Episode 11 - Joining the Battle
Looking around for Saten, Touma spots her talking to Xochitl outside the derelict factory. He hears Xochitl say that someone is targeting Mikoto Misaka; hurrying up, he asks for an explanation. On hearing the details, he immediately rushes off for District 2; in the meantime, Saten phones Kuroko at the Judgement office to fill her in.
On the roof of the Exterior building, Mikoto is standing, vacant-eyed and glowing white, as eerie tendrils surround her. Seemingly satisfied, Gensei Kihara turns to leave; meanwhile, from a rooftop some distance away, Kouzaku activates a remote control which causes Exterior to react.
Inside her own mind, Mikoto wonders where she is... and who she is. Kouzaku appears to her like a phantom, and asks what she thinks of the darkness in Academy City: the inhumane experiments, the manipulation and cruelty and death dealt out in the name of science. Mikoto remembers the things she's seen — Level Upper, the Child Errors, Project Level 6 Shift — and says they have to be stopped. Kouzaku tells her the only way to end the suffering is to destroy the control centre of Academy City: the Windowless Building. Speaking as if hypnotized, Mikoto agrees... and an instant later, the largest lightning bolt ever recorded envelopes the General Board Chairman's stronghold.
Kouzaku is delighted by the sight, then dismayed when the building takes no visible damage. She contacts Gensei and demands an explanation; he tells her that Mikoto's power, while many times its normal strength, is still only 2% of the way toward Level 6. He chides her for being impatient and tells her to proceed with the plan.
Misaki Shokuhou is still inside the Exterior building, recovering her strength. She uses her ability to divert Anti-Skill from the scene, noting that they'd be hopelessly outmatched. Glancing out the window, she remarks that some resistance would be useful all the same. Touma has just arrived outside, looking for Mikoto. Seeing him, Shokuhou smiles affectionately, then carefully aims one of her remote controls through the window...
Outside, Touma sees lightning erupt from the ground, and suddenly Mikoto appears, glowing white and seeming oblivious to him. At that moment, he hears Shokuhou's voice in his head, telling him to listen. She quickly tells him Mikoto is being affected by someone tampering with the Misaka Network, and that he might be able to use his right hand to slow its progress. She adds that mere mind control shouldn't work on Mikoto, so whatever's being done to her probably involves the manipulation of her deep psyche. Touma, taken aback by this strange communication, tries to ask for more information but gets no reply. Meanwhile, the eerily-glowing Mikoto ignores him completely and just gazes in the direction of the Windowless Building.
Heading up to the roof, Shokuhou finds Keitz and Misaka 10032. Right after she releases Keitz from Gensei's mind control, Kouzaku's metal puppet bursts onto the roof. Kouzaku's voice tells them to surrender, but Kuroko materializes and blocks its attack. Shokuhou has Kuroko teleport Keitz and Misaka 10032 to safety; Kuroko notices the Sister's resemblance to Mikoto, but has no time to think about it. Returning moments later, she then teleports herself and Shokuhou back inside the building. Brushing off Kuroko's questions, Shokuhou says they need to cooperate, then uses her ability to dump an edited summary of the situation into Kuroko's mind. Growling that she'll expect a proper explanation later, Kuroko teleports away as Shokuhou wishes her luck.
Outside, Anti-Skill and Judgement evacuate the surrounding area, citing the approach of dangerous storm clouds. On a nearby rooftop, Gunha Sogita watches lightning erupt from the ground in the distance, and decides to head over to investigate.
Kuroko materializes on a building rooftop and mentally reviews the situation. Shokuhou's plan is to go after Gensei herself while Kuroko deals with Kouzaku and her metal puppet. Shokuhou believes Kouzaku's role is to reinforce Mikoto's hatred of Academy City's darkness, pushing her to continue expanding her powers until she becomes unstoppable. To this end, Gensei must be sharing access to Exterior with Kouzaku. Kuroko notes that since Kouzaku's range is limited, she must be somewhere nearby.
As Mikoto contemplates the Windowless Building, Touma tries to approach her but is negligently swatted away. When he continues trying to reach her, she starts throwing not just lightning bolts but chunks of rubble around to defend herself. Just as Touma is about to be flattened by a huge piece of rock, Gunha Sogita arrives on the scene and punches it away. He tells Touma he'll take of this, but Touma explains that Mikoto is being controlled by someone else.
Doing her best to ignore the commotion down below, Kuroko contacts Uiharu and asks her to look for Kouzaku on the local security cameras. As Kuroko searches through the nearby buildings, Kouzaku's metal puppet suddenly appears and attacks her.
On the ground, Touma and Gunha try to fight through Mikoto's defenses, but neither one can get close to her. Touma tells Gunha that he needs to touch her with his right hand, saying it might stop whatever's happening to her. Gunha focuses his power to clear a path to Mikoto, then bodily hurls Touma at her. Touma succeeds in touching her shoulder as he flies past, but it only causes a momentary break in the light surrounding her.
Meanwhile, back at the Exterior facility, Shokuhou peers carefully around a corner to see Gensei Kihara slowly walking through the building...
Tropes
- Big Damn Heroes: Gunha arrives just in time to save Touma from getting flattened by the out-of-control Mikoto.
- Bridal Carry: Gunha does this to Touma when Touma couldn't find a way to land after Gunha throws him. After that, Touma makes a "Well this is awkward" facial expression.
- Calling Your Attacks: Gunha loves doing this, generally as melodramatically as possible.
- Dramatic High Perching: There is a lot of perching on rooftops and high structures here: Kouzaku, Kuroko and Gunha all get in on the action.
- Fastball Special: Gunha decides to solve the problem of how to get Touma close to Mikoto by picking him up and hurling him at her.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Mikoto acquires these as soon as her transformation begins. They appear to be literally generating lightning.
- Gratuitous English: In the Japanese dialog, Shokuhou finishes her speech to Touma with "Let's challenge!"
- Offhand Backhand: When Touma tries to approach Mikoto, she barely pays him any notice. She just casually sends ludicrously large bolts of electricity at him while trying to think of a way to destroy the Windowless Building.
- One-Winged Angel: Beginning the Level 6 Shift causes Mikoto to not just start glowing, but begin transforming into a vaguely demonic-looking form.
- Ride the Lightning: Mikoto has apparently acquired this ability in her new form.
- Use Your Head: Gunha blocks a flying metal beam by head-butting it.
- The Power of Hate: Kouzaku uses Exterior to get inside Mikoto's head and start feeding her latent hatred of everything that's wrong with Academy City. She convinces Mikoto she can put a stop to the darkness by destroying the normally-indestructible Windowless Building, thereby driving her to become powerful enough to do so — and thus fuelling Mikoto's evolution toward Level 6.
