Vasilisa

Vasilisa (ワシリーサ) is a character introduced in Toaru Majutsu no Index. A perverted woman obssessed with Japanese popular culture, she is the head of Annihilatus and the superior of Sasha Kreutzev, whom is often irritated to the point of violence of her superior's antics.

Etymology
Her name comes from a Russian Folklore that was a model fairy tale, "Vasilisa the Beautiful." The heroine was oppressed by her stepmother and sister. A cannibal witch that lived in the forest grew fond of her faithfulness to her dead mother and gave her magical items that helped her gain happiness instead of killing her.

Personality
She is disliked by Sasha due her sometimes childish behavior, her vanity on skin health care, and her weird interest in Japanese otaku culture. She frequently abuses her authority by trying to get Sasha into a "Magical Powered Kanamin" costume or other cosplay. Even in serious situations, it is difficult to tell whether or not is Vasilisa being serious, an example of when she gave Sasha an assumable emergency bag but later to be reveal containing a Magical Powered Kanamin’s dress.

Academy City Invasion Arc
She is fist introduced in this arc where she is checking on Sasha in the Phenomenon Control, Suppression and Reproduction Institute. After receiving a hit from Sasha's hammer for suggesting a full-body examination, Vasilisa tells her about Gabriel, the angel who usurped her body. She is amazed for someone like Sasha to receive Telesma whose power is greater than the Twelve Apostles combined, and compares the feat to the Blessed Virgin Mary, who receives a far greater amount of Telesma. Sasha reveals herself to be the one responsible for the way Sasha dresses. As Sasha complains, Vasilisa pulls out a duffel bag where she reveals her research on Academy City. The sight of a cute-looking wand alarms Sasha into the need to flee, while Vasilisa can only just sigh in disappointment as a costume from the Magical Powered Kanamin series hangs by her hands.

Anglican Church–Russian Orthodox Church Prewar Conference
Vasilisa while not shown is mentioned as the representative of the Russian Orthodox Church in these talks by Sasha.

British Royal Family Arc
When the order came from the upper echelons of the Russian Orthodox Church to hand Sasha over to Fiamma, she decides to betray the Russian Orthodox Church, if it means to be with "her" Sasha. She fights Skogsfru, a fellow member of Annihilatus, to ensure Sasha gets away with Vento.

World War III
Both are later shown to be alive when Vasilisa was contacted by Matthai Reese when he finally regained consciousness, where she comments that she is dealing with a group of rebellious subordinates which included Skogsfru.

Later when Vasilisa arrives in Moscow as she tries to reach the Patriarch she is confronted by Nikolai, they momentarily debate her fairy tale origins before he uses a weapon he specify made to kill her the Water of Death. As he witnessed her body being devolved by the water he proclaimed his victory while boasting the war was Russia's will as well as that of the church. After a moment of joy he finally noticed that despite half her body having already been disintegrated she seemed to be in no pain at all. As he stands transfixed at her regeneration she explains how he could have easily faked the Patriarch's signature and that he was planing to assassinate him later and assume the mantle him self. For his part Nikolai could only wonder how his Water of Death could had failed when Vasilisa reviles she posses the Water of Life in her body, Vasilisa takes advantage of his momentary helpless in which kills him.

Afterwards she defeated the final guards within the Patriarch's palace, and finally reached the child leader of the church who had been imprisoned in his own palace. At the joy of being rescued by someone still loyal to him, she finds her self debating who is cuter. She briefs him on the current situation of Star of Bethlehem and that a singe spell was connecting them, the Patriarch then comments that they could use the Phenomenon Control, Suppression and Reproduction Institute to find and analyze that spell. To fully understand the spell she contacts Matthai Reese to coordinate their plans ignoring the fact he is no longer the pope and all the while going on about the Patriarch's cuteness.

Lance of Gungnir Arc
Vasilisa and Sasha are part of the entourage of Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Krans R. Tsarskiy as bodyguard for him. When they arrive before the United Nations Building in New York City for the conference called upon by Roberto Katze, Sasha is arguing about Vasilisa having "faith" in something other than "Japanimation" and American culture, despite being a member of the Russian Orthodox Church. Sasha then says that Vasilisa should be afraid of falling victim to an inquisition for saying such things in front of the Patriarch. Krans hears this and says that he wouldn't do it. Roberto then asks where there others are while reading a lewd magazine in front of the others. Roseline says that the French are already inside the United Nations building, the Roman Catholic representatives should arrive shortly along with the Italian Foreign Minister. Thus the meeting of the Anti-GREMLIN Alliance draw near.

