Hamazura Shiage

A level 0 former Skill-Out and the third male protagonist of the Science Side in Toaru Majutsu no Index after Accelerator.

Personality
Shiage is considered a balance between Touma and Accelerator. Like most members of his Skill-Out gang, he is lawful. However, while he and Touma share some of the same traits such as being considered deliquents, defeating higher ranked espers using tactics, and intefereing with Aleister's plans, he isn't as idealistic or as nice as Touma and acts based on his own desires. He also pursues an romantic interest unlike Touma. In battle, he prefers to avoid fighting if possible or to finish the fight as quickly as possible, which is a contrast to Accelerator's old personality.

He fell in love with Takitsubo Rikou and because of this he decides fight the 4th Lv.5 Esper Mugino Shizuri, also known as Meltdowner, to protect her.

Profile
The reason Aleister decides to eliminate him isn't because Shiage is a threat in general, but because he's an anomaly that goes against his plans. Him winning over Mugino is something that never should have happened and so far every attempt to kill him has failed and since then, his plans have begun to go awry. 

Aiwass commented in Vol.19 That he is someone who is never looked at by people nor have any talent, but for the one person he loves he’ll become the hero.

Background
Introduced for first time in the Side Stories(also known as Volume 13.5) of the novels, he became the leader of his Skill-Out gang after Accelerator killed the former leader, Komaba Ritoku, by orders of the Board of Directors. The same day he become the new leader, he accepted a deal with the Board of Directors to kill Misaka Misuzu, in order to prevent leakage of students because of the allegations of the Roman Catholic Church in Volume 13 after Vent of the Front's attack. If Skill-Out kills Misuzu then the Board of Directors would allow Skill-Out to continue existing and not be destroyed completely like the previous boss. This went wrong as they were defeated by both Touma and Accelerator.

After that humiliatation, he left the gang's leadership to his friend Hattori Hanzou and became a chauffeur and informant for Team ITEM where he fell in love with Takitsubo Rikou. After that he plays more active roles since the 15th during the battles between the underground organizations of Academy City. After discovering the murder of Frenda, he betrays and fights ITEM's leader Shizuri Mugino to protect Rikou who was being forced the use the Esper Essence (a more advanced version compared to the one from the Railgun anime) to activate her powers to track down Teitoku Kakine, which began deteriorating her own health even more than it already has. Shiage managed to defeat Mugino by stabbing her in the eye and she lost control of her power and disintergrated her left arm when she shot at him, then poured the rest of his bullets into her and left her for dead. After leaving that battlefield Hanzou shows up and offers Skill-Out's leadership back to Shiage, which he refuses.

However, Shiage's actions interfere with Aleister's plans and later in volume 19 sends his assassins on a massive hunt to eliminate him. During the time met with Accelerator, who was looking for a terrorist group was near the same location that Rikou was. Shiage misunderstood him thinking that his presence was due to another of his dirty jobs, and that Rikou might end up dead just like his friend Komaba Ritoku. After trying vainly to fight against Accelerator, Rikou despite her poor health, stopped him by appealing to Accelerator's compassion.

After that, while trying to escape from Aleister's assasins, he met once again with Shizuri Mugino. She survived her wound thanks to Heaven Canceler's Dark Legacy, now in hands of Aleister Crowley. After a hard battle of fighting her and protecting Rikou from her attacks, Mugino, who now has a sense of twisted love for him gives up and helped him and Rikou to escape Academy City by allowing them to stealing a jet which was programmed to fly to Russia and shooting down their pursuers.

After reaching to Russia because Shiage didn't know how to pilot the jet, he and Rikou, using a parachutte, jumped out of the jet and landed into a secret military base in Russia belonging to Academy City, he is pursued by the military forces station there until he is saved Acqua of the Back.

Abilities
Hamazura Shiage is a true level 0 with no esper abilites. As a result, if he wants to survive, he must think ahead and rely on other weaponry.
 * Firearms - He's demonstrated that he's somewhat proficent with Firearms.

Trivia

 * Despite being held as the official third protagonist of the Science Side in the Light Novels, he's disregarded by a majority of the fans as a protagonist.