MAJOR CHARACTERS
These are the four major characters of the series. Please bear in mind this information pertains to the anime exclusively and does not take into account factors from the source material, which has progressed far past the anime and manga adaptations.
TOUMA KAMIJOU
Touma is the lead viewpoint character of the series and current partner of Index. He lives with her in Academy City as a Level 0 esper and possesses an ability labeled the Imagine Breaker, allowing him to negate all supernatural powers. Over the course of the series, most of his actions have a profound effect on the Magic Side—a large faction that draws their strength from religion and rituals to perform supernatural feats.
BACKSTORY
Touma was born and raised by Shiina and Touya Kamijou outside Academy City. However, when he was a young child, his powers unintentionally brought bad luck to others nearby and led to an attempt on his life. The resulting fallout left Touma's identity widely known, so his mother and father sent him to Academy City because there supernatural powers were widely accepted as a fact of life.
The finer details of his life in Academy City aren’t well-known—only that he was classified as a Level 0 esper, built a friendship with Pierce Aogami and Motoharu Tsuchimikado, and he was a ‘naughty boy’ according to Komoe Tsukuyomi. The day that Index appeared on his balcony led to his involvement with the Magic Side and the start of the series.
PERSONALITY
Touma approaches life with a sense of resignation at his lack of luck, accepting that he’s unfortunate with nothing more than a sigh of ‘such misfortune.’ He’s budget-conscious and often laments how much it takes to keep Index fed, but is happiest when she smiles. He is brave and has no qualms about putting himself into life-threatening danger to save others, no matter what sort of enemy it puts him against.
Touma is also something of a wild card. He does not adhere to the notion of absolute good or evil, nor does he take a side. He does whatever he deems is right at that moment without caring about long-term consequences that may follow. This leads to him coming to blows with his allies at times, but inspires others into following his lead.
POWERS
Touma is not an esper, despite being officially classified as Level 0. His powers are stated in-universe to be something outside the realm of both magicians and espers. There are hints that it is possibly divine in nature, but no confirmation.
The Imagine Breaker is fixed into Touma’s right hand. The moment anything supernatural—whether magical or esper-related—comes into contact with his hand, it is negated and returned to its primary form. The downside is that it is indiscriminate in what it negates, including his luck and any beneficial powers like healing spells or telepathy. Should his right hand be cut off, a dragon’s head possessing immense power emerges until the limb is reattached.
INTERACTIONS WITH OTHER CHARACTERS
Touma often acts as a protector to those he comes across, standing up for them when no one else will. He faces any odds and any enemy to do what he believes is right, even at great cost to himself. This leads to a number of women in the series falling in love with him, while others see him as someone who is foolhardy but brave and inspiring.
He wants to protect Index’s smile and keeps her next to him, even when just being around her brings more trouble into his life. He often tries to avoid Mikoto Misaka because of her habit of attacking him, but is willing to fight against the strongest esper in Academy City to save her and the Misaka clones. He is blissfully ignorant that all of them are deeply in love with him and vie for his affection.
INDEX LIBRORUM PROHIBITORUM (INDEX)
Index is the titular heroine for the series and plays a key role in several of the events involving the Magic Side. She is a living repository of over one-hundred thousand magical texts and a nun of Necessarius—the ‘Church of Necessary Evil’ that uses magicians to fight against other magicians and magical threats. She currently resides in Academy City alongside Touma Kamijou.
BACKSTORY
Since she was a young girl, Index has been in the care of Necessarius. She was close to Stiyl Magnus and Kaori Kanzaki, who were her protectors and partners two years prior to the beginning of the series. However, every year her mind would be wiped under the pretext of the grimoires occupying too much space in her brain. The process made her forget anything deemed unnecessary, including past relationships.
One day she managed to infiltrate Academy City and landed on Touma’s patio. He took her in, offered her food and shelter, and later protected her from her pursuers as she slowly suffered because of a spell placed on her body to necessitate the memory erasure. Touma eliminated the need for her memories to be erased through the use of his Imagine Breaker and she decided to stay by his side ever since then.
PERSONALITY
Index happens to have a childish but insightful personality due to the constant loss of her memories. She strives to be compassionate like a nun should be, offering forgiveness to those who have offended or tried to harm her. She takes pleasure in the wonders of Academy City and loves to eat, much to the misfortune of Touma’s wallet.
