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| “ | People's thoughts are found in the brain. Their life is found in the heart. Their emotions are found in their face. Then, if you drive the soul from the body, would there be any vacancy there? | „ |
| ~ The Doppelganger. |
The Doppelganger is a major antagonist in the anime and manga series A Certain Scientific Railgun, serving as the main antagonist of the Dream Ranker Arc.
She is an android created out of the cyborg parts used in Ryouko Kuriba's body split experiment. Residing within the combined mechanical components of both cyborg bodies, and initially believing she was the real one, the doppelganger's eventually realized what she was and escaped the laboratory where she was confined.
Like her original, she is voiced by Atsumi Tanezaki in Japanese and Suzie Yeung in English.
Appearance[]
The doppelganger's appearance is practically identical to the original Ryouko Kuriba, with vertically striped hair that alternates between light and dark with a black stripe at the middle of her frontal fringe. The notable difference is that she has a light patch across the right side of her face which is a result of her being split apart.
Below her neck, her body's mechanical features are more apparent with exposed joints and a set of panels opening onto a hole on her back. After her escape, the doppelganger acquires a black and pink hospital gown and artificial skin to cover up her cyborg parts.
After assimilating an enormous amount of material after her container was breached, the doppelganger's appearance changed, gaining darker skin over her entire body and white hair as well as a dress made from pale threads.
Personality[]
Due to possessing many of her memories, the doppelganger initially believed that she was the real Ryouko Kuriba, however, it's unclear how much of the original's traits she has. After learning her true nature, the doppelganger now speaks in a speculative and philosophical manner regarding her nature as a fake when compared to others.
The doppelganger is quite literally soulless and has a notable lack of empathy, having no qualms with killing anybody or causing massive destruction in the pursuit of her goals. It’s questionable whether she even understands the concept of morality, given her comments about only having numerical values for things like pain while crushing Leader’s arm. Like her creator, the doppelganger tends to accept sacrifice as a necessary resort to achieve something.
It's revealed that the Doppelganger's main goal is to completely destroy herself and all traces of her existence. The despair at learning about her true nature and the conclusion that she has no soul drove her to find a way to end it all and eliminate all methods or data that could recreate her. She intended to trigger Academy City's defense systems to shoot her and the data storage airship down, seeing as she couldn't commit suicide herself. She also considered killing Ryouko and her other creators to ensure another doppelganger isn't created rather than holding a grudge against them.
Deep down, the doppelganger longed for a 'real' soul of her own so she could be called human. When Mikoto Misaka fulfills her wish of termination, she thanked her and described her destruction as being the same as throwing out a broken appliance.
Biography[]
As part of the Total Human Cyborg Replacement Project, Ryouko Kuriba's body was split in two to create two seprate cyborgs. Her human parts gathered to recreate one Ryouko while the cyborg parts created the doppelganger. While Ryouko wished to test the compatibility between the cyborg technology and the human body, the institution she was working with also hoped to observe a possible side-effect - the creation of a "soul". The doppelganger believed and perceived herself to be the original Ryouko, unaware of her nature at first.
Powers and Abilities[]
Powers[]
- Technorganic Physiology: The Doppelganger is entirely comprised of cyborg parts used for medical purposes, being heavier and sturdier than normal body parts. These include artificial muscles which expand and contract through chemical reactions, and suppressants to prevent rejection when in contact with physical bodies, some of the technologies having been developed by the original Ryouko Kuriba. Her body also has a number of safety mechanisms, designed to prevent her from performing actions which would inflict damage to herself beyond a certain level.
- Enhanced Strength: The doppelganger's cyborg muscles are incredibly strong, allowing her to crush human bones and break through concrete without much effort.
- Enhanced Durability: She is highly durable and resilent, being able to survive falling from a high-rise building and was completely unfazed by Naruha Sakuragi's barage of punches.
- Enhanced Speed: As a cyborg, she should be faster than a regular human. She quickly caught up to the original Ryouko when she tried to run away from her despite Ryouko having a headstart.
- Artificial Muscles: While the source of her power to take over nearby materials was initially thought to be because she was an artificial soul that could possess lifeless objects, it was eventually revealed that Doppelganger was a rogue AI that had developed beyond its programming by fusing with the brain of the original Ryouko and spending a year developing her creative ability. The Doppelganger actually uses self-replicating artificial muscles created by mixing the traits of slime mold with the traits of muscles of large herbivores. These artificial muscles quickly reproduce with just air, water, and light, though they shrivel up and die in a few hours. The Doppelganger can shape these artificial muscles in combat in multiple ways such as large "vines" that can pierce and grab objects, a sword or a giant drill. She can also control external materials by embedding thin strands of artificial muscle almost invisible to the naked eye in them at the microscopic level. She has proven to be capable of taking over and manipulating nearby materials such as Naru's paper, concrete, asphalt, and even large fuel tanks that she can lift and throw across a city.
- Absorption: After being damaged, the Doppelganger can repair her body using nearby materials, such as Naru's paper or wreckage. She can also go beyond her original form, creating a body several meters tall capable of destroying a warehouse. When pushed further by Mikoto Misaka, the Doppelganger created a giant body that easily towered over Academy City's buildings.
- Duplication: Doppelganger can create several crude decoys of herself to confuse the enemy.
