Fanfic / A Certain Droll Hivemind

On the advice of my assigned mental health professional, I have decided to keep a diary. I was ordered to do what the doctor told me to, and so I agreed to her suggestion. If I did not do so, she would find it objectionable and ask why I did not feel comfortable with 'expressing myself'. It is tedious to be forced to, again and again, explain that I am perfectly fine with it, especially when she then starts asking hard questions about when I do act in such a manner.

A Slice of Life fanfic of the A Certain Magical Index universe by EarthScorpion.

After the events of the Sisters Arc, the clones of Misaka Mikoto have been spread to various facilities around the world. We follow the diary entries of Misaka-11111, a perfectly average Sister who is one of the few remaining in Academy city as she has to deal with life: roommates, stocking food in the refrigerator, broken appliances and public education. Culture clash and hilarity ensues as Misaka-11111 goes through life with a rather skewed mindset and priorities.

The main, edited story can be found here, rough drafts along with a commentary thread here.

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This fanfic provides examples of:

• Adorable Fluffy Tail: During the attack on the mall, Yui becomes convinced that the assailant is trying to look like a red panda (she's not). The Network, while giving her advice on the deadly fight she's involved in, takes a moment to agree that the red panda's fluffy tail is its cutest feature.
• Annoying Younger Sibling:
  • Misaka-18241 ends up "arguing" with Misaka-11111 by just repeating everything she says with a more mocking tone and wording.
    As a production model whose manufacture number is over seven thousand greater than mine, it is possible that she is being childish.
  • Last Order (mostly referred to by manufacture number, 20001) is active on the Network, generally as a minority opinion when the rest of the Network is in agreement about something. She complains that she has nothing to do besides float in her tank all day.
• Asian Speekee Engrish: Eiko's English when she tells the Russian mercenary to drop his weapon is terrible, but gets the point across. She has 11111 translate into Russian when she needs more specific detail.
• Assimilation Plot: Referenced; Mikoto points out that the Sisters constantly asking her to join the Network makes them feel like "polite assimilators." Misaka-11111 insists that they're just interested in more efficient communication.
• Beat Them at Their Own Element: Yui gets grabbed by someone and immediately shocks them. This does nothing, because the one who grabbed her is Misaka Mikoto, who is literally orders of magnitude more powerful than her. Thankfully, Mikoto of course isn't there to hurt her.
  I electrocuted my assailant.
  It did nothing. I felt my Electromaster power be totally negated by one vastly superior to mine.
  "Don't do that," the original said to me. "What are you doing here?"
• Bilingual Bonus:
  • In order to fit in, Misaka-11111 takes on the moniker 御坂唯^note Misaka Yui. The joke here being that whilst the family name is identical to canon ToAru's Mikoto, the character "Yui" is a homonym for "just". In other words, Misaka-11111 is Just Misaka.
  • An alternative translation is "Only". By this translation the 11111th Misaka is the "only" Misaka.
• Black Comedy: Misaka-11111 casually references the many ways Accelerator killed Sisters about once a chapter. For the most part, the Network doesn't hold a grudge... though they do express disappointment that Touma didn't punch Accelerator enough to give him internal bleeding and kill him.
  Misaka-11111: It is a painful way to die. We know that empirically.
• Blatant Lies: The Network's habit of Narrating the Present makes their lies pretty obvious. Thankfully, this usually doesn't mean anyone can actually figure out the truth. Half the people in Academy City were the unwilling subjects of unethical experiments, so having a couple secrets is normal.
• Blood Magic: Misaka-11111 encounters a magician who creates a giant bird construct after stabbing herself with a knife. The Network has no experience with magic, so they are very confused.
  More blood spurts from her hands than the human body has within it. It takes form as some kind of bird. It is apparently made of gold, but it drips blood. This does not make sense. The human body does not contain giant gold blood-covered birds with glowing eyes within the bloodstream. It is probably a severe medical condition. No wonder she is in a bad mood.
  We cannot identify the species of bird. Some of the Network believes it to be a raven. Others believe it to be a magpie. A minority holds it to be a crow.
  I have motioned that the precise species may not be important right now, but I am substantially outvoted. The Network wishes me to enquire as to the nature of the avian.
  I will do so. When I have time.
• Breath Weapon: From "Entry 26": Mikoto and one of her clones meet the last dragonslayer. While Mikoto is arguing over whether dragons ever existed, 11111 muses on what the Network knows of dragons.
  The original nods. "Yeah, sure," she says. She has her arms crossed, and is tapping her foot. We do not believe she is impressed. "And I suppose you've killed lots and lots of dragons. Because they're a thing that exist."
  Hamida pouts. "No! Because my great-grandfather killed the last one!"
  "Oh, right." The original crossed her arms. "How convenient."
  I agree that it is convenient. Our research has revealed that dragons are large fire-breathing mythological monsters. It would be very inconvenient to have them around. They are said to eat princesses. The original is known as the Electric Princess as one of her alternate titles. We suspect she would object violently if a dragon tried to eat her, but it is possible that we would be mistaken for her. We have not been eaten by a dragon before. We are not enthusiastic about the idea.
• Classified Information: When doing Powers Testing, the Network mentions that some information may be classified so they don't know it:
  The Network is unaware of any enhancements to sensory capabilities which Dark Matter would grant. Perhaps they are classified.
• Clones Are People, Too: Exploring this is a theme throughout the fic. The story takes place shortly after the clones were rescued from the experiment that was meant to end in their deaths; while the Sisters now understand that the Network as a whole deserves to live, there are signs that they haven't quite internalized that they are individuals who also deserve to live. During the experiment they were all completely identical, but now are beginning to diverge due to the impossibility of keeping updated on the entire Network at once. The main viewpoint clone, Misaka-11111, appears to not know what to do about this, and in particular she seems disturbed that if she dies, the Network won't be able to back-up all her memories. Overall, she switches between "we" and "I" largely interchangeably, and varies between insisting that the clones are all a single person or that they are all individuals based on what is most convenient for her at the moment. The fact that she can have arguments and rivalries with other clones certainly implies that they are individuals, and every named clone has at least a few traits that marks them out as unique; 10032 is clearly in love with Touma, 10901 talks constantly about how she's having fun in Hawaii while her Sisters are in the cold and the rain, and 11111 complains the most.
