Kamijou Touma/Personality and Relationships

"I don't need a reason to save someone."

- Kamijou Touma

Kamijou Touma is the main protagonist of Toaru Majutsu no Index, and so much of the narrative is dedicated to his point-of-view. Although most of his actions can be summed up with the above quote, there is more to Touma than a person who saves others without needing a reason. This article details the various quirks of his personality as well as the relationships, whether hostile or friendly, between him and the people he has met in his adventures.

Events in Toaru Majutsu no Index
Touma is the type that acts before he thinks. He can never just sit around upon seeing someone in a pinch and will go to great lengths to protect or help the person. This he does at great risk to himself, which typically results in him being hospitalized for several days after each confrontation. When fighting seriously against a particularly strong opponent, Touma will usually first declare that he'll "destroy that illusion" of theirs, before actually engaging. Though this is only part of Touma's well-meaning nature and kindness. When Himegami Aisa asked him about the reason why he saves people, he answered: "I don't need a reason to save someone". Even when he is in a blank slate after losing his memories, Touma still displays this personality. Although lacking his memories, Touma does not appear to mope over the loss of them in particular, as the beliefs from his pre-blank state continue to motivate him, allowing him to understand what he needs to do even if he doesn't remember why. However, after losing his memories, he seems to approach people more cautiously, carefully choosing what emotion or mood to display when meeting someone he thinks he might know. This is to prevent them seeing through his ruse and exploiting him. When Touma meets Stiyl once again after saving Index, he displayed politeness and casualness towards him which made Stiyl suspicious. Touma then realized his mistake quickly and created an explanation for his behavior. Touma also bears no grudge towards former enemies and is willing to help them if they asked for it.

Aiwass has commented that Touma is only doing whatever he feels is right and is labeled "righteous" by other people impulsively as he compared the differences between him, Accelerator, and Shiage. Touma is someone who will follow what he believes regardless of what others try to convince him of. In addition, Villian commented that Touma is just like William Orwell, someone who follows his own ideals no matter what, though there are differences between the two: William is someone who stays true to his ideals and firmly believes it is the right path no matter what happens, and no matter who speaks against it; while Touma does not have set ideals and therefore can be manipulated into helping other people's plots. And when he does do something wrong, Motoharu describes Touma as someone who will carry that mistake all on his own, along with his own. Even so, he works to correct his mistakes in order to bring a smile to everyone's face at the end of the road, no matter the cost to himself.

Even though he is a well-mannered person who is kind to people in general, Touma will not hesitate to strike female opponents who harm innocents or disrespect life, such as Sherry Cromwell (who was going to start a war between Science and Faith that would result in the death of millions), Agnese Sanctis (who was tasked to eliminate Orsola), Oriana Thomson (who hurt Fukiyose Seiri and Himegami Aisa), or Vento of the Front (who planned to destroy Academy City and anything related to science to settle her grudge on what happened to her brother in the past).

Despite his righteous and heroic personality, Touma occasionally displays poor choice of words which results in him getting bitten by Index, having bolts of lightning thrown by Misaka Mikoto, and creating misunderstandings with the other girls he encounters.

During World War III, after his first clash against Fiamma of the Right, when Touma questioned Fiamma's actions about how rightful they both are, Fiamma dared him to confront Index about his memory loss which left Touma saddened due to the guilt. During his fight with Accelerator, he regained his confidence but the guilt still stays with him.

If the non-canon side-story Toaru Gakuen no Index is to be trusted, Touma apparently has the time to read Weekly Shonen Manga. While talking to Kanzaki, he implies that he reads it because he wants to know what will happen next.

Events in Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index
Touma returns to Academy City essentially the same, quite unfazed by the many threats to his life, as shown by his nonchalant reaction to Kuroyoru Umidori attacking him in his own bathroom.

However, after later events, specifically the events that led to the creation of Science Guardian and the distortion that occurred in Baggage City, Touma has started to stop trusting the people he meets, despising the fact that his actions, such as saving someone, are being manipulated into creating more suffering for others' ends. However, during his confrontation against Leivinia Birdway, Touma finally disregards his fears of failure, betrayal, or being manipulated.

