A corkscrew for a corkscrew.
Summary:
Mikoto runs in the streets trying to find Awaki, but Awaki is hiding inside a restaurant a few stories above ground level. Awaki thinks she's safe, but she is stabbed by several needles and discovers Kuroko sitting behind her. Kuroko has done her homework and knows that Awaki has trouble teleporting herself due to psychological trauma suffered from a teleporting accident two years ago. Kuroko declares that she'll stop Awaki and the two teleporters start to fight. Awaki manages to hit Kuroko with the carry case, but Kuroko teleports behind Awaki and knocks her down. Awaki responds by teleporting table and chairs above Kuroko, and Kuroko can't teleport away as her wounds are acting up and she is pinned by the pile of chairs and tables.
Somewhere in the city, Misaka clone #10032 sneaks out of her room at the hospital and runs to Touma's apartment. Along the way, 10032 chats with other Misakas including Last Order about her intention to stop Tree Diagram from being rebuilt, and the other Misakas voice their support. Last Order's chatter with the other clones is overheard by Accelerator. At a phone booth, Mikoto uses her hacking ability to locate Kuroko and Awaki. She is soon joined by Touma who agreed to help after being visited by Misaka #10032.
Now that you are trapped and can't teleport, you'll have no choice but to finish listening to my monologue.
Aren't we a little too emotionally fragile to be a villain?
After Kuroko is trapped under the pile of chairs and tables, Awaki reveals that she is working for a group outside of Academy City and starts telling Kuroko about how her bosses wants to reconstruct Tree Diagram and use it to give non-humans special abilities. Awaki wants Kuroko to join her group, but Kuroko refuses and tells Awaki that she's pathetic. Awaki is unsettled by Kuroko's speech, and this allows Kuroko to get up and grab a lamp pole. Kuroko attempts to hit Awaki with the lamp, but Awaki pulls out a pistol and shoots Kuroko in the torso. After Kuroko is down, Awaki has a breakdown and loses control of her powers, causing the windows to blow out and chairs and tables swirling around in the air. Awaki eventually recovers and tries to shoot Kuroko, but Kuroko manages to teleport a spoon into the gun. Awaki then decides she'll use her abilities to crash the entire building down on Kuroko and teleports away with the luggage case. As Awaki is warping the building with her ability, Misaka arrives on the outside and blasts a hole through the floors. Kuroko falls through the hole, Touma runs up on the falling debris, catches Kuroko, dispels Awaki's warp and lands safely on one of the floors. Kuroko looks at Touma and wants to say something, but she quickly falls unconscious.
Touma: Here is me saving the day once again. Am I awesome or what?
If you think I'm not going to punch you in the nose, you obviously haven't gone through my file very carefully.
In an alley, Awaki calls her cohorts but discovers that they are in a losing gunfight against some woman. Wondering what to do, Awaki walks out onto an empty street and is confronted by Accelerator. Awaki knows that Accelerator had suffered a bad head injury, but Accelerator reveals that he can still use his ability when he wants to and sends debris flying everywhere. Awaki teleports into the air to escape but she is slowed down by her mental trauma, and this allows Accelerator to catch up to her with his "tornado wings". Accelerator destroys the luggage case with the remnants with a punch and then punches Awaki right in the nose. Awaki is sent flying into a building and falls down onto a platform where she loses consciousness, and Accelerator returns to the ground and walks back home.
If it was Touma, he would've hit you on the cheek instead, so consider yourself unlucky that you ran into the other girl-hitter in the story.
Man, I pulled a freaking ninja to save your skinny behind, and this is the thanks I get? Being a hero is such a thankless job.
The next day, Touma attempts to visit Kuroko and Misaka #10032 at the hospital but ends up with a slap to show for his efforts as he walks in on both girls while they are naked/half-naked. Index asks Touma about the Remnants, but Touma explains that the culprit was beat up by some unknown person and the luggage case along with its contents were completely destroyed. Elsewhere, Last Order talks about how Yomikawa went out last night to take out the group behind the incident, but Accelerator doesn't want to hear it and goes to sleep. Back in the hospital, Mikoto and Kuroko share a nice moment between friends.
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The episode had no shortage of action, but it didn't feel like a very satisfying ending. Sure, Touma, Misaka #10032, and Accelerator got in on the action and Awaki was defeated in a rather over-the-top fashion, but the resolution feels empty as Awaki's group were defeated off screen (by Yomikawa no less... they must have sucked really badly to be defeated by Anti-Skills-caliber forces) and it's unclear if there is someone else behind the whole thing. I'm also thought Kuroko should have done more before being bailed out by the other characters, but perhaps the show is trying the emphasize the value of friendship or something. In addition, Awaki didn't turn out to be an impressive villain. Despite her substantial abilities, Awaki is way too talkative but even worse she lacks the confidence and/or mental stability to back up the talk. Still, this certainly wasn't too bad as far as Index story arc finale go, and I probably should be glad that there was at least plenty of action.
The action... it was entertaining in an over-the-top kind of way. The fight between Kuroko and Awaki was a bit subdued until Awaki had her breakdown, but everything after that was ridiculous. I know Touma is supposed to be pretty agile, but I never knew he was a freaking ninja who can run up falling debris. Things were then topped off by Accelerator flying and punching Awaki straight in the nose. And of course, every time Mikoto and Accelerator "get serious" they cause thousands if not millions of dollars in damage. I couldn't help but chuckle during both of those scenes, but it doesn't mean they weren't fun.
Overall, this was an okay story-arc. It's no better or worse than the previous arc which also had its share of problems but wasn't bad as a whole. I still have yet to see anything that matched up to the first story-arc though. Let's hope the upcoming sports festival arc will be decent.
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