Dragon


 * This article refers to the reiterating term. For the entity and organization, see Aiwass.
 * This article refers to the reiterating term. For the entity and organization, see Aiwass.

Dragon is a recurring term that appears in several instances in Toaru Majutsu no Index. Most notably, it is the name that Aiwass uses to refer to himself, and the organization that is formed around his presence.

Background
The dragon is fantastical creature of legend and is said to have guarded treasures or brought about massacre, and represents respectively, the dragon serving God's angels or the devil. St. George was said to have slain a dragon.

Other legends
Other legends related to the dragon are seen several times in the novels:
 * St. Martha is said to have subdued a dragon using a prayer full of compassion and love.
 * St. Matthew is said to have defeated two dragons using just a cross and prayer.
 * One of Biagio Busoni's cross-related magic is the expansion of a cross, based on the legend of St. Margaret who was said to have been swallowed by a dragon and expanded the cross to stab the dragon from the inside.

Index Arc
The first instance of dragons being referenced is during Kamijou Touma's first fight with Stiyl Magnus, the word that was used to describe Touma negating Stiyl's flame sword is tornado, which literally means "winding dragon" in Japanese.

Later, during Index's rampage after getting her John's Pen Mode activated to attack Touma. Here, Index uses St. George's Sanctuary named after St. George to distort the space between her and Touma. She later uses Dragon's Breath against Touma, which according to the possessed Index is the most suitable spell against Touma's Imagine Breaker. Indeed, Touma could not fully dispel the attack and required the help of Stiyl Magnus and Kanzaki Kaori to defeat John's Pen Mode Index.

Deep Blood Arc
One of the most notable reference to the dragon in the series is the transparent Dragon King's head that appeared in place of Touma's right arm after being severed by Aureolus Izzard. According to Stiyl Magnus, the Dragon King may have been what Aureolus Izzard imagined in the eleventh hour after Touma used fear to disrupt his Ars Magna. Touma's right arm is later reattached by Heaven Canceler. After a talk with Stiyl, Touma wondered if the Dragon King's head was really created by what Aureolus thought or if it was unrelated to the Ars Magna, but he immediately discarded this option thinking it was impossible.

Orsola Aquinas Rescue Arc
The 7th Index Light Novel Volume, has Tatemiya Saiji reference a dragon that Kanzaki Kaori defeated on her own in order to fulfill a child's wish, and is referred to being able to swallow an entire mountain. In all adaptations of the story arc the depictions are different. In the second season of the animated series, the dragon takes the form of multi-tentacled monster or perhaps a multi-headed serpent similar to the Yamata no Orochi. In the manga adaptation, it takes the form a single-headed giant serpent. Regardless, Kaori defeats the dragon, but at the great cost of having her comrades decimated in the battle. This is one of the reasons why she left the Amakusa-Style Remix of Church.

La Regina del Mare Adriatico Arc
Bishiop Biagio Busoni briefly mentions the dragon that swallowed Saint Margraet when explaining his spell is based on the St. Margaret's Crucifix, who used it to kill the dragon from the inside by stabbing it with a large cross and freeing herself.

Battle Royale Arc
Near the end of the arc, Tsuchimikado Motoharu retrieves the Tweezers from Kakine Teitoku that he had used to analyze the UNDER_LINE network. With the gloves attached to a monitor to desplay the information on various organizations to the members of GROUP, that Motoharu, Accelerator, Musujime Awaki and Etzali discover a member-less organization, simply named DRAGON.

British Royal Family Arc
The word Dragon is referenced several times during the arc in the form of the retelling of the legend of St. George. During William Orwell's confrontation against the Knight Leader the latter declares himself as someone who symbolizes a dragon, the Knight Leader quietly noticed that in the values of the Christian Church, the dragon was the symbol of more than one thing. For example, it represented pagans and foreign invading forces, but it also represented a fallen angel stained with evil.

DRAGON Arc
GROUP becomes more involved with looking into DRAGON after they find out that the only demand of the rogue group Spark Signal was for information on the mysterious DRAGON. After the main team from Spark Signal was taken out, Group is contacted by director Shiokishi instead of their usual contact over the phone. He informs them of a group of survivors tried to made an escape and for that reason ordered GROUP with chasing them down and deal with them. Afterwards dealing with the remnants of Spark Signal Accelerator proceeded to tell the others about Sugitani's appearance to execute the members he captured where they realize that Shiokishi is eliminating everyone with knowledge of DRAGON as they debate their options they come under attack. After escaping the ambush the members of GROUP ally themselves with Oyafune Monaka to take on Shiokishi.

After dealing with the director's forces and director Shiokishi himself was captured, GROUP proceeds to interrogate him about DRAGON he remarks he 'unfortunately' does know the truth about DRAGON, and it might have been better if he didn’t know in the first place. When GROUP asked him what DRAGON was, he replied “DRAGON is everywhere" and then everyone else, including GROUP, except for Accelerator, got knocked unconscious. After the director exclaimed the one behind them that did this wasn’t Fuse Kazakiri like he thought after Etzali's comment about DRAGON could be used as a meaning for an "angel", he lost consciousness as well due to blood loss. In front of Accelerator appears Aiwass, a higher dimensional super-being, the true author of the Book of Law and Crowley's mentor summoned to the physical plane of existence by Aleister himself. Aiwass keeps Accelerator conscious out of curiosity having recognized that he has a certain level value and is surprised at Accelerator's inaction on GROUP's current state. Aiwass is surprised that Accelerator did not immediately attack it after swiftly defeating the rest of his comrades, and states to him that it was interested in him. After several failed attempts to provoke him Aiwass reveals that Aleister's plans to replace Last Order as she will inevitably break down, and that if it was defeated, Last Order might be saved, Accelerator decided to just kill Aiwass.

Magic God Othinus Arc
Níðhöggr is referred to as a "dragon" or "dragon-like" creature that summoned through the spiritual item Brísingamen by Freyja. It was used in the invasion of Tokyo as a way to harass the populace in order to stop people from uniting as what happened in World War III against Fiamma of the Right.

Daihasei Festival Arc
In an attempt of stopping Misaka Mikoto while her powers were rising to Level 6 from firing a giant black sphere, Touma, as Sogiita Gunha was holding her back, tried to negate it with his Imagine Breaker, but his right arm was ripped by the great resistance opposed by the sphere. Immediately afterward, a Dragon King's head, the same that appeared in the fight against Aureolus Izzard from Touma's severed arm, came out from the wound, this time showing a long neck. Thereupon, seven other dragons each different in its own appearance accompanied it to stop the power from being unleashed by destroying the black sphere of destruction and releasing Mikoto from the effects of Mental Out connecting her to the Misaka Network. Touma's right arm later reattached or regrew by itself. As both Mikoto and Gunha saw the dragons, this proves that the Dragon King's head wasn't merely imagined by Aureolus.

Video games


One notable inclusion in the game is the dragon that appears in the Deep Blood Arc. It appears briefly during Touma's finishing move right before Touma punches an opponent character.

Design evolution
Below is Haimura Kiyotaka's design of the Dragon Strike for Toaru Majutsu no Index 2nd light novel volume. Following that are designs for the dragon heads released by the Toaru Kagaku no Railgun manga editor from his Twitter account. These are the dragon heads that appeared from Touma's severed arm as seen in the tankobon of the 10th volume of the Toaru Kagaku no Railgun. Designed by Kiya Shii, it shows 8 of the dragon heads as well as additional 9 designs that have been rejected.