Dragon


 * This article refers to the reiterating term.

Dragon (ドラゴン) is a mythical creature found in many stories around the world and a recurring term which has appeared in various instances throughout Toaru Majutsu no Index. Most notably, it is the codename used to refer to Aiwass and a term which he has used to refer to himself.

Western
The dragon is a rare mixed symbol in Christianity, a religion which strictly divides good and evil, crossing the boundary between the two by representing the devil but also being used in crests signifying houses and organizations. Crossing the usual duality, the dragon symbolizes many things. It is the ruler of the depths and a guardian of treasure. In its role as a guardian of treasure or a massacring monster, it has been said to represent respectively, the dragon serving God's angels or the devil. As well as representing a fallen angel stained with evil, it also represents pagans and foreign invading forces.

In Christian tales, dragons have been the adversaries of various saints. Examples include, who is said to have subdued a dragon using a prayer full of compassion and love, , who is said to have defeated two dragons using just a cross and prayer, and , who is said to have been swallowed by a dragon and expanded the cross to stab the dragon from the inside.

Perhaps the most famous of these tales is that of, where the wandering knight Saint George slew a large fire-breathing dragon which was terrorizing a city and its inhabitants, who were forced to appease it with offerings of sheep and children, with the princess having just been sent when he arrived.

The clash between knight and a savage dragon is a common depiction found in many legends, both in Christian and non-Christian cultures, with a number found within Norse Mythology. The final adversary of the warrior  was a dragon, which the old king managed to slay at the cost of his life.

Eastern
In oriental cultures such as China and Japan, dragons tend to have large serpentine bodies with clawed feet, wingless but often capable of flight. They are often associated with rain and bodies of water, with the Japanese sea god or  being one example. Among the associated with the cardinal directions in  traditions, the  or Seiryuu/Qinglong signifies the East,  Spring (and consequently the element of wood) and the color blue. Although Eastern dragons tend not to be as antagonistic as the ones in Western stories, there are malevolent ones, such as the eight-headed serpent.

Other
Outside of mythology, dragons have often been featured in fantasy stories and RPGs.

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 references to dragons 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 Canceller. 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
Tatemiya Saiji referenced an evil dragon that Kanzaki Kaori defeated on her own in order to fulfill a child's wish. It is said to have been able to swallow an entire mountain. In all adaptations of the story arc, the depictions of the dragon are different. In the second season of the anime adaptation, the dragon takes the form of multi-tentacled monster or perhaps a multi-headed serpent similar to the. In the Toaru Majutsu no Index manga adaptation, it takes the form a single-headed giant serpent. Regardless, Kanzaki 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
Bishop Biagio Busoni briefly mentions the dragon that swallowed when explaining that his cross-expanding spell is based on St. Margaret's Crucifix, with St. Margaret having expanded her cross to stab the dragon's stomach from the inside.

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 of slaying the dragon, where his saving the princess that was about to be sacrificed to parallel William Orwell's rescue of the princess Villian during the British Halloween and that he also carries a replica of Ascalon with him. During his subsequent 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. After 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 did not 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 was not 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 was 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.

Aleister Crowley Arc
During the flight from the Karma-bearing chain beasts, which interfered with spells involving color and caused them to malfunction, Tsuchimikado Motoharu made use of a spell involving a dragon origami, the association between dragons and water, the Black Tortoise symbolizing water and the Azure Dragon, with the expectation that they would interfere with the coloration and send it out of control, allowing him to unleash a giant water blast regardless of the interference.

Kamijou Arc
During the events at Windsor Castle in the aftermath of the attack on the Queen Britannia, the symbolism connected to dragons was mentioned at various points, with Touma and his doppelganger both assuming the form of dragons during their struggle.

Daihasei Festival Arc
In an attempt in 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 regenerated by itself. As both Mikoto and Gunha saw the dragons, this proves that the Dragon King's head wasn't merely imagined by Aureolus.

Jailbreaker Arc
Following the incident during the Daihaseisai, one of the eight dragons which were unleashed after Imagine Breaker was severed, the Angel Dragon, lingered in the city, with at least one sighting during the festivities. It ended up latching onto Shundan Kimi, an imprisoned esper whose ability could create a black hole somewhere in the universe, using the black hole's energy to sustain itself. From this possession, Kimi made extensive use of the dragon and its powers during the events surrounding the Second Reformatory's Jailbreak Trial, summoning the dragon itself when outside the effects of AIM Jammers, but was progressively transformed and taken over by it.

Extremely strong and resilient, the dragon could emit a light from the cross on its head that transformed what it struck into salt and its feathers could brainwash those had ingested Kimi's blood (or cause a lethal salt reaction if a target hadn't). Undamaged and undiminished in battle despite receiving repeated heavy attacks with Misaka Mikoto, the dragon and its transformation of Kimi was only stopped when Uiharu Kazari managed to sever its connection to the black hole power source via a desperate transformation of her own, causing the dragon to distintegrate, its skeletal form shattered after one final attack.

Toaru Majutsu no Index (PSP game)
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, though it has been recently confirmed by Railgun manga editor Ogino Kentarou in his Twitter account that the designs are actually canon, raising the posibility that the dragons in Touma's arm are not just eight.