POWERS
Index has Eidetic Memory, allowing her to perfectly recall anything she sees or hears at any given time, and immunity to the insanity-inducing effect of grimoires. Neccessarius makes use of these two abilities by having her memorize 103,000 different magical texts, turning her into a wellspring of magical knowledge capable of recognizing and intercepting many different kinds of magic-styles, spells, and rituals. To prevent her from using this knowledge of her own accord, they placed a number of restrictions on her and erased her memories every year.
Because she is a valuable asset and needs protection, Index was given an enchanted outfit and had a split-personality integrated into her mind. This alternate personality was called John’s Pen and it would use a number of spells that Index had learned to either heal her or eliminate all threats to her life. Both of these protective measures were destroyed by Touma in her introductory arc.
INTERACTIONS WITH OTHER CHARACTERS
Index is kind and polite to most people she meets, endearing them to her even after she forgets about them. Her closest friends are Maika Tsuchimikado and Hyouka Kazakiri, and she enjoys accompanying them when Touma isn’t around. However, she does have a minor rivalry with Misaka Mikoto over Touma because they’ve both fallen in love with him.
Touma is the only one who easily brings out Index’s irritable nature, leading her to bite or chide him when he displeases her. However, she loves and trusts him more than anyone else in the world. He is her savior and she will always show him the greatest amount of concern and compassion that she can.
MIKOTO MISAKA
Mikoto Misaka is one of the main heroines, as well as the lead character in the spin-off, Toaru Kagaku no Railgun (A Certain Scientific Railgun). She is one of the seven espers who have reached Level 5—the highest level attainable in Academy City. Mikoto takes a central role during the ‘Sisters’ arc and her story introduces the darker nature of the Science Side—the faction that focuses on esper development and technology to perform supernatural feats.
BACKSTORY
Mikoto was born to Misuzu and Tabigake Misaka, a wealthy couple who eventually allowed her to enter Academy City at a young age. After she became an Electromaster, Mikoto was approached by a scientist who claimed he wanted to use her DNA map for future medical treatments. She would later learn that giving him her permission led to the cloning operation known as the Sisters Project.
Enrolling in Tokiwadai Middle School, Mikoto quickly became a Level 5 and served as the poster child for hard work leading to great results. She also became acquainted with Kuroko Shirai, her roommate in the dorms and eventual best friend. Her initial meeting with Touma occurred when he attempted to stop some thugs from hitting on her and the resulting fallout led to her chasing him down to test her power against his.
PERSONALITY
Mikoto is a tomboyish yet intelligent girl who carries the weight of her actions on her shoulders. Upon learning about her clones and their deaths, Mikoto tries to deal with it herself without asking for help. Failing this task drives her towards a suicidal attempt to sacrifice herself, only for Touma to drag her out of it when he succeeds in her place.
Mikoto is fond of cute things, but is embarrassed because of it and tries to hide it. She is also one of the easiest people to approach, making her the most well-known of all the other Level 5 espers. That being said, she does suffer from bouts of childishness and has a strong competitive streak that makes her hate losing.
POWERS
Mikoto is one of the most powerful espers in existence at Level 5. As an Electromaster, she is immune to electricity and forms of mind control that involve tampering with the signals to the brain, capable of electromagnetism, lightning generation, sensing and manipulating electric fields, and more. She’s become versatile enough in using her abilities that she can create iron sand to use as a weapon, hack into electronics, sense her surroundings by feeling the electromagnetic waves around her, see electric and magnetic fields, and other obscure abilities.
Mikoto’s trademark ability is the ‘Railgun.’ By firing metal objects three times the speed of sound with her powers, she can destroy obstacles with a simple flick of her thumb. The more mass the fired object has the further it can fly, but she prefers using game tokens and coins.
INTERACTIONS WITH OTHER CHARACTERS
Mikoto is rather cordial to most of the people she meets, but she does have a short temper when it comes to people who irk her. Her closest friends are Kuroko Shirai, Saten Ruiko, and Uiharu Kazari, all of whom she gets along with fairly well. She considers all of her clones to be her sisters, and becomes protective of them once she is made aware of their existence.
