ah sorry for the late chapter guys, I was rather busy during my summer classes and even now college is becoming a bit more hectic and time consuming.

also, the TI4 of dota 2 is taking up a lot of my time.

so anyways, here's the chapter. I hope this will make up for it as well as show to you guys that I havent abandoned this fic yet.

"Oh man... I knew I forgot to ask her about something... worse, there was even a test that I haven't studied or learned at all..."

The girl, Mato Kuroi, was currently groaning on her seat as she rested her chin on her desk.

Turns out that there was a homework to be submitted today as well as a test for said topic. It also happened to be math, which Mato could confidentially say is her weakest subject. So it was a sight that was normal in their class, for the girl to be groaning about her frustrations to no one in particular.

Except that she wasn't exactly talking to no one.

'...sorry. It slipped my mind due to other concerns... I should have done it much earlier before I headed out.'

Currently there was someone speaking to Mato, though not physically present in the room itself.

"Well, a lot did happen and it was also my fault for forgetting to check before going to sleep..." Mato trailed off as she straightened up and leaned back in her chair.

'...now that I think about it, I should have taken your place to answer them...'

"Ah no no, Rock-san," Mato said while shaking her head. "That's cheating and not fair for my fellow classmates. I should answer it using my own knowledge."

'It's also not fair for you since you weren't around.'

"I-it's still cheating," Mato still insisted. "And it's just one failed test, I can still recover from it... hopefully..." she groaned again and gazed out at the window at her left.

'...well, if that is your decision then, I'll be silent now.'

Silence passed as the voice had stopped talking. Mato stopped staring outside for a moment then glanced around her classroom, noticing Yomi, along with a few other classmates, was looking at her with a confused expression on her face. Mato put on a small smile on her face towards them, causing the students return to whatever they were doing earlier while Yomi still looked a bit worried before smiling back.

"Ah, it really feels like I am talking to myself," Mato said with a slight grimace when Yomi turned back to talk with Yuu. "I can hear your words in my head instead of my ears, like there's an echo inside my head."

Mato was making conversations with being known as Black Rock Shooter, who is now currently residing within her own body and mind. Neither of them knew or had any idea how this happened though. A similar incident like this had occurred in the past where Black Rock Shooter had let Mato take control of her body in order to save Yomi, who happened to be possessed by someone called Dead Master. Mato could still remember how it felt before, where she had felt incredible power and strength in her limbs, as well as acute awareness and senses with her mind while she was inside Black Rock Shooter.

It was different from now though, as neither she nor Rock had let the other possess her by their choice, and neither of them have really met each other since the incident in the past...

To everyone else who were watching her, she appeared to be making various expressions on her face while murmuring to herself. Mato didn't really mind though, as she had already been receiving weird looks in the past for her eccentric personality.

"Aw man, that was really one tough test."

Mato jolted back slightly in her seat at Yuu's face suddenly appearing inches away from her face. Seems like Yuu had walked up to her seat while Mato had been busy moping around, so she was, understandably, a bit surprised.

This didn't go unnoticed by Yuu of course, who grinned at her reaction.

"Muu, please don't sneak up on me like that , Yuu," Mato whined.

"So how did you do with the test?" Yuu asked, completely ignoring Mato's request. "Did well or what?"

"...not good, just as usual," Mato shook her head. "I didn't have any idea how to solve those problems."

"Eh? But didn't you just do well with those problems yesterday?" Yuu looked at her with surprise. "You even corrected the teacher on one of them, heck a lot of us were surprised that you could understand it on the first try."

Mato stared blankly at Yuu before her mouth suddenly felt dry. She quickly tried thinking of an excuse.

"Ah um... I guess I just got lucky yesterday eheh," Mato replied back with a small laugh, hoping to deter Yuu away.

Yuu didn't buy it though and looked even more confused. "Huh? How can you get "lucky" on a math equation?"

"Er- ah," Mato quickly thought up of an explanation. "I s-saw the equation in one of those online forums while I was browsing one of those manga forums," Mato replied as best as she could, drawing up again from her online experience.

"...oh, so that's how it is," Yuu said after a while. She tilted her head to think about it before nodding slightly. "Yeah... that sounds possible, though you have to be really lucky for that one to come out yesterday..."

"I'm just... lucky I guess," Mato said with a slight chuckle.

"Yeah... of course," Yuu suddenly smiled. "There's no way you would have done well in math of course," she said with a light punch at Mato's shoulder.

