Jailbreaker Arc

Jailbreaker Arc (編) is a story arc in the Toaru Kagaku no Railgun manga series, covering chapters 98 to 130.

The story focuses on a jailbreak trial organized by the operators of a new private juvenile hall in Academy City in order to test the facility's security features. The challenge is to break into the facility and successfully extract the target prisoner, with a one billion yen reward for successful completion. Various people wish to take advantage of the opportunities presented by this event, both openly and secretly.

Second Reformatory
The new Second Reformatory was the second such facility set to open in Academy City, but unlike the publicly-run Reformatory, this juvenile hall was run by a private security business. It was built in response to a rise in crimes committed by espers as opposed to those involving Skill Outs and a belief that the private firm could provide a better service than the publicly-run facility.

The outer wall is 15m tall and encloses the facility in the shape of a right trapezoid. There are two entrances; the main gate where suspects are brought in and which staff use to go in and out, and a back gate which is normally kept closed and only opened in emergencies. The main gate is the only one which vehicles can pass through. It is apparently 1.8 times as strong as the previous Reformatory's gate and there are two additional shutters of the same strength which can be closed behind it. Wind machines installed in the wall can be used to blow projectiles off course. There are pipes running through the wall, which carry a fast hardening filler known as Birdlime (バードライム) to rapidly seal up any holes made in the wall. There are also sensors and defenses in the wall ducts. In the grounds between the perimeter fence and the outer wall, aside from robots, there are numerous acoustic weapons and adhesive pitfalls.

The prison and holding centers are both located within the walls, with an internal division between the two, so as to keep prisoners under the effects of the jammers while being transported between them. For some cases, trials are held online with the prisoner remaining in the facility throughout.

The juvenile hall has a large complement of guard robots, which come in several varieties:
 * The standard guard robots have a domed body on a crescent-shaped base with three legs and a translucent front covering sensors and circuitry.  A weapon block is located on the left side of the robot, capable of firing impact rounds, electrified nets and liquid shots.  There is also a variant which is equipped with a rubber bullet gatling gun instead. The robots are also equipped with speakers and bar scanners. They can travel along the side of the wall on their base, with their legs folded up behind them.
 * There are larger, bipedal robots, referred to as war armadillos, which are also capable of moving around rolled into a ball. They are equipped with a heat blade and air gun held in arms behind the head, as well as an acoustic weapon housed in the chest. Meant to keep intruders out, they are stationed at the outer wall.
 * Type: Hunting Wasp (タイプ:ハンティングワスプ) (T:HW): Flying riot suppression robots in the shape of wasps, with a stinger which injects a sleeping drug.
 * Type: Giant Centipede (タイプ:ジャイアントセンチピード) (T:GC): A robot in the shape of a giant centipede, which constricts targets to restrain them.
 * The largest of these security robots, referred to as riot suppression gigapedes, are stationed inside the prison buildings. Being a robot operating in the solitary confinement area and well within the jammer range, it is intended to deal with inmates who are unable to safely use their esper abilities.

There are also quadrupedal guide robots within the walls, designed by Kyougoku, which have his face on them and somewhat resemble a.

The Jailbreak Trial
In order to promote the new juvenile hall and test its security features, Director Kyougoku Ryouta invited interested espers to challenge the facility and search out vulnerabilities in a Jailbreak Trial (脱獄トライアル). The objective of the challenge was to break into the facility, find and retrieve a target prisoner (played by one of the jailers and located in the girl's building),  and then break out of the facility with them. The reward for successfully completing the challenge was one billion yen.

The exact victory conditions have been noted to be somewhat vague, likely because the organizers didn't expect anyone to complete the challenge successfully. However the facility's defenses were to operate at combat specs during the event, and competitors had to sign a liability form, stating that the organizers were not responsible for any injuries or occurring as a result of their participation. The rules state that competitors don't have to use the main gate and if they are using equipment too large to carry, to pick it up from the neighboring parking lot.

During the trial, the actual prisoners were apparently moved to the bottom two levels of the prison building basement, while the test prisoner was positioned alone on the top level of the basement.

During the interview where he announced the jailbreak trial, Kyougoku boasted that his company had built defenses to hold even a Level 5 and that even if the likes of Tokiwadai Middle School gathered all of their students, he doubted they'd even breach the first wall. This prompted several Tokiwadai students to enter, including Misaka Mikoto.

