So.
The vector shield.
Without a doubt, the most ideal and perfect manifestation of the ability to manipulate vectors.
Equally brilliant in its simplicity.
How do an esper’s abilities actually work?
There are two main factors that define a person as an esper.
First, Personal Reality.
A rather tricky thing to understand, operating on principles of quantum theory and fully exploiting the observer effect.
To put it simply, Personal Reality is a kind of twist in the esper’s consciousness.
Through it, they can create an image of the surrounding reality in their mind, make changes to it, and then “force” the result into the real world.
There are limits, of course.
Manipulations are always limited by the esper’s specific ability, point one.
The changes must conform to the physical laws of reality, point two.
And the higher the correspondence between the esper’s calculations and physical and mathematical models, the less the world resists attempts at change.
And less of that “magical energy” is required.
“Magical energy,” by the way, is the second factor.
AIM diffusion field, or the field of Involuntary Movement.
That’s the term the scientists of Academy City used to describe a certain energy constantly emitted by the esper into the surrounding space.
By its nature, this field has no specific form and is practically undetectable by the five human senses.
This energy is the building material for any violation of physical laws.
It’s also, by the way, the very factor that makes an esper a narrow specialist in only their specific field.
Sorry for the tautology.
The characteristics of the AIM field determine the specifics of an esper’s abilities.
And they, if you believe fan theories, also influence the specifics of their computational abilities.
Thus, Accelerator could calculate a mind-blowingly complex equation with a huge number of random variables in the time it took for a nerve impulse caused by touching an object to reach his brain.
Meanwhile, Misaka Mikoto could perceive and interpret electrical signals like a computer.
On top of this, the AIM field slightly influences the esper’s immediate surroundings to a barely noticeable degree.
For example, the temperature around a pyrokinetic is always slightly higher.
Misaka Mikoto often unintentionally sparks with electricity and attracts light metal objects.
And Accelerator has his vector shield.
Though not exactly.
Initially, in its natural form, based on Samuel’s feelings, Accelerator’s vector shield wasn’t even a thousandth of a percent as strong and effective as it appears to viewers in the anime.
But Accelerator was a genius and a psycho, wasn’t he?
Instead of accepting the almost useless ability granted by the weak background energy leaking into space, he tore his natural limiters to shreds.
Then, to keep things from blowing up, he installed his own.
Creating those very limiters was what Samuel was working on now.
He had already thanked himself about twenty times for his foresight in not removing the natural limiter before he figured out the “plug.” That “plug,” by the way, was a true mathematical-physical monster and was essentially the matrix of the vector shield.
Though it might have only seemed monstrous to Samuel with his attitude toward studying.
His frankly average knowledge of mathematics greatly limited his options.
Samuel felt like he was trying to build a magnificent palace out of sticks and mud, a palace fit for a king and his entire royal family.
And, what’s most frightening, he was succeeding.
Yes, with difficulty.
Yes, through swearing.
But he was succeeding.
His incredibly powerful Level 5 esper brain was practically reinventing mathematics, forming a full-fledged science from Samuel’s fragmented knowledge.
And all of this in less than five minutes.
“Is this even fair?” Samuel asked the space around him with a feeling of mild irrational indignation and hidden delight.
The foundation of the formula was ready.
The absurdly complex equation literally flooded the area of his Personal Reality.
Though it didn’t burden him much.
Samuel felt that if he just wished it, the formula would “compress.” Which he did.
After that, all that remained was to remove the limiter and put in its place the compressed, thumbnail-sized, three-dimensional ball of numbers and letters (did I mention the equation was monstrous? It was three-dimensional).
Samuel reached for that same internal “gate” that he had “opened” five minutes ago.
In this situation, Accelerator would have done things in his own style.
He would have created a battering ram in his Personal Reality and simply smashed the barrier down.
But Samuel wasn’t in a hurry to do that.
The barrier obeyed his slightest thought without issue, and he saw no point in breaking what he could simply push aside.
A simple mental command, “stay open until the order is canceled,” was firmly imprinted on the metaphysical barrier.
It opened fully, giving Samuel access to the wide flow of energy that came from who knows where.
Immediately, the construct Samuel had cobbled together took its place.
At that same moment, the flow of energy tried to wash away the new barrier.
When it couldn’t, it began to push it into reality.
This was the most critical moment.
The uncertainty principle of esper abilities allowed for various interesting tricks with logic and perception.
Samuel decided to use one of them.
“Phew…” he exhaled slowly, opening his eyes.
At first glance, nothing had changed.
But no.
Samuel felt it.
That very feeling of absolute protection, arising on its own.
Sinking back into his Personal Reality, the guy looked at the barrier.
Perfect.
Achievement unlocked.
