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| “ | I am Ayu Mitsuari, the ant who could not become the bee. And I am the other fruit that was cut from the branch in order to let you grow. | „ |
| ~ Ayu Mitsuari introducing herself to Misaki Shokuhou. |
Ayu Mitsuari is a major antagonist in the A Certain Magical Index franchise and the main antagonist of the Astral Buddy manga.
She is a Level 3 telepathic esper who was once a test subject for Clone Dolly Ideal and a candidate to become a Level 5 esper. She is the archenemy of Misaki Shokuhou, who she develops a deep grudge against after she was chosen to become a Level 5 and was saved by Touma Kamijou rather than her.
She is voiced by Yumiri Hanamori.
Appearance[]
Ayu is a young girl with long, wavy chocolate-colored hair and pinkish eyes. Her hair is described as being fluffy as cotton candy. She has long, slender beautiful legs which make up for her small chest.
Initially, she wore a standard Tokiwadai school uniform but in NT Vol 11, Ayu wears a special dark suit, resembling a racing swimsuit, with similar gloves and boots.
Personality[]
As a child, Ayu was a kind and friendly girl, acting as an older sister figure to most of the other girls in the Ideal project due to her being the oldest among them. However, she had low self-esteem and lacked confidence in herself because of her Level 3 esper power. She later met Touma Kamijou and became infatuated with him after he saved her from the L.S.S. organization. After not advancing to Level 5, Ayu became depressed and attempted to commit suicide but was hoping that Touma would save her.
Ayu grew extremely resentful and envious towards Misaki Shokuhou, becoming obsessed with taking revenge on her for stealing the position of a Level 5 esper and her relationship with Touma. In the present day, Ayu is a very twisted, manipulative, devious and spiteful person, willing to endanger the lives of others just to take her revenge on Misaki. She has no qualms with brainwashing others to achieve her ends and shows little regard for those under her control. She also tends to behave in a rather theatrical manner whenever she contemplating about her schemes, twirling around in fashion similar to ballerina. She also has a playful nature, as shown when he scribbled over Seigo's face in an effort to make him look cute, only to comment on his ugliness.
Due to their similar powers, Ayu has an inferiority complex to Misaki, being seen as nothing more than a cheap knockoff of Mental Out. She desired to drain all of Misaki's memories from her and insert them into herself, so that she could have her happy life and past friendship with Touma. Her hatred of Misaki is shown to borderline pathological, as she always seeking for a way to outplay her. When her plans fail, Ayu becomes murderous and attempts to strangle Misaki to death.
However, despite this, Ayu still shows signs of her past personality, as she was visibly distraught when Seigo dies, showing that despite using him for the most part, she did genuinely care about him. It's revealed that Ayu has a hard time connecting with people and is afraid of being despised by those close to her so she's stuck playing the role of the stereotypical "nice girl", eventually starting to feel empty inside. Ayu also wonders why the kindest people are the ones that suffer the most. Overall, Ayu is an extremely broken person whose kind and caring personality was warped by her own insecurities and obsession with Misaki Shokuhou.
Biography[]
Ayu Mitsuari's full history isn't known, however, what is known is that she was a test subject for the Clone Dolly: Ideal, an esper research laboratory dedicated to developing the "ideal" esper power. Despite her low esper level, she was determined to become a Level 5. She became acquainted with Junko Hokaze, who had advanced from Level 2 to Level 4 in just two months. She also met the Yumiya sisters and Senya Yuuri.
Powers and Abilities[]
Powers[]
- Mental Stinger: Ayu's Level 3 esper power that's works similar to Misaki Shokuhou's Mental Out. It allows her to alter the human mind by manipulating the brain's moisture, blood and cerebrospinal fluid. The applications of Mental Stinger are but not limited to telepathy, mind control, reading other people's thoughts and memories, changing a person's personality by means of brainwashing, revelation of feelings, memory erasure, destruction of willpower, creation of illusions, transplantation of emotions, etc. Unlike Misaki, Ayu uses smartphones to channel her power rather than remote controls. Mental Stinger is shown to be ineffective against electromasters and espers with similar powers, such as Misaki, though this happens only if both Ayu and Misaki reject the interference.
- Telepathy: Using Mental Stinger, Ayu is able to read people's minds and project her own thoughts into the minds of others.
- Mind Control: Ayu is able to use Mental Stinger to brainwash people and take control of their minds. However, her mind control isn't as strong as Misaki's and can only brainwash a few people in a limited radius.
- Memory Alteration: Ayu can use Mental Stinger to manipulate and modify people's memories. She can even erase their memories at will.
- Pathokinesis: Ayu can use Mental Stinger to sense and manipulate people's emotions as well as their behaviors.
- Other Powers: While Mental Stinger's ability to manipulate moisture is mainly designated to the mind, it is possible to utilize this power in different ways. Under certain circumstances such as extreme anger and mental stress, Ayu's ability can go out of control and cause an explosive phenomenon similar to freeze-drying that creates a territory that can cause any living being within it to crumble like dried paper mache as it drains them of moisture.
Abilities[]
- High Intellect: Ayu is shown to be fairly intelligent, having deep knowledge of the human brain and its functions which allows her to utilize her ability more effectively. She also has some technological intuition, able to use the Five Over powered suits to her advantage. Ayu has great strategic prowess, able to concoct a complex plan to manipulate Misaki and erase her memories with Touma, desiring to remove her from her past with him. She came up with elaborate plans with several decoys and backups to manipulate and defeat Misaki Shokuhou.
Trivia[]
- Her character appearance is an early rejected concept art of Misaki. The fact that it was pushed aside for Misaki's final design and being reused for Ayu's own appearance in NT 11 only adds to her contrast with Misaki.
