Besides...
...you are not the only one...
...who is having trouble controlling their anger...
...at having one of their friends being insulted.
Anger at having your friend insulted?
Is psychological dependence on others becoming a trend or something?
You try to look like a hero, doing something for someone else,
but when you find yourself stuck in a situation you can't get out of,
you just blame it on them and wish you hadn't.
It looks like people with no sense of imagination
can't understand that unless they experience it for themselves.
Water?
I've always heard that unconscious people were heavy, but...
She's gotten lighter...?
Is this your ability, Awatsuki?
It won't last very long.
Please hurry off, while you have the chance.
Mm-hmm.
Whoa, there!
Do you think I'm just going to let you walk away from this?
Whoo!
If that's all you've got, my Great Dane Types can leap over them!
The only lead I have...!
Yeah, right.
Even after injecting its nanodevice,
the Mosquito Type can still come in handy for its GPS transmitter.
As long as I have her trail, I can do whatever I have to once I finish here.
But for right now...
...I'll have to take care of these two.
"A Certain Magical Railgun T"
I need to call an ambulance and Antiskill.
I hope Wannai and Awatsuki are all right.
Yes?
Well, Baba? Is everything moving along smoothly?
Yes, without a hitch.
Great Dane Types, you've gotta get in there!
What's this, now?
Baba, are you in the middle of a fight?
It just sort of happened. So this might take a little more time.
Are you okay? Should I send in reinforcements?
No, there's no need.
You sure?
I'm so worried about you, I can't do anything else.
She's such a liar.
Okay, how about I just retrieve your leads?
Unfortunately, I still don't have any helpful intel yet.
So tweak the data to delay Antiskill's arrival, if you would.
You idiot. You think I'm going to let you steal all my credit?
Now, those two didn't compete in the Balloon Hunter,
so I haven't checked out their abilities,
but the chestnut-haired one's ability is Hydro Hand.
If the Great Dane Types get drawn into the water, even they could be in danger,
but she's not so strong that she can land a fatal blow while fighting on land.
The braided-hair one uses telekinesis, is it?
But seeing as how she can't pin down a Great Dane Type,
she doesn't have all that much power.
Their abilities put them both around Level 3.
I doubt they've had much combat experience,
but they seem to be making do pretty well by attacking in sync.
I have a limited number of pawns to use, myself.
Wow, not too shabby at all.
I am looking for Misaka Mikoto's Sis-- er, her twin, you see.
You there, with the chestnut hair--
you called that girl earlier Kongo Mitsuko, right?
You were discussing something about a lead on her sister, weren't you?
Would you mind telling me what that lead is?
I'm not asking you to give it to me for free, of course.
There is a nanodevice inside here.
A real high-caliber model, which can immobilize whoever it's used on.
I injected one of these into Kongo Mitsuko earlier.
It's the truth. Using a mosquito-shaped robot, with just a little "pfft."
When I touched Miss Kongo, she had a pretty high fever.
I think there's probably at least some truth to what he is saying.
It's tricky to remove a nanodevice once it's been injected.
But if you had this, you may be able to find a shutdown command.
Would you like to exchange your information for it?
You want to help your friend, don't you?
We cannot tell what it is to someone like you.
However, we will be taking that nanodevice.
--Even if we have to take it by force! --Even if we have to take it by force!
Well, well, negotiations have broken down. Oh, well...
One of these two has already been used and is empty.
The other one has the nanodevice inside it.
Which one is the right one?
Miss Awatsuki!
Right!
They know it's a trap, and still they split up.
These girls are a couple of pushovers.
Stop right there! Where are you--?
Come on, now! You have to start chasing me, or I'll get away!
In the Balloon Sandwich,
"Daihasei Festival News"
it looks like Miss Kongo and Miss Misaka competed together.
I wonder if those two are good friends.
Railgun...
Whenever I think about that girl,
I get an uneasy feeling across my chest!
I do not even want to think about that conceited girl, who is just a pretty face!
If you're that mindful of her, then that must have been one fateful encounter.
The two of you may make a surprisingly good pair.
Huh? M-Me, and that girl?! There is absolutely no way!
Oh...? Ah, just a moment, please!
I will be fine on my own now!
Let us split up now and start patrolling separately!
That sure was a long line to get a taxi.
