Ines

Ines (イネス) is a minor character who appeared in Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume SS2. She was introduced as a girl from a slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, who once met Misaka Tabigake while he was on a business trip.

Appearance
Ines is described as a young girl with a Latin face and light brown skin. When Misaka Tabigake first meets her, he mentions that her age reminded him of his daughter.

Despite becoming rich, Ines apparently dresses the same as she did when Tabigake found her.

Personality
Ines is shown to be quite persistent, able to gather the minute amounts of gold in and  from electronic trash enough for her to buy machine tools. Moreover, she shows pragmatic intelligence despite her lack of education, by exchanging her gold for money, then developing machine tools to gather the gold more efficiently. Later, she also manage to learn about ultrasonic waves in order to make the process even more efficient.

Her initial pessimistic attitude towards the poverty in her country, her world view, is changed after speaking to Tabigake. She then decides to that she herself should take action to change the world. She becomes determined to break the barrier between the rich and poor of Brazil.

Background
She had mentioned that she had no education and that her family was very poor. Prior to her interview in a certain hotel on the first Friday of April, she was in great debt and had acquired a gun in order to kill her debt collector and then kill herself. Due to her circumstances, she had come to the belief that there was no hope and that it was impossible for her to do anything as the rich had taken away everything. However, while in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Misaka Tabigake was requested by a certain person to do something about all the illegally dumped trash in Brazil. He later came upon a young Ines. He found her in a slum of Rio de Janeiro shrouded in darkness, ready to commit a murder-suicide through killing a debt collector to help out her family. Tabigake attempts to convince her that there are other possibilities. Despite being initially mindful of Tabigake even suspecting him of wanting to have sex with her, Ines eventually opens up to a debate regarding the city's trash problem. He mentions how he was requested to clear out the illegally dumped trash within the slum. She, however, tells him that it would be impossible to do so. He points out to her how the slum they are in is like its own world filled with the illegally dumped electronic trash and asks her what it lacks. She realizes it is money to which he acknowledges.

Afterwards, Tabigake tells Ines regarding the minute amounts of gold in ICs and LSIs from electronic around her. Seeing it as better than getting into trouble with a debt collector, she gets to gathering the gold, at first manually. However, after gathering enough she manages to exchange the gold for money and then developed machine tools to gather the gold more efficiently. She then used the money to buy tools which she used to collect more rare metals from the trash. Eventually this expanded into a thriving business for her. In the end, Tabigake's predictions that she'll be a president of a company and rolling in a bed of money proved to be true as she successfully broke the boundary between rich and poor. Moreover, her efforts later reduce 70% of the illegal dumping of trash in all of Brazil to the point that Brazil's Minister of the Environment wanting to give her a public commendation. Essentially solving the request Tabigake was given regarding doing something about all the illegal trash dumping in Brazil.

The First Friday of April
Less than a year after meeting Tabigake, Ines is in a luxurious high class hotel being interviewed. Here she recounts to the interviewer on her fateful meeting with Tabigake and how it led up to this point. Due to her efforts, she is set to receive a commendation from the he Minister of the Environment and illegal dumping of trash has decreased by 70% all across Brazil. At the end of the interview, the reporter mentions how she had changed the flow of the world by spreading the idea that trash can be made into money. This comment causes her to recall Misaka Tabigake and what he had talked to her about. Ines recalls what he had said, "What is it that world lacks?", and comments how he is likely fighting the world even now as that is what he said his job was.

Quotes

 * (To reporter, from Index SS2): "The people wouldn’t get paid if they didn’t throw the trash away. People who are driven into a corner aren’t going to listen to some moral speech about how people are fundamentally good. If you want to stop them, you have to tell them how they can make some money."