• Cloning Body Parts: Misaka-11111 mentions that many of the organs from the dead Sisters were donated to those who needed them. The Network decided they don't have a problem with this; after all, they don't need the organs any more. They did, however, ask why Academy City couldn't just clone up individual organs for each recipient; they have the technology, it's far less morally dubious, and there would be no chance of rejection. They don't get an answer.
  Misaka-11111: We are not sure why, if it was so cheap to produce a new Sister, Academy City does not grow organs for use in hospitals from and for the intended patient. It would mean that no one would need to die, and also negate the chance of rejection. We suspect, once more, that there was widespread fraud involved in our creation, and that the formally listed costs have no relationship to reality whatsoever.
• Comically Missing the Point:
  • Misaka-11111 meets a girl wearing black and white makeup, and assumes she is trying to look like a panda. Throughout the fight, she looks less and less like a panda, so 11111 continuously refers to her as "the girl who is not good at looking like a panda."
  • Mikoto explains 11111's appearance by claiming that she can make duplicates out of electricity. 11111 did not know she had that power, and is very impressed.
• Commonality Connection: Abe Eiko bonds with Yui over running and cute animals. Or, that's what Yui thinks they're bonding over. Eiko has actually realized that Yui is a product of some Dark Side experiment (though it's pretty clear she doesn't know any of the details), and commiserates over some of the physical and mental side effects such things cause. During the attack on the mall, it turns out Eiko was a Dark Side assassin, and she and Yui take down the assailants without too much trouble. After, Yui asks Eiko why their flatmates were acting strange (that is, not being disturbingly calm in a life-threatening situation), the first time she asked anyone for explicit help.
• Compulsory School Age: Misaka-11111 is technically less than a year old, but she's biologically about fourteen, and is forced to go to school. It's interesting to note that many of the clones are not forced to attend school. Misaka-10032 apparently just wanders the city all day, and Misaka-10901 seems to have nothing better to do in Hawaii than drink pina coladas on the beach and surf. Someone (whether it be the Sisters themselves or their doctors) appears to be allowing them to live various lives throughout the Network, rather than forcing them all to live "normal" lives.
• Conditioned to Accept Horror:
  • Misaka-11111 casually references the Sisters' many brutal deaths from Accelerator about once a chapter. She also mentions that they have constant nightmares on the topic, but doesn't seem to care besides musing that it might be nice to dream about something else. Not to mention that as a product of some of the worst of the city's infamous Dark Side, there is very little that can phase her. During a hostage situation, she notes that she's relatively safe since hostages aren't killed immediately—unlike the Level 6 Shift experiment, where most of the Sisters died within minutes of each experiment's start.
  • Notably, during the hostage situation, 11111's flatmates are not calm, and she doesn't understand why they're crying, stuttering, and overall behaving in an illogical manner. Abe Eiko manages to convince them to hide, after which she and 11111 attack the assailants on their own. After everything is resolved, 11111 asks why they were acting so strangely, and has to be told that "normies" (children who haven't had their minds messed with to turn them into killers and then hired for black-ops work) are not used to dangerous situations.
• Confirmation Bias: In-Universe. Sometimes, Misaka-11111 will claim that "nearly everyone I know" agrees with her on a certain point; for example, her clothes are not weird and have no trouble fitting, because nearly everyone she knows finds Tokiwadai medium-size girls uniform fine casual wear. She deliberately ignores the blatant bias of asking for opinions from ten thousand fellow clones. She mostly does this when she's especially annoyed at people asking her to act normal.
• Covered in Gunge: A magician uses Blood Magic to summon a giant bird construct made of gold and blood. Touma punches it with his Anti-Magic right hand, and it explodes, covering everyone except Touma in blood. Misaka-11111 is not happy.
  Misaka-10901: It is a good thing she purchased new clothes today. Her current set is ruined. Blood does not come out of clothing easily. This is the first time the Network has experienced being covered in blood that is not your own. Or at least the blood of another Network member. It is less painful this way. We definitely prefer to be covered in blood which belongs to someone else.
  Misaka-11111: It is in my shoes. It is dripping down the side of my legs. It is like being caught out in the rain or being splashed by a bus, but even worse. Today is a bad day.
• Cuteness Proximity:
  • Misaka-11111 randomly leaves lunch in order to walk up to a squirrel and give it her crumbs; the Network is not happy that their passive electromaster powers cause most animals to flee from them. When her flatmates question her on this, she goes on a surprisingly impassioned rant about how Academy City's creation caused unnecessary environmental damage, destroying habitats, and now the few animals that can survive in an urban environment are treated as pests. Everyone stares.
    "Welp," Abe Eiko said, smiling broadly and pretending to open a notebook. I am almost certain that is what she was doing. We do not think she has an invisible notebook. "Yui = fond of animals. Hey, 'Yoko, you should go show her pictures of your bunny!"
  • During the attack on the mall, 11111 believes that a girl is trying to look like a panda, and doing a terrible job (she is not trying to look like a panda). The rest of the Network determines that she must be doing it in order to get people to let down their guards for her unspecified villainy. Throughout the fight, the Network spends an inordinate amount of time discussing cute pandas, and 11111 points out to the girl that red pandas are not actually pandas (she's not trying to look like a red panda either).
    This is a useful fact for her to know. That may have made it harder for her to prepare her costume. Taxonomic confusion is problematic. Although if she was trying to dress up as a red panda, she should have brought a fluffy tail. The Network agrees that the fluffy tail of the red panda is its cutest feature.
  • When 11111 complains that 10032 waited too long to rescue her, she still takes a moment to agree that 10032's cat mask was necessary, because cats are important.
• Damned by Faint Praise: Misaka-11111 is dragged out clothes shopping by her flatmates. After extensively analyzing the experience, the Network agrees that this was slightly better than fighting Accelerator. Yes, it was bad enough that they had to seriously consider if it was better than being murdered ten thousand times by an invincible enemy.
• Declaration of Protection: Touma promises to protect Misaka-11111. She decides not to mention that technically it's her fault she's being threatened.
