Komaba Ritoku

Komaba Ritoku (駒場 利徳) was a side character of Toaru Majutsu no Index. He was a leader of Skill-Out, where both Hamazura Shiage and Hattori Hanzou are in. A large and imposing man, he was later killed during Accelerator’s first mission in GROUP. Before his death, Ritoku was the guardian of Fremea Seivelun, Frenda's little sister who is in elementary school, and his actions against specific espers were likely derived from the desire to protect her.

Appearance
Komaba Ritoku has been described as a gorilla-like person. He was pretty large and had a body built like a tank. He wears a black leather jacket and pants.

Personality
As a leader, he was respected by all of Skill-Out as good person who cares about his friends and subordinates. He was an honorable person in general, forbidding all members to have any connections with prostitution, a method Musujime Awaki said would have been the fastest way to gather funds without having to rob banks; even the targets picked out by Ritoku are only those who actively misuse their power on Level 0's, unlike factions such as 'Big Spider' who attack espers indiscriminately.

Skill-Out Uprising
The Board of Directors wish to eliminate him since he was having a positive influence on the underground and rendered him too dangerous and influential, so they tasked GROUP with terminating him and his Skill-Out operations. The Accelerator was tasked with terminating him while Musujime Awaki was sent to terminate his resources. Coincidentally he found Awaki first and she decided to eliminate him and failed. After "defeating her" he proceeded to face the Accelerator, and after a complicated fight in which he used of the Accelerator's many weak points against him, he was ultimately overpowered by Accelerator, after explaining why he fought against Espers.

Hamazura Shiage becomes the leader of the gang after this, though garners no respect in spite of this.

After his defeat the Accelerator kept his cellphone, on it a list of the people he was targeting. Accelerator took upon himself to clean up what Ritoku had left, mentioning on how he still has a job left to do.

Freshmen Arc
It is revealed that he was protecting Fremea and that she was the main reason why he took control of Skill-Out even though he personally disliked conflicts. It's also subtly stated that he knew that he would be unable to keep the conflict between "threatening espers" and Skill-Out from escalating and eventually targeting those weaker than them and innocent people; thus he felt that he needed an assurance that would stop those labeled by his side as "threatening espers" regardless if his plan failed or succeeded. Upon meeting the Accelerator he told to himself "this is it" and so he gambled on Accelerator's taking up on his role, and even gambled on it with his own life.

Magic God Othinus Arc
In the final recreation of the world by Othinus created specifically to break Touma's spirit, known as the Version_Omega world in-text, where several characters from the original world have been "saved" or have not experienced great tragedy, Ritoku survives and has somehow become part of ITEM as a subordinate. Hamazura Shiage, Hattori Hanzou, Komaba Ritoku, and Fremea Seivelun are first sighted by Kamijou Touma entering a family restaurant where ITEM is in, apparently late. Here, Saiai asks why they are late and why their efficiency is dropping as they gained more subordinates. Shiage blames Hanzou for the shortcut they took, but Hanzou says it is because Ritoku could not leave a vending machine with a roulette alone. Frenda, who is alive in this reality, wonders how Fremea could be so attached to a macho man like him.

The Third Friday of January
Shiage, an apparently new member of Komaba Ritoku's Skill-Out, joins him and Hattori Hanzou to steal an entire ATM using his construction equipment knowledge. Shiage asks how they gather money from before, to which Hanzou says that they steal something and then run, leading to Shiage to say that their style is lame. Hanzou says that it would be easy for them to drag a weak-looking person into a back alley and beat the money out of them but says Ritoku is against letting people lay a hand on fragile girls. Shiage asks about Ritoku, to which Hanzou recalls of that scene in an elementary school where Ritoku sent a man with a bow gun who invaded the school flying 5 meters with just his fist. Hanzou declares that when it comes to little girls Ritoku is really shy. They later find Ritoku looking at online store for an XL-sized Santa outfit and white beard. Hattori then says that he remembers what the girl (probably Fremea) said to Ritoku, and that is she asked if Santa Claus really existed. Ritoku then becomes embarrassed.

