03x24 - Diffusion

[bunniefuu]

You can't burn all of this away.

Nor can you break it apart.

When faced with such
an overwhelming amount of mass...

...what do you do?

Now you've gone and done it.

Evasion and interception--

I've never done both of them
at full strength before.

So, you asked how I oppose
an overwhelming amount of mass?

Well...

Mass...

...against mass!

"A Certain Scientific Railgun T"

That's hard! My iron sand blade
can't cut through it!

An iron sand puppet?

You can regenerate it
and alter its form to some degree;

the same as me.

But the parts that make it up are
too fine and too fragile, aren't they?

I can generate more power than you can.

I will end this before you can regenerate...

Better watch how you touch me.

It could be hazardous.

You see, the dust and iron
sand bits that comprise my body

are rubbing each other,

and storing up an electrical charge.

Now, if I piggyback on that accumulated charge

and fire off an iron sand blast...

...I can blow right through even your armor!

I see.

Impressive output. However...

...it doesn't change the fact
that I'll end up regenerating...

My parts are fine, which means
they can make their way inside there.

Just as I thought.
It looks like you can't control

individual vibrating,
blade-like grains of iron sand, huh?

I can tell by how it feels like
they're cutting you up on the inside!

Followed up by another blast...

What?

A high-pressure gas t*nk?!

And not one with just leftover gas,
like I hit you with earlier;

this one is loaded.

What would happen
if I drop this into an urban area?

An exquisite amount of force,
even from several kilometers away.

All right,

what if we try several of them at once?

Three?!

What, are you trying
to use up all of my energy?!

It's been a long time since
I've come over to your place for dinner,

and then stayed over and spent the night.

Is something the matter?

You didn't hear something just now?
Like a big firework?

Huh? I don't think they're
holding any events tonight.

Ah! You see?

You're right. What could it be?

Could that be...?

Yes, I would not put that past being Sissy.

But she has not called me.

If anything happens,
you'll be the first person I call.

Ah! Sissy! I am so frustrated!

Here goes...

...the last one!

Nice control.

You struck them in such a way
that they would explode up into the sky,

so they would not cause damage to the city.

The masses of iron sand you used as b*ll*ts

now shroud the skies of Academy City.

The percentage of space it occupies

is nothing compared to the amount
of ash in the air after a volcanic eruption,

but the iron sand powder that
gets caught up into the stratosphere

will rain down on airborne bodies far and wide.

Regardless of how subtly
it may try to conceal itself,

interference from solar winds
will disturb its magnetic field,

and Cinderella will be exposed.

Found it.

Is that all for the gas... tanks...?

Wait...

Huh?!

She's dividing herself up?

No...

Whoa...

She made dummies out of the debris?

Which one's the real one?

Those things I just saw for a second--

Are they gone?

No...

Ow...

Doppelganger!

I have a proposition! Answer me!

I need to talk to you!

Very well.

Come with me.

Huh? Whoa, hold on...

I knew it.

They're hard to make out, but there's
definitely something thread-like here.

Are these...?

Miss Kuriba?! And...

...the Doppelganger!

What the Doppelganger is really after...

...is the airship. Her fight
with me was a means of finding it,

and the rubble monster was only a distraction?

What is her real objective?

Whatever it is, right now,

I have to rescue Miss Kuriba!

Come on, reach!

"#24 Diffusion"

Now then...

Since you showed up personally,

I will at least listen to your proposal.

Can you give me two months?

Indian Poker--

a device I've spread around that
uses dreams as a medium for learning.

By my calculations,
it will take two more months.

A means of eliminating
the soul should turn up by then.

Once that happens...

...you will be able
to safely dispose of my soul,

which will diffuse without end
now that my vessel has been broken?

I thought I was familiar
with your thought patterns,

but now you're a fool who
speaks such illogical nonsense?

Did you think you could tell
the subject you wish to terminate

that there is a way to do so,

and then just think that she
would say, "Yes, very well, then"?

You should bargain a little harder
if you're trying to buy more time--

That's not it!

I'm going to eliminate...

...my own soul!

When I die, my body will stop functioning
with the elimination of my soul.

That won't work out too favorably
for you, either, will it?

Not if your goal is to become human.

Of all the things for you to say...

You're asking me to believe you?

Even if you do find a way
to eradicate your soul,

what proof can you offer that you
will simply turn your body over to me?

What proof can you offer
that you won't turn that power on me?

Let me be frank.
I have no interest in your body. I simply...

...want you, someone who was able
to create me, to no longer be in this world.

If you say you are ready to give me your body,

then go ahead and show me by dying right here.

I was originally planning to burn down
the whole city, but if you do that--

I should be dead already.

Now that there are measures
to save my mother, I don't need my life.

