The Church's latest attempt to take down Academy City by altering urban legends and make them a reality. Altering the past of various characters both that they were trying to and those unexpectedly affected as a side effect of their tampering with reality. Even though Academy City was based around the science of things. There existed urban legends that were known by the entire population that lived there. Various legends that no one was able to prove true or false cause most people did not even bother checking on them. Probably just playing them off as something related to espers or something else that someone merely misunderstood. In that sense, these were merely urban legends in name only as they were kind of inside jokes that the resident of Academy City made over time and spread around.
It was through these urban legends that the Church which had been plotting to take down Academy City time and time again decided they would use in their latest attempt to do so. The made one that they decided to go after was one of the most recent ones to come into existence that is the Maid Robot Project. An urban legend that was mostly surrounding a young girl named Maika Tsuchimikado, a maid-in-training.
Maika can usually be found riding atop an Academy City cleaning robot. Interestingly, despite the machine's constant spinning motion, she never seems to get dizzy. No one knows why she always sitting on top of the cleaning robot or even why the city allowed to seemingly claim their property as her mode of transportation. Those cleaning robots are not exactly cheap and no one else is even seen riding on top of one of them.
Thus an urban legend was born about how Maika is not a real human but just an extremely advanced robot that merely seems human as Academy City is creating a new line of robots that closer to a human thus able to serve the population much better. They merely allow the girl to call herself 'Maika Tscuhimikado' to attend maid training school for various reasons to help with her development and the overall development of the Maid Robot Project. The urban legend expands even more like those that are aware of her older stepbrother Motoharu Tsuchimikado's role in Academy City just added fuel to this legend even more.
In their latest scheme, the church decided to use their magic to make this urban legend into reality but make it so that it was, in fact, the truth and that reality was changed to make it so. After all things like this were possible as reality had been changed through magic alone once both and it was rather through that time around.
Using Maika's Maid Robot Project Urban Legend to turn her into an actual robot was not the only point in their attack this time around. They were also aiming for one of the Academy City's strongest esper that had a connection to Maika as well as Urban Legend of her own. She was a good friend of Mikoto Misaka, the level five Esper known as Railgun, as Maika worked as a maid at her school.
As for how Maika become a robot that was now actually Academy City new big leap in cleaning robot technology connected to Misaka. It all had to do with something that Academy City did in the past as Misaka's urban legend was that there were clones of her that roaming around the city.
This was, in fact, true as there was a legit clone of Misaka at least ten thousand of them as it was all part of the plan to create a level six Esper that failed. This where they took the now Maid Robot Project and fused it with Level Six Esper Project. Altering the past so that now Misaka Mikoto was never human either but merely the last in a line of robots that were created to make the strongest artificial Esper.
The Maid Robot Project was now just meant to hide their true intention with the Artificial Esper Project. Mikoto was no longer the daughter of Misuzu Misaka but now merely Mikoto 10033(in this new altered reality she is the last one) the creation of hers as Misuzu created her programming, A.I, and all her other functions. In sense in this now altered reality Mikoto 10033 and Maika are kind of half-sisters. Maika was created using Mikoto as her base after all.
Another change was that Mikoto was not the original anymore she was the final robot made before the project was shut down with only the Maid Robot Project remaining active. Rather than each model(formerly clone) being weaker than the original. Each model got stronger and stronger with Mikoto 10033 being the strongest they have created and also the most rebellious as she ran away and tried stopping the project on her own.
Attempt to capture her failed as she managed to take the role of Mikoto Misaka from the predecessor Mikoto 10032. Not only that prevent her from being taken as well. The project ended when Mikoto 10033 trying beating the strongest Esper in Academy City (even though that how basically half of the predecessors died) to prove she was the strongest Mikoto and thus the strongest Artificial Esper. The attempt failed to like the other before her but when Touma Kamijou arrived. Someone that the two Mikotos were staying with after being discovered by him and taken in as a result. In this reality Mikoto did not go to school she just lived in Academy City as someone gradually rising the ranks of the strongest Espers, challenging the previous one to get her current rank and title.
With the project canceled rather than reveal they were trying to create robots that were Artificial Esper. The story they were selling was that Maika was the new gen cleaning robot while Mikotos was the new gen defense robot with a built in stun gun feature. Mikoto 10033 allowed to stay with Touma because she seems to listen to him and was mistaken for being human as she was the current Mikoto Misaka.