  The Network feels happy. Kamijou Touma has just declared that he is willing to protect us again.
  We wonder if we should inform him that we punched the girl who is bad at dressing like a panda in the solar plexus. We decide not to. It might confuse him. And we like the bit where he is willing to protect us.
• Department of Redundancy Department: Misaka-11111 narrates her own narration when writing.
  "'I can do that,' Misaka says, having not found what she was looking for," I said. I had not found what I was looking for.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Played for Laughs. Misaka-11111 is rather confused when the angry magician keeps yelling threats.
  "I am having a really bad day!" she shouts at us. "You have one last chance to get out of my way, or I will destroy you all!"
  I am also having a bad day. However, I have not threatened to destroy anyone. We shall investigate as to whether this is a traditional human response to having bad days. We do not think it is. We suspect the human population would be considerably lower if it was traditional to commit omnicide in response to experiencing a bad day.
• Doppelganger Link: Like in the source material, the Sisters are clones who are part of a Hive Mind. The difficulties of keeping a private diary when one is part of a constantly active telepathic hivemind is lampshaded and used as underline just how different the Sisters' thought processes are.
  Misaka-11111: Apparently I need a space where I can keep my own private thoughts, and where I can be honest with myself without society judging me. The Network finds this idea amusing. We keep our own private thoughts in our sisters' heads. I did not explain that to her. She is intellectually aware of the nature of the Network, but she does not comprehend it. Explaining it would be hard work, and also against orders, so she is permitted to believe that we are more akin to individuals able with a thought to talk on the phone with another member of the Network.
• The Dragonslayer: Misaka-11111 and Mikoto encounter the last descendant of the old dragonslayers, a girl born and bred to fight dragons. Mikoto, who of course still doesn't know about magic, dryly notes that she's never seen a dragon. The girl says that her great-grandfather killed the last one, which Mikoto calls "convenient." The girl, on the other hand, is a Blood Knight looking for anything that might be a challenge for her superhuman body and skills.
  Hamida: Do you know how boring things are when you're part of a super-powerful bloodline born of one of the Saints and made to kill dragons but your ancestors managed to wipe them all out? It's super-boring, trust me.
• Dragons Prefer Princesses: Misaka Mikoto meets the last dragonslayer, and is told that all dragons are extinct. Mikoto, who thinks magic isn't real, notes this is "convenient" (because it makes their existence impossible to prove). 11111 and the Network, on the other hand, are genuinely relieved, because they think a dragon might go after Mikoto for being "the Electric Princess." And they might be mistaken for her.
• The Dreaded: Kuroko has attained this status among the Sisters, who fear her due to Misaka Mikoto constantly warning them away from her without explaining why. The rumors that she is somehow "augmented with experimental procedures" and is capable of recovering from having her neck snapped don't help.
• Duplicate Divergence: Discussed; during the experiment, the Sisters were all identical, because they had the exact same experiences, and the entire Network paid attention to the divergent cases (because they were about to be killed by Accelerator), and processed them in the same way. However, now that they're geographically separated, it's impossible to remain identical.
  Now we are parallelised. I now have memories which only exist in a minority of the members of the Network. Any of us could access them, but they choose not to because they feel no need to. Some of them only exist in a very small minority. Only the ones resident in Academy City care about the locations of shops I have memorised. There are even some bandwidth and latency limits, because Radio Noise requires us to broadcast within our designated spectrum, and hence while I can casually access other Academy City Sisters, to share with one of my Sisters in South Africa requires a chained flow of rebroadcasts through other nodes in the network. This imposes hard limits, because of our limited capacity to handle rebroadcasts. Fortunately, such delays are relatively small compared to the inefficiencies of our own thought processes, but I can already project that this geographic and unit-based divergence will grow more extreme with time.
• Electronic Telepathy: This is how the Network communicates. The fic takes more time to discuss the limits of such telepathy, including signal range and the limits of the hardware (the Sisters themselves). In fact, 11111 says that the main reason for their Duplicate Divergence is simply that any single one of them can't absorb information from all ten thousand clones at once. Late in the fic, 11111 is too close when Mikoto lets loose at full power, and her connection to the Network is temporarily severed.
  Just for a moment when the railgun fired, I was alone. I did not like it. I could not hear Radio Noise. It was so dark. I felt small.
  I do not want to do it again.
• Epistolary Novel: The Framing Device is that Misaka- 11111 was ordered to start a private diary by her psychiatrist. Of course, she's part of a ten-thousand person Hive Mind, so the "private" part isn't exactly easy. When she gets into a fight, she convinces Misaka-10901 to write for her while she's busy, and 10901 keeps inserting her own commentary.
• Exact Words: Misaka-11111 claims that her parents are "unrelated" to Misaka Mikoto's parents. That manages to be completely true by violently ignoring the context and spirit of the question.
  From one point of view, our parents are not related, because I do not have parents. From another point of view, our parents are not related, because we are genetically identical; hence, they are not related because they are the same people. And from yet another point of view, our parents are not related because my gestation mother-surrogate was a growth vat, and the mother of Misaka Mikoto is not a growth vat. Except perhaps in a technical sense, because she was used to grow my gene-donor.
• Expendable Clone: Referenced. In addition to the clones being constantly worried that they will be murdered for Level Grinding purposes, even though Level 6 Shift was more about having them generate new challenges for Accelerator than him killing them, there is evidence that the clones still don't see their individual lives as having much importance. It's implied several times that they value their memories more than anything else, and are mostly worried about death in the context of not being able to upload everything to the Network before they die. When Touma is in danger, the Network is discussing whether Misaka-11111 should sacrifice herself to save him, and there's no sign that 11111 has a problem with this idea. Thankfully, it turns out to be unnecessary.
• Felony Misdemeanor: Misaka-11111 calls out Eiko for using her power to steal from a soda machine. Eiko rolls her eyes and says it's not like she's killing anyone. 11111 notes to herself that the city authorities have historically been far more accepting of mass murder than petty theft.
