Episode 24 - Dear My Friends
Therestina holds a small crystal inside a jar labelled "Sample 01", and reminisces. Many years ago, her grandfather Gensei Kihara used her to create it, promising she would be the key to creating the first Level 6 esper. She smiles and turns her attention back to carrying out her plans in the here and now.
As Kiyama's car chases after the Multi-Active Rescue vans headed for District 17, they open up to reveal heavily-armed powered suits. Before they can attack, however, the vans are sent crashing by a huge electrical blast. Kiyama's car skids to a halt as Mikoto and Kuroko arrive on scene. A moment later, Konori's motorbike pulls up with Uiharu and Saten as passengers. The latter two tell Kiyama that the convoy is a decoy, then get into her car and instruct her to drive.
Meanwhile, the MAR powered suits emerge from the crashed vans and move to attack. Mikoto and Kuroko confront them, but are caught off guard by the sudden appearance of two military attack helicopters. An instant later, though, the helicopters are taken out when one of the crashed vans is hurled into them by Mitsuko Kongou, courtesy of her Aero Hand ability. Kuroko tells Mikoto and Konori to follow Kiyama while she and Kongou remain behind to deal with the suits.
In Kiyama's car, Uiharu reveals that she deduced from Judgement's satellite footage that the children are actually on some disguised civilian trucks headed for District 23. They head off in that direction with Konori and Mikoto close behind, but it turns out Therestina is watching them. On the motorbike, Konori suddenly notices something, and has just enough time to tell Mikoto to hold on before a Humongous Mecha bursts through the highway from underneath. Konori throws Mikoto toward Kiyama's car as her bike is knocked aside; Mikoto uses her magnetism to grab onto the car roof just as Therestina attacks.
Mikoto attempts to use her railgun, but Therestina retreats out of the coin's range and launches a Rocket Punch attack. Kiyama manages to dodge it, pulling the car off onto another highway. Therestina contacts one of her MAR squadrons and orders them to intercept, but it turns out they've been pinned down by Yomikawa and Anti-Skill.
Catching up to the car, Therestina launches more attacks while taunting both Kiyama and Mikoto. Standing on the car roof, Mikoto intercepts Therestina's final Rocket Punch. She tumbles onto the road but manages to blast the mecha's hand off, then calls out Kuroko's name. Kuroko appears in the air, intercepts the giant robotic hand and teleports it to Mikoto, who railguns it right through Therestina's mecha.
Kiyama and the four girls arrive at the facility where MAR has taken the comatose children. After dealing with the squadron outside, they enter the facility to find it empty. Locating the central control room, they determine that power is being drawn from a room deep underground. They head down to find both Haruue and Kiyama's students lying unconscious inside sealed medical tubes. Haruue regains consciousness in response to their shouts; Saten leaves the room to look for the controls to free her. Kiyama is just going to check on the others when a strange sound suddenly fills the room: Capacity Down. Mikoto and Kuroko are paralyzed completely, and Uiharu is barely able to stand.
Therestina, wounded but wearing her powered armor, appears and slams Mikoto, Kuroko and Kiyama to the floor. Saten, hearing the commotion, runs back to the room but stops in the doorway when she sees Therestina. Uiharu, realizing Saten isn't affected by Capacity Down, loudly tells Therestina that the sound waves are obviously being generated from inside the facility, meaning they're probably controlled from the central control room. Taking the hint, Saten runs back upstairs before Therestina notices her.
Therestina tells them she's going to use the Child Errors to finish her grandfather's experiment. She explains that Haruue's telepathic ability, plus the fact that her powers can spike above their normal level, makes her an ideal candidate to become the world's first Level 6 esper. Therestina plans to channel the runaway abilities of the Child Errors into the original ability crystal, which she has with her, to perfect it. Mikoto protests that awakening all the Child Errors in their runaway state would destroy Academy City. Therestina retorts that the entire reason Academy City exists is to create "one who obtains the power of God without being divine" — once that's done, the city will have served its purpose.
