Toaru Kagaku no Railgun Manga Chapter 018

"August 10, Part 1" (八月十日①) is the 18th chapter of the Toaru Kagaku no Railgun manga series, released on January 27, 2009.

Synopsis
Misaka Mikoto has a dream of the past: as a girl, she was in a laboratory and shown a young boy who had muscular dystrophy, making it hard for him to move around. A scientist explained to her that the boy would eventually die from respiratory or heart failure; the only way of curing him was by studying Mikoto's power. This was supposedly so that sufferers of the disease could control their muscles without the normal nerve routes. Looking at the suffering children, Mikoto (naively) agreed to hand over her DNA map. She spot a young Nunotaba Shinobu in the background, and the dream ends.

Mikoto wakes up from her dream to find Shirai Kuroko hugging her, to which she physically retaliates. The two of them head outside and Mikoto tells Kuroko her plan to go shopping. Kuroko tries making it a shopping date, insisting that they go through a shortcut to the shopping district. As they go through a narrow alley, they have to squeeze by several other people who are also using the alley, teleporting past the final one. Kuroko trips over a can and, while on the floor, finds an open envelope containing a cash card.

The duo goes to the Judgement Headquarters to talk to Uiharu Kazari, who tells them that for the past few days, cash cards were dropped all around the 7th District. As a result, many people gather in the alley to go 'treasure-hunting', which raises the concern that some may fight over the cards. Kuroko apologizes to MIkoto for no longer being able to shop with her, to which Mikoto winks and brushes Kuroko off. As she is walking to the Shopping District, Mikoto finds Saten Ruiko on all-fours and literally sniffing around for the bank cards. An excited Saten drags Mikoto off for a hunt, lasting until sunset. Eventually, Saten thanks Mikoto for helping and leaves Mikoto with four envelopes of bank cards. But as she's standing there, Mikoto overhears four thugs talking about the origin of the bank cards and their plan to raid it.

The four thugs arrive at an abandoned building and confront the person distributing the cards, Shinobu. Intending to steal the cards, they split up to search the building. Shinobu pretends to have an esper ability that lets her kill anyone she's ever touched, but instead uses psychological tricks to make all of the thugs faint with shock. With a series of psychological games she plays with the thugs, she makes them all faint with shock. Mikoto watches from the doorway and applauds Shinobu for her actions, telling her that she would've intervened if the situation got out of hand. The chapter ends with Shinobu looking at Mikoto and saying "So, you are the original".

Adapted To

 * Toaru Kagaku no Railgun S Episode 02

Characters
By order of appearance:
 * Misaka Mikoto
 * Shirai Kuroko
 * Uiharu Kazari
 * Saten Ruiko

New Characters

 * Nunotaba Shinobu
 * Hikoichi
 * Satoshi
 * Tetsu

Abilities

 * Teleport - Shirai Kuroko, Level 4
 * Electromaster (Railgun-variant) - Misaka Mikoto, Level 5

New Abilities
No new abilities were introduced in this chapter.

Locations

 * Academy City
 * School District 7
 * Tokiwadai Dormitory
 * Judgment 177 Branch Office

New Locations
No new locations were introduced in this chapter.

Unanswered Questions

 * Why did the Shinobu leave those envelopes with cash cards with a random amount of money in back alleys anyway?