Competitors
The challenge and its rewards attracted 4,378 people from various backgrounds and using a variety of methods to attempt the trial.

Notable competitors include:

Jailbreakers
Without the knowledge of the organizer or its participants, the events surrounding the Jailbreak Trial were being manipulated by another group in order to carry out a real jailbreak and free one of their comrades. The group consisted of the imprisoned Shundan Kimi, competitors Tsurigane Saryou and Wanigawa Raifu, and Aohoshi Suzuran, the director's aide.

The four were Child Errors who lived at an orphanage in the past, along with another girl, Shirakinu Honoka. As the oldest, Aohoshi looked after the four before her departure. She promised to keep in touch, but ended up drifting out of contact as her school began. After Aohoshi left, the orphanage's financial struggles worsened and they ended up accepting a loan in exchange for handing over some girls as test subjects for a "power boosting lab".

As a result, Kimi, Honoka, Tsurigane and Raifu became part of an experiment related to the Dark May Project for over a year. During the course of the experiments, they suffered side effects from the various procedures performed on their brains. In particular, Raifu's ability grew considerably at the cost of her mental stability, while Honoka's ability was greatly diminished. Unusual observations regarding Kimi's AIM diffusion field eventually led researchers to the discovery that her ability created a black hole somewhere in the universe. Despite the substantial discovery and the potential applications, the researchers feared for the catastrophic harm the ability could cause and decided on Kimi's, eliminating any dissenters amongst themselves.

By this time Tsurigane, actually a ninja planted into Academy City to obtain information, had become suspicious of what was being done and, upon investigating, found out about the conspiracy to kill Kimi under the guise of an experimental accident and informed the others. With Kimi's elimination imminent, they attempted to escape the facility. During their escape, Honoka was fatally shot after parting ways with Kimi and Raifu. The others managed to escape unharmed, but were nonetheless scarred by the events that unfolded.

The surviving girls were able to track down Aohoshi, who was horrified at what had transpired. Aohoshi subsequently devised a plan to keep Kimi safe from those who wanted to exploit or eliminate her. After becoming a guard in the first Reformatory and switching Kimi's data in the Bank with the deceased Honoka's, she placed Kimi within the confines of the Reformatory for her protection. However, she knew that this plan would be foiled one day and with rumors about prisoner trafficking, Aohoshi decided to use the Second Reformatory's Jailbreak Trial to their advantage.

The group's plan was to exploit the event to break Kimi out, while at the same time finding a suitable hacker among the participants. As the insider, Aohoshi would adjust the event plans to their advantage and switch Kimi with the event's fake prisoner, while Raifu and Tsurigane would enter as participants to discretely impede or eliminate other participants who might derail their plot, the latter inviting her Kouga comrades to participate after helping them infiltrate the city two days prior to the event. Initially, the hacker was for falsifying Kimi's records, though Kimi would later intend to use them to leak Academy City's esper development technology to the world. Not long before the event, a dragon unleashed during events in the Daihaseisai came to Kimi, latching onto the energy of her ability's black hole to sustain itself. The possession allowed Kimi to use its feathers to safely brainwash individuals who had imbibed her blood, a sample of which Aohoshi introduced into the facility's water dispenser to affect members of the prison staff.

Trial
In a livestream posted on a video streaming website, Director Kyougoku Ryouta presented the Second Reformatory as well as the "large-scale event" he is planning to organize to enable participants to find flaws in the facility's security systems. Neither among Misaka Mikoto, Shirai Kuroko, Saten Ruiko and Uiharu Kazari were interested in the event, even with the one billion yen prize. Kuroko was not convinced that the organizer will pay the full prize money, while Mikoto wanted a break from the events that had happened recently. However, Kyougoku provoked the two known Level 5s of Tokiwadai Middle School upon claiming that his facility can hold a Level 5 as well as the school's entire student body. Mikoto responded by participating alongside Kuroko (who joined to keep tabs on her), Saten and Uiharu. Shokuhou Misaki claimed to be unaffected by Kyougoku's taunting, yet allowed Kouzaku Mitori and Dolly to join.

With all participants required to sign a waiver and allowed to bring and store whatever tools that can be used for the jailbreak trial, Uiharu brought a digital floor plan of the facility, while Saten brought a pair of "ninja sucker gloves" that will allow her to scale the walls of the Reformatory.

