Accelerator

The **Accelerator** ( *Ippō Tsūkō (Akuserarēta)*?, lit. "One-Way Road") is the name used to refer to the 1st-ranked Level 5, the strongest esper currently residing in Academy City.

He is the second protagonist of the Science Side in the *Toaru Majutsu no Index* series. First appearing chronologically in *Toaru Majutsu no Index* as an antagonist, he later becomes the male protagonist of the Science Side after being defeated by Kamijou Touma. His journey to a more "heroic" role in the story progresses after meeting and saving Last Order and is forced into an ironic twist of fate where his life now depends on the Sisters, clones he previously killed by the thousands. He is also a major antagonistic character in *Toaru Kagaku no Railgun* and the protagonist of *Toaru Kagaku no Accelerator*.

In his role as a protagonist, he is forced to deal with the cruel Dark Side of Academy City and the secret conspiracies surrounding it. As the most powerful esper of Academy City, his existence and powers are tied to the plans of Aleister Crowley, the founder of Academy City, alongside Kamijou Touma.

## Appearance

Accelerator appears as a skinny teen and has pale skin, moppy white hair, and red eyes. This is caused by his ability, as it blocks ultraviolet rays, thereby preventing his body from producing melanin. His ability also reduces the outside influence so much that it causes a loss of balance in his hormones, giving him what he calls an "androgynous appearance,"[2] although there is definite evidence stated throughout the series that he is a boy.

He also seems to have an affinity for black and white-themed clothing. He changes his initial clothing from a black shirt with white striped patterns to a white shirt with V patterns sometime between Old Testament Volume 5 and Old Testament Volume 8. He starts wearing a choker-style electrode to aid him with mobility, computation, and communication, although he states that it makes up for less than half of his former calculation abilities, and uses a crutch after Old Testament Volume 5.

When he is enraged or excited such as when fighting a strong or amusing opponent e.g Kamijou Touma during their first encounter, he breaks into a wide grin and laughs, giving him a maniacal and sadistic appearance.

## Personality

Due to the potential of his ability, Accelerator has been targeted by assassins and researchers throughout his life. As a result, he only believes in power and trusts no one. While fighting, he invokes fear and has a sadistic tone. He willingly joins the SISTER experiment to gain a reputation as the most powerful and feared esper so that no one would dare to be foolish enough to challenge him and won't hesitate to kill anyone who gets in his way. The Sisters' memories of his behavior during the experiment may suggest that he is, in a way, a pacifist; because his power won't disappear, the only way he sees an end to the fighting is to be so strong and sadistic that no one would dare to raise a finger against him. He even seems to attempt to frighten the Sisters out of fighting or otherwise encourage them to refuse their battles.[3]

After meeting Last Order, he strives to protect her. He saved her from Amai Ao's plot and from being pursued by the Hound Dogs. He treats Index in a similar fashion, such as when he buys her lunch while searching for Last Order and by protecting her from the Hound Dogs.[4] By Volume 19, he has mellowed out to the point that he actually lectures a child in order to prevent him from getting himself killed after a hostage situation. In spite of this, he does so in a violent way. In volume 15 he styles himself as the perfect villain in contrast to Touma being the ideal hero. However, despite his words, there is no mention in the narration that he has killed anyone and goes out of his way to incapacitate only his enemies up until his battle with Teitoku, who challenges his contradictory way of thinking. This contrast with Touma is hinted at throughout the novels after Volume 5 when it is shown that he both idolizes and is slightly jealous of Touma's heroic personality, and is outright shown when he and Touma finally come to blows in Volume 20. By comparison according to Heaven Canceller, Touma and Accelerator are very similar, but their methods are like opposite sides of a coin; Touma is able to protect his loved ones without killing and is able to stand by their side, while Accelerator protects his loved ones through violent methods and even admits that he is unable to stand by Last Order and Yomikawa Aiho's side. Deep down, he is someone that aches for the light, as shown when Yomikawa Aiho was able to walk up to him and slowly take a gun from his hands before he tried to finish off Kakine Teitoku after their fight,[5] and later when he refused to hurt a Misaka Worst clone and tried to heal her wounds after she tried to kill herself.[6] His obsession with heroes and villains is excised after his defeat in his second fight with Kamijou Touma, telling him to reject the confines of heroes and villains and just do whatever he needs to protect those he cares for.