Reaching the control room, Saten tries to find the controls for Capacity Down. She inadvertently turns on the intercom in time to hear Therestina ranting that every single student in Academy City is her guinea pig. She broadcasts back that, guinea pig or not, she's not going to let Therestina hurt her friends, then smashes the control systems with her baseball bat.
The paralyzing noise stops, restoring Mikoto's powers; she uses them to pick up Therestina and hurl her across the room. Therestina extends the clublike arm on her powered suit, which proves to be an actual railgun, and threatens to blow the entire facility away. Mocking Mikoto one more time, Therestina tells her Academy City's espers are nothing more than experimental samples. In reply, Mikoto says that, despite its flaws, Academy City is the one place where people like her can be themselves. Pulling out a coin, she counters Therestina's railgun attack with one of her own.
And wins.
By the time Saten returns, Haruue has been released and Kiyama is tending to her students. With the original ability crystal now in her hands, Kiyama is able to quickly complete her treatment program. As she prepares to activate it and awaken the children, she hesitates for a moment, remembering how the original experiment went horribly wrong. But Haruue says that Edasaki has a message for Kiyama: "we trust you, teacher".
Kiyama runs the treatment and the children slowly wake up. Opening her eyes, Edasaki asks Kiyama why she has such dark circles under hers. Kiyama tearfully replies that she's been busy with a lot of things. As the other children begin to look around, Edasaki telepathically thanks Haruue for hearing her voice.
Some days later, both Kiyama and the children are recovering in hospital. With Mikoto and the others' help, the children have arranged to broadcast a birthday message on one of Academy City's blimps. Various people throughout the city notice it; while it means nothing to most of them, the intended recipient sees it from her hospital bed: "Get well soon, Kiyama-sensei. We love you!"
Watching the broadcast from below, Mikoto Misaka muses that there is never a dull moment in Academy City.
Tropes
- Back-to-Back Badasses: Kuroko and Kongou briefly face off like this against the MAR powered suits.
- Badass Biker: Konori deserves special mention for calmly grabbing Mikoto by the hand and throwing her to safety while her bike is in midair and about to crash.
- Badass Driver: Kiyama proves she knows full well how to handle her Lamborghini as she dodges Therestina's attacks.
- Disability Immunity: For once, the fact that Saten is Level 0 helps to save the day, as it means she's unaffected by Capacity Down.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After all the hell they've been through, Harumi Kiyama and her students finally get theirs.
- Evil Laugh: Therestina seems to be channeling the unholy offspring of the Wicked Witch of the West and the Joker.
- For Science!: Therestina believes creating a Level 6 esper is worth Academy City's destruction. This obsession clearly runs in the family.
- I Am Not Left-Handed: After Therestina taunts Mikoto about her coin's limited range, Mikoto retorts that she can use more than just coins... then she railguns the massive metal hand from Therestina's own mecha right back at her.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: Kongou has mostly zigzagged between comic relief and Butt-Monkey thus far. Now we suddenly see why she's a Level 4 esper when she hurls a truck right through a pair of attack helicopters.
- Oh, Crap!: Said almost literally by Therestina when Capacity Down is destroyed.
- Tears of Joy: Kiyama sheds them when her students finally wake up, and again in The Stinger when she sees their birthday message.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Kuroko and Kongou fight together to finish off the MAR powered suits while continuing to snark at each other.
- Theme Music Power-Up: Twice. First, Mikoto fights Therestina's Humongous Mecha to the tune of Level 5 Judgelight. Then, at the end, she faces off, railgun to railgun, to — appropriately — Only My Railgun.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Mikoto and Kuroko's reaction to seeing the attack helicopters.
- You Shall Not Pass!: Aiho Yomikawa and Anti-Skill block Therestina's other MAR squadrons from getting through, thus giving our heroines an unobstructed path to their destination.
