Mugino Shizuri

"That has nothing to do with this!! That has nothing to fucking do with thiiiiiisssss!! An ear!? An eye!? You can tear off my arms and legs and crush my organs, but you can’t change the difference between our strengths! I’m a Level 5! I’m #4! I’m Meltdowner! Don’t get so pleased with yourself, you motherfucker! I can kill a Level 0 like you 100 times without moving a fingeeeerrrrr!!"

- Mugino Shizuri

Mugino Shizuri is a villain and is also the leader of ITEM, the underground peace-making organization. Mugino is one of Academy City's Level 5 espers. She is ranked #4th and has the ability "Meltdowner". She can retain "pure" form of electrons (fix them in an ambiguous state which is neither a particle or a wave, and manipulate them into a beam which can melt down pretty much anything.

Background
Shizuri plays an antagonistic role to the 3rd-ranked Level 5 Misaka Mikoto in Toaru Kagaku no Railgun and is the archnemesis Hamazura Shiage for most of her run in the original Toaru Majutsu no Index. She is relentless in battle, and combined with her destructive powers, makes her a very dangerous opponent to face. After SCHOOL, led by Kakine Teitoku the 2nd-ranked Level 5, constantly one-ups ITEM during the course of factional war on October 9, Shizuri takes a dark turn to the worst in her blind desire to take revenge, resulting in the death of Frenda Seivelun by her own hands, an action that will haunt her afterwards, and the destruction of ITEM. As she requires Rikou for her vengeance, she instantly becomes at odds with Hamazura Shiage, whom she later transfers her wrath to. His struggle against her and the overall the Dark Side of Academy City in order to protect Rikou allows him to grow heroic character in the series.

After the events of World War III, Mugino Shizuri reconciles with the remaining members and reforms the group and goes on the path of rehabilitation. The organization becomes the only known faction from the Dark Side of Academy City that fought in the factional war on October 9 to have not been disbanded after the war.

Appearance
She’s a girl with a tall and slender figure. She has soft tea-coloured hair. She has a knack for stylish clothing. Indeed she has been designed by Haimura to look like a model. Shiage noted that originally, from all the girls of ITEM Mugino Shizuri was the most beautiful and endowed with both style and grace fitting for an ojou-sama. Despite this, Shizuri can also be practical, wearing shorts underneath her skirt. However unlike Misaka Mikoto, Shizuri does not always wear them, as shown when Last Order sees that she is wearing panties. In Toaru Majutsu no Index she wore a bright short sleeved coat with a belt and checkered pattern ascot or cravat. She wore yellow stockings and sweater underneath. After her defeat at the hands of Shiage, the injuries she suffered would scar her face, take away her right eye, and destroy her entire right arm from the shoulder down. After World War III, one-third of her face was artificially treated with cosmetics and her missing eye and arm replaced.[3] By the time of Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index she begins wearing jacket over a shirt with a bolo tie, and then underneath a camisole. She now wear pants, belt, and boots.

In her appearance in Toaru Kagaku no Railgun, she wears a violet dress with shorts, along with black thigh high socks and white boots.

Personality
Mugino Shizuri has a mature appearance compared to the other girls in her team. Indeed, she acts like the big sister of the group, which works well with her position as leader of the organization. As the leader of ITEM, she cares for the utility of her teammates and would not hesitate to dismiss them when they get in the way, such as when she dismissed both Frenda and Rikou as they would only get in her way in taking down Mikoto, as well as the time when she belittles Shiage's shouting to himself that he once was the leader of Skill-Out. She praises those who are worthy of her praise, like Frenda and Rikou for their hard work, as well as Shiage when he showed his skill in lockpicking. She, however does not tolerate incompetence or idiocy, which she responds to varying degrees, such as frustration when Shiage accidentally sends porn to ITEM's cellphone, to anger as Frenda has been subjected to several times. She can also be quite blunt, as exemplified with her lack of tact to the half-asleep Fremea Seivelun when she tried to explain that she killed her sister.

Despite what her appearance may suggest, in missions she is willing to kill other people. Moreover, she is a relentless person when it comes to victory, unable to let go of her quarry to the point of irrationality and the damage she is doing to others. This is especially prevalent if her quarry has embarassed or has defeated her, in which her need for revenge just drives her. An example of this is her drive to defeat SCHOOL eventually leading to the destruction of ITEM, and especially her pursuit of Hamazura Shiage after defeating her twice to Russia in a midst of global war.

