Sha Danshan

is a student of Tokiwadai Middle School who appears in Toaru Kagaku no Railgun. She was the leader of the largest clique of Tokiwadai Middle School, one year prior to the main story.
==Etymology==
Her name is Chinese in origin. Her first name Dànshàn means "frail fan", while her last name Shā means "sand".
==Appearance==
Sha has red eyes and long black hair, with a white lace headband tucked over several of her fringes. She wears a red brooch on the left side of her hair and a pair of glasses with rounded rectangular frames, the left frame resembling a stylized teary-eyed expression. She wears the Tokiwadai Middle School uniform, sporting dark-colored stockings. She holds a panda doll. Cover She doesn't wears a bra despite having big breasts.
Prior to Takebayashi Yayoi's downfall, Sha had a different hair style and color.
==Personality==
Sha presents a frail, polite, innocent and cute front. She carries around a panda doll, which Hasekura remarked she couldn't talk without, using it for ventriloquism. She proclaims belief in service, performing voluntary and philanthropic work, along with the rest of her clique. She also expresses annoyance at being left out and when people do things without consulting her, displaying it in the form of pouting and cute-styled indignation.
However behind this front, she is quite manipulative and willing to bring others to harm for her own ends, as shown by her manipulation of Antikythera behind the clique conflict, as well as her own presentation to others during these events and her manipulations to divert attention away from herself.
Sha uses a lot of four character idioms in her speech. She speaks Japanese in everyday communication and Cantonese in certain cases.
==Background==
Sha Danshan was one of several girls adopted by the Takebayashi Family, who sought to get one of their daughters into Tokiwadai, acquire the school's Majesty title and from that, the alleged position on the Academy City Board of Directors it supposedly promised. However after the scandal involving Takebayashi Yayoi and the main family's bankruptcy, she was taken in by the Sha family, one of their branches.
At the start of Misaka Mikoto and Shokuhou Misaki's first year at Tokiwadai Middle School, Sha was in her second year and leader of one of Tokiwadai's 'big three' cliques. Said to be the closest to Majesty at the time, her clique was the largest.
Sha and her clique presented a belief that the gifted had a duty to do volunteer work (such as buying and greening deserts) and its members were dedicated to service, earning them popularity and power. It was suggested that their efforts might have been to thank for Tokiwadai being considered one of the top five schools. It was also suggested that the secret to Sha's popularity might have been the protective desire inspired by her weakness and frailty, having a weak constitution and being nicknamed the .
==Chronology==
===Toaru Kagaku no Railgun===
====First Year Arc====
Sha first encountered Mikoto in early May, when the Level 5 was looking to return her roommate's phone accessory. Initially talking behind her panda doll, Sha remarked on the accessory. As Mikoto introduced herself to Sha, Mikagami Nagisa and Hasekura Reiri appeared from separate directions, with Mikoto between the three main clique leaders. After a brief exchange between the rivals, Hasekura dragged Mikoto off for a contest.
At another point in the first half of the year, Sha encountered Judgment trainee and future Tokiwadai student Shirai Kuroko. After Sha's actions led to the two getting drenched by a fountain, she treated them to new clothes. She also told Kuroko some information about Tokiwadai from her point of view.
At another point, prior to the outbreak of the clique conflict that summer, Sha had manipulated W. G. Waitley and likely more members of Antikythera for her own ends, using one of Shokuhou Misaki's remotes, which she had managed to obtain, in conjunction with her ability to make a limited reproduction of Shokuhou's Mental Out.
As conflict was brewing between the Mikagami and Hasekura cliques due to the alleged attack on Kazan'in Tsukasa by Enjou Kasumi, Sha talked with Lily in the infirmary about the incident and inconsistences in the witness testimonies. With Sha raising the possibility that they were all telling the truth, Lily suspected Shokuhou Misaki's involvement and despite Sha stating that she thought otherwise, decided that she needed to question her, given her previous institution being broken up and her unknown current affiliations.
Sometime later, Sha visited a lab and used her ability to reproduce the image of a dinosaur from a fossil for the researchers. On leaving the lab, she met with Lily, Lin Lihua and Ouyang Qian, bandaged after trying to take Shokuhou for questioning and being knocked out by Hokaze Junko. Although Sha assuaged their fears about potentially being controlled, she was annoyed at them doing this without telling her anything.
A week after Hasekura had organized a truce with Mikagami in light of an external culprit, and not long after she had started rumors about Shokuhou's cooperation, Sha encountered Hasekura and Kessai outside Tokiwadai, having been making and giving out pottery plates as volunteer work. As Sha was expressing annoyance at being left out, the group came under remote attack, with Hasekura blocking the projectiles, having Kessai make a smokescreen and telling Sha not to use her fossils yet. After the unknown attackers retreated, Sha analyzed the residual thoughts on one of the projectiles, which included Hasekura being the target and the phrase "Attachment Dark Matter". She noted that it lacked the amount of residual thoughts normally gathered by matter affected by an esper power, suggesting it was produced through other means.
When the three clique leaders met, as Hasekura revealed her intention to raid the company pulling the strings, Sha suggested that their cliques should join forces, given that Mikagami's clique was also a victim, though Mikagami was reluctant to do so, given the lack of definite proof and the danger to her girls. After Hasekura said she'd send her clique in first and the others waiting outside would only join in if their suspicions proved correct and a fight broke out, Mikagami said she'd present it to them but wouldn't force them to do something this dangerous and the choice would be theirs.
