To Aru Kagaku no Railgun S – 14

Kuroko is waiting up for Onee-sama when Touma is a the door. Kuroko lets him come up to the dorm to wait with her, but when the dorm supervisor arrives, she stuffs him under Mikoto’s bed. There he finds documents sticking out of her teddy bear, and learns about Accelerator and the clones. He sees that the next experiment will take place in just under and hour, and so races to Mikoto, heading her off on the bridge.

The Tree Diagram calculated her death in 185 moves against Accelerator, but she plans to foil its prediction by going down in the first, on the small chance it will cause the researchers doubt its other predictions and cancel the project. Touma won’t let her pass, and when she attacks with electricity, he doesn’t cancel it with his ability, and is knocked out. He tells her he’ll prove the researchers wrong by beating Accelerator, saving Mikoto and the sisters.

Had Touma not been worried about his treasured friend and gone to her dorm and been stuffed under her bed, he may have sat in that room with Kuroko as Mikoto let herself get killed by Accelerator; either by disguising herself as a sister or simply asking him to kill her in one shot, something Accelerator probably wouldn’t mind doing that much. But he was worried, and he wasn’t going to let that friend sacrifice herself for such a limited return. At first Mikoto assumes Touma has come to confront, scold, and possibly even punish her; something for which she’s prepared.

What she wasn’t prepared for was Touma putting his body on the line to show her his resolve to stop her, someone who on that bridge on that moment fulfilled the inner wishes Mikoto had long repressed as foolish: miracles can happen, heroes can emerge, and damsels can be saved in the nick of time. And most importantly, she has worth; worth that warrants finding another way to achieve her goals without sacrificing herself.

Rating: 9 (Superior)

Stray Observations:

• Good for Kuroko being mature and letting Touma up. She doesn’t know it, but she saved her Onee-sama’s life.
• We thought Touma and Mikoto’s exchange on the bridge was a emotional, pardon the pun, electric tour-de-force.
• We’re a little conflicted about the ramifications: the heroine is essentially stepping aside to let the shining prince save the day. That being said, Mikoto isn’t your typical damsel in distress, tears this week aside, and will likely have plenty to contribute in a climactic fight with Accelerator.