Sasha Kreutzev

Sasha Kreutzev (サーシャ＝クロイツェフ) is a recurring character in the Toaru Majutsu no Index series. She is an operative of Annihilatus, an organization of the Russian Orthodox Church that specializes in the hunting down of spirits that are not supposed to exist. Her form makes its appearance early in the series during the Angel Fall Arc, but her actual debut is seen much later on.

Etymology
Sasha Kreutzev's name (Russian: Саша Креутзев, Saša Kreutzev), due to the limitations in romanization, is a highly contested affair, mostly regarding her family name. Her name is romanized in the official Toaru Majutsu no Index BD booklets as Sasha Croitsef. However, the closest approximation of Sasha's name in katakana (サーシャ＝クロイツェフ), is Sasha Kreutzev.

Sasha, is the dimunitive form of Aleksandr, and can be both be used for male and female (Aleksandra). Furthermore, according to Russian naming conventions, family names are sex specific (adding the suffix -a for females), as such, Sasha's full name should be Sasha Kreutzeva (Russian: Саша Креутзева, Saša Kreutzeva). Because of this however, the Japanese fandom has speculated that Sasha might actually be a male and only looks female. This theory however, doesn't really have any solid basis, and maybe due to the author's lack of insight regarding Russian names.

Currently, only official english translations as well as the author himself can finally settle this matter, just as Kamachi romanized Leivinia Birdway's family name.

Appearance
Sasha can easily be distinguished by her signature look, a red hood and cape (which hides her long curly blond hair) and matching pointy red shoes. Her torso and limbs are covered with leather belts, and has metal braces on her ankles, wrist and waist, the latter being used to carry her many eccentric weaponry which can be compared to the Seven Tools of the the Tower of London. Under is small layer of clothing that covers her torso and her arms up to the wrist, and acts like a thigh-high socks, they are form-fitting which naturally shows Sasha's figure. Sasha's skimpy dress can be attributed to her female superior, Vasilisa – who forced Sasha to wear it as part of her hobby. Judging by her body, she gives the impression of being 13 years old

Sasha's bangs covers her eyes in most of her appearances.

Personality
She follows a strange speech pattern in which she will politely and almost impersonally point out the contents of what she is trying to address beforehand such as " ", " " or " ". It should be noted that since the questions and answers are numbered, that actually hints that Sasha usually thinks on more than one thing to address at a time; even though there are cases when the flow of the conversation doesn't present the opportunity to reveal such fact.

She is hinted to be an avid drinker and doesn't mind enjoying brandy in work hours even though she is not supposed to.

Angel Fall Arc

 * Main article: Angel Fall Arc

Her form first appears during the Angel Fall Arc, where the fallen angel – Archangel Gabriel—uses her form as a way to find the culprit of Angel Fall, under the name of Misha Kreutzev, and helps the gang in the investigation.

After finding out that the culprit behind the spell was Kamijou Touma's father, she reveals herself to them and tries to use The Sweep to eliminate Touya. She is later preoccupied by Kanzaki Kaori while Touma and Touya find a way to end Angel Fall, and return the angel to heaven. After Tsuchimikado Motoharu destroys the ritual location of Angel Fall, the angel returns to heaven, though leaving a large amount of telesma as a consequence for him using Sasha's form.

Academy City Invasion Arc

 * Main article:Academy City Invasion Arc

It was noted that due to Angel Fall, there is a massive amount of Telesma, the equivalent of mana for angels, left as residue in her as an after-effect of Gabriel's "possession" rivaling that of the Holy Mother. Though the real reason isn't known to her or anyone else of the Russian Orthodox Church, it resulted in her being put under observation for the time being.

Anglican Church–Russian Orthodox Church Prewar Conference

 * Main article:Anglican Church–Russian Orthodox Church Prewar Conference

Sasha goes to London, England, to accompany Vasilisa, the representative of the Russian Orthodox Church. Sasha on the other hand, went to the Anglican Church Women's Dormitory on an informal visit to scout out which side they would be on if war breaks out. As she enters her clothing is repeatedly commented on as being incredibly strange, to which she mutters it's not her choice to be dressed like that, but Vasilisa made her dressed like that. Sasha also mentions in passing the Russian Orthodox Church is a perverted organization filled with people with tastes like Vasilisa's. Most of the women present in the dorm thought the informal visit is to ask for sanctuary from being mistreated into wearing that, and she can't be blamed for that; much to Sasha's chagrin.

Due to the nature of magicians being able to betray any organization if it conflicts with their morals/goals, Sasha decided to come to talk with the ones here at this dorm instead of asking for 'official stances' from the higher-ups. As Orsola gave the views the ones present will be helping anyone who needs to be protected in the war regardless of which side they are on, Sasha left without her question answered.

