A Certain Magical Index/Characters/Gremlin

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


A new organization that emerged from the remains of WWIII that was formally introduced in New Testament 2. They are a group of Magicians that are going against the Science Side, who are considered the victors of the war after Fiamma's defeat. However, this is merely a cover. They are actually an organisation that supports Magic God Othinus in her attempt to regain her full power.

A new generation of the occult that had only started being passed down by humans once the concept of machines had been created, in that world where the winners of World War III, the Science side, had greatly spread, a type of occult that would devour it had been born. [context?]

Tropes common to the organization:

  • Attack Its Weak Point: Gremlin hates and yet fears Touma so much that they have either crafted or gathered spells specifically to use against him.
  • Colony Drop: They attempted to drop Radiosonde Castle on Academy City.
  • Hostage Situation/I Have Your Wife: They LOVE this.
  • It's Personal: They hold Touma responsible for losing everything during the war and have marked him. They went so far as to level mountains and rivers to change the ley lines of the planet in order to track him down.
    • Subverted as of Volume 3 of New Testament, where it is revealed in the end that the members who have a personal grudge against Touma and the Science Side are actually a front for the real GREMLIN and have no idea of the organization's true intentions.
  • Meaningful Name: They called themselves GREMLIN due to the fact their magic and tactics are specifically developed to combat Touma and the Espers of Academy City, like how stories of gremlins involve the creatures disrupting technology.
  • The End of the World as We Know It: They would have caused an Ice Age that could wipe out the world if they had dropped Radiosonde Castle.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: They were willing to cause an Ice Age in order to either destroy Academy City and the Espers, or just to track down Kamijou Touma.
    • And they even had the foresight to predict that there was a chance of him surviving it and left a message.
      • It's implied that they planned for the Colony Drop to fail just so that they could locate/determine the existence of Touma. It's remarked upon by Kaori when she's fighting Mjölnir that the enemy seems rather apathetic and isn't opposed to destroying large portions of their own weapon during the battle, which indicates that they didn't put much stock in the attack actually succeeding.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness


One-Eyed Othinus

One-Eyed Othinus is the one behind GREMLIN and currently holds the title of current Majin (Magic God). It's just Odin to friends. After the events of New Testament Volume 10, she has become a nearly-powerless fairy and is now living with Touma.