As the meeting takes place, the bodyguards stand guard outside the conference room. There, Kaori notes a board Vasilisa and starts a conversation with her. Vasilisa asks about her opinion regarding GREMLIN and Othinus, to which Kaori says that though she finds it hard to believe the Magic God Othinus exists, she believes that this is no longer a situation she can judge with her common sense, recollecting her battle with Mjölnir. She summarizes the actions GREMLIN took in order to construct Gungnir, which she deems impossible and hard to verify. Regardless, she can't ignore the power of Gungnir, as she remembers her battle with Brunhild Eiktobel with a prototype Gungnir. Vasilisa agrees but tells her that most information they have gotten comes from the illegals, like the Dawn-Colored Sunlight. Vasilisa states not just them but of Ollerus' ilk as well, and that one of them has infiltrated GREMLIN, though she doubts they can trust them. But Kaori says that she doubts the Dawn-Colored Sunlight and the others will betray them as a world with GREMLIN in control is a riskier than one with Christianity in power. Kaori explains on how the Dawn-Colored Sunlight benefits from the world with Christianity in power and that it would be a fatal blow for them if GREMLIN replaced it with their own. Vasilisa finally agrees just to put her mind in ease so she could gain a peace of mind she depended on. With all that GREMLIN has done to get where they are, they hope that the plans of the leaders come together in time.

When Vasilisa reads the people in the conference room's lips that an invasion of Tokyo by GREMLIN has begun, Kaori believes that being left behind as a bodyguard was part of GREMLIN's manipulations to prevent them from being in the front lines by having an unofficial international conference held. Vasilisa tells Kaori that she shouldn't worry yet as they don't know anything yet, commenting on how Anglicans are surprisingly weak to information warfare. She then says that what matters in an emergency is to do everything as you always would, as it is better than panicking and falling into confusion. With that in mind, she then uses a small charm made of parchment to communicate to her subordinates. There, she blatantly ignores the chain of command and others them to crush every member of GREMLIN hiding in Russia, allow the normal military to head to Japan, and protect their citizens. This surprises Kaori and infuriates Sasha. Vasilisa comments on how she is doing this for the Patriarch as she doesn't want his purity to be tarnished by telling him of the dirty jobs behind the scenes. The infuriated Sasha does not take this lightly, believing it to be treachery, she hits Vasilisa with her crowbar with enough force to bend her in a 50 degree angle. However, Vasilisa remains alive, even smiling, and quickly tuns back to normal. She then tell her subordinates to go all out on crushing GREMLIN's diversion team, and teach them that they are the only magicians allowed to use the name of a fairy. Hearing this, Kaori can only mutter that they are perverts. Sasha overhears and asks Kaori to at least refer to her as monster instead.

Abilities

 * Endurance: Vasilisa is shown to be strong to begin with when Sasha, who is enough strength to break furniture and doors with one arm, brought a hammer down on the top of her head and rakes a saw across her face without any damage shown.


 * Method to gain happiness: Her most frequently used spell which is based on the fairy tale that her name comes from. She uses the incantation: “Old cannibal woman of the one-legged house”. It then has several different effect depending on her current wish though she seems to favor creating a fiery explosion with the spell.


 * Water of Life: A cannibal witch, is in charge of two fountains. One contains the Water of Life that gives one eternal life. The other contains the Water of Death that ends one’s life. The knights asked the witch to lead them to the Water of Life and they managed to monopolize the Water of Life by pushing the witch into the Water of Death. As she has the Water of Life inside her body that granted her youth and longevity while she denies acutely being immortal her self showing that there is an extent to which it can heal her despite it ultimately healed her injuries as if it was nothing.

Design evolution
Vasilisa's design remains static throughout the series. She was designed by Haimura with the theme of Santa Claus in mind.

Trivia

 * The Water of Life and the Water of Death are both elements of the Russian fairy tale The Death of Koshchei the Deathless. In it, after the eponymous Koshchei chops the hero into little pieces, throws them into a barrel, and throws the barrel into the sea, his brothers-in-law retrieve the barrel, use the Water of Death to put him back to together, and the Water of Life to bring him back to life.