Episode 01 - Super-powered (Level 5)
In Academy City, the Daihasei (School Athletics) Festival is soon to begin. The steering committee has been given a challenging assignment: recruit two of the city's Level 5 espers to publicly take the athlete's oath at the opening ceremony.
Uiharu, Saten and Mikoto visit Kuroko in hospital, where she is recovering from recent injuries. Mikoto tells them she's been approached about doing the athlete's pledge, but isn't sure she wants to. For her part, Kuroko laments that she won't be able to compete in the festival alongside Mikoto.
At school later, Mikoto meets Mitsuko Kongou, who says that Kuroko has asked her to fill in as Mikoto's partner. She also runs into Misaki Shokuhou (#5, Mental Out), who mockingly congratulates her on the athlete's pledge. Mikoto, irritated, says it hasn't been decided yet, then asks if Shokuhou got the same offer. Shokuhou looks briefly annoyed and then says Mikoto is better suited for such events. Then she uses her mental tampering powers to make all the students in the area stand up and endorse Mikoto in unison. Mikoto tells Shokuhou to stop harassing her, and stalks off.
As it happens, the steering committee is not having much luck. The #1 Accelerator, Teitoku Kakine (#2, Dark Matter) and Shizuri Mugino (#4, Meltdowner) have made it very clear they're not interested, and nobody knows how to find Etsu Aihana (#6, ???).
Visiting a popular cake shop, Mikoto encounters Misaka 10032, who has been delegated to buy cakes for the Sisters at the hospital. When some passers-by mistake them for twins, Misaka 10032 apologizes for drawing unwanted attention; Mikoto tells her not to worry, and reiterates her promise to help them find their way in the world. It turns out the shop is sold out of the cake Mikoto wanted, but Misaka 10032 has bought an extra one, and gives it to her big sister.
Elsewhere, Uiharu and Saten are watching the festival preparations when a fight starts brewing between rival cheer squads at an outdoor stage. Uiharu bravely tries stepping in to defuse the situation, but both sides just brush her off. Then, however, a teenage boy with a headband makes a dramatic entrance, chastising the cheer squads and saying they need more "guts". With that, the boy — Gunha Sogita (#7) — unleashes a mighty blast which bowls the quarreling students over and blows the stage to pieces. Satisfied with his handiwork, he pauses to compliment Uiharu on her "guts", then departs as dynamically as he arrived.
Uiharu and Saten start dragging the unconscious cheerleaders out of the wreckage when several overhead beams, knocked out of place by Gunha's blast, start to fall. Before they can hit the two girls, Mikoto charges onto the scene and uses a double railgun to blast the beams safely away. One of the steering committee members happens to be watching from nearby; awed, she recognizes Mikoto Misaka (#3, Railgun) and enthuses about recruiting her for the pledge. However, a teacher with her remarks that Mikoto's tendency to get involved in strange "incidents" might make that unwise.
Some time later, Shokuhou gets an invitation to take the athlete's pledge as she sits at an outdoor café with some of her hangers-on. As she considers it, a man seated at a table behind her tells her she should accept. Shokuhou frowns and tells him not to approach her in public, pointedly taking out a remote control and modifying the other girls' memories. Then she asks if he's obtained the information she wanted. At his affirmative answer, she instructs the man — Keitz Nokleben — to tell her everything about Mikoto's clones: the Sisters.
At the hospital, Mikoto gives Kuroko the cake she received from Misaka 10032. The friendly atmosphere is somewhat disturbed, however, when Kuroko accidentally reveals the album of "special" Mikoto photos she was hiding under the sheets...
At the end of a long day, the steering committee congratulates themselves on successfully finding two Level 5s for the athlete's pledge. Still, as they contemplate their picks — Misaki Shokuhou and Gunha Sogita — they can't help but wonder if this is really a good idea.
Tropes
- Close on Title: The opening animation comes at the end of this episode; the normal ending sequence won't debut until the next one.
- Continuity Nod: A few:
- It's not discussed on-screen, but the reason Kuroko is in hospital is because of her fight with Awaki Musujime in A Certain Magical Index.
- Ms. Watanabe mentions that Mikoto has experience with public events from giving a demonstration in Russia. This is a reference to the Railgun SS2 side story novel.
- Cool Big Sis: In the teaser, Mikoto stops to help some kids fix their broken toy robot. Rather than do it all herself, she helps them use their own powers together in order to fix it.
- Genre Savvy: Ms Watanabe notes that Mikoto has a tendency to find herself in the middle of weird incidents, and concludes that it might be safer not to have her give the athlete's pledge.
- Large Ham: Gunha Sogita is very much this, and clearly revels in it.
- Male Gaze: While Mugino is talking on the phone, the camera occupies itself with a lengthy closeup of Frenda's swimsuit-clad butt.
- The Cameo: Accelerator appears briefly, as do the members of ITEM as well as (separately) Teitoku Kakine and SCHOOL.