"Ahaha, yeah," Mato continued chuckling, though her voice seemed a bit lower now. "I really... cant do anything for math."

Mato then watched Yuu walk back to her seat before sighing. Then Mato slumped her face on the desk, feeling mentally exhausted already.

'...sorry.'

"Ah its not really your fault, im just really..." Mato trailed off with sigh. "Well, at least today we're going to be doing some baking on our home economics subject," the thought of baking her own cookies to eat made Mato temporarily forget about her own failures. "I'm going to be able to make a comeback this time!"

Home Economics

"Wait wait, you mean you have no idea on how to cook?"

"Well, it can't be helped. She was hospitalized, remember?"

Kagari also couldn't help but wince at the topic Yuu and Yomi were discussing about, which was herself. Specifically, her knowledge and experience in cooking.

As she was a new transfer student, the teacher had allowed her to choose which group she could go to for their activity. Naturally, she went for the one that had Yomi... which naturally had Mato and Yuu as well. Things started out fine until the teacher had started talking about them baking a cake and Kagari telling them she didn't know how cooking worked.

So now, Yomi was defending from Yuu while Mato was slumping down on their table, her face turned away from the group. Kagari could only guess what the girl was feeling, as earlier she heard Mato exclaim about looking forward for this class...

Yuu sighed once then directed her gaze at Kagari. "Still, couldn't she have at least seen a cooking show at least once?" she asked.

"That's-" Yomi was about to protest when Kagari raised her hand.

"It's alright, Yomi," she said. "Yuu's got a point, and even if she didn't it doesn't change the fact that I'm inexperienced."

Well, I'll just sit this one out-

"No can do, Kagari-san," Mato suddenly rose up from her position, interrupting Kagari's thoughts. "You have to help participate otherwise the point of this subject will be meaningless."

The three of them were surprised, Kagari especially, at how easily Mato was taking it. Yomi looked pleasantly surprised while Yuu looked shocked.

"Eh are you sure about this, Mato?" Yuu asked cautiously towards the girl. "The cake may end up tasting funny or we might get into an accident."

"Everyone has their first time, right?" Mato replied back with her own question. "Plus, wouldn't it be safer and be better with all of us here compared to if she tries it on her own?"

"Yes yes," Yomi nodded enthusiastically. "This will be a good learning experience for Kagari to practice, we just guide her."

"Ah fine then, we'll let her help," Yuu relented. She still looked nervous about it though.

After Yuu agreed, the three of them turned around to look at Kagari, causing her to freeze slightly.

Eh is this really okay?...

Kagari's thoughts trailed off at the looks of anticipation from Mato. Well, Yomi was also giving the same look but that was what she expected from her friend.

Seeing it on Mato though...

Kagari took a deep breathe before answering their unspoken question. "...alright, I guess," she said. "B-but don't blame it on me if it tastes bad."

"Don't worry too much, Kagari," Yomi smiled encouragingly at her reply. "You wont know until you try it."

"I hope your right about that one," Yuu sighed before putting on her apron.

"Ok then," Mato exclaimed as she picked up the mixing bowl and cups. "Lets start!"

"Ah, that cake was pretty good. Kagari-san really did well on her first try."

'...didn't she add a bit too much sugar and cream? The icing didn't really stick that well and there was a few excess left in the bowl.'

"Well... it was certainly better than my first attempt, where I had mixed up the sugar with the salt."

'...'

School had already ended several minutes ago and Mato, with Rock inside her, was now heading home in high spirits.

The baking anxiety went away gradually as they had worked on their activity. Kagari followed the directions and instructions pretty faithfully, with only a slight mistake, that was attributed to her shaky fingers that weren't used to keeping things steady due to being hospitalized for so long. So none of them, even Yuu, could really blame her for that mistake.

And, well, the cake still tasted good and nothing funny happened as the girls expected. Kagari was even the one who turned off the stove in the precise time while the three of them got distracted in their conversations.

"Eheh, I knew she had it in her to be good," Mato giggled as she remembered Kagari's reaction to their compliments after they were done. The girl had looked really embarrassed and abashed, she even hid behind Yomi until the four of them had to split up and go home. She had muttered to them eventually her thanks and then left with Yomi.

"I really feel like we're going to be good friends," Mato smiled at the thought of that. "Things are going to be more fun now."

'...'

"Hmm? Something wrong, Rock-san?" Mato asked as she felt the other girl being hesitant.