• Freudian Excuse: Misaka-11111 has a tendency to be highly paranoid and subtly mistreat her roommate Koizumi Kyoko, purely on the basis of her ability as a Vector Manipulator, albeit a low-level one, just like Accelerator. Koizumi Kyoko, for her part, is a meek, mild, timid girl who tends to be dominated by all the stronger personalities around her. It is such that even Misaka-11111 counts as a stronger personality next to her.
• Generation Xerox: Played with in Misaka-11111's roommates. Their abilities consist of Vector Manipulation, Dark Matter, and Meltdown. Most of the Sisters think it's an experiment to find synergistic interaction between the known Level 5 powers without putting the actual Level 5's at risk or in a position to kill each other. Last Order thinks it's some weird game the researchers and higher-ups play consisting of completing a set of Espers with the same abilities as Level 5's, and the goal is to collect a 'full set'. Misaka-11111 also has classmates with Mental Out and Aero Hand. Plus, there's a guy with the strange power, like Sogita Gunha and his weird Attack Crash, to make anything edible, and someone who's never seen, like the Number Six.
• Girls with Guns: Misaka-11111 still carries around her standard-issue F2000-R assault rifle. Canon implies a few times that the versions they carry around regularly are airsoft guns, but here it is confirmed that it is absolutely a real gun with real bullets. Mikoto is not amused.
  ...also, I don't really see why they let the Sisters carry around compact assault rifles in their bags. Like, it just seems like a bad idea to me. A really bad idea that's going to end up with someone being shot who probably didn't deserve it. What kind of stupid psychopath would let traumatised clones who only know violence and death carry guns in this kind of place?
  Oh wait, the kind of stupid psychopath who started the Sisters project in the first place. So, letting them carry guns around is perfectly in line with the stupid kind of things they do. I just hope that no one gets hurt because of it.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Played for Laughs. Touma, who has no formal combat training, takes out several armed and armored mercenaries with his bare fists. The fic makes no attempt to explain how he does this. The Network is very confused.
  I hear several cries of pain, and then the sound of someone being slammed into the wall repeatedly. Kamijou Touma is shouting things, but I cannot make out his words because of the echoes of the stairwell and also the sound of people being punched. A Russian staggers out of the stairwell, and collapses. I am not sure if I should help Kamijou Touma. He has told me that I should not shoot people, but I wish to help him by shooting people. I am polling the Network for advice and vigorous debate is occurring when the sound of punching people stops.
  Kamijou Touma steps out of the stairwell, over the unconscious Russian. Past him I count five sprawled over men. All of them had guns. None of them were able to use them.
  Perhaps the Network has underestimated the efficacy of punching.
• Good with Numbers: Misaka-11111 is very annoyed that she keeps getting marked down on her math homework, because all her answers are correct but she doesn't show her work. She's basically a math genius connected to a Hive Mind of fellow math geniuses; she knows much, much more than her teachers on the subject.
  Misaka-11111: They will probably also deduct me marks because while my physics homework correctly accounted for the presence of AIM fields when citing Gauss' Law, it was necessary to write very very small to fit the modified version of the equation into the space provided, and I did not have space to provide adequate citations. Failure to provide citations is an actual offence. I looked at Abe Eiko's homework when she was handing it in. She had provided no citations at all. And had not even filled in some of the boxes. At least I should get higher marks than her.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: From "Entry 14", mixed with Stop Hitting Yourself, from Accelerator:
  It does not hurt as much as when the Accelerator decided to play 'stop hitting yourself' with Misaka-2813's arms and legs, and we tolerated that. Even if it did take a long time for him to beat her to death with her own limbs.
• He Is Not My Boyfriend: Misaka-11111's flatmate Aino Sumiko is very insistent that she is not dating Yokouchi Toru. He's just a stupid pig who leers at girls, and she doesn't care about him at all! Misaka is rather confused by all this. Abe Eiko is not confused.
  Sumiko: Anyway! "Toru" equals "worthless pig." And...
  Eiko: Aren't you still going out with him?
  Sumiko: We are not going out! We never went out! We... we just went places together as two people who just happen to be male and female. And that was ages ago anyway.
  Eiko: Last Friday?
  Sumiko: Ignoring you.
• Hero of Another Story:
  • Throughout the fic, there are hints that Abe Eiko is more than she seems. Near the end, it's revealed she was a Dark Side assassin who got herself benched by pretending to flub a mission. She teams up with Misaka-11111 to fight off the armed assailants after them... only to find out that the men are after someone entirely different and it has nothing to do with them.
  • Speaking of, Touma shows up during the incident with very little explanation and helps fend off the armed men. Abe Eiko also mentions having fought him before, and being annoyed that he got in the way of a "perfectly ordinary assassination."
  • Misaka Mikoto and Shirai Kuroko show up because of the assailants as well. They both reference recent incidents that Misaka-11111 has nothing to do with. She's a little confused, and wishes they would use full names when speaking so that she knew who they were talking about.
• Hidden Depths: Abe Eiko, Misaka-11111's roommate with the Dark Matter power, was once an agent for the Dark Side. She identified most of 11111's weapons and defenses, and is implied to have killed before. Though she is still shocked and impressed when 11111 mentions she has been in 10032 combat situations.
• Hive Mind: The titular hive mind of clones, connected through Electronic Telepathy. During the experiment, the Network was essentially a single person with twenty thousand bodies; every Sister had nearly identical experiences, and any deviations (such as when a Sister was about to be killed by Accelerator) was absorbed by the entire Network, keeping them identical. Now that they've been spread out over the globe, it's impossible for them to remain identical, because each individual Sister can't possibly process individual experiences from ten thousand people at once. They are therefore slowly diverging, but they still have a very alien mindset. In particular, it's implied several times that the Sisters don't value their lives, they value their memories. They don't have much of a problem with the concept of individual clones dying again (though they don't want more pain), but since their divergences are too great and they wouldn't be able to upload their full memories to the Network before death, they do everything they can to avoid more deaths.
• Hollywood Autism: Between Yui's No Social Skills, Literal-Minded nature, and strange speech patterns, her flatmates assume she's somewhere on the spectrum. The truth, of course, is that she's a clone purpose-made for an experiment that was meant to end in her death; there was no need to program her with anything beyond the absolute basics. It doesn't help that she's part of a ten-thousand person Hive Mind of identical clones; whenever someone complains that she's not acting normal, she notes that nearly everyone she knows agrees with how she acts, so there's no need to change.