Aiwass has also commented on the differences between Touma and Accelerator – stating how Accelerator craves for the wholesomeness of being a 'hero' like Touma, even to the point that he declared himself evil because he believes he cannot reach that level. He is someone that tries hard to redeem himself.[7]

Accelerator was shown to often underestimate his enemies earlier in the series, which led to his loss against Touma. However, after nearly being killed by Kihara Amata and fighting Komaba Ritoku, he no longer underestimates his enemies. This fact is noted by one of the terrorists in Hula Hoop in Volume 19 as possibly being the most terrifying thing about him: he always uses exactly how much force he needs to in order to defeat his enemy: no more and no less. If he ever underestimated his enemies, it would have given them an opening they could have exploited, but since he didn't, he simply wiped them out.[8]

In Volume 22’s afterword the author states that what Accelerator wants most is not a lover but a family, and states Last Order is like his child he has to take care of. Also in Volume 22, Misaka Worst said half-jokingly she wants the same fatherly treatment he gives to the other Misaka clones.[9]

## Abilities

### The Accelerator

Accelerator is named after his ability. It creates a thin field of AIMaround him, which allows him to modify the vector values of anything he touches. After the events of Volume 5, his brain has been damaged, and he has to rely on a choker-style electrode that connects him to the Misaka Network. The brainwave network allows him to use language, as well as making up for his lost ability to make calculations, although it is stated that it's less than half of what he once had. Furthermore the network enables Accelerator to reflect ultraviolet rays even when he isn't in esper mode.[79] When using the network in esper mode, the battery of the electrode initially only lasts fifteen minutes. That changes in when he joins GROUP and its technical team cranks his time up to thirty minutes. He does not need the Misaka Network to use his abilities when in an awakened state.

He is shown to be far stronger than any other Level 5 in Academy City, being able to easily defeat the #2 Level 5 esper Kakine Teitoku without the use of his black wings. It should be noted that this fight took place after Accelerator's brain was damaged and he was forced to rely on the Misaka Network to do his calculations, which reduced him to having less than half of his former calculation abilities. Accelerator has stated that as long as he has experienced it, he can analyze forces unknown to him, by following the vectors that have been applied, almost similarly to the immune system. He used this ability to understand Aiwass' "inexplicable laws."

#### Redirection

He can change the vector values of anything by touch; for example, he kills a Sister clone by reversing the flow of blood inside her body after putting his finger inside her wound. Furthermore, this ability is automatic, so projectiles like bullets or explosives have no effect on him, as they will be redirected, even if he is unaware of their presence. He must consciously allow things like gravity and light to affect him. It is because of his ability that he has an albino appearance, as his "reflection" blocks all unnecessary ultraviolet radiation, thereby preventing the skin from manufacturing melanin. However, if one can find their way "around" his redirection ability (as demonstrated by Touma and Kihara Amata), it is shown to be rather useless, marking Accelerator as a Glass Cannon due to having a strong ability but a somewhat weak body (Touma/Kihara Amata managed to bring him down to his feet in only around 7-10 blows).

#### Wings

He acquires black wings towards the end of volume 13 when he has an epiphany before being nearly killed by Kihara Amata, and fully awakens in his fight against the #2 level 5, Kakine Teitoku in Volume 15, during which he displays a massive superiority in power. Whenever he awakens, Accelerator usually loses almost all control of himself and begins to speak in the language of the angels. He gains the ability to understand laws that are hitherto unknown and unexplainable to him, and no longer needs contact with vectors in order to control them. When under tremendous emotional pressure, he manifests massive black wings, stated to be made of the same "Dark Matter" that Kakine Teitoku creates with his ability. These wings do all the vector-related calculations for him, implied to be much faster than his original capabilities, and as a result he does not need the Misaka Network to manipulate vectors in this state. In volume 22, due to his pillar of support being changed after his second defeat by Touma, he manifests white wings and a halo and is able to block a massive amount of Telesma that Fiamma of the Right launches from the Star of Bethlehem. The angelic nature of his ability is described as "The One Who Wields the Power of God" (「神にも等しい力の片鱗を振るう者」 *Kami nimo hitoshii chikara no henrin wo furuu mono*?).