World War III

 * Main article:World War III

Sasha becomes the target of Fiamma of the Right because of the telesma within her, forcing her to flee to the nation of Elizarina. She is later captured by Fiamma, despite her efforts together with Vento, Lessar, Elizarina, and Touma. Later, it is revealed that the angel that Gabriel called himself as Misha a name derived from the Russian Mikhail, the equivalent of Archangel Michael the mistake made due to their attributes switching, which is also why Fiamma was after her in the first place, as being aligned with Michael that got switched with Gabriel enabled him to use the telesma within Sasha, as well as the Star of Bethleham, to summon and control the angel. Later, while Touma is battling Fiamma, Sasha draws a magic array to disrupt Fiamma's control over the Star before she, Lessar, and several others escape.

Lance of Gungnir Arc

 * Main article:Lance of Gungnir Arc

Vasilisa and Sasha are part of the entourage of Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Krans R. Tsarskiy as bodyguard for him. When they arrive before the United Nations Building in New York City for the conference called upon by Roberto Katze, Sasha is arguing about Vasilisa having "faith" in something other than "Japanimation" and American culture, despite being a member of the Russian Orthodox Church. Sasha then says that Vasilisa should be afraid of falling victim to an inquisition for saying such things in front of the Patriarch. Krans hears this and says that he woulnd't do it. Roberto then asks where there others are while reading a lewd magazine in front of the others. Roseline says that the French are already inside the United Nations building, the Roman Catholic representatives should arrive shortly along with the Italian Foreign Minister. Thus the meeting of the Anti-GREMLIN Alliance draw near.

As the meeting takes place, the bodyguards stand guard outside the conference room. There, Kaori notes a board Vasilisa and starts a conversation with her. Vasilisa asks about her opinion regarding GREMLIN and Othinus, to which Kaori says that though she finds it hard to believe the Magic God Othinus exists, she believes that this is no longer a situation she can judge with her common sense, recollecting her battle with Mjölnir. She summarizes the actions GREMLIN took in order to construct Gungnir, which she deems impossible and hard to verify. Regardless, she can't ignore the power of Gungnir, as she remembers her battle with Brunhild Eiktobel with a prototype Gungnir. Vasilisa agrees but tells her that most information they have gotten comes from the illegals, like the Dawn-Colored Sunlight. Vasilisa states not just them but of Ollerus' ilk as well, and that one of them has infiltrated GREMLIN, though she doubts they can trust them. But Kaori says that she doubts the Dawn-Colored Sunlight and the others will betray them as a world with GREMLIN in control is a riskier than one with Christianity in power. Kaori explains on how the Dawn-Colored Sunlight benefits from the world with Christianity in power and that it would be a fatal blow for them if GREMLIN replaced it with their own. Vasilisa finally agrees just to put her mind in ease so she could gain a peace of mind she depended on. With all that GREMLIN has done to get where they are, they hope that the plans of the leaders come together in time.

When Vasilisa reads the people in the conference room's lips that an invasion of Tokyo by GREMLIN has begun, Kaori believes that being left behind as a bodyguard was part of GREMLIN's manipulations to prevent them from being in the front lines by having an unofficial international conference held. Vasilisa tells Kaori that she shouldn't worry yet as they don't know anything yet, commenting on how Anglicans are surprisingly weak to information warfare. She then says that what matters in an emergency is to do everything as you always would, as it is better than panicking and falling into confusion. With that in mind, she then uses a small charm made of parchment to communicate to her subordinates. There, she blatantly ignores the chain of command and others them to crush every member of GREMLIN hiding in Russia, allow the normal military to head to Japan, and protect their citizens. This surprises Kaori and infuriates Sasha. Vasilisa comments on how she is doing this for the Patriarch as she doesn't want his purity to be tarnished by telling him of the dirty jobs behind the scenes. The infuriated Sasha does not take this lightly, believing it to be treachery, she hits Vasilisa with her crowbar with enough force to bend her in a 50 degree angle. However, Vasilisa remains alive, even smiling, and quickly tuns back to normal. She then tell her subordinates to go all out on crushing GREMLIN's diversion team, and teach them that they are the only magicians allowed to use the name of a fairy. Hearing this, Kaori can only mutter that they are perverts. Sasha overhears and asks Kaori to at least refer to her as monster instead.

