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Recap / A Certain Scientific Railgun T Ep 22 Scavenger

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Episode 22 - Scavenger

The four girls of the dark side organization Scavenger start tracking down the Doppelganger. It has left the abandoned DNA lab and is making its way through the empty city streets.

Ryouko Kuriba tells Mikoto and Shokuhou that the Doppelganger's true threat lies in the possibility that it has a soul. She fears that such a soul, artificially placed inside an artificial being, isn't naturally tied to its body as it would be for a human. If that 'container' is broken, the soul could become untethered and start spreading into the environment — potentially possessing inanimate objects and doing untold damage to the city. However, she does note that the Doppelganger has built-in safeguards that make it unable to damage or destroy itself.

Kuriba says she started the Indian Poker craze in an effort to find a solution to the problem of neutralizing an untethered soul. Her hope is that the impromptu collective of dreamers, sharing knowledge and subconscious ideas, might come up with the necessary inspiration. She then excuses herself, thanking the two Level 5s for their concern but claiming she can deal with the matter on her own.

A short time later, Kuriba is retrieving some supplies from a coin locker when the Doppelganger herself appears. Kuriba attempts to flee but the Doppelganger easily catches her, grabbing her by the neck. Kuriba uses an electronic stun grenade to briefly blind the Doppelganger, and manages to escape.

Moments later, an empty truck suddenly careens onto the scene out of nowhere and almost hits the Doppelganger. The Scavenger foursome appear and swiftly immobilize her by combining their skills: Seike's friction control, Yakumaru's chemicals, Naru's paper manipulation and Leader's tactics. Once the Doppelganger is seemingly secure, Leader orders Seike to chase down Kuriba to make sure they have the correct target. The rest of them prepare to deliver the Doppelganger to their client as contracted — but are shocked when she abruptly throws off her restraints and breaks Leader's arm. Enraged, Naru attacks at full power and succeeds in smashing part of the Doppelganger's body.

A few blocks away, Seike catches up with Kuriba and knocks her to the ground. She quickly determines that Kuriba is indeed human, and is preparing to let her go when Mikoto turns up. Having been filled in by Shokuhou on Kuriba's past — she has been researching cybernetics to try and save her terminally ill mother — Mikoto realized she was trying shoulder all the responsiblity herself, much like Mikoto did with the Sisters. Temporarily ignoring Seike, Mikoto helps Kuriba to her feet and offers her help. Kuriba thanks her and hurries off to safety while Mikoto turns to face Seike.

Mikoto says there's no need for them to fight, but Seike, annoyed at being patronized, decides to attack her anyway. She tries to use her friction power to collapse a nearby construction site onto Mikoto, but quickly discovers her opponent is much more powerful than she realized. When Mikoto's hat is knocked off, Seike recognizes her as Railgun — and can do little more than brace for what she knows is coming.

Meanwhile, the other members of Scavenger quickly find that, even damaged, the Doppelganger is more than a match for them. When Naru attacks again, the Doppelganger rips off some of her paper armour and absorbes it into her own body. Realizing they're outmatched, Yakumaru briefly blinds the Doppelganger with a grenade, allowing the three girls to escape.

Regrouping, they tend to their injuries while trying to figure out their next move. When Leader suggests they meet back up with Seike, a voice informs them that their friend will be out cold for a while. Turning around, the three Scavenger girls see Mikoto walking towards them. Leader recognizes Railgun at once, and realizes their problems just got a whole lot worse.


Tropes

  • Ambiguous Gender: Besides being quite tall and strong for a girl, Seike's manga bio lists her hobby as "crossdressing". In addition, Seike tells Mikoto not to hesitate over fighting her because "they have the same thing". Her meaning is unclear, but moments later it's revealed that Seike has mistaken Mikoto for a boy. On the other hand, she could simply have been indicating that they both have energy-manipulation powers. note 
  • Beware the Silly Ones: In spite of being a childish ditz, Naru is a lethally effective fighter. Indeed, she's the only person besides Mikoto who actually manages to damage the Doppelganger.
  • Blood Knight: Seike decides to fight Mikoto for no particular reason other than the hell of it, although she does seem to find Mikoto's attitude irritating.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Kuriba mentions that the Doppelganger has intrinsic safeguards which make it unable to harm or destroy itself. This fact will be important later.
  • Clothing Damage: Naru's clothes, being made of paper, are torn off her when the Doppelganger steals it; she has to borrow Yakumaru's tunic to cover up. Yakumaru herself also loses her cap and hair clip in the fight, leaving her hair loose.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Once she concludes that Seike isn't going to be deterred from fighting, Mikoto lays her out without breaking a sweat.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: After roughing up Kuriba to verify that she isn't the Doppelganger, Seike thinks it would be best to let her go. She notes that if she brought Kuriba back to the others, they might want to kill her just for being an "honour student", implying that she doesn't share the others' prejudices. She subsequently lets Kuriba flee without objection.
  • Flash Step: Mikoto manages to move from a rooftop to the ground with a single flash of electricity, so fast it looks like she simply teleported.
  • Full-Frontal Assault: Naru's battle armour is formed out of the paper which she normally uses for clothing, and only covers her arms and legs. Other than a couple of strategically placed scraps, she's effectively fighting naked. Once the Doppelganger assimilates most of her paper, she is naked; she doesn't let this stop her, although she does snark about about catching a cold.
  • Killer Rabbit: Naru's battle armour takes the form of one.
  • No Name Given: Leader is only ever called that.
  • Obfuscating Insanity: The Doppelganger assumes a borderline psychopathic demeanour at times. While she's hardly a model of mental health, it's implied that she's deliberately playing this up, possibly in order to scare Scavenger off. She later confirms that she planned to let Scavenger go so they could report back to their employer.
  • Oh, Crap!: Seike has this reaction when she belatedly recognizes Mikoto — right after starting a fight with her. The rest of Scavenger have it when they realize the Doppelganger was holding back in order to catch them off guard, and is now wiping the floor with them.
  • Playing Possum: The Doppelganger allows Scavenger to think they've defeated and captured her, only to break free moments later and effortlessly turn the tables. She doesn't actually need to do this from a tactical standpoint, since she's more than a match for them — she apparently just wants to find out more about them before dispatching them.
  • Psychotic Smirk: The Doppelganger does this right after Naru smashes her arm off.
  • Tempting Fate: In Flashback, Leader says that Scavenger's run-in with Accelerator was just an unfortunate coincidence, and the odds of them ever running into another Level 5 are negligible. And then Mikoto shows up...
  • This Is Gonna Suck: Written all over Seike's face when she realizes she's about to get flattened by Railgun.

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