Kuroyoru Umidori

Kuroyoru Umidori (黒夜 海鳥) is a character introduced in Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index. Being a cyborg and a survivor of the Dark May Project allows her to be a tenacious antagonist during the first volume of the series as a member of Freshmen.

A young girl who likes to brood and boast about being part of the darkness, she is later forcibly taken under the care of Hamazura Shiage and would later prove to be a person with great good hidden inside of her.

Etymology
Her name includes the words kuro, meaning black, and yoru meaning night. Umidori literally means Seabird, which probably joined together means seabird of the black night. This could be a good explanation as to why she dresses and acts the way she does.

Appearance
Her appearance is that of a Loli-Goth, a white coat, and has black hair and yellow dye on the ends of her bangs, similar to Lessar's hairstyle, she usually wears a trench coat and is around 12 years of age. It should be noted that Kuroyoru's artificial arms are not "set" permanently into her, but instead are attachable parts which she connects to her back and controls at will, during her fight with Saiai she attached what was described as roughly "Hundreds, thousands of them".

Personality
She looks down on others as evident with her conversation with Kinuhata Saiai and treats anyone as disposable things. Accelerator remarked that talking to her was like having a conversation with his "old" self; despite this, she is fundamentally a 12 year old child and notably cried as Misaka Worst was going to modify her with cat ear parts during their time in Hawaii. She has a liking to stuffed doll dolphins and is always seen carrying one. As she unofficially becomes part of the Kamijou Faction, like Accelerator, Umidori becomes more of a better person.

Background
She is one of the subjects from the Dark May Project, just like Kinuhata Saiai. However Saiai was treated as the star of the project, the "honor student" who perfectly followed the program, while Kuroyoru herself was thought of a delinquent who's rebellious attitude pushed the program to bankruptcy. This fact caused a slight fixation from Umidori to Saiai when they met in New Testament. As to throw salt in the injury, Accelerator also pointed out that Saiai was better suited for his cognitive patterns than her.

It should be noted that her rude demeanor and cruel personality are a side effect of the project, even to the point where her speech pattern is influenced by the data from Accelerator's personality.

Freshmen Arc
In the first half of the attack by the "Freshmen" she makes sure that Hamazura Shiage and Accelerator meet up with assistance by Silver Cross Alpha. Later she meets with Accelerator, having a brief conversation about who she was and what are her plans before escaping. After sending in auto-piloted powered suits after Shiage and Co. and having a short fight with Kinuhata Saiai, she attempts to finish off Accelerator with her cyborg enhancements. Accelerator merely "steps aside" and lets Shiage and the FIVE_Over to deal with her, after the fight Accelerator pointed out that since Kuroyoru's ability was so focused in the offensive factor, she was unsuited to use his cognitive patterns since Accelerator used his ability defensibly and offensively with great proficiency, a comment which made Kuroyoru think of Kinuhata Saiai.

It is later revealed that they have been manipulated by Yakumi Hisako in order for them to input set values of fear, anger, and joy into Fremea Seivelun’s mind. This is so in order for Fremea to be the one to hold Agitate Halation.

Homecoming Arc
She passes out after attempting a final attack on Fremea only to be stopped by the return of Kamijou Touma. She is later carried to and restrained inside the bathroom of Touma's apartment. When Touma brings her some food, she displays her cyborg capabilities by disconnecting her left arm and striking with her right. Despite the seriousness Touma easily subdues her and treats her like a mixture of an appliance and child. The scene ends when Touma tries to see if Umidori has cyborg cat ears and she tries to keep him away.

Later, Misaka WORST appears and jokingly notes to Accelerator that she wants to see if they can attach a set of cyborg cat ears onto Umidori's head, which causes her to scream loud enough for Accelerator to hear it from outside.

Hawaii Invasion Arc
Kuroyoru is seen traveling and unwillingly assisting the protagonists in their attempt to attack GREMLIN in Hawaii. In order to ensure safe journey and lower actions against, Leivinia Birdway had everyone arrive in groups, the group Kuroyoru is with had Hamazura and Misaka Worst as her handler. With WORST's electrical powers, she could easily take control of Kuroyouru's cyborg parts which she clearly enjoyed doing. This is proven when WORST made Kuroyoru strike a pose while saying, "Trans☆form!!" also saying "Nyah nyah..."

Eve of the Festival
Hamazura Shiage conspires with Kinuhata Saiai in order to have her accompany Kuroyoru Umidori to the Hero's Cave, a dentist clinic in School District 7, after noticing that she has been avoiding chewing with her back teeth. He installs gum into the ports where her nitrogen lances are fired out of, knowing that she would resist.

