A Certain Magical Index/Characters/ITEM
Similar to GROUP, ITEM is an organization formed by the dark side of the Academy City to monitor Academy City's elites and keep them under control. Unlike the other organizations, however, the source of their name is clear: Each of their members have an "item" that they use to complement their combat abilities. They have a rivalry against SCHOOL.
ITEM
Tropes that apply to ITEM as a whole.
- Anti-Villain
- Applied Phlebotinum / Weapon of Choice: Each member gets one, hence the name "ITEM".
- Brick Joke: Twice over the course of the Railgun manga(Chapters 12 and 25), the scene cuts to the members of ITEM talking in the background about going to a pool. Much later (chapter 43) they finally do.
- Four-Girl Ensemble
- Heel Face Turn: The entire team, eventually.
- Punch Clock Villain: They're decent people outside of battles. Mostly.
- Quirky Miniboss Squad
Shizuri Mugino
See Level 5 Espers
Saiai Kinuhata
Second in command of ITEM. Her ability, Offense Armor, allows her to compress and solidify nitrogen in the atmosphere to act as a barrier, and is ranked at Level 4. After Shizuri's "death" in the hands of Shiage, she temporarily becomes the leader of ITEM. When Shizuri rejoins the group, she steps down again.
- Barrier Warrior: Her ability, Offense Armor, is mostly defensive.
- Beware the Nice Ones / Let's Get Dangerous: DO NOT underestimate her. She's a Level 4 for a reason.
- Buffy-Speak
- Child Prodigy: The "honor student" of the Dark May Project.
- Cute Bruiser: It is Offense Armor after all. Her fighting style involves tanking hits, punching people and throwing cars.
- Tyke Bomb: She's twelve years old, and a remnant of the Dark May Project designed to replicate Accelerator's powers.
- Evil Counterpart: She has one in Umidori Kuroyoru, her kouhai from the Dark May Project, who first appears in New Testament 1. They have practically the same power, with Umidori's focusing on offense and Saiai's on defense.
- Immune to Bullets: Offense Armor can block bullets, but she still feels some pain from it.
- Senpai: She's the senior of the Freshman who appears in New Testament 1 from the Dark May project.
- She's Got Legs: She doesn't wear anything to cover her legs.
- Super Strength: She can simulate this by manipulating the layer of nitrogen surrounding her body.
- Sweater Girl: Her usual outfit.
- There's No B in Movie: A Running Gag is her obsession with B-movies.
- The Tease: Occasionally teases Shiage so that she can call him a pervert.
- Verbal Tic: Super!
Rikou Takitsubo
A member of ITEM, and Shiage's girlfriend. Her ability, ranked at Level 4, is AIM Stalker, which allows her to trace the AIM fields of other Espers. Later events in the novel suggest that she has the potential to reach Level 5 due to the manifestation of another ability: The manipulation of AIM Fields other than her own.
- Applied Phlebotinum: Body Crystal, a powdery substance that temporarily amplifies the user's abilities.
- Amplifier Artifact
- Phlebotinum Overdose: Overuse of Body Crystal causes ill effects on the user's abilities, which forces them to use even more of the substance in order to use their powers properly.
- Heroic RROD: The end result of the above.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Has been developing this as of New Testament.
- Damsel in Distress: Thanks to the damage to her body by Body Crystal, this is basically her entire role in the plot.
- Ill Girl: As a result of the Applied Phlebotinum.
- Kuudere
- Living MacGuffin: After being healed from Body Crystal's damage, she gets hunted by Academy City because her power can now basically render the entire Power Development Curriculum obsolete.
- Official Couple: Her and Shiage.
- Rescue Romance
- Sensor Character: The primary use of her power.
- Power Incontinence: Her power's weakness is that she has to let it go berserk on its own through the Applied Phlebotinum for it to be useful.
- Spanner in the Works: In NT Volume 6, an unintentional use of her power causes Teitoku's Dark Matter to go out of control, contributing to his defeat.
- Superpower Lottery: After she is healed, it's heavily implied she can now reach Level 5. This would allow her to control the AIM Fields of other Espers. The possibilities of this are pretty much endless.
- Mega Manning: Implied to be how her power is supposed to work after being healed; she can use her ability to replicate the abilities of other espers by controlling their AIM fields.
- Token Good Teammate: Out of the members of ITEM, she and Shiage are the only ones who show concern for the people they have to kill.
Frenda Seivelun
One of the main combatants of ITEM, she has exceptional hand-to-hand capabilities. Shizuri kills her in Volume 15 of the novels for giving information to SCHOOL.
- Adaptation Expansion: Receives almost no development in the Index storyline as Shizuri killed her off fairly quickly after her debut in the novels, but Volume 5 of the Railgun manga rectifies this. Her younger sister Fremea becomes a recurring character in New Testament, and Frenda herself receives more development in NT Volumes 6 and 12.
- Badass Normal: The only one of the four who hasn't shown actual esper abilities, she instead uses a combination of explosives and hand-to-hand combat to fight.
- Blood Knight: A mild example.
- Call Forward: With Nightmare Fuel involved. When fighting against Mikoto after nearly getting her legs blown off, she notes that they are her best feature. Shizuri kills her by severing her body at the waist.
- Came Back Wrong: Subverted. She appears to return at the end of NT Volume 5, intent on taking revenge on Shizuri. However, it's actually someone who disguised as her in order to throw Shizuri off.
- Foreign Fanservice: One of the only non-Japanese characters from the Science Side.
- Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Her bombs take the form of stuffed animals.
- Hair of Gold
- Half The Woman She Used To Be: How Shizuri kills her.
- Hidden Heart of Gold: NT Volume 12 reveals that she had genuine friendships with a large number of people. She kept a room in the Dianoid, hidden even from her own teammates. There she gathered birthday gifts for all of her friends, planning to surprise them on their respective birthdays.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Although she did rather well in her fight against Mikoto.
- Mad Bomber: Minus the mad part. Mostly.
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Is killed by Shizuri for making a deal with SCHOOL, a rival organization, in exchange for her own life.
- Trap Master: When given time to prepare a location, she can fill it with explosive-laden dolls, all of which can be detonated remotely. Unfortunately, these traps lead to Shizuri's defeat against Mikoto when she forgets to remove her traps.
- Verbal Tic: "Basically". It parallels Fremea's similar Verbal Tic.
Shiage Hamazura
See the A Certain Magical Index/Characters/Protagonists page.