Trick

Trick is a minor character in Toaru Kagaku no Railgun. He is an esper criminal of an unknown level who resides in Academy City and is a user of the Level Upper.

Appearance
He is a tall, lean man who sports light khaki-brown hair. He also wears various accessories on his ear and fingers. He is also missing a few fronth teeth.

In the anime, he wears a simple purple sleeveless shirt, while in the manga, he also wears a jacket over it.

Personality
He is ruthless and vicious, as shown when he allows his subordinates to use Koujun Kikuhiko as target practice for their powers, newly improved through the use of the Level Upper. He is also very deceptive, which complements his ability as he also likes to taunt his opponents when they are unable to see through his ruse.

Background
He is the leader of a small gang of delinquents in District 7 of Academy City whose headquarters is an old abandoned building that is scheduled to be demolished. Before he acquired the Level Upper, he and his gang members were often pursued by Judgment, and as such feared them; he promised to himself that when he gained a powerful ability, he would "kindly return the favor".

During the Level Upper incidents, he also uses the area around said building to sell people the Level Upper for high amounts of money. He and his gang also used the Level Upper prior to their introduction.

Level Upper Arc

 * Main article: Level Upper Arc

During the height of the Level Upper incidents and Judgment's crackdown on both it and its users, he is seen with his gang trying to force more money out of Kikuhiko for the Level Upper, which the latter already paid for. When Kikuhiko asked for his money back, Trick's gang assaults him, and Trick allows his gang members to test their abilities on Kikuhiko. Before Kikuhiko gets beaten any further, Saten Ruiko tells them to stop, but Trick overpowers her and tells that she is powerless and unable to do anything.

Before anything else can happen, Shirai Kuroko arrives and easily defeats two of his gang members. Seeing this as a way to get back at Judgment, he attacks Kuroko. She dodges him but is confused when she cannot determine where his proper location is; this forces her to try and teleport her needles into his body, but she is once again unable to get a hit. He successfully hits Kuroko despite her best efforts to anticipate his attacks, and makes her crash into their hideout.

The battle continues within the building; here, Kuroko uses her last needle to figure out his ability. She is later forced to run around the building, but Trick eventually corners her and attacks her once more. He tells her that this building is one of their hideouts and that he knows every inch of it. Kuroko and Trick stand off in a part of a building, where she tells him that she knows what his ability is; he commends her for figuring it out but brags that she is unable to do anything about it. Hearing this, she teleports a window pane into a support column, warning him one last time to surrender or be forced to face a collapsing building; he does not take heed of her words, which forces her to teleport windowpanes into all the support columns in the building (as she remembered their locations after running around the building during the battle). He is then defeated and is teleported out of harm's way by Kuroko.

In the manga, he delivers a cryptic message to Kuroko, to which she concludes that he seems to be brainwashing himself. In the anime adaptation, he is forced by her to give her the Level Upper and complies by giving her his music player and explaining to her that the Level Upper is a song. He is later apprehended by Anti-Skill.

Ability
His ability is called Trick Art (偏光能力 (トリックアート)), which allows him to distort light around him, and thus basically create an illusion. Along with his deceptive nature, it allows him to confuse his opponents and make them lose their sense of distance and focus.

He is also very powerful in physical combat.

Quotes

 * "We're not going to lose. We... can... be... If we participate in the experiment, we understand. You don't understand. You can't. That's why. Ahaha, it's okay. It'll be okay." - To Kuroko in the manga