Episode 09 - Mitori Kouzaku
Eschewing subtlety, Mikoto uses several hijacked security robots to overpower the outdoor guard, blasts a hole in the wall of the conference facility, and charges inside. Shokuhou, meanwhile, uses her powers to to take over the ground floor security staff, ordering them to seal off the building and capture Gensei Kihara.
At the Judgement office, Saten, Uiharu and Kuroko are still working to identify the girl who attacked them. Saten searches for information on liquid metals to try find a match for whatever the girl's metal puppet was made of. She turns up a local company that had a factory in District 7, which is now shuttered. Meanwhile, with Uiharu's help, Kuroko identifies the girl: Mitori Kouzaku, formerly a student at Kirigaoka Middle School. According to records, she was convicted of attempted terrorism just over a year ago, and transferred to a reform school. Uiharu and Kuroko decide to go to the ability bank's central archive to dig up more information on her.
Left to her own devices, Saten wanders outside to take in the festival. She notices a spiky-haired high school boy nearby, searching for a good luck charm for his scavenger hunt event. This being the science-obsessed Academy City, no-one seems to have such a superstitious object. After seeing him pass by multiple times with increasing desperation, Saten eventually takes pity and calls him over. She lends him the good luck charm her mother gave her, stressing that it's important to her. He gratefully takes it, for some reason being careful not to touch it with his right hand. Introducing himself as Touma Kamijou, he thanks Saten and promises to bring it back in an hour. She watches him leave, and is about to wander off when she suddenly realizes she's very close to the shuttered liquid metal factory.
In the central archives, Kuroko and Uiharu discover that Mitori Kouzaki supposedly died of heart failure two months ago. A staff member tells them there are rumours about reform school students who mysteriously disappear and are reported dead. They are always powerful espers, and it's said that they're actually being recruited by the city's higher-ups for some secret purpose. Kuroko wonders who Kouzaku could be working for, if they have enough influence to alter her official records.
Back at the conference site, Mikoto has disguised herself as a security guard. She makes her way upstairs and reaches the VIP level around the same time as Shokuhou. The two make short work of the last guards, whereupon one of Shokuhou's mind-controlled minions informs them that Gensei Kihara has been captured.
Meanwhile, Saten has snuck inside the old liquid metal factory and is wandering around inside. She sees a pair of workers who are complaining about their employer, a secretive girl in a nurse costume. Saten follows them, but ends up trapped inside a secured area deep inside the factory. As she wonders what on earth to do now, a girl in a track suit with long brown hair — the same one she met yesterday — appears. The girl briefly threatens Saten with a large serrated sword, but then orders her to leave and forget everything she's seen. At that point, however, a humanoid figure made of liquid metal oozes out of the ductwork. Saten flees in panic; the metal figure, speaking with Kouzaku's voice, calls a couple of minions over and orders them to give chase. The brown-haired girl watches, exasperated, and calls Saten an idiot under her breath. Before she can do anything else, she gets a call on her phone from a man called "Professor"; addressing her as Xochitl, he says he's talked to the board of directors and has some important information.
Kouzaku's metal puppet and her helpers quickly capture Saten; as they prepare to interrogate her, however, Xochitl comes in and knocks out both of Kouzaku's goons. Confronting Kouzaku's puppet, she says that MEMBER was working for her because she claimed to represent the board of directors. After investigating, however, the Professor has discovered that Kouzaku is actually a rogue, working for an unauthorized third party. Xochitl says she doesn't care where their orders come from, but she can't tolerate betrayal.
Kouzaku, aware that she doesn't fully understand Xochitl's strange powers, decides not to risk a fight. She makes her puppet retreat, first advising Xochitl to leave Academy City as soon as possible if she wants to stay alive. Saten, belatedly recognizing Xochitl from yesterday, thanks the other girl for saving her. Xochitl scolds Saten for sticking her nose into the business of the city's dark side, but agrees to take her to the exit.
The captured Gensei is brought before Shokuhou, who briefly reads his mind before stopping in shock and tearing off his face to reveal another person entirely. Inside his memories, she sees the real Gensei instructing him to take his place at the conference... and then leaving a cryptic message, apparently for her: does she think 'Exterior' will be safe while she's off chasing his decoy? Whatever this means, it clearly dismays Shokuhou, who immediately turns and rushes out of the building with a puzzled Mikoto on her heels. They commandeer another car, and Shokuhou tells the driver to go as fast as he can.
Elsewhere, Misaka 10032 briefly wakes up to find Keitz watching over her. She asks if he rescued her, but he says he's just doing his job. As she falls back asleep, the floor shakes, and Keitz mutters that things seem to be taking an ugly turn... while, upstairs, several black-clad commandos burst in through the front door...
Tropes
- Armor-Piercing Question: Gensei's 'recorded' question to Shokuhou is clearly this to her, although its meaning won't be revealed until later.
- Batman Gambit: Gensei Kihara uses himself as bait to lure out Misaki Shokuhou so he can make his move while she's off chasing after (what she thinks is) him. He even leaves a taunt for her inside his body double's memories, knowing full well she'll read the man's mind.
- Funny Background Event: While Xochitl is confronting Kouzaku, Saten can be seen staring at the former's Aztecan sword with a strange expression that seems to lie somewhere between "that's really cool" and "WTF?".
- Too Dumb to Live: Saten sneaks into a building which she thinks could be their enemy's base — the same enemy that nearly killed Uiharu and Misuzu. When she sees some suspicious people going through a secure door, she rushes in after them without thinking, and is immediately trapped. She would likely have suffered a most unpleasant fate if Xochitl hadn't been there and decided to save her. What's worse is that she did almost exactly the same thing a couple of weeks earlier in Railgun SS: Liberal Arts City, and was almost killed for her trouble; she seems to have learned nothing at all from that experience. Xochitl, who also had to rescue her in that incident, pretty much flat out accuses her of this trope.
- Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Kihara pulls this on Shokuhou and Mikoto.