The Outer Wall
As soon as the signal is given, the many participants begin their attempts to siege the outer wall while the first wave of security robots were deployed to respond to them as if they are escapees from the facility. Many from the first attackers were subdued by the various tools equipped by the security robots, while a bolder attempt led by an armored car brought by a group of ironworks workers was foiled by an acoustic weapon hidden at the facility's surface. Eventually, some participants like Fusou Ayame and a boy in a tanuki mask made their counterattack by destroying some of the opposing machines.

Kuroko quickly helped Mikoto, Saten and Uiharu cross a sticky pitfall ahead of them. Meanwhile, Kouzaku's attempt to use a drone to sneak into the ducts of the facility was foiled by the presence of security systems inside, and Dolly successfully defended her from an incoming attack from a security robot.

Later on, larger-scale attempts to bring down the outer wall were used by the participants. Kyougoku watched from the control room as his sturdy walls withstood several large explosives and his War Armadillos faced the exoskeletons of a robot club. With the effects of the AIM Jammers within the outer wall area capable of affecting those who try to climb it, Kongou Mitsuko and her posse decided to attack the outer wall from a distance using large logs. Kyougoku remained confident of his security systems and overruled his assistant's suggestion to use the long-ranged AIM Jammers, knowing that his wall can shrug off the attack. True enough, a wind machine within the outer wall threw off the trajectory of Kongou's ejection points, forcing her to stop using her ability on the logs. The first successful attempt came from Mikoto, who used nearby metal debris to create a large projectile for her Railgun, but the damage was quickly covered with Birdlime.

Mikoto suddenly had an idea after seeing how one of Saten's gloves formed an imprint on the ground after being covered in iron sand and water. By enlisting the help of the robot club members, Kongou's Aero Hand and scattered metal debris, Mikoto managed to punch a hole by making a first hole using her Railgun, plugging it with logs before the Birdlime can harden, and firing another Railgun on the logs. Another group, led by Oumi Shuri of the Kouga Ninja, also managed to climb across the outer wall. Although Kyougoku was dumbfounded by the breakthrough, his assistant reminded him that the outer wall complex has many AIM Jammers that can easily restrain esper ability usage.

Inside the Wall
Word of the successful breach leading to the outer wall complex caused a stampede of people to slow down the way inside. During the chaos, Uiharu was separated from Mikoto, Kuroko and Saten who had to flee while being pursued by more security robots. Other people who had managed to enter the outer wall complex were Scavenger, who planned to take advantage of a leading participant to take the winning prize for themselves, Kouzaku and Dolly, Yamashiro Shoubu, the robot club members, Fusou Ayame, who was incapacitated by a Type: Hunting Wasp robot designed to inject a sleeping agent on its victims, and Oumi Shuri's group. With the help of Yakumaru, who tried to eliminate any threats under Leader's orders, Mikoto's group first reached the Boys' Building by mistake, and had to travel further to reach the Girls' Building.

Prison Building
By the time Mikoto, Kuroko and Saten entered the Girls' Building, there were already multiple people inside. Among them are a girl known for saying "ha wa wa" all the time, Yamashiro Shoubu, Kouzaku and Dolly, and Oumi Shuri's group, all of which ending up facing the security robots inside one way or another. As Shoubu and the "ha wa wa" girl went together, Shuri decided to split the group into three to improve their chances to obtain information: Sakata and Asai composed one group, while Yasu is accompanied by Tsurigane. Shuri soon encountered Mikoto's group and temporarily joined them with an interest to know more about high-level espers while acting as a vulnerable young participant.

At one point inside the facility, Mikoto and the others meet the "ha wa wa" girl being chased by two riot suppression gigapedes, then joined by a few war armadillos and security robots. Mikoto revealed that the war armadillos and security robots were actually reprogrammed by Mikoto during her last encounter with them, and she used them for her counterattack. She then brought the rest of the robots to the whereabouts of the target, using the war armadillos to cut open doors along the way. They also encountered Kongou's group, who agreed to accompany them to the target's holding cell.

Mikoto and the others were surprised to discover that the holding cell was unlocked and empty, and the control room discovered that the "footage" of the target was fake. Not long after, alarms declaring the end of the jailbreak trial were heard throughout the facility. Elsewhere, Uiharu accompanied the target after her flawless hacking of the Second Reformatory's security systems.

