A boy named Kamijou Touma finds himself running for his life as a group of thugs chase him for a few kilometers into the streets of Academy City. What became a gentlemanly gesture towards a seemingly helpless middle-school girl ends up with him getting rescued by said girl, named Misaka Mikoto, a Level 5 esper with the ability to control electricity.
Despite this, however, he considers himself truly unlucky.
A widespread blackout shut down most of Touma's appliances, causing most of his food in the fridge to go rancid overnight. To make things worse, Touma is reminded of his constant streak of misfortune — breaking his ATM card and needing to do supplementary lessons. As he tries to sort things out for the day, he decides to dry out his futon when a foreign-looking nun with a vicious appetite appears hanging on his balcony.
The nun introduces herself as Index, a nun from the Anglican Church, and she recalls being chased and shot in the back, only to escape unscathed due to the nun's habit she wears, which is called a Walking Church. Index, however, only knows that members of a magic cabal are chasing her. Touma and Index's opposing beliefs on magic and science soon erupt into an argument between the two, eventually returning to the issue at hand — the pursuit of Index, particularly due to the 103,000 magical books inside her head.
Index soon shifts her focus on Touma's right hand, which he claims is something that can nullify supernatural phenomena or esper abilities. As Touma is doubtful of Index's claim of possessing 103,000 books inside her, Index is just as skeptical on Touma's right hand. Index then decides to test Touma's right hand by using her Walking Church. Moments after Touma placed his right hand on her clothes, the Walking Church is ripped apart, stripping Index completely naked. After biting Touma like a mosquito, Index toiled by herself, trying to mend her nun's habit. Fortunately, she manages to bring it back to a functional form, but only with the use of a lot of pins.
Soon, Touma is reminded of supplementary lessons and heads out. Index decides to leave as well, concerned that her pursuers would destroy his room if she would stay. As Index runs off with some cleaning robots chasing her, Touma heads to a certain high school for his class.
During his class, Touma has to toil through lessons given by his teacher in Class 1-7, Tsukuyomi Komoe, a woman who looks like an elementary school pupil. However, he instead ended up arguing with a close friend of his, a boy with blue hair and piercings. He spent the remainder of the day at school, so he ends up walking back home after he had missed the last train. On his way back, a tired Touma shrugs off an encounter with Mikoto, only to incite her electrified anger. As a result, they had to escape the security robots that were apprehending the two for the discharge by Mikoto earlier. Elsewhere, Touma is once again confronted by Mikoto after their last "fight" the night before, but Touma was able to escape unharmed due to his mysterious right hand.
Touma eats a small snack after driving away Mikoto and heads back to his apartment. There, he sees Index sprawled on the ground and surrounded by three cleaning robots. Initially relieved to see Index again, Touma's mind goes haywire at the sight of Index with a large gash running across her back.
Touma then meets one of Index's captors, a towering man with red hair and black clothes, and confronts him about Index. Upon discovering Touma's knowledge of Index's nature, the man, a magician himself, decides to explain about Index and the need to retrieve her. Then, after a short introduction, the man who calls himself Fortis931, Stiyl Magnus decides to eliminate Touma using his fire magic. But Touma survives the attack unscathed due to the same right hand that destroyed Index's Walking Church. Dumbfounded, Stiyl unleashes his most powerful fire spell against Touma, Innocentius, and manages to hold him back as Innocentius' flames kept on burning despite touching Touma's right hand.
Stiyl slowly gains the upper hand as Innocentius slowly pins down Touma. Then, despite her injuries, Index intervenes, explaining the nature of rune magic and its relation to Innocentius' regeneration rates. Although confused at Index's machine-like voice during her explanation, Touma decides to heed her advice and runs away from Stiyl's attack, escaping to the floor below.
Meanwhile, Innocentius slowly tails Touma as he discovers the futility of destroying the thousands of rune cards that are placed on the entire dormitory building. However, Innocentius stops pursuing him as soon as he leaps out of the second floor. Although relieved to have escaped Innocentius, Touma thought of saving Index, who had come back
despite the risks involved. Soon, he decides to use the fire alarms to destroy the runes fueling Innocentius' regeneration ability and he makes his way back to Index, confronting Stiyl anew.
