Sugitani

Sugitani (杉谷) is a character from Toaru Majutsu no Index, who debuted in Toaru Majutsu no Index Volume 19.

Appearance
He is a man around 30 years old with a shaved head or more appropriately, he keeps his hair in a buzz cut. He has a serious face, which is enhanced by the fact that he is often seen wearing black suits and black gloves.

Background
While most of his history is unknown, when asked who he was, he simply replied "one of Kouga’s descendants". Whether he really does have a history with them or not isn't known, but he did immediately refer to them as an organization of contemptible people.

Shiokishi apparently raised him with his own hands.

DRAGON Arc
He first appeared off screen with Minobe reminding Shiokishi that he was getting off topic in his debriefing of GROUP about the leftovers of Spark Signal. When Accelerator, who had been chasing the remnants, finally caught up with them at ITEM's private salon and was he was finishing the last of them, Sugitani appeared and killed all of the defeated members of Spark Signal, departing with a warning to Accelerator that he should work to make sure they don't meet again.

When GROUP and Oyafune Monaka arrived at Shiokishi's base in District 2, he discussed with Shiokishi how they should deal with their alliance, ultimately deciding to recall the forces sent out to eliminate GROUP and take hostages, having the ones inside the shelter withstand GROUP's assault at first and then have the returning forces from the outside flank them, surrounding and then destroying them. Sugitani appeared before Accelerator and Musujime after they were separated from "Oyafune", casually taking out a cigarette while commenting on he and Accelerator meeting again so soon after his previous warning. Accelerator asked him if he knew about DRAGON and Sugitani replied yes while taking out a disposable lighter from a pocket. The lighter fired out a small anaesthetic bullet with high pressure gas that instantly knocked Musujime unconscious.

He then battled Accelerator, detonating the gas in his modified lighters to create flames and a smokescreen before employing an imitation of Kihara Amata's technique, managing to land a hit on Accelerator but spraining his wrist in the process, before having a debate on good and evil. Sugitani then decided to end the fight by activating the wavelength that blocked off the Misaka Network to render Accelerator helpless and then fired a shot aimed at his head. A second later, he realized that now had a hole in his stomach. Accelerator explained that the modifications to his cane were to camouflage the function to find and cancel their ‘long distance controlling wavelength’. They then preceded to open fire on one another with Accelerator’s bullets hitting Sugitani, while Sugitani’s bullets were all ‘reflected’ away. In the end, despite his injuries, Accelerator left him alive and unconscious.

Abilities
Sugitani has demonstrated with his entrances that he has exceptional stealth as in both cases it wasn't known he was there until he announced his presence. In his fight Accelerator he showed speed and footwork beyond the limits of a human that was almost like sliding.


 * Hand-to-Hand Combat: He claimed to be capable of replicating Kihara Amata's technique of drawing back his fist an instant before impact to break through Accelerator's reflection, though he commented that he couldn't perfectly recreate the technique just by observing it, as shown when even though he successfully landed a hit, he injured himself in the process.


 * Marksmanship: When Accelerator was taking out the remnants of Spark Signal, he appeared and shot the ones he had not taken care of yet, with each target having been accurately hit by a single bullet either in the head or the center of the abdomen killing them instantly. He uses what looks like a standard 9mm hand gun, except the gunshots are too loud to be of that caliber.

Equipment

 * Gas lighters: He was shown carrying a number of high pressure gas lighters. Their main purpose is to fire a a small anesthetic bullet capable of rendering a person unconscious in a head on fight through its deceptive design. Sugitani also showed that by throwing several them and using his cigarette to detonate the high pressure gas inside.

Design Evolution
Sugitani's appearance remains static throughout the series. According to Haimura, other than the fact that Sugitani looks like a -type of character, he was designed to look similar to the protagonist of the series of video games.

Quotes

 * (Towards Accelerator) “Pray that we do not meet again. You need to work towards that end.”
 * (Towards Accelerator) "All your ‘Evil’ can do is pick at the scraps left behind by ‘Good’. With your level only at stopping two or three tragedies, you want to defeat us who face hundreds and thousands of tragedies on a regular basis? You people are merely scavengers, do you truly believe that the scraps you pick up are enough to satisfy the entire world?"
 * “This is my ‘Good.’ This is the method of a man who lives in a world of despicable people yet still follows justice.”