Tsurigane Saryou

Tsurigane (釣鐘) is a character introduced in Toaru Kagaku no Railgun as a competitor for Jailbreak Trial. Originally a member of the Kouga School sent to infiltrate Academy City years prior, she is later shown to be a traitor, having allied herself with Kimi and her group.

Appearance
Tsurigane looks like a teenage girl. She wears school uniform with full-body climbing harness and carries Tanto (短刀) at her back. Her hair is short and tied in a low ponytail style.

Personality
She uses a facade of clumsiness and incompetency around her older colleagues, but is actually a two-faced backstabber.

Background
Tsurigane is a member of the Kouga School of ninjutsu. She infiltrated Academy City by disguising herself as a Child Error and has lived in Academy City for ten years. Despite being a member of the Kouga School, she appears to be bad at ninjutsu. Kouga School's training ends on age of five. She became an orphan at age of five.

Tsurigane also became part of another team consisting of herself, Raifu, Aohoshi, and Kimi. She hid this fact from the Kouga. When Kimi was imprisoned, Tsurigane and the other two came up with a plan to break her out, using the cover of the Jailbreak Trial, and also find a skilled hacker in the process. Tsurigane proposed to bring in her ninja comrades so that they would win the trial if they weren't able to find a hacker. She assured Aohoshi that her comrades have high specs, though Aohoshi remained doubtful.

Jailbreaker Arc
Tsurigane first appears during the Jailbreak Trial. She is helped by another ninja while climbing the wall of 2nd Reformatory (Juvenile Hall). Two days before starting the Jailbreak Trial, she had helped her fellow Kouga sneak into Academy City easily. She suggested that they participate in the Trial to Oumi Shuri to observe Academy City's technology and achieve Shuri's purpose.

Although she joins the Jailbreak Trial as a team with Oumi, Yasu, Asai, and Sakata, she shows herself to be clumsy and incompetent, and in need of more training. However, this was a ruse. Later, after the jailbreak competition was concluded with Uiharu Kazari's victory, she is left alone with Shuri. Seemingly feigning injury, she tries to attack her in the back. Shuri catches the blade with her own, but it has already injured her. Knowing what Tsurigane has done, poisoning her, she runs away. Tsurigane later meets up with her real team, consisting of herself, Raifu, Aohoshi, and Kimi, with their plan to kidnap Uiharu.

Tsurigane later plays cards with Kimi and Raifu. Aohoshi tells them that she has obtained information on the winner of the trial, Uiharu. Tsurigane ends up losing the card game to Kimi.

They kidnap Uiharu that night, taking her away in a recreational vehicle (RV). Raifu mentions that Uiharu's capture was easy, but Tsurigane says that it is at times like these that they should be ready for anything. Suddenly, she senses something - Kuroko landing on the RV. Tsurigane climbs to the roof and engages Kuroko in battle, eventually forcing her to teleport away. She thinks about how she didn't expect the kidnapping to be noticed so soon, then sees barb wire rushing towards the RV and shouts a warning to the others. The wires bring the RV to a stop, so Tsurigane orders her subordinates to steal a new vehicle for them. Mikoto arrives and fights with Kimi, but is overpowered by the latter's dragon and Kuroko retreats with her. Afterwards, Tsurigane and her group leave in two vehicles, using the entrance-way road that leads to School District 11.

Abilities
Tsurigane is trained in Kouga ninjutsu. She is also a skilled actor, capable of fooling the veteran ninja Oumi Shuri into thinking that she is actually a poor ninja. With the advantage of surprise, she is able to land a hit on Shuri as well as parry her attacks. However, Tsurigane does not believe that she could find Shuri after the latter escapes.

Having been through the Power Curriculum Program, Tsurigane possesses an esper ability, initially referenced by Shuri when thinking about esper powers she wanted to see for herself, though not the right kind for her to see. It is later revealed to be an AIM observation power, which allows her to "see" and visualize the AIM diffusion fields of other espers. As a result of her years of both combat and AIM observation experience, Tsurigane can identify changes in the AIM diffusion field which occur when an esper performs calculations in order to use their ability and from those changes, she can accurately predict how their ability is going to be used.