### MagicEdit

Accelerator has demonstrated the ability to use magic. In volume 22, he used his vector ability to interpret the song used by Index to save Last Order and repeated the breathing method, casting the spell. As this was a pure magic spell, he suffered serious harm but saved Last Order. This is a possible factor that lead to Accelerator gaining White Wings, replacing his Black ones.[80] After an explanation on the theory of magic provided by Leivinia Birdway, Accelerator displays his extreme delicate control over magic to having a side effect of using magic as unnaturally sweating rather than rupture of blood vessels and organ damage.[81] An example of this is even when he has only a rough idea what Feng Shui was, he is able to use a limited magic detection and then combine it with his knowledge of group psychology to increase its accuracy.[81] However, Magic still presents a great foil to Accelerator, as when he was tricked into fulfilling the conditions to perform a spell by magician disguised as a Trident member he suffered from the rejection reaction without having taken steps to lower the damage beforehand, which caused the blood to burst from his right arm. The extreme pain involved lowered his calculation ability to a point where he was unable to use his Reflection ability, leaving him helpless.[82]

### Other abilities

1. **High-level Intellect:** Accelerator has shown frequently to possess a very high intellect. For starters, his esper ability is shown to require complex calculations to function, with him being skilled enough in this field to come up with a new application on the fly during his battle against Touma. He also appears to have a very good memory, as he memorized the codes for Last Order's default mind state and was able to remotely return her to that condition, thus erasing the virus planted into her by Amai Ao. Later, he also starts to display clever strategies in battle, as when he was able to take out the Hound Dogs using firearms, which he utilized for the first time against them, along with exploiting his immediate environment and his enemies' psychological state to his advantage, without using his esper ability. Even with less than half of his calculation ability, it is great enough to allow Accelerator to calculate and analyze all the 25,000 different kinds of energy of Kakine Teitoku's Dark Matter, while fighting on par with him and protecting bystanders. Finally, he was able to figure out a way to block the signal used to shut off his electrode and to figure out ways to diminish the harmful influence magic has on his body as an esper, which is a feat only one other individual has accomplished so far. He is also fairly skilled at identifying spies; as well as being a skilled interrogator, as he was seen to easily break a Russian spy with Misaka Worst's help.
2. **Machine Ingenuity:** Accelerator is also quite competent with machinery and technology, evident in when he modifies his cane with various gravity sensors and small motors to help better support himself. He also implants in it a mechanism to overcome the Board of Directors and their subordinates' means to shut off his choker-style electrode by memorizing the wavelength they use and blocking that wavelength afterwards.
3. **Marksmanship:** After his fight with Kihara Amata, Accelerator realizes that he can't consistently rely on his power. As such, he trains with firearms and is shown to be extremely proficient in their usage. With his left, weaker hand, he is able to finish off a round of practice in 70 seconds. He commented that his reloading of a pistol in two seconds with just one hand and his teeth is too slow, even though he was simply testing the gun.
4. **Driving skill:** Accelerator displays enough skill to drive a motorbike, seemingly without issues.[83]

### Equipment

* **Choker-style electrode**: After he was shot by in the head, Accelerator, despite having survived, had his frontal lobe badly damaged and lost his ability to walk or use his motor skills, as well as his verbal and calculation abilities, preventing him from properly reading and speaking. This unique electrode, which is attached in his head, connects him with the Misaka Network and thanks to the limited connection to the brainwave network he has gained enough calculation ability to think normally, understand and speak, walk, etc. The choker has three modes: off, normal mode, and esper mode, where the battery runs out in 15 minutes after entering this mode. This was later modified to 30 minutes, but it was also tampered with at the same time with a safety device that allows for someone to remotely prevent the device from switching to esper mode.
* **Modified crutch**: The crutch Accelerator always uses to support his body when he is in normal mode contains a small motor and weight distribution sensors that allows it to determine Accelerator's center of gravity. Instead of ending a single leg like a regular crutch, it ends with four legs attached to the end like a microphone stand, which, according to the narration, "holds the ground" helping Accelerator to get up when he is down. The staff along with the four legs can be retracted in and out of the cuff. However, its more important feature is a component inserted by Accelerator that blocks other interference devices. The crutch allows for Accelerator to block specific wavelengths after successfully analyzing it and, using the equipment in the crutch, generate an interfering wavelength specifically engineered to block the original wavelength.