The place is packed with spectators wherever you go.
Let's just wait for the next bus.
I can't leave all of this in Miss Kongo's lap. I have to get out of here...
Huh? I wonder what that's about.
I hear there has been an upswing in cases of heatstroke.
We should be careful, as well.
Hydration and electrolytes are key.
Is that...?
Miss Saten!
--Miss Misaka, wait up! --Ah, um, Miss Misaka...?
What happened?
Why are you in an ambulance--
Stop right there!
Huh... Even away from the pond, she can control a decent amount of water.
The Great Dane Type that took in the water chestnut-hair controlled
was destroyed from the inside.
I guess that once the water is under her command,
she can control it without even seeing it.
I pretty much have her analyzed.
For one thing, there's an upper limit to the weight and effective range
that those with powers like hers can control, depending on their power level.
If I get her far enough away from the pond,
she can no longer replenish her water supply.
Then, once I pretend to leave myself open within her effective range...
What a shame.
Sure enough, she loses control over water that becomes detached.
One other limitation that espers with Hydro Hand have
is the count of the water that they can control at once!
Physical attacks against water may look futile at first glance,
but every time she deflects, her watery armor gets ablated away.
I think I'll watch and enjoy as this young girl,
who only knows how to fight head-on, is overcome with despair!
"Critical Care Center"
When I got to the park, Kongo was lying on the ground,
and Wannai and Awatsuki confronted an icky guy who was controlling robot dogs.
This is my fault.
I was naive.
I thought it was an extension of the usual rivalry between cliques.
I thought she was just messing with me because she doesn't like me.
I thought that not even she would do anything
to hurt someone who went to the same school.
We're ready. Those of you who are her friends, please wait over here.
Oh, sure.
Huh...?
Um, Miss Misaka?
Something appears to have happened here--
Move.
We need to wait for other members of the clique to arrive--
Move.
Unless you're prepared to kill me to stop me, then move.
"#6 The Battle Begins"
Miss Misaka...
By my reckoning,
you should have run out of water with two of them still remaining.
I'm impressed that you beat them all, even if you did use up your water.
But you have no more water to protect yourself with. Now what will you do?
As part of my studies as a Tokiwadai student,
I have learned a few self-defense techniques.
If you are unarmed, then I will take you on without my abilities, too!
Heh, how courageous of you.
But I dislike the barbarity of duking it out.
Instead, I'll put these reserve forces I'd been saving to work.
It's basic strategy to always have a move ready to make in any situation.
It's not getting clean away,
but it's also maintaining a certain distance from me as it runs.
It's trying to buy time by keeping me separated from Miss Wannai.
I have to hurry.
This should work.
That was a successful shortcut.
This is all...
the aftermath of where Miss Kongo used her ability.
I did a complete lap without even realizing it.
You know what?
I'm actually surprisingly strong.
Or am I?
If you had any water left,
I'm guessing this line would be the limit of your range.
When you're someone as exceptionally perceptive as I am,
it isn't too hard to figure out that your effective range is 18 meters.
And that's not all.
I can tell that the maximum volume you can control is 300 liters,
and that the number of streams of water you can control at once is three.
So what will you do now? Fight me hand to hand and go out a hero?
Bow down and beg for your life?
Or here, under these clear skies, pray to God for a sudden cloudburst?
It's hopeless. The only option you have is to curse yourself
for thoughtlessly sticking your neck out where it doesn't belong.
You're going to meet the same fate as your friend.
Rain...
Huh?
Have you noticed?
This park has a network of drains buried underneath it,
so that when it rains heavily, the water will flow into the pond.
Huh?
Your finesse in analyzing my ability was quite skillful,
but you should have paid more attention to things you can't see, too!
W-Water?! Where is it coming from?!
Is that a water drain?!
Don't tell me she had that water hidden down there all the way from the pond!
My limit for controlling water streams is four at once.
Always having a move ready to make in any situation--
even I'm crafty enough to know that.
My fingers! They're doing nothing! I'm drowning!
If this keeps up, I'm gonna drown!
Great Dane Types, suck up this water! Suck up all this water!
O-Oh, crap!
Is that all of your robots, then?
This is bad! This is bad! This is bad! This is bad!
I have zero Great Dane Types left!
There's no other choice!
