Chương 319: Double Plot Twist
In the end, Ren and Yui finalized the contract to begin the serialization of Gintama. At the same time, A Certain Scientific Railgun had reached the S-Arc in its ongoing updates.
That evening, Daniel returned home with the latest issue of Picca Comics and immediately flipped to A Certain Scientific Railgun.
To be honest, he hadn't planned on reading it. However, the fan community was abuzz with chatter, and the calls for him to review the series had grown louder.
Many fans mentioned that Railgun had taken on darker, more intense themes that resembled the Porter's signature style of "dark and gritty" storytelling. What had once been a lighthearted slice-of-life series had morphed into something much more emotionally heavy, which piqued Daniel's curiosity.
As a dedicated manga reviewer who valued his fanbase, Daniel was determined to see what the fuss was about.
From what he'd seen in online discussions, Railgun was originally a light yuri-themed slice-of-life series, with some battles involving supernatural powers mixed in.
Well, maybe not quite a "light yuri" series.
Ren had been aware of some of the flaws in the story from the start. Unlike the original anime adaptation of the Railgun series, Ren hadn't drastically altered the timeline or cut out major connections to A Certain Magical Index, nor had he reduced the role of the male protagonist, Touma Kamijou.
Ren intended to use Railgun to build hype for a potential future adaptation of A Certain Magical Index, so compared to the previous version, the yuri undertones had been toned down significantly.
"Looks like I've got my work cut out for me today," Daniel muttered to himself as he gathered all the previous volumes of Railgun.
Being a responsible and thorough manga critic, Daniel wasn't the type to just read the current chapters and form an opinion based on that alone. He needed to take in the entire story to avoid missing important details or context.
Plus, there might be foreshadowing hidden in earlier chapters that he needed to catch.
Time passed, and after a while, Daniel rubbed his temples.
The earlier chapters were just as the online reviews had described—plenty of lighthearted moments, but perhaps too much day-to-day content and an overwhelming amount of yuri subtext for his taste. As someone indifferent to yuri themes, Daniel found it a bit tiresome.
However, there were some standout moments, particularly the Level Upper arc, which had grabbed his attention.
He initially thought Touma would play a bigger role as the male protagonist, but after the Level Upper incident wrapped up, Touma disappeared from the story and only popped up briefly in a few panels.
"But there's no way Ren would just use him as a plot device to wrap up the Level Upper arc, right?"
Daniel held onto hope that Touma would reappear later in the series.
With that in mind, Daniel turned to the chapters that fans had been praising, hoping to see where the story took a darker turn.
The new arc began with rumors spreading around Academy City that people could find cash cards scattered in remote locations. Curious about these claims, Misaka Mikoto (the protagonist) followed a group of delinquent students to a suspicious building where the cards were supposedly stashed.
Inside, Mikoto witnessed the delinquents being wiped out by a mysterious girl wielding a strange power.
When Mikoto confronted the girl, the stranger said something that confused both her and Daniel: "You're... the original, aren't you?"
At first, both Mikoto and Daniel were perplexed. What did she mean by "original"? Was there a mistake in the dialogue?
However, Daniel's mind quickly started racing. He remembered something from earlier chapters—there had been rumors in Academy City about cloning a Level 5 esper, and a doctor had once mentioned using Misaka's DNA to help patients when she was younger.
"Wait, could this mysterious girl be a clone of Misaka?" Daniel realized.
Suddenly, the pieces started to fall into place.
But as Daniel thought about it more, his concern grew. If someone had tricked Misaka into giving up her DNA to create clones, what were the implications?
In many stories, cloning experiments often led to some sort of malevolent plot or tragic accident. Could this be one of those situations?
His curiosity fully piqued, Daniel eagerly read on.
As the story unfolded, Mikoto became more and more intrigued by the mysterious girl and eventually uncovered her true identity. The girl had been involved with Yamashita University Hospital and the Tokiguchi Pharmaceuticals' Seventh Pharmaceutical Research Center.
Yamashita University... the same place where Misaka had unwittingly given up her DNA.
Now, Misaka's suspicions deepened, and she decided to investigate further.
That night, disguised in different clothing, Mikoto infiltrated the pharmaceutical company's building. There, she discovered information about a secret project to create clones of herself—the "Sisters Project."
"Suspended indefinitely?" Daniel muttered to himself as he read a passage in Chapter 3 that mentioned the project had been halted.
He couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. Why dedicate so much time to Mikoto's infiltration if the project had been shut down?
Sure enough, at the end of Chapter 3, Daniel's suspicions were confirmed when a clone of Mikoto appeared at the company!
"This just got interesting!" Daniel thought.
While the explanation could have been that these were leftover clones from a past experiment, Daniel had a gut feeling that the project was still ongoing. But what was the true purpose of this project?
Were they building an army of Misaka clones to take over the world? Or maybe they were producing clones to address a growing population of lonely men by giving each of them their very own Misaka?
Chuckling at his outlandish theories, Daniel flipped to Chapter 4.
Sure enough, the cloning project was still active, and Daniel watched as more Misaka clones were being created. He even witnessed one being "born" in a laboratory setting.
Of course, certain parts were censored, which made Daniel smirk.
"If the Porter ever entered the doujinshi world, I'm sure he'd be incredibly popular," Daniel mused. "He really knows how to cater to certain tastes."
The story continued as Mikoto spent a day in the park playing with children, only to suddenly sense a familiar power nearby. Following the energy, she finally came face to face with her clone.
Uh-oh!
The secret cloning project had been discovered!
Daniel eagerly anticipated how Mikoto would react next.
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