Uiharu Kazari

Uiharu Kazari (初春 飾利) is a minor character debuted in Toaru Majutsu no Index before being expanded as a supporting 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 Kazari 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 to be equally high-spirited as her friend Saten Ruiko. 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.

Her vulnerability to flu is not shown in the anime version of Railgun, though this later disappeared in later chapters of the manga. The running gag on her not managing to eat her sweets ended in the Railgun anime as well.

Uiharu uses polite Japanese almost exclusively, regardless of mood or standing; she addresses everyone by their family name accompanied with the honorific -san, even Saten and Haruue, and she always uses desu and the polite forms of verbs.

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 Judgment 177 Branch Office.

Tree Diagram Remnant Arc
Uiharu 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 Uiharu called will be delayed in their arrival.

Throughout the novel after Kuroko's utter defeat in the hands of Musujime Awaki, Uiharu 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. Uiharu later gives a rough estimation of Awaki's probable coordinates based on blindspots in Academy City's security system to Kuroko.

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

Later during the invasion, Uiharu 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 perpetrator of the invasion.

Document of Constantine Arc
As members of Judgment, Uiharu Kazari and Shirai Kuroko were tasked with helping security during the Interceptor Show.

Battle Royale Arc
Uiharu Kazari plays a minor role in the arc. She first appears when Last Order, apparently sensing Accelerator nearby, quickly leaves the taxi cab appropriated by Heaven Canceller for her to take her to Family Side the apartment building where Yomikawa Aiho's apartment is located, and where she resides. The taxi driver explains on how Last Order quickly left before he can give the change of the fare Heaven Canceller paid beforehand, which had an exorbitant amount that made the taxi driver feel guilty to take. Seeing Uiharu as a member of Judgment, he transfers his conundrum to her, to which Uiharu accepts. Taking the change, she quickly catches up to Last Order. She doesn't notice her similarity with Misaka Mikoto however, and asks her name, referring to her as "Ahoge-chan" (the hair that sticks up on Last Order's head), to which Last Order says her name.

Uiharu is with Last Order when she was in the venue where Oyafune Monaka made her speech on children's suffrage, still looking for Accelerator, and referring to him as a lost child, and later Sunazara Chimitsu attempted to shoot her for SCHOOL.

She later attempts to hand Last Order to Anti-Skill after handing her the change, but had managed to sneak out and wandered the streets. She is with her in a train station in School District 7, lamenting her predicament. As she wonders about Last Order's strange name and powers, she asks her why the train isn't coming, to which Uiharu says that there is a freight train coming. Uiharu then asks in turn, asking her where she thinks the person she is looking for is, to which Last Order points to a direction. Seeing this, Uiharu assumes that Last Order had a power to search the person she is looking for, though it was not very precise. Last Order becomes worried that she can't find the person, to which Uiharu consoles her, though Last Order sees through how general her words of encouragement were, she still thanks her. Uiharu tries to cheer her up by saying that she will give her a present. She takes one of the flowers from her hair, surprising Last Order, and says that it is hibiscus, which means "we'll, let's give it a shot". Last Order however says that the meaning is incorrect, to which Uiharu ignores her and continued to smile as Last Order's energy returned. At the same as this, Accelerator happens to pass by in the sports car he has commandeered to take to School District 23. With Uiharu none the wiser, she wonders where the people in the car were going to in such a hurry and states Anti-Skill should work harder to catch people like them. Meanwhile, Last Order started thinking about something.

Last Order later tires herself out in her search for Accelerator, prompting them to rest at an open-air cafe, where Uiharu orders a parfait for herself. Last Order says that she is sure that the person she is looking for was nearby but suddenly went off somewhere. She then however notices a free gift key chain from a fast food outlet and hurries towards there. Uiharu is perturbed by this as Last order still needs to find that person she is looking for and that she wants to finish her parfait. She however, suddenly reminds her of the change from the taxi, to which she hurries off. As Uiharu tries to eat her parfait, Kakine Teitoku approaches her, not even bothering to hide the conspicuous Tweezers he has equipped. He shows her a photo of Last Order and asks where she is. Uiharu denies ever seeing Last Order, and advises Kakine to go to the nearest Anti-Skill booth and ask them there. Kakine seems to accept her answer, however, he suddenly hits her in the head. He tells her that he knew that she was with Last Order hence why he didn't ask Uiharu if she knew the girl in the photo. Kakine dislocates Uiharu's shoulder with his foot, and begins torturing her. Kakine knows that Uiharu has noticed him and had Last Order escape. He says that he understands that she is not that capable, and though he is a scumbag he prefers not to involve normal people. He tells her that if she had cooperated with him in the first place he wouldn't have to resort to violence. He continues by saying that however he has no mercy for his enemies and that she has become one the moment she decided to protect Last Order of her own free will. He then asks her not to allow him to kill her. Uiharu continues to be tortured by Kakine, all the while bystanders don't even approach to aid her. In deep pain, Kakine asks her again, to which Uiharu mocks him, saying that Last Order is at a place he will never see. She then sticks her tongue out as a final gesture of defiance. Hearing this, Kakine decides to finish her off with his foot. However, before he can do so, Accelerator arrives and throws an ATM machine at Kakine, mocking him for attacking someone like Uiharu. Kakine's feet missed its aim, but Kakine still however achieved his goal, something he tried to do through Last Order, and that is finding Accelerator. It is likely Uiharu was taken to safety afterwards. It is unknown if she was there to witness the battle between the two top Level 5 espers of Academy City.

