Boomstick: Misaka Mikoto, Academy City's ace electric princess.
Wiz: Question: what is more terrifying than the all-powerful crackling might of lightning?
Boomstick: Lightning in the hands of cocky, hyper-talented... teenagers. Oh, the worst combination!
The third episode of DEATH BATTLE!'s tenth season sees a duel between two electrifying prodigies. While neither youth is a stranger to overcoming tremendous challenges with their keen intellect and superb skills, it was their bonds with their comrades and siblings that enabled them to reach even further heights. That growth and tenacity will now be pitted against each other, with the power of Nen taking on the might of an Esper in a truly shocking death battle.
The Zoldycks are a notorious family of assassins feared throughout the whole world. Every member of this demented clan are master-class killers, even the rebellious middle child, Killua. An apt name in more ways than one, Killua trained from age 3 in the art of murder. He was strong enough to open a door weighing 64 tons, is an expert skater, has extendable nail-claws and can create auditory duplicates of himself through the Rhythm Echo technique. Despite his prodigious skill and penchant for ripping out hearts, his family continued to push him even further. This had the unexpected, but not unsurprising effect of leading Killua to run away to the Hunter's Association. It was there that he met his new best friend, Gon Freecs. His family did not take kindly to his defiance, tracking him down and torturing him until Gon helped Killua convince his father to allow him the life of an adventurous Hunter. While he agreed to his son's freedom, it was not out of mercy or kindness, only to ensure that Killua would become an even more effective killer and while he may not have wanted to abide his father's desires, his journey did help him become far stronger than even his assassin training could achieve.
On his adventures, Killua learned how to use Nen, an invisible lifeforce that is utilized through four main principles: Ten for defending from physical and mental attacks, Zetsu for relieving fatigue and masking one's presence, Ren for boosting your strength and influencing emotions and Hatsu for expressing one's Nen in a unique way. The lattermost falls into six types of its own, but Killua proved to be a transmuter-enhancer type, allowing him to enhance his and other's powers and most importantly, create lightning. Killua can use his lightning in many different ways, including shooting lightning bolts, covering his arms and channeling electricity through any metal object, such as his yo-yos. Moreover, since his lightning has been compared to the real thing, it means that Killua himself is just as fast. By channeling his lightning Nen into himself, he can achieve his Godspeed form, which boosts his power and enhances his agility by enabling him to reflexively react to any attack. To safely channel all of this lightning, Killua trained to be able to shrug off at least a million volts of electricity. This immense power is also backed up by a keen strategic mind, a necessity in the world of Hunter X Hunter that allows almost any Nen user to overcome a physically superior foe.
Killua's journey saw him taking on all kinds of enemies alongside Gon and the rest of his new friends, including the monstrous Chimera Ants some of whom are strong enough to annihilate entire forests. While he initially shied away from fighting beings of this caliber, his dedication to Gon forced him to push past his desire to flee even from enemies considerably more powerful than him, such as the royal guard Youpi, who could create massive craters. As it turns out, this drive for self-survival was surgically implanted into him via needle by his elder brother, Illumi. Killua would eventually overcome this mental barrier by physically removing the needle from his brain, giving him the resolve needed to save both Gon from the coma he fell under while fighting the Chimera Ants and his sister, Alluka, from their twisted family. But Killua would come to realize that he had an unhealthy dependence on Gon that interfered with his own life goals. So, he parted ways with his dear friend, determined to protect his sister with all of his skill and power for the rest of his life.
Boomstick: Ready to Killua anyone dumb enough to mess with him or those he cares about.
After an advertisement from Better Help, the hosts travel to Academy City, home to entire schools of supernatural espers and among them, Misaka Mikoto. At age 14, she was already considered a "Level 5" esper, the highest rank normally possible. A prodigious electromaster, Misaka is able to utilize electrokinesis to magnetize herself, enhance her physical power, sense her surroundings using an electrical radar and generate billions of volts at any time. She is also able to utilize iron sand particles to create tornadoes, body doubles, a chainsaw-like sword or even a 6-million-ton kaiju-esque golem.