Unlike the first time, Innocentius is destroyed by Touma's right hand after the sprinkler system of the dormitory had destroyed Stiyl's rune cards, leaving Stiyl unable to defend himself against Touma's thundering right fist.
In the aftermath of Touma's fight with the magician Stiyl Magnus, Touma flees the dormitory with a gravely injured Index. Touma turns to the 103,000 grimoires to save Index, but while there is a way to heal Index's wounds, she points out that Touma is unable to perform the magic needed. In order to find someone else that has not been exposed to the Power Development Curriculum, he heads to the Tsukuyomi Residence to look for his teacher.
Although surprised to see her student at this time of night, Komoe welcomes Touma, only to be shocked upon seeing someone badly injured on his back. Soon, Index enters what she calls "John's Pen Mode" and warns them that Index will die of blood loss within 15 minutes if nothing is done about her injury. However, it requires Touma to leave the premises for
the meantime.
A frustrated Touma heads out as Index guides Komoe on what she needed to do after laying down the necessary magic circle and several items that represent the different objects in the room, Index and Komoe included. Afterwards, the ceremony began, and thanks to Komoe's careful obedience to Index's commands, the latter was able to close up the wound on her back. Index then collapses and takes the rest of the night to regain the stamina she lost during the ordeal.
Touma returns the next day to check up on Index, who has recovered substantially but is still feverish. Komoe, on the other hand, allows Touma and Index to talk as she heads to the grocery. Index soon tells more about her background as someone from the realm of magic, particularly about the Anglican Church and it's magic division Necessarius, which is tasked to watch over her. Touma, however, slowly builds up frustration as Index seems to reject Touma's intention to help her. When he vents it all out, he scares Index to tears, ultimately earning Touma a bite to the head.
Meanwhile, Index and Touma are being watched from afar by Stiyl Magnus and his companion Kanzaki Kaori, who was mentioned to be responsible for Index's injury earlier. While they are alarmed at the possibility of having variables that they haven't predicted, the sight of Index's joy made them insecure about themselves.
Three days later, Index is fully recovered. She is joined by Touma on a visit to the hot springs, and Touma notices how she has gotten accustomed to him. On their way, Index mentions that she had just arrived in Japan a year ago, and she doesn't remember anything about the rest of her life, something that alarms Touma so much. After being chomped on by Index once more, Touma chased around Index for some time, only to give up after thinking of the misunderstandings it would cause.
Soon, he finds himself in an empty intersection, a sight that Touma finds unusual in this time, and was soon accompanied by Stiyl's companion, Kanzaki Kaori, who demands Touma to surrender Index. Touma strongly refuses her verbal demands, but Kaori's masterful handling of her sword is slowly breaking down his resolve. Unlike Stiyl's fire magic, Kaori's Nanasen was able to pass through Touma's right hand with ease. Touma ends up heavily injured as Kaori uses her sword skills, despite being a magician, to defeat Touma.
Although badly wounded by Kaori's attacks, Touma points out that Kaori has been holding back on him, and tells Kaori that she should have been using the power she just used to defeat a powerless being like him to protect Index instead. Kaori's resolve is shaken by Touma's words, and she soon voices out her regrets for attacking Index, who
she calls her friend.
The fact that the Anglican Church, the denomination Index belongs to, is the same group that has ordered her pursuit baffles Touma. After Kaori explains what they have been doing to Index during her stay in Necessarius, Touma protests, unwilling to believe the restraints in Index's memories. However, Kaori points out the futility in trying to fight against Index's inevitable fate, all while punishing Touma's body with her Shichiten Shichitou. Touma refuses
to give in to his grievous injuries and stood firm to his belief. Although he was unable to stand against Kaori's strength, he was able to speak his mind against her before passing out to his injuries.
