Toaru Kagaku no Railgun Manga Chapter 065

"Defeat" (敗北) is the 65th chapter of the Toaru Kagaku no Railgun manga series. The chapter involves Shokuhou Misaki's attempt to escape from Kihara Gensei and Shirai Kuroko's attempt to locate and defeat Kouzaku Mitori.

The chapter was released in 3 parts when serialized in Dengeki Daioh and combined together when compiled for the tankōbon version.

Part 1: Surrounded (包囲 Hōi)
With Misaki trapped like a rat, Gensei rambles on regarding Clairvoyance. He states that by incapacitating her he can bypass the mental blocks she placed on herself to prevent Mental Out being used on her. While doing this, he becomes distracted by seeing (through Clairvoyance) that Sogiita Gunha has shown up in addition to Kamijou Touma, with both of them fighting Misaka Mikoto. He becomes lost in thought about the effect they will have on the experiment and plans on observing this, giving Misaki the opportunity to escape.

As she escapes, Misaki comments to herself that with Gunha now interfering Academy City should survive, but still believes that Misaka Mikoto will perish. She uses Graviton Panels to form a bridge, which gives her an idea.

Back with Kuroko, she aims for the camera on Kouzaku's puppet and destroys it, disabling Kouzaku's vision and limiting her puppet's senses to echolocation. She then uses a small device to interfere with her ability to echolocate. Kuroko then teleports away and continues to search for Kouzaku. However, the facility is so vast, she requires the aid of a clue. Back in the Judgment 177 Branch Office, Saten Ruiko manages to find Kouzaku in one of the cameras. Uiharu Kazari contacts Kuroko, telling her Kouzaku moved into an alleyway three minutes ago, though she can't tell what building she's in as she hasn't been seen in the other cameras. Kuroko then rushes toward the likely location of Kouzaku. Kuroko asks if they're sure Kouzaku hasn't been seen in any other camera, which Saten confirms. Kuroko notes that Kouzaku would show up in the cameras if she moved into another building. Seeing this, Kuroko manages to pinpoint the building where Kouzaku is likely hiding in. She orders Uiharu and Saten to turn all nearby movable cameras toward the building as she teleports in.

Back with the puppet, Kouzaku is able to destroy the device interfering with echolocation, but then realizes that the security cameras likely gave her location away. She then has her puppet slice and enter a sewer pipe to head to where Kuroko is going. Uiharu notices this as well, and reports it to Kuroko, confirming to her that the place where Kuroko is in is where Kouzaku is hiding. The puppet attacks Kuroko, who drops another device. However, the puppet is somehow able to sense Kuroko's location and manages to hit her.

Part 2: Preparations (仕込 Shikomi)
As the skies darken above, Kuroko continues her struggle against Kouzaku. Injured, she retreats into an abandoned place to treat her wounds. While doing so, she deduces that Kouzaku is in the building, since she would need to have seen Kuroko to hit her, and that she is in the upper floors, as Kouzaku's puppet's attack was spread out to compensate for her not being able to judge Kuroko's exact position. After treating her wounds, Kuroko pursues Kouzaku again, though notes that she may be overlooking something.

Meanwhile, back in Judgment 177 Branch Office, Saten and Uiharu become worried about Kuroko's injuries. Uiharu, as she watches the cameras, later catches the Daihaseisai Homing Cameras surrounding the building where Kuroko is in despite being no events. Uiharu researches that Anti-Skill apparently used them to see if anyone has yet to be evacuated, but the powerful electromagnetic waves at the centre of the phenomenon are too powerful for the cameras to approach. Saten then gets the idea of using the cameras to aid Kuroko, leading Uiharu to a eureka moment. She asks Saten how long the cameras were there, to which she says that they have been there since Kuroko entered the building. Uiharu then reports this to Kuroko, telling her the possibility that Kouzaku is not inside the building but somewhere else.

