Kamijou Shiina

Kamijou Shiina (上条 詩菜) is a character introduced in Toaru Majutsu no Index as the mother of Kamijou Touma. First appearing in the Angel Fall Arc, she is a woman who looks younger than she really is, a fact remarked by Index and many others who have seen her.

Her hobby is paragliding, and she is even famous for it and her "Ojou-sama" appearance and demeanor in her neighborhood. She tends to get jealous when her husband attracts women or when he looks at other women, giving him frightening glares, though he quickly tries to calm her down.

Appearance
She is described as half as Kamijou Touya's age even though they are almost the same age, as such, many people like Misaka Misuzu, and even her own son is surprised by her looks (then again, he had lost his memory, so this would be a different case). Shiina is an elegant woman with brown hair. In most of her appearances, she wears an ankle length white dress, and a cardigan, as well as a white brimmed hat.

Personality
To complement her looks, Shiina exudes a calm ladylike or "Ojou-sama" quality, and often says things in an indirect and polite manner, making the contrast between herself and her husband even bigger. This is evidenced by her verbal tic, "Ara, ara", which is the equivalent of "My, my" in English, and is often found on characters that are ladylike in popular Japanese culture.

Although this does not indicate that Shiina is conservative lady, she reciprocates her husband's flirting with her, and once allowed him to buy extremely risqué swimwear for his enjoyment. Even more incredibly, Shiina is a paraglider, who often does it in her own neighborhood of all places. She has been described as a heavy sleeper who even a large commotion wouldn't wake up

She loves her husband and her son, though she does have a dark side, as she tends to get easily jealous when women approach her husband, threatening him indirectly and referencing Touya's strange ability of attracting woman, and blames him of having Touma inherit it.

Background
She and Touya gave birth to a son and named him Touma. Her involvement with Touma's transfer to Academy City due to his misfortune is unknown, although it can be assumed that she gave her consent as well as for Touya collecting souvenirs and filling their house with them.

Most of her time is spent at home as Touya is often out due to his business trips around the world, though, she goes out for time to time, such as when to swim to improve her lungs for her hobby. Speaking of which, Shiina often sends pictures to Touma regarding her hobby, especially eagles' eye view photos of their home. In the anime adaptation, Touya and Shiina moves away from the original family home, an old Japanese home to a more modern home, where he keeps all the souvenirs.

Index Arc
Although she does not appear in the arc itself, in the original light novel, it is referenced that Touya and Shiina went to look on Touma after his "head injury", where Touma sees the strange combination of his parents, being that Shiina looks incredibly young for her age.

Angel Fall Arc


For the most part of the arc, Touma berates Shiina as she appears as Index due to the effects of Angel Fall. This continues on even though he discovers that it is not a prank from his family but due to magic. Furthermore, due to Touya's flirtatious attitude, Touma is often forced to go between her and his father, as to him, it seems that his father is a lolicon. She was most likely drugged by Tsuchimikado Motoharu, in order for her not to get involved in the spell he was about to do stop Angel Fall. In the original novel, due to Shiina sending pictures to her son during her paragliding, Touma discovers that his house has been invaded by Hino Jinsaku.

In the anime adaptation, events remain relatively the same, except that Shiina goes back to her house, accompanied by Misha Kreutzev, as she has forgotten something. Later, as Touma and Motoharu go to his house, Shiina discovers Motoharu, and since he is in the form of the idol, Hitotsui Hajime, she begins fawning over him, apparently fan of him. This forces Touma to leave him behind to deal with his mother, as Touma tries to chase after Misha, who just discovered that Touya is the culprit of Angel Fall. In the anime, it can be assumed that Motoharu somehow led Shiina away from the house due to him wanting to destroy it.

Daihasei Festival Arc


With her husband, Shiina goes to Academy City to watch their son compete in the Daihaseisai, and for most of her appearance, becomes extremely jealous when Touya is approached by women, such as Misaka Misuzu and Oriana Thomson. Here, she meets Misuzu and would from then on begin to forge a friendship with her.

When growing concerned of Touma's disappearance in the games, she and Touya talk to Tsukuyomi Komoe, who apologizes. Here, it is shown that she and her husband trusts Touma's decision if he was not forced, and that whatever Touma is doing must be of more importance than the games.

He and Shiina later wait at the hospital for Touma's operation to finish, after his battle with Oriana Thomson.

Homecoming Arc
She makes a minor appearance during the arc. Here, she is at the fitness club inside an indoor pool with Misuzu. The two woman have a quick conversation about their husbands, when Misuzu ask why Shiina hasn't been going to the fitness club for a while, Shiina's reply was muttered out something that Misuzu couldn't make out.

Here, it is revealed that she knew about Touma being in Russia, after seeing the same report that Misaka Mikoto saw that would be the catalyst in her following Touma to Russia during the World War III.

When she contacted Academy City to try to find out about what happened to her son, they didn't give her a straight answer. She also received a call from Academy City when Touma returned, Shiina was really considering throwing a Blu-ray player at her unfortunate son, as well, suggesting that she had thrown one at her husband.

