Chapter 195: Invisible Surveillance
To be honest, Accelerator's superpower is still somewhat abnormal.
However, through analyzing the 9,980 battles between the clones and Accelerator in his memory, George also found some countermeasures.
Accelerator can control the direction of all energy through skin contact, even the kinetic energy of physical attacks and brainwaves that control thought—he can manipulate them just the same.
What's even more terrifying is the defense and reflection system formed through his ability.
Accelerator can use his brain's vast computational power to construct reflections on his skin. Everything harmful to him within his perception will be reflected, including gas, nuclear radiation, and similar attacks.
This reflection remains active even if he loses consciousness—unless he deactivates it himself.
In theory, as long as he maintains this reflection, no one can harm his body.
However, George also noticed that for Accelerator's reflection to activate, it must be within the energy systems he recognizes. If it is a system beyond his understanding, the reflection is unlikely to be effective.
Because he doesn't understand it, he naturally can't calculate it, and thus cannot control it.
To control it, the energy must be analyzed, and that requires a certain amount of time.
Also, while reflection is indeed powerful, it has its limits. If the energy of an attack is too massive, George believes Accelerator would struggle to reflect it.
[Translator: sauron05]
For example, if someone were to throw an entire planet at Accelerator, it would be impossible for his reflection to deflect the whole planet.
Lastly, there is the common weakness of all espers: even though they possess powerful superpowers, their bodies are still mortal.
They will die of hunger without food, of thirst without water, and of suffocation without oxygen.
Given the current circumstances, the latter two are difficult, but the first is relatively simple.
Because the magic he knows originates from other worlds, it should technically fall outside Accelerator's field of understanding.
Even if some straightforward magical attacks could be quickly analyzed and intercepted on the spot, others—those that are nearly undetectable—would be difficult to defend against.
"Any form of energy can be controlled—is that what vector manipulation really is?"
Upon hearing George's explanation, Misaka Mikoto frowned.
She had never met Accelerator, but she had heard of the famous strongest esper of Academy City and knew his ability was vector manipulation, though she wasn't quite clear on its practical use.
"If that's the case, then it's going to be very hard for my attacks to have any effect on him. I wonder if it would work if I output at full power."
"No worries. I have a plan."
George leaned in close to Misaka Mikoto and began to explain his plan.
Meanwhile, inside a windowless building in District 7 of Academy City, a white-haired man suspended in a red liquid maintenance device murmured:
"What's up with this guy?"
This person was none other than the creator of Academy City, the greatest magician of the 20th century—Edward Alexander, now known to the public as Aleister Crowley.
Using his floating surveillance network of nanomachines monitoring the entire Academy City, he had already been informed of the anomaly with Clone No. 9981 by the head of the Level 6 Shift Project.
At the time, however, he hadn't paid much attention to it.
Upgrading from Level 2 to Level 4 was indeed strange, but to him, it wasn't particularly rare.
Although the aptitude tests clearly define esper levels as fixed, there are cases where the rules can be broken due to certain circumstances.
It wasn't until his surveillance nanomachines suddenly lost track of Clone No. 9981 that he began to take it seriously.
Because while esper abilities might break through their original levels under special conditions, it is absolutely impossible for someone to possess two types of abilities simultaneously.
Clone No. 9981 had inherited the electromagnetic ability of the original Misaka Mikoto, not an ability like invisibility.
Due to the invisibility, the nanomachines in the floating surveillance network could not locate Clone No. 9981—until now, when the clone reappeared at the overpass and made contact with the original Misaka Mikoto.
"Observe for a bit longer, then send the dark side operatives to capture them."
The Level 6 Shift Project was not his ultimate goal. Even the previous Mass-Produced Espers Project was merely a cover for his true objective.
He aimed to use these two fake projects to deceive the magic world, creating a legitimate reason to send the artificially produced Misaka clones all over the globe, thereby expanding the imaginary number district—originally confined to Academy City—to the entire world.
In the future, if he could completely master the yet-unfinished "Imaginary Number District: Five Element Apparatus" and activate the "Artificial Heaven," all magicians' powers would be rendered uncontrollable by the emergence of the new "realm," leading them to self-destruction.
The anomaly of Clone No. 9981 might disrupt his plans. So, if she had luckily not been killed by Accelerator this time, he intended to observe for a while, then send the dark side forces to capture and study her to find out what was going on.
In his view, even if Clone No. 9981 (Level 4) and the original Misaka Mikoto (Level 5) teamed up, they still wouldn't be a match for Accelerator.
"Is this really going to work?"
Misaka Mikoto looked at George with a bit of surprise.
George's plan was simple: once Accelerator showed up, they would fight with full force to attract his attention.
"Trust me, I'll handle the rest."
As long as Misaka Mikoto could draw Accelerator's attention, he could use his invisibility to approach at the right moment and cast the Soul-Stealing Curse to temporarily control Accelerator and disable his reflection defense.
Without reflection, Accelerator would be just an ordinary person—easy to deal with however they liked.
Or he could use the Death Curse, which ignores all defenses—it might work too.
If Accelerator's analysis ability was truly so strong that he could instantly break down his otherworldly magic and reflect it, then if they lost, he'd just grab the original Misaka Mikoto and the clone and escape.
He could just pull them into the Mirror World and hide. Even if Accelerator destroyed the whole of Academy City, he'd never be able to find them.
"Alright, if I can beat him head-on, then we won't need to proceed with the plan."
Even though she knew Accelerator's abilities countered hers, she still wanted to give it a try.
George nodded. If Misaka Mikoto could defeat Accelerator, that would be even better. He was curious to see the true strength of a Level 5 original Misaka Mikoto.
This sort of thing—who knew what might happen.
"Strange, that feeling of being watched again."
After discussing and planning with the original Misaka Mikoto, George couldn't help but frown.
"Are these laboratories' surveillance systems really that advanced?"
(End of Chapter)