Awatsuki Maaya

Awatsuki Maaya (泡浮 万彬) is a side character introduced in Toaru Kagaku no Railgun. She is a Level 3 Academy City esper whose ability involves the manipulation of buoyancy. She is often seen together with her friend, Wannai Kinuho.

Appearance
She sports dark-bluish hair and eyes. Her bust size is large enough for Misaka Mikoto to be jealous over, though not larger than Kinuho's.

Personality
She is shown to be kind, and is also considerate and forgiving of other's flaws. She is also seen to be respectful towards a senpai. She also has diverse knowledge on swimsuits.

Background
She is a Tokiwadai Middle School student, and is part of the swimming team of her school along with her close friend Wannai Kinuho. She is also a classmate of Shirai Kuroko. She resides in the School Garden dormitory of Tokiwadai, just like Kinuho.

Level Upper Arc

 * Main article:Level Upper Arc

She appears alongside Kinuho, when Shirai Kuroko and Misaka Mikoto are forced to clean the empty pool as punishment. As members of the swimming team, they are supposed to check the pool's filtration system, where they meet Mikoto for the first time, and are excited by her presence. She later offers Mikoto a drink, which upsets Kuroko. They leave but return shortly, where they witness Mikoto electrocuting Kuroko for being perverted. After seeing the awkward situation, they leave once more.

In the manga adaptation, they appear the day after the AIM Burst is defeated; however, in the anime, they appear before the existence of the Level Upper is even confirmed by the city.

Both Maaya and Kinuho appear again in Episode 13 of the anime, where they recruit both Kuroko and Mikoto for a swimsuit modeling photo shoot. After many bizarre situations, they are given duties to cook curry; however, it's revealed that neither of them know how to cook curry. They later ask Kongou Mitsuko (who had lied to everyone that she can cook curry) to teach them. After suffering many inconveniences, Mitsuko finally tells them that she doesn't know how to cook curry either, but they are somehow forgiving of her, and later ask Konori Mii to help them. They are able to cook seafood curry, and are able to become friends with Mitsuko.

Poltergeist Arc

 * Main article:Poltergeist Arc

She and Kinuho reappear during the Tokiwadai Midsummer Festival, where it is revealed that they reside in the School Garden dormitory instead of the one where the festival is being held. They had been invited by Mitsuko to enjoy the festival. They later see Mikoto's violin performance.

Maaya later reappears during the swimming team's practice, giving Kinuho a towel. Both of them later state their desire to visit Mitsuko in the hospital she was in (as she had been injured by the Poltergeist occurences in the city).

They last appear in the epilogue of the anime, listening to how Mitsuko had apparently solved the Poltergeist Incidents.

Silent Party Arc

 * Main article:Silent Party Arc

Maaya once again plays a supporting role during the arc. Here, she is first seen with Mitsuko and Kinuho. The two girls in the swimming are tasked by their upperclassman, to which Mitsuko readily helps. Later, they come upon a purse snatcher that is easily dispatched by Mitsuko and her Aero Hand. After Mitsuko requests for Kinuho and Maaya to call Anti-Skill, Aritomi Haruki arrives to berate Mitsuko for using her powers. Kinuho and Maaya arrive just in time for Haruki to wow the crowd with his reasoning, they try to make their case but Haruki disappears before they can mount an intelligent discourse.

They later aid their upperclassman again, this time in the Academy City Research Exhibition Assembly venue for the preparation of said assembly. Later, they meet up with Mikoto's group and there make friends with the mysterious girl they brought, Febrie. When Febrie became lost in the venue, the girls participated in her search. Later, when they part ways Mikoto, she and the other two girls see Haruki. Wanting to tell them a piece of their mind, they opt to follow him. Here, they discover that he has a nefarious plot in store for Febrie. Mitsuko upon hearing this, tries to call Mikoto and the other girls but cannot connect with them. She later opts to find them, to which Kinuho and Maaya try to plead to her to take them, though feeling guilty with this, she convinces them let her go. Worried about her, the two later call Mitsuko. They being left out by Mitsuko would serve as a catalyst for Mikoto to eventually ask the aid of her friends against Academy City's Darkness. Mitsuko is later tasked in aiding Mikoto and the others help search for clues regarding the man who wants to reclaim Febrie in the Academic Assembly venue, but this time she brings Kinuho and Maaya along. Mitsuko later reports on their failure to Mikoto. When Mikoto says that they too have not yet found clues regarding the Powered Suit that attacked Febrie, she tells Mikoto that she'll help as well, saying that her father's company has a branch that works on Powered Suits. Apparently having free time from investigating the man who is after Febrie, Mitsuko, Kinuho, and Maaya, go out and buy a new dress for Febrie. They later go to the Judgment 177 Branch Office to see Febrie. There, they are enquired by the girls if they found any clues, and here they are forced to apologize for their failure Mitsuko tries to cheer everyone up by saying that they'll surely find a clue sooner or later. She later presents the gift to Mitsuko with much anxiousness, but becomes happy when Febrie readily accepts it. Thye later sees Febrie swoon as the poison that is accumulating her body is already too much for her to bear. Seeing this, Kazari tries to search for more clues on the computer. Misuko notices this, and when Kazari found a profile of Haruki, Mitsuko points out that he was the one they saw in the Assembly venue, to which Kinuho and Maaya confirms. They later discover Haruki's history with the Assembly.

