Episode 18 - Moving
In an empty warehouse, team ITEM finishes a battle with some mysterious autonomous mobile suits. Unbeknownst to them, several people are watching them remotely from a darkened conference room. One of them, a man named Aritomi, says their field tests are gathering useful data.
Elsewhere, a small girl with blonde hair watches the burning warehouse in the distance, as she sucks pensively on a lollipop.
In their dorm room, Haruue and Uiharu are still recovering from the "study group" dinner. Uiharu asks Haruue how her meeting with the teacher went, and Haruue says they've found the perfect place.
The next day, Mikoto, Saten, Kuroko, Uiharu and Haruue visit Edasaki in the hospital. Edasaki will be discharged soon, and it's been decided that she'll go to live with Haruue — which means Haruue will be moving out of Uiharu's place. As they leave the hospital, Uiharu and Kuroko mention that Judgement has been asked to help with security for the "Reach Assembly" — an annual academic conference where top schools present their best research projects.
Elsewhere, Kongou is chatting with Wannai and Awatsuki when a man rushes past them, having just stolen a nearby girl's bag. Kongou uses her ability to hurl a trash can at the fleeing thief, knocking him out. Various bystanders start to applaud, but then a man steps out of the crowd to scold her: Aritomi, leader of the mysterious group seen earlier. He says it's reckless to rely on esper powers when there could have been other ways to resolve the situation. Pointing out that the thief had a knife, he asks what might have happened if Kongou hadn't knocked him out with her first shot. Some in the crowd start to mutter in agreement, despite Wannai and Awatsuki coming to Kongou's defence. Aritomi then quietly slips away, leaving Kongou looking very unsure of herself.
The next day, Mikoto and company arrive at the hospital to meet Edasaki, who is wearing her new school uniform. They're about to head off for a celebratory meal when Kuroko receives a phone call from Konori: traffic signals are malfunctioning over a large area, and Judgement needs to help manage the situation. Kuroko and Uiharu head off to deal with it while the others head to the restaurant.
Once there, Mikoto, Saten, Haruue and Edasaki relax and eat cake. Edasaki and Haruue talk about how kind and supportive Uiharu has been to them both. Edasaki thinks about joining Judgement so she can be like Uiharu, but Mikoto tells her Uiharu is kind and hardworking because it's her nature, not because she's in Judgement. Then she mentions that someone she knows is still in hospital, and she hopes they can soon be discharged too.
After taking care of the traffic problem, Konori apologies to Kuroko for calling her in out of the blue. She says the outage was caused by some kind of electrical glitch which nobody can explain. Just then, Uiharu comes up and asks Kuroko if they can go somewhere quickly before returning to the others.
When Kuroko and Uiharu arrive back at the restaurant, Edasaki has already had to leave. Uiharu gives Haruue a box of taiyaki pastries and tells her to eat them with Edasaki. Saten and Mikoto think it's a strange gift since they've just been eating cake, but Haruue recognizes them as the same pastries Uiharu gave her before, and tears up. She and Uiharu both start crying as the others watch in bemusement.
As Mikoto, Kuroko, Saten and Uiharu walk home together, Uiharu wonders if she was really any help. Mikoto assures her that she was — not just to Haruue, but to Edasaki as well.
As they pass through a small park, they are surprised to discover a small blonde-haired girl sleeping in one of the flowerbeds. They wake her up, but she seems confused by their questions, just staring at them uncertainly while sucking on a lollipop. Saten steps in and reassures the child enough to learn her name: Febri. Encouraged, Saten asks the girl to tell them whatever she knows. Febri thinks for a moment, then says "Mikoto Misaka".
Back in the darkened conference room, Aritomi announces that they've obtained useful readings from the fourth-ranked Level Five. He goes on to say they're ready for the next phase in their plan against "esper supremicists", and asks the group to vote on whether to proceed. All of the people around the table raise their hands, including a dark-haired young woman in the shadows who looks familiar...
Tropes
- Call-Forward: Kuroko seems to briefly wonder if Mikoto has been disrupting the traffic lights. The first in-media example of her doing this, at least intentionally, was in Index volume 8 — which takes place chronologically after this season. Of course, that's not to say that Mikoto might not have done the same thing in the past as well.
- Continuity Nod: As they enter the hospital, Saten asks Mikoto who "that fine young man" was; Mikoto says it's just some guy who's been bothering her for the past few days. Viewers familiar with A Certain Magical Index will realize they're talking about Mitsuki Unabara; evidently they just ran into him. This indicates that it's now some time during the last week of August.
- Elegant Gothic Lolita: Febri is dressed in this style — unsurprisingly, given that it was Nunotaba who gave her the outfit.
- Establishing Character Moment: The scene where Aritomi confronts Kongou makes it clear that he's not only a Jerkass, but one with a bone to pick against espers in particular. His later remark about "esper supremicists" only serves to drive it home.
- Jerkass: While he arguably makes one or two valid points, Aritomi's lecture of Kongou is petty and malicious, seemingly designed to turn the crowd against her.
- Not Me This Time: When Konori mentions the traffic signal outage, Kuroko immediately glances at Mikoto, who indignantly insists that she hasn't done anything. See also Call-Forward, above.
- Oral Fixation: Febri is constantly sucking on a lollipop, to the point that she seems unhappy if she doesn't have it. It turns out this is for good reason, as it's keeping her alive.
- Wham Shot: Only part of her face is seen, but it's pretty obvious that the girl seen raising her hand at the end is Shinobu Nunotaba.
