Baba Yoshio

Baba Yoshio (馬場芳郎) is a minor character in the Toaru Majutsu no Index series. He is a hacker and an expert in robotics and information gathering. He is an operative of MEMBER.

Daihasei Festival Arc (Railgun)

 * Main article: Daihasei Festival Arc (Railgun)

Yoshio participates the Daihasei Festival as a student of an unknown school. Using his expertise in robotics, he is able to help out his "classmates" in some of the events. However, he has an agenda of his own, and this involves Shokuhou Misaki, the ranked-fifth Level 5, and Misaka Mikoto's clone.

He later attempts to extract information from other people who may also know about Mikoto's clone, and fights and defeats Level 4 Kongou Mitsuko using his robots and underhanded tactics by targeting Misaka 10032's cat.

He is then forced to do battle with Wannai Kinuho and Awatsuki Maaya to stop him from taking Kongou, after they had Saten escape with her. With their combination of powers they could hold there own against his 'Type: Great Dane' robots despite neither having any combat experience. After observing their abilities sense he had not researched them before he forces them to separate from one another to defeat them but, he unfortunately underestimated their abilities and after being talked down to he ran off. At a disguised truck he gets his 'Type: Mantis' to make Kinuho and Maaya pay for his humiliation, Misaka Mikoto appears though he believes that shes only a Sister clone a mistake he realizes when she instantly destroys it. After this confrontation he is heard asking Kouzaku Mitori for a safe place to hide from Misaka's wrath.

Battle Royale Arc

 * Main article: Battle Royale Arc

He supports Professor from afar by using remote-controlled animal robots from an emergency shelter known as the Summer Resort. He has been described as a hacker and he can use his remote-controlled machines to communicate with the Professor.

His shelter is later flooded, presumably by SCHOOL, and he is trapped there. Realizing that he is going to be trapped, he requests help from the only surviving teammate, Xochitl, but she refuses, saying that she scorns the idea of having to clean up for MEMBER when she wasn't that involved with them in the first place.

Powers and Abilities
Although he doesn't display any Esper abilities nor is a capable fighter himself, Yoshio is an expert in machinery, and prefers to fight using the animal-shaped robots that he has under his control. He uses these to obtain information from a distance, to communicate with others, or to eliminate threats without staining his hands.

Among his robots are the following:
 * Type: Great Dane - A robot that takes the form of a Great Dane. Yoshio uses this type of robot most frequently, and is equipped with communication devices to allow a person to speak with him through the robot. Yoshio has these types of robots connected to an overhead display, which allows him to receive audiovisual information from the unit itself. Type: Great Dane is also equipped with a trunk similar to an elephant's, which can act as an arm. In battle, it is used by Baba often in numbers, and fights by ramming itself into the enemy.
 * Type: Mosquito - A "more expensive" robot under Baba's arsenal. Due to its size, Type: Mosquito is more often used in conditions wherein being detected is not recommended, like in ambushing desired targets. This robot can inject drugs into its target, including one that can paralyze a person, by biting that person.
 * Type: Mantis - A powerful robot whose form is base on the praying mantis and is designed for pure combat situations. At 3 meters tall and several meters long, the Type: Mantis is the largest robot in use by Yoshio. Due to it standing out too much, only a single unit is stored in the back of Yoshio's command truck and is rarely used.

Design evolution
Baba Yoshio's design remains static throughout the series, and is described by Haimura as a rare type of design in the series.

For Yoshio's robots were accidentally designed to look like dogs, because of Haimura misreading the text.