A Certain Scientific Railgun #9

Volume 9 of *A Certain Scientific Railgun* brings Kazuma Kamachi's story and Motoi Fuyukawa's art together for another charged installment in Academy City's esper-filled world. The cover, illustrated by Fuyukawa, places two young women in white-and-red uniforms against a swirling crimson backdrop — the taller, blonde figure stands back-to-back with a shorter brown-haired girl whose eye crackles with a telltale arc of electricity. It's a confident, visually tense composition that captures the series' blend of rivalry, partnership, and barely-contained power heading into 2014's "Chapter 53: Defect.