Chapter 194: The Plan to Save the Misaka Sisters
The next day, after waking up, George continued to follow Misaka Mikoto while staying invisible.
Since it was summer vacation and there were no classes, Misaka Mikoto didn't have much to do and spent the entire day wandering around Academy City.
During that time, she came across a group of elementary school students who had just begun developing their superpowers. She played ball with them for a while, then was attracted by a little girl's Gekota badge and ended up spending the whole day trying her luck at a capsule toy machine to get the badge.
"As expected, a child is still a child."
After tailing Misaka Mikoto for a whole day without gathering any useful intel, George began to consider whether he should give up on her for now and explore on his own.
However, things began to change around dusk.
Misaka Mikoto encountered Clone No. 9982, the clone that came right after George.
Misaka Mikoto seemed very concerned about the fact that she had been cloned. She wanted to use the clones to find the laboratory that cloned her and seemed to treat the clones as her little sisters.
This gave George a new idea.
Originally, he didn't care about the more than ten thousand living clones, nor had he thought about saving them.
But now, since Misaka Mikoto—the original—seemed to care so much, he wondered if he could use her to help the clones live openly and righteously in Academy City.
If that were possible, he could use his identity as a clone to live openly here as well, better develop his superpowers, and search for traces of magic.
On the surface, his identity was simply that of Clone No. 9981 of Misaka Mikoto, except with a slight mutation that greatly enhanced his abilities.
"Misaka is going to the experiment next and won't be returning to the lab. It's your freedom to follow Misaka, Sister, but you won't get to meet the people who created Misaka."
On the overpass, Misaka 9982 said this to Misaka Mikoto.
Misaka Mikoto's plan fell through, and after some childish bickering, she had no choice but to reluctantly say goodbye to Misaka 9982.
"These clones don't seem completely devoid of emotion. That's good—it won't make me seem too out of place."
Hovering invisibly in the air and observing all this, George thought to himself.
He had originally assumed that the clones, having no emotional programming, were no different from robots.
But from today's observation, he realized that wasn't the case. The clones were like blank slates, forcibly filled with knowledge without undergoing normal development, which made them seem robotic.
If they had grown up normally, they might not be very different from ordinary people.
Clone 9982 had clearly regarded Misaka Mikoto as her elder sister during the few hours they spent together and had shown some emotional dependence. She even took the Gekota badge that Misaka Mikoto had worked all day to get as a gift.
"Do you want to know the truth?"
As the real Misaka Mikoto came down from the overpass, George appeared and deactivated his invisibility.
Seeing yet another clone that looked exactly like herself, Misaka Mikoto's eyes widened.
"You are?"
"I'm Misaka 9981. The one just now was Misaka 9982. The lab cloned a total of 20,000 Misaka clones."
George said calmly.
Hearing George's words, Misaka Mikoto immediately grabbed his arm.
"What the hell is going on?"
"Do you know about the Level 6 Shift Project?"
George didn't pay any attention to Misaka Mikoto's tight grip on his arm—her strength meant little to him.
He slowly explained the details of the Level 6 Shift Project to her.
"Before me, 9980 Misaka clones had already died. I was supposed to be killed by Accelerator last night, but at the brink of death, I somehow awakened the instinct to survive and self-awareness.
So I escaped in the end.
And Misaka 9982, whom we just saw, when she said she was going to an experiment—she's actually going to be killed."
"This is outrageous—there should be a limit to madness! Killing me 128 times and replacing me with clones? This is utterly absurd!"
After hearing George's account, Misaka Mikoto trembled, her face filled with anger and disbelief.
She knew that the seemingly wonderful Academy City hid some darkness, but she couldn't believe it was this inhuman.
"If you don't believe me, we can follow Misaka 9982. We'll find out right away if I'm telling the truth."
George didn't explain any further and simply turned and walked back toward the overpass.
"The experiments always start at 9 p.m. every night. There are still ten minutes left."
Misaka Mikoto saw George heading toward the overpass and recalled the materials she had seen earlier in the lab about the "Mass-Produced Ability Users Project." She had already half-believed him.
So she turned and followed George. She couldn't allow another clone like 9982 to be killed.
Thanks to their synchronized brainwaves, George and Misaka Mikoto quickly caught up with Misaka 9982. However, George didn't let Misaka Mikoto go forward.
"There might be surveillance devices on her body. Let's follow her from a distance."
"What's your plan?"
Misaka Mikoto looked at the calm-faced George beside her as they watched Misaka 9982 walk into a deserted alley, take out a pre-prepared submachine gun, and wait quietly.
She felt that this Misaka 9981 clone had a rather mature mindset and might have come to her only after formulating a plan.
George nodded.
"There are two ways to stop the Level 6 Shift Project.
The first is to make Accelerator give up on participating in the experiment. Without a test subject, we clones won't have to die anymore.
But the hard part is, if Accelerator refuses to back down, we may not be able to beat him given his strength.
The second is to find all the research labs for this experiment and destroy them along with all their data. That way, the project can't continue.
However, there are more than twenty research labs scattered throughout Academy City. Unless we destroy them all at once while they're off guard, if they catch wind and relocate, the experiment will still continue."
"Then we go with the first option. That guy—Accelerator—will appear in a few minutes. I'll do my best to persuade him to withdraw from this experiment!"
Electricity surged through Misaka Mikoto's body.
Destroying over twenty labs at once was unrealistic, so the only option was to get Accelerator to back down. If he refused—then she'd beat him until he did.
Even though Accelerator ranked higher than her, she was confident in her own strength.
"In that case, let me first tell you everything I know about Accelerator."
George quickly relayed all the intel he had about Accelerator from his mind.
The Misaka clones had already fought Accelerator 9980 times. All those combat experiences were transmitted through the Misaka Network into the minds of every subsequent clone, and George had that information too.
(End of Chapter)