It means using the last one of these that I got from the Doctor, but...
Do you give up yet?
I said I didn't like duking it out,
but that doesn't mean I'm not good at it, either.
I've been trained in specialized assassin skills since I was a child.
Family situation, you see.
These are taboo moves whose use is forbidden,
but I see no other choice but to use them against someone as strong as you.
I'll bluff my way through keeping her attention,
and use the Mosquito Type to inject her with a nanodevice!
Almost there...! Almost there...!
It dropped?!
A dead battery? Impossible! I just activated it!
No, but wait, the way it's moving...
It looks like you're safe.
Miss Awatsuki!
The case I went after was empty,
and I figured that if you got the upper hand,
he would use his nanodevice on you,
so I reduced the buoyancy force around you down to zero.
It looks like that was the right decision.
Buoyancy? The braided-hair girl's ability isn't telekinesis?
It's buoyancy manipulation?!
H-Hold on a minute!
Are you two espers planning to both hit an unarmed man?!
I-I was just hired to do a job!
The Mosquito Type with the nanodevice is lying right over there!
Sure, I may have been a little too rough on your friend,
but can we just agree to call it quits for today--
If I may be presumptuous enough to say so,
the reason you disdain the trust and connections people have for each other
is because you don't have anyone worthy of your trust.
But that is a result of you looking down on others
and not letting anyone else in.
Unless you acknowledge the people you know
and show that you are willing to meet them halfway,
no one is ever going to help you.
There I go, a novice, sounding like she knows what she is saying.
No, I think it was something that had to be said, for his sake, as well.
I hope he takes advantage of the opportunity to rethink his ways.
Damn them!
Damn those girls! They looked down their noses at me!
It's intel, all right.
If I'd only known what their abilities were from the start,
there was no way I could have been beaten by them!
Mantis Type!
I was reluctant to use you, since you stand out,
but your power is in a whole other league
from those Great Dane Types meant for searching!
Now that I know the specs of their abilities, I can't possibly lose!
Go, Mantis Type!
For the humiliation they put me through, merely killing them isn't good enough!
I'll tear them up, then capture them!
I'll make them sorry they were ever born female!
I'll stream their indignity to the world over the Internet,
and not only shatter them both mentally and physically;
I'll destroy them socially, as well!
They'll beg me in tears, "Please kill me"--
The GPS signal from the Mosquito Type I affixed to Kongo Mitsuko?
What's it doing here? If it keeps going that direction, then pretty soon...
Wh-Why?!
Why is Misaka Mikoto here?!
Impossible!
She shouldn't be able to move, thanks to the nanodevice injected into her!
So that's it! She just looks like Misaka Mikoto!
That's one of the Sisters!
I'm in luck! As long as I capture her, I'll redeem myself!
I can deal with those other girls afterward! Mantis Type,
seize that girl!
It's...
It's really her...?
S-Stay back!
You can hear me, right?
I avoided the communications system when I smashed this thing.
I pinpointed your location by following your comm signal.
I-It won't open! Don't tell me she's already taken over all the systems!
I'll be there shortly to do the same thing to you as I did to this.
At least I'd like to,
but taking into account that you might be under that girl's control,
I'm going to let you off this one time. However...
...from here on, if I ever see one of these,
or one goes near one of my friends,
even for an instant,
then no matter where you are, I swear I will find you...
...and crush you.
Uh-oh...
What's wrong?
Oh, man. Baba is out of the picture.
Out of the picture?
All of his mechanical pawns are wiped out.
He says he's looking for a shelter to hide out in.
This is cryptic. He says he failed to neutralize Misaka Mikoto.
I guess this means I'll have to get involved.
She's formidable.
What's this, now? You know her?
Once before,
I got to see her fighting close-up.
Well, now, it's not like I have to pound her to death.
We can manage as long as this gets settled by the end of the day.
"Next episode preview"
The key to unlocking this mystery is "Auribus oculi fideliores sunt."
"Next episode preview" "#7 Auribus oculi fideliores sunt (The eyes are more trustworthy than the ears)"
"Auribus oculi fideliores sunt."
Okay, everyone, all together, now!
--"Auribus oculi fideliores sunt." --"Auribus oculi fideliores sunt." --"Auribus oculi fideliores conto."
Did one of us say something different?