Accelerator

Accelerator (一方通行 (アクセラレータ) ) is the 1st-ranked Level 5 and 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 Kamijou Touma defeated him. 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," 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, such as Kamijou Touma during their first encounter, he breaks into a wide grin and laughs, giving him a maniacal and sadistic appearance.

Background
Much of Accelerator's past is unknown, but he mentioned that he once had a "normal name" which has yet to be revealed, and most likely never will, as Accelerator himself forgot it. The novels state that his last name consists of two kanji and his first name three, yet his name had no real meaning in it.

Ever since taking the Power Curriculum Program, and realizing his powers, Accelerator was sent to a "special class", most likely, the Special Ability Institute, and spent much of his childhood there until he turned nine-years-old, before being moved into another special class. Both of these had him as the only student. It can be presumed that this occurred before the incident involving the military.

When Accelerator was a child, he couldn't fit in with the other children due to his powers, harming those that tried to get close to him. Around at the age of ten, a particular incident with children escalated with Academy City being deployed against him, and he later "gave up", and was sent to a special class. This has made him something of a loner and distrustful towards other people. After some time, Accelerator was discovered by Kihara Amata, who trained him on how to control his powers and influenced him enough for Accelerator to adopt his personality. It can be assumed that the Dark May Project started after Accelerator acquired the cool personality he now has from Amata.

Accelerator's ability made him the subject of an experiment attempting to create the first Level 6 esper; according to the city's best supercomputer, Tree Diagram, this feat could only be achieved by killing Misaka Mikoto, the 'Railgun', 128 times. However, because it was impossible to create 128 of these 'railguns', due to the 'Level 5 Mass Production Plan' only being capable of producing a sub-standard clone of Mikoto at a power of Level 2-3, a substitute plan was arranged where Accelerator would have to kill 20,000 Misaka clones in a variety of methods. He willingly joins the experiment to gain a reputation as the most powerful and feared esper so that no one would be foolish enough to challenge him ever again. By the beginning of the Sisters Arc (index), Accelerator has already killed the first 10,030 Misaka Clones and during the course of the arc, kills clone 10,031 before the experiment is ultimately stopped.

Later it is revealed that he originally wanted this reputation simply so that no one would ever get hurt trying to attack him, resulting in their own destruction, though as he went deeper into Academy City's dark side his goals slowly became more and more twisted.

Sisters Arc
Accelerator first appears in Toaru Kagaku no Railgun, where during another session of brutally killing a Misaka clone, he meets an enraged Misaka Mikoto who tries to get revenge on him after she witnesses him killing Misaka 9982. However, Mikoto is powerless against Accelerator due to his abilities. He later figures out that she is the original Misaka Mikoto and becomes disappointed that although both are Level 5's, Mikoto is very weak compared to him, and, wanting to speed up the experiments, opts to kill her. He is prevented from doing so by the arrival of several Misaka clones, who tell him that he should follow the protocols; killing Mikoto would cause discrepancies in the calculations. Accelerator accepts this explanation and leaves Mikoto alone after telling her his name.

In the Railgun Manga, Accelerator appears in a daydream by Nunotaba Shinobu that hopes that by putting "fake emotions" into the Sisters, she could possibly move his heart. This is because she apparently believes that even he wouldn't kill the Misaka clones who would be crying because of their emotions in that hypothetical situation. She is one of the few people who in addition to Last Order seem to believe that Accelerator would stop the experiment if he realized that the clones behaved like/were actual humans.

Accelerator reappears briefly in his battle against Misaka 10031, where Mikoto accidentally sees how he reverses the clone's blood with his vector powers on a monitor. Later, he reappears in another experiment with the clones; this time he has to defeat Misaka 10032, but is interrupted by the arrival of Kamijou Touma. Many of the scenes featured show the fight from Accelerator's perspective, as well as the beginning of the Experiment with a younger self. Right before Touma delivers the final punch, he questions what he has been doing this whole time.

Silent Party Arc
A still recovering Accelerator briefly appears on September 2, while undergoing a drip lying down on his hospital room's bed, looks at the sky from the room's window together with a Last Order seated on a chair next to his bed.

Daihasei Festival Arc
An already crippled Accelerator is first seen wandering an alleyway when he is approached by a liaison, whom Accelerator apparently knows, and is aware of his connections to the Level 6 Shift. The liaison, somehow asked by the Daihaseisai Student Committee, which was tasked by the Board of Directors themselves, to have the Level 5s promote the Daihaseisai. Accelerator being the number 1 ranked esper is a foregone conclusion. Accelerator spares not a moment of time towards the liaison, telling him that he is not interested in anything that he is offering, attacks him, and warns him to go away. Before the liaison can even start telling him that he is wanted in the Daihaseisai, he is attacked by Accelerator, who leaves, telling him that he is too busy taking care of the brat, Last Order.

Necromancer Arc
Accelerator is first seen reading a book while still recovering from his headshot that he received from Amai Ao until after the Disciplinary Action Anti-Skill member captured Esther Rosenthal and left which is when he shut the book he was reading, sat up, and yawned before picking up a photo that was on the floor that was apparently dropped by one of the people that was involved in the incident mentioned that was of Last Order prior to clicking his tongue, grabbing his modern-cane styled crutch and throwing a paper on to a notebook that had its cover written on by Last Order previous to walking out of the hospital, confronting the DA member and saying to him to hold up and leave the luggage he has as in Esther where she is because he had something to ask her.

Accelerator subsequently came into conflict with the DA member and ended up fighting their Prototype Coffin. After destroying the machine, which had utilized Pyrokinesis, he saw a corpse fall out and was reminded of the Sisters he had killed.