Mikoto has a fairly obvious crush on Touma because of his involvement in ending the project by defeating Accelerator when she could not. However, she struggles to admit her feelings and doesn’t know how to express them well. Her feelings are further flustered when she encounters other women who feel the same way about him, such as Index, and instantly turns on her competitive switch.
ACCELERATOR
Accelerator is a main protagonist in the series, as well as the lead viewpoint character in his own spin-off, Toaru Kagaku no Accelerator (A Certain Scientific Accelerator). He is considered the strongest esper in Academy City, and his attempt to become the first Level 6 in history places him into the role of an antagonist during the ‘Sisters’ arc. His redemption for this leads him into becoming the partner and protector of Last Order—the final Misaka clone.
BACKSTORY
As a child, Accelerator was constantly attacked by others who hated him because of his powers and wanted to prove themselves stronger than he was. When he showed promise in becoming the first esper to Level 6, he became involved in a project that predicted he would reach it if he could kill twenty-thousand Misaka clones without a single defeat. To this end, he murdered more than half of the clones until his battle against Misaka 10032 resulted in his defeat by Touma Kamijou, ending the project for good. Last Order approached him afterwards to ask for his help, and he ended up suffering a brain injury in order to protect her from being killed. Along with Last Order and Kikyou Yoshikawa, he moved into Aiho Yomikawa’s apartment to live together as a family afterwards.
PERSONALITY
Accelerator is a violent and cruel person that seeks redemption, but the path he has to walk is a long and hard one. Last Order believes that he sought to become a Level 6 in order to stave off anyone from challenging him ever again, but his defeat at the hands of Touma caused him to rethink where he stood. He remains a very shrewd and intelligent person afterwards, but he becomes willing to sacrifice himself seeking to make up for the way he callously slaughtered more than half of the Misaka clones.
POWERS
Accelerator is widely considered to be the most powerful esper in existence—the number one of all the other Level 5s. His power is constantly active and allows him to control the vector of anything that comes into contact with him. He can increase the vector of a rock he kicks so that it flies fast enough to penetrate metal or redirect thrown objects back to his opponents to harm them. After his brain injury, he must be connected to the Misaka Network in order to use his powers.
INTERACTIONS WITH OTHER CHARACTERS
Accelerator deals with the shady and dark underside of Academy City, inhabited by people who do horrible things for one reason or another. He prefers to be left alone when not participating in the experiments and is dismissive of nearly everyone else. He didn’t believe there were others who could match him due to his powers, so they weren’t worth his time.
Accelerator didn’t consider the Misaka clones to be human at first because they willingly waded to their deaths against him. Upon his defeat, he reassess his opinions and takes the chance at redemption that Last Order represents by protecting her. He finds her annoying most of the time, but looks after her alongside Kikyou Yoshikawa and Aiho Yomikawa.
SUPPORTING CHARACTERS
For supporting characters, we will look into characters that have a significant role in the story for an arc or serve as the focus for one or more of the plots. The information listed below only covers their involvement in the first season.
STIYL MAGNUS
A distinctive, red-haired magician from Necessarius, Stiyl Magnus bears the Sorcery Name ‘Fortis931’ and serves as the first antagonist and character from the Magic Side that Touma encounters in the series. Stiyl is a former partner of Index before she lost her memories and seeks to bring her back to have them erased again. Despite being tall and constantly seen smoking, he is actually fourteen years old and among the youngest of the supporting characters.
In their first encounter, Stiyl fought against Touma after the latter stumbled upon Index and became enraged at seeing her injured in front of his home. Stiyl utilized a number of different fire spells to try and drive him away, but was forced to call forth his trump card, Innocentius. Though he is initially successful in pushing Touma to flee, once Touma figured out how his spell worked he was defeated.
After Index had been saved, he was called back to Academy City in order to stop a magician who had infiltrated it named Aureolus Izzard. He and Touma were assigned to assist one another, but Aureolus used a reality-warping spell to flay him alive and explode him from the inside out. Once Touma defeated the magician, Stiyl returned to normal and brought Touma to the hospital in order to recover from his injuries.