Post-Trial
Although flustered at the idea of his security systems being hacked by a young girl, Director Kyougoku accepted the outcome and officially announced the winner of the Jailbreak Trial. After reuniting with the others, Mikoto revealed that she had a hunch about who opened the doors to the Girls' Building, and Uiharu stated that the one billion yen prize will be donated to Asunaro Park.

At a nearby fair that sells memorabilia of the Jailbreak Trial, Kouzaku met up with two members of the Shokuhou clique who also joined the event to watch over Dolly. While thinking about the outcome of the event, Kouzaku found the circumstances that enabled a hacker to win the event to be suspicious. Inside the Second Reformatory, Director Kyougoku confirmed the outcome of the jailbreak trial in person and, while bickering with his assistant about who is responsible for the blunder, a mistaken opening of a facility door led him to discover Iizuka, the real target of the jailbreak trial, tied up and locked inside one of the lockers.

As Iizuka was taken to the medical room to recuperate, Kyougoku quickly surmised that only someone from within could be responsible for the switch. On being exposed, his assistant Aohoshi showed her true colors and restrained the director with the help of jailers that follow her bidding. Elsewhere, Tsurigane attacked Shuri after dismissing her fellow Kouga ninja and managed to cut her using a knife coated with a numbing agent. Yamashiro Shoubu also fell to the "ha wa wa" girl after revealing that his ability sensed a strong sense of malice in her.

Aohoshi, Tsurigane, the "ha wa wa" girl (named Raifu) and the "target" set free earlier met inside an abandoned building. The fourth girl, who manifests the ability to summon a dragon by her side, showed her interest in Uiharu's capabilities.

Abduction
With the help of data brought by Aohoshi, the group continued with the next step of their plan involving the winner of the Jailbreak Trial. That night, Uiharu was taken by Aohoshi's group, interrupting her call with Saten. Saten later asked for help in finding clues about Uiharu's disappearance in her residence, and Mikoto discovered footage of an escape vehicle leaving from the dormitory from a hacked security camera. Kuroko and Mikoto (accompanied by Saten) quickly found the escape vehicle, but Kimi stopped Mikoto from rescuing Uiharu by using her dragon powers against the Rank 3 Level 5. The smokescreen caused by the clash allowed two vehicles to emerge to different paths, forcing Kuroko and Mikoto to go separate ways. Meanwhile, Saten decided to stay behind as Anti-Skill are deployed in the area.

Mikoto followed one of the vehicles to School District 11 and discovered that Uiharu is not inside. Moreover, the "ha wa wa" girl is actually an enemy, using one of the group's lackeys to force an engagement. Mikoto narrowly escaped a parking building rigged to explode by Raifu, and the ensuing commotion alerted a group of Six Wings to the scene, which eventually became caught in the fight between the two. Mikoto eventually discovered the nature of Raifu's ability after seeing her Railgun redirected back at her, and she used this information to outlast Raifu in a close-quarters battle. Raifu eventually fell after being electrocuted and kicked at the head by Mikoto.

Kuroko managed to follow the other vehicle and found Tsurigane who attacked her on sight. This started a tense clash between teleportation and ninjutsu, with the added risk of being incapacitated by Tsurigane's weapons laced with a sleeping agent. Although Kuroko managed to determine Tsurigane's esper ability involving AIM observation and developed a way to feint her teleportation, Tsurigane adopted to the changing battle by using her blade like a kusarigama, enabling her to cut Kuroko. In a desperate maneuver, Kuroko teleported medicinal cream into her blood vessels to stop the sleeping agent to spread and continued to attack until she could cut Tsurigane using her own blade. As Tsurigane fell to her own tools, Kuroko relayed to Mikoto that Uiharu is not inside the vehicle before passing out nearby.

Infiltration
After being taken by Anti-Skill, Saten was interrogated within the 2nd Reformatory, where she confused her interrogators with her changing testimonies. Her true objective there is to find a way to enter the 2nd Reformatory, which Kuroko suspected might be complicit in the escape of Shundan Kimi, the girl with the dragon powers. As planned, Saten was held within the facility (although not within the intended protective custody rooms ) after the fruitless interrogation. There, she used the opportunity to lurk inside the complex. After discovering her gloves tucked inside a security robot within the facility's storehouse, she traversed the inner wall area and stole a guard's uniform.

