Episode 03 - Tokiwadai is Targeted
Mitsuko Kongou is walking along a quiet side street when she senses something. Looking about, she demands to know who's there. She bumps into something unseen, then there is a brief sound like electricity and she passes out.
Elsewhere, Saten and Uiharu are on a bus headed for the Garden of Learning: the exclusive school district wherein Tokiwadai Middle School is located. Built like a miniature European town in the heart of Academy City, only those belonging to its private girls' schools, and their guests, are allowed inside. The pair have been invited by Kuroko and Mikoto, and are very excited. Saten is keen to visit a famous cake shop inside the Garden, famous for its special cheesecake that can be bought nowhere else in Japan.
After passing inside, Saten and Uiharu walk through the Garden's posh streets in awe. As obvious visitors, with their outside school uniforms, they draw a few stares. After gawking for a while, they head towards Tokiwadai for their rendezvous. However, it has just been raining, and as Saten turns around and starts walking, she slips in a puddle and falls.
Only slightly late, the two girls meet up with Mikoto and Kuroko outside Tokiwadai, but Saten's clothes are soaked. They take her into the school to clean up, and lend her a Tokiwadai uniform to wear while her clothes are sent to be cleaned. Then the four friends head off into the Garden of Learning. Unseen by them, a girl in a grey school uniform watches them go.
Shortly after the four arrive at the aforementioned cake shop, Uiharu's phone rings — their Judgement office (Branch 177) is calling her and Kuroko in. The two of them reluctantly depart, leaving Mikoto and Saten to buy the cake. Saten then excuses herself to use the washroom.
At the Judgement office, branch director Mii Konori informs Uiharu and Kuroko that someone has been assaulting Tokiwadai students, including Mitsuko Kongou. The victims are found unconscious with their attacker's terrible mark left upon them. Before showing them pictures, Konori warns them to prepare for what they are about to see...
Saten is drying her hands in the washroom when the door appears to open and shut by itself. Moments later, a taser suddenly zaps her from behind and she collapses. Mikoto, wondering what's keeping her, discovers her unconscious a short time later. When she sees Saten's face, she gasps in shock.
Mikoto brings the unconscious Saten to the Judgement office, where Uiharu and Kuroko are analyzing what they know about the attacks. When Kongou was interviewed earlier, she insisted she was alone on the street when she was attacked. However, indistinct footage from a nearby surveillance camera seems to show another girl next to her. Mikoto wonders if the culprit can somehow make themselves unnoticeable to people around them. Uiharu does a search of the ability bank, which has data on all of Academy City's espers, and finds one potential match: Miho Jufuku. Miho is a Level 2 with an ability called "Dummy Check", which can block people's perceptions.. but according to the record, she isn't powerful enough to mask her presence completely the way the attacker seems to be doing.
Saten wakes up and asks what's going on. After seeing the others' reaction to her appearance, she looks in a mirror and discovers the horrifying truth: her assailant has drawn Big Ol' Eyebrows on her face with a marker. Then she sees Miho's picture on the computer screen, and identifies her the culprit — just as she passed out, she caught a glimpse of her attacker in the mirror.
Since Miho's ability doesn't hide her from surveillance cameras, the girls hatch a plan to track her down that way. With some deductive work and Uiharu's computer skills, they manage to find and confront her. Miho tries to flee using her ability, but with Uiharu tracking her on the cameras, they corner her. Desperate, Miho pulls out her taser and tries to use it on Mikoto, but it has no effect on an electromaster. Instead, Mikoto zaps Miho with her powers, and she is captured.
They interrogate Miho to find out her motives, and learn that her boyfriend recently dumped her for a girl from Tokiwadai. When she asked him why, he told her she had 'weird' eyebrows. Heartbroken, she vowed to avenge herself on Tokiwadai and give everyone weird eyebrows. Saten, more confused than angry, says her eyebrows aren't weird — in fact, she thinks they're a 'charm point'. Startled, Miho gazes at Saten and slowly blushes.
As Anti-Skill takes Miho into custody, she asks if she can write to Saten, who acquiesces weakly. The mysterious crime spree has been solved, but one thing bothers Mikoto — according to the ability bank, Miho's powers aren't strong enough to have done what she did.
Later, Uiharu informs Saten that the marker Miho used was a special one, and her new eyebrows won't come off for at least a week. Saten is not too pleased to hear this, complaining that she should have drawn on Miho's face when she had the chance.
Tropes
- Actually Pretty Funny: In spite of their earlier shocked reactions, Mikoto and the others end up trying (and failing) to suppress their laughter once Saten wakes up with her new eyebrows.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Miho seems to develop an instant crush on Saten when the latter compliments her eyebrows.
- Big Ol' Eyebrows: Miho has these naturally. She uses a marker to draw exaggerated ones on her victims.
- Butt-Monkey: Mitsuko Kongou ends up in this role here. It won't be the last time, poor girl.
- Chekhov's Gun: When they arrive in the Garden of Learning, Saten and Uiharu draw some stares because they're not wearing local school uniforms. Later on, when the girls are discussing how to find Miho on the surveillance cameras, Mikoto says they should focus on searching places without many people — pointing out that Miho (also an outsider) would attract similar attention whenever she's not using her Dummy Check ability. Since she presumably can't keep her ability active all the time, she must be staying out of sight by more mundane means.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Everything Miho does.
- Face Doodling: See Big Ol' Eyebrows, above.
- Foreshadowing: The fact that Miho seems to be using abilities above her supposed power level is pointedly left as a dangling mystery.
- Perception Filter: Miho's ability, Dummy Check, is a form of this. She can erase herself from a person's direct senses, although they can see her reflection in mirrors. Because it's a type of mental manipulation, she still shows up on video cameras and the like.
- What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?: Prior to the reveal, various people talk about or react to what's happened to the attack victims as if it was something truly horrifying. To be fair, for a teenage girl, finding yourself stuck with ink all over your face for a week or more probably is pretty horrifying.