## TMNT X Pokemon

Accelerator is one of the many villains you will face throughout the game. He's one of the most powerful on the difficulty scale.

## Trivia

* Accelerator noticed after initiating a dust explosion in his fight with Touma that the temporary lack of oxygen almost killed him. Because of this he realizes that even if he took on a direct blast from a nuclear weapon, he would then die from the lack of oxygen it caused. But in the novel, he subjects the idea that he could use an oxygen tank to remedy that situation, as some are made the size of hairspray bottles.
* Accelerator is the first known character who has managed to fill Index's stomach. Even when Maika cooks for Index, she only manages to fill 1/3 of Index's stomach according to Motoharu.
* Although Tree Diagram predicted that in a fight between him and Misaka Mikoto, she would die in 185 moves, the version of the SISTERS Arc in the Railgun manga shows that she would have been killed just by reflecting her strongest move, the Railgun, in 3 moves. Of course, this prediction is probably based on Accelerator's tendency to play with his opponents.
* His voice actor, Okamoto Nobuhiko, won twice in the Annual Seiyuu awards for his role as Accelerator. He first won Best Male Rookie in 2008 for his role in Index, and he also won Best Supporting Actor in 2010 for Index II. These achievements were both pointed out in the Index-tan specials.
	+ The Seiyuu also later play the same type role as Karma Akabane which was thought to be strongest of all but later defeated by main protagonist, Nagisa on a duel at Assassination Classroom.
* When spoilers on Volume 20 was first released, there was the misconception that Accelerator had somehow managed split the country Russia into two halves. Later this is found to be false, stemming from a mistranslation in the narration at the part where Accelerator has just defeated Misaka Worst.
* He is shown to enjoy coffee as there are instances in the light novel of him buying / wanting to buy coffee. He enjoys the same brand of coffee that Touma likes (black coffee without sugar), and at least once (Volume 5 light novel, before encountering Last Order and after his defeat from Touma) he actually bought every coffee can left in the store, "foiling" Touma's attempt to buy coffee the next day (another possible joking nod to Touma's "misfortune") .
* Due to his unusual introduction to Last Order and his equally unusual reaction to seeing her naked, not to mention their close relationship and the way he attracted Index's attention in Volume 12-13, fans have been joking that Accelerator might secretly be a lolicon. Misaka Worst lampshades this in New Testament Volume 1, because Accelerator is looking to help Fremea Seivelun.[84]
* The character Add from the Korean MMORPG Elsword bears a striking resemblance to Accelerator. Although looking similar to Add, KoG confirmed that they had no intention of giving Add a same personality as Accelerator, confirming the only thing similar between the two is the voice actor.
* One other possible trait that Add shares with Accelerator aside from his appearance and slightly close psychopathic personality is that one of his jobs/paths/classes are called Diabolic Esper, which is a reference to the Toaru world involving espers.