Further emphasizing her radical behavior, he states, continuing in his use of a videogame metaphor, if she isn't able to get 100% accuracy she instead go for a high score to compensate. An example of this may be her failed attempts at killing Misaka Mikoto and instead let her go after discovering she was trying to stop the Level 6 Shift in order to see her suffering against the Dark Side of Academy City instead.[9]

Despite her dark nature, she truly cared for the members of ITEM. She regret killing Frenda, visiting her grave and trying to continue living her life as a testament to keeping Frenda's memory. Indeed, she doesn't take kindly to anyone making light of Frenda's legacy such as being used to trick her. Although, this is likely an extension of her growth as a person after the war. In Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Shizuri's personality has shown a slight change. when she meets and speaks with Last Order for a short while, she is far kinder and more patient than in the first series, as shown when Last Order commented on her panties. She simply laughed at the comment and moved on. Another example of this is her patience with Cendrillon barging into her apartment naked after she "cooks her up", only losing her patience and destroying part of the apartment she lives with the others after she asks to make her a Cinderella dress and then comments on how Shizuri was training to be a good wife. This may be however an example of her continued mercilessness to her enemies, though now it has a focus, using it to defend the people she cares for like Shiage, Fremea, and the rest of ITEM. Indeed, she surprises an assailant who dresses up as Frenda and hacked her artificial eye, believing she has mellowed out after the War. Here, she states that she will get into trouble and into fights, kill people, and even destroy things, but no matter what, it will be fine and will be resolved in a happy ending because as long as she has Shiage, it will be fine, for he will forgive her in the end.

She has the tendency to drag the pronunciation of words, specifically she uses it on people who has angered her such as "Haaamazuraaa."

History
Not much is known about Shizuri, though it is shown that when she was young, she was incredibly wealthy and even had a butler. She also seemed to have a snobbish look as a child. Moreover, even Shiage comments on her style being befitting to that of an ojou-sama.

It is likely that Takitsubo Rikou's inclusion into ITEM with Mugino Shizuri giving her Ability Body Crystal was unbeknowngst to them, likely part of the research on Rikou and her AIM Stalker. Due to her knowledge in the inner-workings of Rikou and her AIM Stalker, it is likely that the ITEM liaison was the one recruited Rikou into ITEM for this purpose.

==Abilities=

Meltdowner
 Toaru_Kagaku_no_Railgun_S_E09_05m_19s.jpg|Particle-Function Waveform High Speed Cannon]] Toaru_Kagaku_no_Railgun_S_E09_05m_38s.jpg|Disintegrating shield]] Toaru_Kagaku_no_Railgun_S_E09_06m_52s.jpg|Mugino redirects electric attacks]] Toaru_Kagaku_no_Railgun_S_E10_06m_25s.jpg|Silicon Burn]]

Shizuri's ability is the Meltdowner with the technical classification as Particle Waveform High-Speed Cannon. As electrons have the properties of both particles and waves, Shizuri's ability allows her to forcibly control electrons in the "ambiguous" state of an electron where it is both particle and wave, and when they strike other objects the electrons are unable to react either as particle or a wave because of their state. Normally, electrons had a mass that was close to zero, but because they are stuck or "stopped" at this state they take the form of a seemingly solid object, which has become a pseudo-"wall" due to the "stopped" state, and then creating a highly destructive beam of high-speed electrons that pierces through a target in the same velocity that it was fired. As it is a form of electromagnetic manipulation, the ability allows her to affect electric attacks, allowing her to bend their trajectory, such as those done by Misaka Mikoto. Likewise, Mikoto can bend Meltdowner using her ability as well.

The ability usually takes on the form of a high-speed beam of light that can easily melt through thick metal walls and cause explosions on things like refine alcohol with its heat alone. Shizuri can create four beams at once, create a shield out of it that can disintegrate objects upon contact and block shockwaves. Moreover, another radical application of this are limbs, like her Meltdowner arm. Also, by emitting a power similar to a rocket, it can perform high-speed evasion that is fast enough to escape an explosion.

The color of her Meltdowner differ between mediums. In the novel it described as white and pale bluish. In the videogame it is of a light purple color, and in the Toaru Kagaku no Railgun S anime it green in color.

Weaknesses and compensations
Due to the sheer extent of her power, Shizuri needs a certain amount of time to aim in exchange, as such she can't deal with a surprise attack. This weakness is demonstrated when when her anger towards Hamazura Shiage fueled her to use too much power and she blew off her own left arm from wrist to elbow.

Another weakness of her ability is that despite being able to make four beams, she can only fire in one direction, the direction she is facing. Also, her ability can only be used on one target at a time, though it has an accuracy high enough to blow away the members of the opponent before he can draw a gun and fire. By its nature, it is incapable of rapid-fire, thus poor at surface occupation and saturation attacks. To compensate for the former, she has to consciously limit herself when using her ability and to compensate for the latter, she carries around silicon cards that can disperse her individual laser shots into multiple ones, this attack is labeled by Shizuri as Silicon Burn.

According to researchers, output is suppressed due the survival instinct's restraint, but if it wasn't for that it could easily instant-kill the likes of the Railgun. However, because actually firing at such output would also blow away Shizuri's body with the backlash, this assessment is not covered. Shizuri herself understands that the whole "instant-kill the Railgun"-thing is just a poor excuse by the researchers and, for that reason, also harbors great hostility towards the Railgun.

Other abilities
Shizuri is also very resilient, able to stand back up even after an entire clip being emptied into her and having her left arm blow off. Moreover, she can give both powerful punches and kicks, as experienced by both Shiage and Mikoto, both of whom had an urge to vomit after being hit in the stomach.