Chapter 726: The Tragedy of 180,000 Yen! The Mass Production and Absolute Power Level 6 Shift!
"I won't comment on whether you hate Misaka Mikoto personally. That is a matter between two queens of Tokiwadai. However..."
Ren paused, setting his teacup down on the saucer with a deliberate, soft clink that sounded like a gavel in the quiet space. He looked at the girl sitting across from him—the Queen of Tokiwadai, Misaki Shokuhou.
His gaze was piercing, stripping away the layers of psychological defenses she usually wore like armor.
"Your desperate desire to become stronger... it isn't because of a petty rivalry with the Railgun."
How could Ren not know what she was thinking? He had seen the threads of fate that bound this city together.
"You want to save those 'Sisters,' don't you?"
!!!
Misaki Shokuhou's body stiffened visibly. Her honey-colored eyes widened, the sparkles in her pupils trembling as her composure cracked. The remote control she always clutched in her hand nearly slipped from her grasp.
"H-how..." Her voice lost its usual sweet, manipulative lilt, dropping to a whisper of genuine shock. "How did you know about that?"
This matter was the deepest scar in her heart. It involved her past, a secret she guarded with the ferocity of a dragon guarding its hoard.
The memories flooded back, unbidden and painful.
It was before she had entered Tokiwadai Middle School. Before she was the Queen. Back when she was just a test subject in the dark, sterile corners of Academy City's research facility, the "Talent Workshop."
She had been assigned a task. A cruel, unusual task for a child. She was to help a girl named "Dolly."
Dolly was a prototype clone, cast aside and lonely, who had lost her only friend, Mitori Keisaku. The researchers needed to stabilize Dolly's mental state to prolong the experiment, so they threw Misaki in as a substitute.
At that time, Misaki Shokuhou did not yet have the terrifying proficiency with "Mental Out" that she possessed now. She couldn't simply rewrite memories with a click of a button.
So, she had to lie.
She had to wear a mask. She pretended to be Mitori Keisaku.
Misaki came to Dolly's isolation room every day. She played with her, talked to her, and held her hand through the glass and later, directly. Day by day, the pretense faded, and Misaki began to truly care for the artificial girl. She treated Dolly as a precious friend.
But the tragedy was inevitable.
Actually, Dolly wasn't stupid. Despite her childlike innocence and failing body, she had long since discovered the truth.
Through the scent—the unique biological signature that no disguise could mask—Dolly knew that Misaki Shokuhou was not Keisaku Mitori.
Yet, she never said a word. She played along because she loved Misaki too.
It wasn't until Dolly's dying moments, when the machinery beeped erratically and the cold of death crept into the room...
"What is... your name?"
Dolly pleaded with Misaki Shokuhou to tell her true name. She wanted to know the name of the friend who had stayed by her side until the end.
Only then did Misaki Shokuhou realize the depth of her own arrogance and the depth of Dolly's love. Dolly had truly regarded her, Misaki, as a friend, not a replacement.
That moment shattered Misaki Shokuhou's world. It reshaped her psyche, forging steel from grief.
The researchers of the "Exterior" project—the project designed to extract and magnify her brain's power—had originally planned to dispose of Misaki Shokuhou once the "Exterior" brain was completed. To them, she was just biological waste to be incinerated.
However, they underestimated the monster they were creating.
Misaki Shokuhou, fueled by grief and a cold, calculating rage, had already prepared her counterattack.
During the chaos of a security breach, she didn't flee. She reached out with her mind. She seized control of the lower-level researchers, bypassing the mental barriers they thought were secure.
She expanded her sphere of influence like a virus.
Before she even put on the uniform of Tokiwadai Middle School, Misaki Shokuhou had already brainwashed all the key figures in the "Exterior" project. She didn't just escape; she took the throne. She seized control of the "Talent Workshop" from the shadows.
By the time she entered Tokiwadai, she was already a player in the dark game. She manipulated events to cut off funding to the foolish Junzo of the "Talent Workshop," leading to the disbandment of the Third Research Laboratory he led.
She buried the project, but kept the assets.
Through the seized data of the Talent Workshop, she peeled back the layers of Academy City's darkness.
She understood many secrets that would drive a normal person insane.
Among them was Dolly's true identity.
And two secret plans that made her blood run cold: the Mass Production Ability User Plan (Radio Noise) and the Absolute Power Ability User Plan (Level 6 Shift).
The Mass Production Ability User Plan was the origin of Dolly's birth.
Dolly was not an ordinary human. She was a clone. A prototype.
And the horrifying realization that made Misaki sick to her stomach was the source of the DNA.
Dolly, and all subsequent clones, were derived from the DNA map of Misaka Mikoto—the Railgun!
Misaki Shokuhou clenched her fists as the data scrolled through her mind again.
The Mass Production Ability User Plan aimed to analyze and produce the genetic sequence formula for high-level Espers. The goal was to reliably mass-produce powerful soldiers, bypassing the random chance of natural awakening.
The project was carried out by Higuchi Pharmaceutical's Seventh Pharmaceutical Research Center, led by the morally bankrupt Amano Yoshio.
They used the DNA of the Railgun, the Third Ranked Level 5, to mass-produce the "Sisters."
