Asher's lips.
"What took you so long to get over here?" Shirai asked as she walked over to them.
"Sorry, I just had to take care of something." Asher sighed, before she looked over at the girls behind them. "Mind telling me who these two are?"
Shirai turned and pointed over to the girl who had about as dark blue of hair as she knew Yomikawa to have. "This is Awatsuki Maaya." She stated before she turned to the girl with short wavy light-brown hair. "And this is Wannai Kinuho. They're both classmates of mine."
Shirai then turned her attention over to both Wannai and Awatsuki. "And this," She continued as she waved a hand over to Asher. "Is my and Sissy's good friend, Asher Zierdan. Or more notably known as the Jack of Tokiwadai and 5th Ranked Level 5: GravShift."
As some surprise flashed onto the faces of Wannai and Awatsuki, some confusion fell onto Misaka's expression.
"The Jack of Tokiwadai?" Misaka said mostly to herself. "That's a new one. I'm guessing Kuroko came up with it for you."
"Yeah she did." Asher sighed. "It seems she didn't want to leave me out of this card game us Level 5s seem to have in Tokiwadai."
As they conversed on with each other, Wannai and Awatsuki watched it quietly for a while from afar. They had heard many rumors surrounding the person they knew to be the GravShift of Tokiwadai, knowing even with it being their first year there that she wasn't someone you wanted to be around or cross the wrong way as she was dangerous. They had never heard her full name before this moment, only knowing that she had notable blue streaks that almost seemed unnatural within her blonde hair and wore gray pants instead of the skirt every other Tokiwadai student wore.
Now seeing her like this and around someone they had admired as the Level 5 Railgun in the city, though, gave them a new perspective on the gravity esper as she didn't seem to be all that close to how the rumors described her to be. If someone like Shirai or Misaka was willing to hang out with her to the extent of them being close friends, then there wasn't anything innately bad or dangerous about Asher, right?
It made them feel all the more bad from before when they had portrayed some level of nervousness to the extent of fear when they saw Asher at first, looking away just as they saw something flash on the esper's face as if she was both prepared but also upset from seeing the sight itself.
They both looked at each other for a time before a smile came over their respective faces for what the other was thinking, with Wannai deciding to introduce an idea to Asher in which they had just got Misaka to agree to do.
"Hey Asher," Wannai called out, seeing stoic blue eyes look over in her direction with some form of surprise in her gaze. "Do you want to help us out with something?"
"It depends…" Asher remarked as she raised a hand up to the back of her neck. "If it involves something illogical then no."
"Well, me and Wannai are on the swim club and it's involved with this swimsuit manufacturer. They've been wanting us to do swimsuit modeling for their catalog for a while, with it being in their next issue this time. Apparently, though, all of the older girls are currently competing at a swim meet, which means that we're currently the only ones available that are able to do it, until Shirai and Misaka agreed to help us." Awatsuki explained.
It took a while for the dots to click inside of Asher's head, with her face instantly heating up progressively when it continuously came across the word "swimsuit modeling."
"S-So, what you're asking me is to also be a part of this swimsuit modeling thing, right?" Asher questioned as she tried her best to keep the last bit of her composure.
"Exactly!" Wannai stated.
"It would be a big help if you were able to help as well. The more the merrier." Awatsuki added.
At this point, Asher's limited amount of imagination was beginning to run wild, feeling herself starting to get illogically embarrassed offhandedly just for the thought of being involved with something where an illogical amount of skin was going to be exposed.
If it had just been with Misaka alone, it probably wouldn't have been as bad considering the Electromaster had forced her to try out the bathhouse somewhere in that district multiple times in order to help reduce the reaction she was currently having in the face of something like this. It had taken some time, but she was able to grow to where she could go through it without any chances of short circuiting in the process.
Even though this situation didn't have as much skin exposed, however, she still couldn't keep herself from getting flustered, especially at the thought of her being a part of such a thing with people other than Misaka in the equation.
"W-Well, I apparently have something I-I have to do that I somehow forgot about u-until this moment." Asher barely got out as she turned around. "So, I'll just go on to do that and-"
Two hands instantly landed on her shoulder, one being Misaka as electricity sparked in her hand to cancel out any sign of Asher trying to use her ability and the other being Shirai with the underlying threat that she would teleport the esper if she even tried to get away.
She knew at that moment…
That she, the 5th Ranked Level 5 GravShift…
Could not escape her fate of becoming a temporary swimsuit model for the last half of her day.