One day after the attack, when the Hasekura clique raided the headquarters of Montgolfier, the culprit behind the attacks that instigated and aggravated the clique conflict, Sha had her clique reinforce them in the resulting battle with Montgolfier's operatives and their prototype weapons, along with Mikagami's clique.
While Sha claimed to not be feeling good and going to the infirmary, she actually went to dispose of her Antikythera scapegoats, who were starting to realize the inconsistencies in their memories and actions. As she approached them, seeing the perception and memory manipulation breaking down, she remarked about it in Chinese (which they couldn't understand), wondering whether it was weaker than expected due to there not being enough residual thoughts in the remote or her power not being strong enough yet. She also remarked that she wished she hadn't had to use the valuable Mental Out to divert attention from herself, though at least she didn't need it in an all-or-nothing battle, before setting a reproduced theropod on the Antikythera members.
After disposing of her pawns and evidence of her involvement, Sha met with her adopted sister, Kessai Kiyoshi, and talked about the plot and the change of plans.
Much later in the year, shortly after Shin'enkouji Rurikakesu had learned about the Takebayashi Family (as well as Sha and Kessai's connection to it) in her investigation in the aftermath of the Antikythera incident, Sha was tentatively awarded the emblem which signified the Majesty position, congratulated by her clique afterwards.
==Abilities==
File:Sha Danshan's Psychometry.png|Sha using her Psychometry on a piece of fossil to reproduce a dinosaur.
File:Sha Danshan's Psychometry - B-Rex.jpg|A reproduced theropod, presumably B-Rex.
File:Sha Danshan's Psychometry - Omegalodon.jpg|A reproduced shark, presumably Omegalodon.
File:Sha Danshan's Psychometry - Jaws.jpg|The jaws of a creature reproduced through Psychometry.
Her esper ability is a type of Psychometry based on remains, that can physically print out the result, at the cost of burning down the original material afterwards. She is apparently capable of a more conventional reading of residual thoughts on an object without burning it down. Her ability reaches its peak at the time of the new moon. Her level is currently unknown, but as a student of Tokiwadai Middle School, it can be presumed to be at Level 3 or 4.
As shown with a piece of fossil originating from a small dinosaur, she can temporarily reproduce the image and sound of that dinosaur, making her ability very useful in . These temporary reproductions are capable of inflicting physical harm, as shown with the jaws of a large theropod, with Sha carrying fossils of strong creatures (such as the B-Rex and Omegalodon) for self-defense purposes.
===Esper Ability Reproduction===
File:Sha Danshan's Psychometry - Shokuhou Misaki.jpg|Sha reproducing Shokuhou Misaki and her ability using one of her remotes.
File:Sha Danshan's Psychometry - Shirai Kuroko.jpg|Sha reproducing Shirai Kuroko and her ability using one of her hair ties.
By using her ability on an object with sufficient residual information and thoughts from an esper, such as one of their possessions, Sha is able to make a limited reproduction of that esper and their ability.
For example, using the residual thoughts on one of Shokuhou Misaki's remotes, she could reproduce Shokuhou and Mental Out to manipulate the perception and memories of Antikythera higher-up W. G. Waitley, though it was weaker than the genuine article. In the same vein, she could also gain access to Teleport by creating a reproduction of Shirai Kuroko, using her hair tie.
By her third year, Sha's ability had grown strong enough to reproduce two esper abilities simultaneously, though she collapsed after first achieving this. In her plan's final stages, she and Kessai expected that the use of twelve abilities from the Majesty emblem would kill her.
Known espers/abilities reproduced by Sha and the items used to do so include:
Esper 	Ability 	Item(s) 	Notes
Enjou Kasumi 	Unnamed ribbon control ability	Watch 	
Shokuhou Misaki	Mental Out 	Remotes 	
Shirai Kuroko 	Teleport 	Hairband 	
Lin Lihua 	 	 	
Sukezawa Sena 	 	 	
Misaka Mikoto 	 	Gekota-themed hairpins	Two hairpins were delivered to her by Kessai Kiyoshi. One was used to reproduce Mikoto's Railgun in an attack on Board Director Kaizumi Tsugutoshi.
After obtaining the Majesty emblem, Sha had access to the abilities of the twelve past Majesties (though the simultaneous use was expected to kill her), with two forming a key part of her revenge plan:
Esper 	Ability 	Notes
Futami Renko(3rd Majesty)	Aggression Reflection	
This ability detects and reflects negative emotions directed at a chosen target, inflicting psychological damage.
Sha intended to use this to target everyone with ill will towards Tokiwadai (which she estimated to be a small percentage of the population but still over a hundred or thousand), particularly after she had staged attacks and framed students in order to build it up.
Unknown(7th Majesty) 	Double Edge 	
This ability converts psychological trauma into a physical attack.
Sha intended to use this to harm or kill everyone with ill will towards Tokiwadai who had been psychologically damaged by Aggression Reflection, framing the school for the atrocity.
==Character Art Designs==
===Gallery===
Sha Danshan Design.jpg|Sha Danshan's design by Matsuryu from his twitter.
Sha Danshan Design 01 (Railgun v17).png|Sha Danshan's design by Matsuryu in Toaru Kagaku no Railgun Manga Volume 17.
Sha Danshan Design 02 (Railgun v17).png|Sha Danshan's design by Matsuryu in Toaru Kagaku no Railgun Manga Volume 17.
==References==
==Navigation==
Category:Characters
Category:Science Side Characters
Category:Espers
Category:Level ? Espers
Category:Academy City Students
Category:Tokiwadai Middle School Students
Category:Takebayashi Family