Stiyl is essentially someone who held Touma’s role as a partner to Index, but couldn’t save her in the same way. While he is quick to anger, he cares for Index’s happiness and prioritizes her safety over himself if need be. Despite being touted a skilled magician who hunts down those deemed a threat by Necessarius, Stiyl lacks physical strength and tends to be defeated when facing an enemy whose power isn’t something he can predict or counter.
KAORI KANZAKI
An agent of Necessarius, Kaori Kanzaki bears the Sorcery Name ‘Salvare000’ and is the second antagonist from the Magic Side that Touma faces in the series. Like her accomplice Stiyl Magnus, she is a former friend of Index before she lost her memories. She pursued Index into Academy City alongside him to erase her memories under the belief it was the only way to save her life.
After Stiyl’s defeat, Kaori isolated Touma using a spell to drive away prying eyes and then attempted to have him surrender Index. When he refused to and stated that she was responsible for Index nearly dying, Kaori severely beat him and left him for Komoe Tsukuyomi and Index to find and take care of. She then participated in the battle to save Index under the influence of John’s Pen, resolving the issue of her memories needing to be erased once and for all.
Kaori later appeared during the ‘Angel Fall’ arc as a supporting character, when a mysterious spell had been cast throughout the world that caused everyone’s appearance to be altered to someone else’s. Kaori ended up facing off against the Archangel Gabriel, who had been pulled down by the spell and would have likely destroyed the world to get back. She fended it off until the spell was reversed, completing her assignment.
Being a Saint, Kaori possesses a ‘Stigma’ that allows her to call upon power that only a few others in the world are capable of. She uses her sword and wires in order to attack and restrain enemies, merging them with her superior strength and speed to quickly overwhelm her opponents. She is one of two people who Touma failed to defeat in combat but, despite being cold to him at first, she warms up later on and is grateful for him saving Index when she couldn’t.
KOMOE TSUKUYOMI
A pink-haired diminutive woman who has the mannerisms of a small child, and often dresses like one, Komoe Tsukuyomi is one of the teachers at Touma Kamijou’s school. Though she is a teacher for espers, she is not one and remains mostly unaware of the darker nature of Academy City and the Magic Side. Despite looking so young, she is one of the oldest adults in the series and enjoys drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes in her free time.
During the introductory arc, Komoe sheltered both Touma and Index when they needed to hide after his apartment burned down. She participated in a magic ritual to heal Index and then helped nurse Touma back to health after he had been severely beaten by Kaori Kanzaki. She took in Aisa Himegami when her arc ended and helped her enroll in school, and chided Touma at the end of the season for getting involved with Sherry Cromwell.
Komoe’s role in the series is that of a nurturing and protective caregiver, offering a safe place for the protagonists to go to when needed. Anytime she sees children in trouble she offers her help without hesitation or question, and does her best to see to it that they are all safe and sound. Though she is not directly affiliated with any supernatural faction, she is knowledgeable about the development of esper powers and is capable of using magic. She also seems to have a childish crush on Touma, blushing while referring to him as a ‘naughty boy.’
AISA HIMEGAMI
A quiet girl who takes the stage during the ‘Deep Blood’ arc, Aisa Himegami is a supporting character who appears early in the season. She is introduced dressed in a distinctive manner, wearing a shrine priestess outfit in the largely modern Academy City, though she later switches to a school uniform when enrolled in Touma’s school. Though she doesn’t speak often or stand out much, Aisa is blunt when she does.
Aisa was born with her powers, a rarity in the series that marks her as a Gemstone—a natural-born esper who didn’t undergo Academy City’s development program. Her blood was irresistible to vampires and they couldn’t stop themselves from trying to drink it, even though they were aware doing so would instantly kill them. Several of Aisa’s friends and family members were killed in this manner, leaving her wracked with guilt because she had no control over her ability and no way to stop it.
Sometime later, Aisa arrived in Academy City and met with the alchemist-magician, Aureolus Izzard, who promised to help her if she was willing to work with him to save someone he cared dearly about. Stiyl and Touma were sent to rescue her as he attempted to use her power to lure in a vampire to transform Index into one, and she briefly died only to be saved by Touma. She was then taken in by Komoe Tsukuyomi and enrolled in Touma’s school, after having her powers sealed by a cross around her neck.
