Misaka Misuzu

Misaka Misuzu (御坂美鈴) is a character introduced in Toaru Majutsu no Index. She is the mother of Misaka Mikoto and wife of Misaka Tabigake. She is a minor character, first appearing in Index Volume 9.

Ever youthful in appearance, she is often mistaken for younger, as if she was Mikoto's older sister. Moreover, she is even friends with the similarly youthful Kamijou Shiina. She is currently studying in a university.

Appearance
Misuzu looks very young for her age. Her youthful appearance leads many people to assume that she is Mikoto's older sister, shocking them once they learn the truth. Indeed, she looked young enough that she could mix in with university students without looking out of place.

She is attractive and well-endowed with large breasts, in contrast to her daughter's small but perky chest. According to her, her bust size is 91 cm.

Personality
She is like the polar opposite of her daughter, both in personality and figure. While Mikoto is serious, more mature and responsible Misuzu is irresponsible, laid-back and sometimes child-like. She wears on her clothes and products for teens, such as Elmo, Az, Scale, Russiv, and Zero Plus. Also, Misuzu has a large bust while her daughter has smaller breasts, which Mikoto is self-conscious about. She teases her daughter about that. In spite of this, she truly cares for her daughter. This is shown when she becomes part of the Recovery Movement in parents and guardians wanting their children back from Academy City, as well as her hesitating asking her daughter when she comes under attack by Skill-Out as she doesn't want to drag her into her problems.

Misuzu appears to have a low tolerance for alcohol. While drunk she is terrible to deal with, becoming relentless to people she gets what she wants. Here, she has a habit of clinging to young men she likes, as Touma and Accelerator can attest. Indeed, in this state she is willing to kiss anyone, boy or girl, so long as they are younger than her. She is also very careful of her health or at least her beauty, which even seeps through when she is drunk, as shown when she stops herself from sleeping while drunk as she hasn't stretched yet or even taken off her makeup.

Background
Not much is known about her other than the fact that she decided to go back to college. Her hobbies include number theory and studying, fitting for a college student. Moreover, she says that her special talent is swimming, which is proven after unknowingly beating an athlete in swimming in the sports center she goes to. She lives in the Kanagawa Prefecture and often meets with Kamijou Shiina in the sports center they both go to.

Daihasei Festival Arc
While looking for Tokiwadai she bumps into Kamijou Touya and then proceeds to ask him if he can help. Being a gentleman he try to, but the map doesn't list it. The group then over hears Kamijou Touma arguing with Misaka Mikoto, in which of their schools will have a lower score than the other is forced to do whatever the winner tells him or her to. The parents watch this scene with relief and bemusement.

Later during the lunch break she comes while teasing her about Touma and their penalty game they are noticed by Touya and Shiina. She introduces Mikoto to them as "family of the one she likes", much to Mikoto's shock, and invites them to lunch together. When meeting at the restaurant the others are surprised that Misuzu is actually Mikoto's mother having believed her to be her older sister. She then unpacks their lunch cheese pot with a mini gas stove to cook it on. Mikoto then strikes her. Mikoto is surprised at the insane amount of food her mother prepared, and Misuzu justified it as a hearty lunch to properly give her nutrition to develop certain areas to which Mikoto assumes she means her breasts.

After lunchtime was over, Kamijou Touya, Shiina and Misaka Misuzu, having booked their seats beforehand, quickly headed to the next arena.

Skill-Out Uprising
She returns to Academy City as part of the Recovery Movement, a group that wants to take their children home due to the worsening political situation after Vento of the Front’s attack on Academy City. The Board of Directors does not want that, since the children are valuable test subjects. In a worst-case scenario, they are valuable military assets for the city. The Directors actually go so far as to hire Skill-Out to eliminate her, offering amnesty to Skill-Out if they succeed.

She first appears drunk to Accelerator, easily overpowering him, while she asks where Dangai University Database Center is. He later calls a taxi for her to get her to her intended destination. Only after she left did Accelerator recall that she is part of the Misaka family, and is later told by the GROUP liaison to kill her because the higher-ups cannot trust Skill-Out, though Accelerator refuses, leading to his choker-type electrode to be interfered with, making him incapable of using his esper power.

She then appears drunk before Touma and Index, after the taxi stops, whom recognizes him back in Daihaseisai, and Touma recognizes her in turn. She later asks him where the Dangai University Database Center is, and later asks for Touma’s number. Touma later has a taxi take her there.