Saiai takes Umidori there, much to her horror, indicating that Umidori is still a child, predictably, she tries to oppose Saiai using her Nitrogen lances, but due to Shiage's countermeasures, it does not work, and Saiai forcibly takes her into the clinic.

During the Festival
Apparently not caring that just yesterday she had her tooth pulled out, Umidori eats a taiyaki with cheese for the Ichihanaransai, and ends up at a pedestrian bridge. Minding her own business, Misaka Worst suddenly comes upon her.

Since Misaka Worst was an electromaster, and worse off, Umidori's ejection ports for her powers have been cut off, she had no way of defending herself from her. Misaka Worst catches Umidori as she eats a taiyaki with cheese, and comments on how she went for the cotton candy instead, lamenting on how the ones made by kids are poorly made. Umidori seeing her casual comment, tells her that they are not friends. Misaka Worst comments on how since both of them have no friends, they should get along together. Umidori references it as being in a pathetic girl group, and tells her not to put her in the same category as her. As Misaka Worst continues to tease her to "deepen" their friendship, they are visited upon by an unlikely person—Misaka 10032.

Umidori quickly then points out that she now has a friend for her, to which Misaka Worst says that she hates clean people without that nasty look in their eye like her. Umidori comments on how everything she does tells her that she has no intention of being her friend, to which she ignores. Misaka Worst then tries to open a conversation with Misaka 10032, regarding of her current actions. Misaka 10032 states that she removed her shoes to rest her feet while she took a break on a bench, but a black cat climb inside one. Still now, the cat remains inside her shoe. Seeing this, Misaka Worst suggests that she should drag it out with an iron claw, to which Misaka 10032 does not take lightly.

Misaka Worst states that three is not enough, and asks if there are others with nothing to do. Coincidentally, Saiai manages to pass by and forms a disgusted expression after coming them, especially at Umidori. Misaka Worst, seeing her, agrees that she has that nasty look on her face, seeing at they are ken to the ways of the dark side. Seeing them all, Saiai then asks if they are a bunch of villains trying to create their own faction. Misaka Worst comments on how with dark people like them around, she could enjoy the Ichihanaransai honestly without holding back.

Agitate Halation Arc
Between the events of the previous and the current arc, Kuroyoru Umidori tries to reestablish Freshmen on her own, trying to repair the connections that had been torn after their defeat at the hands of Shiage and Accelerator. As such, she is once again performing jobs for the higher ups in the city to re-earn her prestige in the dark side. Her job was aiding Yakumi Hisako in one of their occasional move from one stronghold to another, moving "money" in an attaché case from the old stronghold to the new. However, it was all trap to set by Hisako to draw her near Fremea's location, and then frame her of her death as part of the Agitate Halation Project.

Umidori first appears jumping from rooftop to rooftop, apparently hearing some kind of commotion on the surface and wondered what had transpired. Apparently seeing nothing of interest, she nearly steps on a sleeping Fräulein Kreutune with a rhinoceros beetle shaped body pillow. As the girl murmurs in her sleep of dreams being "delicious" and "worth eating", Umidori declares that she is insane, and leaves quickly.

Umidori reappears in School District 13 having discovered that Hisako has framed her as she had discovered that the case she was supposed to deliver was devoid of any content. She is unperturbed by this, swearing to find people who are antagonistic against her in order for her to have a reason to pay Hisako back. Suddenly however, she heard footsteps in the darkness. Believing it to be an assassin, Umidori prepares herself, but much to her surprise it is simply Fremea asking for the whereabouts of Shiage. Despite being part of Freshmen, it was only Silvercross Alpha that Fremea had seen, as such, this would be the first time. And then, the both of them here a sound coming from deeper in the alley, sounding like several metal pieces grinding together. Hearing this, Umidori prepares herself against Hisako's assassin, while Fremea cowers in fear. Appearing before her is Rensa, Hisako's assistant. She tells Umidori that she will collect the "money" later, and had her sights upon Fremea, and spoke of capturing her as the primary objective. Despite having no obligation to protect Fremea, Umidori spoke to Rensa, and says her jests are terrible, and that she should've not underestimated Freshmen, as she told Rensa that she assumed that trust was more important to Umidori than money. Umidori blankly tells her that she will kill her, but Rensa simply smiles and says that the situation is progressing well. Rensa states that the artificial protection target (Fremea) has enough control over her enemy to create a dark hero (Umidori). Umidori doesn't understand, but Rensa reveals to her that the Freshmen were created only to input fear, anger, and joy into Fremea Seivelun's mind, something designed to fail, and have played their role perfectly. Umidori is not amused by her revelation and finally charged towards her, drawing her eyes to her right hand in order to hide the fact that she will pierce her with a nitrogen spear using the left. Umidori moved to strike her down and behead her, but her nitrogen spear was extinguished at an instant, much to her shock. Rensa had used her own nitrogen spear. Rensa continues to speak of Umidori's position as a dark hero, and speaks of plans of using her against a normal hero.

