Innai Chigiri

Innai Chigiri (院内契), also known as Loophole (ループホール), is a character who appears in Toaru Kagaku no Railgun: Cold Game. He is connected to several high-profile crimes designed to show the flaws in the legal and social system of Academy City, its "loopholes", hence his name given to him online.

In the short story, he is implicated in the Cold Sleep Murder Case due to evidence taken from an image on Saten Ruiko's phone.

Appearance
He is described as having androgynous facial features, with black hair and white skin with fine lines.

Personality
Innai Chigiri is manipulative, arrogant and full of self-importance. He has no regard for human life.

Background
Prior to his capture, Innai Chigiri committed various brutal crimes as a way of pointing out flaws in Academy City's legal and social system, leading him to be called Loophole and also acquiring a large following.

The crimes connected to Loophole included the Suicide Assistance Video Case, where an incurably ill individual was sought out and euthanized, the Loan Shark Office Arson Case, where a registry of people with multiple debts was burned, and the Takarabune Bank Vault Imprisonment Case, where a banker was threatened and locked inside a bank vault from which air was gradually being removed.

His latest crime was the Cold Sleep Murder Case (コールドスリープ殺人事件), in which he abducted Asajimo Saemi, stripped her naked and frozen her in a block of ice, leaving her in a state where she was technically dead but not definitely so. He also left a large vertical wound on her back, such that she would start hemorrhaging blood if anyone tried to unfreeze her normally. He also used an outdated method which would harm her body and leave her unable to be revived if she wasn't unfrozen and revived within a certain time frame. He then left her below an ice skating rink in School District 15 where she was discovered by customers the following morning. He evaded surveillance cameras while leaving the ice rink late at night, but by sheer coincidence, Saten Ruiko had taken a selfie when he was nearby and about to leave on his bike, catching him in the background of her photograph.

Toaru Kagaku no Railgun: Cold Game
Due to the facial recognition software on Saten's phone connecting his face from the background of the picture she had taken to on a wanted poster at the District 7 Central Anti-Skill Station while she was there on a school field trip, Loophole was apprehended and brought to trial at Academy City General Courthouse the next day.

In the opening stages of the trial, he and his attorney Tsujinaka Kyouka used the precarious and legally uncertain state of the frozen Asajimo Saemi in order to delay the proceedings. During the recess, Tsujinaka used her phone to relay messages between Loophole and his followers, who were producing fake Loophole videos online, as well as using Fire Bug to set a fire within the evidence room to destroy the evidence connecting to the Loophole cases or render them unusable.

After Misaka Mikoto's group thwarted and apprehended Fire Bug, which would eventually lead back to them, he had his followers attempt to kill Tsujinaka by throwing her off the courthouse roof and make it appear to be a suicide, such that the schemes could be passed off as solely her doing. Loophole's plan to save himself ultimately failed when Asajimo Saemi was successfully revived, due to Mikoto and Asajimo Mebuki's combined efforts, and the trial continued with a public attorney who wouldn't stick his neck out to protect him.

Abilities
As the serial killer Loophole, Innai Chigiri has knowledge of Academy City's social and legal systems, their flaws and how to exploit them. He is capable of planning and executing complex crimes which take full advantage of these loopholes and have multiple contingencies. He is also a competent manipulator and presented himself as an intellectual criminal with a dark charisma, an image which allowed him to gather many anonymous followers which he could use.