“The Tree Diagram has been destroyed…”
Impression
If only it never happened…if only it was all a bad dream – if only her mother could come and fix things for her. Well, I suppose that’s the harsh reality of growing up, and in the wake of over 10,000 deaths so far, there won’t be any heroes to save her (yet). I did admire the tenacity she had over destroying Tree Diagram – Misaka knew Academy City wouldn’t be too pleased, and even hoped that Kuroko, Uiharu and Saten-san wouldn’t end up in trouble because they were friends with her. It does a shitload of simulations for Academy City after all, from predicting the weather (a whole month’s worth!) to running calculations and simulations of all sorts, one of which was the Level 6 Shift. Yet, after all the determination and trouble Misaka took to get there undetected, there was no-one in the facility at all, with Tree Diagram already unusable and in pieces. That means yet another one of her assumptions was wrong – Tree Diagram might have given the green light for the project, but it doesn’t have the autonomy to stop it. Oh dear. That’s kinda awkward, isn’t it.
I’m surprised there was so much focus on Misaka Imouto (or MISAKA 10032), who develops this weird sort of friendship with Touma in Misaka Original’s absence. At this point, one has to question whether Shinobu’s personality altering program really did fail – Misaka Imouto seems much more…human in everything she says and does. She was perfectly aware that Misaka was disturbed by her presence, and upon asking that scientist, was told that it must be horribly creepy coming across an identical voice and face. The irony, of course, is that Misaka is being put through the exact same situation countless times because of scientists like her. Misaka Imouto also managed to coerce Touma into taking care of a cat for her, almost managing to name it “Dog” and bringing it eternal shame. Schroedinger would have been better, if only slightly xD But yeah, it’s true that 10032 doesn’t have the right environment to raise a cat. She’s uh…scheduled to die, after all.
Assuming Shinobu’s alteration did work, and that all the Sisters have human emotions now, that’s just going to make MISAKA 10031’s death even worse. While I have vague memories of that guitar case (it’s been years since I last watched Index) I’m pretty sure it’s got something to do with 10031’s plan, in which Touma becomes frighteningly aware of what’s going on around him. I don’t know how similar or different the Railgun version of the episode will be, but I think it’d be safe to say we won’t be getting slice of life for much longer…