  • The Archmage
  • Always a Bigger Fish: She's vastly more powerful than anyone in the original series. In her first appearance, she easily crushes Imagine Breaker and then the Invisible Thing, even remarking that she expected more from the latter. She's on the receiving end of this when the true GREMLIN is revealed - an organisation of Magic Gods that she never knew existed.
  • Badass: Without contest.
  • Blessed with Suck / Cursed with Awesome: She has infinite potential as a Majin, however her success rate is always 50/50. While she may defeat the strongest opponents 50% of the time, she might also lose to the weakest opponents 50% of the time. She wants Gungnir to overcome this problem.
    • Funny enough, this proves to be a formidable advantage when battling Imagine Breaker, and later, the Invisible Thing; since Touma has very bad luck, it tilts the scales in her advantage, to the point where victory is deemed miraculous.
  • Big Bad: For New Testament Volumes 2 to 9.
  • Brought Down to Normal: At the end of NT Volume 10, she's a 15 centimetre tall fairy with no usable magic.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Gungnir has been at the center of one short story, although it was a replica--what Othinus wants is the real deal.
  • The Chessmaster
  • Deliberate Injury Gambit: When Touma proves able to dodge all of her attacks, she launches the last one from behind her, piercing through her body and hitting him. She immediately recovers from the injury.
  • Deity of Human Origin
  • Driven to Suicide: After restoring the world to its original state, she's prepared to let the anti-GREMLIN alliance kill her for her crimes. And after seeing Touma go through even more pain and suffering to protect her, she concludes that she shouldn't be saved and activates the Fairy spell again to kill herself. However, she survives, due to intervention by the true GREMLIN.
  • Exposed to the Elements: She wears the same Stripperific outfit even in the cold of Baggage City and Denmark. Actually a plot point in the latter case - since she's losing her power, she's now susceptible to the cold but doesn't realize it.
  • Eyepatch of Power
  • Eye Scream: She is missing an eye, as expected of Odin, and wears a patch to cover it up. She creates the completed Gungnir by pulling it out of that eye socket, the damage immediately healing itself.
  • Final Boss: She is the final enemy Touma has to fight in NT Volume 10. Having decided that she doesn't deserve to be saved, she uses her crossbow again to keep Touma away until the Fairy spell kills her.
  • Fun Size: She's now fifteen centimetres tall.
  • Healing Factor: A powerful one, allowing to rapidly heal her head being split apart or her chest being pierced.
  • Heel Face Turn: After realizing that Touma truly understood her - something she was after all along - she heals his injuries and restores the world. She then resolves to die for her crimes, although Touma talks her out of this.
  • I Am Not Left Handed: It turns out that she doesn't need any external help to create Gungnir - she could do it herself the entire time. She had her subordinates perform other tasks to fool her enemies into thinking that this was necessary to make Gungnir.
  • Last-Episode New Character: Was mentioned by Ollerus in the last line of Volume 22.
  • Manipulative Bastard: She tricked people that were loose members of GREMLIN into doing her bidding so she and her close affiliates didn't have to show themselves. And then she reveals that she tricked even the other members of GREMLIN into thinking that their help was needed for Gungnir, when she could make it herself the entire time.
  • Meaningful Name:Othinus is the Latin name for Odin. It is used in the book Gesta Danorum, which tells Danish history using Norse Gods as characters.
    • Prophetic Name: Othinus symbolizes the Norse God Odin, much like Ollerus does; and from what we know, this carries over to their relationship, as that also symbolizes how Ollerus temporarily took Odin's throne--hell, Ollerus has the power of Hliðskjálf, which is the name of Odin's throne for crying out loud! But then, Odin reclaimed the throne--much like how Othinus claimed the title of Majin by stealing it from Ollerus.
  • Morality Chain: Ollerus notes that Touma has become this for her in NT Volume 10. He believes that if he died, she'd become an even greater monster.
  • Names to Run Away From Really Fast
  • Necromancer: She is able to create Einherjar by inserting gold into corpses.
  • Norse Mythology/Rule of Symbolism: Her Evil Plan relates to crafting Gungnir, the legendary spear of Odin.
  • Our Fairies Are Different: She's now a tiny fairy.
  • Physical God: She's a Majin--the highest position next to The One Above God Fiamma attained briefly. Not only does she take on the weakened Fiamma and Ollerus, but also goes against Touma then the Invisible Thing. No longer the case as of NT Volume 10.
  • Power Copying: She immediately learns the Fairy spell when Ollerus tries to use it on her, and uses it to depower Ollerus.
  • Pragmatic Villainy: She destroys Dáinsleif, since the end of the world would ruin her plans.
  • Reality Warper: An extraordinarily-powerful one. At full power, she can alter the entire universe into whatever she wants.
  • Really 700 Years Old: She's at least ten thousand years old, yet looks like a fourteen year old girl.
  • Samus Is a Girl: It's implied that she might have originally been the old bearded man that Odin is usually portrayed as. Since she's a god, she may have simply changed her appearance. This trope is exploited in NT Volume 10, since while most people know of Othinus as an infamous terrorist, very few know that she's a girl.
  • Stripperific: Supposedly, it's to show off her invincibility.
  • The Unfettered: Consider the Radiosonde Castle incident in which entire mountains were flattened just to track Imagine Breaker, and the fact she had her puppets make Kilauea erupt so Dvergr could use it as a forge to get closer to crafting Gungir, and you've got a case in point. Don't even get started on the whole "theocratize the United States" plan. And all this was done as a mere distraction from her actual plan.
  • Villainous Breakdown: After killing Touma countless times, she can't understand why he won't give up.
  • Walking Spoiler: She's the Big Bad who actually wins, only to undergo a Heel Face Turn, lose her power and end up becoming a main heroine.
  • Winds of Destiny Change: If she gains Gungnir, she will be able to control her success rate and change it to a 100% chance of victory, making her pretty much invincible.
  • Worthy Opponent: Sees Touma as this, when he manages to use his experience of being killed by her to dodge her attacks.
  • You Can't Go Home Again: In the past, she remade the world to the point that she could no longer remember what her original world was like. When Touma finally surrenders, she has the opportunity to use Imagine Breaker as a reference point and return to her original world. However, she gives up on this and remakes Touma's world instead.

Mjölnir

Mjölnir is a magician who was at first mistaken for a spiritual item but in actuality has optimized their physical body into various the forms of the hammer. She guarded Radiosonde Castle and fought with Kanzaki Kaori on even ground for a time.

Cendrillion

A magician of GREMLIN who appears in New Testament 3. She uses Cinderella as the basis of her magic, and attacked Kamijou and the group in the airport before being defeated by Birdway.


Saronia A. Irivika

A Russian magician of GREMLIN who appears in New Testament 3. Her powers initially appear to revolve around mind control. She's also indirectly responsible for Robert Katze going AWOL, as her machinations tipped him off to the occult taking over the American government.

