Pantagruel

Pantagruel (パンタグルエル) is a character introduced in the PSP video game Toaru Majutsu to Kagaku no Ensemble. He is the main antagonist of the Magic (Hidden) story of the game.

Etymology
His name is derived from the title character of , a 16th century series of novels about two giants, Gargantua and his Pantagruel.

Appearance
Pantagruel has a pale, gaunt face with long, unkempt black hair, an exposed forehead, red lipstick and blue eyeshadow. He wears a black leather coat with white fur lining over a grey suit.

Background
In the past, Pantagruel travelled around the world, trying to find a way to communicate with Aleister Crowley whom he revered, without success. As spells for communicating with the dead had failed with Aleister's remains, Pantagruel came to suspect that those remains may be fake and also that Aleister might not be dead after all. With Academy City as the only place left unchecked, Pantagruel began a plan to summon Aleister, be he dead or alive, through the use of Rondo Net.

Toaru Majutsu to Kagaku no Ensemble
Pantagruel infiltrated Academy City, using the actions of Gate of the Gods Come from the Heavens as a distraction. He then proceeded to implement his plan, incorporating a spell into the Rondo Net with a functional magic contract in the user agreement which would integrate anyone who accepted into the spell (with basic Academy City utilities being incorporated into the Rondo Net, the spell would cover everyone in the city). When the spell was activated, Rondo Net would function as a virtual version of Academy City with anything happening to the avatars also happening to their real-life equivalents. He covered his tracks by both physically and magically destroying the data at the company headquarters and using magic on the company's employees.

When Kanzaki Kaori attempted to disrupt the balance of the Rondo Net spell using a ceremony, an invisible Pantagruel tried to stop her but was driven off by Tsuchimikado Motoharu who in the process attached an equivalent of a magical tracking device to him. As it was a continuous spell, Tsuchimikado collapsed and Pantagruel called his phone to inform Kanzaki of this fact, forcing her to let him go and stop the spell so Tsuchimikado wouldn't die. He then proceeded to incorporate everything in Academy City into the Rondo Net spell and removed Kanzaki's parameters as a Saint so she couldn't interfere in the same way again.

After Kamijou Touma defeats Ureapaddy Exica, Pantagruel appears with Tsuchimikado pursuing him. Ureapaddy attacks him but Pantagruel switches his location parameter with Sozty Exica to swap places with her so she is hit instead. He rolls back the damage, threatening to re-open the wound if anyone opposes him. Pantagruel then realizes that Touma isn't incorporated into the Rondo Net spell as his right hand negated it from his phone. Touma fights Pantagruel but is no match for him as he has altered his own parameters to above Saint-class. He then describes the true purpose of the Silver Star Miracle and his intent to contact Aleister Crowley.

Pantagruel attempts to summon Aleister Crowley however the attempt fails as he failed to take the Misaka Network into account. As he makes a second attempt, Ureapaddy uses her Brahma Astra to make another 'shooting star', creating a duplicate of the spell together with the remains of Kanou Shion which were released earlier. The two spells collide, destroying each other. With Pantagruel's increased parameters temporarily gone, Touma is able to hit him. Partially regaining the Rondo Net spell, Pantagruel escapes by altering his location parameter.

As Pantagruel plans to rebuild the Rondo Net spell and start again, he is contacted by Aleister Crowley himself, who takes control of the spell and uses it to roll back the city, repairing the damage done to it. Aleister then informs Pantagruel that he will be deleting his existence from the city, however Pantagruel is satisfied as he was able to speak with Aleister.

Abilities
Pantagruel's speciality lies in communicating with the dead. This is done by examining their remains and using a ceremony to restore their thought patterns.

He is also capable of constructing spells such as the one integrated into the Rondo Net, which had a functional magic contract in the user agreement and when activated functioned as a virtual Academy City with its users incorporated into the spell with anything that happened to the avatars on it happening to the real-life equivalents. While in control of Rondo Net, Pantagruel is able to alter the parameters of anything covered by the spell, enabling him to switch locations, alter physical abilities and 'roll back' damage.