GREMLIN invasion of Tokyo
During the GREMLIN invasion of Tokyo, Kamijou Shiina and Misaka Misuzu are in a sports club, forced to stay inside as the streets have become overrun with panicking people. Misuzu pulls out her phone and discovers that the internet has become frozen and that they are only able to connect to the disaster message boards, putting them in the dark on what exactly is happening. Shiina asks what they should do, to which Misuzu says that she lives alone so she should be fine, and Shiina replies that she should be fine as well. As she spoke however, Shiina held her phone and began pushing the buttons, prompting Misuzu to ask if she is making a call despite the probability that it won't get through. Shiina then says that she would like to leave a message on the message board, prompting Misuzu to join in.

Shiina is able to make a small voice message and post it up in the disaster message boards. Touma, through his foresight, had his phone to automatically record any new message in the disaster message board. In a strange twist of fate, Touma receives her message while he confronts Freyja. Hearing her mother's voice forces Touma to reconsider what he should do against Freyja, and lays down his pride and asks Index and Mikoto to help in saving her.

Shifting and Fluctuating World
In the first recreation of the world by Othinus, known as the Version_Alpha world in-text, where she has changed the entire perspective of the world to make Touma into the world's enemy and thus break his spirit, the alliance formed to combat her and GREMLIN in Touma's original world is an international coalition that is set out to kill Touma.

Touma's parents are apparently taken into custody and in trial for simply being Touma's parents. Touma later sees them immediately after being stabbed in Tsukuyomi Komoe. Here, his parents do not deny that they are his parents, but tells the court that they are willing to help everyone in order to kill him because he is an absolute evil and that they will correct the mistake they made. The people there responds positively to that comment, making Touma fall into despair in his final moments in that world.

The Fifth Friday of September
As her hobby needs to have strong lungs, she goes to the members only sports center in Kanagawa to train. There she sees Misuzu in the pool as well. Shiina calls out to her and asks if her classes are done for the day. After greeting her, Misuzu asks if Shiina does the same thing she always do in the center, to which Shiina confirms as her hobby requires that she train her lungs. Misuzu looks at Shiina's body and wonders what she does to make her look so young-looking, despite looking incredibly young herself. This is because Misuzu sees that since she did so much effort to retain her beauty, Shiina on the other hand was older than her but did no effort in keeping her beauty.

As Shiina just floated on the water of the pool, Misuzu wonders if Mikoto can introduce her to a health machine from Academy City. The two girls later move to the poolside. Here, Misuzu praises on how being a housewife is suprisingly comfortable and enjoyable, though only because she knows her husband comes back periodically. Shiina asks if Misuzu's husband had moved because of his job was elsewhere. Here, Misuzu says that he didn't move, only that she doesn't know where he is or what he is doing. This leads to Shiina joking on their similar situations with her husband. They then laugh, not knowing that their husbands have met and have been getting in all kinds of trouble. As Shiina dries herself, she tells Misuzu that her son's school apparently won't have their midterms. Misuzu replies that is the same for Mikoto's school as well, saying that their grades for two terms were to be decided at the final exams, though says that Mikoto doesn't feel pressure from it and that she'll do the same as ever. Shiina mentions that Touma does the same or not, he will still end up with supplementary lessons due to his failing grade, leading them to laugh again.

Misuzu says that their conversation took a motherly turn, to which Shiina says that it is only natural since they are housewives. Misuzu then asks if that their kids do at Academy City can truly be called studying, saying that the city uses leading edge technology to develop esper powers. Shiina says that in a way it is, though she is not sure if it’s true for her son. Misuzu says that she is wondering what it is that determines if someone can gain esper powers or not. Shiina says that it might have something to do with genetics and DNA. Misuzu agrees, however, she tries to continue but in the end relents. She says that she was just wondering if the fact that Mikoto became the third-ranked Level 5 in Academy City meant that she could get electric powers as well if she underwent the curriculum. Shiina is surprised by this, but Misuzu's thoughts persists. Misuzu says that there is a ton of possibilities that there would be people like her Mikoto, giving her a mysterious feeling. She then wonders if there are people all around the world who had more amazing powers than her daughter but no one realized it. Shiina then suggests to Misuzu that she should transfer to Academy City. Misuzu replies that it would be fun, but someone her age can't take part in the Power Curriculum Program and laughs it off. She then says that in the end she doesn't know the truth, but feels that it would truly be wonderful if her dreams turn out to be true.

Design evolution
Appearing in volume 4, and only getting a design in volume 9 and 10, Shiina, however, has her design remain static throughout the series. She is described by Haimura was a woman who goes to masterpiece theaters.

Trivia

 * She has a habit of addressing her son Touma as "Touma-san" and her husband Touya as "Touya-san" in a respectful manner. While somewhat unusual, this is not an uncommon practice in Japan.

Quotes

 * (Regarding Index and Touma's arguing from Vol 10) : "Ara, ara, the Girl is obviously angry, yet you can change the topic easily, your mother seem to have seen this before somewhere..." - Addressing an argument between Touma and Index