When he returned to his room, he encountered Esther again and had her tell her what she knew, partially choking her in the process. Having learned of a location and that DA had their sights on Last Order, he set out to crush the group before they could threaten her.

Toaru Majutsu no Index Movie: Miracle of Endymion
Accelerator appears in two trailers from the upcoming theatrical release of the movie.

In the movie, Accelerator appears in the hospital, still recuperating after getting shot in the head. Last Order later gets information relayed to her from the Sisters through the Misaka Network after overhearing Touma's conversation, that the there is great peril upon Endymion. Accelerator is annoyed by her noise-making and tries to go back to rest. However, later, when the need was dire, Accelerator arrives at the base of Endymion before one of the explosive bolts, most likely after Last Order was relayed information to her that it must be destroyed in order to "terminate" or "purge" Endymion. Accelerator is once again annoyed by this, to which Last Order says that they have come because the world is in danger, though Accelerator replies that he does not care for such a thing. In the end, he destroys the explosive bolt, deeming it good exercise for rehabilitation, at the same time as Mikoto and Stiyl destroy the other two. As the Endymion terminates, Accelerator leaves and carries away Last Order in his arms as he jumps through the air. Last Order comments on how she is flying, to which an annoyed Accelerator says he won't be doing this for Last Order ever again.

Toaru Majutsu no Index-tan
Accelerator reenacts his battle with Touma in the second episode of Toaru Majutsu no Index-tan. He reappears in the final scene of the special, reenacting the scene where he creates plasma. During that scene, he exaggerates his laugh and comments on how he no longer has a weak voice and is no longer an amateur as he won an award for his voice work (referring to his seiyuu). He later apparently kills Touma after an explosion which uses the dust explosion scene from the regular anime.

Toaru Kagaku no Railgun MMR: Much More Railgun
He appears in the third episode. In one sketch, his seiyu takes over his role and complains to Misaka 9982 on how only the Toaru Majutsu no Index franchise gives him a long-running series role, much to her and the other seiyuu's chagrin as despite the fact that he has little roles in anime that are not long-running, he instead get many roles instead in short late night anime. In the next sketch, Accelerator humors Mikoto in her complaints on girls like her liking childish things, to which he concludes that girls who are into those things are fine, but not with her, prompting her to charge towards him.

Toaru Majutsu no Index (PSP game)
Accelerator appears as a playable character in the game. One notable aspect of his appearance is that he has already incurred brain damage and has to use the Misaka Network to do his calculations, though he retains his black shirt with white stripes and lacks his cane (as he tosses it away in his battle intro, making it seem that his powers are a bit more intact similar to pre-‘’Toaru Majutsu no Index II’’).

Toaru Majutsu no Virtual-On (game)
Accelerator is one of the playable characters in the Toaru Majutsu no Virtual-On video game. His associated Virtuaroid is RVR-87/VSL Specineff “Rusty Blood".

Dengeki Gakuen RPG: Cross of Venus
Accelerator appears in the game as a boss character; here he is already in his weakened state and using his cane, which allows the players to hit him. He is however, still powerful, able to use Redirection at certain times and uses Plasma Storm as his primary attack. He can also move very fast to close in on a character player. He also has a one-hit knockout move, where he touches the players and using his vector abilities to knock them out.



Lunatia
The Accelerator is one the NPC characters that will assist the player in the Japanese version of the Korean MMORPG Lunatia.

Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax
Accelerator is one of the supports added to the game. His first assist makes Last Order appear, as she wanders confused into the stage. If an enemy attack hits her Accelerator will appear, blocking the attack and using his Dark Wings to swipe at the enemy. His second assist consist of Accelerator stomping the ground, creating a fissure that damages the opponent and causes them to bounce between the ground and the top of the screen a few times.

Design evolution
Accelerator's character design is perhaps the most colorful of all characters in the series, though not because of revisions on his basic design but due to the changes the character goes through in the course of the novels. Haimura Kiyotaka designed Accelerator during the course of his designing of the characters for volume 2; due to an editor's mistake, the plot of Volume 3 was sent to him along with the full text of Volume 2. Much to his surprise, Accelerator's basic design was approved. As volume 3 rolled into the corner, Accelerator's design began to be improved to fit his villainous role in volume 3. His design is based on Eric Draven from, the from the , as well as a mouse. Accelerator's shirt is based off a face in and in  (most likely the Hellhound).

For his redesign as the fledgling protagonist, Haimura had Accelerator with a tokusatsu theme, specifically, Ultraman. His coloration is the most obvious change, from black and white originally to gray and white. According to Haimura, the design of his shirt is supposed to be something like a simplified representation of a bird of prey soaring from the sky after its prey, and the change of colors symbolize his change in personality after meeting Last Order.

For his winter appearance, Haimura uses an old design back from volume 16, in which he imagines what Accelerator would like in his winter outfit. The general design remains but is further finalized in his second draft for Accelerator's winter design. Going for a gray alien appearance, Haimura had Accelerator's jacket made up of reflective materials and. Here, Haimura designs a tentative pattern for his new undershirt that would appear in later volumes, but would be hidden for the arc it was designed for. Later, the shirt was redesigned a little for the 3rd New Testament volume, Accelerator's hair became even longer, and he gained new python pants.

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.
 * The character Add from the Korean MMORPG  bears a striking resemblance to Accelerator. Although looking similar to Add, KoG confirmed that they had no intention of giving Add the 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 is 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 Order in 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!!"