Accelerator (ability)

Accelerator (一方通行(アクセラレータ)) is the ability that is exclusively used by Academy City's first ranked Level 5 and strongest esper, which is also his namesake, the Accelerator.

The ability is normally applied to allow him to manipulate vectors, though it has been shown that it is more than that, through the use of Accelerator's massive intellect and calculating prowess, his powers allows him to understand unknown or strange laws hitherto unknown to him and making use of it.

Terminology
"One-way road" is the translation used for the kanji for Accelerator, and is most likely a reference to the act of him "redirecting" any vector coming towards him back.

The furigana of the name is likely a reference to particle accelerators, though not in how particle accelerators work, like other particle accelerator-like abilities such as Synchrotron, but what the purpose of the particle accelerator is, which is to allow a researcher or scientist to get close us possible to the truth that makes up the universe and the laws that govern it. Accelerator could also come from the vector quantity of acceleration, which refers to a body's change of velocity over time, where Accelerator has shown that he can "accelerate" body's at rest, for example, the still pebble that Accelerator kicked towards Kamijou Touma being accelerated towards a dangerous speed.

Principles
Accelerator's ability consist in Vector Transformation (ベクトル変換), known in other names such as Vector Change and Vector Conversion, that allows him to influence vectors such as momentum, heat, light, and electricity. Accelerator is both passive and active in usage, or can even be a referred to as defensive and offensive.

It is self-evident that the ability requires a great amount of calculating power from the esper, as it requires for Accelerator to take into account several vectors that he wants to redirect, and when in activate usage several variables are present when manipulating and controlling vectors. For example, Accelerator is able to delete data from Last Order's mind through the manipulation of her bioelectricty. Furthermore, Accelerator can do it even if he is unconscious, able to make an invisible "tube" to control blood flow in Yoshikawa Kikyou's artery and not allow a single drop to spill. In fact, the combined brains of 10,000 level 3 Sisters are only able to make up less than half of Accelerator's calculating power, though it seems it is enough for Accelerator's use even in combat.

Redirection
Accelerator uses this passive ability to "Redirect" or "Reflect" (反射) reverse any oncoming vector coming towards the field that protects his entire body, most likely his AIM Dispersion Field, which somehow covers even the clothes he wear. The redirection ability can be done subconsciously through some simple calculations. He just needs to calculate the minimum required forces (gravity, air pressure, light, oxygen, heat, sound wavelength, etc.) and redirect everything else. Things such as light, sound, and gravity are calibrated to pass through this field for his convenience, though he can do if he chooses. For defensive use, Accelerator subconsciously establishes a filter that sees everything as harmful or not, and use his reflect to push away anything that could harm him.

It is the default use of Accelerator's power, allowing him to be protected from nearly any sort of attack, and even boasts to be able to even withstand a nuclear missile, its shockwave, heat, and radiation. It is this barrier that reflects anything harmful for him that gave him his infamous look. His albino appearance is because his body doesn't need to produce protection from the harmful UV rays as Accelerator's power does it for him. Moreover, his androgynous appearance is due to his power, as their is lack of outside stimulus, there is an imbalance of hormones that gave him his looks. It is said to even be able to reflect teleportation vectors in the 11th dimension, though a strange phenomenon would occur in the 3-dimensional world. And with magic, information regarding magic attacks affecting his field is limited, though when Accelereator tried to redirect Vodyanoy's attack on his person it was not completely redirected but disintegrated into a rainbow of light.

In the past, Accelerator may have not been able to control the redirection of vectors and may have been the cause of the incident where a group of children gets hurt due to his powers, leading to Academy City forces trying to take him down instead of malice in his part.

Kinuhata Saiai's Offense Armor is based off this passive effect.

Weaknesses
The barrier for his redirection is not an absolute defense, as Kihara Amata has demonstrated. Since it only reverses the vectors that are coming towards him, and vector that comes towards his barrier but pulls away at the exact moment before hitting, his field will mistakenly reverse the vector and go towards Accelerator.

Furthermore, attacks that are built upon laws or vectors unknown to him can penetrate his defense, such as what Kakine Teitoku did with the light passing through his white wings or the attacks that Aiwass made on him that cut him down.

However, due to the nature of his power and Accelerator's massive calculating prowess, Accelerator can change the rules of his filter system.

Finally, like all supernatural phenomena, the Imagine Breaker can bypass the field that protects Accelerator, though it is not known if he can negate the field.

Vector Control
Vector Control (ベクトル制御) is the active effect of the Accelerator. A seemingly recent discovery of Accelerator's due to his abuse of his Redirection, the effect allows Accelerator to manipulate vectors instead of redirecting them. It is most likely this effect of being able control nearly everything in the world that Accelerator is described as "The One Who Wields the Power of God" (神にも等しい力の片鱗を振るう者), even more so now that he can analyze and understand different laws. Furthermore, it is this effect that allows Accelerator to use magic, though not without consequences.

Kuroyoru Umidori's Bomber Lance is base off of this active effect. The unique trait of this active effect is that it has many applications:
 * Earth Stomp: By altering the vector of force applied to the ground by his feet, he causes a little explosion made of earth and rocks to attack his opponents. At the beginning of the series this was his most common method of attack. He can Snapshot20101120224235.jpg use this to propel himself forward, as seen in the Sisters Arc, or cause massive destruction to the ground and surrounding buildings due to shockwaves created by the impact, as seen during his scuffle with Awaki in the Tree Diagram Remnant Arc.
 * Vector Shooting: By touching an object, he can use his ability to change the magnitude of vectors he comes in contact with, such as seen during his fight with Kamijou Touma in the Sisters Arc. This allows him to change the vectors of objects in such a way that he can turn them to projectiles. An example of the use of this ability is in his fight with Touma, when he lightly kicked a rock to make it shoot like a bullet, or when he stomped on train rails to push them out of their sockets, and lightly knocked on them to make those rails rain upon Touma. This ability also allows him to mimic superhuman strength, as he once used it to pick up and throw a building.
 * Wind Control: He can re-vector the surrounding winds and force them to congregate at a single point creating an extremely high velocity wind, but it had flaws like when the wind is moving in an abnormal direction or when his vector calculations are disturbed by sound as showed as with Kihara in the Volume 13.
 * Plasma Storm: He can even create plasma by further compressing the wind at high speeds in a single point.
 * Kinetic Blast: Shown in Volume 13, he takes control of the planet's rotational vectors and transfers an enormous amount of that energy into one attack. This attack used up so much of the planets rotational energy that it slowed down the the earth's rotation by about 5 minutes.
 * Brain Hacking: In accord to him by redirecting the electrical signals of the human body he can take 'control' over them and rewrite the memories and personality of the people as showed with Last Order in the Vol.5.
 * Flight: By controlling the wind around him he creates about 4 high-powered tornadoes behind him to allow him to fly. Showed in Vol.8 and 15. He is also able to redirect the vectors of gravity upon him.

Related Research Projects and Facilities
Because the standard measurement is the worth of the ability to the ongoing research, this ability is considered the most valuable ability in the entire Academy City. This ability is of great interest to the researchers, as evidenced by the large amount of research projects involving it.
 * Special Ability Institute
 * Imaginary Number Research Institute
 * Wisdom Research
 * Kirigaoka Affiliate
 * Produce
 * Dark May Project

Excerpts
