Toaru Majutsu no Index SS: Agnese's Magic Side Work Experience/Chapter 5

Agnese's Magic Side Work Experience Chapter 5 第五話 Chapter 5 Volume Navigation Biohacker SS Agnese SS N/A Chapter Navigation Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6

Synopsis

Characters

By order of appearance:

• Isabella Theism
• Stiyl Magnus
• Angelene
• Lucia
• Agnese Sanctis
• Agata (voice-only)
• Monica

Abilities

• Lotus Wand - Agnese Sanctis

New Abilities

• Palm Reading - Agnese Sanctis

Locations

New Locations

• Greece
  • Thira

Trivia

This section requires expansion Arsenal

Referbacks

• The Agnese trio recall the events of summoned ghost ship attacking Calais, with regards to the problem of utilizing residual information.

Cultural References

This section requires expansion Pt2: Guilds, 8-bit action game, "world's oldest whatever" - Greece/China, Venice, Western palm reading, gold coin/greed Pt3: Residual thoughts ("Cause of death"), Golden Bough (The Golden Bough)

• During the Middle Ages, corpses were used for biological attacks, often by flinging fomites such as infected corpses over castle walls using catapults.
• Thira (also known as Santorini) is the southernmost island of the Cyclades group, located in the southern Aegean Sea about 200 km southeast from Greece.
  • Thira/Santorini is also the largest island of a small, circular archipelago of the same name, the remnant of a volcanic caldera. It was the site of a catastrophic eruption in around 1600 BCE which destroyed the Minoan settlement on the island and devastated settlements on nearby islands and the coast of Crete with accompanying earthquakes and tsunamis. Some have theorized that the destruction wrought on the Minoan civilization might have given rise to the myth of Atlantis.
• When wondering what they might find with a Greek secret society, Isabella refers to Orpheus, Dionysus and Persephone, notable figures of Greek Mythology and key focuses of Orphism.
• When giving examples of things associated with death that necromancers like her have a fondness for seeing for themselves, Isabella mentions Japan's Izanami and the Egyptian pyramids.
• A phonograph, also known as a gramophone or record player, is a device which records and reproduces sound, with waveforms recorded on grooves engraved into a rotating cylinder or disc (a record), and replayed by rotating the record and running a stylus along the graves, using the vibrations to reproduce the sound.
• Several other Greek islands are mentioned, with associations to Greek mythology, including Crete, Naxos, and Delos, the latter being another member of the Cyclades.
  • There are various myths involving Crete, including the story of the Minotaur, a monster with a human body and a bull's head, which dwelt within a labyrinth (designed by Daedalus for King Minos) and was slain by Theseus.
  • Naxos is the island where Theseus ended up leaving Ariadne on his return home after she help him to kill the Minotaur and escape the labyrinth.
  • Delos is said to be the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis.
• The bow-based weapon which the magicians were wielding in the watchtower that Agnese targeted, is derived from Diana (the Roman equivalent of Artemis, virgin goddess of hunting and the moon.
• A couple of ancient cryptographical tools/techniques are mentioned; the Caesar cipher, used by the Guild, and the scytale.
  • The Caesar cipher (named after Julius Caesar, who used it in private correspondence) is a simple and widely known encryption technique, where letters are substituted with other letters a fixed number of positions down the alphabet.
• The suggestion of a giant, round boulder coming rolling down like in an explorer action film is a reference to the famous scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first Indiana Jones film.
• At the repurposed amphitheatre/arena, several examples are given for Greek amphitheatres, arenas and other large structure where people gather being dedicated to a deity - a shrine to Dionysus at the theatre of Delphi, the Stadium at Olympia being Zeus's holy ground, and the amphitheatres on Delos linked to Apollo or Artemis.
• Several saints and their tales are used as the basis for several of Agnese's spells.
• Several ancient Greek and Eastern subjects are referenced regarding the stone or metal lion which Monica sets on Agnese and others to buy time to burn the records.
  • The Nemean lion was the monster which Heracles killed as the first of his twelve labours. Its fur was impervious to mortal weapons and its claws could cut through any armor, being sharper than any mortal sword. As weapons were ineffective, Heracles strangled it to death and after skinning it with one of its own claws, wore the lion's pelt during his subsequent adventures.
  • The Lion Gate is a gateway dating from the 13th century BC, named after the lion carvings in the relief above the entrance, which acted as the main entrance of the Bronze Age citadel of Mycenae in southern Greece. Described in literature from classical antiquity, it is the sole surviving monumental piece of Mycenaean sculpture, the largest sculpture in the prehistoric Aegean and the only Bronze Age Greek monument with iconography to survive aboveground.
  • Shisa and Komainu, sometimes called lion-dogs, are a type of stone statue depicting a lion-like guardian creature, pairs of which guard the entrances to shrines, temples, tombs and other similar locations. They are present in Japan and other Asian countries, with the practice having originated in China.
• In describing the Guild's behaviour, Agnese mentions the progression from the ancient Greek age to the Roman age to the Christian age, as well as the indigenous Roman religion which was overwritten as Rome assimilated Greek culture, and how Christianity oppressed other religions (including some derived from Roman mythology) after being officially accepted just as early Christians were once oppressed by Rome. The revival of ancient Greek and Roman culture during the Renaissance is also mentioned.

Unanswered Questions

• What happened in Turin?
• What does "Tu" mean?
• Is Agnese's theory that the Guild might be planning to destroy the Vatican correct?

Quotes

• Stiyl Magnus: "The Guild chose to enter our world and they violated a taboo while they were at it, so let’s show them how we do things."[...]"Those fools may think they’ve found the master key to the universe, but they are in for a rude awakening."
• Agnese Sanctis (guessing the Guild's background and motives from available clues): "The Guild was searching for a way to survive while all this was going on. So they threw out their own religion and blended in with the masses."[...]"…As you can see, nothing about them ever remained consistent. They only wanted to be on the side of whoever was currently winning. They might know the winning side was wrong, but they would still join in without making any criticism. They readily spat on everything they held dear."[...]"So they have nothing to protect. Good and evil are meaningless to them. Myths are mere tools to them, culture no more than a battery, and the world just a consumable product. Once one is too worn down to be of any use, they move on to the next. Once the time comes, they simply do it. It happened with Greece, it happened with Rome, and now it’s Christianity’s turn."