DRAGON Arc

The DRAGON Arc is a major story arc of the Toaru Majutsu no Index series. The arc occurs in parallel to the events in the British Royal Family Arc, focusing on the happenings in Academy City's dark side. It continues on from the aftermath of the Battle Royale Arc, as Accelerator and GROUP try to track down the mysterious DRAGON, while Hamazura Shiage finds himself dodging assassins, ultimately finding himself in another confrontation with Mugino Shizuri.

The end of this arc, as well as the previous one, would immediately segue into the final arc of the Toaru Majutsu no Index light novels. In this arc, Last Order falls ill after the manifestation of Aiwass, the latter pointing Accelerator towards Russia if he wishes to cure her, while Hamazura escapes Academy City with Takitsubo Rikou by hijacking a supersonic passenger plane, eventually diving out above Russia, near the Elizalina Alliance of Independent Nations.

GROUP
Following the battles of October 9th, GROUP obtained information from the Underline that the defeated Kakine Teitoku had acquired using the Tweezers. While most of the codes were the names of the dark side teams (GROUP, SCHOOL, ITEM, BLOCK and MEMBER) involved in the day's events and stuff they already knew about, there was also one other codename they didn't know of: DRAGON.

ITEM
During the events on October 9th, two members of ITEM were lost. After betraying ITEM to save her life after being captured by Kakine Teitoku and SCHOOL, Frenda Seivelun was executed by Mugino Shizuri. In order to protect Takitsubo Rikou from the damage caused from taking Body Crystal, Hamazura Shiage defied Mugino and after a struggle in a fuel plant, he managed to defeat the Level 5. This was contrary to the outcome calculated for Aleister's Plan.

Unknown to the rest of ITEM, the injured Mugino was recovered and revived using a 'dark legacy' left behind by Heaven Canceller.

Depart
In the late afternoon on October 7th,  Accelerator received a job to kill Depart, a black market dealer specializing in services to help clients elude pursuit. Arriving at Depart's apartment in School District 15, he was mistaken for an interested client by Depart, who explained his services (and when it was brought up, a chained, beaten and mostly undressed 15-year old girl he had as a 'hobby'), not realizing until too late that Accelerator had come to kill him.

After slaughtering Depart, Accelerator called for a recovery crew to clean up the mess, ordering them to bring a set of woman's clothes and only have women on the crew, threatening to kick the balls of any men on the team. He then freed the bound girl and threw some bundles of cash, telling her to live freely from then on. When the girl asked who he was as he was leaving, Accelerator replied that he was a villain.

GROUP
At 6 PM, Accelerator was in one of the apartments used as a base by GROUP, working on his cane while having a phone conversation with Last Order, who told him about the hamburger casseroles they were having for dinner and asked about being able to see Accelerator at the weekend. Having finished work on his cane, Accelerator received a signal via the other phone for GROUP work and ended his conversation with Last Order, who asked if everything was alright and not to do anything dangerous, with Accelerator disregarding her concern.

Meanwhile, Tsuchimikado Motoharu was strolling through School District 7 on the way home from school, accompanied by Maika on her cleaning robot. A comment relating to the maids handing out flyers on the street earned him a punch to the back from his sister, who was irritated at what she didn't consider to be proper, professional maids. As Maika was getting annoyed, a passing limo sounded its horns, flashed its lights and turned a corner down a side road. After making excuses so he'd be able to get away from Maika, Tsuchimikado followed the limo and on finding Accelerator already inside, asked what their job was.

Musujime Awaki was visiting her comrades at the Reformatory in School District 10. While thinking that she would overcome the unbeatable game with the city before her, she received a call from Tsukuyomi Komoe, who was subsequently upset to find out that Musujime wouldn't be able to make it home to learn how to cook, with Komoe having bought loads of vegetables for the stir-fry and stuffed the fridge full. After remarking that a vegetarian lives longer, Musujime ended the call and walked to the limo which had pulled up.

As the rest of GROUP were assembling, Etzali was visiting Xochitl in a hospital in District 7. Etzali asked Xochitl about what had happened with her and his previous organization, with the latter remarking on his defection from the Aztecs to Academy City. When Xochitl referred to him as "Etzali-oniichan", Tsuchimikado burst in and ranted at Etzali for going after a middle-school girl when he already had a girl back home, putting him in a somewhat precarious position and prompting denial.

