SPOILER WARNING FOR ALL OF A CERTAIN MAGICAL INDEX & NEW TESTAMENT, A CERTAIN SCIENTIFIC RAILGUN AND POSSIBLY FUTURE CONTENT TOO.

SO, A Certain Magical Index New Testament Volume 22 Reverse has just ended, and it’s left in its wake a bevy of mysteries to ponder over while we wait for the third series to begin. I think there’s probably a few people who came out frustrated that Kamachi dangled the key to the basement in front of our eyes, only to keep it just out of arm’s width. I’m talking of course about the mystery of Kamijou Touma’s right hand, or rather what’s inside his arm. Many of us probably stopped thinking about it when we got the simple answer of “it’s a reference point of the universe”, but the last couple of books have been a solid reminder that there’s a LOT we still don’t understand about Imagine Breaker and the invisible something (that’s sometimes perfectly visible) that is released when the arm is severed.

Kamachi has been drip-feeding us information from the very beginning, but I feel like now, 45 books in, we finally have enough pieces of the puzzle to reach an answer. I believe this is telegraphed by NT22R as well, what with most of the cast openly speculating about the nature of his arm, Touma thinking back on all of events surrounding it, the sprinkling and repetition of key terms and concepts (rose, panacea, dragon symbolism, the blurring of science and magic, and the colours sky blue, lemon yellow, emerald and pink), and the final scene in the book where Touma states that he plans to ask Index about it all in the next series… As a mystery lover, all of this screams out to me as Kamachi outlining every piece of a puzzle and asking us to solve it before the next series begins.

So that’s what I did. I hope you enjoy my mad ravings as I go through how I reached my answer.

Let’s step all the way back to the very first book. The first thing I’d like to highlight is the name Kanzaki gives Touma when first meeting him: Kamijou no Touma, or “The One Who Purifies God and Slays Demons”. An alternate reading of Touma’s name. It’s a term that’s left almost completely ignored for the main series, right until the end…

“…You tried to explain that right hand, Imagine Breaker…and even The One Who Purifies God using only something at the level of Christianity. That was your mistake.”

– Aleister Crowley, OT22

That seems like a very odd thing to say when you think about it. “The One Who Purifies God” has been used as an alternative reading of Touma’s name, but… Here it’s almost like it’s referring to some abstract concept on the level of Imagine Breaker. It comes up again in NT18. Mikoto and Shokuhou are investing the A.A.A. and manage to pick up a strange signal from it, which they can only translate as “The One Who Purifies God And Slays Demons”… What exactly does that name have to do with Aleister and the A.A.A.?

And now, we’re at NT22 and NT22R. Anna Sprengel seems to love using the term ‘The One who Purifies God and Slays Demons’, and she clearly speaks of it as something different to Kamijou Touma. Well, I think this volume finally revealed the face of this Touma of a different kanji. Kamijou no Touma, the pink and emerald dragon. Something different from Imagine Breaker, and different from Kamijou Touma, the sky blue and lemon yellow. Of course, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard of a dragon in Touma’s arm either.

Let’s step back once more, to OT2, where Touma had his arm severed by Auroleus and Touma subsequently had a Dragon appear from his arm to gore the alchemist. This was cleverly handwaved initially as an effect of Ars Magna, since we saw how his power was going berserk and bringing the characters back to life, but I think it’s clear now that that dragon wasn’t born from Auroleus’s power, but something inside Touma instead.

The thing that flew out of his severed right arm—the jaw of the dragon king.

It was nothing more than a product born of Aureolus Izzard’s anxiety toward Kamijou.

That was the logical analysis. But at the same time, was Aureolus Izzard actually thinking something that specific—that a transparent dragon jaw would spring out of his right arm?

Though the probability was low…

What if, just what if, that monster was unrelated to Aureolus’s power?

(…That’s impossible.)

However, Kamijou thought back to Himegami Aisa. Deep Blood, Himegami Aisa, was a girl with a special power that only worked against vampires.

If such a disturbance was caused by a girl who could do nothing except kill vampires, then if Kamijou Touma’s right hand, Imagine Breaker, could even kill the systems of God, then how much must it be worth?