“It truly is frightening,” the magician (Saronia) whispered. “All I had to say was that I would have you tear your head apart like a frozen orange and he was ready to do it.”

  • Kick Chick
  • Manipulative Bitch
  • Revenge/Revenge Before Reason: She wants to get revenge on the nations and individuals who profited from World War 3 while Russia was torn apart, even if it means going after Olay Blueshake, GREMLIN's apparent client/sponsor in the invasion of Hawaii, and Touma.}
  • Rule of Symbolism: Her ability is based off the legend of the Leshy, a male woodland spirit of Slavic mythology. The Leshy is the ruler of the forest and the king of all animals that live there, and loves gambling.
  • Unwitting Pawn: To the real GREMLIN.


Marian Slingeneyer

A Dvegr and a member of the real GREMLIN.

  • Body Horror: Her human reshaping magic, used on Mjölnir and later Cendrillon. In fact her primary form of fighting revolves heavily upon this.
    • And I Must Scream: Does this to everyone she doesn't kill.
    • Bloodier and Gorier: Part of the reason she creates so much carnage is to get a psychological advantage over her opponents.
    • Cruel and Unusual Death: What she does to everyone she does kill. One example is when she fused both of a Mook's hands together and turned them into a faucet. Then she turned the faucet on and let him watch helplessly as all the blood drained from his body.
  • Can't Hold Her Liquor
  • Cool Sword: Dáinsleif - an incredibly dangerous weapon linked to Ragnarok which Marian is forbidden from unsheathing.
    • Artifact of Doom: If the blade is unsheathed completely, it will trigger Ragnarok.
    • Emotion Bomb: When the blade is unsheathed slightly, it causes a foe's heart to stop out of fear of what would happen if the blade was fully unsheathed... It doesn't work on Touma, even without Imagine Breaker, because he does not fear it at all.
    • Gravity Master: The scabbard can be used to create a miniature black hole, which sucks things in until the wielder decides to release it as a powerful blade due to the pent up energy.
    • Summon Magic: After being modified in NT Volume 10, she can now use the sword to cut away phases, summoning the demon kings and other evil figures of mythology.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Morally absent or not, she didn't take Bersi AKA Kihara Kagun's death well.
    • Unstoppable Rage: In response to Bersi's death she tried to summon the Apocalypse!
  • Meganekko
  • Razor Wire: Loki's Net.
  • Summon Magic: She's able to summon her creations using gold as a conduit.
  • Talking the Monster to Death: While fighting Touma, she gets so angry and frustrated over how well Touma is doing that she threatens to draw Dáinsleif completely and trigger Ragnarok. Touma counters that if she had the guts to do that, she would have done it immediately. Marian then realizes that she is too afraid to draw the sword.
  • Vapor Wear: All she wears are overalls with nothing underneath.
  • White-Haired Pretty Girl

Bersi

Bersi is a magician, a member of the true GREMLIN, and a former Kihara named Kagun.

  • Badass Longcoat
  • Badass Teacher: Was a teacher in Academy City right before he left.
  • Came Back Wrong: He's brought back as an Einherjar by Othinus. He retains his memories and skills, but has neither personality nor emotions.
  • Death of a Thousand Cuts: His magic makes him immune to attacks that would instantly kill him, but he can still be injured by anything weaker. This is how Byouri kills him.
  • Death Seeker: He became this after killing an attacker manipulated by another Kihara.
  • Genre Savvy: When he finds a girl who seems to be in a situation way over her head, he tells her to find Kamijou Touma if she wants to live, as girls around him tend to do inexplicably fine, irregardless of the situation.
  • Laser Blade: His sword, Whitting, manifests as one of these.
  • Man in White
  • Mutual Kill: With Byouri.
  • Near-Death Experience: His field of study when he was a researcher.
  • White Sheep: The 'Black Sheep' of the Kihara clan.

Útgarða-Loki

One of the true members of GREMLIN who was sent to oversee the events in Baggage City.

Sigyn

One of the true members of GREMLIN who was sent to oversee the events in Baggage City.

Thor

The leader of GREMLIN's combat division, and its second-strongest member.

