Mary (Alchemist)

"Good Old Mary" (旧き善きマリア) is a character introduced in Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index.

Appearance
Mary is described as a young wife, and has long, blonde hair which reaches down to her ankles. She wears a wide-brimmed hat which hides her eyes, and a long, loose white dress (possibly a maternity brand, looking loose around the stomach) with a thick belt lazily wrapped around her waist with a variety of camping kitchen products attached to it.

Personality
Mary tends to refer to herself in the third-person as 'mama'.

Background
According to her story, "Good Old Mary" is an alchemist who took on the name of the Virgin Mary to hide her identity, and has alchemical skill that can produce miracles on the same level as the real one.

Post-Handcuffs Arc
When Aradia was guiding Anna around their base, she was snacking on ham in the ship's kitchen. After the events surrounding the crash of the Overhunting, as well as the battle in the Vanishing Tunnel, Alice was brought back from Academy City by Anna. Greeting Alice upon her return, "Good Old Mary" and the others in the group were dismayed to find that Alice's newfound interest in Kamijou Touma had swayed her from using her magic to benefit their plans.

New Year's Eve Arc
As the cabal became split as to how to approach the issue of Kamijou Touma, Mary was on the side of the Rescuers. When Aradia attempted to kill Touma on December 31st, Mary acted with the Bologna Succubus to save his life, with Mary employing her resurrection technique twice to save Touma and the Bologna Succubus donating her blood to make up for the blood he lost.

When the Bologna Succubus was mortally injured against Aradia and her witches, and Touma called for her aid, Mary appeared and informed him of how the Bologna Succubus had given away and lost too much blood for her to revive the demon, as well as how a human could not give her blood in the same way. However, when Kumokawa Seria suggested a solution of using a substitute to stabilize her blood pressure, she recognized that it could work and on Touma's urging went with his friends to save the Bologna Succubus while Touma faced Aradia.

Accompanying Kumokawa and Index with the Succubus, Mary was called on to incapacitate a back alley doctor and his associates so they could use his resources, but the way in which she did so drew some exasperation and awkwardness from Kumokawa (who wondered if everyone called Mary or Maria was a troublemaker), as did some of her remarks and pouting following this. When they found what they needed, Mary remained with the Bologna Succubus to treat her while the others went to reunite with Touma.

Abilities
As a Transcendent of the Bridge Builders Cabal, Good Old Mary is said to be powerful enough to rival the regular magic side on her own. She has been described as possessing alchemical skill and note compilation techniques that can produce seeming miracles on the same level as her namesake, and she has described herself as being able to create a small universe in a clear box, and make use of any and all recipes.

Among her repertoire is a resurrection technique, apparently linked to an alchemical formula lost in the 1st or 3rd century. It repairs a dead human body to a clean, uninjured state at the moment of cardiac arrest. Although it completely heals the body, it has a great cost, it cannot directly bring back the soul, the patient will still require CPR, and it does not return lost blood, so if the target has lost too much blood then they won't be able to be revived. Depending on the amount of blood lost, a blood transplant or the injection of a suitable subtitute to stabilize blood pressure, and keeping the target ready for resucitation with any necessary measures, might allow for a target that would otherwise be impossible to be revived to be saved. It has been described as a purely medical phenomenon that may look like a miracle but only affects the physical body.

She was also capable of causing several loud explosions in her proximity, while standing still and not touching her tools, capable of bending the metal double doors on the back of a shipping container and blowing one off, as well as incapacitating the individuals within without damaging the nearby equipment.

The tools on her belt include a fancy Swiss multi-tool, a portable pot with a collapsible handle, a small burner usable as a stove, and a sandwich toaster, in addition to a knife with a seal mascot on it.