• Humans Through Alien Eyes: The fic has some elements of this, as Misaka-11111 filters perfectly ordinary human interaction through a very bizarre lens.
• I Am Legion: Misaka-11111 switches between "we" and "I" interchangeably, as the rest of the Network is often commenting and offering advice on her life at any given moment. The question of how much a single Sister can truly be called an "individual" is an open question, and may even be changing over the course of the fic. Near the end, Misaka-19421 gives her some advice, and 11111 says aloud that she came up with it "with no one else's assistance." Misaka-19421 complains. Misaka-11111 points out that they are all technically the same person. Misaka-19421 points out that she has previously said otherwise.
  Misaka-11111: She is obviously wrong and I do not need to explain further how the cases are different.
  Misaka-10901: Consistency is not Misaka-11111's strong point. Perhaps there was a glitch in the Testament machine when they were loading in her consistency protocols. She is almost as bad at it as she is about not whining when she forgets her lunch which is entirely her own fault.
  Misaka-11111: I do not know what Misaka-10901 is talking about. She is probably just being mean again.
• Identical Twin Mistake: Since the Sisters normally wear the Tokiwadai Middle School uniform, when Touma sees a girl who looks like Misaka Mikoto wearing different clothes, he assumes it's Mikoto. It's actually Misaka-11111, who got dragged out clothes shopping because her flatmates were annoyed at her wearing the uniform of a school she didn't even go to.
  "'I am not Misaka Mikoto. I am Misaka-11111,' Misaka repeats," I tell him again.
  "But you're wearing different clothes," he protests. He does not appear to understand that we have the capacity to wear clothes that are not Misaka Mikoto's school uniform. We are not sure if Kamijou Touma has ever approached Misaka Mikoto when she is on her way to school under the impression that she is one of us. Statistically, if you see someone who looks like Misaka Mikoto wearing the Tokiwadai uniform, you should assume that they are a member of the Network. The chance that they are the original can be discounted as statistical noise.
  We suspect he would probably realise his mistake quite quickly. The original would probably not appreciate it.
• Idiot Hero: Referenced; the Network, despite respecting Kamijou Touma deeply for his heroism in rescuing them, wonders if he's not very bright. Whether this is true in the source material is up for debate due to several instances of Obfuscating Stupidity and Smarter Than You Look, but in the fic they think this because he fails to understand a complex relay chain that they find perfectly clear.
• The Illegible:
  • Aino Sumiko, as noted in the second chapter, and it's given to a Third-Person Person that has a habit of Narrating the Present:
    "Can you get me the stuff on this list?" she said, handing me a freshly written list. "I'll pay you back."
    Her handwriting is not very good.
    "'I can get such things,' Misaka confirms, though she struggles to read some of the things on the list," I said.
    Aino put her hands on her hips — which are not very prominent — and glared up at me. "Are you trying to be funny?" she asked.
    I did not answer. I do not know why people ask so many difficult questions.
  • According to Mikoto, 11111's handwriting is pretty bad too; apparently her own used to be pretty bad when she was younger, and the clones' looks about the same.
    Misaka-11111: Misaka Mikoto has passed my diary back to me. She is wrong. My handwriting is not bad. Almost everyone I know has no problem reading it.
• The Immodest Orgasm: Toru, Aino's maybe/maybe not boyfriend, implies this about Aino. When Misaka-11111 mentions she's very loud, he waggles his eyebrows and says yes, she's "very loud." 11111 of course misses the implication, and he might have been joking anyway.
• Immune to Bullets: Played with. Many powers render espers largely immune to bullets, especially at high level, and the clones largely treat any power that doesn't make you invulnerable to conventional weapons as basically useless. After all, if a clone that has been murdered 10031 times can take you out, then what's the point?
• Immune to Mind Control: From "Entry 14", where powers are rated from 1 to 5, from weakest to strongest, this is the meaning of electrical powers stopping a lower-level brain manipulation one:
  Even if 'his tricks' do not work on me. The Network's status as a Level 3 Electromaster protects us from his Level 1 power of Mental Out.
• Implausible Deniability: The Network's cover story for why they have the same power, the same name, and the same face as the Railgun is just "it's a coincidence."
• Innocent Fanservice Girl: Yui's flatmates complain about a time when, after a shower, she just walked out of the bathroom sopping wet and buck-naked. She had forgotten her towel in her room and didn't see much wrong with going to get it. In fairness, she lives with a bunch of girls so it wasn't that big a deal, but various other incidents (and canon) make it clear that she wouldn't have done anything differently if boys had been around.
• Level Grinding: As someone who was fodder for such a grind, Misaka-11111 and her Sisters basically assume that any esper might try to murder them at any moment to increase their level. Note that there is no indication this is actually how it works; the point of the experiment was to force Accelerator into different combat situations and use his powers in unique ways, not to just murder enough people until he leveled up. The Sisters are either ignorant of the details or, more likely, too traumatized to think clearly on the matter (even if their dry dialogue makes it hard to tell).
• Limited Wardrobe: Misaka-11111's flatmates are very confused that the only clothes she has besides their school uniform is a different school uniform, for a school she doesn't go to. They assume it was a uniform allocation issue, and eventually drag her out clothes shopping.
  "'And these Tokiwadai uniforms are the only other clothes I have. I joined your school and I was issued these clothes,' Misaka adds, truthfully." I added.
  Once again, I was telling the truth, while technically not answering her question. I attend the same school as my new flatmates, so I have the same school uniform as them, which I wear when attending school. Meanwhile, I was issued these clothes when I was created; ten Uniform, Tokiwadai Middle School, Medium. I do not know why they chose to have all the Sisters wear the same garments as the original. I am also not sure where they purchased two hundred thousand garments, when the school itself has fewer than a thousand students. Would it not draw attention?
  I am sure they had reasons.
• Literal-Minded: When her roommates declare that Misaka-11111 looks like a drowned kitten, 11111 is appalled at the rampant animal cruelty in the city.