Enemy of The World
While inside the car, Touma noticed two people in special nun’s habits at a distance. Sensing danger, he left the sleeping Othinus quietly to deal with his next enemy which turns out to be Sasha and Vasilisa. He approached them in caution while the two are having a casual banter regarding Sasha’s outfit. Since Touma isn’t acquainted to the both of them, though he only remember Sasha during the Angel Fall incident, he thought that it won’t be easy dealing with them and they won’t be easily be swayed by his persuasion. He then asked both of them on how they view him. Sasha then told Touma that Othinus may have persuaded him to join her side either by suggestion or having same goals to which Touma responded that he was thinking how tough it is to be a hero of justice and that they have to had doubts about his and Othinus’s actions while not knowing what actually happened. Sasha and Vasilisa concluded that there’s no real reason for them to understand everything in spite of all Touma’s explanation and thus proceeded to attack him. Sasha swung her crowbar on Touma but he forcibly grabbed it with his right hand breaking it. He then proceeded to punch Sasha while altering his timing to catch her off guard but Sasha realized she won’t be able to evade it thus she swept his leg from under him making him tumble on the ground. Vasilisa then threw a Russian military radio at him and he heard a voice speaking in Japanese telling him that they have constructed a unique spell to use against a magic god and it would be also probably effective against him then asked him if he would still challenge them. Touma then tell them that they won’t be able to stop him. Vasilisa then started chanting the spell while standing a distance away behind Sasha. Roaring flames started to spiral around Vasilisa and he wrapped his left arm with his jacket and the flames expanded. As he negated it, Sasha approached him from the side and swung her saw to tear his chest but he used his wrapped left arm to shield himself. He then negated the saw and the voice spoke again amazed of his accomplishments but told him that it means that he is trampling on the wishes of the whole and considered it prideful. Touma’s leg then suddenly collapsed. It turns out that the Patriarch was using the “Seven Deadly Sins” spell against Touma thus rendering him powerless. After forcing the last deadly sin “Gluttony” on Touma, he then collapsed and Sasha checked up on him. After realizing that he isn’t responding and concluded that he is already dead, she decided that she will thoroughly destroy his body in order to ensure that it won’t be a problem in the future since they know that Othinus can animate corpses. As she was about to swing down her saw, she suddenly stopped when Touma smashed his right fist to her saw. As Sasha tried to finish him off, Vasilisa stopped her then suddenly Touma shouted to the phone asking if silencing people with violence and not hearing them is how their god does things then told him that it is an incredible level of pride. Vasilisa then realized that Touma found out the mechanics of the spell and is now using it against them and thus decided to not interfere since it would be much worse. Touma managed to force six out of the seven deadly sins to the Patriarch. The Patriarch then asked Touma his motivations for siding with the magic god to which he responded that at he had a good reason of doing so and they decided to kill her without actually knowing her and talking it out and that would be the root sin of all their other sins.

Strength returned to Touma’s body and the battle was over. He was unable to force the last deadly sin “Lust” onto the Patriarch. He then turned to Vasilisa and Sasha and asked them if they will still continue the fight without any support. Vasilisa then told him that they won’t continue the fight any longer and that killing him would only make the Patriarch trap himself in the “Seven Deadly Sins.” She also regretted that they didn’t use a breaker like what the Roman Catholics did earlier. Before parting, Vasilisa told him that they can’t touch him since the spell is still active and explained the scope of the spell further saying that if an assassin that is not a Russian Orthodox believer kills him, it will not feed back to the Patriarch. By the time Touma caught on, someone attacked him and rendered him unconscious.

Abilities
She carries around a large number of unique weapons from hammers to saws. These weapons appear to be powerful enough to smash through walls, as seen in the anime. She also appears to have some knowledge of runic magic as well, as seen in volume 22 of the light novels, where she draws a magic array designed to disrupt the control Fiamma of the Right had over the Star of Bethleham.

Video game appearances

 * Main article:Toaru Majutsu no Index (PSP game)

Sasha Kreutzev's body is used as a player character in the game, named as Misha Kreutzev, the vessel of Archangel Gabriel. In her route she is tasked in recovering the stone Angel's Tear a stone that has mysteriously ended in the hands of the science side. For this purpose Sasha hires the help of Oriana Thomson, but while searching for the stone they notice that several factions such as the Anglican Church seem interested in preventing the stone from being used by magicians. The boss of her route is the angel of science, Fuse KAZAKIRI.

Being possessed, Misha can use several powerful water and ice attacks, though is fairly slow moving. To compensate for this, the attacks are longed ranged and can be spammed from a distance, some have relatively quick set-up, allowing enough time for Misha to get close and trap the opponent with her pincer light attack that draws in her opponents to her or use of her Overdrive. If an Overdrive is set-up properly, Misha can rain several ice spears onto the opponent, and can trap them into the wall, allowing for another attack if it doesn't kill the opponent first.

The alternate costume for Misha is the Magical Powered Kanamin costume, referencing Vasilisa's forcing Sasha to wear the costume in the novels. When using the alternate costume, she mimics Magical Powere Kanamin's pose in the magazine that Aogami Pierce shows Himegami Aisa at the end of the 24th episode of the first season.

Trivia

 * In Toaru Majutsu no Index Manga Volume 5, she appears in a short story titled "Her name is"


 * Sasha expressed a great distaste for "luxury foods" such as sweets and bubble gum, which is almost ironic as when Misha was inside her body she developed an almost addiction to chewing gum.

Design evolution
The most striking difference from early Sasha is the presence of a ridiculous red "Russian hat" as part of her ensemble, which according to Haimura was arbitrary (much of her early design). Later designs had Haimura focus on Sasha as an alternate version of Index, thus finalizing her design with a headdress.