Bending the universe wasn’t easy, but Samuel did it.
Now, the incredibly “heavy” formula existed simultaneously in two places.
It separated his Personal Reality from the endless flow of energy and protected his real body from any external threats.
‘Though regarding “any,” I might be exaggerating.
After all, under the vector shield, I only have my rather weak child’s body, which also needs sleep and food.
Sleep won’t be a problem.
The vector shield, which works even when I sleep, can easily cut off any sound or even light.
So starving me by not letting me sleep is impossible.
But “food” is not so simple.
I have a couple of interesting ideas for improving the shield to block poisonous substances, but that would require a large database of samples, each of which would have to be entered separately.’ Samuel’s thoughts, unused to such a powerful mind, raced through his head at breakneck speed, causing him some harmless confusion.
‘What a pain…’
Sighing quietly, Samuel forcefully suppressed most of the racing thoughts in his head and channeled the rest into a constructive direction.
Now he had a vector shield, and he had become much more dangerous.
But it still didn’t guarantee his survival.
It was all about the principles of how this ability worked.
It didn’t block anything that wasn’t in its database or that the user didn’t perceive as dangerous.
The latter was especially difficult to implement.
But here again, the uncertainty principle came into play.
The vector shield was a damn chimera, assembled from all areas of mathematics known to Samuel, filed down with a file, and mixed together into one Thing.
The area of mathematical logic with its selection algorithms and almost software architecture didn’t escape becoming a part of the chimera either.
Thus, the vector shield had something like a castrated AI, operating on a “trigger-condition-action” principle.
The trigger was the interaction of the shield with a passing vector.
The condition was that the vector was directed at the user and posed a threat.
The action was to rotate the vector of motion of the object or phenomenon by 180 degrees along any axis.
How does this pseudo-AI determine the threat factor to the esper?
That’s where the uncertainty principle comes in again.
As an example, take a ball.
Usually, a ball is the basis of the model in classical mathematics.
Place this ball in front of a conventional obstacle, like a symmetrical hill with gentle slopes.
According to the laws of mathematics and mechanics, if the ball gathers enough directional kinetic energy, it can roll up the hill and then roll down the other side.
If there isn’t enough force, it will stop halfway and roll back.
However, according to quantum theory, which is an extended synonym for the concept of “uncertainty,” the ball can still roll over the obstacle even without enough energy.
Scientists often use this model to explain phenomena that occur but can’t be scientifically proven.
The vector shield can extract from uncertainty the probability that the ball, without enough kinetic energy, will still roll to the other side of the hill and raise it to almost one hundred percent.
Translating to our situation, it can detect the probability that the user will take damage and reduce it to the minimum possible value.
Thus, even vectors of ordinary phenomena that don’t pose a threat to the esper, upon entering the area of the vector shield, will be simultaneously blocked and allowed through.
Then, based on the user’s reaction to the impact, the “box with the cat” will be opened, and it will be the pseudo-AI that decides whether the poor flea-ridden creature is alive or not.
It gives the impression that the shield can look into the future and, based on what it sees, determine the danger of a specific vector to the user, even though that’s not the case.
Oh, these esper abilities from Index.
They’re so damn tricky to explain.
However, even this seemingly absolute defense is not perfect.
The shield is still built on physics, or at least on something as close to it as possible.
And it just so happens that in the world of MHA, people have a special relationship with that science.
They mostly break it over their knee.
Before, this didn’t really bother Samuel.
But now, having such a powerful computational “processor” and understanding the world around him an order of magnitude better, he was suffering.
Yes, with a capital S.
His brain physically itched from the feeling of wrongness caused by a surface analysis of some characters’ powers in this universe based on his memory.
Too much variety in abilities and mutations.
Too many viable individuals.
And, most depressingly, even half of these cases couldn’t be explained by the possible presence of an AIM field or some configuration of it.
This was something completely new.
Samuel would likely get answers to some of his questions very soon.
“These guys are researching Quirks, right?” Samuel stared predatorily at the metal door, which in the last six minutes had stopped seeming like an insurmountable obstacle.
But six minutes was enough for him to change completely.
Subjectively, much more time had passed.
Designing the vector shield, thinking about optimizing its operation, thinking about the possible nature of local powers, and a whole host of other thoughts.
Samuel hadn’t thought as much in a week as he had in the last five minutes.
Not because he was too slow, but because now he was too fast.
An extremely logical type of thinking, honed for precise mathematical calculations and complex modeling, had already subconsciously equated the current situation as favorable.
The percentage of risk, meanwhile, was set so low that it could confidently be considered a statistical error.
And a person who inherited the powers of an esper from the world of A Certain Magical Index has his own relationship with negligible probabilities.