Unsurprisingly, she is attacked in the facility, leading to her calling Touma for help instead of Mikoto, because she doesn’t want her daughter to be involved in whatever she has to face. She is then caught by Skill-Out during their attack, at the same time as Touma and Accelerator infiltrated the facility. Seeing the danger that Misuzu being caught in the middle of the Skill-Out's argument, Touma decides to find a suitable weapon to defeat the Skill-Out without them being able to counterattack. Touma later finds a gun that was carelessly left by the Skill-Out in the open, opting to use it to threaten the Skill-Out, Touma tries to carefully acquire the handgun without drawing the attention of the Skill-Out, since it was somewhat close to them. Touma's plan however, fails after Misuzu noticed him. This forces Touma to hide from the oncoming Skill-Out, Hamazura Shiage, who decided to check on the disturbance that Misuzu noticed. Now with the risk of trying to get the handgun increased, Touma decides to attack Shiage first with the bullet proof glass. The attack connects to Shiage's face (which painfully removed his nose piercing), quickly taking him down. However, Touma is unable to get the handgun as he discovers that there was actually two Skill-Out that came to investigate. The Skill-Out however was shaken by fear after Touma takes down Shiage. The other Skill-Out however, started shooting at Touma, out of terror as the Skill-Out that came to investigate with Shiage was shot down by friendly fire.

Touma who has been using his bullet proof glass to protect himself from the gunshots, decides to run towards the Skill-Out that were with Misuzu. However, Touma eventually loses grip of the glass and making Touma utterly defenseless. However, before being shot Accelerator arrives to take down everyone who was holding the gun in the room, which ignites a firefight between him and the remaining Skill-Out. Touma uses the firefight to his advantage to quickly and carefully free Misuzu of her binds and escape the facility.

While escaping, Accelerator notices Touma taking Misuzu away, believing him to be a part of Skill-Out (Accelerator does not realize that it is actually Touma), Accelerator aims his gun at Touma. However, Accelerator later lets them get away after several Skill-Out arrive at the room after hearing the firefight, and is forced to take care of them first and then go after Touma later who he believed will not kill Misuzu before getting into a safer grounds, as well as the fact that Touma did not carry a gun with him.

Both Touma and Misuzu to escape the facility successfully, however, they both later came upon an injured and distraught Shiage who has somehow managed to escape the firefight and was now blocking their path. Here, Shiage accuses Touma of being one with their client (Academy City) and tricking them. However, Touma states that he does not know what Shiage is talking about and only came at the request of Misuzu. Misuzu watches from the sidelines during Touma’s entire fight with Shiage.

After the incident, Misuzu later tells Touma, who was being sent to the hospital for his injuries, that she came to Academy City to take Mikoto away due to the impeding war between Academy City and the Roman Catholic Church. However, Misuzu states that she changed her mind after seeing that there are apparently many people who will protect Mikoto in Academy City.

With the help of Etzali convincing the higher-ups, they call off the kill order on Misuzu after she decides to leave Mikoto in Academy City.

Homecoming Arc
She and Shiina are at indoor pool of the fitness club, she brings up that her husband is away from home for his job, and her daughter is living in a dorm making her feel lonely with just herself at home. Shiina counters that she understands with has so many trips that it seems like he never actually settles down in their home. Misuzu then remarks on how surprising it was for her come here today as she hadn't been coming for a while. Shiina then explains about Touma going missing and briefly seeing him in the corner of a report from Russia, and so she didn't really have the energy to spare for any hobbies. Though the full details where obscured to Misuzu as Shiina said them quietly and quickly where she had been unable to catch it all of it, but as her friend continued to speak to herself a frightening shadow start to appear behind her smiling figure, and that made her back away from her friend.

Magic God Othinus Arc
During the GREMLIN invasion of Tokyo, Kamijou Shiina and Misaka Misuzu are in a sports club, forced to stay inside as the streets have become overrun with panicking people. Misuzu pulls out her phone and discovers that the internet has become frozen and that they are only able to connect to the disaster messageboards, putting them in the dark on what exactly is happening. Shiina asks what they should do, to which Misuzu says that she lives alone so she should be fine, and Shiina replies that she should be fine as well. As she spoke however, Shiina held her phone and began pushing the buttons, prompting Misuzu to ask if she is making a call despite the probability that it won't get through. Shiina then says that she would like to leave a message on the message board, prompting Misuzu to join in.

Daihasei Festival Arc
In the Toaru Kagaku no Railgun Daihasei Festival arc counterpart, her role is generally unchanged from the main story, but when the story surpasses the time period covered by the original Daihasei Festival Arc, she becomes a little involved in the plot.

Misaka Misuzu first appears after Mikoto’s three-legged race with Kongou Mitsuko. Mikoto, Uiharu Kazari, and Saten Ruiko would later meet up with Misuzu. Mikoto notes that her clothes are dirty and that changing them would be difficult for the next event, to which Ruiko says that Mikoto should ask someone to go in her place. This however makes Mikoto accidentally divulge on her little bet with Kamijou Touma, which entices Misuzu and later has both Kazari and Ruiko discuss the person who is "helping Mikoto a lot", much to her embarrassment.