Along with this, Leivinia sums up his personality - wanting himself to be put in danger instead of other people, having him fight, getting himself hurt - as insanity. Indeed, even the Will of the Whole Misaka Network would later question on his "unconditional need to place himself below everyone else". Despite Leivinia being a person who investigates leaders and charismatic leaders, she cannot understand what drives Touma, whom promptly tells her that he has no reason to abandon people who need saving in the first place, a clear reference to his "I don't need a reason to save someone" mentality. Moreover, Aiwass' comments on Touma being labeled "righteous" by other people are referenced. Leivinia compares him to Aleister Crowley and Laura Stuart, and refers to him as having the seeds to do something indescribably great, which will give him great power if he controls it, or will be disastrous for him if he does not.

In the Agitate Halation Arc, Touma was willing to defeat Rensa, knowing full well that he might kill Yakumi Hisako (who had turned into an AIM thought being and had entered Rensa's body) with his right hand, in order to save her. However, this could also be because he was confident that Rensa would be able to save Hisako before he could destroy her. Indeed, Hisako survived and was spared from being completely destroyed by Imagine Breaker after Touma defeated her, due to Rensa's actions.

Later, after finally falling into the nadir of despair in the Omega World (a world where everyone has been saved perfectly) and attempting to commit suicide, Touma finally does something for his own convenience after some convincing from the Will of the Whole Misaka Network. Here, he accepts that he wants to go back to his own world, where his actions had meaning instead of being in the perfect world, and was willing for it to be unmade. Despite this, during his fight with Othinus, the creator of that world, there was still some hesitation in his heart, as he too wanted to protect that perfect world. These hesitations were later thrown to the wind in his battle with Othinus, and after he lost he conceded victory and the world to her.

Other traits
Supposedly as a result of Imagine Breaker negating his luck, Touma is unfortunate and often bemoans his situation when confronting an unfortunate situation with his famous catchphrase: "Such misfortune!" (不幸だ!, Fukou da!) ("Rotten/damn luck" in the English dubbed version). However, regardless of his own misfortune Touma believes that he is not regretful for being unfortunate, and states that he would rather be unfortunate and help people than be fortunate and be happy and not notice people who are suffering. He states that being unfortunate is his fortune and it would be the path that he continues to walk on. This has somewhat fallen out of use in New Testament, returning only after his ordeals with Othinus have ended.

In conjunction to the above, Touma is often self-deprecating with his fortunes. He had once asked himself on why "the sky is so blue, but [his] future is pitch black". This also includes his luck with women. When Misaka 10032 placed his hand to her chest to measure his life signs, he was incredulous at the situation. Moreover, he is also quite aware that making a move on the powerful women who come on to him would be dangerous. The Will of the Whole Misaka Network describes him as "unconditionally placing himself below everyone else". Indeed, he downplays his own achievements. In his second battle with Accelerator, he downplays himself in order to deter Accelerator from his obsession of heroes and villains, referring to himself as a mere Level 0. This is taken to ludicrous extremes when he fights Magic God Othinus and proclaims that he would normally lose to "normal magicians" despite the achievements he has gathered up to that point.

A second catchphrase he often says in fights is: "I will destroy that illusion of yours!" When he says this, it usually indicates he will win the fight he is currently engaged in. Along with the "Such misfortune" line, this too has fallen out of use by him in New Testament, returning only after he decides to stop Othinus from committing suicide.

Touma has said on several occasions that he just doesn't understand why people with amazing powers would use them for their own personal gain instead of using them to make the world a better place. Ultimately, though, this makes him no less competent a hero, as he's still aware that what they do is evil, even if he can't understand why.

Ironically, despite Touma having many girls attracted to him, he has shown no apparent romantic attraction to them. However, Touma stated that he specifically prefers Dorm manager Onee-san (elder sister) types, as is the case with Kanzaki Kaori when he dreamed her wearing the swimsuit used by Index during the Angel Fall incident, and asking a kiss from Oriana Thomson when they first met. He also has shown awareness of the opposite gender when involved with them in embarrassing situations, such as his encounter with Oriana Thompson during the Daihaisesai. Despite this, Motoharu describes Touma as someone who has strong self-control who will not attack girls that are asleep (as shown by his behaviour around Index). Despite this, the narration states that Touma is not a pure Saint in regards to his attraction with the opposite sex.