• Mirthless Laughter: When it turns out that Abe Eiko is the product of painful experiments and was once a Dark Side assassin, she is happy to finally be able to talk to Misaka-11111 about it. "Happy" being a relative term.
  "Lucky," Abe Eiko said. She slumped down, still smiling. "It's... it's good to have someone to talk to about it, you know? Sumi and 'Yoko don't have a clue." She laughed, although I did not see what the joke was. "They think Academy City is a nice happy place where everyone gets to learn and become better."
  We then saw the joke. We did not think it was a very funny joke.
• Must Have Caffeine: Misaka-10901 mentions that the researchers who conducted the experiments where twenty thousand clones were murdered constantly complained about the city's bad coffee. Apparently, if a city can master human cloning, they should spend some money on mastering coffee.
  Misaka-10901: One of them proposed using the Testament machine to programme Misaka-19999 to make coffee, so they could have better non-instant coffee all the way through the experiments. The scientists argued that this would increase morale and make them more productive workers. This proposal was under consideration when the sequence was terminated. We are unclear as to whether the Accelerator would have also been allowed Misaka-19999's coffee under this model.
• The Napoleon: Aino Sumiko is very short and very angry. She spends most of her time yelling, especially at Abe Eiko, who clearly finds it funny to rile her up. 11111 openly wonders if her being smaller makes her louder (partly because her very tall roommate is very quiet). Sumiko's mood is not helped by the self-destructive nature of her power. She spends a significant amount of time covered in mild but painful radiation burns from her uncontrolled energy discharges.
• Narrating the Present: Misaka-11111 retains the Sisters' distinctive Verbal Tic. The psychiatrists are trying to get the Sisters to stop, and it's implied they could, but they prefer it this way. Misaka-11111 mentions several times that she would be much less confused if everyone else narrated themselves.
• No Social Skills: Once the experiment was canceled, it became apparent that none of the clones had any idea how to operate in society, and barely any care to. 11111 and the rest of the Sisters are observing and trying to fit in, but their alien perspective leads them to many mistaken assumptions. Furthermore, sometimes they just flat-out decide some part of normal society is stupid, at which point any attempts to convince them to change will fail. For example: They narrate themselves, and basically everyone they meet tells them they don't need to do that. Misaka-11111 checks with her ten thousand surviving Sisters, confirms that almost everyone she knows thinks that narrating yourself is a fine way to communicate your emotional state, and refuses to change.
• Our Clones Are Different: In "Entry 25", Mikoto claims that she can create weaker copies of herself out of electricity so long as there's a generator nearby, to cover up the existence of Academy City having cloned her without her permission:
  Mikoto: Oh, no, that's just... I can make clones out of electricity. It's... um. One of my powers. To make weaker doubles that can exist near... uh, near a generator. Yes.
• The Paranoiac: All the Sisters, when you get down to it. Misaka-11111 spends a significant amount of time under the assumption that any esper would try to murder her to advance their power at any moment, and that's not even getting into the (possibly correct) theories about Academy City experiments she might be unknowingly part of. The entire Network watches her class introduction because they all assume there's a strong chance she could be killed by all the students staring at her.
• Plagued by Nightmares: It's mentioned that the entire Network has constant nightmares of their many deaths against Accelerator. Misaka-11111 says this very casually, only musing that it might be nice to dream about something else.
• Plot Armor: Played for Laughs. Touma gets into a fight with five armed soldiers. He wins offscreen, using nothing but his fists. The narrative makes no attempt to explain how he does it.
• Power Levels: Misaka-11111's flatmates and their neighbors all have the same powers as the seven Level 5s, but far weaker. Aino Sumiko has the Meltdowner power, but she's level 1; she's often covered in radiation burns from her uncontrolled energy discharges. Abe Eiko has the Dark Matter power at level 1; she can create small objects with impossible properties (such as a magnetic coin that is not conductive), but she often misses details. Koizumi Kyoko has the Vector Control power at level 2; she can only affect the vectors of something she sees, as long as it's not moving too quickly. And of course 11111 has the electromaster power, at level 3. The Network is split on whether putting so many espers with powers similar to the level 5s is an experiment on seeing how long it takes for them to murder each other, or on whether it is an effort to study the powers of the level 5s without putting the actual important espers in danger. Last Order, on the other hand, thinks that the researchers are playing a game where they try to "collect a full set" of people with powers the same as the level 5s. The Network dismisses this theory as ridiculous, but considering some of the things we've seen the researchers get up to, it's not impossible.
• Psycho Knife Nut: Abe Eiko, it turns out, was a Dark Side assassin who liked using knives. She managed to get herself benched by flubbing a mission, but she's still very fond of her knives. She admits she's trained in guns, but prefers her knives because "the rush is so much better, you know?"
  She smiled at me. Her smile was lopsided - the right side of her mouth turned up more than the left side. I flinched when suddenly a knife appeared in each hand. They were thin blades considerably more narrow and pointed than a standard combat knife. They were also made of swirling black and white indicating that they were made via her esper power.
  She held them like she was familiar with their use. The Network was alarmed, but also pleased that we had predicted the threat posed by Abe Eiko correctly.
• Pungeon Master: Following from canon, the Misaka Sisters appear to believe that puns are automatically funny. One of the few things that can make them openly giggle is the opportunity to drop a pun. In fact, Misaka-11111's official name, Misaka Yui, is a Stealth Pun that she managed to sneak by her psychiatrist ("Misaka Yui" can be read as "Just Misaka").
• Red Baron: Aino Sumiko, Misaka-11111's classmate with the Meltdown ability, is known as 'The Suicider' due to her self-inflicted injuries from her powers growing out of control. Misaka-11111 herself is called 'The Stungun', due to being weaker than 'The Railgun'.
• Required Secondary Powers: Averted with Aino Sumiko. She is a Level 1 with the Meltdowner power, the ability to create microwave radiation; the Level 5 with the same power uses it as a Wave-Motion Gun. But she completely lacks any protection against her own power, meaning she basically just has the power to give herself radiation burns. Her classmates call her "the Suicider."