Angered, Umidori moved to strike again and dodged Rensa's strike, and as she lost her balance, Umidori tried to attack her with both of her palms. Before she can do so however, Rensa reveals that she is a cyborg, and a plate from her back reveals a queer contraption resembling a large mechanical flower growing out of her. A sense of foreboding pervades Umidori, as metallic noises ring out and the flower is inserted back into Rensa. And then, Umidori continues with her two palmed attack, but they are immediately burst and cause a large explosion as it touched Rensa. It was the power of Accelerator, that allowed her to it, and Umidori accurately analyzed that it was beyond something like the Five OVER series. Once again, the flower appears from her back, and as if preparing new ammunition, strange noises began to emanate from inside her. Umidori could only watch after being knocked down as Rensa turned her back on her and pure white wings began sprouting from her back. It was the power of Dark Matter, and Umidori assumed that the flower rearranged Rensa's interior. Predicting that she might have more than just two and the apparent danger before her, Umidori upped the output of her spears and swung her arms around like they were boosters and then jumped straight into the air, making her way up to the roof. Once again she hears that queer metallic noise, and Rensa told her that she was created to have the power needed to defeat all seven Level 5s on her own, and mocks her attempts at escape. Then, Umidori heard the clink of a coin, and she knew that she would fire Railgun. Umidori is then caught in the destruction.

After Kinuhata Saiai forced Shiage to find Fremea in order for her to deal with Hisako and her army of man-eating roaches. Umidori apparently continued to battle against Rensa in the rooftop until she is thrown down to the ground, where Shiage comes upon her. As Shiage tries to go towards her, Rensa appears before him. She refers to Shiage as a low level problem, and that it would be difficult to convince him that Umidori is her enemy. She concludes that Shiage is expendable to the experiment, and prepares to attack him. Umidori, unable to speak, hastily writes down that Rensa is a cyborg, a more advanced one. Suddenly, Rensa's back opens up and a large mechanical flower opens up from it, performs some sort of calculation, and then folds back within her again. She then fires a nitrogen spear, and Shiage immediately concludes that she can copy esper powers, and that she can construct output points similar to Umidori using her mechanical arms. However, that is not the only thing she can do, as she boasts that she can freely switch through all Level 5's powers other than the 7th ranked, and any esper within 200 meters. Rensa relates on how she will kill him to fix the error and then continue as planned to have Umidori framed for killing Fremea. After some pondering, Shiage is still confused on why the assassins would go out of their way to try to kill Fremea in such a massive scale and frame it on Umidori. Moreover, he ponders on why she hasn't killed the both of them yet, and concludes that Rensa wants them to run away in order for them to draw out Fremea for her. Seeing the cyborg, Shiage assumes that Rensa has to hold back in order for her not to accidentally kill them. Whispering to Umidori, Shiage says that he will charge at Rensa, making her falter and block her vision. Shiage tells Umidori that she needs to stab a spear from behind him, even if she needs to stab it through his body so long it won't kill him. Shiage's plan is under the assumption that she will not use Accelerator's redirection for them to stay alive and escape.



With that, Shiage begins charging towards her. However, though Umidori is impressed by Shiage's bravery, she realizes the absurdity of the plan working under their circumstances, and has come to conclude that Shiage will be abandoning her in order for them to destroy each other. Wanting none of that, she determines that she will kill Rensa but not for Shiage. She does nothing as Shiage charges towards Rensa who prepares to use her arsenal of powers. By the time she realized the truth, it was too late. Shiage is struck down by hundreds of wings of Dark Matter, though not killing him as Rensa has intended. There, Umidori screams due to her feelings. Seeing as Shiage is injured, he cannot lead Rensa to Fremea, therefore, she concludes that she will kill him and use another acquaintance to find Fremea Seivelun instead. While on the ground, Shiage apologizes for not working harder in gaining her trust, making Umidori feel guilty. As Rensa prepares for the killing blow, Shiage tells Umidori to abandon him, as Rensa needs her alive to frame her for Fremea's killing. He suggests asking help from ITEM before Rensa get the chance to use them to find Fremea. But Umidori can only drown in her own guilt, blaming herself for the doom Shiage will have to pay in her stead. Suddenly, Kamijou Touma finally arrives and prevents her from killing him.