Because of his personality, former antagonists on his side of the series such as Stiyl Magnus, Accelerator, Agnese Sanctis, Vento of the Front, Hamazura Shiage, Lessar, Cendrillon, and Othinus have become his allies.

According to the author, Touma generally refers to people by their "first name" (i.e. the name that literally come first in their name order), so he goes with Stiyl for Stiyl Magnus and Tsuchimikado for Tsuchimikado Motoharu.

Relationships
Touma meets his allies and friends unexpectedly, and they help each other in many situations. Their connection with Touma were formed due to many reasons:

Index
Touma views Index as a person that he has to protect at all costs. Despite knowing her only for a very short time, he decides to hide his memory loss from her to protect her feelings as he was captivated by her 'perfect smile'. Index lives with him and is a constant drain on his resources because of her enormous appetite. It is unknown if Touma feels anything romantic towards Index, but he does care deeply about her. Several of his actions in the story are due to him caring for her well-being, to the point that Stiyl even used this to his advantage in order to coerce Touma in aiding his mission, as well as to fool both the magic and science sides.

Index is the only person so far to have confessed her feelings for him, but due to his memory loss he doesn't know what kind of relationship they had previously so he puts the matter on hold. He has also been kissed on the cheek by her during the Daihaseisai, albeit accidentally, which made it awkward for them to properly talk to each other afterwards.

It has also been pointed out that, both before and after losing his memories, Touma is afraid of losing any connection with her and that she may leave his side one day.

Othinus
The relationship between Othinus and Touma started as one of mutual enemies, with Touma seeing Othinus as one of the most dangerous foes he had ever faced. As the leader of GREMLIN, Othinus caused the Hawaii incident and the Baggage City incident, both of which greatly affected Touma. But they rarely met in person for most of the Gremlin Saga, their first encounter also ended with Othinus cruelly crushing Touma's arm and trying to kill him without a second of hesitation. While she acknowledged Imagine Breaker as a danger, Othinus thought that Touma himself is nothing but a human who doesn't know his place in the world, even going so far as to break his will by creating countless cruel worlds to show him how pitiful he is.

After some time, Othinus comes to realize that Touma has in fact become the only person capable of understanding her, as a result of going through the many worlds she created and searching for the one she belongs. These feelings cause her to abandon the goal of creating a new world or returning to her own with Imagine Breaker. She instead accepts his demand and returns the world to the one he is familiar with. As a result of this, Touma comes to realize that the one thing Othinus was ultimately looking for was understanding, which she'd originally hoped to find in her world but abandoned upon realizing she'd found someone who could. Realizing that she had resolved to die as the villain of the world in exchange for that brief respite, Touma decided to protect Othinus against the Anti-GREMLIN Alliance, saying he will face the entire world to save her.

Touma does not believe that she should get off easy for her actions in the past and thoroughly believes she should face a fair trial, but he refuses to permit her to be brutally murdered in the name of the Alliance's justice. After becoming allies, he becomes quite friendly and familiar towards Othinus, enough that she has to continually remind him that she's a god and that he shouldn't do so. Throughout the novel, Touma and Othinus develop an unbreakable bond where they rely upon each other, as pointed out when Touma confronts Silvia and Brunhild and ultimately when he saves Othinus.

Ollerus has said that if either Touma or Othinus died in front of one another, many changes could happen, with Touma changing his nature and Othinus becoming a monster far more cruel than what she was before.

Among all the characters in the series, Othinus can arguably be considered as the closest to Touma, often insisting to tag along with Touma in his pockets after becoming smaller, in spite of the danger, giving him advice in not only in the matters of magic but also showing off how much she understands Touma's nature Indeed, both Touma and Othinus herself have referenced their relationship as her being Touma's Understander (理解者).