  Aino Sumiko: Well, I need to go irradiate myself and get more burns on my hands. What fun. You two enjoy having powers which aren't super-fun in the way they hurt you when you practice.
  Misaka Yui: I do not think that would be fun, Misaka says, the confusion obvious in her voice. I think that would be very painful. Much like electricity burns, she adds, speaking from painful experience.
• Running Gag:
  • References to Accelerator killing the Sisters in particularly absurd ways are common.
  • The Network complaining about people pushing back against their "obviously superior" method of speech.
  • Misaka-11111 complaining about Misaka-10901, who is on a beach in Hawaii.
• Seeing Through Another's Eyes: Any Sister can see through the eyes of any other Sister. However, as 11111 notes, this is part of the reason for their growing divergences. They can only process a couple sensory inputs at once (including their own), making it impossible to be completely up to date on the entire Network. 11111 sometimes borrows other's eyes when they're watching a movie or something, but other than that everyone largely has their own stuff to deal with.
• Self-Duplication: Mikoto claims that she can create weaker copies of herself out of electricity so long as there's a generator nearby. Misaka-11111 did not know she had that power, and is very impressed. She completely fails to realize that Mikoto is making up this power on the spot to cover for 11111's presence.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Misaka-11111 spends a significant amount of time extremely annoyed at Misaka-10901. 11111 is stuck in Academy City during the rainy season, while 10901 is in Hawaii and spends most of her time on a beach drinking pina coladas.
• Skewed Priorities:
  • When the mall is taken over by armed gunmen, Misaka-11111 is more concerned that she can't pay for her new shoes because the staff fled.
    The Network considers this a moderate threat. We are in a defensible location, I have my F2000-R in my bag, and if necessary I can engage the shutters and seal us in. I have not done that yet because the controls are labelled 'authorised staff only' and I am not a member of staff. If we are hostages, then they will not wish to kill us. Hostages are not killed immediately.
  • When a magician summons a giant bird construct out of her own blood, the Network is mostly arguing over what type of bird it is. Everyone is very disappointed that Touma destroys it before 11111 can ask.
• Slasher Smile: This is Abe Eiko's response when it becomes apparent that she and Misaka Yui are going to have to fight a bunch of armed Russian mercenaries. Yui does not understand why her smile is so freaky.
  We also did not like the way that Abe Eiko was still smiling. She had been smiling since she made her knives. It left me feeling quite uncomfortable, although the Network was not sure why. Smiling is generally viewed by society as a good expression. We would have preferred her to stop smiling.
• Spell My Name with a "The": The Network always refers to the Accelerator, underlining how they see him less as a person and more as a force.
• Stealth Pun: Misaka-11111 is forced to come up with a name to interact with society. Her psychiatrist denies her initial ideas of "11111" or "Mikoto-1," so she goes with "Misaka Yui." The psychiatrist misses the pun; "Misaka Yui" can be read as "Just Misaka."
  Hee. They had vetoed my first and second choices of personal name. 11111 and Mikoto-1 would have been perfectly acceptable personal names. I do not see why they objected to them. They would have uniquely identified me. They did not see a problem with my third choice.
  The Network was greatly amused.
• Suggestive Collision: Touma throws himself over Misaka-11111 to protect her from an explosion, and ends up with his face in her boobs. 11111, of course, has no idea why she would be upset about this, and wonders why he keeps blushing and apologizing.
  The Network does not know what he is talking about. Misaka-15293 points out that he may be feeling bad about hurting my chest with his face. That is evidence that he is thoughtful. "'I do not think you have any reason to apologise,' Misaka says, her body aching,' I say, hurting all over no matter what my mean sisters might say about me complaining. Misaka-10032 prompts me to apologise to him, and I consider it a sensible thing to do. "'I wish to apologise if my chest hurt your face', Misaka says," I said. "'My ribcage is optimised for protecting my organs, not for being comfortable to rest on,' Misaka adds, massaging the site of injury and deciding that she may have a bruise," I add. Yes. I think I will have a bruise there. I will monitor its development and schedule an appointment with my assigned healthcare professional if there are signs of further injury.
• Supreme Chef: One of Misaka-11111's classmates has the power to turn anything into a delicious meal—as in, give him an old tire and he'll give you a banquet. Everyone points out that this makes no sense, and Aino Sumiko complains that the teachers use the "power testing" as an excuse to eat his food. Presumably he's a Gemstone esper, as their powers tend to be far stranger than the artificial espers people are more familiar with.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: Mikoto gave her clones strict instructions to stay away from Kuroko, even giving them a full list of her patrol routes to ensure that they'd never run into her. Kuroko is infamously obsessed with Mikoto, but since she didn't explain why, the clones assumed that Kuroko would murder them to increase her level (even though that's not actually how levels work).
  "'We are just Level Three so the two of us do not stand a chance,' Misaka-11111 says fearfully," I say fearfully. "'She could teleport right up to us and get us in a hold. Then we would be helpless against her,' she adds," I add. "'She would do cruel things to us for her own enjoyment.'"
  "'And then she would kill us to increase her Level,' Misaka-10032 says, shaking in her shoes," Misaka-10032 says.
  Kamijou Touma frowns. "Wait, why do they think—"
  "You! Shut up! I'm keeping them safe from Kuroko!" Misaka Mikoto says, indicating clearly that she is the best big sister. "You know what she'd do if she realised I had clones!"
  He nods. "Yeah, I suppose you are."
• Suspiciously Specific Denial:
  • Since Misaka-11111 narrates herself, she will often say "Misaka says honestly" when she's using Exact Words to get around something. Her flatmate Aino Sumiko is rather suspicious of this.
    I am now being glared at by Aino Sumiko. "I don't trust her when she says she says things truthfully," Aino Sumiko complained. "No one'd say that something is truthful unless they were lying."
    That is offensive. I quite specifically told the truth. The Network has checked my statements and we agree that I did not lie.
  • When Misaka-19421 gives Misaka-11111 some advice, Misaka-11111 says aloud that she came up with it "with no one else's assistance." Misaka-19421 complains about this, leading to an argument over whether or not the Sisters are all technically the same person, and therefore it is appropriate for them to steal credit from each other.