Accelerator and Musujime looked on as the two argued. After seeing Accelerator mutter about how everyone gets dragged about by brats younger than them and that he didn't have the right to interfere, Musujime asked if she was the only one in GROUP who wasn't a lolicon, only for all of three of them to remark on how this was coming from an exhibitionist shotacon, to her dismay and embarrassment. As they were leaving the hospital, Etzali asked about the job needing everyone in GROUP and Tsuchimikado replied that it was dealing with some of the usual things; eliminating terrorists that had taken hostages and refused to surrender.

Aztecs
While Accelerator was facing Sugitani, Shiokishi and Oyafune sat opposite one another and had a short discussion. Oyafune stated that she wished for Shiokishi to completely delete the clause of 'using others' live as a resource' from all plans he was supervising or proposing, and in his battles. She also asked about DRAGON, on behalf of GROUP.

After asking if she knew anything about it, Shiokishi stated that it was something which should not be brought to light. He further stated that what he was doing was important for protecting the city, and that although Oyafune might call his actions barbaric, it was because she didn't know about DRAGON, which he had no intention of letting her know about. Oyafune replied that if necessary she would also take actions that could be called barbaric and that if it would contribute to saving important people from his actions, she would continue to investigate DRAGON. As Shiokishi acknowledged that negotiations had broken down, Oyafune remarked that the Academy City they both wanted to protect probably meant different thing to the two of them and that was why their paths had diverged.

As Shiokishi moved to kill Oyafune with a punch from his suit, it was revealed that it was actually Etzali disguised as her. Robbed of his Powered Suit by the Spear of Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli (due to the damage to the shelter from the earlier attack letting in the light of Venus), Shiokishi said that in the end Oyafune was watching on from a distance like a coward to which Etzali stated that Oyafune didn't hesitate to let him cut off 10cm of skin from her arm for his disguise. He then asked if Shiokishi would prefer to talk or experience the pain that the person he had called a coward endured.

Threatened, Shiokishi called for Minobe and tried to make his escape after two bodyguards came in, only to be shocked to find all of the other guards dead. He was then stabbed by an obsidian knife as the two revealed themselves to Etzali as Tecpatl and Tochtli, two Aztecs from his previous organization, after his head.

As Etzali was wondering why those two were together when they shouldn't be the type of people to get along well and if he could use his spear against his former comrades, Tecpatl asked him if he was intending to face him with something that puny, taking a bookbag from Tochtli containing several carved stone tablets. From the pain after looking, Etzali realized that it was an original grimoire. Tecpatl then remarked that Etzali had seen how Xochitl had been remodelled and given how the common soldiers were armed with grimoires, as the one who conceived and implemented that plan, having one himself wouldn't be unthinkable. As Tecpatl challenged him to bring out the grimoire he took from Xochitl, Etzali tried to figure out what Calendar Stone derivative Tecpatl had.

On hearing Etzali say that there were records of the Moon Rabbit, Tecpatl remarked on his rashness in actually trying to read it and confirmed the legend his grimoire was derived from, demonstrating its application by firing a shot from his hand, smashing through the shelter walls on that side and hitting Shiokishi's forces fighting outside. While telling Etzali not to dodge or people would die, Tecpatl remarked that it originally should be a strike capable of reaching other astral bodies, putting it down to the 'rabbit bones' being used as raw material being inferior.

Etzali was shocked, not by the destructive force, but by what was happening with Tochtli, whose index finger drooped then swelled back up again. It soon became clear to Etzali that Tecpatl was using Tochtli's bones for his projectiles. Etzali didn't understand why she would obediently offer her bones to the likes of Tecpatl, but when Tochtli's mouth opened and what came out was not human speech, he realized that Tochtli's mind and heart were gone. This prompted Tecpatl to laugh and reveal that not even half of Tochtli's bones remained and although grimoires recorded ways to replace a person's bones with obsidian the process was apparently excruciating, though as long as the 'rabbit bones' were replaced it was alright with him.

Enraged at what had been done to Tochtli, Etzali ripped off the face of Unabara Mitsuki to reveal his true face and unleashed his own grimoire. Etzali and Tecpatl then fought with their respective grimoires, with Tecpatl putting the leadership of the Aztecs on the line. As the exchange of fire continued, Etzali experienced further contamination from the grimoire. Eventually, several of Tecpatl's shots managed to get through Etzali's defenses and left him unable to stand.