Kimi proceeded with the next stage of her plan: to use Uiharu to operate a computer to begin an initiative to leak information about Academy City's esper development to the rest of the world. Uiharu vehemently refused to cooperate even with a drop of Kimi's blood "as a guarantee", but she was eventually forced to comply when Kimi used Asunaro Park as a bargaining chip. Uiharu prepared an escape plan that relied on her Thermal Hand ability to survive a high-temperature environment that enabled her to outlast her guards.

Battle at the Wall
Unknown to Uiharu, Kimi already had anticipated her escape attempt and ordered a blackout on the building where she was detained. Guards were then deployed to surround the building and limit Uiharu's escape options. Saten, who was disguised among the guards, successfully planned a bold rescue of Uiharu by using security robots she can command using her guard uniform to scale the walls and reach the rooftop away from the guards. The two then attempted to reach the back gate, only to be intercepted by Kimi and her dragon, now able to use her powers due to the lack of active AIM Jammers in the area. However, the disabled AIM Jammers also enabled Mikoto to break into the back gate and confront Kimi.

After Mikoto tampered with the nearby AIM Jammers to prevent reactivation, she clashed with Kimi, and the ensuing exchange of attacks caused the outer wall to take damage and flood the back gate with Birdlime, foiling Uiharu and Saten's attempt to escape. Mikoto continued her attacks on Kimi and the dragon regardless, and even directed the dragon's beam attack to herself, blocking it with debris from a fallen gigapede and launching the debris into the wall as it turned into salt from the beam's effect. Saten and Uiharu used the smokescreen to escape, with Mikoto creating multiple iron sand decoys to throw off Kimi, but Kimi rained angel feathers on their path, and Saten shielded Uiharu from the rain of feathers, unaware that Kimi's blood would save Uiharu from the adverse effects of being struck by those feathers.

Kimi ordered Aohoshi to bring Saten to the medical room and Uiharu to the command room. As Mikoto once again clashed with Kimi, Aohoshi decided to tell the story of her, Kimi, Tsurigane and Raifu to Uiharu, who barely managed to contain her wrath towards Kimi with Saten's help before she lost her consciousness. Although refusing to forgive Kimi for hurting Saten, Uiharu decided to do something else with the help of Aohoshi, who had been informed by Raifu about Kimi's overuse of her dragon powers.

At the command room, Uiharu decrypted the data given by Tsurigane to Aohoshi and used this to try to understand the nature of Kimi's power to create a black hole somewhere in the universe. Then, upon learning from the usage of the long-range AIM Jammers that the dragon is separate from Kimi, Uiharu thought of a way to separate the two. By aiming the long-range AIM Jammers to her location, Uiharu used the command room's computers to create "an esper power that can separate Kimi with the dragon". During the process, an unexplainable phenomenon manifested in Uiharu that allowed her to discern the real world as a digital one.

Kimi's dragon began to break apart as a result of Uiharu's intervention, and it shattered against Mikoto's Railgun. After shortly passing out to Mikoto's electrified punch, Kimi received a series of demands from Mikoto: to stop pursuing Uiharu, and to face her past.

Aftermath
Kimi's group was later detained separately in the Second Reformatory. As Kimi "talked to Honoka" for one final time, Tsurigane remained unaware that she had been left behind by Oumi Shuri and the Kouga ninja and continued to long for the moment when she can offer her head to her master. Raifu also had an unlikely reunion with Shoubu (this time without the tanuki mascot head), while Aohoshi confessed to Kyougoku her involvement in the events that unfolded. Kyougoku eventually considered Kimi's situation as a reason to turn down an offer for a large loan in exchange for "certain high-level espers". Tsurigane eventually made a successful escape from the facility and pursued the Iga ninja Kuruwa, hoping that she can learn from the Kouga's rival clan.

Mikoto, Kuroko, Saten and Uiharu reunited at Heaven Canceller's Hospital while undergoing recovery. As Uiharu apologized for being abducted, the others expressed their gratitude for what she had done to them. In a private talk with Mikoto, Uiharu admitted that desperation over Saten's influenced her actions. Although validating Uiharu's feelings, Mikoto asked Uiharu to move on from it now that things were resolved. Kongou, Maaya and Kinuho soon arrived to check up on their condition and they invited them to a newly opened outdoor cafe at the School Garden to celebrate their recovery.