## Quotes

* (To Misaka 10032 in Vol 3)*"I strive for something beyond the strongest, that challenging me would be the most ridiculous thought ever, that fighting me would be a sin!"*
* (To Last Order in Vol 5)*"People have done this much to you. Sorry for taking so long...to save you".*
* (To Amai Ao in Vol 5)*"That's right, I killed over 10,000 of the Sisters, but this doesn't mean that I should just leave the remaining 10,000 to die. I know that these words are hypocritical, I know that I have no right to say such words, but no matter how much of scum bags we are, no matter how many excuses we put forward, those can't be the reasons to kill this brat!!!"*
* (To Musujime Awaki in Vol 8)*"You’re really pitiful. Listen, I’ll tell you one thing. That day, my brain was damaged alright. Looking at me now, you should know, right? That I can only use the electrodes and let the calculation work be done by others, right? If I enter a place where I can’t receive the clones’ electrowaves, I can’t let the clones do the calculation work for me. And even after therapy, I can’t even get half of my power. The battery of this thing can only allow me to fight for 15 minutes——But then again, just because I’ve gotten weaker, it doesn’t mean that you got stronger, RIGHT?"*
* (To Musujime Awaki in Vol 8)*“I'M SORRY, FROM HERE ON OUT, THE PATH IS ONLY A "ONE-WAY ROAD"!! YOU CAN'T ADVANCE, JUST HIDE BEHIND YOUR TAIL AND CRY YOUR WAY HOME!”*
* (To Yomikawa Aiho in Vol 12) *"It's impossible for me to show anyone good will. It's futile. What good is it to pay back a single yen on a one hundred million yen debt? I have no intention of paying out any good will if it will be crushed under nothing but the interest. It's ridiculous to even think about a joyous day when I've finished paying back it all. It gives me chills"*
* (To the maintenance crew member in Vol 14)*"They may all look the same to you, but there are different kinds and different levels of evil. A first-class villain doesn't target honest lives."*
* (In Vol 14, referring to Academy City's troops)*"Someone needs to tell those assholes there's such a thing as too much force. Using a blade for severing continents on a flesh-and-blood human is just wrong. I mean, how am I supposed to confirm the remains? Well, since the riots stopped after the blast, I guess the objective was carried out."*
* (To Tsuchimikado Motoharu in Vol 15, referring to Last Order)*"What's with that brat showing up in a situation like this!? That 'God' bastard sure is messing around!"*
* (To Kakine Teitoku in Vol. 15) *"Fine, now is a good time to teach you something: even Villains have standards!"*
* (When asked who he is in Vol.19)*“A Villain that’s no better than a piece of shit.”*
* (To child in Vol.19) *"I’m the Strongest Level 5, I don’t need brats worrying about me. Listen, even if someone is suffering before you, the kind of person that can take up arms without hesitation to shoot down the villain is no better than a villain himself. The kind that doesn’t care about others, doesn’t give 2nd chances; someone that kills if given a reason, is definitely not a hero. You don’t have to become that kind of person. That’s my specialty. Only I have to go through that"*
* (Vol. 20) *“You god damn fucking pieces of shit!! You rotten fuckers look down on me thinking my powers can only be used to kill!! I’ll show you right now!! Just like when I saved that brat from Amai’s virus back then, I’ll show you that I have the power to proteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeecccccccccccccccccccccccccccccctttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt!!”*
* (To Touma in Vol. 20)*“It’s ridiculous that a villain who was no better than a piece of shit like me was guarding her!! No matter how you think about it something must have been wrong!! How could I possibly be a hero!! No matter what, I can only choose the blood-stained path!! Why do I have to do all these things!! If a hero like you had shown up earlier, then something like this mix-up of position wouldn’t have happened!! That brat would not had to have suffered as much this way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”*
* (Vol. 21, talking about Last Order chapter 8) *"AAH!~ Fuck, I admit it! I want to protect her! I don't want to lose her!! I don't even want to think about the possibility of losing her!! I will face anything in order to protect this dream of mine!!!!"*
* (To Last Orderin Vol. 22)*"I wanted to be with you forever, too."*
* (Vol. 22)*"I get it... this is what it means to fight to protect."*
* (Vol. 22)*"This is not a negotiation, a suggestion, a deal, an entreaty, an agreement, a compromise, or a capitulation. It’s my triumphant return, you fuckers."*
* (NT: Vol. 1) *"It’s true I have no real reason to protect her, but that’s no reason to just let her die."*
* (To Fräulein Kreutune, from NT6): *"Fly"*
* (To Mugino Shizuri, about the Dark Matter Sisters, from NT6): *"I know…I know that. I know I’m just licking my own wounds. I know they only look like the real thing because I’m superimposing my own wounds over them. But even so…That is…They are the final proof that those I killed ever existed. No matter how horrible a method they are being used for, they are still the final evidence that the lives I stole were ever here!!"*
* (To the "heroes" he is fighting, from NT7): *"Interesting. Then let’s put you to the test, heroes. I’ll use these bloody hands to see if you are worthy of that name!!"*
* (To Touma, about Othinus, from NT10): "*I'm only gonna bother looking after the people in my cell phone's memory. But that person you have behind you might destroy everything in the world and kill off all of mankind. Among those six or seven billion are the few I know, so that's a good enough reason for me to fight her. I won't let you say otherwise."*
* (To Touma and Aleister Crowley, from NT19): "*You can’t just write off everything they’ve done because ‘all’s well that ends well’. Whether you were blinded by greed or were nudged in that direction by someone, everyone is carrying something like that. We’re living on despite the suffering. You can’t just set that burden aside because it’s heavy!! You have to face it! Face yourself, you son of a bitch!! If you can’t do that, I’ll grab you by the hair and make you look! It’s the same damn thing you’ve done to so many other people!!"*