Episode 06 - I... Can See All of You
As they relax outside Seventh Mist, Kuroko asks Mikoto what she would do if she met a clone of herself. Mikoto pauses thoughtfully and says it's a tough question. Then, with a laugh, she says it would be pretty creepy, and she'd probably wish the clone would just disappear.
Declaring tonight's experiment over, the white-haired esper is about to leave when a powerful bolt of electricity bounces off him. Puzzled, he looks over to see Mikoto charge at him, screaming. She launches attack after all-out attack, none of which has the slightest effect on him. The boy quickly realizes who she is, and gleefully wonders if fighting the real Railgun could level him up faster.
Mikoto finally pauses her assault, not understanding how he can be unharmed, and demands to know why he's participating in this twisted experiment. The boy laughs and says his motivation is simple: unlimited power, enough to ensure no-one can even imagine challenging him. Sickened, Mikoto screams at him for killing Misaka 9932 for such a reason, then fires her namesake railgun right at his face. Like all her other attacks, it simply bounces off him, narrowly missing Mikoto herself; stunned, she can only stare blankly as he grins and advances toward her.
A familiar voice asks them both to stop. Several dozen Misaka Sisters approach, telling the boy that fighting Railgun would upset the experiment's calculations and jeapordize the whole project. He shrugs and starts to leave, then pauses and walks up behind Mikoto to introduce himself: Accelerator, Academy City's first-ranked Level 5. Once he departs, the Sisters move to start cleaning up the battleground. Mikoto demands to know why they would willingly participate in these experiments without protest, knowing they're simply going to be killed. The Sisters reply that they are simply artificial people with artificial minds: experimental animals manufactured at a cost of 180,000 yen apiece.
Meanwhile, back at the Tokiwadai dorm, Kuroko is wondering what's happened to Mikoto. She calls Saten, who doesn't know but suggests asking Uiharu. Kuroko starts to say she's already talked to Uiharu, but then thinks better of it and says that's a good idea. Saten suggests that Mikoto might have snuck out for a romantic encounter, but Kuroko emphatically rejects the idea.
Much later, Mikoto wakes from a fitful dream to find herself huddled on a public bench as the sun rises. A voice greets her and she looks up to see Shinobu Nunotaba regarding her. Nunotaba observes that Mikoto has obviously learned about the Level 6 Shift project, saying she'd warned that Mikoto would be better off not knowing. Mikoto asks her how anybody could be so crazy they'd want to kill so many for something like this. Nunotaba replies that the scientists running it are — with a few exceptions — mostly normal people who genuinely believe themselves to be working towards a greater good. She says that they're simply incapable of seeing the Sisters as human, adding that she used to feel the same way. Mikoto recalls Nunotaba talking about spreading her money cards around to try and stop the experiments, and asks why she changed her mind. Nunotaba says that she worked on the Radio Noise project, and wasn't originally part of Level 6 Shift. However, the project called her in a while back to help evaluate the Sisters' mental development and the Misaka Network.
Nunotaba is going over her evaluation results with one of the Misaka Sisters, as she drinks a cup of tea. She offers some to the Sister, who has never tried milk tea before and drinks it curiously. She seems fascinated by the sweet taste, saying that her Testament programming didn't have this type of information. Going over her report, Nunotaba notes that 8,911 experiments have been carried out in-house, and so far the Sisters' programming seems to be holding up well. Their experiences are being shared through the Misaka Network — they will all know the taste of milk tea now, for example — although she observes that there has been no emotional development at all. The Sister tells her that it was Nunotaba's Testament system that made everything possible, and so they are grateful to her. This briefly gives Nunotaba pause, but then she says it's time to begin their external training.
Heading up together in an elevator, Nunotaba asks the Misaka Sister if she has any questions about the outside. She is somewhat taken aback when the Sister asks what the air tastes like — saying she's heard it's delicious, and adding that she likes sweet flavours. Nunotaba says she'll find out for herself in a moment.