Touma, to his shock, wakes up in the Tsukuyomi Residence, three days after his encounter with Kaori. Although Index's "time limit" crossed his mind, Touma cannot act due to his injuries, and is forced to rest for the meantime while in the care of Index. Soon, Komoe arrives alongside two ominously familiar figures: Kanzaki Kaori and Stiyl Magnus, who are there to retrieve Index. With Touma unable to fight the two magicians in his condition, Index is forced to surrender herself for the magicians to spare Touma's life. Stiyl and Kaori soon leave, with the former reminding Index of the "time limit", which is twelve and a half hours away.
As midnight approaches, Touma wakes up to a call by Kaori, ordering him to make his final farewells before Index is retrieved. Touma takes this as an insult and points out that while magic is found useless in Index's case, science may have the solution to her current problem. After reaching an impasse, Kaori ends the call, leaving Touma to find out a way to save Index before midnight comes. However, as soon as he was able to reach Komoe by phone,
midnight arrives, with Kaori and Stiyl showing up just in time.
As the appointed time comes, Touma is pushed aside by Stiyl Magnus and Kanzaki Kaori, who quickly prepare for the ceremony that would destroy Index's memories. He was overcome by the possibility that the procedure may in fact work, but as soon as he remembers Index losing her past week of memories with him, he began negotiating on a
possible alternative through the miracles of medicine. However, Stiyl rejects his claims to help, and even accuses Touma of being inhumane for leaving Index to the hands of science. Left with no options to save Index, Touma decides to bid her last farewells, which Kaori decide to give to Touma after facing the same ordeal the first time they performed the ceremony to Index.
Stiyl and Kaori leave Touma alone with Index. As soon as they are alone, the two begin their last conversation about regaining freedom and making fresh memories before Index passes out once again. Touma contemplates on the grim fate that awaits Index when he suddenly thinks about Kaori's remark about 85 percent of Index's mind allocated for the 103,000 grimoires in her head—a fact that he strongly doubted. Eventually, a quick phone call from Komoe confirms his doubts about Index's mind, debunking the fact that 103,000 books can occupy a majority of one's brain and opening the possibility that Stiyl and Kaori may have been deceived.
After thinking about Index being manipulated by the Church through a certain means, Touma decides to use his right hand to look for a way to destroy whatever device is causing Index's anguish. Several attempts later, Touma finds the culprit on the back of Index's throat, only to witness Index transform into the same lifeless persona he saw when she was attacked by Kaori earlier. Moments later, "Index" uses a self-defense spell, St. George's Sanctuary, in an attempt to eliminate the threat that removed the restraining spell in her throat. Stiyl and Kaori soon discover Touma fighting with Index's powerful spell and they find out from Touma about the real situation regarding Index. After hearing Touma's plea to take action for Index's sake, the two magicians prepare to cover for Touma, with Kaori diverting the beam from St. George's Sanctuary upwards and Stiyl shielding Touma from the "feathers of light" from St. George's Sanctuary by using Innocentius. Touma manages to reach Index on time, only to be struck unconscious by one of the feathers.
Index meets a frog-faced doctor at a certain hospital and as news of a certain blast destroying a satellite in space spreads, she spends her time reading a letter Stiyl wrote to Touma, which tells of the Anglican Church's decision to leave Index be for the meantime after the incident has left the church baffled. Soon, after a short talk with the frog-faced doctor, Index heads to Touma's hospital room, where he was welcomed by Kamijou Touma—alive, but had his memories destroyed as a result of contact with the feathers from the St. George's Sanctuary spell. Knowing this, Index anxiously starts a conversation with him, only to be fooled by acting like a stereotypical amnesiac. As a result, a raging Index bites Touma in the head before storming out of his room.
The frog-faced doctor visits Touma's room as soon as Index stepped out and quickly exposes the truth behind Touma's condition. After being reminded about the destruction of his memories, Touma explains his sentiments to keep Index from crying. Understanding this, the frog-faced doctor listens as Touma claims remembering more than the things he
had lost in his head, pointing to his heart, where he says his other memories are.
Taken from site...
Rating: 9/10
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