Accelerator

"I have no interest in being a villain, and I don’t think that I can become a good person. I’m at a halfway point where I’m not even sure which path I should walk down… but I guess even there, I can still interfere in someone’s life and help bring things to a positive conclusion."

- Accelerator

Accelerator is the name used to refer to the strongest esper currently residing in Academy City. He is the second protagonist of the Science Side in the A Certain Magical Index series.

He is voiced by Nobuchiko Okamoto in the Japanese version of the anime and Austin Tindle in the English version, the former of whom also voices Rin Okumura.

Appearance
Accelerator appears as a skinny teenager 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 has an affect on his hormones, as he stated in both the novel and manga series that it was because of his power he has "...this genderless body," although there is definite evidence stated throughout the series whether he is a boy. In the novel/manga, when Last Order asked him "Then are you male or female?" he gave the equivocal answer, "Can't you tell?" While in the novel he is shown to have a slim, androgynous body, a bathing scene he is depicted him bare-chested and obviously male. He also seems to have an affinity for black and white-themed clothing, which is a famous brand.When he is enraged or excited (such as when fighting a strong or amusing opponent e.g Kamijou Touma in the Sisters Arc) he breaks into a wide grin and laughs, giving him a maniacal and sadistic appearance.

Personality
Due to the potential of his ability, Accelerator has been targeted by assassins and researchers throughout his life. As a result, he believes only in power and trusts no one. While fighting, he invokes fear and has a sadistic tone. He willingly joins the SISTER experiment to gain a reputation as the most powerful and feared psychic so that no one would dare be foolish enough to challenge him and won't hesitate to kill any who get in his way. The Sisters' memories of his behavior during the experiment may suggest that he is, in a way, a pacifist; because his power won't disappear, the only way he sees an end to the fighting is to be so strong and sadistic that no one would dare to raise a finger against him. He even seems to attempt to frighten the Sisters out of fighting or otherwise encourage them to refuse their battles.

After meeting Last Order, he strives to protect her (although he states he does not like her company, he tolerates her). He saved her from Amai Ao's plot and from being pursued from the Hound Dogs. He treats Index in a similar fashion, such as when he buys her lunch while searching for Last Order and by protecting her from the Hound Dogs. By Volume 19, he has mellowed out to the point that he actually lectures a child in order to prevent him from getting himself killed after a hostage situation.

His attitude towards Touma was hinted at throughout the novels after Volume 5, when it is shown that he both idolizes and is slightly jealous of Touma's heroic personality, and is outright shown when he and Touma finally come to blows in Volume 20. By comparison according to Heaven Canceler, Touma and Accelerator are very similar, but their methods are like opposite sides of a coin; Touma is able to protect his loved ones without killing and is able to stand by their side, while Accelerator protects his loved ones through violent methods and even admits that he is unable to stand by Last Order and Yomikawa's side. Deep down, he is someone that aches for the light, as shown when Yomikawa was able to walk up to him and slowly take a gun from his hands before he tried to finish off Kakine after their fight, and later when he refused to hurt a Misaka WORST clone and tried to heal her wounds after she tried to kill herself.

Aiwass has also commented on the differences between Touma and Accelerator – stating how Accelerator craves for the wholesomeness of being a 'hero' like Touma, even to the point that he declared himself evil because he believes he cannot reach that level. He is someone that tries hard to redeem himself.

Accelerator was shown to often underestimate his enemies earlier in the series, which led to his loss against Touma. However, after nearly being killed by Kihara Amata and fighting Komaba Ritoku, he no longer underestimates his enemies. This fact is noted by one of the terrorists in Hula Hoop in Volume 19 as possibly being the most terrifying thing about him: he always uses exactly how much force he needs to in order to defeat his enemy: no more and no less. If he ever underestimated his enemies, it would have given them an opening they could have exploited, but since he didn't, he simply wiped them out.

In Vol22 After-word the author states that what Accelerator wants most is not a lover but a family, and states Last Order is like his child he has to take care of. Also in Vol22, Misaka Worst said half-jokingly she wants the same fatherly treatment he gives to the other Misaka clones.

Story
Accelerator was alone in Academy City and he's an esper who was defeated by Touma. In the Hound Dogs invasion Accelerator becomes good and finds information against the witnesses on he computer. Accelerator was fighting Kihara Amata to save Last Order for Misaka. Accelerator was fighting thugs in the dome & Accelerator becomes a bad guy of the GROUP in the end of Toaru Majutsu No Index II anime.

