OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Accelerator and friends (???) recover from the battle, with Misaka 10046 mostly unhurt and Esther using her magic to heal members of DA and Scavenger. She also begs him to be her master (which is basically treated like a love confession), but he declines, even after she pesters him repeatedly. Still, they need to take care of Hishigata, so their alliance stands. As they talk about this, more Coffins fly in, with stronger souls than Huotu and abilities cranked up to Level 5 power. The one controlling them is the girl working with Hishigata, Hirumi, who Esther recognizes. She takes Misaka and the three Coffins flee, with Accelerator in hot pursuit and leaving the rest behind.

Esther explains the situation to Yomikawa, including about necromancy and the Rosenthals’ involvement with Hishigata. The three Coffins are controlled by pseudo-souls known as “Numbers” that have been used for generations. But that doesn’t stop Accelerator from showing why he’s still the top Level 5 in Academy City by chasing and fighting them all like a bloodthirsty dog. Hishigata finds memories in the Misaka and mocks him for wanting to protect a clone that was previously part of an experiment for him to kill, though that only makes him want to kill Hishigata more. Esther and Huotou run off too, finding themselves at an abandoned house.

OUR TAKE

Alrighty, looks like we’re narrowing things down to just fighting Hishigata and his weird lackey. The part of the OP that shows the minor villains has changed yet again, this time focusing on the “Numbers” (which tells me that someone in the Rosenthal family was a Yugioh Zexal fan). They’re not exactly characters this time, instead just being mini-bosses that can be controlled and are just fodder to be taken down, making me wonder if they’ll even make it another couple of episodes. Part of me is a bit disappointed that none of the Numbers have individual personalities like Huotou, but then again, they’d either be flat servants like her or have really forced eccentricities to make them stand out like the members of Scavenger, so it’s probably for the best. No need to cram more mooks in that will be pushed out of the story a couple of weeks later, but it does mean the cast is going to be kinda small for the second half.

Another thing I’m irked by (and a little confused with) is how Misaka 10046 isn’t really treated like a character but more just a potato was thrown around from person to person. I think she got maybe one line this episode before being captured AGAIN, and now she’s just waiting for her next rescue by Accelerator. I feel like there’s at least something interesting you could do with how she as an individual has changed since the end of the experiment, including how her feelings about Accelerator might have changed, but it’s not really touched on. It also seems like Last Order would be a more obvious choice for the “clone in distress” role, but she’s not involved much in this story at all so far, which is weird because she could probably fulfill all the stuff I just said this Misaka could do, but more. It’s all just very odd to me.

But whatever, only five episodes to go, and it seems we’re going to be learning more about the Rosenthals pretty soon, which would be nice because we’re still pretty much in the dark about how this whole situation came about. We’ll probably figure out how Hishigata got involved and how well-meaning magic went totally awry, as this seems to be the way these things play out, but any information on that subject would be welcome at this point, I think.

Score 5/10