Misaka Mikoto
Touma first met Mikoto when she was being harassed by delinquents and, unaware of her Level 5 nature, he tried to save her. He accidentally made her angry, which led to her frying all of the delinquents herself. He quickly learns from his mistake, and in the first scene in the Index series he tries to save some other delinquents from her. He genuinely cares for her as shown during the Sisters Arc, when he stopped her from trying to get herself killed and consoled her when she cried. Mikoto was among the first people to discover Touma's memory loss, albeit by accident. Mikoto had a crush on Touma for a long time but she realized that she had fallen in love with him near the end of the Acqua of the Back Arc.

Since realizing her feelings, Mikoto has been willing to get involved in Touma's life, trying to rescue him during World War III and going with him to Hawaii during the Hawaiian Invasion Arc. During the latter incident, she also tried initiate a romantic relationship with him, though she backed up when trying to give him a ring she bought. At the end of the Hawaiian Invasion Arc, Mikoto told Touma that she will bear his burdens with him and that he is not alone. Touma was thankful for what Mikoto said, but he believed that he could not let her get wrapped up in his problems. When he returned to Academy City and is immediately caught up in a dangerous situation, she accepted that Touma cannot be held back in his actions, and will support him in his endeavours even if these were dangerous. She refers to it as a sign of being a "good woman". However, during the Agitate Halation Arc, she returned to her former outbursts relationship towards him. In the Magic God Othinus Arc, Mikoto confronts on Touma's ideals in protecting Othinus and preserving the “perfect world.” Despite his pleas, she doesn't believe his claim that a world without him would erase the sins connected to him. Telling Touma not to be bound by meaningless principles, and bear the weight of her future and six billion people. With a smile, Mikoto gives Touma an embrace, and shocks with him with her power, making him lose consciousness. Regardless of finally beating Touma at his game, Mikoto feels her victory is empty.

Despite Mikoto's desire to help Touma, her short-temper usually leads her to attack him before trying to figure out the situation around him. This has caused Touma to avoid seeing her since she ends up making things worse for him. While she doesn't hesitate to use her power on him, this is only because she knows he can block it. When he actually does get hurt, she usually panics about it. She never calls Touma by his name, only referring him as "you" or idiot.

Hamazura Shiage
Touma and Hamazura were once enemies when Academy City had gave Skill-Out the task in assassinating Misaka Misuzu. After Touma saved Misuzu, Hamazura later reformed and became a grunt for ITEM. Touma's influence greatly inspired his philosophy of protecting the weak. Hamazura came to respect Touma after hearing about how he took part in World War III and even calls him "boss". He is also defensive of Touma, as shown when Kanou Shinka blamed Touma for not being able to save Frenda Seivelun in time before she died, which Hamazura found to be both unreasonable and impossible as Touma hadn't even known Frenda, much less known that she was in danger.

Tsuchimikado Motoharu
Tsuchimikado is a friend of Touma and they, along with Aogami Pierce, make up the "idiot trio" of their class (クラスの三バカ lit "the three idiots of the class", also known as デルタフォース or "delta force"). He is also his neighbor. He is superior to Touma in fighting and Touma respects him for that. Likewise, Tsuchimikado respects Touma as a good person and even told Kanzaki that she can trust him. Tsuchimikado even went as far as to warn Aleister Crowley that if he continues toying with people lives, Touma would break his illusions.

As a spy from the Anglican Church (and other groups), he drags Touma under orders from the church to different missions like the English Civil War. Even if Touma does not want to go, Tsuchimikado uses extreme methods to carry out the order. For example, in the aforementioned arc, he tells Touma that Index is needed in England and (being her caretaker) Touma has to go with her. When Touma flat out refuses after what happened in the previous excursions, Motoharu simply throws a canister of knockout gas into his apartment and leaves them both stranded at the airport with no choice but forward.

Tsukuyomi Komoe
Tsukuyomi Komoe is Touma's homeroom teacher in a certain high school. She describes him as a naughty boy when he enrolled and says that "a lot of things have happened". She also states later on that she likes him, though she tries to take it back and states that she likes teaching him.

Touma thinks of her as a person whom he can rely on, as shown when he brings an injured Index to her dorm and consults her in order to find a solution for Index's memory issues (having 103,000 grimoires stored inside allegedly taking up most of the space) other than erasing the last year of her life to make room.

