The manga series A Certain Magical Index is written by Kazuma Kamachi and illustrated by Chuya Kogino. The manga is an adaptation of Kamachi's A Certain Magical Indexlight novel series published by ASCII Media Works. The first chapter of the manga was published in the May 2007 issue of Square Enix's Monthly Shōnen Ganganshōnen mangamagazine, and the succeeding chapters are serialized monthly. The first tankōbon volume was released by Square Enix under their Gangan Comicsimprint on November 10, 2007;[1] as of May 21, 2016, 17 volumes have been released in Japan. Yen Press has licensed the series in North America.[2]Index was adapted as a 24-episode anime television series by J.C.Staff, which aired between October 2008 and March 2009. A second season titled A Certain Magical Index II, also produced by J.C.Staff, aired between October 2010 and April 2011.
1. "Imagine Breaker Boy" (幻想殺しの少年, "Imajin Bureikā no Shōnen")
2. "The Girl Who's Called Index" (少女の字は禁書目録, "Shōjo no Na wa Indekkusu")
3. "The Magician" (魔術師, "Majutsushi")
4. "Reflection of the Moon" (水面の月, "Minamo no Tsuki")
5. "End of Cancer, Pointing to the Western Direction" (巨蟹宮の終わり 方位は西方, "Kaniza no Owari, Hōi wa Seihō")
Tōma Kamijō, an unlucky Level 0 student with the strange power to nullify abilities with his right hand, wakes up one morning to find a strange little nun named Index hanging from his balcony. Index explains she is from Neccessarius, the magical branch of the Anglican Church and claims to hold 103,000 magical grimoires in her head, but Tōma is skeptical of this as he doesn't believe in magic. However, upon returning from school that day, he finds a critically injured Index next to Stiyl Magnus, a magician who wields the power of fire. Tōma has trouble fighting against Stiyl's fire spirit, Innocentius, but with the help of Index in her 'Johann's Pen' mode, he learns its weakness and defeats it. With Index still critically injured, Tōma gets the assistance of his teacher, Komoe Tsukuyomi, to help heal her.
7. "Index of Necessarius" (必要悪の教会の禁書目録, "Nesesariusu no Indekkusu")
8. "Limit" (制限時間, "Rimitto")
9. "Necklace" (首輪, "Kubiwa")
10. "The End of the Girl of the Index" (禁書目録の少女の結末, "Kinsho Mokuroku no Shōjo no Hatsumatsu")
When Index runs off in search of a mana (magical energy), Tōma runs into another magician, Kaori Kanzaki, and is overwhelmed by her katana skills. She explains that both she and Stiyl are also from Neccessarius and their mission it is to erase Index's memory once a year. Supposedly the grimoires in her head reportedly take up so much space in her brain, her photographic memory would use up the remainder and kill her. Tōma later passes out from his injuries and awakes three days later, when Index's memory is scheduled to be erased. As Tōma tries to think of an alternative way to save Index, he learns from Komoe that, even with all the grimoires in Index's head, it wouldn't be able to kill her. Realizing this, Tōma discovers a spell in Index's brain which is being used to control her, which defends itself with powerful spells when he tries to deactivate it. With the help of Stiyl and Kaori, Tōma manages to get close enough to deactivate the spell. However, he gets hit on the head with the remainder of one of Index's spells, which destroys all his memories. Despite not remembering anything, Tōma keeps his memory loss a secret.
13. "Strongest Power User" (最強の超能力者, "Saikyō no Chōnōryokusha")
14. "Sisters" (妹達, "Shisutāzu")
15. "Report, Part 1" (報告書①, "Repōto 1")
Tōma runs into the Level 5 esper, Mikoto Misaka, and later meets an identical girl claiming to be her sister. Tōma meets the sister, who simply calls herself Misaka, on several occasions where she helps him out. However, Mikoto seems to show disdain towards her sister. One day, Tōma discovers a brutally murdered Misaka in an alleyway. When the body strangely disappears, Tōma investigates and discovers the body being carried by the Misaka he had been previously talking to, who is in fact the 10032nd of 20,000 clones of Mikoto. Upon going over to Tokiwadai Middle School to discuss the matter with Mikoto, he is instead greeted by her roommate, Kuroko Shirai. Whilst hiding from the dorm supervisor, Tōma discovers notes revealing that the 20,000 clones are part of an experiment to turn Academy City's strongest esper, Accelerator, into a Level 6.
18. "Weakest VS Strongest, Part 1" (最弱VS最強①, "Saijaku Bāsasu Saikyō 1")
19. "Weakest VS Strongest, Part 2" (最弱VS最強②, "Saijaku Bāsasu Saikyō 2")
20. "Weakest VS Strongest, Part 3" (最弱VS最強③, "Saijaku Bāsasu Saikyō 3")
21. "Epilogue" (エピローグ, "Epirōgu")
Tōma confronts Mikoto about the experiment, who explains that all her attempts to stop the experiments ended in failure and that she is now contemplating letting herself be killed by Accelerator to throw off the calculations. She uses her electricity to prevent interference from Tōma, who doesn't make any attempts to block the attacks. After several shocks, Tōma comes up with an idea that if he, a level 0, could beat Accelerator, a level 5, in a fight, it would prove him weak and destroy the basis for the experiments. Despite Mikoto's objections, Tōma heads to the battle site just as Misaka 10032 is starting her experiment with Accelerator. Despite having troubles with Accelerator's ability to change any vector, his right arm manages to be effective. Accelerator tries to kill Tōma by manipulating air into plasma, but Mikoto manages to convince the Misaka sisters to work together to disrupt the flow of the wind. Tōma manages to knock Accelerator out, successfully ending the experiments, whilst the sisters go to have their lifespans adjusted so they can live normal lives.
