Academy City Level 6 Experiments

Both in Toaru Majutsu no Index and Toaru Kagaku no Railgun, there are mentions of scientists in Academy City who work in the development of the first Level 6 Power User, one whose abilities are supposedly able to reach "the will of heaven". This article focuses on the two noted research projects which aim in creating the first ever Level 6: the SYSTEM project of Toaru Kagaku no Railgun and the Level 6 Shift Project of Toaru Majutsu no Index.

The "Level 6 Shift" Project
The Level 6 Shift is the development project initiated by scientists in Academy City, whose purpose is to create a Level 6 from a Level 5 Power User, namely Accelerator. Its approach is similar to acquiring experience in a role-playing game, where the primary test subject is to defeat 125 Level 5 Power Users as this, according to Tree Diagram, will allow him to become a Level 6. Because of the shortage of available Level 5 Power Users in Academy City, they decided to create clones of one of the Level 5s, Misaka Mikoto, exactly 20,000 clones with psychic potential of a Level 3, to attain the same results. This cloning project was called the Sisters project.

SYSTEM Project
In Toaru Kagaku no Railgun, this project was introduced as part of the plan by lead researcher Kihara Gensei's granddaughter Telestina Lifeline to create a Level 6. They took on a different approach: by using chemicals and immoral medical procedures, they produce "crystallized esper essence" which raw materials are taken from test subjects. The essence extracted will then be consumed by certain espers, which would produce Level 6 espers if successful.