Misaka's absurd power made her a veritable celebrity throughout the city after foiling numerous crimes, giving her a bit of an ego problem. Of course, pride precedes a fall as she would be given numerous reality checks that made her realize she still had a long way to go. First, a powerless "Level 0" named Kamijou Touma proved unharmable even by her considerable power. On top of that, she found herself developing conflicting feelings about this seemingly unremarkable peer. On a more serious note, she discovered that scientists to whom she had donated a sample of her DNA secretly created countless clones of her that they were sending to be slaughtered by another "Level 5" called Accelerator, in hopes of achieving a mythical "Level 6" rank. All of this is theoretically possible due to the nature of the espers' powers. By manipulating involuntary movements called AIM Diffusion Fields, espers are able to warp reality while existing within the laws of physics. Misaka is no exception, as her special technique, the Railgun, involves using her electrokinesis to produce imaginary rails between her and a target and then accelerating the kinetic force of a physical projectile, thus turning it into an extremely powerful bullet. This process is almost exactly like how real-life railguns work and in Misaka's case, lets her turn ordinary coins into weapons of mass destruction.
Regardless, the revelation of the cloning experiments traumatized Misaka and she attempted to sacrifice herself to stop Accelerator, only to end up saved by Touma. It was this moment that reminded her that it was okay to rely on others, though ironically this would only push her to even greater heights. She continued to fight against all of Academy City's threats in order to protect her loved ones, like her friends and cloned sister, and proved that she still had the power to do so. Misaka can conjure city spanning storms, fight against other "Level 5" espers and dodge particle beams that move at relativistic speeds with her own lightning reaching similar velocities. All of this power is also tempered by genius-level intellect, as that is the only way to effectively wield all of mind-bending, physics-based power of a "Level 5" esper. Similarly, this ability to quickly process complex information has allowed her to match foes that are superior to her, such as the magic-wielding Valkyrie, Brunhild and beings similar to Brunhild who are capable of levelling mountains or freezing swathes of ocean. Yet despite the power difference and the blows she took to her self-esteem, Misaka always pushes herself to keep up all for the sake of protecting those she cares for.
With the final ad from Hello Fresh finished, the stage is set for this electrifying showdown. It's time for a death battle!
It is night in the city, and Killua is casually strolling down the streets outside Heavens Arena, when he catches sight of a Gekota badge on the ground. He hears the voice of Misaka telling him to give it back to her, but instead of complying, he teasingly holds it out to her, challenging her to take it from him. Annoyed, Misaka flips a coin on her hand and charges it with electricity.
FIGHT!
Misaka shoots her coin like a railgun at Killua, who calmly stands his ground as the object pushes him back. Having caught the coin, he remembers his butler who used coins like Misaka did before charging towards his opponent. Misaka guards herself in anticipation of a punch, but Killua grabs and electrocutes her instead, to which she responds by emitting electricity from her head, but Killua evades this.
Next thing Misaka knows, she is surrounded by images of Killua circling her due to his Rhythm Echo. Killua uses this distraction to rush forward and hit her in the cheek from behind, leaving her spinning for a second. After recovering, she hears the noise around her, allowing her to realize that it's a trick of sound instead of sight. She then throws some iron sand onto the ground where the mirages are moving around, until the real Killua moves the sand around.
Having found the real Killua, Misaka knocks him away using a whip, then blasts him with a lightning bolt, sending him onto a rooftop. Skidding to a halt, Killua spots Misaka leaping onto a rooftop opposite him. Both teenagers then think to themselves about their next moves, with Misaka thinking to keep her distance due to Killua being good at hand to hand whereas Killua figures out to get in close due to her having stronger lightning.
Killua whips out his skateboard to traverse the rooftop with as Misaka uses her electromagnetism to pull a piece of rubble off the building so that she can use it as a hoverboard to pursue her opponent. During the chase, Misaka takes another pot shot at Killua as they head towards Heavens Arena. Misaka stops on another rooftop with Killua coming to a stop close to her.
