Beginning Child

The Beginning Child (発祥検体 (ビギニングチャイルド) )(real name unknown) is a historical character introduced in the sidestory Toaru Majutsu no Index SS: Biohacker Arc. She was the first modern esper, the foundation of the system used in Academy City. Going missing according to official records, she was actually frozen and preserved, eventually ending up with L.S.S., who sought to revive and monopolize her for themselves.

Appearance
From an old black and white photograph, taken over half a century ago, the Beginning Child had waist-length black hair with a luster noticeable in the photograph. She was noted to have a sorrowful and exhausted light in her eyes. She wore a student uniform different from those of the modern day, more like a hakama and not quite a kimono.

At the time of her revival, the Beginning Child's hair was long enough to reach her feet, wavy and somewhat dishevelled. She wore her pale hakama-like uniform with a large bow around her waist.

Personality
The Beginning Child apparently had a certain elegance, noted from the graceful way her hands were folded in her photograph, in a way not seen anymore (it was noted that if that form of elegance still existed anywhere, it would be in Tokiwadai Middle School). She was noted to have an exhausted and sorrowful light in her eyes in the photograph, likely the result of the attacks on her from the newspapers and skeptics of her time.

Background
The Beginning Child was initially a normal person and lived over half a century before the present. She was trained based on 's data and subsequently became Academy City's first esper. The general public of the time did not believe she actually had powers, and she had to endure continual attacks from newspapers and skeptics.

According to official records, the Beginning Child went missing, supposedly unable to bear living under constant attack from skeptics. She left behind a letter, only saying "but I do have it". However, the Beginning Child was actually frozen and preserved, with Academy City developing the system used on her to construct the Power Curriculum Program used in the present day.

A year before the start of the series, during Kamijou Touma's third year of middle school, the frozen and unconscious body of the Beginning Child had ended up in the possession of L.S.S., led by Matsuo Ryuusuke, who sought to revive and monopolize her in order to create and use espers for themselves for profit, and to put themselves above the Board Chairman and the rest of Academy City. Being unsuccessful in rousing her with external stimuli from specimens created by Biohackers, they decided to directly stimulate her mind within with a mental esper ability, targeting Mitsuari Ayu for her Mental Stinger.

After abducting Mitsuari and bringing her to his hideout in a log cabin close to Ground Geo in School District 21, Matsuo used his creations to manipulate her into rousing the Beginning Child from her slumber with Mental Stinger. Immediately after her awakening, the Beginning Child destroyed the log cabin with her ability, fatally wounding Matsuo in the process, and started wandering the area in a semi-aware state, repeatedly changing the environment of her surroundings with her ability using the animals in the forest. She was eventually subdued by Kamijou Touma with help from the Gokusai sisters.

It is not known what became of the Beginning Child after the incident.

Abilities
Developed using a precursor system to the Power Curriculum Program, based on data from, the Beginning Child was the first modern esper. In the past, she was apparently not able to use her ability when and how powerfully the newspapers wanted, enabling their attacks on her. According to Kumokawa Seria, the technology of the time was not enough to keep her in a cage and although he created her, Aleister apparently could not control her, leading L.S.S. to believe that if they could wake and fully control her, they could reach a level of technology which had eluded the Board Chairman. Being the foundation from which the present-day system for developing artificial espers was constructed, L.S.S. and Kumokawa believed that the Beginning Child could be used as a 'master key' to allow a party to develop ways of creating espers for themselves.

The Beginning Child's esper ability allows her to remake her surroundings into the ideal environment for the survival of a nearby living creature she designates (typically the one closest to her), a sort of localized. She activates this ability with a roar,   with a safe zone from the produced environmental hazards in her immediate vicinity. The ability only affects the environment, with the surface of the ground and existing life forms not directly affected by the ability but capable of being affected the environment it creates.

Environments which have been produced with the Beginning Child's ability include:

During his clash with the Beginning Child, in which he witnessed her ability, Kamijou Touma imagined that under the modern ranking system (which wasn't established during her time), she would probably be ranked as a Level 5. From observations of her ability in action, able to control the planetary environment or largescale climate, Kumokawa Seria noted that there were only a few espers on that level, thinking of Accelerator's vector control and Misaka Mikoto's high-voltage electricity, and believed that the Beginning Child was probably stronger in terms of pure control of weather conditions.

Design Evolution
Since the Beginning Child only appears in the last part of Toaru Majutsu no Index SS: Biohacker Arc, Haimura didn't spend too much time on her design and just wanted to make sure she didn't look too much like Himegami Aisa.