Mikoto, trying to avoid advances from her principal's grandson, Mitsuki Unabara, forces Tōma to become her fake boyfriend. Later on though, it is revealed that Mitsuki is actually a magician posing as him, hoping to destroy 'the Kamijō faction', a group unintentionally created by Tōma which threatens the peace between the Science and Magic factions, by getting close to Mikoto, though he had inadvertently fallen for her. He tries to kill Tōma using magical weaponry, but Tōma manages to defeat him, promising to protect Mikoto. Later, Index is abducted by another magician named Ōma Yamisaka, who plans to use one of the grimoires in Index's head to cure a curse suffered by a woman he loves. However, attempting to read the grimoires nearly drives him insane. Tōma rescues Index and offers to cure the woman's curse using his Imagine Breaker.
27. "August 31, Part 2" (8月31日②, "Hachi-gatsu San-jū-ichi-nichi 2")
28. "Communication" (会話, "Komyunikēshon")
29. "Past of the Strongest" (『最強』の先, "Saikyō no Saki")
30. "The Two Researchers, Part 1" (二人の研究者①, "Futari no Kenkyūsha 1")
31. "The Two Researchers, Part 2" (二人の研究者②, "Futari no Kenkyūsha 2")
32. "Virus Activation" (ウイルス発動, "Uirusu Hatsudō")
33. "welcome To Tomorrow"
Following his defeat by Tōma, Accelerator comes across a miniature Misaka clone known as Last Order, who follows him around and goes to a restaurant with him until he leaves her behind. Upon talking to Kikyō Yoshikawa, who was in charge of the Level 6 Shift project, Accelerator learns that Last Order is the administrator of the Misaka Network and was infected by Ao Amai with a virus that could cause the Misaka sisters to go berserk if not stopped. Amai meanwhile kidnaps Last Order but is stopped by Accelerator. With the virus activated, Accelerator uses his ability to reverse and stop the process, but is then shot in the head by Amai, being unable to use his reflect ability whilst concentrating. Amai is then confronted by Kikyō, who offers to shoot each other. A frog-faced doctor known as Heaven Canceler saves both Kikyō and Accelerator, the latter of which is suffering from a brain injury.
37. "Fun School Life" (楽しいガッコー生活, "Tanoshī Gakkō Seikatsu")
38. "War in the Underground Mall" (地下街の戦争, "Chikagai no Sensō")
Tōma returns home in the morning after helping Ōma but later leaves to attend school as it's the new semester. His teacher Komoe introduces a new transfer student named Aisa Himegami to the class but instead finds Index who has followed Tōma. As Index tries to operate a vending machine, she is helped and befriended by another transfer student, Hyōka Kazakiri. Meanwhile a rogue Neccessarius magician named Sherry Cromwell has illegally entered Academy City and defeats Kuroko by summoning a Golem but escapes when Mikoto arrives. Motoharu Tsuchimikado, a friend of Tōma who is secretly working with Aleister Crowley, the General Superintendent of Academy City, informs Aleister of this incident. Despite Motoharu offering to take care of Sherry discreetly to persevere the peace between the Science and Magic factions, Aleister insists that Tōma should handle it. After school, Tōma brings Index and Hyōka out for lunch but Aisa warns Tōma to be wary of Hyōka as despite both she and Hyōka went to same school before transferring, she has never seen the latter in person until now. At the underground mall where they are eating, Sherry attacks the mall which activates the security shutters trapping the shoppers including Tōma, Index, Hyōka, Mikoto and Kuroko. Tōma has Kuroko teleport Index and Mikoto to safety first while he helps the city's police, the Anti-Skills, led by his teacher, Aiho Yomikawa. As he battles Sherry's Golem, Hyōka is injured in the crossfire and to the shock of both she and Tōma, a part of her face is gone, where a prism-like object resides inside her head.
40. "The Illusion That Musn't Be Broken" (幻想は壊されない, "Gensō wa Kowasarenai")
41. "New Target" (新たな標的, "Arata na Hyōteki")
42. "City of Shimmers" (陽炎の街, "Kagerō no Machi")
43. "Ellis" (エリス, "Erisu")
44. "Tomorrow, Again" (明日, また, "Ashita, Mata")
Tōma learns from Komoe that Hyōka is an artificial human made up from the AIM diffusion fields that are subconsciously emitted from the city's espers. Despite learning this, Tōma still regards Hyōka as a friend and gets help from the Anti-Skill to save her from Sherry. However, Sherry escapes and sends her Golem to attack Index, so Hyōka chases after Index to help protect her whilst Tōma confronts Sherry. Sherry reveals her attack is revenge against Neccessarius and Academy City after their failed joint experiment led to the death of her esper friend, Ellis, when he tried to learn magic. Tōma manages to beat Sherry and arrive in time to save Index and Hyōka from the Golem. Motoharu confronts Aleister on Hyōka's true purpose and Hyōka says her goodbyes to Index before returning to the Imaginary District dimension.