Abilities
Accelerator's ability creates a thin field of AIM around him, which allows him to modify the vector values of anything he touches. After the events of Volume 5, his brain has been damaged, and he has to rely on a choker-type electrode that connects him to the Misaka network. The brainwave network allows him to use language, as well as making up for his lost ability to make calculations, although it is stated that it's less than half of what he once had. Furthermore the network enable Accelerator to reflect ultraviolet rays even when he isn't in esper mode. When using the network in esper mode, the battery of the electrode only lasts fifteen minutes. That changes in when he joins GROUP and its technical team cranks his time up to thirty minutes. He does not need the Misaka Network to use his abilities when in an awakened state. He is shown to be far stronger than any other Level 5 in Academy City, being able to easily defeat the "Awakened" #2 Level 5 esper Kakine Teitoku without awakening himself. It should be noted that this fight took place after Accelerator's brain was damaged and he was forced to start relying on the Misaka Network to do his calculations, which reduced him to having less than half of his former calculation abilities. The nature that Accelerator`s power belonged to the Aeon of Osiris until the vol. 22 when he passed to the Aeon of Horus.

Redirection: He can change the vector values of anything by touch; for example, he kills a Sister clone by reversing the flow of blood inside her body after putting his finger inside her wound. Furthermore, this ability is automatic, so projectiles like bullets or explosives have no effect on him, as they will be redirected, even if he is unaware of their presence. He must consciously allow things like gravity and light to affect him. It is because of his ability that he has an albino appearance, as his "reflection" blocks all unnecessary ultraviolet radiation, thereby preventing the skin from manufacturing melanin. However, if one can find their way "around" his redirection ability(as demonstrated by Touma and Kihara Amata), it is shown to be rather useless, marking Accelerator as a Glass Cannon due to having a strong ability but a somewhat weak body(as Touma/Kihara managed to bring him down to his feet in only around 10-7 blows). Thus far, he has shown the following ways to use his powers:


 * 1) 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 also 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.
 * 2) 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 mimick superhuman strength, as he once used it to pick up and throw a building.
 * 3) 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.
 * 4) Plasma Storm: He can even create plasma by further compressing the wind at high speeds in a single point.
 * 5) 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.
 * 6) 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.
 * 7) 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.
 * 8) Reverse Engineering: Shown in Volume 22, chapter 11; The Accelerator has stated that as long as he has experienced it, he can analyze forces unknown to him as long as his body has been in contact with it, by following the vectors that have been applied(almost similar to a vaccine shot's case). He used this ability to understand Aiwass' "inexplicable laws".
 * 9) Bullet Redirection: Shown in Volume 15 in his fight against Saraku. When his gun sight is thrown off in this fight, Accelerator simply pointed the gun at himself then fired, redirecting the bullet to hit his enemy, stating that his ability was far more precise than any gun sight.
 * Awakening: He awakens towards the end of volume 13 when he had a epiphany right before he was nearly killed by Kihara, and fully awakened in his fight with the other "Awakened" level 5, Kakine Teitoku in Volume 15, during which he displayed a massive difference in power between them. When he Awakens, Accelerator usually loses almost all conscious control of himself and begins to speak in the language of the Angels. He gains the ability to control and create "imaginary vectors", and no longer needs to be touching vectors to control them. When Awakened, he manifests massive black wings, stated to be made of the same "Dark Matter" that the #2 Level 5 Kakine Teitoku creates with his ability. These wings do all the vector-related calculations for him, implied to be a much faster rate than his original calculating abilities- perhaps infinitely so, and as a result he does not need the Misaka Network to manipulate vectors and "imaginary vectors" in his awakened form. In volume 22, due to his pillar of support being changed by an epiphany after being defeated by Touma again, he manifests white wings and a halo and is able to block a massive amount of Telesma that Fiamma of the Right launched from the Star of Bethlehem. The Angelic nature of his ability is described as "The One Who Wields the Power of God".
 * Machine Ingenuity: Accelerator is also quite competent with machinery and technology, evident in when he modified his cane with various gravity sensors, and small motors to help better support himself.
 * Magic: Accelerator has demonstrated the ability to use magic. In volume 22, he used his vector ability to interpret the song used by Index to save Last Order and repeated the breathing method, casting the spell. As this was a pure magic spell, he suffered serious harm but saved Last Order. This is a possible factor that lead to Accelerator gaining White Wings, replacing his Black ones. After an explanation on the theory of magic provided by Leivinia Birdway, Accelerator displays his extreme delicate control over magic to having a side effect of using magic as unnaturally sweating rather than rupture of blood vessels and organ damage.
 * Magical Knowledge: By having a rough idea what Feng Shui was he is able to use a limited magic detection and then combining his knowledge of group psychology it becomes accurate.
 * Firearms: After his fight with Kihara Amata, Accelerator realizes that he can no longer depend on his ability all the time. As such, he gets training with firearms and is shown to be extremely proficient in their use. Using his left, weaker hand he was able to finish off a round of practice in 70 seconds. He has commented that reloading a pistol in two seconds with just one hand and his teeth is too slow, even though he was just testing the guns. He is also seen wielding a shotgun during the Invasion of Academy City where he used it to kill numerous Hound Dog operatives pursuing him.

Trivia

 * He is constantly thought to be the deuteragonist. While this can be seen as true in some arcs, especially ones involving the Science Side, he is ultimately overshadowed by Index and Mikoto Misaka, making him the tetratagonist.