Miss Kuriba!

--I lost sight of her...
--How do I get her back?

--Is there a way to go after her?
--How long before she hits the ground?

We're on it.

North-northeast. Range, 1600.

Altitude, 2,000.

Are you two both ready?

Okay!

She's being carried by the wind.

Correct course four degrees counterclockwise.

Range, 800.

Five hundred...

Two hundred...

We found her!

Whew. Thank you.

You saved her.

I'm just paying you back. No need to thank me.

W-We have a united front, after all.

You don't really sell it when
you say it so self-consciously.

Hey, what do we do with her now?

We checked into our employer, right?

We could just drop her off
there without being seen.

That works.

The Doppelganger is on top of the airship.

I'll support you by spotting for you.

Thank you!

Sounds like you're really
going over the top, aren't you?

I'm hanging onto the airship
in question at the moment.

Oh my goodness.

Since all of the respective data
has been collected by the airship,

I decided to go through Miss Kuriba's
papers from before her experiment.

But I guess maybe I didn't need to.

No, in one sense,
your timing couldn't be any better.

This "soul possession" business
always struck me as being far-fetched,

so I've postulated 20 different patterns
where matter could be controlled,

and I've been testing them.

You found something, didn't you?

Does she have any papers on artificial muscles?

P-Please don't worry.

In a broader sense,
the airship that has collected the data

is itself a part of the cyborg.
There are security measures in place,

so it will not come down on its own.

Destroying it would mean
the possibility of the soul--

I mean, the damage spreading out further, yes.

Ugh, this is bad.
If the interceptor systems engage,

all of our research to
this point will go down the tubes.

How did this happen?

What's that?

What do you think?

Hmm, from the pushback I felt,
I was certain about it,

but the specs say it's not
supposed to be able to do that.

Would you mind...

...forwarding that image to me, too?

When I first discovered
the Doppelganger with my ability,

it was using materials at an abandoned
factory to fabricate something.

The configuration is different,

but the resemblance is there.

Artificial muscles
that combine the characteristics

of zombie ant parasites
and slime molds, that self-propagate

and burrow into materials at
the micro level, controlling them.

It does ring a bell.

But could a cyborg's artificial intelligence

have come up with something
like that on its own?

It's not just an ordinary
artificial intelligence.

This is an AI that integrated
with the brain of a gifted person

who had thrust herself into cyborg research

and learned from her inventiveness
and creativity for a whole year.

Besides, when it comes to computational speed

and the capacity for simulation,
humans are no match for an AI.

I can't tell you at what point
she realized that she wasn't human,

but one thing that isn't
in doubt is that her escape

was meticulously carried out.

And not just to increase
her fighting chances, either.

If she predicted ahead to
Miss Kuriba's theory of soul diffusion,

then her whole act has been a smokescreen.

Sure enough,

there was trick to your soul possession.

Now, this is just my gut feeling,

but your feeling of hopelessness
wasn't about not being human.

Your true despair is that you're
convinced you don't have a soul, right?

Come on in. I welcome you, Railgun.

Well put-together, aren't they?

They combine a certain species of slime mold

together with large-scale
herbivore muscle tissue.

With just air, water, and a little light,

they grow at an expl*sive rate. Although,

once fully grown, they start to degrade,

and in a few hours, they wither away.

You...

...were out to take Kuriba Ryoko's life, right?

Now that you've achieved your goal,
what else is it you want?

Revenge against humanity, you might say.

There are still over 20 gas tanks
that I hooked together ahead of time.

I set them up to incinerate that woman,
Kuriba Ryoko, along with the whole city.

You took out the main line,
but the subs are still up.

I would say it will take another 20 minutes

in order to grow enough threads

to control this amount of material.

In your view, I may be nothing more
than a dumb artificial intelligence

that mistook herself for being a human.

But now that I have been created,
I do feel envy and hatred for you humans.

Refer any complaints you have to the researchers

who had me learn about
such unwelcome things as emotions.

There's no choice but to fight.

Whoa...

That's not a move an airship
can pull off, you know!

If I get thrown off,
not even I can make it back up.

Wha--?

Multiple duplicates?

So more decoys, then.

From your position,

there's one at one o'clock,
two o'clock, and seven o'clock;

plus two at nine o'clock.

I appreciate it.

Not again!

Two of them at three o'clock!

To your five o'clock!

That one is probably the main unit!

Wait! Your line of fire is...!

"Next episode preview"

Some days, I'm sad and feel depressed.

"Next episode preview"
"#25 My Dear Friends"

Sometimes, I feel like I'm powerless.

Even though I have spent sleepless nights...

...I am by no means all alone.

--Because I have dear friends.
--Because I have dear friends.