Uiharu Kazari

is a character in Toaru Kagaku no Railgun. She is a Level 1 Academy City student, and along with her colleague and friend Shirai Kuroko, is a member of the student composed law enforcement organization, Judgment.

Etymology
Her name, "Uiharu" in Kanji (初春) literally means "Early Spring", and "Kazari" in Kanji (飾利) literally means "decorations" and "benefit". It is most likely referring to her flower headband, considering that flowers are a symbol of Spring.

Appearance
Uiharu is a small girl who sports short black hair and has golden-brown eyes. She has thick eyebrows but her most striking feature is her headband made out of artificial flowers. In the manga she often wears a facemask because she is easily afflicted by colds and flu.

Personality
Uiharu is usually shy and humble but always friendly. She is also shown as an equally high-spirited girl as is her friend Ruiko Saten. She admits that she is composed most of the time because of a so-called "limit" she places on herself. Without that limit, she is very energetic and can be airheaded at times as well, as shown during Tokiwadai Dormitory's Festival. Moreover, she is intrigued and interested in the Ojou-sama lifestyle, as shown with her trying to impress Kuroko with her tea making abilities, as well the above mentioned excitability of her person during the Tokiwadai Midsummer Festival.

Although she is incapable of normal combat like Kuroko, she still has a strong sense of justice, being a member of Judgment, and will do her utmost to do her duty.

Apparently she is an animal lover, as she was the only one of her friends that wasn't scared of Ekatrina, Kongou Mitsuko's pet boa constrictor, and even played with it.

Background
Uiharu is a 1st year student attending Sakugawa Middle School in class 1-D along with her friend Saten Ruiko who often teases her by flipping her skirt (which she does to Uiharu only). She is also known for wearing a headband of flowers (and in the Railgun manga, a surgical mask, as she constantly suffers from flu). She has a sweet tooth but is always called for Judgment duties before she can enjoy her sweets. She displays various advanced skills with computers, such as repelling hackers and gathering information.

She joined Judgment when she was still in elementary school along with Shirai Kuroko. They were caught in a bank robbery attempt when their senpai, Konori Mii, had been injured and Uiharu was taken hostage. After being teleported out of harm's way and subduing the culprits (with the secret help of Misaka Mikoto) by Kuroko, she and Kuroko vowed to mature and become better members of Judgment.

She later holds true to this, and joins Kuroko as a member of the 177th Branch office.

Tree Diagram Remnant Arc

 * Main article: Tree Diagram Remnant Arc

Kazari first appears in the 8th novel, calling Kuroko regarding a stolen luggage bag with contents that are cooling parts that are installed on computers. Here, she believes that Kuroko is suitable enough for the case they are working on as the luggage bag that was stolen was addressed to a subsidiary of Tokiwadai Middle School. Even though Kuroko knows that there is no such subsidiary in Tokiwadai, and with other strange variables that are connected with the case such as the mysterious victim of the luggage bag stealing, electricity not working properly, Kuroko tries to end the case quickly by catching the robbers as the Anti-Skill that Kazari called will be delayed in their arrival.

Throughout the novel after Kuroko's utter defeat in the hands of Musujime Awaki, Kazari continually assists Kuroko in her mission, despite knowing that Kuroko is severely injured and that the case is beyond their jurisdiction. She gives various information regarding Awaki to Kuroko, like her strengths, weaknesses and other data like Awaki being a guide to the Windowless Building. Kazari later gives a rough estimation of Awaki's probable coordinates based on blindspots in Academy City's security system to Kuroko.

Daihasei Festival Arc

 * Main article: Daihasei Festival Arc

She appears pushing Kuroko in a wheelchair due to the injuries the latter sustained from the previous arc.

Academy City Invasion Arc

 * Main article: Academy City Invasion Arc

She meets up with Mikoto, and later, much to her delight gets to play try Mikoto's violin, however, she is later called back by Kuroko.

Later during the invasion, Kazari distracts Kuroko long enough with Judgment work to allow Mikoto to try and meet up with Touma (the boy she is having a date with). They are later both stricken by Divine Punishment after feeling animosity towards Vento of the Front, the perpatrator of the invasion.