Freshmen Arc
She, Haruue, and Saten appeared in the background of the color illustration of the scene where the members of the new ITEM sit in the restaurant.

Ichihanaran Festival Arc
Uiharu Kazari debuts in Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index novels during the arc. She appears doing her duty as a member of Judgment, for the Anti-Skill alone cannot handle the work load during the Ichihanaransai, especially when Fräulein Kreutune is on the loose. She first appears being dogged around by kids, asking her things such as Kuroko's famous line, which she tries to point out to them that it is not a standard for Judgment to do, and that Kuroko is often being scolded for making people think Judgment is violent. The kids then ask her to teleport, confounding her even more. One of the kids comment on how it could be scary and that one could end up in a strange place. One of them references on how teleporters will go through a tunnel, prompting the kids to ask her what makes up the tunnel and how long it is. Uiharu shrieks, and is unable to answer them.

Magic God Othinus Arc
In the final recreation of the world by Othinus created specifically to break Touma's spirit, known as the Version_Omega world in-text, where several characters from the original world have been "saved" or have not experienced great tragedy, Kuroko, Uiharu, and Saten are in the festival where Touma is after his spirit has already been broken, trying to decide how he should have himself killed. Here, they are all aware of the existence of clones. Kuroko complains on how there are too many people in the festival and wonders where Mikoto had ran off to. Uiharu comments on how it would be impossible to find her in the festival with all the people who look like her. Saten then comments on how she just remembered that Meigo Arisa may be coming in secret, referring to her "perfect mode" after becoming one with Shutaura Sequenzia. Uiharu comments on how she saw the doll-like child president wandering around earlier, as such Arisa may be around.

Magic God Invasion Arc
Kuroko and Uiharu are in the same subway train as Akikawa Mie during her adventures in trying to get the liquid diamond to her mother during the shadow of the High Priest's rampage in Academy City. They were in a tunnel when the train suddenly stopped due to the damage done by the High Priest in School District 5's. After being told to leave through the emergency exit, Kuroko and Uiharu do their jobs and guide the passengers. Kuroko notices Mie run out of the train but since it was dark she could not do anything about it. She then asks Uiharu if the power is still not back up.

Touma makes use of Misaka Mikoto's connections with Judgment and her influence to prevent disaster from befalling when the High Priest used the dirt under the city for his magic. Kuroko and Uiharu are part of this bold plan, and as such they are near the headquarters where Mie's mother worked, directing people to safety as members of Judgment. Kuroko later asks Uiharu to arrange the routes so that there won't be any bottlenecks at bridges and intersections. Uiharu does so, manipulating traffic control centers and traffic lights routines.

It is later revealed that all the actions of the people in the city where under the manipulations of Kihara Noukan, making calculations and sending out bait like the liquid diamond that Mie took to prevent human casualties during the High Priest's rampage.

Kamisato Rescue Arc
On December 9th, following the Elements and the heat wave, Uiharu and Saten were present near the Trial shelter at the beginning of the '48 Hours to Restore Order'. As the shelter's residents were turning on the shelter's 'ruler' and looking to execute him, Uiharu wanted to help as a member of Judgment but Saten dragged her away, telling her that they needed to gather a greater number of adults to deal with the many people involved.

Coronzon Arc
Shortly after the evacuation of Academy City began on December 12th, Uiharu and Saten were picked up by their families.

The Second Friday of June
Uiharu is in an open café with Yomikawa Aiho apparently enjoying herself when a system she is defending is attacked by Kuyama Kihan. With only a handheld gaming device to work with, she counters the moves of Kihan, and eventually finds out that his location is in the café, and reports him to Anti-Skill and disconnects him from the open café's wireless LAN. It is likely she knew the moment Kihan began attacking where his location is.

