Sha Danshan

Sha Danshan is a student of Tokiwadai Middle School who appears in Toaru Kagaku no Railgun. She was the leader of the largest clique of Tokiwadai Middle School, one year prior to the main story.

Etymology
Her name is Chinese in origin. Her first name Dànshàn means "frail fan", while her last name Shā means "sand".

Appearance
Sha has red eyes and long black hair, with a white lace headband tucked over several of her fringes. She wears a red brooch on the left side of her hair and a pair of glasses with rounded rectangular frames, the left frame resembling a stylized teary-eyed expression. She wears the Tokiwadai Middle School uniform, sporting dark-colored stockings. She holds a panda doll. She doesn't wears a bra despite having big breasts.

Personality
Sha presents a frail, polite, innocent and cute front. She carries around a panda doll, which Hasekura remarked she couldn't talk without, using it for ventriloquism. She proclaims belief in service, performing voluntary and philanthropic work, along with the rest of her clique. She also expresses annoyance at being left out and when people do things without consulting her, displaying it in the form of pouting and cute-styled indignation.

However behind this front,  she is quite manipulative and willing to bring others to harm for her own ends, as shown by her manipulation of Antikythera behind the clique conflict, as well as her own presentation to others during these events and her manipulations to divert attention away from herself.

Sha uses a lot of four character idioms in her speech. She speaks Japanese in everyday communication and Cantonese in certain cases.

Background
At the start of Misaka Mikoto and Shokuhou Misaki's first year at Tokiwadai Middle School, Sha was in her second year and leader of one of Tokiwadai's 'big three' cliques. Said to be the closest to the title of "Majesty" at the time, her clique was the largest.

Sha and her clique believed that the gifted had a duty to do volunteer work (such as buying and greening deserts) and its members were dedicated to service, earning them popularity and power. It was suggested that their efforts might have been to thank for Tokiwadai being considered one of the top five schools. It was also suggested that the secret to Sha's popularity might have been the protective desire inspired by her weakness and frailty, having a weak constitution and being nicknamed the Infirmary Empress (保健室の女帝).

First Year Arc
Sha first encountered Mikoto in early May, when the Level 5 was looking to return her roommate's phone accessory. Initially talking behind her panda doll, Sha remarked on the accessory. As Mikoto introduced herself to Sha, Mikagami Nagisa and Hasekura Reiri appeared from separate directions, with Mikoto between the three main clique leaders. After a brief exchange between the rivals, Hasekura dragged Mikoto off for a contest.

At another point in the first half of the year, Sha encountered Judgment trainee and future Tokiwadai student Shirai Kuroko. After Sha's actions led to the two getting drenched by a fountain, she treated them to new clothes. She also told Kuroko some information about Tokiwadai from her point of view.

At another point, prior to the outbreak of the clique conflict that summer, Sha had manipulated at least one member and likely more members of Antikythera for her own ends, using one of Shokuhou Misaki's remotes, which she had managed to obtain, in conjunction with her ability to make a limited reproduction of Shokuhou's Mental Out.

As conflict was brewing between the Mikagami and Hasekura cliques due to the alleged attack on Kazan'in Tsukasa by Enjou Kasumi, Sha talked with Lily in the infirmary about the incident and inconsistences in the witness testimonies. With Sha raising the possibility that they were all telling the truth, Lily suspected Shokuhou Misaki's involvement and despite Sha stating that she thought otherwise, decided that she needed to question her, given her previous institution being broken up and her unknown current affiliations.

Sometime later, Sha visited a lab and used her ability to reproduce the image of a dinosaur from a fossil for the researchers. On leaving the lab, she met with Lily, Lin Lihua and Ouyang Qian, bandaged after trying to take Shokuhou for questioning and being knocked out by Hokaze Junko. Although Sha assuaged their fears about potentially being controlled, she was annoyed at them doing this without telling her anything.

A week after Hasekura had organized a truce with Mikagami in light of an external culprit, and not long after she had started rumors about Shokuhou's cooperation, Sha encountered Hasekura and Kessai outside Tokiwadai, having been making and giving out pottery plates as volunteer work. As Sha was expressing annoyance at being left out, the group came under remote attack, with Hasekura blocking the projectiles, having Kessai make a smokescreen and telling Sha not to use her fossils yet. After the unknown attackers retreated, Sha analyzed the residual thoughts on one of the projectiles, which included Hasekura being the target and the phrase "Attachment Dark Matter". She noted that it lacked the amount of residual thoughts normally gathered by matter affected by an esper power, suggesting it was produced through other means.

When the three clique leaders met, as Hasekura revealed her intention to raid the company pulling the strings, Sha suggested that their cliques should join forces, given that Mikagami's clique was also a victim, though Mikagami was reluctant to do so, given the lack of definite proof and the danger to her girls. After Hasekura said she'd send her clique in first and the others waiting outside would only join in if their suspicions proved correct and a fight broke out, Mikagami said she'd present it to them but wouldn't force them to do something this dangerous and the choice would be theirs.

One day after the attack, when the Hasekura clique raided the headquarters of Montgolfier, the culprit behind the attacks that instigated and aggravated the clique conflict, Sha had her clique reinforce them in the resulting battle with Montgolfier's operatives and their prototype weapons, along with Mikagami's clique.

While Sha claimed to not be feeling good and going to the infirmary, she actually went to dispose of her Antikythera scapegoats, who were starting to realize the inconsistencies in their memories and actions. As she approached them, seeing the perception and memory manipulation breaking down, she remarked about it in Chinese (which they couldn't understand), wondering whether it was weaker than expected due to there not being enough residual thoughts in the remote or her power not being strong enough yet. She also remarked that she wished she hadn't had to use the valuable Mental Out to divert attention from herself, though at least she didn't need it in an all-or-nothing battle, before setting a reproduced theropod on the Antikythera members.

Abilities
Her esper ability is a type of Psychometry based on remains, that can physically print out the result, at the cost of burning down the original material afterwards. She is capable of a more conventional reading of residual thoughts on an object without burning it down. Her level is currently unknown, but as a student of Tokiwadai Middle School, it can be presumed to be at Level 3 or 4.

As shown with a piece of fossil originating from a small dinosaur, she can temporarily reproduce the image and sound of that dinosaur, making her ability very useful in. These temporary reproductions are capable of inflicting physical harm, as shown with the jaws of a large theropod, with Sha carrying fossils of strong creatures (such as the B-Rex and Omegalodon) for self-defense purposes.

Using the residual thoughts on one of Shokuhou Misaki's remotes, she was even able to make a limited reproduction of the person herself and her ability Mental Out, in order to manipulate the perception and memories of Antikythera, though they were weaker than the genuine article.

Trivia

 * Sha speaks Chinese in the Cantonese dialect (originating from Guangdong province, but also used in Hong Kong and among the Chinese diaspora abroad), but her speech bubbles are written in simplified Chinese (unlike Hong Kong, which uses traditional Chinese), suggesting that she is from Guangdong.