  • Blood Knight: All of his actions are rooted in the desire to find someone he can enjoy fighting against. This is tempered by the fact that he also prefers not to get innocent people involved, which is one reason why he enjoys having Touma as an opponent (since Touma's power prevents his from causing excessive destruction).
  • Deer in the Headlights: He loses his fight against Touma in NT Volume 10 due to being lured into the path of an oncoming train. However, he manages to teleport out of the way just in time.
  • Deliberate Injury Gambit: To provoke Touma into fighting him, he deliberately shoots himself, so that Touma would have to beat him as soon as possible to get him medical attention. As an added bonus, this makes the fight more challenging.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: He doesn't like involving innocents, which led him to abandon GREMLIN's cause after the events in Hawaii and Baggage City.
  • Foil: He has a number of things in common with Touma. Both of them fight to save people, using a supernatural power channeled through their hand(s). However, Thor relishes fighting and seeks it at all costs, whereas Touma tries to avoid fighting when possible.
  • Foreshadowing: In Volume 17, Bayloupe hints at the true abilities that a Thor-based magician would have.
  • Gender Bender: His magic lets him disguise himself as a (specific) girl, as shown when he pretends to be Mikoto. This is based on the legend of Thor disguising himself as Freyja.
  • I Am Not Left Handed: He normally limits himself to producing lightning blades from his hands (and occasionally super strength), but he has much more than that. As "Almighty Thor", he can automatically teleport to dodge all of an enemy's attacks, and to always hit his enemy from their blind spot.
  • Laser Blade: His usual power is to produce electric arcs from his fingertips. They can extend up to 2 kilometres long, and can be used for propulsion by explosively expanding them. However, he's dependent on Mjolnir's support to use these.
  • Level Grinding: He seeks strong opponents that are capable of giving him a challenge, so that he can get even stronger.
  • Made of Iron: He's a formidable fighter even after getting shot, managing to beat Touma in this state.
  • One-Man Army: Definitely. This is best shown when he completely annihilates the rest of GREMLIN (save Othinus) in NT Volume 10, without getting a single scratch.
  • Person of Mass Destruction: His electric blades can cut through entire shipping containers instantly. He states that, if he went all out against an opponent unable to contain his power, he could easily destroy a city.
  • Shock and Awe: As expected of a magician who uses Thor. Instead of shooting lightning bolts, though, he uses it in the form of blades.
  • Teleport Spam: His true power as Almighty Thor. However, rather than moving his own body, it actually moves the entire Earth in the opposite direction.
    • Always Accurate Attack/Unblockable Attack: He can teleport into his opponent's blind spot, guaranteeing that he can hit.
    • Nigh Invulnerability: Since he can automatically evade all attacks, it's claimed that even Accelerator wouldn't be able to injure him. However, this only applies to his current opponent.
  • Worthy Opponent: Sees Touma as this, to the point of giving him lots of help just so they can fight with no distractions. He does this on two separate occasions.

Loki

A member of GREMLIN who uses magic based on Loki.

  • Actually a Doombot: He can use a fake body to trick enemies from a distance, which is realistic enough to even simulate being injured. He uses this to lure the British force into an ambush, though they manage to survive.
  • Master of Illusion: His ability. He can even disguise the entire night sky as something else.
  • Properly Paranoid: He never trusts anyone, not even his own allies. He therefore is able to fool Ollerus, who'd disguised himself as Thor to infiltrate GREMLIN, into giving inaccurate information.

Freyja

A member of GREMLIN who uses magic based on Freyja, who is also pregnant. She appears in New Testament Volume 8 as the member assigned to cause chaos in Tokyo. She is actually the pregnant woman's fetus, who'd gained intelligence thanks to her mother unknowingly using magic. The mother was badly injured in the past, and Freyja uses her own magic to keep her alive.

  • Dark And Troubled Past: Her mother conceived her when she herself was a teenager, with the father being unknown. The mother was driven away from her own home and hated by everyone she knew, but she continued to love and care for her unborn child. However, the mother was attacked by someone and badly injured. Freyja used her magic to keep her mother alive and took control of her body. She joined GREMLIN hoping to use a Magic God's power to properly heal her mother.
  • Fetus Terrible: Played with. Freyja chose to join GREMLIN and take part in their atrocities, but it was all to save her mother.
  • Heel Face Turn: She surrenders when Touma points out that Index's knowledge can also be used to save her mother.
  • Longest Pregnancy Ever: She's been pregnant for over two years. Freyja has to stay in her mother to keep her alive with her magic. After Index manages to heal her mother's injuries, presumably the pregnancy has ended or will end soon.
  • Mother of a Thousand Young: Her magic is themed around this, but she doesn't literally give birth to them.
  • Pregnant Badass: Being heavily pregnant doesn't stop her from jumping on a moving train.
  • Summon Magic: Her main ability, based around the spiritual item Brisingamen, allows her to summon figures and creatures from Norse Mythology with the theme of "giving birth". It's based on a spell her mother used with the intention of giving birth to her safely.
  • We Have Reserves: She freely sends her minions to their deaths, as she can always create more.
  • Well Intentioned Extremists: She'll do anything to save her mother.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/A_Certain_Magical_Index/Characters/Gremlin?oldid=1548297"