Kihan, who noticed Uiharu earlier after he saw her yelling during his operation, tries to call out to her as she leaves the open café, but is then felled to the ground by the Anti-Skill that found him. It is unknown if Uiharu noticed and chose to ignore him.

The Third Friday of September
Uiharu is in Judgment 177 Branch Office when she finds that the Bank is currently being hacked by someone at tremendous speed, bypassing her defenses and security measures. She deduces that her opponent, which is actually Misaka Mikoto, is an Electromaster esper as the manipulation of the information during the hacking is not something a hacker can do. She tries to contend against her opponent, refusing to cut access to the Bank, but discovers that she cannot read the hacker's actions. Realizing she is up against a high level Electromaster, she still doesn't cut access from the Bank, but instead makes use of the Omega Secret encryption to encrypt the Bank, its server controls, and maintenance tools, virtually rendering the data she might get useless.

Mikoto is shocked by the turn of events, and seeing that it would be too dangerous for her to access the back-ups for the Bank that she believes exists because she thinks no one would be crazy enough to encrypt the Bank using that method, Mikoto decides to withdraw, though believes that whoever encrypted the Bank would be in big trouble. Mikoto's prediction is correct as though Uiharu is seemingly oblivious to what she had wrought, another person knows what she has done. Shirai Kuroko arrives and tells the bewildered Uiharu that she has gone too far and decides to lecture her.

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

Toaru Majutsu no Index Movie: Miracle of Endymion
Uiharu Kazari primarily plays an expositionary role in the first half of the movie, telling of the history of Endymion's construction, as well as its CEO, Ladylee Tangleroad.

She joins her friends in escorting Meigo Arisa in a photo-shoot. She and the others are then forced to wear skimpy stage outfits, though she is more enthusiastic about it than Saten. She is later teleported away by Kuroko after the mall they were in is being bombed.

Later, she is in the Judgment branch with Saten when they discover that Arisa has been abducted. In the climax, she is joined by Saten during the attempt by Anti-Skill to break ingot Endymion. After an explosion rocks the space elevator and making it liable to collapse, she tells of a drastic plan of destroying the explosive bolts of the Endymion to break it away from the Earth. Both she and Saten overhear, Tsuchimikado Motoharu's "volunteering" to help them, as well as the Misaka clones telling that they will help, though she makes no comment on the latter.

She and Saten later witness the Miracle of Endymion. Here, she tells that Endymion is no longer collapsing as it happens.

Ookami-san and her Seven Companions
Uiharu 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.

Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax
Uiharu is one of the support characters added to the game in the Ignition update.

Abilities
Uiharu is a Level 1 esper, with the ability Thermal Hand (定温保存 (サーマルハンド) ), which allows her to keep objects she touches at their current temperature. To do this, she must be aware of herself wrapping her hand around the object(s). Additionally, she cannot use her power on anything larger than a basketball. She is not immune to the effects of the object's temperature, so she cannot do this with very hot or very cold objects.

Computer Skills
She is also very talented in operating computers, as she displayed the ability to easily hack into almost all of Academy City's systems. In fact, her main job in Judgment 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 can even hack a state-of-the-art security system, designed by Academy City's highest level engineers and AIs, without needing to analyse it beforehand. She can do this by discovering the habits and preferences of the human engineers, as it is humans who teach the AI.

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 Goalkeeper (守護神 (ゴールキーパー) ). However, for some reason, the Academy City Board of Directors did not trust in her abilities and didn't put her in charge of the public system, which created an odd situation that the Judgment’s Office where she works has had stronger defenses than the databanks that holds all of Academy City’s data.

Other
Along with Saten, she is able to memorize an entire manual on how to pilot a giant mecha in a single night and actually be able to apply it in battle. This is exemplified by Saten and Uiharu easily defeating two mobile weapons.

Design Evolution
Haimura designed Uiharu 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 Uiharu's mood, though Haimura decided against this as it would not work for the limited illustrations of the light novel.

By volume 12, Uiharu becomes affected by deformed artstyle that Haimura has for the characters. At this point, Uiharu's skirt has been lengthened. The original clothes for Uiharu 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

 * She and Saten Ruiko have cameos in both openings of the Toaru Majutsu no Index anime.
 * In several omake chapters, there's a joke that her ability is controlling plants. It might be supported by the quality of the flowers on her head, which is very realistically rendered in the anime and its "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 has interacted with Last Order, but she never noticed any resemblance between her and Misaka.