    "'Concussions are dangerous and should be treated promptly,' Misaka observes with no one else's assistance," I observe. Misaka-19421 considers this objectionable, but I remind her that as fellow members of the Network we can be said to count as the same person. She points out that I have previously argued otherwise. She is obviously wrong and I do not need to explain further how the cases are different.
• Swiss-Cheese Security: Despite Academy City being the most high-tech city on Earth, with literally next-generation technology available to everyone, its security measures are utter crap. To quote Misaka-11111:
  ...this diary will be totally secure. Only I shall be able to read it. And the approximately ten thousand clones from the same geneline as myself who can casually access my audiovisual input, of course. And anyone who gains access to the Network via a variety of means, beginning with the standard override protocols usable through the administrator access interface, and progressing to more esoteric means. And anyone who breaks into my room and reads my diary. This is a greatly improved level of security from the norm in Academy City, and I will hereby attempt to institute it as standard policy among us.
• Talking Animal: In "Entry 15," it becomes apparent that 11111 has seen at least some animated fiction because of this:
  "Well, I bet this one eats a lot! Look how fat he is," Abe Eiko agreed, zooming in to take another shot. "Awesome! Come on, fatty catty? How many baby birds did you eat today?"
  The cat, being a cat, did not answer. Cats cannot talk, except in works of fiction.
• There Are No Therapists: A surprising aversion. Considering it's Academy City, you'd be forgiven for assuming that no Sister would ever get a psychiatrist. But at least one did get one assigned, and it's implied a few more are meeting with doctors in a similar manner.
• There Should Be a Law: Played for Laughs. The clones, who have spent most of their lives being brutally murdered one by one, assume anyone and everyone will try to murder them at any time. Misaka-11111 perks up when she realizes that her opponent won't be allowed to kill her in training, and thinks this should be "standardised."
  It was also advisable to observe the limitations and powers of a lower-levelled Vector Controller. Going to school is supposed to be an education. This is the case. The Network also liked the bit where I got to shoot projectiles at a Vector Controller safe in the knowledge that if they killed us, they would get in trouble.
  We like this set-up. We feel it should be standardised. If people were not allowed to kill each other without getting in trouble, everything would be much nicer.
• Trauma Button: While it's mostly played for Black Comedy, Misaka-11111 often brings up how ordinary events remind her of one of the many, many times one of the clones was brutally murdered by Accelerator. It's difficult to tell because of her dry wit and difficulty in expressing herself, but she's clearly got severe hangups over... basically everything because of it. Case in point: Koizumi Kyoko is a shy, timid girl who is constantly steamrolled by stronger personalities, including the clone who obeys orders without question. But she has the same power as Accelerator (though far weaker), so Misaka-11111 basically treats her like a bomb that might go off at any moment.
  I did not understand what she said. How was I not fine? I was merely being paired up with a Vector Controller for training. Why would I not be 'okay'?
  "Um. You're... l-looking pale. Although you're quite pale anyway. Paler."
  I did not understand why she kept saying these things, though on second thoughts, I felt a strange churning sensation in my stomach. It may have been the hunger from the lack of lunch. It was all the fault of Misaka-10032, for eating some of the sandwiches she brought me. Yes, that was it.
  I was not about to die. I couldn't. I had not even had a proper lunch today. They always gave us satisfactory meals on the days we died before.
• Underestimating Badassery: The clones are constantly evaluating everyone around them on the assumption that anyone might try to murder them at any moment. Misaka-11111 is alarmed when Abe Eiko suddenly spawns two Dark Matter knives and reveals that she knows about the gun Yui carries around with her. The Network ratchets their threat assessment of her up by quite a bit. Eiko also lampshades that Yui has no way of confirming that she's actually just a Level 1.
• Uterine Replicator: Misaka-11111 brings up the growth vats the clones were born in, and idly compares her gene-source's mother to such a vat.
  They are not the same model of growth vat, anyway. Mine was the product of careful and precise research and development, and was overseen by highly trained experts in diverse fields of science. Misaka Mikoto was made by untrained labour.
  It is astonishing how well she turned out, given such limitations. Perhaps that is what is meant by "overcoming your background".
• Verbal Tic: Misaka-11111 continues the standard use of Narrating the Present from canon. Several people, especially her flatmate Aino Sumiko, try to get her to stop, with no success. Sumiko in particular points out that her narration tends to get especially long and snarky when she's annoyed. They're also surprised when she is able to narrate herself literally as she's waking up.
  "'What is happening?' Misaka asks groggily," I said groggily, and yawned. "Also Misaka yawns," I added.
  "Seriously? You seriously do the voice thing literally after you've slept through Kyoko's attempts to wake you up?" Aino Sumiko said, indicating her continual attempts to sabotage superior means of communication. "Why? Just, why?"
  "...wow. That's commitment," Abe Eiko said.
• V-Sign: On Yui's first day of school, her flatmate Abe Eiko gives her the V-sign when she's introducing herself to the class. Yui initially assumes that it is a gesture of encouragement, before one of her Sisters in London informs her that it might be an insult. Yui is, once again, annoyed at society for being confusing and unclear.
  Yui: I will refrain from making that gesture back at her until I have clarified what she meant by it. If only she had accompanied it with sign language, to say, for example, "'V', gestures Abe Eiko insultingly". It seems even sign language and gestures are not proof to the inefficiencies of inferior forms of dialogue.
• You Are Number 6: As in canon the Misaka clones are numbered this way, such as the protagonist, Misaka-11111. When her psychiatrist explained that she needed a name to differentiate herself and fit in with society, she chose... 11111. When that was denied, she chose Mikoto-1. When that was denied, she chose Misaka Yui. Her psychiatrist missed the pun ("Misaka Yui" can be translated as "Just Misaka") and allowed it.
  I was also instructed to select a personal name, for the purposes of paperwork. They rejected my first suggestion, of '11111'. I do not know what to do with it. The Network understands that most people require a personal name to help distinguish them from other people, but surely there are no other Misaka-11111s.
  I am almost certain that there are no other organisations on Earth which could clone Misaka Mikoto that many times. I would also hope that they could show more originality in their cloning research. There are other Level-5 candidates out there.