Misaka brings down a tornado made of Iron Sand onto Killua, but then a yo-yo emerges from the tornado and wraps itself around a chimney, allowing Killua to pull himself out of the tornado while riding his skateboard. He then launches his second yo-yo around a chimney and towards Misaka, who manages to spot it just in time to launch herself into the side of Heavens Arena with her electromagnetism, leaving Killua to get tangled up in the strings of his yo-yos thanks to Misaka manipulating them.
She then proceeds to use her electromagnetic powers to throw Killua off the building. Seeing her chance, Misaka flips her coin and then shoots another Railgun blast at Killua, but the assassin uses Godspeed to break free of his yo-yos and avoid the blast. He then rushes towards Heavens Arena and grabs Misaka so he can bring her up with him, remarking that she doesn't know when to quit.
He slams Misaka into the wall and then throws her up higher. Misaka forms a sword made of iron sand and the two then engage in a close-quarters fight, with Killua's speed giving him the advantage. They both power up and charge at each other, resulting in an explosion of lightning and Misaka being knocked away by Killua's punch. As Killua uses his claws to slow his descent, he spots the lights in the buildings flickering before a large hand made of iron sand rises up in front of him.
The sand kaiju rears up in front of Killua, with Misaka standing on its shoulder. Misaka charges up another railgun blast at Killua, but before it can strike him, Killua leaps onto the blast and then jumps high into the air, leaving the blast to destroy half of Heavens Arena. While in the air, Killua notices that Misaka is holding the kaiju together through the use of electromagnetism, meaning it can be disrupted. With this knowledge in mind, Killua channels a huge amount of his Nen, briefly showing the white snake of his aura, to call down a huge lightning bolt that disperses the Kaiji.
Misaka is left falling down towards the street. Before she hits the ground, Killua rushes towards her and uses his claws to rip her heart out. Briefly thinking he's won, Killua smirks, only to realize that something is wrong with the heart in his hand. He looks back at Misaka to see that he tore the heart out of a body decoy that was made of iron sand, which the heart is also made of.
The next thing Killua knows, the heart dissipates into iron sand which envelops his entire body, preventing him from moving as Misaka lines up another Railgun. After calculating the trajectory of her attack, she fires and blasts Killua's body into pieces. Misaka falls onto her back with exhaustion as blood rains on the streets, then the Gekota Badge lands back in her hand, much to Misaka's delight.
KO!
As the battle concludes with a victory for the Level 5, a bemused Boomstick brings an ecstatic Wiz out of his glee over the science behind the killing blow to discuss the results. Starting off with raw power, comparing Killua surviving a forest-clearing explosion at 3.29 kilotons of TNT to Misaka generating a city-spanning thundercloud at 58 kilotons of TNT puts the Academy City Electromaster well above the assassin, and this comparison holds true through scaling them to physically-superior foes they still stalemated in Youpi and Brunhild at 18 megatons of TNT and 333 megatons of TNT respectively. With such a gap in raw electrical power, Misaka could easily overpower Killua's electricity resistance and perform such killing moves as shutting down his organs with little hope of him intervening, and the sheer variety of abilities her mastery of electromagnetism provides meant she had no shortage of ways do that.
That said, Killua had several advantages to his name, namely his superior physical strength and assassin training allowing him to easily dominate should the fight ever be taken to close-quarters. In addition, the power systems of Nen and Espers both allow leeway for a clever weaker fighter to defeat an on-paper superior foe, so Killua using his brain and snatching the win out from under Misaka's nose if she wasn't careful wasn't impossible. Luckily for the Railgun, her battle with the likes of Brunhild shows she has experience in facing opponents with such a physical advantage and shifting the battlefield in her favor, and her tactical ability was easily as good as Killua's, allowing her to see through and counter his own tricks such as Rhythm Echo, metal yo-yos, or Nen Lightning.