Battle Royale Arc

 * Main article: Battle Royale Arc

In Volume 15 of the novels, Uiharu, by chance, meets up with Last Order after leaving the hospital due to the events on September 30th. Uiharu assists Last Order in attempting to find a "lost child" (Accelerator), but ends up being dragged around the city by Last Order. Uiharu and Last Order are separated for a few moments, and this is when Uiharu is first interrogated and then attacked by Kakine Teitoku, who was searching for a hostage to use against the Accelerator. Uiharu refuses to talk and is tortured by Kakine until she is finally saved by Accelerator, who defeats Kakine in a quick but violent fight.

Level Upper Arc

 * Main article: Level Upper Arc

As a member of Judgment and friend of Kuroko she introduces her friend Saten Ruiko to her and Misaka Mikoto.

Although her esper abilities never come into use and despite her weak physical attributes, her skill in computers makes her a great asset for Judgment and is very reliable. This was shown during the Level-Upper arc, she realizes that her friend, Saten, had use Level-upper and had become comatose as a result, which makes Uiharu exhert more effort in trying to discover the culprit, because of this she is the first one to discover Kiyama Harumi's intentions and is intrumental in helping Misaka defeat the AIM Burst creature and revive the comatose users of the Level-Upper. In the end she tearfully reunites with a now conscious Saten.

Big Spider Arc

 * Main article: Big Spider Arc

She first appears listening to Kongou Mitsuko's testimony on Big Spider's attack on her. Kazari later appears listening to Konori Mii about Big Spider and praises her senpai for having such knowledge. She is later with Ruiko, Mikoto and Kuroko talking about the recent attack on Mitsuko. She is seen later in the Judgment office and gives information about Big Spider and their leader before Mikoto and Kuroko leave. She is then seen eating together with Ruiko, and is told by Ruiko that she understands the feelings of Skill-Outs and is reassured by her that she will never again give up.

In the next episode, Kazari is seen with Kuroko, Ruiko and Mikoto talking about Mii and Kurozuma Wataru's relationship, she also tell them that Mii has not been in Judgment for a while now and is not answering her phone. She later joins Mikoto, Ruiko and Kuroko to got to Mii's apartment, where they meet her roommate, Yanagisako Aomi who tells them about Mii's past as a member of Big Spider. She later leaves with them and then later listens to Ruiko's reply to Mikoto's statement about Mii's past.

Poltergeist Arc

 * Main article: Poltergeist Arc

During the second arc, she becomes friends with Haruue Erii and is responsible for her, so much so that she quickly disregarded any suspicion towards her by Kuroko as the culprit of the Poltergeist events despite overwhelming evidence, during the previous arc she bonded with Kiyama and trust her more as such she convinces her to hand out all her research to Therestina Kihara Lifeline, she later breaks down when she discovers Therestina's intentions of using the Haruue and the rest of the Child Error students of Kiyama Harumi, during the retrieval operation she aids Kiyama in navigating the highways of Academy City and pinpointed the location where children are kept, finally during the final confrontation between their group and Therestina, she becomes incapacitated by Capacity Down but not before making Therestina talk where the machine to operate Capacity Down is located which allows Saten to find and destroy it.

She is last seen with Saten, Misaka and Kuroko being late for the special event held by Haruee Erii for Kiyama Harumi.

Sisters Arc

 * Main article: Sisters Arc

Kazari is briefly seen doing her summer homework, as she was busy with Judgment work all-summer. Mikoto suddenly calls her and asks her about the password she heard from Misaka 9982. Uiharu is successful in breaking the code which allows Mikoto access to the Level 6 Shift Experiment details. It is unknown if Uiharu herself read the files.

At a later date, Uiharu, along with Saten Ruiko, is talking to Haruue Erii on her phone. Erii says she will join them later after stopping by the hospital. They meet up with Kuroko to help her with Mikoto. Learning that Mikoto has being busy recently and isn't talking to her, Ruiko concludes that Mikoto has boy problems which makes Uiharu blush. Later after hearing an alarm from a vending machine, Uiharu tries to go and assist Kuroko, who turns her down thinking that it is a false alarm.

Ability
Her ability is Thermal Hand which allows her to conserve part of the objects temperature she touches, and is registered as a Level 1 Power User.

If one considers various facts stated in the story, it's possible that Uiharu's power might have the possibility to evolve into one that allows her to alter the temperature of something she comes into contact with (like freezing or making it burn/combust just by touching it). It might be like a fire/ice-starter ability when developed to advanced stages, as she stated in the Railgun series where she explains that her power can maintain the "warmth" of what she touches due to her ability but she can't hold the object if it gets too hot (hinting that she may be able to actually control the temperature, but her inability to manipulate the location of where the temperature goes hinders her from making intense temperatures as her own hands would get burnt by what she's touching).