Leivinia Birdway
Touma first met Leivinia when he ran away from some members of the Dawn-Colored Sunlight. During that time he thought that she was an innocent person who he had dragged in all this and took her with him, only to find out that she was the leader of the magic cabal he was running from. Later on, he was involved in a magic-related incident and Birdway explained that she's here to seek assistance from Index and Touma. There he found out through Mark Space that she is a person who would sacrifice her own subordinates in order to succeed in her plans.

In New Testament, she rescued him from the Arctic Ocean. He thought of her as someone cocky, but he still thought of her as someone he can rely on while she sees him as someone who is pretty tough and fun to play with. However, after a certain incident in Hawaii, he didn't trust her anymore and subsequently began to doubt trusting others so easily. Later on after their "fight and makeup" during the Ichihanaransai, he began to trust her again and acknowledged her as one of the most passionate and hardworking of people. Despite this, he's still wary of her being around him because she always cause him more trouble compared to others.

Both Silvia and Lessar have teased Leivinia that she thinks of Touma as something of a big brother to her.

Shokuhou Misaki
Misaki was the first Level 5 that Touma encountered, one year before the start of the story. Their first encounter was on a corner in the Academy City in which Touma lost his phone, making him unable to save Mitsuari Ayu. After that they met at a lake where Misaki was considering resetting her brain to forget about all the evil of the city. Touma saw that and prevented her from doing it, speaking about her underwear being visible. Misaki in that moment tried to erase his memories and failed miserably. She discovered, much later, about the basic abilities of Imagine Breaker which she came to learn to bypass.

They continued to accidentally meet each other on various occasions. During one of these, Misaki was attacked by pigeons and, after Touma saved her, he gave her a whistle to use in case she was in trouble. She tried it and realized that it was her first indirect kiss as Touma had used it beforehand. To this point the whistle serves both as a memento and her connection to him, for Touma this was also done to prevent himself from being in a position of being unable to save someone again like with Mitsuari Ayu.

One day Misaki found herself being attacked by a group called Deadlock, who wanted to kill the Level 5, and Touma stood to protect her even after they offered to let him go. He protected her but was heavily injured in the process. As he needed treatment but could not receive anaesthetic due to low blood pressure, Misaki used her Mental Out to cut off his sense of pain so that the EMT could treat him. Touma's life was saved, but his "pathways that call in the memories" were damaged, causing him to lose his memories about Misaki and be unable to remember her even after other future encounters.

Touma was then the second person to whom Misaki had opened her heart to, the first was the deceased Dolly. Even while Touma was never capable of remembering their relationship, Misaki is not the least bothered by this as she continues to always trust him. This trust extends to how she was willing to aid Touma as he wanted to find the supposedly nearby Altar of the Wisdom King, despite on how she was completely new to the magic side. Unlike Misaka Mikoto, who was comically furious at Touma as she saw him at the Garden, Misaki was quick to understand about Touma's circumstances due to her previous experience with him, aware on how Touma is unlikely the person to have immoral motives, as she knows that people close to Touma have often manipulated him into such perverted situations.

Misaki is also the first girl to kiss Touma on her own, though only on his forehead.

Just like Othinus, Touma claimed that Misaki has a unique scent like honey and he says that the smell is familiar to him, which gives hope to Misaki.

Itsuwa
Itsuwa has been in love with Touma ever since the La Regina del Mare Adriatico Arc. She relies on the advice of Tatemiya and the other Amakusas to get close to him. A common tactic of hers is to offer him a wet towel. She also gets excited by just a bit of physical contact with him, such as holding hands with him or getting hugged while riding a motorcycle together. Although initially embarrassed by the idea she later seems to take wearing the Great Spirit Revealing Maid outfit for him in consideration. It has been stated that Itsuwa is prepared to die for Touma.

Kamisato Kakeru
Touma came to hate Kamisato as the youth blames the Magic Gods for the abrupt change in Kamisato's life. Even despite seeing the selfless sacrifice of Nephthys, Kamisato still saw all the Magic Gods as enemies which made Touma further despise Kamisato for his misdirected anger. Thus, the two came to detest each other to a great degree where neither can tolerate the other's presence.