As they try to check up the ATM, Ritoku calls his attention to a thing he has found, a GPS transmitter. At that moment, Anti-Skill cars drive behind them, and a barricade robot appears ahead of them. Shiage then decides to break through the barrier, forcing the pursuing cars to slam the breaks due to the debris that it caused by destroying the barrier.

Yomikawa Aiho, whose vehicle was used as part of the barricade, manages to jump out of the way as Shiage, Ritoku, and Hanzou manage to get away with their stolen ATM after smashing through the barricade. Their recklessness makes Aiho interested of them. As they drive off and try to get as far away as possible, they find Yomikawa Aiho uses a Fukuoka Fireworks Manufacturing large specialized transport truck catch up to them from a side street, slamming into the station wagon. Shiage lets their station wagon slide as so not to lose control. After he regains control of the vehicle he speeds off again. They later see that she has passed off the vehicle as an Anti-Skill vehicle by attaching red lights on top and uses a megaphone to ordering them to stop.

Hanzou tries to shoot at her, but she uses the truck to pin the station wagon on a guard rail. As it could not handle the force, the rail breaks apart with the station wagon and transport vehicle, sending them into an uninhabited warehouse. After striking the inner wall of the warehouse, the truck becomes stuck and couldn't move anymore. Aiho is later given a three-shot at by Hanzou, who says that it is powerful and cool to fire a bunch of bullets at once. Hearing their argument, Aiho determines that her opponents are all idiots. Suddenly, either due to the crash, the gunshots, or both, the truck's transport of soccer ball-sized fireworks falls out all over the warehouse. Moreover, Hanzou's haphazard firing had hit some sort of electrical wire which in turn has come into contact with some leaking gasoline from the truck. Seeing this, Aiho flees.

This was apparently all set-up by Shiage, who had Hanzou fire at the truck's fuel tank. The three then find that Aiho is running away, to which Shiage says that he wants to capture her and show her up. Ritoku responds that they will do no sexual crimes, though Shiage says he knows and changes the subject to the ATM. As Shiage tries to go back to the station wagon, something hit his toes. Much to their horror, they find one of the soccer ball-sized fireworks spheres on the ground and that the truck they hit is from Fukuoka Fireworks Manufacturing. With a flash from the electric wires that has been severed, the fireworks explode. Aiho later comes and arrest the three after escaping the explosion.

In their cell, they are ignored by their fellow inmates due to how they looked all covered in soot. Shiage complains that though stealing an ATM is bad, Aiho is worse as all the cash in the ATM had been burned up. Ritoku comments that Aiho would likely make things more peaceful if she lets criminals go, and calls her a horrible Anti-Skill and an idiot, though somehow appends at the end that he hates large breasts. Shiage tries to justify to Ritoku that Aiho isn't a fragile girl and then makes lewd gestures regarding what he will do to her. However, Hanzou has yet to speak, as he just sits in the corner of the cell with his arms around his knees and not moving. He then apologizes to Shiage and Ritoku, saying that he has fallen in love with Yomikawa Aiho.

Abilities
Komaba Ritoku is a true level 0 with no esper abilities, though he is physically strong and is probably knowledgeable in fighting. Additionally, he has been stated to have a greatly trained, hardened body. He uses tactics and technology against his enemies, which include:

Equipment

 * Hard Taping — An elastic band meant for power suits and of military use, he uses it to strengthen his body and his speed, the tapping puts a heavy strain in his muscles and thus he needs to take many precautions so that his body doesn't break down from its use; even with that the taping is still harmful to him.


 * Chaff Seed — Remotely controlled machines of small size that could hover around and were meant to jam communications between Anti-Skills. Its jamming characteristic proved to be useful against the Accelerator since it prevented him from activating esper mode on his electrode.


 * Smart Weapon — An automatic weapon that verifies the properties of the target with an infrared rays and adjusts a proper blast to ultimately destroy it with a very accurate shot.

Design Evolution
Haimura Kiyotaka designed Ritoku to look like someone from, but apparently failed to accomplish it.