Chapter 195: I Have a Plan

When George awoke from his clone body yesterday, his psychic abilities immediately picked up on being monitored. The sensation vanished only after he activated invisibility, so he remained hidden until he established and entered his new base.

Even today, while trailing Mikoto Misaka, George stayed invisible and felt no sense of surveillance. However, the moment he revealed himself, that familiar feeling of being watched returned.

Confident that he had already destroyed all nearby surveillance devices capable of detecting him, George closed his eyes and expanded his psychic powers to their maximum, scanning his surroundings.

Quickly, he noticed something unusual: countless tiny moving points were monitoring him. They were so minute that one wouldn’t detect them without deliberate scrutiny.

“Let’s see how you like this!” George activated his magnetic abilities, crushing all detectable surveillance points within his magnetic field. Instantly, the sensation of being watched disappeared.

No matter how advanced the labs' technology was, even if the devices were invisible to the naked eye, they inevitably contained metal. And anything metallic was within George’s control.

Unlike Mikoto Misaka, who mainly generated electricity through magnetism and used electromagnetic induction to manipulate objects like coins for her Railgun, George used raw magnetic force to control metal directly, much like Magneto. As a result, any metallic technological device posed no threat to him.

Previously, his lower ability level limited his control. But after strengthening himself with a Misaka clone’s abilities, his power now allowed him to manipulate much heavier and broader ranges of metal. While he couldn’t yet lift a 4,000-ton submarine, moving something around 20 tons was effortless. If he continued developing his abilities to reach Level 5 in this world, his power would grow even further.

Having discovered and destroyed the tiny metallic surveillance devices, there was no way they could monitor him again.

In the Windowless Building

Aleister Crowley, monitoring through his advanced "AIM Diffusion Field" nanobot network, abruptly opened his eyes, frowning slightly.

His omnipresent surveillance across Academy City had been breached for the first time. And surprisingly, it wasn’t the Level 5 Mikoto Misaka but a Level 4 clone, Misaka 9981, who achieved it. This anomaly only deepened his suspicions about the clone.

“It seems we must capture Misaka 9981 without delay,” Aleister decided.

Through his communicator, he instructed the head of the Mizuo Institute to commission "Item," an underground team with a Level 5 esper, to apprehend Misaka 9981. Since the clone could disrupt his surveillance, it posed a potential threat to his ultimate plan. Aleister couldn’t afford any missteps.

...

Just then, George and Mikoto Misaka spotted a white-haired boy entering the alley. It was none other than Accelerator, the top-ranked Level 5 esper.

“It’s 8:58 PM. Experiment 9982 will commence in two minutes,” Clone Misaka 9982 announced in a flat, emotionless voice.

Hands in his pockets, Accelerator looked at Misaka 9982. Instead of his usual mocking tone, he asked with a tinge of mania, “What was up with that clone yesterday? Why did it run away? Aren’t you clones supposed to lack human emotions—fear and hesitation included?”

To him, the clones were emotionless machines, like NPCs in a video game, there to facilitate his “leveling up.” But yesterday’s incident—where a clone fled out of fear—shook his perception. It forced him to confront the unsettling idea that these “machines” might possess humanity.

“Misaka 9981 was an anomaly. Don’t let it concern you. Continue with the experiments, and after eliminating 10,020 clones, you’ll evolve into a Level 6 Absolute Esper,” Clone 9982 explained, her voice devoid of emotion.

Wearing her frog badge, Misaka 9982 lowered her military night-vision goggles, raised her submachine gun, and opened fire on Accelerator.

“The time is 9:00 PM. Experiment 9982 begins,” she announced.

“Annoying. If you want to die so badly, then I’ll oblige!” Accelerator frowned. Before the bullets reached him, he redirected them using his vector control, sending them ricocheting back. Misaka 9982, using her battle experience from 9981 prior encounters, dodged skillfully and launched an electrical attack to cut off the alley’s lighting, plunging it into darkness.

The skirmish quickly shifted to the riverbank, near an abandoned dockyard—exactly as per the experiment’s script. Here, Misaka 9982 was supposed to meet her end, marking the conclusion of the day’s trial.

As Accelerator prepared to deal the finishing blow, George turned invisible and whispered to Mikoto Misaka, “It’s time to act.”

Without hesitation, Mikoto stepped into Accelerator’s path.
“Stop right there!” she demanded.

“Oh, another one? Today’s script didn’t mention two clones. But whatever,” Accelerator muttered. With a wave of his hand, he manipulated the wind to hurl a shipping container at the two Misakas.

“Railgun: Iron Sand Sword!”

Mikoto used her electromagnetic powers to gather iron sand from the surrounding area, forming a massive, electrically charged blade-like chainsaw. With a single swing, she sliced the shipping container cleanly in two.