Oh look, Scavenger has arrived to take the prize, but the quartet is already too late to find Ryouko Kuriba’s doppelganger.
But fret not my children, Leader can find that cyborg with her Predator as the entire sky is filled with eyes which she can see everything.
Anyways, let’s go back to the real Ryouko Kuriba where she’s gonna share more information regarding her doppelganger. And believe me, both Mikoto Misaka and Misaki Shokuhou will learn how dangerous her doppelganger be.
First off, the doppelganger can hijack various electronics should her mechanical vessel is completely destroyed. This would be bad as Kuriba’s doppelganger soul will possess Academy City’s infrastructure.
Of course, Kuriba’s clone can’t self-terminate in order to hijack a supercomputer, so the real Ryouko and her engineers created a self-preservation program that would preserve the doppelganger’s vessel. Unfortunately, Kuriba’s colleagues are banking on the doppelganger’s success that they ignore her warnings that her clone might go rogue.
Oh and if you think that’s the end of the doppelganger, wait till you see Kuriba’s backstory where it was revealed that she was critically-injured after being caught in a building collapse.
Fortunately, Ryouko Kuriba’s life was saved when she got a lung transplant from her mother. However, Ryouko’s mother’s health went into decline when she developed pulmonary edema, thus Ryouko dedicated her life into robotics and biomedical engineering in order to create a functional lung for her mother.
But that’s the end of her backstory and I must say that while Ryouko sacrifice herself for the sake of science of course, there’s no indication on whether her mother is alive or not. But given that she’s working with people who has dubious sense of morality, I think they’ll just keep her mother’s fate a secret until they no longer have use for Ryouko.
As for the Indian Poker, while we’ll never know its true objective for the time being, I speculated that Ryouko Kuriba might use the card to seal the doppelganger’s soul. Should she do that, the problem will be sealing the card in a heavily-secured area where no one will accidentally open it.
Well then, looks like Ryouko Kuriba is done explaining about her doppelganger as she’ll return to her apartment and take medication. I mean, she’s living a hard life after her body is split into two and sewn together.
However, Ryouko Kuriba encountered her doppelganger where she’s gonna terminate the real one and take her place. C’mon, there could only be one Ryouko Kuriba.
But speaking of the real Kuriba, she has a restraining device as a last-ditch effort should her clone is about to strangle her to death.
Anyways, Ryouko Kuriba pressed the button on the device where it creates a blinding explosion that would fry anyone’s gadgets if they’re close to the radius.
Of course, the cyborg clone survived as her mechanical parts can withstand a powerful electromagnetic pulse.
So while her prey might have got away, but Ryouko’s clone will find and terminate the real one.
Unfortunately, this doppelganger got reeled in by Naru using her paper rope. Well, there goes her hunt on the real Kuriba.
On the other hand, Scavenger has finally completed their mission now that they captured the doppelganger without much effort.
Now it’s time for them to go home for a promotion ’cause Leader and the rest wants to become the best operatives in Academy City’s dark side.
On second though, the doppelganger broke free from Naru’s paper rope as she’s decided to grab Leader’s hand to see what kind of pain she’ll experience when Kuriba’s clone squeezes it.
And as you can see, Leader’s left arm got broken when the doppelganger squeezes it tightly. Yeah, it’s a very painful experience to be honest.
So she’s not only tough, but also strong that the scientists and engineers made a big mistake of making military-grade robotic parts for Kuriba’s body.
Fortunately, Leader is finally freed from the doppelganger’s grasp as Naru destroys the right half of her body with a single punch.
However, this is just the beginning for Ryouko Kuriba’s cyborg clone as while she didn’t leave her vessel to possess the entire city’s infrastructure, looks like she wants to have fun making them miserable.
So while they’re dealing with the doppelganger, here’s Seike where she managed to capture the real Ryouko Kuriba, although Seike doesn’t consider her as a valuable target as Scavenger wants Kuriba’s clone.
Unfortunately for Seika, looks like she encountered a certain esper who created a blinding flash with electricity.
By the way Seike got blinded by the light, the esper vanishes from the rooftop…
…and went straight to Ryouko Kuriba where she told her to save herself and run away as quickly as possible.
Yeah, this is Mikoto Misaka where she’s concerned about Ryouko and her cyborg clone.
Anyways, the real Ryouko Kuriba got out safely. Let’s hope that she find a way to stop her doppelganger.
As for Mikoto Misaka, she told Seike to leave as she doesn’t want to create a bigger mess at the construction site.
Of course, Seike wants to challenge Mikoto to see who’s the better esper in Academy City, despite not knowing that she’s dealing with one of the Level 5 espers. Big mistake there!
Still, she doesn’t care as Seike will try to take Mikoto out by throwing a bolt at high-speed straight to her noggin’, although the only thing Seike hit is Misaka’s hat.
And now for the killing blow as Seike tries to fatally slash Misaka with her knife, but this Scavenger operative misses her target as Mikoto teleports away.
And this is where Seike realized that she’s dealing with one of the Level 5 espers in Academy City as Mikoto Misaka is gonna finish her off…
…with lightning of course as Seike can’t survive being electrocuted by Misaka’s Railgun. Well, that was so unlucky for her.
But that’s about it for Seike as she got humiliated again by a Level 5 esper. Imagine if her teammates got wrecked by the likes of Shizuri Mugino and Teitoku Kakine.
Now let’s return to Seike’s teammates as they’re trying to stop Ryouko Kuriba’s doppelganger, even though the clone is putting up some resistance despite losing half of her cyborg body.
However, the tables have turned where her self-preservation program has kicked into high gear as the doppelganger used telekinesis to rip Naru’s paper-made battle armor…
…and then attaches it to her body where I found it horrifying. At this point, Scavenger is on the ropes as they can’t beat Ryouko’s cyborg clone on their own.
Well, there’s only one way to get out of this sticky situation as Yakumaru throw a termite bomb onto Ryouko’s cyborg doppelganger.
While it’s effective against everything as it melts at a very-high temperature, I wonder if that cyborg will survive?
Well, not much as Ryouko’s clone survive the extreme temperature of the termite bomb, although she needs to patch some skin as having Naru’s bunny power suit on her right side is still unsettling to me.
On the other hand, I have to say that losing her body is very unlikely at this point due to her self-preservation program already running.
Anyways, they got out safely thanks to Yakumaru’s termite bomb as Scavenger will fight for another day, maybe tackling the doppleganger once they got their chance.
Now the only thing left to do is to get Seike and get the hell out of here. Then again, are they still safe from being wrecked?
Wrong! For you see, Mikoto Misaka just passed by as she’s gonna have a long conversation towards Leader and her friends. I mean, she wants some explanation on why they’re targeting Ryouko Kuriba and her cyborg clone.
Of course, the remaining members of Scavenger are terrified because they encountered one of the Level 5 espers, which Mikoto already beat Seike earlier and that’s gonna be a problem for the 3 of them.
But you know what, if Scavenger can put up a fight against Misaka, they’ll have a successful life later on. Of course, they can only hold the fort for a few minutes before they call it quits.
Oh well, let’s see what happens on the next episode to see if Scavenger beat a Level 5 esper.
The Anime Rambler - By Benigmatica 