Leep

**Leep** (リープ, *Rīpu*?) is an Egyptian Magician who appears in *Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index SS*. Also known as the **Priestess of Bastet** (バステトの巫女, *Basuteto no Miko*?), she seeks the Book of the Dead within Index.

## Appearance

Leep is brown-skinned with long black hair. She also has vertical slits for pupils similar to a cat.

She wears a pink camisole dress that reaches almost down to her ankles but is made of thin material, such that her entire body is almost visible though it. She also wears a black hooded cloak that hides her silhouette with a cat ear design on top of the hood, it's hemline desgined to look like golden ankhs also known as Egyptian crosses. She wears a black fur belt, from which lozenge-shaped gold ornaments are hanging. The end of this belt hangs behind her, making her look like she has a tail. Finally, Leep is bare foot.

## Personality

Leep is shown to be quite caring to the person she looks up to, curious to know more about her. Likely extending from this desire, is her ruthlessness and the willingness to harm others to gain her goals.

## Background

In the past, Leep had looked up to someone, the Priestess of Sekhmet, whom she saw like a strict older sister. Since that person refused to take on apprentices, Leep learned her techniques through observation rather than being taught by her. However after that person died, Leep realized she knew nothing about her, as she had never revealed her past to anyone, and despite wanting to tell the world about her, had no way of determining if it was truly accurate.

Wanting to learn about the person's life and tell about what sort of person she had truly been, Leep wanted to read the Book of the Dead that was written by her and placed at her grave. However she found that tomb robbers had stolen parts of the book, leaving it incomplete. Because of this, she sought diagrams and parts from another version of the Book of the Dead in order to complete it.

## Chronology

### Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index SS

*Main article: Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index SS*
Prior to meeting Index, she discreetly sets up a variety of things for Index to see related to Egyptian mythology, in order for her to reconstruct the Priestess of Sekhmet's Book of the Dead inside of Index. After doing so, she was going to Sphynx in order to peer inside Index's mind and figure out if the reconstruction has been success, and if so, allowing her to read the life of the Priestess of Sekhmet through her Book of the Dead.

Despite her efforts, she is still noticed by Index who demands her to come out. Leep says to her that she wished to use Sphynx, attracted by name Index has given to the cat, in order to peek through her mind. Index reveals that Leep, referring to her as the Priestess of Bastet, is trying to reconstruct the Book of the Dead grimoire inside of her head and demands to know why, pointing out that with the methods she uses, she should already have the original with her. With a fierce smile, the girl says she only needed to know if the grimoire had been properly put together in head, as using Sphynx failed, she'll have to use other methods. She then says that Index isn't totally correct as she is not a priestess of Bastet but that of Sekhmet, the goddess of shed blood and slaughter, who is symbolized by the lioness and is sometimes seen as identical to Bastet, goddess of fertility and production.

Then, claws appear from her from bloody fingertips, the priestess becomes entranced to awaken a mindset that is similar to that of Sekhmet, a goddess with a concentrated extraction of all the most frightening aspects of woman. Here, she gains strength of a lion, partially transforming her physical body, which allows her to wield claws and fangs. As she laughs in a trance, she claws on her chest, drawing her blood, fulfilling her role as a servant of Sekhmet. Using this power of hers, she charges toward Index. As she swings her arm toward her, Index moved her lips, making Sekhmet think she had heard Index speak. It is actually a technique to allow a magician to perform high speed incantations. Index has transmitted her thoughts to the girl through the movement of her lips.

Index merely surprised the girl, but this surprise allowed Index to confuse her. And as her body acted in high-speed, and hesitation to her actions can become dangerous. Thus, the girl falls terribly, and screams in pain afterwards. Index looks down upon the fallen girl and says that she is not the priestess of Sekhmet, hence the reason why she must be Bastet, goddess of fertility and production, a cat goddess not a lion goddess, as she used cats to steal information in her original plan. Index says that Sekhmet is in her head, as the girl constructed the Book of the Dead there, a grimoire that is custom-made for each person who dies. The girl tries to tell Index to be quiet but Index presses on, asking why she wanted to read the deeds and sins of the dead person named Sekhmet.

The girl mentions diagrams, and says she had the priestess of Sekhmet's Book of the Dead, though it was incomplete as they were missing on account of grave robbers. Hearing this, Index understands that she sought for the lost illustrations and diagrams, things that are difficult when transmitting grimoires. Regardless, the priestess promise to reach Sekhmet, and truly understand her.

And then, Index's voice changed. It is the voice of the Priestess of Sekhmet, calling out to Leep, the Priestess of Bastet. She tells her to become a freer magician instead of being trapped by her. The voice says that she was confused on how much she looked up to her as she is not that kind of person, though says she was happy when she did. The voice says that it was the reason why she refused to take on an apprentice and yet continued to partially responded to what she wanted. She apologizes for not outright refusing her as she was afraid of losing her. This however was not a conversation with the dead Priestess of Sekhmet, but instead it is like a recording directed specifically to the Priestess of Bastet, showing her feelings toward her, and Leep, the Priestess of Bastet is merely listening to her. The voice says that she was truly happy Leep became the Priestess of Bastet instead of Sekhmet, and says that she should cover people in a shower of blessings rather than someone like her who covers people in a shower of blood, and says that she is her greatest hope, as she had far surpassed her. And thus her illusions were broken with a tearful smile.

It is unknown what fate befalls Leep after she loses consciousness.

## Abilities

Leep makes use of Magic based on Egyptian Mythology, involving Bastet, an Egyptian cat protector goddess and deity of fertility and production. Leep can manipulate cats using the fact they're seen as Bastet's messengers acting as agents between man and gods. Leep can use cats to spy on people, send messages and steal information. Her ability to steal information with cats even reaches the point of being able to use cats to peer into someone's mind, which she originally intended to use to draw a grimoire from Index's mind without her noticing.

She can also use magic based on Sekhmet, an extremely powerful Egyptian lion warrior goddess and a deity of shed blood and slaughter often associated with Bastet. Like Durga from Indian mythology or Frigg from Norse mythology, Sekhmet symbolizes the cruelty and violence of women that is usually kept hidden. Sekhmet is described as growing intoxicated with the shedding of blood, both from her enemies and herself, achieving ecstasy when bathing in the rain of blood created by slaughtering unbelievers or traitors to the faith. Leep uses this magic by combining a trance to enter Sekhmet's violent mindset and a temporary physical transformation to wield the great strength of a beast. The magic is initiated by Leep biting her finger to shed her own blood. After that, bestial claws like knives will burst from her fingertips. While using this power Leep is much stronger and faster than a normal human being, being able to tear through a person or a concrete wall a few meters thick with one swing of her arm in less than a twentieth of a second. Even merely gathering a bit of strength in her fingers sends a great creaking sound throughout her body loud enough to ruptur the eardrums of a normal person. Leep can expose her bestial side more strongly by harming herself and shedding her own blood, though she can also apparently gain more power by bathing in the blood of her enemies.

According to her, as long as the head remains intact and no more than fifteen minutes have passed, she can obtain the information inside a corpse's brain. After Index figured out Leep was spying on her using Sphinx, Leep appeared out of nowhere with a gust of wind. It's unclear if this was some sort of invisibility or a teleportation spell.

## Character Art Designs

### Gallery

Leep's design by Haimura Kiyotaka for Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index SS.
## Quotes

* (To Index regarding her goal, from NT Index SS): ''*Bastet will reach Sekhmet… I have to. I will take back…the diagrams…and truly understand her. And to do that…I must…I must…!!"*