Word Count of Chapter: 8522 |Page Count: 14 pages |Reviews: 169 | Followers: 98 |Favorites: 79
I know I said that we were going to most likely start Big Spider in Chapter 38, but I thought it would probably be better to have more of an extended break on the action/depression/angst stuff at the moment, and have more of the lightness that Chapter 1-7 had before WaveInflux.
I've decided to push it back a bit because of that, but I'm pretty sure the Big Spider arc won't be too long anyway (probably just 2-3 chapters). That goes for Poltergeist as well which may be around 3-5 chapters hopefully, so I'm hoping *crosses fingers* that we will get into the next big arc (Sisters') some time between Chapter 45-50.
Though on the question with lightness/filler chapters, would you guys want the Special Workshop done after the swimsuit photo op (when Saten and the rest of the Level Upper users have to go to a program for a day), or shall we just go on to Big Spider to finally have a small time skip to the first week of August in Chapter 39?
Review Replies
Ho4qin: I honestly completely forgot about Sora being Japanese for "Sky" *facepalms* (Sorry Kingdom Hearts Franchise). I have added that along with others that have combos of Asher and Sora on the poll. Thought about adding "Ash" to it as well, but I don't know if she would keep a nickname that Silas decided to give her.
Will the likes of Yomikawa and Yoshikawa get together? We will see. You ship them. I ship them. I feel like most end up shipping them at some point.
Asher would most likely have an easier time creating plasma than Accelerator. Asher having the ability to make a mini portable sun 0.0? That is both cool and scary at the same, which all the Level 5s are known for anyway, so that's probably another power you've recommended to put on the docket to where I'll see if I can make it happen. A compressed air cannon is another thing I wished I had thought about. Blueshift so far has been sort of the passive/stealthy side of hers. These ideas are pretty good to at least give it some offensive uses, other than pulling stuff towards her.
Blankow: Both Asher and Sky were pretty much right in saying their just two halves of the same whole, with one being logical in thinking and the other filtering emotions. I thought last chapter would probably be a good time to hopefully show Sky as overly protective due to instability vs an evil half that manipulated Asher to destroy the city, which Yoshikawa had theorized from the amount of time she spent with the both of them.
I thought it would only be proper for Accelerator to show up since Yoshikawa was getting the most focus in that chapter. I would say that their relationship is closer due to her already having some experience with monitoring and getting close to Asher, whose life could be considered similar overall to Accelerator's to some extent.
With this recent chapter (37) the location and current holder of Himari's research has been revealed. The drug that was given to Asher to stabilize her will be gone over at some point. Out of all the hospitalizations that Asher had because of WaveInflux, the event in the last chapter was probably the closest Asher had of actually dying because of all the stress she endured. It was an even more unstable version of her power spiking towards Level 6 shift.
Sadly due to how early Ryo dies, he'll mostly be seen in flashbacks with Himari in "Asher" (Like Chapter 4) or Silas in there and in CSG. He may possibly get a chapter from his POV too, but we'll see. That whole entire quote does fit Silas perfectly to the point it's too perfect. Especially the part where it says "Those idiots will destroy the world just for fun."
Asher finally has a mother figure. Just need to figure out when to let her know she has one.
*Looks up serving sizes of cakes from Publix*
With Asher eating around 20-25 slices of cake, something a little bigger than a ¼ sheet is equivalent to the amount of cake she ate. Poor girl ate an entire birthday party cake amount by herself. I have no clue how many calories that it is and quite frankly don't want to know at the same time.
With the end of Shokuhou's part, you were right: It's Therestina. Still have yet to read any of the light novels, so she, Gensei, and Amata are the only ones I know fairly well. Hopefully that'll change sometime in the future.
"Rehsa," another name I find myself wondering why the thought hadn't occurred to me to do: having the name backwards. I did it for "Zierdan" (Nadreiz) and didn't really like it, but then somehow forgot to do it to "Asher," where I like how it looks more. It's definitely going on the poll as it is a name creative enough for the Sisters' to try and aspire to.
Funfact: the main OC in my MHA story has the last name "Reiza." May not be spelled the same, but does have a similar pronunciation, with her being similar to Asher in way ability wise since her quirk gives her the ability to control poles/polarity.
I agree that WaveInflux and Sisters are equally bad. I'll never forget that moment where Misaka actually used something either close or at her full power to kill Accelerator, only for it to be deflected right back at her.
