Touma, Index, and Hyoka are trapped in the underground mall when Sherry and her golem Alice attack.Summary:After a big lunch, Touma, Index and Hyoka looks around in the underground mall. As Hyoka and Index walk into an arcade, Touma gets a call from Aisa but can't make out what she's saying due to bad reception underground. Inside the arcade, Index pulls Hyoka along into a changing booth where they can put on costumes for the photo booth. Touma walks into the arcade and wonders where the girls went, and Hyoka accidentally pulls down the curtains in front of the changing booth. As Touma stare at the revealing costumes Index and Hyoka are wearing, Index becomes angry and starts biting Touma.I don't get what Index got angry about. You had to show off your costumes to Touma eventually right?The only things I can think for this picture is constipation and fart jokes.After getting the cosplay photos, Touma and the girls leave the arcade and Index hands a copy of the photos to Hyoka. Index comments that life as a student is pretty fun, but Touma states that there are boring lectures and hellish tests to go through. As they walk through the mall, Index and Hyoka realize a voice seems to be talking within their heads, but Touma doesn't hear anything. The three of them turn around and see a girl from Judgment. The girl tried numerous times to communicate to Touma's group via telepathy, but it doesn't work because of Touma's right hand. After another failed attempt at telepathy, the Judgment girl states that there is a suspected terrorist in the mall so Touma and the girls should head for nearest exit before the mall is locked down.Touma and Index to Hyoka: You stay out of this! This is an argument between couples!Touma and the girls head for nearest exit after being warned by the Judgment member. At the exit stairs, Touma and company suddenly hear Sherry's voice coming from an eye in the wall. Index examines the eye and concludes it is the work of magic. Having found her target, Sherry tells Touma and company that the mall will be their grave and the mall suddenly starts shaking. The lights in the mall go out and the stairs are closed by blast doors, trapping many shoppers along with Touma and the girls. Touma tells Index and Hyoka to hide, but Index disagrees and tells Touma and Hyoka to hide. Touma states that Index can't fight with her small body, while Index states that Touma is newbie when it comes to understanding magic. Hyoka wonders if there'a anything she can do but both Touma and Index answer no. The three suddenly hears footsteps running towards them, and both Index and Touma try to play the hero but they end up tripping over each other.The good guys knocked themselves out before the main event. How disappointing.Looks like Touma's philandering ways has been found out by both girls.Mikoto and Kuroko are running through the mall and they suddenly hear the meows of a kitten. The two Judgment members run over to investigate and they find Index lying on top of Touma with Sphinx sandwiched in between. Upon seeing Mikoto, Index immediately becomes confrontational and both Index and Mikoto demand an explanation from Touma about the other girl. Kuroko takes the opportunity to make a snide comment about Mikoto giving her heart away to Touma, and Mikoto vehemently denies it. Touma asks Kuroko about the situation, and Kuroko states that she is here to teleport the trapped people to safety. Kuroko states that she can only teleport two persons at a time, and Touma can't be teleported because of his right hand, so the group starts talking about who should leave first. Index insists that Mikoto and Hyoka be taken to safety while Mikoto insists Index and Hyoka go first, but Kuroko telelports Index and Mikoto away instead. After Kuroko is gone with her two passengers, another explosion shakes the mall and sounds of gunfire can be heard. Touma tells Hyoka to stay put and wait for Kuroko to return while he'll go and stop the magician.No wonder the Anti-Skills can't beat Sherry. They don't even know how to hold their guns properly. The stock is supposed to rest against your shoulder unless you want the scope to take out your eye.Somewhere in the shopping center, Aiho and the Anti-Skills are shooting at Sherry's golem Alice but their bullets have no effect. An Anti-Skills member pulls out a grenade and prepares to throw at Alice, but Alice stomps on the ground causing the Anti-Skill to drop the grenade which engulfs the hallway with its explosion. Touma arrives and spots an injured Aiho leaning against her sandbag barrier. Aiho recognizes Touma as one of Komoe's slacker students but she's too injured to stop Touma from crossing the barrier to face Sherry and her golem. Sherry recognizes Touma as the Imagine Breaker and introduces herself as a member of the Church of England. Touma wonders why someone from Index's organization is out causing trouble, and Sherry answers it's