Sakibasu Yuri

Sakibasu Yuri (咲蓮誘璃) is a first-year student of Tokiwadai Middle and a member of Shokuhou Misaki's Clique, introduced in Toaru Kagaku no Railgun SS3.

Appearance
She has black hair in twintails and curls. She wears the standard Tokiwadai uniform.

Personality
She is prideful and boastful, showing off her Stativarius violin to Kuroko as well as her talent in using it. However, beneath this facade is an insecurity, as her family is low-born and their wealth comes from her inventing a card game. She uses the prestige of the Stativarius violin to elevate her family's social standing.

Background
Yuri was born to normal parents, and they struggled very hard in their jobs to give her a better life. When she was five years old, she created a trading card game, "Witch & Psychic", that became a world-wide sensation, being played in over 49 countries and predicted to be even more ubiquitous than regular playing cards. This made her and her family massively wealthy. Although her family had become wealthy and was proud of her accomplishments, the upper-class still rejected them as they came from a lower social standing, and she felt guilt that she may have broke something irreplaceable in her parents by elevating them from their lot in life.

She later enrolled into Tokiwadai Middle, and seeing that her ability might be useful, Shokuhou Misaki had her join her clique. Misaki later got her in touch with the Chandelier Auction House. Here, by using her ability, she managed to win a genuine Stativarius violin, much to Misaki's dismay as Yuri had become worked up about it.

Toaru Kagaku no Railgun SS3
On a quiet afternoon at Tokiwadai Middle, she caused trouble for Shirai Kuroko and challenged her to a violin competition in their music elective. Despite her performance of with her legendary violing, she lost to Kuroko who used a handmade violin, a custom sound reflector, and an original song to take advantage of the 3 minute limit given to them. She later joined Kuroko, Misaka Mikoto, Uiharu Kazari, and Saten Ruiko in a family restaurant after being invited by them. She conceded defeat and was later told by them that she had value, her talent, beyond what the legendary violin gave her. To that end, she was asked to demonstrate her musical skills with a normal violin.

Following Yuri's demonstration of her skills, the restaurant was attacked by a man on a motorbike who fired at the girl's table with a shotgun. When Anti-Skill officers came to investigate the attack, they insisted on taking Yuri in for questioning in regards to the Stativarius violin. This prompted Kuroko to declare that Judgment will retain investigative rights instead of handing them over to Anti-Skill as planned.

As the group went back to the Tokiwadai dorms, the girls discussed the attack, figuring it had to do with Kuroko triumphing over Yuri at the violin competition. They concluded that before the competition, the Stativarius was considered a status symbol that granted its owners access to special services. However, after the competition, the Stativarius's reputation as "a violin with the world’s greatest music" is in jeopardy, causing their owners to potentially lose out on whatever access they obtained via the violin's reputation.

As part of the investigation, Yuri used her existing contacts with the Chandelier Auction House to arrange a meeting with one of their representatives at District 6. The representative explained that they aren't the ones who are auctioning off items to be used as "keys", but the buyers are using them for that purposes off site, and are bidding at greater prices than normal. Yuri pleaded with the rep to provide a list of clients, but he couldn't, citing that the auction promised confidentiality. However, he hinted that those clients would have required the services of other companies for their purchases, like insurance.

The following night, Yuri spotted Mikoto and Kuroko sneaking out of the dorms to investigate National General Life, the only insurance company in Academy City that provided policies for stringed instruments like the Stativarius violin. Yuri managed to follow them, only to find Mikoto pinned down by an assailant. Yuri took a nearby concrete block and bashed it on the assailant's helmet. To the girls' surprise, the helmet flew off, revealing no head, meaning Mikoto's attackers were actually clothing manipulated with high-level telekinesis to mimic human movement. After Mikoto dealt with those attacking her, Yuri grabbed a piece of black leather that was once the attacker's riding suit, saying her Carbon Search ability will be useful in the investigation.

Abilities
She has an ability known as Carbon Search, allowing her to precisely measure the carbon isotopes of an object. This can be used to accurately appraise antiques and artwork, and even detect if food is spoiled. This was how she was able to get a genuine Stativarius violin from an auction. As a student of Tokiwadai Middle, she can be assumed to be at Level 3 or 4.

She is skilled at violin playing, and possesses a Stativarius (ステートバリウス), a type of violin worth more than a hundred million yen. She was so skilled in fact that not even Misaka Mikoto, a violinist herself, and Shirai Kuroko could match up to her talent no matter how much they tried.

Trivia

 * "Stativarius" is a pun on the real-life, the legendary string instruments built by the Italian family Stradivari during the 17th and 18th centuries, known worldwide.