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What's the Best Job for a Railgun?

When you're in school, there's nothing you think about more than for it to finally be over. All the homework, bullies, and pressures of fitting in can be rough for anyone. For the students of Academy City the transition to the real world may be harder your average student. The characters of A Certain Scientific Railgun may have extraordinary circumstances, but like everyone else in the world, the realities of life often catch up to you.

When you finally toss that graduation cap in the air and leave your school for the final time, the world can be a very scary place. However, being the owner of esper powers in a futuristic city like Academy City may make those choices even harder. The ladies of Tokiwadadai Middle School still have some time to make their career choices, but it's never too early to think about what they're good at, and where their lives could end up.

You can always count on the adorable Kazari Uiharu to be courteous and kind, making her an excellent fit for high stress situations. The adorable young lady may only possess level one abilities, but in a pinch her computer skills are second to none. Kazari would likely be a good candidate for a high level technology job, likely in robotics or securities. She's demonstrated her ability to combat Academy City's hackers countless numbers of times, earning a reputation as a member of the Judgement enforcement team. If the city ever learns to trust her, she could run their cyber crimes division with ease.

Miss Uiharu is also the owner of a unique ability to preserve the temperature of items, kind of like a thermos, which is called Thermal Hands. While she's only ranked at level one, this power could be used is so many handy ways. Can you imagine getting your ramen or coffee delivered to you at the temperature that they left the restaurant? Ever get upset that your milkshake or ice cream is melted by the time it gets home? There's surely someone willing to pay to get delicious foods brought to them at their intended temperature! If that doesn't seem like a good use of her skills, there's surely high level applications of this, such as transporting chemicals or even body organs for transplant. Sometimes it's the most simple skills that can save lives.

Employment for the upfront and candid Kuroko Shirai may be an entirely different story altogether. She'll need to be in a position where her wild opinions and loose tongue don't immediately get her fired. Although she is always true to the people she is close with, her inability to accept facts that she does not want to believe may hinder her in a decision making situation. Even without her powers she is an extremely skilled martial artist and is tough to the core, often absorbing electrical shocks from her roommate Mikoto Misaka. She's shown a great affinity for law enforcement as part of her role in Judgement, making her potentially the best candidate for continuing a career as police or military.

Let's not overlook the fact that Kuruko is also a level 4 esper with the shockingly powerful ability of teleportation. While she is limited by what she can teleport with her, and the distance she can travel, the applications for this are endless, and any company would be a fool to not hire her. Imagine not having to take your entire car engine apart to replace a part! Kuruko would be able to easily teleport parts in and out. Locksmithing and lock picking take time to learn, and often charge customers large sums of money. Kuruko could easily grab the keys left in the ignition or unlock doors from the other side. If someone is stuck somewhere or an object is hard to get to, she could easily get the job done. Kuruko may want to become some level of independent contractor, doing odd jobs for money. However, her ability has such a potential for covert mischief that I'm sure any company would give her top dollar to be under their wing. I doubt that someone with her respect for justice would ever go rogue, but it's probably best to keep her well paid. No matter what job she's best suited for, it's likely that she'll just end up following the apple of her eye, Mikoto Misaka wherever she goes.

The day she walks off the graduation floor of school, companies will surely be lining up to make sure that Mikoto Misaka aka “Railgun” calls their company her home. Not only is she an Electromaster, but she's also great with electronics. Her innate abilities have given her a strong knowledge of how electronics work, with her often helping her friends fix things over the phone. She could potentially work in some kind of electronics help-desk job, assisting engineers in the field on issues that come up. Mikoto is also an avid collector of cute things, especially Gekota merchandise. She would surely be in heaven working at a store that sold these goods, although there's a good chance she'd buy everything herself, not allowing customers to have any of the cuteness.

However, if we're going to be realistic we're going to have to recognize the fact that Mikoto Misaka is Academy City's most powerful Electromaster. She's one of top three level five espers, showing the ability to transform to level 6 at times. She's earned the nickname she's given herself of Railgun. Her ability to launch metal at high speeds could potentially aid in launching satellites or spacecraft out of the atmosphere, or send metal goods to any destination able to receive them at violent speeds. She's also able to generate massive amounts of electricity and lightning at the drop of hat, giving her the ability to stand in as a generator in emergency circumstances. I'm sure Mikoto wouldn't want a career as walking battery however. Her strong sense of justice makes her a perfect candidate for military applications, which would surely please the heads of Academy City. She can quickly hack systems by controlling the electric flow of information, and her innate telepathic immunity could put her at the top levels of government information security. At times Miss Misaka has demonstrated the ability to fly as well as conjure fierce attacks, including a whip sword. Although she would surely not want to end up as a military weapon, the heads of Academy City and the government likely would like to see her go that direction.

You can follow along with the wild esper adventures of the “Railgun” Mikoto Misaka and her friends in FUNimation's A Certain Scientific Railgun, seasons one and two, on home video. Season 1 is now available on Blu-ray/DVD Combo for the first time ever! This exciting series is currently on sale for a limited time.

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