Thanks! I'm trying my best to not overwork myself. I've gotten passed the hump, with the end finally coming in sight next week. Hope you enjoyed this chapter as it was my attempt at hopefully doing well at combining both the manga and anime introduction of Kongou, with the latter coming more so in the next chapter. Mangdex was a big help, so thanks again for that as well:)
LostNeko120: These next few chapters will be mostly filled with more lightness in comparison to the last few chapters. You guys need a break, which is why I've been considering maybe adapting some of the other lighter episodes in here for maybe another chapter or two after the swimsuit one.
I have no clue why "Sora" didn't come to me before "Sky" did. My brain was probably running low on juice that day. Yomikawa x Yoshikawa could potentially happen since I love them together as well, so we'll see.
You're welcome and thanks:)
supboyyyyy93:
Chapter 20
Love the Railgun girls as well T.T
Chapter 21
Saten's Level 6 Friendship ability always comes in clutch. You can say that you love the railgun girls a million times and I'll still always be first in line to agree with you.
velvetsthetic: Asher's past could probably be comparable to how depressing Kamijou's and Accelerator's was. And all that Silas gets for being the cause of such a thing is just an extended stay in a jail cell.
Alright, I'll keep "Sky" as an option on the poll just in case if anyone else wants to keep it versus the other ones that are on there. She is key to maintaining Asher emotionally since she has almost no emotional control once the right words are said repeatedly, so she will be back at some point. Maybe even the key of how to get ahold of Asher's redshift state.
Since Yoshikawa was the main focus of this chapter, I thought it was probably warranted for the 1st ranked to finally make an appearance. Huh, even if Yoshikawa wasn't all for going to meet up with Silas, just for the fact that she went for Asher does qualify as her first act of kindness in a way.
The only person that understands Silas is Silas, unfortunately. He warps what he does so that it's alright logically from his point of view, and honestly doesn't care about anything else if it doesn't affect him. He probably won't get any form of redemption because of everything that he has done that has yet to be revealed.
Did some of the math and Z ate enough cake to be equivalent to a little bit bigger than a ¼ sheet cake 0.0
The 'woman' is Therestina. I was going to reveal it later, but decided to do it now with what Shokuhou said at the end. I haven't read any of the light novels yet, so the only Kiharas I know fairly well is her, Gensei, and Amata.
If you were looking forward to the Bikini Shoot for this chapter, I'm sorry. Thought it would be the best thing to have a full chapter of Asher internally and externally freaking out over such a thing and set up Kongou's, Wannai's, and Awatsuki's relationship with her inside of this one.
Glad that you loved that chapter:)
JintoLin: She may not be a complete saint from being a researcher in Academy City, but, Himari is definitely nowhere near how bad the Kiharas are or how Silas ended up becoming. If Ryo had stayed around, her life with him and Zierdan would have put a better light on her role as a researcher though.
"Last order" is correct for one of the cutest characters I've ever seen. Ha, "The Long awaited visit that no one wanted" is probably a perfect alternative title for that chapter. It did grant some humanity to Silas because of Himari, but probably not enough to the extent he should be redeemed or forgiven for all that he has done.
Asher now finally has a legal guardian/mother figure in her life that is fully faithful to her. Now it's time to figure out the best time to reveal such a thing.
With it being revealed that Gensei's granddaughter was the one pulling the strings of WaveInflux, it probably narrows down your choices to one woman that it could be (especially with the fact that I haven't read any of the light novels yet:)
Yoshikawa is probably the only one alive now (other than Asher) who can actually bother/scare/surprise him at this point. She took Himari's death about as hard as Asher had, with Yomikawa being the mother figure/greatest friend as she is and being there for both of them.
Alright, there's another vote for Sora to be on the name poll. And yeah, I agree it's best to give her a name since she is Asher's 1# defender after or even before Misaka at times depending on her headspace.
The parallels between Asher and Saten probably has yet to stop becoming more prominent, even if they seem to be complete opposites socially. Mentally they have the same outlook on themselves/life which is probably why they gravitate towards each other more often as the story progresses.
I want to get to the Sisters Arc as well, even if the first chapter I still have as a concept in my docs is pretty depressing. You guys need some sort of break though, hopefully the lightness in these next few chapters will lessen the blow when Sisters' finally comes around hopefully some time in the 40s, since I'm trying to not make Big Spider/Poltergeist too long.
You have a considerable amount of time to catch up on Asher, since there aren't a lot of chapters at this point. And I'm not going to be updating it as frequently, so you can take your time;)
Thanks for your reviews!
-PurpleClover99