Every Misaka Sister was a clone of Misaka Mikoto.
To accelerate the physical and psychological growth of the Sisters, the experiment was a cocktail of biological horrors. They used drugs such as Zid-02, Riz-13, and Hel-03 to force a rapid maturation.
In just fourteen days, a fetus would grow into a body identical to the Railgun's teenage form.
But they were empty shells. Basic brain information such as language, movement, and ethics was forcibly input by learning devices directly into their cortexes. They were born knowing how to strip a rifle but not how to feel the wind.
And the cost?
Misaki recalled the financial report she had hacked into.
Unit Cost: 180,000 Japanese Yen.
That was the price of a life. Less than the cost of a high-end handbag. Less than a semester's tuition.
This was the most fundamental reason why Misaki Shokuhou hated Misaka Mikoto.
It wasn't jealousy. It wasn't about popularity.
It was because that naive, blessed girl had casually given out her DNA map to "doctors" under the guise of medical charity, without a single thought of the consequences.
'If you hadn't been so careless,' Misaki thought bitterly, 'how could there have been the tragedy of the Sisters? How could there have been the tragedy of Dolly?'
While Misaki carried the burden of the dark truth, Mikoto lived in the sunlight, completely ignorant.
However, the tragedy didn't end there.
In the final stage of the Mass Production experiment, the supercomputer "Tree Diagram" delivered a crushing verdict.
The abilities of the mass-produced Sisters were less than 1% of the Railgun's power. Their average ability was only around Level 2—Radio Noise. They were weak.
Neither genetic manipulation nor postnatal education could create a clone of a Level 5 Esper.
Therefore, the Railgun Mass Production Plan for the Sisters was deemed a failure and permanently frozen.
For a moment, Misaki had breathed a sigh of relief.
But the darkness of Academy City has no bottom.
Misaki Shokuhou had recently found new encrypted information. The Sisters were being created again. The factories were running.
Why?
Because of the Absolute Power Ability User Plan!
Academy City's ultimate goal for ability development was SYSTEM—to become a person who descends to the mortal world like the will of God. To touch the divine.
To further approach God, it was necessary to create a being beyond human existence—an Absolute Ability User (Level 6).
The Board of Directors wanted to understand the will of God through a being that transcended humanity.
For this, the Absolute Ability User Evolution Project was born.
After precise calculations by the Tree Diagram, the results were singular.
Among the seven Level 5 Espers in Academy City, only one had the potential.
The First Rank. Accelerator.
Only he had the chance to evolve into an Absolute Ability User.
But the simulation provided a ludicrous requirement: Accelerator would need over 250 years of the standard "General Curriculum" training to evolve.
250 years. It was impossible. Human lifespans did not allow it.
Therefore, the Tree Diagram found another method. A darker, bloodier method.
That was to use actual combat to promote the growth of abilities. By preparing specific battlefields and executing planned scenarios, they could force the evolution through life-and-death stress.
According to the Tree Diagram's calculations, the most efficient method was simple:
Prepare 128 specific battlefields. Let Accelerator kill the Railgun (Misaka Mikoto) 128 times.
If he killed the Third Rank 128 times, he would reach Level 6.
But there was only one Railgun. They couldn't prepare 128 Misaka Mikotos.
So, the twisted logic of the scientists connected the dots. They looked at the frozen assets of the failed Mass Production Plan.
The Sisters.
Since the abilities of the mass-produced Sisters were less than 1% of the original body, roughly Level 2...
The Tree Diagram recalculated.
If the target quality drops, increase the quantity.
The same goal could be achieved by preparing 20,000 types of battlefields and killing 20,000 Sisters.
20,000 lives to create one God.
The initial 9,802 experiments were conducted within the secure research facilities.
The remaining 10,198 experiments needed to be conducted outdoors to simulate urban combat variables.
And due to the sheer volume of "biological waste"—the corpses—the battlefields were concentrated in Academy City's Seventh District. It was a logistical choice for corpse disposal.
The core idea of the "experiment" was not war. It was a slaughter.
It was about arranging 20,000 executions. Allowing Accelerator to complete these 20,000 battles as planned, methodically erasing the Sisters one by one.
Misaki Shokuhou was furious when she learned of this crazy experiment. It treated the Sisters not as lives, or humans, or even animals. It treated them as disposable raw materials. Consumables with a price tag of 180,000 yen.
Despite disliking the brainless, original Misaka Mikoto, Misaki did not dislike the Sisters.
She loved them by association. They were Dolly's little sisters. They were the face of her lost friend.
She wanted to save them. She desperately wanted to stop the slaughter.
But she understood the darkness of Academy City better than anyone. She knew the power of the Board of Directors, of Aleister Crowley.
And she understood the weakness of her own ability.
"Mental Out" was absolute against humans. But against the First Rank? Against a monster who controlled vectors? Against the unmanned machines and security drones that guarded the facilities?
She was powerless.
Therefore, she yearned to become stronger.
She looked at Ren, her eyes burning with a mixture of hope and desperation.
She needed to be strong enough to crush the Absolute Power Ability User Plan. She needed the power to save the Misaka Sisters, to honor the memory of the friend she failed to save.
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