Episode 13 - Accelerator
Misaka 10032 watches Misaka 10031 and Accelerator head off for the next experiment. She puts the kitten down carefully and follows them.
A short while later, Touma emerges from the bookstore to find the cat waiting but the Sister gone. Wondering where she went, he looks around... and his attention is inevitably drawn toward the alley entrance across the street. At that very moment, deep within the maze of alleyways, Misaka 10031's battle is about to begin...
Out in District 23, Mikoto is walking along, lost in thought. With Tree Diagram destroyed, her last-resort plan to sabotage Project Level 6 Shift is useless. As she wonders what she can possibly do now, she notices that she's passing close by to one of the new project facilities she learned about yesterday. Feeling the need to do something, she grins humourlessly and heads in that direction.
With her battle now underway, Misaka 10031 tries out various attacks against Accelerator, but they predictably do nothing. Bored, Accelerator asks if she's done yet so he can kill her; he goes on the attack without waiting for a reply. She is forced to flee deeper into the back alleys, losing her shoes in the process.
Not far away, Touma glances around the alley off the main street and calls out to "Misaka's little sister". Pausing to examine some strange damage to the pavement, he suddenly hears noises off in the distance. Curious, he heads deeper into the alleyways, still carrying the kitten with him.
At the research lab in District 23, the staff are alarmed when a huge vibration shakes the building. They quickly realize what's going on when a hole is blasted in the wall: a brown-haired girl steps through, radiating fury and lightning like twin auras. The scientists flee in terror as Railgun begins to tear the whole facility apart.
Accelerator catches up with Misaka 10031 and proceeds to attack relentlessly. Dodging desperately, Misaka 10031 shoots him at close range — and an instant later, the bullet tears into her own shoulder. Clutching the wound, she mutters "reflection?", prompting Accelerator to laugh. He tells her that reflection is just a small part of his true power, which is absolute control over all energy vectors that touch him. To demonstrate, he lightly taps a nearby garbage can with his foot, causing it to fire at her like a missile. She falls the ground again as the Level 5 moves in for the kill; above them, a security camera watches silently.
At the lab, Mikoto continues her rampage, blowing up computers and control systems with gleeful abandon. She tells herself that she can take down the project one facility at a time, until the whole thing collapses — however long it takes. But deep down, part of herself asks how much time, and how many Sisters' lives, that would take. Then, as she passes by some monitors, she suddenly notices one of them is showing a live camera broadcast — and on it, Misaka 10031 is collapsed on the ground as Accelerator approaches her.
Back in the maze of alleyways, Touma is continuing to search around. He's about to give up and head back when he notices a pair of girl's shoes lying amid some debris, and he recognizes them as the Sister's. As he stares at them, he hears muffled gunshots in the distance. He hurries off in the direction of the sound.
Accelerator contemplates the injured Misaka 10031, then wonders aloud what would happen if he used his vector power to reverse the flow of someone's blood. He reaches for her open shoulder wound, paying no attention to the nearby security camera... and unaware that Mikoto is watching in horror from the other side of the city, screaming at him to stop...
A few moments later, Accelerator stares at the aftermath, seemingly disquieted. Then he turns and walks away, scowling. As he leaves, he reminisces about the very first experiment...
Stepping into an empty white room, Accelerator is greeted by a brown-haired girl wearing a Tokiwadai school uniform: Misaka 1, the very first of the Sisters. He is surprised to see that she has a gun; she says the rules allow him to use one as well, but he dismisses the idea. From an observation room overhead, the experiment supervisor orders them to begin. Misaka 1 leaps into action, running around and firing at Accelerator from all angles. The bullets simply richochet off him. He abruptly moves up close to her and asks if she's joking. Then he casually knocks her across the room, leaving her dazed on the floor. Looking up, he asks if that's it, but the supervisor says the experiment must continue until one of them has been completely "dispatched". He orders them both to continue; Misaka 1, struggling to sit up, acknowledges the order and picks up her gun.
Still staring in confusion at the supervisor, Accelerator hears a gunshot and turns around. The bullet has rebounded on Misaka 1, striking her in the torso; she collapses to the floor in a pool of blood. As her senses slowly fade, she softly describes the sensations passing through her until she stops moving. As Accelerator stares, the supervisor commends him on a job well done, and reassures him that these clones are simply "wind up dolls" made of artificial chemicals and proteins. He apologizes for the "boring" fight, but notes that thanks to their shared memory, the Sisters will learn and adapt over time to become more of a challenge.
