"Speaking normally"

'Thoughts'

"Japanese"

When Mikoto came to, she was in darkness. 'Where am I?' There was a crowd people laughing and talking nearby, she could hear the quiet murmur of their voices but not make out any words.

Forcing her eyes open Mikoto had to pause when she noticed she was leaning against a wind turbine.

Searching her surroundings for threats out of habit, Mikoto relaxed when she registered that she was in her inner world.

"Are you alright Onee-sama, asks Misaka wanting to know the condition of onee-sama's body."

Mikoto's eyes soften as she smiles up at Misaka 10032, who in turn offers her hand to help Mikoto up.

"Yeah, just a bit sore," she takes Misaka 10032s hand and is pulled to her feet.

"Onee-sama!"

The shout was Mikoto's only warning before being tackled back to the ground by a younger version of herself.

"I missed you so much says Misaka as Misaka hugs her big sister tightly not wanting to let go."

"Missed you too Last Order." Mikoto gasped for breath, Last Order felt heavier than usual.

"I see you're at my feet where you belong, Onee-san," came a mocking voice to Mikoto's left.

"Hello to you, too, Worst," Mikoto groaned as she sat up, Last Order still clinging to her like a demented monkey.

Misaka Worst sat down, forcing Last Order move so she's hugging Mikoto's right side. Misaka 10032 sits down and snuggles into Mikoto's freed left side. Worst smirks at the display as Mikoto puts her arms around each of the clones to stop them from moving.

The comfortable silence is broken when Misaka 10032 says; "Onee-sama, how are you still alive asks Misaka curious as to how Onee-sama managed to get out of such a despairing situation."

Worst and Last Order stared at Mikoto, also curious.

"It's a long story," Mikoto explained the hunt and sudden save via glowing ball of light to 10032, with Worst and Last Order tuning the rest of the sisters into the conversation.

Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Vallière stared down at the two summons that had appeared at her feet.

She had wanted to summon a powerful familiar such as a dragon or a griffon so that people would stop laughing at her and calling her 'Zero', instead what looked like two commoners had appeared.

The first commoner was a young male, about 17 years old with black hair. He was wearing a blue and white jacket with black trousers and blue and white shoes.

The second commoner was wearing a slightly too large dark grey hoodie with the hood up, Louise could see half of their face and deduced that they were female, she could also see that the unknown girl had chestnut brown hair, was wearing slightly baggy black trousers and black military style boots.

Louise could hear the other students whispering behind her, and saw that the male commoner was waking up.

"Who are you peasant? Where do you come from?"

The boy, Saito just looked around, confused as to where he was.

"Don't you understand our language? Where do you come from?" demanded the small girl.

'What language it that?' thought Saito, as he moved his left hand slightly to the side and felt the fabric of the other girl's hoodie.

Deciding that he didn't want to be in this situation alone, Saito shook her shoulder. "Hey, wake up," he whispered, shaking her a bit harder when that didn't work.

Feeling his hand becoming wet, Saito let go, looking to see what the liquid was. He started, shocked, at the red covering his hand. Eyes widening, he quickly rolled the unknown girl onto her front, getting the attention of everyone in the room.

They watched as Saito pulled up the back of her hoodie revealing multiple holes in both fabric and back, blood spreading across the ground from gunshot wounds.

"Hey! Don't just stand there, help her!"

The teacher, Professor Colbert rushed over to examine the girl.

Louise stepped out of the way, unsure what to do to help.

"Miss Vallière, please finish the contract with your two familiars quickly, this one needs urgent medical attention."

"But Professor, I've never heard of having peasants as familiars before!"

"I'm afraid there are no exceptions Miss Vallière, now continue with the ritual or I will be forced to expel you from this institution."

"Fine!" Louise turned to Saito who was standing off to the side visibly worried and confused.

"You should be grateful for this, normally someone of noble birth never does something like this for a peasant."

"Huh?"