Both Shiage and Umidori are on the ground during Touma's domination of Rensa. However, after Rensa began fighting physically against Touma, Umidori tried to aid him despite her injuries. Due to Rensa seeing Touma's power as rare, it is because of Umidori's attempt to attack, despite Rensa having Accelerator's powers on, that Rensa changed her mind and wanted to copy the Imagine Breaker. Immediately after, the power of the Imagine Breaker flowed into her right hand, but something was amiss, her mind and hand was not able to take the mysterious power and bulged up like a balloon and exploded, and she was forced to shut down.

Touma approaches the two of them to check on their condition. Shiage states that he is not going to die right away, but tells him that he'll be a burden. He says that he and Umidori will hide, and Kinuhata can take care of herself. However, he states that the real problem would be Fremea. Shiage hands his phone to Touma, where he can follow the GPS signal of Fremea's security buzzer with it. Touma understands, but tells Shiage that it isn't him that Fremea is waiting for, just the replacement. Touma tells Shiage not to die while leaving him with her. And Shiage agrees with a handshake. Shiage later takes Umidori to a certain hospital to get treated.

After we the events of the arc, Shiage meets the wheelchair-bound Umidori, as well as Kamijou Touma, all three bandaged. Touma asks for Shiage and Umidori's condition as they were the worst off. Shiage states that he will not be long there, but Umidori's stay will take a while. Umidori states that it is not a problem, and shows off the movements of her arms, which is still somewhat awkward. Touma's gaze falls upon Umidori, and in a strangely odd voice, says that she will kill him if he says anything unnecessary. Shiage then asks how much Touma found out. There, Touma states that Rensa was completely destroyed, as such she won't come back to enact her revenge. Touma then says with a heavy heart that maybe the reason she was destroyed was because she lost control and not because of the Imagine Breaker. A silence pass by as Touma ponders on Rensa's fate and her sacrifice to save Hisako. Touma then tells of the involvement of Yakumi Hisako in the Agitate Halation Project and Fremea being in the center, but that is alone the limit of his knowledge and references the dangerous things that were found in the hospital Hisako works in. Umidori then asks if he is satisfied with that conclusion, stating that the truth will never come to light, as the truly dangerous things are still hidden within. Shiage asks if there are still people out there who will use Agitate Halation. Umidori says that it doesn't have to be anyone directly related to the project. Shiage then falls silent after hearing Umidori's words. Touma replies that he knows what the stakes are, and it is the reason why he retrieved all 40 hypothalami that is used for Rensa, impressing Shiage as Touma did not go straight to the hospital. Here, they saw the grim reminder that not everyone can be saved. Seeing them, Umidori asks if what Touma intends to with them. Touma replies that he will have them put into cold storage until the time technology has advanced enough to find a way for them to be truly saved. As Touma leaves, Shiage calls back to him, asking what he is going to do now. Touma replies that he will do the same thing as always: "No matter how many times I reach game over and no matter how many times I must pathetically hit continue, I will not stop moving forward."

Magic God Invasion Arc
During Akikawa Mie's misadventures with the Liquid Diamond, both Misaka Worst and Kuroyoru Umidori are in the same subway platform as she is. Misaka Worst notices that something valuable is nearby, referring to the Liquid Diamond, but her train of thought is interrupted by Umidori complaining why she is carrying all her stuff. Misaka Worst explains that she is helping her shop because her broken bone just healed, though she says that even if Umidori ignored her, she'd use her powers to control her body, much to Umidori's irritation.

Later, as the High Priest was attempting to destroy the foundations of Academy City, Misaka Worst and Umidori are in the underground disaster prevention structure. Misaka Worst wonders if the dampeners will hold and offers to help, much to Umidori's disbelief. Misaka Worst then tells her that she can have people indebted to her if she did it, allowing her to get more money. Hearing this, Umidori tells her that she really is rotten to the core.

Abilities
Her ability, Bomber Lance (窒素爆槍 (ボンバーランス) ), allows her to create lances of nitrogen which she can fire from her hands to attack her enemies with. She can even manipulate the air flows with the lances to create swirling currents, allowing her to float in the air. Being from the Dark May Project just like Kinuhata accounts for the similarities between their abilities, though Kuroyoru's ability is more offensive based compared to Saiai's defensive, though Saiai noted that despite her great offensive power Kuroyoru's ability was weak against her armor because it's also made of nitrogen, so her normal lances are unable to pierce Saiai's armor. To make up for the difference in power that she can only use her ability with her hands, she implanted dozens of cyborg arms into herself, so that her personal reality treats those arms as her own and she can use her ability with those arms. Kamachi Kazuma commented on how Kuroyoru's battle tactics seemed to mirror the idea of "who is stronger, a level 5 or a thousand level 4?" It should be noted that it doesn't matter how many hands Umidori uses, the power source is still one individual and thus, extensive usage can become quite straining to her.

