Shirai Kuroko

is a level 4 esper student of Tokiwadai Middle School and a member of the Judgement. She usually accompanies the third-rank Level 5 esper Misaka Mikoto her best friend, partner, as well as roommate. Though a minor character in Toaru Majutsu no Index, she is gets a starring role along with Mikoto in the Toaru Kagaku no Railgun sidestory.

Appearance
She is a girl with light brown hair tied into two pigtails; the rest of her hair are left to hang as two rows of fringes divided in the middle. Her pigtails are tied in place by a red bow each.

As per ruling of both Academy City and Judgment, she wears the uniform of Tokiwadai Middle School and the Judgment armband.

On her thighs, she secures a pair of black straps where she stores the metal spikes used to secure criminals.

Personality
Kuroko can be described as a "girl living in the future". She is used to the world 30 years from now portrayed by Academy City and thus, is ignorant to customs that the present-day Japan still practice, like the "umbrella drawing" which students usually use to link their names to the name of their crush.

Aside from being a girl with a modernistic outlook, she can also be blunt when giving her opinions, and this has caused her to be at odds with Uiharu once. She is equally blunt and honest when it comes to her sexuality, oblivious (or rather, uncaring) of the discomfort that her agressive expression of lesbianism causes in others, even Mikoto, the target of her lust.

Note that her desire can be aroused by anyone who even resembles Mikoto, even her beautiful young mother Misaka Misuzu. It is for this reason that Mikoto tries her best to keep the existence of her "sisters" a permanent secret from Kuroko.

However, Kuroko portrays determination when she encounters enemies, even to those whom she knows is more powerful to her. To her credit, she is an honorable girl who keeps her word, is kind to children, and shares with Mikoto the same ironclad sense of justice that makes neither of them ever back down in the face of villainy.

Background
Kuroko is Misaka's kouhai in Tokiwadai Middle School. A Level 4 psychic, she is a member of, a special public committee group whose duty is to maintain peace and order in Academy City.

She is in love with Misaka, whom she calls "Onee-sama" (big sister); she is in the constant lookout for a chance to get physically intimate with Misaka (and getting called a pervert in the process), and tends to get jealous if someone else gets her attention; this unfortunately happens to be Touma since he has caught the attention of Misaka for various reasons.

Index and the Church of Necessary Evil
Her first debut was in the 1st arc where she is on patrol investigating some strange incidents happening in the city due to Stiyl and Kaori in the Anime. This is not in the Light Novels.

Sisters
She makes her first appearance to Touma in the 3rd volume where she's shock to see Mikoto hanging out with him, giving him a threat to not lay a finger on her. Later, when Touma decides to investigate the Level 6 Shift Project she meets him again at the dorm where she manages to hide him away from one of the dorm supervisors.

Kazakiri Hyouka and the Imaginary Number Sector
She's hunting down Sherry Cromwell who had entered the city illegally and tries to apprehend her but is stopped by her golem, but is saved by Mikoto who was on the scene. She later helps the people stuck in the underground part of the city, teleporting civilians out of the area as Anti-Skill was ready to fight of Sherry.

Musujime Awaki and the Remnants of Tree Diagram (Light Novel Volume 8)
Kuroko faces off against Awaki Musujime who has a remnant of the Tree-Diagram and Kuroko faces off against her but Awaki proves to be the better teleporter. Awaki teleports a corkscrew into Kuroko's side, she teleports her spikes into her as well, and even shoots her with a gun. Kuroko returns the favor back at Awaki during their second encounter, but due to Kuroko running around all night with out rest she cannot teleport anymore so she resorts to psychological tactics against Awaki. Awaki's accuracy starts to fail and then she decides to teleport a 4.5 ton object onto Kuroko. Kuroko unable to do a thing gets saved by Touma who uses his Imagine Breaker to stop the teleport. Kuroko is then taken to the hospital.

At the hospital, Touma visits Kuroko to see how she's healing up, accidently walks in when Kuroko's changing clothes and was slapped by Mikoto (With electricity accompanying the slap). Later Kuroko joked that Touma likes girls who are less aggressive, but after seeing Mikoto taking that suggestion seriously she went mad thinking Mikoto really has fallen in love with Touma. Kuroko also vowed silently to herself to get stronger herself so that Mikoto will rely on her more, and not be a burden after the 'Tree Diagram Remnant' incident.

Oriana Thompson and the Daihasei sports festival (Light Novel Volumes 9-10)
Kuroko is unable to participate in Daihasei due to her injuries (from the Remnants incident) and is in a wheelchair during the festival and escorted by Uiharu, cheering up for Mikoto who is on a competition between schools. After seeing Mikoto taking care of Touma on public TV she vowed to kill Touma for taking advantage of Mikoto and stealing her rightful place.

The Way of Light and Darkness
Kuroko is seen doing office jobs next with Kazari Uiharu and suspects about the strange situation on Academy City although there was announcements on the TV about an intruder.

Abilities
Her powers are instant teleportation (and she is called a because of this), which allows her to teleport herself and anything in her possession. In volume 8 it states the limits of her powers to be total weight of the items being teleported not exceeding 130.7 kilograms, and to a limit of distance to a radius of 81.5 meters from her. One disadvantage of her power is that she has to concentrate on where she, the object(s), and/or person she holds would be teleported to, while working out the spacial co-ordinates of jumping between 3-dimensional and 11-dimensional space, so any disturbance in her concentration will make her powers useless, as demonstrated in her fight against Sherry Cromwell.

Trivia

 * In the Index anime adaption (Episode 15) of the Angel Fall arc, Shirai Kuroko is depicted to have switched with the US President Barack Obama, using his phrase "Yes. We. Can". This was not in the Light Novels, and could be seen as a in-joke for the anime producers, considering Kuroko can also mean 'black child' literally in kanji and also because during the emission of the episode was during U.S.A. presidential elections.