Aisa represents someone who didn’t want powers because they caused nothing but trouble, only able to find happiness once they were gone. She doesn’t stand out much as a character once her role in the story ends, leaving her as a ward of Komoe’s and a friend to Touma and Index. Aisa develops a crush on Touma after he saved her, despite being aware she has very little chance of winning his heart.
AUREOLUS IZZARD
A sharply dressed alchemist capable of using the reality-warping magic of Ars Magna, Aureolus Izzard is the primary antagonist of the ‘Deep Blood’ arc. He is a magician with the Sorcery Name of ‘Honos628,’ and a former member of the Roman Catholic Church. Like several of the characters in the first arc, he was a partner and mentor to Index in the past and infiltrates Academy City to save her.
Aureolus defected from the Roman Catholic Church and went to England to escape them. There, he came into contact with Index and was assigned to serve as her teacher and partner, much like Stiyl and Touma. When faced with the lie that her memories needed to be constantly erased, he became crestfallen at being unable to save her. This motivated him to turn her into a vampire, which can hold infinite memories, and he made his way to Academy City to make use of Aisa Himegami’s power.
Eventually, Touma and Stiyl confronted him and he learned that Index had already been saved. The revelation enraged him to the point of briefly killing Aisa and Stiyl with his magic. When he tried to do the same to Touma, he was defeated by revealing what was hidden inside the Imagine Breaker when he cut it off.
Aureolus’ role is that of someone who wants to save Index but fails at first, so he decides to do whatever it takes to succeed the next time. To this end, he commits numerous crimes and hurts many people. When he learns that someone else has beaten him to it, he is unable to reconcile that his efforts have been for nothing and refuses to accept it—unlike Stiyl and Kaori, who are just grateful that Index has been saved and can find happiness even without them.
MOTOHARU TSUCHIMIKADO
A close friend and classmate to Touma, Motoharu Tsuchimikado appears to be just a normal student to most of the world. The truth is that he is an esper-magician hybrid who resides in Academy City on behalf of Necessarius. His Sorcery Name is ‘Fallere825,’ befitting of someone who acts as a spy for several organizations, but he is also referred to as a Sis-con because of his borderline-romantic affection for his sister, Maika.
It is not uncommon for spies to infiltrate places of importance, and there was no place more important to the Science Side than Academy City. Despite being a prodigal Onmyoujin prior to his enrollment, Motoharu became an esper to get himself into a position to learn secrets that could be useful for Necessarius. He eventually became an agent for various groups, cementing himself as a key figure in the balance between both sides within Academy City.
He revealed the truth to Touma during the ‘Angel Fall’ arc, where he and Kaori Kanzaki worked together to unravel the spell before it caused too many problems. He discovered that Touma’s father, Touya, was responsible for it by accident and beat both of them so they couldn’t interfere as he cast a spell and destroyed their home. It seemed as though he ended Angel Fall at the cost of his life, but he survived thanks his esper ability giving him the power to heal a limited number of times.
Motoharu is someone who knows Touma well and is his counterpart in certain ways. He involves himself in both magical and scientific affairs, acting as an agent who keeps the balance while Touma is a wild card who doesn’t take sides. Just as the Imagine Breaker isn’t defined as a product of magic or science, he is the only living esper-magician hybrid in the world and signifies their union.
MISAKA 10032
Misaka 10032 is one of the Sisters—clones of Mikoto Misaka involved in the project to raise Accelerator to Level 6. She was fated to die for the sake of the experiment, just like over ten-thousand others had before her. However, her interactions with Touma Kamijou set into motion the end of the project and elevated her to becoming the most prominent of the Sisters.
It was purely by chance that Misaka 10032 ran into Touma and helped him. The next day, Touma returned the favor by helping her become familiar with a cat that would eventually become her pet. Touma learned of the experiment when he found the corpse of one of the clones, revealing the truth to him, and this drove him to come her rescue when she was about to be killed by Accelerator the next night. Together with Touma, Mikoto, and the other Sisters, they ended the project by defeating Accelerator and began receiving treatments to extend their lives.