She doesn’t reappear until the next day, unaware of the battles her daughter is partaking or that her life is in danger. Moreover, she doesn’t even know that the memories of her daughter’s friends were tampered with by Shokuhou Misaki. Wanting a hostage against Mikoto, believing her to be the one that was attacking their "villas" (hideout), Kouzaku Mitori, hacks into the GPS functionality of the ID system for Daihaseisai visitors to locate Misaka Misuzu and use her as a hostage against Mikoto.

Meanwhile, Misuzu meets with Kazari who is with a lost boy waiting for his father to pick him up. Kazari divulges on how the IDs of the visitors have GPS functionality, and as such can be tracked by Judgment headquarters if someone is lost. As they talk together, Mitori later finds them both and knocks them unconscious intending to use them as hostages against Misaka Mikoto.

Misuzu is asleep through the entirety of the arc. She is saved by Shirai Kuroko during Mikoto’s confrontation with Mitori. They later return to Judgment 177 Branch Office, and later lets Kazari and Misuzu have some medicine and some sleep.

To protect Misuzu, Mikoto requested Kuroko to tell Misuzu that she collapsed of heatstroke and that she will be kept in the office for protection under the guise of getting a new ID issued. Presumably, she enjoys the rest of the Daihaseisai after the events of the arc transpires.

The Fifth Friday of September
Misuzu is in a members only sports center in Kanawaga wearing a super-efficient swimsuit while swimming, worried about her health. After swimming a bit and finding her swimsuit too efficient for her, Kamijou Shiina comes to her and asks if her classes are done for the day. After greeting her, Misuzu asks if Shiina does the same thing she always do in the center, to which Shiina confirms as her hobby requires that she train her lungs. Misuzu looks at Shiina's body and wonders what she does to make her look so young-looking, despite looking incredibly young herself. This is because Misuzu sees that since she did so much effort to retain her beauty, Shiina on the other hand was older than her but did no effort in keeping her beauty.

As Shiina just floated on the water of the pool, Misuzu wonders if Mikoto can introduce her to a health machine from Academy City. The two girls later move to the poolside. Here, Misuzu praises on how being a housewife is surprisingly comfortable and enjoyable, though only because she knows her husband comes back periodically. Shiina asks if Misuzu's husband had moved because of his job was elsewhere. Here, Misuzu says that he didn't move, only that she doesn't know where he is or what he is doing. This leads to Shiina joking on their similar situations with her husband. They then laugh, not knowing that their husbands have met and have been getting in all kinds of trouble. As Shiina dries herself, she tells Misuzu that her son's school apparently won't have their midterms. Misuzu replies that is the same for Mikoto's school, saying that their grades for two terms were to be decided at the final exams, though says that Mikoto doesn't feel pressure from it and that she'll do the same as ever. Shiina mentions that Touma does the same or not, he will still end up with supplementary lessons due to his failing grade, leading them to laugh again.

Misuzu says that their conversation took a motherly turn, to which Shiina says that it is only natural since they are housewives. Misuzu then asks if that their kids do at Academy City can truly be called studying, saying that the city uses leading edge technology to develop esper powers. Shiina says that in a way it is, though she is not sure if it’s true for her son. Misuzu says that she is wondering what it is that determines if someone can gain esper powers or not. Shiina says that it might have something to do with genetics and DNA. Misuzu agrees, however, she tries to continue but in the end relents. She says that she was just wondering if the fact that Mikoto became the third-ranked Level 5 in Academy City meant that she could get electric powers as well if she underwent the curriculum. Shiina is surprised by this, but Misuzu's thoughts persists. Misuzu says that there is a ton of possibilities that there would be people like her Mikoto, giving her a mysterious feeling. She then wonders if there are people all around the world who had more amazing powers than her daughter but no one realized it. Shiina then suggests to Misuzu that she should transfer to Academy City. Misuzu replies that it would be fun, but someone her age can't take part in the Power Curriculum Program and laughs it off. She then says that in the end she doesn't know the truth, but feels that it would truly be wonderful if her dreams turn out to be true.

Misaka Mikoto
Mikoto often comments her mother acts more like a child than she does. This causes their relationship to be slightly antagonistic, as Misuzu's irresponsible demeanor and childish behavior are the polar opposite of her daughter Mikoto's mature and responsible nature, with the latter regularly and openly shouting "shut up, stupid mother" in public and the former frequently teasing her daughter for her lack of "development" (her breasts) and relationship issues.

Despite this, they do love each other dearly, as seen when Mikoto is willing to go shopping with Misuzu for souvenirs and tells her mother to not fall for scams.

Design Evolution
Misuzu's design remains static throughout the series. Haimura refers to her as an older sister with a refreshing personality.

Quotes

 * (From SS2) "Oh, no. I haven’t done my stretches or taken off my makeup! Dammit. All this work I have to do to keep my skin healthy. I am a mother of a child after all!! Ugh, I’m gonna vomit!"

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