Episode 18 - Bust Upper
Saten shows off her new-found skill at kendama
to a bemused Mikoto. Saten claims she acquired the expertise in one night from an Indian Poker card, saying it's possible to gain new knowledge and skills by experiencing the dreams of experts. It seems a thriving trade in the cards has sprung up, as well as traders who sell them priced by rank. She announces her intention to learn pen-twirling next.
Elsewhere, the members of ITEM hit the showers after a mission. Contemplating her teammates' eye-catching figures, Saiai Kinuhata is feeling distinctly under-endowed. ITEM's newest minion, Shiage Hamazura, brings them drinks; he offers Kinuhata milk, suggesting it's good for 'growth', which is not a suggestion she takes well.
Walking down the street later, Kinuhata comes across a trader selling Indian Poker cards. She browses idly through some of the offerings while another customer, an equally undeveloped girl with long brown hair and a beauty mark, buys several cards. Mikoto happens to walk past, and the trader asks if she's interested. She tells him her last experience with Indian Poker was not great, but he urges her to give it another chance. Meanwhile, Kinuhata recognizes her as Railgun, but prudently keeps the observation to herself.
Mikoto asks the trader if he has any S-rank cards; in response, he brings out a box with a single card inside. He says it was supposedly created by a missing scientist who was renowned for his strange theories. His final research project was called "Bust Upper", and perhaps this dream holds the secret — and before the trader can finish speaking, Mikoto and Kinuhata simultaneously try to grab the card. In the scuffle that follows, it falls in among his other cards, and they all end up scattered every which way. Unable to tell one from another, Mikoto and Kinuhata hastily buy all of his cards on the spot, then agree to cooperate to identify the Bust Upper.
The two girls book a nap room in a manga café, split the pile of cards between them, and start using them one at a time through brief naps. Most of the dreams they see feature women and girls with bust size hangups, but none of them has what they're looking for. Increasingly agitated by all the strange dreams, they end up causing a commotion that gets them kicked out of the café.
Mikoto leads Kinuhata to a hotel she knows, where they get permission to use the outdoor lounge area. As they settle down for naps with the remaining Indian Poker cards, a crow watches them from nearby. Attracted by the shiny cards between them, it swoops down and steals one while they doze. It then starts moving in on another target a short distance away, but is startled by a cat and drops the card. The stolen card falls next to its intended victim, the girl with the beauty mark from earlier, landing unnoticed on her own pile of cards.
Mikoto and Kinuhata eventually finish the remaining cards, without any luck. Glumly concluding that Bust Upper was just a myth, the two part ways. Kinuhata returns to ITEM's base, where Hamazura apologizes for having offended her earlier. It seems he suggested milk because it's supposed to help young people grow taller, and he'd heard her complain about her height. She kicks him for giving her the wrong idea, and stalks off. Meanwhile, in their dorm room, Mikoto is regaling Kuroko with descriptions of all the dreams she saw. Kuroko, looking exhausted, hopefully suggests they go to sleep, but Mikoto says she slept so much during the day that she's not tired at all.
Some time later, Saten shows off her new-found skill at pen twirling to a bemused Uiharu. As she muses about what skill to go after next, her attention is caught by a girl with impressively large breasts walking pneumatically past — a very happy-looking girl with long brown hair and a beauty mark...
Tropes
- A-Cup Angst: Kinuhata has it in spades, which seems remarkably sensitive considering she's only about 12. Mikoto as well; in her case it's a long-established hang-up, so this episode doesn't expend much time re-introducing it.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Kuroko moans that being kept up all night by Mikoto chattering about her day is not what she meant when she wished to spend an intimate night with her Oneesama.
- Book Ends: Saten showing off her newly-acquired 'skills'.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: A theme which runs throughout the episode, providing Kinuhata and Mikoto's motivation. Averted by Frenda — after acknowledging that her breasts have grown, she complains about having to buy new bras when she'd much rather be spending her hard-earned money on other things.
- Call-Back:
- Hamazura tries to offer Kinuhata some Musashino Milk.
- The hotel she and Kinuhata end up at is the same one Mikoto used as a base when she was going after the Project Level 6 Shift sites.
- Continuity Nod:
- Frenda briefly mentions her little sister, who becomes an important character in the New Testament novels.
- Hamazura's nose is bandaged, presumably as a result of the injuries received in episode 24 of A Certain Magical Index II.
- Cryptic Conversation: Ryouko Kuriba appears in one of Mikoto's dreams and gives a confusing spiel about the value of struggling to achieve your goals, and how defeating one threat can create another. When the dream ends, Mikoto wakes up thoroughly baffled.
- Early-Bird Cameo: One of Mikoto's dreams is clearly from Rakko Yumiya, who will be introduced next episode. More significantly, the last dream we see has Ryouko Kuriba actually appearing as herself.
- Expert in Underwater Basket Weaving: Saten seems to enjoy using Indian Poker to acquire highly specific and utterly useless skills like kendama, pen-twirling and card-tower building. This mania will end up biting her next episode.
- Foreshadowing: The dream involving Kuriba is clearly very different from the others: Mikoto appears in the dream as herself, and actually comes face to face with the dreamer, who addresses her directly. No other Dream Ranker has shown the ability to do this, which foreshadows the revelation that Kuriba is the one who created Indian Poker.
- Failure Is the Only Option: Given that this story arc was written as taking place before prior existing arcs in the Index franchise, and those arcs feature Kinuhata and Mikoto with the same physique they always had, its a Foregone Conclusion they will never get to use the "Bust Upper". First, their desperation causes the card to be mixed up in a bunch of identical cards. Second, their luck is against them as they don't find the card early on. And finally, the one moment they take a nap after looking through many of the cards, a bird flies in and takes the actual "Bust Upper" card by chance, meaning when the girls resume their search, its a failure and they concludes it doesn't exist.
- Four Lines, All Waiting: This episode features Mikoto, whereas the previous episode followed Kuroko and Uiharu during this same time period.
- Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: A rare in-universe version: each of the dreams we see belongs to an established character that sufficiently-aware viewers can recognize — but they appear in the dream as Mikoto or Kinuhata, and only their clothing, situations, or monologues can identify them. They are an eclectic mix of people we've seen before, ones we're going to meet in upcoming episodes, or characters from the wider Raildex universe:
- Mikoto's dreams are from Kikyou Yoshikawa, Rakko Yumiya, and one of the competitors from the Daihasei Balloon Hunter game. (Her last on-camera dream is from Ryouko Kuriba, who actually does appear as herself.) When telling Kuroko about her dreams later, she briefly describes another dreamer who is almost certainly Ayame Fusou.
- Kinuhata's dreams (that we see) are from Maika Tsuchimikado, and a kunoichi who is probably Shuri Oumi note .
- Running Gag: Although they don't find the Bust Upper, almost all of the dreams Mikoto and Kinuhata see involve a girl or woman with some sort of hangup about her bust size.