Kinuho and Maaya later tag along with Mitsuko going to Judgment 177 Branch Office. This is after she checks up on the request to her father's company to investigate on the Powered Suits, to which she is informed that there have been at least 20,000 Powered Suits constructed by the STUDY Corporation. Mitsuko later informs this to the girls at the same time Kazari discovers it as well. After deciding to take on STUDY and the Silent Party without any help at all from Anti-Skill for the sake of Febrie and Janie, Febrie's sister, Kinuho and Maaya decide to help the others along with Mitsuko.

Mitsuko, Kinuho, and Maaya are the vanguard on one of the Assembly venue entrances as the Silent Party begins. They are later joined by a multitude of Judgment members. During the offensive against the Powered Suits controlled by Diffusion Ghost, Kinuho and Maaya show their mettle by teaming up, with Kinuho using her Hydro Hand while Maaya uses her Float Dial. They use their powers to take advantage of the Powered Suit's simplistic AI, drawing their attention as so they can lure it towards Mitsuko, who finishes them off. She later hears that Aritomi Haruki has launched the AIM bomb on Academy City. After the Sisters secretly helped out on the calculations, Maaya applies her Float Dial along with Mitsuko's Aero Hand under the specifications on how to launch the Ekaterina II S into space. With Mitsuko exhausted, she is held up by Kinuho and Maaya as she activates her Aero Hand, launching the mecha into the upper atmosphere, and is used by Mikoto as her ammunition for her Railgun. They later witnesse the debris of her mecha fall into a shower down on the city.

Chronology (Toaru Majutsu no Index)
They appear in the Index manga during the morning of August 30, just after breakfast. Here, Maaya stops Kinuho from bothering Mikoto, as she sees Mikoto restless and in deep thought (but is actually thinking about the newest chapter of the manga she's following).

Toaru Kagaku no Railgun OVA
While Shirai comes to Kongou Mitsuko and Wannai Kinuho to investigate about the "Someone's watching " situation, Awatsuki is present at the time. Awatsuki explains to Shirai along with Wannai about how one of their elders in the swim club is being stalked.

Toaru Majutsu no Index Movie: Miracle of Endymion
She, Kinuho, and Mitsuko are together in the night, where she is amazed by Mitsuko being chosen to be Mikoto's partner for the three-legged race in the Daihaseisai. She later witnesses Marie, Mallybath and Jane kidnapping Arisa, and most likely helped out Index whose hands and mouth are frozen.

Abilities
According to the booklet that comes with the 3rd Toaru Kagaku no Railgun DVD or Blu-Ray Disc, Maaya's ability is the same as Kinuho's and is called Hydro Hand. However, in the 5th booklet, it says that her ability is unknown.

During Baba Yoshio's initial analysis of her and Kinuho's abilities, he assumed it was a form of telekinesis whose limited destructive capability was offset when used alongside Kinuho's Hydro Hand. It is later revealed that her power is Float Dial (流体反発 (フロートダイヤル)), an ability that allows the manipulation of the buoyancy of the user and their surroundings. At Level 3, it allows her to lift heavy objects, walk on water without breaking its surface tension, and leap several feet into the air.

Trivia

 * Maaya's voice actress, Nanjou Yoshino, is also the vocalist of fripSide, who performs the opening themes of Toaru Kagaku no Railgun.

Quotes

 * "We didn't see anything." - Maaya, after witnessing Mikoto torturing Kuroko.