In a bid to obtain the mythic power of a Level 6 esper, Academy City has churned out a total of seven Level 5 espers. Each equipped with strong but varied special abilities, they are estimated to be as powerful as a full-blown military force by the Power Curriculum Program. But even if their esper level is the same, it doesn't mean that all Level 5 espers are equally as strong.
Some have abilities that go far and beyond what the other Level 5 espers can do. Some able to bend the world to their will and obliterating all those in front of them. So with that in mind, here are the most powerful Level 5 espers, ranked according to strength.
Featured image by ジャック.
7 Aihana Eitsu
Sorry to disappoint you, but Aihana Eitsu isn't actually a confused anime girl. They are...they are...no one truly knows who they are. They are canonically considered the sixth-ranked esper out of the seven in Academy City but that is about as much information as we have about them. Who they are or what they can do remains a mystery.
Of course, there is some speculation on who they could be but that is entirely conjecture since they've been out of the spotlight thus far. Usually only referenced to as an aside throughout the entirety of the light novel and anime. They do not even have a nickname like some of the other Level 5 espers to give us a hint at what their special ability can do. So considering the lack of information, they can only be ranked dead last on this list.
6 Shokuhou Misaki
Shokuhou Misaki, otherwise known by her nickname Mental Out, is one of the two Level 5 espers from Tokiwadai Middle School. The rival, and sometimes frenemy, of Misaka Mikoto, Misaki can manipulate the secretion of chemicals, blood, and other factors in a person's brain. Giving her several abilities that include reading minds, telepathy, changing a person's personality, mind control, memory destruction, psychometry, and others. Being a Level 5, she can assert her powers over a group of about 10 to 14 people for more complicated endeavors and even hundreds if the command is simple enough.
So why is she second to last on this list? She has many drawbacks. The most stifling of all is that she relies on a number of remote controls to properly use her powers. The absolute freedom of her ability being too much for the young girl to comprehend, she uses remote controls to focus her abilities. Take them away from her, and her powers prove difficult to use.
5 Mugino Shizuri
Mugino is part of a time-honored anime tradition of high-powered teenagers with bad personalities. While she may seem mature on the outside, if someone gets her angry she'll turn over the whole damn world to try and destroy them. Not that it is particularly hard to do considering her ability.
Mugino Shizuri is nicknamed Meldowner because she can turn electrons into a destructive beam of light that melts everything they hit. This includes dense metal walls that are boiled down to hot lava when they are hit by her ability and anything else that may get in her way, objects and persons included. She is also able to manipulate electrons to them to turn them into a makeshift shield. At the absolute limit of her powers, she can even take out Misaka Mikoto in one hit. Unfortunately for her, that amount of power would backfire and blow her away too.
4 Sogiita Gunha
Sogiita Gunha is a weird dude. A weird dude with a weird power that he doesn't understand. That also goes for everybody else in Academy City that finds his powers incomprehensible. Though incomprehensible as it may be, it sure is powerful.
Sogiita Gunha esper power has a litany of abilities that don't make sense but they seem to work out for him anyway. Among them are enhanced durability, explosion manipulation, super speed, and super strength, although those are the abilities that seem normal in comparison to his other powers. He can deflect electricity with a punch, jump in mid-air, stop himself from falling with a shout, and various other abilities that break the laws of physics and common sense. He might be even higher on this list if we knew how his power worked.
3 Misaka Mikoto
Ms. Railgun herself. Misaka Mikoto is one of the heroines of A Certain Magical Index and the main protagonist of the spinoff show, A Certain Scientific Railgun. As the second Level 5 of Tokiwadai Academy, she is an Electromaster and that is only the start of it.
Mikoto can manipulate electricity beyond simply shooting it out and can use it to move objects with electromagnetism, hack computers, create a whip sword out of iron sand, create a chainsaw using the same technique, fly via water vapor, and shoot out metal objects at three times the speed of sound. That last ability earning her the nickname Railgun. Better yet, she has no notable weaknesses to detract from her powers, making her an all-around powerful esper in Academy City.
2 Kakine Teitoku
Kakine Teitoku is the one-sided rival of Accelerator with the ability to control an unknown material that is dubbed Dark Matter. Though it has nothing to do with actual dark matter and is instead matter that Kakine created entirely on his own with his ability. It has no link to any actual existing substance. It is also the source of his nickname, Dark Matter.
Using this unknown material, Teitoku can not only bend but break the laws of physics with his power. It allows him to use any of 25,000 different types of energies to freely shape and control his power. One example is the glorious angel wings Teitoku forms on his back that allow him to fly, blow powerful gusts of wind, and diffract sunlight into harmful rays. It is also initially able to bypass Accelator's reflection (though that doesn't last too long).
1 Accelerator
The only one of the Level 5 espers in Academy City that only goes by his nickname, Accelerator's power is obscene. It lets him control vectors. For the uninitiated, vectors qualify as any object that has a magnitude and direction, meaning that just about anything can be considered a vector including gravity, electricity, and light. With this, he can deflect just about anything, turn someone inside out by reversing their blood flow, creating tornados, explosions, and control everything and everyone to some extent.
Even after taking a bullet to the head, he is nigh unstoppable. While he may need a little support from his choker that stimulates his now handicapped brain, he is still impossible to defeat for most people that aren't named Touma. His ability providing him with the ultimate attack and defense in every regard.