Toaru Kagaku no Railgun Manga Chapter 069

The 69th chapter of the Toaru Kagaku no Railgun manga was released on March 26, 2014. The chapter involves Touma and Gunha's final efforts to save Mikoto after Kuroko and Misaki defeated Mitori and Gensei respectively.

By the release of the 10th volume of the Toaru Kagaku no Railgun manga, the contents of chapter 69 are later moved to the 67th chapter in the tankobon.

Synopsis
Now that there is now no one to control Mikoto's psyche and that Exterior is no longer able to connect her to the Misaka Network, Mikoto's subconsciousness wakes up, but she has no control over her transformed body, as the great black sphere of energy continues to grow, and energy exudes from the ground. After she wakes, her surroundings that have been black before slowly crumble, however, at the same time, tendril like objects coming from the darkness form a hand and try to grab her, likely coercing her to continue to destroy Academy City. This likely represents that part of her that wants to destroy Academy City. Moreover, Mikoto describes it as not her power.

As the sphere continue to grow, Touma notices the change, and later explains it to Gunha who has become conscious again this and that Mikoto cannot suppress her power. Gunha tries to convince Touma, saying that the thing that hit him before was compressed energy, but the sphere now is made of something not of their world and cannot be understood. Gunha says that he should be able to stop it with a self-destruction technique, sacrificing himself. However, Touma convinces him that he will deal with it himself and that Gunha should cover him. Impressed by his “guts”, Gunha uses his power to “part” the black mass of energy that covers the ground where Mikoto is floating on, allowing for Touma to move.

Meanwhile, Mikoto seeing that there is no way to stop the sphere, which she says that can now destroy more than the city, formulates a plan to compress it enough so that her body can cover the ensuing explosion. Then Mikoto notices Touma coming towards the sphere, Mikoto screams towards him, saying that what he sees before him is not an esper power, and since it was called in by her desire to destroy the parts of the city she doesn’t like she should be the one to stop it. It is implied that Touma heard all that Mikoto says to him. Touma then touches the sphere with his right hand, but the power is too great for his arm to bear and it is ripped from his body intact.

At that moment, a dragon appears from where the right arm was ripped off, and then bites the sphere. It bites the black sphere and destroys the black sphere, making Mikoto's transformation crumble away.

The halo cracks as well as the “starry sky” form of her head and chest as if it was dried paint chipping away. Touma then taps her head with his left fist. He says that, although he knows that there is a side of Academy City that is bad and is being controlled by important people that they can’t touch, even if she eliminated it by force he doubts that it would bring about the kind of world she wants. He says that he is sure that there are people other than him who are working to help her, and that they will help her change things bit by bit, including him. And Mikoto agrees with tears in her eyes. With that Touma gives her his jacket, as the dark skies part away to make for the blue sky.

Touma’s arm later regenerates, much to Mikoto’s surprise. Meanwhile, Gunha, Touma, and Mikoto all notice the metal that has appeared on the ground.

Major events

 * Mikoto is released from the effects of Mental Out connecting her to the Misaka Network with a little help from Touma and Gunha.

Characters
By order of appearance:
 * Kouzaku Mitori (Chapter image only)
 * Misaka Mikoto
 * Kamijou Touma
 * Sogiita Gunha
 * Shokuhou Misaki (referenced only)
 * Shirai Kuroko (fantasy only)
 * Uiharu Kazari (fantasy only)
 * Saten Ruiko (fantasy only)
 * Kongou Mitsuko (fantasy only)
 * Wannai Kinuho (fantasy only)
 * Awatsuki Maaya (fantasy only)
 * Misaka 10032 (fantasy only)

Abilities

 * Liquid Shadow - Kouzaku Mitori, Level 4 (Chapter image)
 * Railgun (ability) with Misaka Network - Misaka Mikoto, Level 5
 * Unknown - Sogiita Gunha, Level 5
 * Imagine Breaker - Kamijou Touma, Level 0

New Abilities
No new abilities were introduced in this chapter.

Locations

 * Academy City
 * Exterior

Trivia

 * Chronologically, this marks the second time Touma's right arm is removed from his body, and the second time the "Dragon" appears from within it as a result. This indicates that when Aureolus Izzard cut Touma's arm back in the second light novel volume it wasn't just mere imagination as both Mikoto and Gunha see it and the latter references the dragon appearing.

Referbacks

 * Gunha references that the large dark sphere the berserk Misaka Mikoto is creating as something that is from another world that cannot be understood, implying that there could be a connection to it with Dark Matter.
 * Shadow Metal is created when Gunha's powers clashes with that of Mikoto, a reference back to Ruiko's claim in chapter 44.

Tankobon version
Due to the numbering change, chapter 69 in the tankobon version features content from the original magazine release (March 27, 2014) version of Toaru Kagaku no Railgun Manga Chapter 071, titled Festival's End. It also includes new content with Misaka Mikoto visiting Kongou Mitsuko after the climax, beginning the denouement of the story.

Here, Mikoto apologizes for what happened to Mitsuko, to which she says that she doesn't regret what she did in choosing to aid Mikoto. Mikoto then tells Mitsuko about what Kinuho and Maaya did for her, making Mitsuko happy. In the end, Mitsuko says that she is glad to have transferred to Tokiwadai Middle School.

About dragons
Contents from this chapter are later moved to chapter 67 in the tankobon version. It features, however, perhaps the most glaring change in the tankobon, second only to the addtional chapter added in chapter 70, and likely one of the most important scenes in all of the Toaru Majutsu no Index storyline, is the addition of 7 dragon heads after Touma's arm was severed by the Mikoto's power, bringing a total of 8 dragons, which includes the most familiar one to the readers.