They pass through a pair of doors and emerge outside on a rooftop overlooking the city. Nunotaba complains that the sunlight is dazzling, and then asks the Sister what she thinks. Misaka stands still for a moment, then slowly describes how the air, the sunlight, and the sounds and scents drifting past are stimulating all her senses. An awed expression crosses her face as she stares out over the city, and she says the whole world is dazzling.
From that moment, Nunotaba tells Mikoto, she was unable to see the Sisters as mere creations — because that girl, taking in the world for the first time, seemed so much more human than she herself. Then she asks Mikoto how she sees them. Mikoto buries her face in her knees and mutters that she doesn't want to see them as human, especially if they're so willing to be killed. After a moment, though, she says she can't let the people who exploited her DNA map get away with this.
Mikoto returns to the Tokiwadai dorm, where Kuroko is relieved to see her. Noting Mikoto's dissheveled appearance, she asks what happened, but Mikoto waves it off and heads for the shower. Standing in the bathroom, she hears Kuroko on the phone telling Uiharu and Saten that everything's fine, and that Mikoto returned late last night. Mikoto smiles sadly, then goes back out and asks Kuroko if she has a minute.
The girls all gather at Joseph's Family Restaurant, where Mikoto treats them to sweets as an apology for worrying them all. When the others try to ask what happened last night, she tells them she just had the urge to go star-gazing. Then Uiharu asks Mikoto what was up with that password she asked about. Mikoto falters and tries to stammer something, then trails off and stares at the table. When the others ask if she's alright, Mikoto clutches her teacup and stares into it for a moment. Then she says she can see them all in front of her, but... she trails off again, until the tension is broken by Saten brightly suggesting they all go to the arcade to clear their heads. A moment later, she adds that if Mikoto is ever troubled, she only has to say the word.
As they head to the arcade, Mikoto quietly thinks that she can see her friends — but that's all the more reason she needs to handle this by herself. As she told Nunotaba earlier: she's the one who started this mess, and she'll be the one to clean it up.
Tropes
- Break the Cutie: Here is where the series starts the process of doing this to Mikoto. This will go on for some time.
- Call-Back: Mikoto saying that she can see all of her friends echoes episode 23 of the previous season, when Saten pointedly asked what she could see in front of her. The answer, then and now, is that she can see her friends are all around her, trying to help. This time, however, she's determined not to get them involved.
- Funny Background Event: While Kuroko, Saten, and Uiharu are trying to get Mikoto to open up in the restaurant, Haruue spends most of the scene happily munching away in the background with a blissful look on her face.
- Mood Whiplash: The episode switches from Mikoto's horrifying confrontation with Accelerator to Kuroko wondering anxiously what's happened to her, and from there to Saten joking about Mikoto having found a boyfriend. Then the tense atmosphere returns just as quickly. This is almost certainly intentional, to contrast Mikoto's new reality against the banal and innocent life she's just been ripped out of. It also underlines Mikoto's decision to protect that normal life for her friends while she deals with this nightmare alone.
- No Name Given: The Misaka Sister in Nunotaba's flashback is never identified, although she's presumably somewhere around number 9000.
- Stepford Smiler: Mikoto puts on a relentlessly cheerful face around her friends. They clearly aren't fooled. Saten does the same later, when she realizes Mikoto can't or won't discuss whatever the problem is.
- The Gloves Come Off: The opening scene marks the first time Mikoto attacks another person with full intent to kill.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: Averted by Mikoto for the first and only time — she is pretty unambiguously trying to kill Accelerator. Of course, this being Accelerator, she's still unable to so much as scratch him.
- Unstoppable Rage: Mikoto attacks Accelerator in a violent rage after he kills Misaka 9982. It doesn't do any good.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Discussed by Mikoto and Nunotaba. Nunotaba admits she's come to see the Sisters as human; Mikoto is outwardly ambivalent but is clearly trying, without much success, to avoid the same conclusion.