'Ah, it's nothing... well, I just don't feel comfortable with that girl, as she didn't seem to like you before.'

"She's just the shy type, probably not used to making new friends," Mato reassured her. "Kagari-san is not a bad person, she just doesn't know how to be friendly, that's all."

'...your right,' Rock relented. 'It's certainly true that her situation is different from others, thus she'll react differently than others. Her situation is pretty pitiful but...'

"...but what?" Mato asked after a long pause.

'...it just doesn't feel alright with her,' Rock continued. 'Just a gut feeling I have.'

Rock's reply caused Mato to frown and stop in her tracks. "I don't think it's a good idea to just judge people negatively like that, Rock-san."

'...yeah, your probably right,' Rock admitted with a sigh. 'It's just that in my world, you cant be too trustworthy and nice to others.'

"...while that is sometimes true here as well," Mato agreed after a few seconds passed. "I think its better to think positively on other people and give them a chance."

'...let's just get back to your house,' Rock said before going silent, neither agreeing or disagreeing with her.

Mato could sort of sense that Rock had something more to say but she had gone silent instead after that. A few minutes passed before it was clear that Rock was really done talking, which caused Mato to resume walking home.

The quietness felt like she was by herself, just like in the past before Rock had showed up.

"So that's how you make chocolate chip cookies huh."

Kagari was muttering to herself as she had her head down, studiously reading a cooking book that she had found somewhere in the bookshelves of their living room. She would occasionally scrutinize her face, look puzzled or even frown a bit on reading the book, but ultimately she continued on reading and you might even spot a slight upward curve of her mouth.

Anyone who knew Kagari, even if only a little, would have been surprised at her being diligent at something like this, let alone anything at all. Ever since that accident, the girl would often be subdued and unmotivated in everything she did. She would also sport a gloomy and unfriendly expression on her face over the years that most people just gave her space, guessing that the girl would prefer it that way and remain like that onwards.

Well, they were certainly correct on that assumption, at least in the past they were. Kagari certainly remained like that for several years and even now she's still sometimes like that whenever she's left alone.

But now...

"There's a lot of good looking things to make here... ah, I should keep with the simple and basic ones for now," Kagari nodded to herself as she flipped through the baking section of the book. "If I can improve a lot on this, maybe I can impress and make Yomi proud about me."

Contrary to popular belief, Kagari was fairly aware of the atmosphere she emitted as well as how people viewed her. She just didn't care about other people's impressions on her, Yomi being the only exception. If she was by herself in the situation earlier, she'd have let people think like that about her and not bother trying to fit in. With Yomi there and encouraging her though, she was split on either doing it and failing, or not doing it at all, both of which would make her look bad for Yomi.

...if that person didn't encourage me as well though...

"...that girl's different," Kagari stopped her reading for a while as she thought about the girl.

Kuroi Mato was a strange person indeed. Unlike all the other people who she met, with the exception of Yomi of course, Mato was the first person who was persistent to her. The people who tried to be nice to her got rebuffed almost immediately once she refused them the first time, while the others didn't bother trying. None of them really understood or paid her any attention, even her own parents didn't really try to communicate with her after she closed herself, leaving Kagari to her own devices and often left alone in the house like right now.

However, unlike Yomi, Mato barely knew her. That was what confused Kagari, who initially didn't like her since she kept on getting Yomi's attention most of the time. At first, it seemed like Mato was just going to be like the others, with how she barely looked her way in their first day meeting each other and was almost gloomy like her. The next and following days though, Mato was now rather cheerful and curious about her, as if she had changed overnight.

The girl known as Kuroi Mato was a unique girl indeed but...

"...she's a nice person," Kagari sighed as she resumed back on reading the cook book. "That or she's an idiot... well, I guess I'll at least bake some cookies for her as well."

So Kagari flipped on to the next page... only to find the words unreadable.

"Huh?"

The words were somehow merging... and the lines getting blurry... then the edges of her vision started turning dark.

"W-what's going on-" Kagari exclaimed before her body suddenly flopped down on the bed. Her body felt really heavy all of a sudden, even though she didn't feel tired earlier. Then her eyelids started closing down on their own, as Kagari somehow felt herself being swept away...

well that's it for now, nearly reached 3k now in terms of words, though thats partly due to the fact that I had some writing done on the chapter during those 3 months even if it was just a little.

expect maybe a month for the next one, or a few weeks hopefully.

also I think im gonna start with another fic soon, though not about BRS.