In particular, Misaka's feat of dodging particle beams at lightspeed plus her own lightning being just as fast meant she would always have the speed advantage on Killua even in Godspeed, combining with her long-range options to give her plenty of breathing room to plan out her strategy. And with the sheer amount of iron sand under her command, she could easily just bury him under too much for him to muscle through and leave her plenty of time to line up a killing Railgun shot. Ultimately, both combatants had every reason to have pride in their skills as fighters and tactical mastery of electricity, but the Ace of Tokiwadai simply had the powers, reflexes, and scientific brilliance to cash in her win on the Zoldyck prodigy.
Wiz: The winner is Misaka Mikoto!
"Killua VS Misaka" contains examples of:
- Bait-and-Switch: After disrupting Misaka's iron sand giant, Killua seems to successfully tear out her heart, complete with Death Cry Echo... and then it's revealed he'd attacked an iron sand decoy, and he's swiftly enveloped, leaving him helpless to the real Misaka's killshot.
- Battle of Wits: Killua and Misaka spend the battle constantly strategizing and figuring out the other's strengths and weaknesses while finding counters to their abilities. Unfortunately for Killua, Misaka edges him out and wins by tricking him into destroying an iron sand clone and then encasing him in the sand so she can finish him with her railgun attack.
- Beat Them at Their Own Element: A lightning assassin against an electric princess. Misaka ultimately wins by putting her power to more uses, rather than simply overwhelming Killua.
- Black Blood: Used to good effect in the fakeout death. When Killua seemingly wins and tears out Misaka's heart the midair bloodstains are completely black. This actually isn't artistic license but an indicator that he just attacked a decoy of iron sand that proceeds to envelop him.
- Bookends: The battle starts and ends with a firing of Misaka's Railgun. Killua catches the first shot, but is immobilized by Misaka's iron sand and blown apart by the second.
- Bullet Catch: The first Railgun Misaka fires at Killua is caught by him, though he is pushed back by it.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The reason a fight to the death breaks out? Killua found a Gekota badge that Misaka lost and refused to give it back to her, taunting her to take it back from him.
- Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards: Killua is the warrior while Misaka is, ironically, the wizard. While Killua is the better close-range fighter of the two and is physically stronger, his skillset is mostly limited to punching and directly shocking people while Misaka’s abilities are much more varied with plenty of long-range options and destructive output that far surpass his strength. This, combined with her superior speed and electrical powers outclassing his several times over, gave her the win.
- Post-Victory Collapse: After defeating Killua, Misaka falls on her back in exhaustion. She still manages to catch her Gekota badge though.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner: As Misaka lines up her final Railgun on a helplessly falling Killua, she calmly calculates his position:Misaka: Distance: 35 metres. Altitude: 45, 40... now.
- Rule of Three: Misaka uses her signature railgun ability to fire three tokens at Killua, each with Killua in ascending levels of impediment. The first is against Killua unrestrained that he blocks easily, the second with Killua held by his yo-yo strings that he has to use Godspeed to get out of, the last when Killua is encased in iron sand that he does not avoid. Pointedly, those keeping track can get sidetracked by Misaka's use of a Kaiju level railgun.
- Running Gag: Boomstick repeatedly makes puns out of Killua's name, such as referring to kilotons as "Killuatons".
- Shout-Out: When mentioning how Misaka can form iron sand into a vibrating blade, Boomstick likens it to a chainsaw... man.
- Take That!: In Misaka’s breakdown, Boomstick notes that Academy City is more corrupt than New York City real estate.
- [Verb] This!: Misaka lets out one of these as she has her iron sand giant ready a supersized version of her Railgun:Misaka: Catch this.
- Wrecked Weapon: Killua is forced to cut the strings of his metal yo-yos after Misaka redirects and ties him up with them.
- Yellow Lightning, Blue Lightning: While normally both Killua and Misaka's electricity is depicted as blue in their canons, in the fight animation itself Misaka's is colored yellow while Killua's remains blue, likely to provide a distinct Color Contrast and make it clear whose attacks are whose.