Misaka 10032’s role in the story introduces the question of what a life is worth. She is a clone and knows this, having been treated as a disposable object that was only meant to be killed in the end and accepting it as a fact. It is only through meeting with Touma and seeing the extent he was willing to go for her sake that spurred her and the rest of the clones into wanting to live for themselves as people, not merely objects who would go to their deaths. Because of this, she and the rest of the clones see their original counterpart as a rival for his heart.
LAST ORDER
Last Order is the final and most important clone of Mikoto Misaka, created to act as the Administrator for the Misaka Network. Unlike the rest of the Sisters, she is capable of expressing emotions and acts like the little girl she appears to be. She becomes Accelerator’s companion and sparks his drive towards redemption after the experiment comes to an end.
Being unhappy with her appearance and believing herself to be underdeveloped, Last Order sought out Accelerator some time after the experiment ended. She requested his help in finding a researcher to place her back into an incubator because she believed that he never wanted to participate in the project, and that he was a good person at heart. However, she ended up passing out because of her weakened state and was kidnapped.
Accelerator found her kidnapper only after she had a virus uploaded into her to make the rest of the Sisters go out of control. He was forced to make a choice: kill her or delete the virus to prevent the rest of the network from being infected. He chose to save her and the decision led to him being shot in the head, but he survived and she recovered from the virus. They began to live together afterwards with two guardians.
Last Order serves as the catalyst for Accelerator to move on from the sins of the past. Being the central command of the Misaka Network, she has experienced every death that he put the rest of the Sisters through but feels that he is a good person deep down regardless. Her trust in him is rewarded, giving her a loving family that cares for her.
ETZALI (IMPOSTER MITSUKI UNABARA)
A magician from an Aztec-based organization using his magic to masquerade as Mitsuki Unabara, Etzali is a minor antagonist of the first season. His magic turns flesh flayed off a victim into a talisman he can use to transform into them. This makes him perfect for infiltration missions, allowing him to sabotage and assassinate rival groups from the inside out.
Etzali was sent to infiltrate Academy City in order to stop the formation of what his superiors viewed as the ‘Kamijou Faction’ by killing key members and targeted Mikoto Misaka first. To make his approach easier, he attacked the real Mitsuki Unabara and locked him away to use his face for a disguise. But, after a week of stalking Mikoto, he ended up falling in love with her and decided to remove Touma from the equation to avoid having to kill her instead. He failed and was defeated by Touma, so he begged him to look after Mikoto since other groups would attempt to do the same.
His involvement in the series serves to clue Touma and the audience into how others on the Magic Side view him as a potential threat to the balance between the two factions. Though he is seen as a neutral agent by Neccessarius and Academy City, because of Touma’s wild card nature and habit of inspiring others, he unintentionally created a faction that held important figures from both sides. Etazli’s efforts to break them apart are the first visible sign that Touma could shake things up and he should be prepared for future attacks on his allies.
HYOUKA KAZAKIRI
A young woman with glasses, long dark hair, and adorned in a blazer and skirt, Hyouka Kazakiri is a resident of Academy City and major supporting character during her personal arc at the end of the first season. She is a unique entity formed by the collective espers of Academy City due to how their powers work, and ends up becoming Index’s friend.
Hyouka was invisible to everyone else under normal circumstances, wandering through a plane overlaying Academy City known as the Imaginary Number District. However, she occasionally manifested a physical body in the real world, without any control over when she did so. Seemingly by chance, she manifested near Index and the two girls bonded quickly, with Hyouka helping Index with a vending machine and consoling her when she believed Touma was upset with her.
She suffered what would normally be a fatal wound when Sherry Cromwell attacked them, revealing that she was not human. Because she was unaware of this, she believed herself to be no different than a monster or construct until Touma defended her and claimed otherwise. His actions inspired her to use her abilities to save Index when Sherry went after her and then returned to the Imaginary Number District.
Hyouka’s existence questions what it is to be a human and if she has the right to enjoy life as one. She is an amalgamation of the collective AIM—energy released by espers that allows them to use their powers—meaning that she is a paranormal being that would be erased by the Imagine Breaker if they touched. Despite that, she longed to have friends as any human would and fought desperately to protect them. In the end, Hyouka does accept that she is not human, but doesn’t see herself as a monster and decides that she has every right to enjoy life and watch over her friends.