No…

Just what was Imagine Breaker in the first place?

– OT2

The second major hint came in with OT14, with Terra of the Left seeming to have an unusual amount of knowledge concerning Imagine Breaker. There’s so many hints here I don’t know where to start… Terra comments that it’s lost it’s ‘original ability’, and of course there’s this…

“Heh-heh. You should give some thought as to why the Imagine Breaker is

within your right hand. Therein lies an important answer. Still, its effect

of nullifying any sorcery without question has meaning as well…”

“The Imagine Breaker is actually—””

– Terra of the Left, OT14

Then, of course, there’s the climax of the original series, with Touma’s arm being severed by Fiamma and even assimilated into his own Holy Right, completing his ceremony to become La Persona Superiore a Dio (aka Kamijou), and transform the Star of Bethlehem into the Kingdom of Heaven. Here we see that even without Imagine Breaker, something invisible comes out that looks as if it’s about to destroy Fiamma before Touma forces it back inside him, regenerating his arm and returning Imagine Breaker to it. This happened once again in NT4, where Othinus crushed the invisible something in her hand. There was another time it donned the appearance of a dragon, though…

Railgun Chapter 67, where Touma lost his right arm once more, and not one, but many Dragons burst out of his arm and chewed up Misaka’s rampaging power, before turning all the metal in the area into… some white substance? Since then, the image of the dragon in Touma’s arm has become solidified in the minds of the community. And then, we finally come to NT22 and NT22R.

With a bubbling sound, something erupted from the end of the incomplete right arm.

“Oh.”

It was not blood.

It was not flesh or bone.

Something more—much more—sinister and divine seemed to take control as Kamijou Touma shouted and held his own arm with his other hand.

Was it a dragon?

No, it was not even that.

Dark red bubbles continued to appear from the wound. And instead of ordinary spheres, these were collections of triangular surfaces. They were a lot like polygons from a video game, so they felt like a symbol of the artificial. They were all different sizes and the bigger ones were taller than the boy himself. More triangle-surfaced bubbles welled up from the existing bubbles as if to create a single giant serpentine line. Even as Mikoto watched from close by, she failed to see this as an arm. Even though it had burst out of an incomplete arm.

It was a deep, deep red, but also faintly transparent.

What was that silhouette spinning and crawling within???

– NT22

This is a different description than anything we’ve heard so far. Something deep red, but with an appearance that brings to mind the artificial, science… And it seems like, something is being born inside it. Why does this something have such an indeterminate form? It’s not a dragon this time, but it is serpentine.

In NT22R, it finally escapes, and it takes a familiar form… The form of Touma himself. Touma is split into two dragons. Othinus mentions how this something in his arm wasn’t always there, and then brings up her weird panacea theory. And then, when this Kamijou no Touma explains its true nature to Touma, everything begins to fall into place. All of the pieces of the puzzle are laid out neatly. Well, have you figured it out yet?

“I’m nothing more than an ability—something that distorts quantum physics. I was supposed to have nothing of my own. My sense of self, my personality to overcome any adversity, and my memories that you lack? It all only exists because you wished it to.”

Then…what even was this?

This conflicted with everything Magic God Othinus and the human Aleister had explained to him.

Had they misread something about the Imagine Breaker in his right hand?

No.

If not…

“You…”

Fiamma of the Right had thought of everything in terms of Christianity, so he had been ineffective against Aleister who viewed all of magic and all of science.

When Kamijou had failed to accept the selfish wishes of the combat-obsessed Magic Gods like High Priest and Nephthys, a portion of its power had leaked out and gained an entirely different nature as Kamisato Kakeru’s World Rejecter.

Then what about with Aleister’s logic?

A dragon.

The ruler of the depths and a guardian of treasure.

What had been the ideal for that human who disliked simple moralization and did not let that limit his options?

What had Nephthys and Niang-Naing wanted from Kamijou Touma?

They had said his right hand was something extra and that the One who Purifies God and Slays Demons referred to the boy himself and not his right hand.