It may also be due to the fact that her ability is neglected (due to its impractical use in Judgement work like fighting), and also due to her own insecurities that's why she has never increased a level (Kuroko's aptitude test showed that her esper level was measured by the distance and accuracy of teleporting a heavy object, meaning if she gets used to concentrating and doing more accurate and farther teleports, her level may also increase.)

Another fact supporting the possibility of Uiharu getting stronger is the information that Misaka, Mikoto who was once a level 1 esper, later gained higher levels due to working hard a lot (Uiharu is also a level 1 esper), meaning if an esper trains usage of their ability, they can also get stronger. It could be thought of that when Mikoto was a level 1 she was only able to generate electricity on her body (a simple constant ability like Uiharu's), and later on she was able to understand (or study and compute) manipulate the particles/voltage and the location/concetration of where the ability comes out (A similar evolution like that of Accelerator's vector change and other espers' abilities in the story i.e. graviton). It was also stated by Accelerator that if he is able to control the direction of vectors in an object, then next down the path of his ability would be actual "manipulation" as he did by overwriting the virus in Last Order's brain with his powers.

To sum things up, Uiharu as a level 1 can only maintain temperature (currently heat) to a certain degree that she is able to tolerate. Later on, at higher levels she may be able to actually reduce the temperature consciously, alter the temperature from a different location other than her hands and maybe even rapidly manipulate it as fire or ice (created by very high or very low temperature and atmospheric conditions like humidity or water in the air).

Other Abilities
She is also very talented on the computer, as she can hack into almost all of Academy City's systems with ease. In fact, her main job in Judgement is working on the computer and use it to support the other members, such as picking up info on trouble makers. This more than makes up for her weak esper ability and lack of physical strength.

Uiharu had created a security system that is one of the 10 strongest systems of Academy City, which earned her a great reputation (and many challenges that led to the arrests of many skilled hackers) in the hacker's community under the alias of Gatekeeper. However. for some reasons, the Academy City's Board of Director did not trust in her abilities and didn't put her in charge of the public system, which created an odd situation that the Judgement's Office where she works has had stronger defenses than the databanks that held all of Academy City’s data.

Toaru Kagaku no Railgun: Uiharu SS
Published in a special booklet. Kazari stars with Yomikawa Aiho of Anti-Skill, where they try to stop a runaway tanker that is part of a terrorist plot.

Extra Franchise Cameo
Kazari appears quickly for a second in Ookami-san and her Seven Companions (also produced by JC Staff Animation Studios), looking confused at the audience, as a potential bride candidate for the boy millionaire Nezumi Chuutaro.

Design evolution
Haimura designed Kazari with the theme that she would be a totally normal and uninteresting character without her flower headband. Haimura wanted to have the headband's flowers be in wilt or in bloom depending on Kazari's mood, though Haimura decided against this as it would not work for the limited illustrations of the light novel.

By volume 12, Kazari becomes affected by deformed artstyle that Haimura has for the characters. At this point, Kazari's skirt has been lengthened. The original clothes for Kazari had her with a short skirt, even up until volume 15. It is not until later that Haimura decided to lengthen her skirt for the Toaru Kagaku no Railgun manga. In the manga, Haimura gave out details in her expressions, stating that she is a gentle character in a comforting role, in contrast to Mikoto who is a strong character with a heroic role.

Trivia

 * Her vulnerability to flu is not shown in the anime version of Railgun. Also, the running gag on her not managing to eat her sweets ended in the Railgun anime as well.
 * She and Saten Ruiko both have cameos in both openings of Toaru Majutsu no Index anime.
 * In several omake chapters, it is hinted her ability is to control plants. It might be supported by the quality of the flowers on her head, which is very realistically rendered in the anime and it's "growth" from her flashback as a Judgment trainee to the present. This is debunked in Episode 22 of Railgun, which displays a completely unrelated ability. The mystery of Uiharu's flower headband is solved in Volume 9 of the Light Novel, as it was described as "artificial flowers".
 * A character similar to her design appears in the 2nd chapter of Heavy Object a manga authored by Kamachi Kazuma, the creator of the Toaru Majutsu no Index series.
 * She is the only named Level 1 in the whole To Aru Majutsu no Index history.
 * She has actually interacted with both, Last Order and Misaka Mikoto; however she didn't notice any resemblance between the two.