"My name is Louise Francois le Blanc de la Vallière, oh pentagon that rules the five powers bless this individual and make him my familiar."

Louise leaned forward and kissed a very confused Saito.

"Hey, what the hell, what was that supposed to mean!"

Saito felt his entire body burn up as steam started to rise off him.

"What did you do to me," demanded Saito through the burning pain.

Louise however had already turned around and was performing the ritual on the unconscious girl whose body also started steaming.

"Ah," Saito clutched his chest and watched as runes were burnt into his skin.

The last thing Saito saw before passing out from pain were the runes etching themselves onto the other girl's hand.

"Miss Tabitha, could you please take this young girl to the infirmary."

Tabitha nodded and instructed her own familiar to lower her neck before levitating the injured girl onto its back and carried her to the infirmary.

"Mister Gramont, could you please carry Miss Vallière's other familiar to her chambers, I need to report to Headmaster Osmond the results of the summoning ritual" 'and research the runes on that boys hand' thought Colbert before marching towards the main tower.

Louise sighed. Saito had been dumped on the straw in her room and Gramont had been persuaded to leave.

"What am I supposed to do now? I summoned two commoner familiars and one of them is hurt, I wanted a dragon or a griffon, something powerful and what do I get?" she glanced back at Saito.

"The weakest of the weak." Louise sighed again, 'I should probably go check up on my other familiar.' Louise gave Saito a passing glance before leaving for the infirmary.

Arriving at her destination, Louise hesitated a moment outside.

Cautiously poking her head round the door, she spied the Head Warden scribbling notes on a clipboard with one of her assistants changing the sheets on a nearby bed. Scanning the ward Louise saw one of the beds had the curtains closed.

'That's probably where that girl is,' she surmised.

She opened the door more fully and stepped into the ward, drawing the attention of the Head Warden and her assistant.

The assistant went back to work whilst the Head Warden got up to greet Louise knowing her from being a frequent patient.

"Hello Miss Vallière, I take it you're here to find out the condition of your familiar."

"Yes."

The Head Warden smiled and lead her towards the bed with the closed curtains.

Pushing the curtain aside Louise saw her other familiar's face without her hood for the first time.

Chestnut hair reaching slightly past her shoulders, in sleep her face looked peaceful despite the scar running from the middle of the left side of her forehead to just left of her eye, bisecting her eyebrow.

"Her injuries were more severe than we originally thought," began the Head Warden, and Louise turned to look at her.

"What do you mean?"

Removing the clipboard attached to the end of the bed, the Head Warden looked sad as she recounted the list of injuries. "The scar on her head was bleeding by the time Miss Tabitha brought her in, but even without that, she was in real danger of bleeding out from the holes in her back."

Seeing the shock on Louise's face, the Head Warden continued in a softer tone, "We managed to remove what caused the holes," she pointed at a small box sitting on the bedside table.

"We don't know what they're made of, it's not a substance we're familiar with so we've sent a sample to Professor Colbert for research. But don't worry we managed to stop the bleeding, replace the blood she'd lost and heal the holes in her back with water magic though some of the wounds will scar."

"Well that's a relief." The last thing Louise needed was for one of her familiars to die, she would never hear the end of it if that happened.

The Head Warden smiled to see Louise's relief before frowning again.

"There's something else you should know," she said regaining Louise's attention. "Whatever happened to her forced her to push her body past its limit."

"What do you mean?" asked Louise.

"Her muscles are severely overworked especially her leg muscles. When she wakes up she won't be able to move properly for a while. Unfortunately, the only cure for overworked muscles is rest so there's nothing more we can do about it. Because of this I would advise she stay overnight just in case something happens."

"Of course," Louise agreed immediately, after all she only had space for one familiar in her room.

"Excellent."

Louise gave the unconscious figure in the bed a long look before following the Head Warden to her office.

"I just need you to sign here, to confirm that you agree to let your familiar stay the night."

Louise took the pen and signed before heading back to her other familiar.