He thought of all those ideas that appeared to be false based on what was happening here. The Academy City Board Chairman had sacrificed so much to bring his grand plan to fruition. He had used everything in order to raise something, but…

“It wasn’t Imagine Breaker?”

“You really thought this could be explained with something so cheap, you scum?”

Time to finally answer the question. What is the true nature of Kamijou no Touma, The One who Purifies God and Slays Demons? It has another name. No, it’s not something that never existed in any myth. Let’s think together. Why does Anna Sprengel have such an interest in it? What is the meaning of those colours, of the image of the dragon? I have a proposal of what the dragon imagery might be referring to.

The alchemical dragon has been a symbol used by mystics for ages. The most iconic of these illustrations from the Theatrum chemicum Britannicum is the two headed dragon facing the sun and moon. It comes from page 212 at the end of the chapter called Liber Patris Sapientiae.

This Robert Vaughan illustration is one of many that were commissioned for the book. In it, we have a two headed dragon with its necks entangled but heading out in opposite directions. One head faces the sun while the other faces the moon. The dragon represents the process of alchemy. Symbolically, the dragon is action – making “it” happen. His drawing is masterfully executed earning it a place amongst the greatest alchemical illustrations.

This alchemical process is an action that is influenced by the opposing forces in nature. The Sun and the moon represent the opposing forces of heating and cooling. During the alchemical process, a substance is heated and cooled many times producing evaporation and condensation.

The sphere at the bottom is the elixir it stirs. It represents the cycle of transmutation in progress. The dragon sits atop it like a mother hen on an egg. This can also be seen as the world and the alchemical process transpiring within it.

Source

The alchemical dragon represents the philosophical quick silver; unlike ordinary Mercury, the philosophical quick silver is a mysterious substance of unknown origin. From this quick silver, the living spirit can be extracted. While the dragon does not represent this living spirit, it is the vessel in which the spirit is contained. Some alchemical texts mention a process to identify the spirit, or the soul, of all things. The dragon is prepared from the philosopher’s venom. The Mercurius fires up the primordial dragon, giving it wings. In a physical sense, this is the process of vaporization. The universal spirit is the blood of that dragon. The dragon, as a fabulous winged being, symbolizes philosophical renewal, or the initial pulverizations. In other instances, the image of a dragon or wyvern represents the divine mercurial water and its tincturing power.

Source

Keen-eyed people might recognise quick silver as the key to producing a certain something. A certain something…

Enter the Rosy Cross, the single most important iconography of the Rosicrucian Order. Don’t the colors stick out as oddly familiar? Blue, Emerald, Pink, Yellow… And what’s that in the center? What is one of the meanings of the rose? Herein lies the answer to the mystery, the true identity of Kamijou no Touma.

Alchemy and Alchemists by CJS Tompson. Photo by Celeskastel.

The Philosopher’s Stone. The rose of the Rosy Cross. The pinnacle of alchemy – the science of the old world which we would now call magic – constructed from the four elements associated with pink, emerald, blue and yellow. An object of indeterminate form with the supposed ability to transmute metal into gold or silver, associated with images of dragons, and sometimes even called panacea. Some have even called it a wish-granting tool.

The secret something hidden in Kamijou Touma’s arm, the One who Purifies God and Slays Demons, is none other than the Philosopher’s Stone itself. A device that blurs the line between science and magic, which transforms itself in accordance to Kamijou’s deepest desires. Aleister’s best-kept secret, something that’s only contained inside his arm by Imagine Breaker. How did it get there? Is Aleister trying to keep it sealed away to protect people, or to keep it to himself? Either way, it seems to have caught the interest of a certain Anna Sprengel.

Think what you will, but I’m all but convinced I’ve figured it out. The next series is bound to focus on Rosicrucianism and alchemy more than ever before, and I believe the Philosopher’s Stone in Kamijou’s right arm will play a very important role in the events to come. Well, Kamachi? Did I figure it out?

“As above, so below, as within, so without, as the universe, so the soul…”

– Hermes Trismegistus

Also shoutouts to Celeskastel for figuring this out together with me!