As Etzali asked what had happened, Tecpatl spoke of the events that had transpired with their organization before going for the kill. However Etzali managed to exploit the grimoire's trait of trying to pass on its knowledge, writing some of its contents on the ground and illustrating he was more suited to the purpose than Tecpatl who had taken measures to not spread or read the knowledge himself to prevent contamination, causing the grimoire to turn its last shot back against its wielder, fatally wounding him. Etzali then accepted the second grimoire, intending to save Tochtli.

DRAGON
After finishing their respective battles, GROUP gathered in front of the defeated Shiokishi. Accelerator told Shiokishi that to protect the people dear to them they had two choices; either have him tell them everything about DRAGON or move the knife in his stomach and spill his innards there and then. Shiokishi replied that because of his position he had to know about DRAGON and wished he didn't, advising them that it was better not to know about it and that it was something that should never come to light. When Accelerator asked anyway, Shiokishi laughed and said that DRAGON was everywhere, stating it was behind them right now.

Immediately afterwards, Tsuchimikado, Musujime and Etzali fell to the floor unconscious, and looking behind him, Accelerator saw a humanoid figure. Shiokishi expressed surprise that it wasn't Fuse Kazakiri who had appeared and shortly afterwards lost consciousness due to blood loss. The humanoid yet at the same time inhuman entity went on to say how the term DRAGON was not exactly wrong and the term 'angel' was alright too, being closer to the truth that some of the other rumors, though it was different from the angels recorded in the Bible, so to more accurately describe it the other term should be used. Stating that few persevered to reach this point in their search and thus there was value and worth in doing so, the entity declared its name - the one who once taught the necessary parts of the necessary knowledge to the eccentric magician Crowley, Aiwass.

Facing Aiwass, Accelerator was told that the entity had appeared before him out of interest, as it had recognized that he had a certain level of value and was curious. When Accelerator asked what Aiwass was and why it was hidden behind the codename DRAGON, Aiwass explained roughly what it was and how it had appeared, though it encountered difficulties in fully expressing itself in human language, lapsing into an angelic language at times. After its explanation, Aiwass asked what Accelerator intended to do, if he wished to try and crush Aleister's plan by destroying it - mentioning how it made little difference to it as it would have another opportunity to appear, and when it brought up how Last Order, one of the cornerstones of the plan, would likely break down if things continued as they were, Accelerator decided to take action.

Aftermath
Later that night, Aiwass had a conversation with Aleister, using an ordinary cell phone and walking along the frame of a building under construction. After a short exchange about efficiency and value, Aiwass spoke about the mentality of Accelerator and Kamijou Touma, and then asked Aleister if he admired the two of them, talking about three different types of heroes and what drives them, remarking that they possessed something which Aleister didn't and saying that it wasn't surprising that he admired them since he was only able to fall and lament at that time. In response, Aleister warned Aiwass that he would use anything, Aiwass included, and that although it might find it amusing that there were errors in his plan, there was no guarantee that its superiority would last forever. Aiwass replied that it didn't possess power because it wished for it and that it would appear again when something else held value and interest to it.

After his defeat by Aiwass, the heavily wounded and bloodied Accelerator returned to Family Side and found Last Order exhausted due to the strain created by Aiwass's appearance. Yomikawai later woke before dawn, finding Last Order gone, a trail of blood leading to an open window and an unsigned note from Accelerator, shakily written in blood, saying that he would show that he could save the child's life. Slipping out of the city in a container on a freight train with the unconscious Last Order, Accelerator recalled Aiwass's words about how she would eventually break down and its advice to head for Russia and the Elizalina Alliance of Independent Nations if he wanted to find a way to save her. Crushing his cell phone and his only line to GROUP, Yomikawa Aiho and Yoshikawa Kikyou, Accelerator decided to go to Russia.

Around the same time, the Supersonic Passenger Plane carrying Hamazura Shiage and Takitsubo Rikou flew away from the city on autopilot. As they lacked the skills to safely land the plane, they had to jump out mid-flight with parachutes. After setting up explosives to blow up the aircraft and adjusting the settings to slow down enough to jump safely, the two parachuted from the plane above Russia, near to the Elizalina Alliance of Independent Nations.

At the same time as these two were heading to Russia, Kamijou Touma was also making his way there in order to defeat Fiamma of the Right and save Index, after Fiamma had stolen her remote control in the chaos of the attempted coup d'état in the UK and put her in danger.