Touma arrives at the scene of today's battle, to find the nightmarish scene of Misaka 10031's death. After regaining his composure, he calls Anti-Skill and returns to the main street to meet them. However, when he leads them back into the alley... there's nothing there. Misaka 10031's body is gone, and all the blood has been scrubbed away. The Anti-Skill officers receive word that nothing suspicious was reported on the security cameras; they caution Touma about making false reports, then leave.
Mystified, Touma lingers behind. After a few minutes, someone appears at the end of the alley: Misaka 10032, carrying what looks like a body bag. She apologies to Touma for getting him involved, saying she'd planned to return to the bookstore when the experiment was finished. Then, to Touma's confusion, several other Sisters appear. Misaka 10032 identifies herself, confirming that she was the one he was with earlier. She tells him that the one who died was Misaka 10031, and that all of them are military-grade clones of Railgun — Mikoto Misaka. Beyond that, however, they refuse to explain what's going on. The Sisters soon depart, leaving Touma more confused and disturbed than ever.
Meanwhile, Mikoto is collapsed against the remains of the control panel in the District 23 lab. Eventually stirring herself, she wonders once again what she can possibly do now. Thinking things over, she is seemingly struck by a thought, and slowly says: "Yes... I could do that"...
Sitting on some steps by the road as the sun goes down, Touma wonders if Mikoto knows what's happening to her clones. Coming to a decision, he heads for the Tokiwadai student dormitory to try and find her.
In the meantime, Mikoto makes her way downtown. She walks slowly along the street — and up in the still air, the nearby wind turbines begin to turn.
Tropes
- Call-Back: When the live image of Misaka 10031's experiment appears on the screen, Mikoto slowly turns her head in the exact same way as when she first met Misaka 9982.
- Curious Qualms of Conscience: Accelerator is clearly unnerved by Misaka 1's death, but is willing to accept the explanation that the Sisters aren't real people. In the present, he seems a bit disturbed by Misaka 10031's death as well.
- Darkest Hour: This episode is where it arrives for Mikoto. Her every strategy has failed, nothing she does can stop the project from continuing, and she's just been forced to watch another of her Sisters die.
- Despair Event Horizon: Mikoto reaches it by the end of this episode, although we won't fully see the implications until the next one.
- Dies Wide Open: The camera focuses on a closeup of Misaka 1's face as she dies, eyes open. It is both highly disturbing and very, very sad — especially given that she looks exactly like Mikoto.
- The Dreaded: We get a brief glimpse of how utterly terrifying the Railgun of Tokiwadai can be, when she's in a no-holds-barred, destructive rage. As soon as the scientists recognize her, they flee in sheer panic.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: The supervisor in charge of the first experiment, paired with Scary Shiny Glasses and Psychotic Smirk.
- Gory Discretion Shot: We are mercifully spared from seeing exactly what happens to Misaka 10031, but it clearly involves extremely violent exsanguination.
- Heroic BSoD: Mikoto suffers a brutal one when she sees Misaka 10031's death. Touma appears to have a brief one himself when he finds her body, although he has enough presence of mind to call Anti-Skill.
- Hope Spot: For a lengthy stretch of the episode, it looks as though Touma might just arrive in time to save Misaka 10031. He doesn't. However, what he learns here does ultimately lead to him being able to save Misaka 10032, and all the remaining Sisters.
- Internal Reveal: Touma learns about the Sisters, and the horrifying "experiments" being inflicted on them.
- Kill the Cutie: Misaka 10031, after she's had a few episodes of Character Development. Arguably also Misaka 1 in the Flash Back, although we don't get to know her much beforehand.
- Losing a Shoe in the Struggle: Misaka 10031 loses a shoe while frantically dodging one of Accelerator's first attacks; she promptly ditches the other one as she beats a strategic retreat. Becomes a Chekhov's Gun when Touma finds them later, leading him (albeit too late) to the site of the final battle and thence his learning about the Sisters and Project Level 6 Shift. Since Touma will ultimately be the Spanner in the Works, it's also an example of For Want Of A Nail.
- Narrating the Present: The most disturbing — and heartbreaking — example in the series: Misaka 1 quietly describes the thoughts and sensations passing through her as she slowly dies.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: Touma has one for a while after his encounter with the Sisters.