because she wants to spark a conflict. Sherry commands Alice to attack Touma, and Touma cannot get close enough to the golem to negate it with his right hand. Touma suddenly spots Hyoka standing behind him and he yells for Hyoka to get down as Alice smashes the floor. Hyoka is hit in the head by a piece of flying debris and is knocked to the ground. Touma runs over to check on Hyoka and is shocked by what he sees. Instead of bleeding, a piece of Hyoka's face is gone and inside her head is a rotating and glowing prism. Hyoka suddenly gets back up and is shocked to by her own reflection. The shock causes Hyoka to run towards Alice, and Sherry commands Alice to swat Hyoka. After being bounced from the ceiling back to the ground, Hyoka get back up in a strange way, screams, and runs off in the direction that Sherry came from. Sherry commands Alice to bash the ceiling to cut Touma off so she can go after Hyoka without any distraction.Hyoka: Wow... if I stay like this then I don't have to worry about needing a light to read.Kuroko has returned to the shopping center and wonders where Hyoka and Touma wandered off to. Kuroko then spots some trapped shoppers and decides that she has to get them out of the mall first. Meanwhile, Touma is wondering what's going on with Hyoka when he gets a phone call from Komoe-sensei. Komoe states that Aisa had tried to phone Touma many times but couldn't get through, and she states that she has something important to tell Touma. Touma thinks Komoe is talking about some unrelated business but Komoe states that she's talking about Hyoka. Komoe explains that none of the cameras in the school had picked up Hyoka even though several people clearly saw her, and she concludes that Hyoka is not a human but a self-conscious entity created by the AIM emitted from Academy City's espers. Hyoka has developed enough that she even believes that she is a human. After listening to Komoe's explanation, Touma states that he'll still save Hyoka regardless of what she is, and this is the answer that Komoe wants to hear. After ending the phone call, Touma climbs over the wreckage in search for Hyoka and Sherry.Komoe to Touma: Guess what? Next week we'll have an exam on everything from the last term. Isn't that fun?Somewhere in the mall, Hyoka is sitting by a wall and her face, hair, and even glasses regenerate. Just as Hyoka puts on her glasses, Sherry and her golem arrive and Sherry is disappointed that the "Key to Imaginary Numbers" is just a sobbing girl. Sherry then states Hyoka is a monster just like Alice and makes fun of Hyoka for having human feelings. Sherry commands Alice to strike Hyoka down but Touma arrives in time and stops the golem with his right hand.Looks like the Hero Syndrome is getting worse for Touma.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~This episode was pretty decent and builds things up nicely for next week's showdown between Touma and Sherry. It's clear that Sherry is after Hyoka, who is supposedly "Key to Imaginary Numbers" or something like that. Sherry seems to be a religious fanatic who wants to start a war between the Church of England and Academy City, but I'm not sure how going after Hyoka will help her cause. As Komoe had explained, Hyoka is just some sort of physical anomaly created by the mingling of AIM from the city's population of espers, but nobody knows if destroying her will do anything to the Academy City. To Aru Majutsu no Index is a show where confusing magic/science concepts are common place, but at least this episode didn't get bogged down by all the cryptic and probably inconsequential knowledge.It's clear from this episode that Touma thinks that he's a hero of justice now. It's true that Touma did survive some tough situations and defeated some strong opponents, but I think the confidence is getting to his head a little bit. Touma is basically useless against an opponent who is good at hand-to-hand combat (ex. Kaori and Motoharu), and his right hand doesn't work against regular firearms or weapons either. Touma should be okay this time though unless Sherry kicks him the balls or jabs her pastel into his eye.Another thing to mention is that the first meeting between Index and Mikoto was pretty funny as expected. The two front-runners for Touma's affection instantly recognized each other as the enemy. I thought it was a little strange that Index didn't recognize Mikoto as she had met Misaka Imouto before, but I suppose Index might have forgotten about it. Anyways, in terms of the competition, Biri-biri might be tsundere, but our young nun has the intrinsic advantage of living together with Touma. Aisa is currently a distant third and can only make phone calls lol.This episode has set things up nicely for the fight between Touma and Sherry. Let's hope that fight can live up to the build-up (and won't flop like Touma vs. Accelerator fight).
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