SHERRY CROMWELL
A blond-haired, tanned skin woman that wears gothic clothing, Sherry Cromwell is a former agent of Neccessarius and the final antagonist of the first season. She is a magician with the Sorcery Name ‘Intimus115,’ dedicated to her fallen friend who died as a result of an attempt to create an esper-magician hybrid. She attacks Academy City with the intention of starting a war between the Magic Side and Science Side, hoping to drive them apart once and for all.
Twenty years ago, there was a secret experiment to see if it was possible to create an esper-magician hybrid like Motoharu Tsuchimikado in the present. The esper chosen was a boy named Ellis, who Sherry became attached to while teaching him how magic worked. However, the AIM that espers generated to use their powers reacted violently when he attempted to use magic, and left him severely injured.
Ellis barely survived, only to be killed helping a younger Sherry escape when a magic faction attempted to cover up the experiment. Under the belief that the two sides should remain segregated to prevent another incident, Sherry sought an important target to attack and went after Hyouka Kazakiri. She was defeated by the combined forces of Hyouka, Index, and Touma.
Sherry represents someone who believes that it is better that the two sides stay separated, preventing a tragedy like the one that scarred her heart from occurring again—even if it meant hurting innocent people to do so. It didn’t make her evil, but simply someone that wanted what was best for everyone and who made a misguided attempt to see it done.
ALEISTER CROWLEY
The enigmatic and mysterious founder of Academy City, Aleister Crowley is arguably one of the most unknown but important characters in the series. Once a famous magician, he threw away magic and embraced science, leading to the formation of the Science Side and the creation of espers. A calm and calculating individual, only a select few people are even aware he exists inside of the Windowless Building, where he spends all of his time floating upside down in a life-support system while monitoring the situation in Academy City.
Aleister is first made known in the series when Stiyl Magnus approached him because Aureolus Izzard had infiltrated the city and taken Aisa Himegami. He was entirely aware of the magician’s plot and believed that dealing with him would be as easy as swatting a fly, but didn’t act since it would run the risk of upsetting the balance between the two sides if a magician didn’t handle the rescue. Instead, he offered Touma Kamijou’s assistance despite the latter being entirely unaware of what was transpiring.
When Sherry Cromwell attacked Academy City, he forbade Motoharu Tsuchimikado from interfering with her because he wished to use Hyouka Kazakiri and Touma. Motoharu warned him about trying to manipulate Touma with half-hearted convictions or the Imagine Breaker would destroy his illusions. To this, Aleister cited that the illusion and world he believed in had fell apart a long time ago.
From these two events alone we can assume that Aleister is the one who arranged the majority of the trials that Touma went through by manipulation—the invisible hand moving the pieces on the chessboard. He holds enough power that he deems a magician who can warp reality on a limited scale as trivial, but states that he no longer has beliefs to be destroyed. While his end goals aren’t very clear, it is clear that he will use whoever he has to in order to accomplish them.
HEAVEN CANCELLER
The ‘Frog-Faced Doctor’ who always ends up patching Touma’s wounds after his latest adventure, Heaven Canceller is an older man constantly seen in a doctor’s jacket. Anytime that Touma ends up being harmed, he is brought to this man and made good as new for the next fight that’s to come. Considering the number of fights Touma gets into, and more importantly who and what he ends up fighting, it’s a testament to his skill as a doctor that there are no permanent injuries.
Heaven Canceller, as demonstrated in his first appearance, is a blunt but kind man. He doesn’t hesitate to tell Index that Touma’s memories were completely destroyed and he would not regain them. When Touma lied to her about it, he merely asked if Touma was sure that he wanted to protect her feelings like that and respected his decision.
He is capable of saving anyone who is alive when they reach him, despite the injuries they have sustained. When Accelerator and Kikyou Yoshikawa ended up suffering from fatal gunshot wounds, he ensures their recovery with complete confidence since their hearts were still beating and their brains functioning. The only injuries he seems unable to completely fix are extenuating brain injuries, such as Touma’s memories and Accelerator’s loss of speech, hearing, and calculation—and the latter was at least worked around by connecting him to the Misaka Network.
Heaven Canceller treats all his patients as best he can, even those who have done things he finds regrettable, and it is strongly suggested that he has a connection to Aleister Crowley as well.