Cyborg enhancements
Kuroyoru initially carried a large amount of robotic arms hidden in her inflatable plastic dolphin doll. The hands are small like a kid's, but the arms themselves are more than 1m long. They give a feeling like polyethylene or a petroleum based product, and they can actually move without ball joints. They are covered in skin colored like a human but glossy, hard and shiny like a man-made item. The arms are not complete tubes; there seemed to be several short bones attached inside them. The hands that are hidden inside the dolphin doll are actually remote controls that attach to her body and work like an antenna to allow her to control thousands of "slave" hands. These slaves are normally controlled by specific programs and can move independently from each other, but they'll follow the signal given by the master, and thus become part of Kuroyoru's body.

According to Kuroyoru, the arms are a type of biochemical/biological robot, the latest model that had been enhanced with the research of a ‘Kihara brand’ and developed further.

Kuroyoru can use her robotic arms for several purposes and not only to shoot her ability. When she was presented against the surprise attack from the FiveOver Kuroyoru entangled herself in her arms and used them as a protective shell, though the defensive shield proved to be of no use against attacks that can match Tokiwadai's Railgun. Kuroyoru can also not only use her arms to fire "normal sized" air lances if she just uses each arm individually, but can as well combine the efforts of several arms in order to create a giant air lances of greater power than the normal ones, furthermore since the arms are cybernetic she can input data into them, such as when she added Kihara Amata's battle data, which would have allowed her to exploit the blind spot in Accelerator's Redirection if they would have fought.

Kuroyoru has stated herself that besides her arms she is basically the same as a human even though she can regulate to some extent her own metabolism or bring herself into a suspended animation state. She also disclosed that since her body has been tuned up with "high precision equipment" she needs maintenance quite often.

Also, being a cyborg, what counted as her body was vague, by imagining something to be part of her, for example such as a cliff, she can force the negative side effect which appears when an esper uses magic on a target by using any random magic spell. It is speculated that espers may use this technique in the future, to use as an attack or to mitigate the damage on one's own body when casting magic. Such techniques may prove to be very useful for level 0's such as Shiage Hamazura and may give Motoharu more freedom to use his own magic.

Magic
After hearing Leivinia Birdway's explanation on the theory of magic, Kuroyoru Umidori learned how to activate magic, though she lacks knowledge to cast a proper spell. She activated magic to exploit the negative side effect of an esper using magic to create an avalanche, transferring the rejection from her to her improvised cyborg arm, and from that arm to the cliff which it was lowered.

Character Art Designs
Haimura Kiyotaka's first draft of her design had Umidori with a dark coat, but was eventually replaced with a white one. Umidori was designed as a complete opposite to Index and Last Order, someone who does not incite the feeling that she needs to be protected.

Quotes

 * (In New Testament 1) : “There was something I wanted to ask you if I ever met you. I had actually completely forgotten about it, but I remembered it when I saw your face. So I guess I’ll ask you now.” -- “…Do you really fucking think everyone in the world can just get along?” -- Stated as to defy the Accelerator
 * (In New Testament 1) :“This is a greeting from the Freshmen,” -- “Make this enjoyable, Graduates” -- To Shiage and Accelerator
 * (In New Testament 1) : “Isn’t it obvious? I’m definitely happy. I’M REALLY HAPPY HERE!! THIS IS THE PINNACLE OF THE WORLD. TO BE ABLE TO BE IN A PLACE WHERE I CAN RELEASE EVIL, THIS IS WHAT I EVER WANTED!! NO MATTER HOW MUCH MONEY IS OFFERED, I’LL KILL. THERE’S A LOT OF PEOPLE WHO LIFT THEIR CHINS AS THEY LOOK DOWN ON PEOPLE. AND WITH THIS CYBORG, MY BODY, THE WAY I LIVE, THEY’RE EVEN MORE OUTSTANDING THAN ANYONE ELSE LIVING IN ACADEMY CITY!! I SHOULD BE HAPPY ABOUT THIS, RIGHT!!?” -- Answer to Accelerator's inquire about Umidori being happy while in the Dark Side.
 * (In New Testament 2) : “I’m from the darkness!! I’m one of the Freshmen who have begun to hunt down the Graduates!! Don’t be stupid! That isn’t foreshadowing!! There isn’t going to be some strange development where it turns out I always wear my hood in order to hide cat ears!!” -- Answer to Touma's "theories" about possible cyborg enhancements.