Misaki confronts Gensei in a hallway. She pretends to offer him the limiter release code in exchange for being allowed to flee Academy City, while trying to trick him into stepping on a trap. Gensei sees through this, but it turns out that the trap was a decoy to lure him into a second trap: a false floor made from Graviton panels. Gensei neverthless escapes the trap using one of his abilities. Misaki runs, only for Gensei to catch up to her. However, this turns out to be yet another trap. Graviton Panels surround Gensei's arm, causing the old scientist to scream in pain.

Part 3: Seeing Through (看破 Kanpa)
Misaki explains how she set up the Graviton Panels behind the door as a trap and rhetorically asks if Gensei can defend against her ability while experiencing intense pain. However, Gensei stops screaming and starts laughing. He reveals that his arm (along with other parts of his body) is a prosthetic. While suffocating Misaki with one of his abilities, he explains that his experience in Academy City's dark side has taught him to see through other people's schemes. Misaki passes out, allowing Gensei to obtain the limiter release code from her mind.

Meanwhile, Kuroko continues her pursuit of Kouzaku inside the building. Kuroko arrives at the last hiding spot of the building, only to find that she isn't there. Kuroko reviews the situation and deduces that Kouzaku may be hiding in the sewers instead of the building itself. Kouzaku's puppet appears from a ventilation duct. As Kuroko uses another anti-listening device to seal her echolocation, Kouzaku turns one of the Homing Cameras she has hacked toward the blind spot. By considering the lag when Kuroko teleports and the locations she is likely to jump to, Kouzaku manages to seemingly hit Kuroko with a fatal attack. Kouzaku laughs madly at her apparent success. She apologizes, saying she wouldn't have killed Kuroko if she didn't interfere, though she adds that she'd still meet the same fate when the city gets destroyed. She then notices that the time is ripe for her to use Mikoto again.

Back to the fight with Mikoto, Gunha has been knocked out while Touma is breathing heavily. Mikoto transforms into an even more inhuman form. Kouzaku guides Mikoto into creating a black sphere aimed at the Windowless Building. She mentions that though Mikoto could destroy the city she had to make sure that one particular person would definitely be eliminated. Kouzaku tells them to apologize to "her" in the afterlife, yelling for Mikoto to blow them away.

Back with Gensei, after retrieving his hand, he senses that Mikoto has reached the "Opening Stage" and then uses the release code to fully activate Exterior.

However, hope is not lost. Kuroko finally finds Kouzaku in the sewers. Kouzaku realises that her camera was hacked to display false footage of Kuroko's death. Kuroko declares that Kouzaku has nowhere left to run.

Major Events

 * Gensei seemingly obtains Exterior's limiter release code and uses it.
 * Kouzaku seemingly kills Kuroko, but this turns out to be a trick.

Characters
By order of appearance:
 * Kihara Gensei
 * Shokuhou Misaki
 * Shirai Kuroko
 * Kouzaku Mitori
 * Saten Ruiko
 * Uiharu Kazari
 * Sogiita Gunha
 * Kamijou Touma
 * Aleister Crowley
 * Dolly

Abilities

 * Multi-Skill - Kihara Gensei, acquired via Level Upper
 * Aero Shooter
 * Clairvoyance
 * Asport (unnamed)
 * Teleport - Shirai Kuroko, Level 4
 * Liquid Shadow - Kouzaku Mitori, Level 4
 * Electromaster (Railgun-variant) with Misaka Network - Misaka Mikoto, Level 5
 * Mental Out with Exterior - Kihara Gensei
 * Mental Out with Exterior - Kouzaku Mitori

New Abilities

 * Comeback Detection (逆転看破) (unnamed) - Kihara Gensei

Locations

 * Academy City
 * Exterior
 * Judgment 177 Branch Office

Trivia

 * As stated above, the contents of this chapter are combined from chapters 65, 66 and 67 of the original magazine numbering to form a single chapter in the tankōbon version. However, there is no major change to the content of this chapter other than the numbering.