Hound Dog

Hound Dog (猟犬部隊 (ハウンドドッグ) ) is an elite black operations unit that takes orders from Aleister Crowley himself, under the command of Kihara Amata. Unlike the Anti-Skill, Hound Dogs have shown that they can covertly perform operations that are considered against regular military conduct and even laws.

Hound Dog's name may be attributed to their their ability to track down any target; using their Olfactory Sensor technology, which is said to be superior to that of a trained police dog, henceforth their name.

Duties
Under Kihara, the Hound Dogs where only shown to follow the exact orders of Academy City General Superintendent Aleister Crowley. Unlike the Anti-Skill, the Hound Dogs are not bound any sort of protocol or laws, as they are a covert paramilitary unit, they do their mission regardless of any damages and consequences that they incur.

Because of their covert nature, the secrecy of their operations are highly guarded, and as such the Hound Dogs will eliminate any potential threats – such as witnesses or bystanders – that get in the way of their mission. A part of their covert nature is to cover their own existence, as such the Hound Dogs themselves have to remove their own presence in many situations, such as destroying evidence, retrieving bodies of comrades, and general clean up of anything that would indicate their presence.

Failure to achieve an objective usually ends with Kihara Amata punishing members severely. A Hound Dog member who interferes with operations or betrays the organization are also punished, usually through death.

Organization
The are only seen to move under the will of Kihara Amata, who answers to Aleister Crowley, and generally seem to fear him as well. People who became members of Hound Dog are ordinary people (such as former Anti-Skill) from all walks of life, however, become entrenched in the ways of the dark side of Academy City; as such, Hound Dogs are referred to as scum and garbage, and are apparently devoid of any human rights and are replaceable during missions.

Members of the Hound Dogs have no real attachment with each other, and will betray one another if given the incentives to do so, such as for survival.

Most of the time, Kihara Amata utilized all Hound Dogs in a single objective during a mission. However, when there are several tasks that are required to be done, then the Hound Dogs group themselves into small squads with a squad leader.

Because of their covert nature, members of Hound Dog use Western names to hide their true identities, chosen by Amata himself.

Abilities
Members of Hound Dog are well trained in properly handling various types of weapons, such as sub-machine guns and missile launchers. Because of their covert nature, they act quickly during operations, swiftly removing any traces of their work and existence after an operation.

They are capable of relaying commands and information using hand signals, and can perform well in small squads. Their main tactic against enemies is to overwhelm and kill them quickly (such as ambushes) with the most minimum of actions and efforts. Because of this however, they are unused to situations in which there are lulls and delays in combat, regardless of their effectiveness in small groups. The explanation here is that special forces specialises in urban warfare wouldn't need to learn to know surivial skills on a deserted island, and rainforest fighters won't need to know how to negotiate with hostage takers; by not training in skills they won't encounter, they can focus more time on more applicable skills and train new recruits faster.

Their most well regarded ability is to track a target relentlessly, using the Olfactory Sensor technology which surpasses the abilities of a trained police dog.

Armor and Protection
Members of Hound Dog wear, black gloves, black armor on their torso and black helmets with elastic face masks that cover their mouths and noses. Finally, to completely hide their faces, the members of Hound Dog wear goggles.

Because of this, people who do not know their names usually refer to the Hound Dogs as the Black-clads. Kamijou Touma has remarked that the Hound Dogs use equipment similar to Anti-Skill, but more lethal.

Weapons
The standard weapon of the Hound Dogs is a sub-machine gun, or as depicted in the anime adaptation, an IMI Tavor TAR 21 bullpup assault rifle (though it can be converted into a submachine gun). They also carry a secondary weapons such as handguns, plastic explosives and grenades. Hound Dogs also carry an anti-tank missile launcher, which can be wielded by a single person. In the anime adaptation, it is a Panzerfaust 3.

One notable weapon the Hound Dogs have in their possession is a semi-automatic shotgun, with a body length of nearly a meter, with the rear stock adjustable at one's reference. A scope can be installed unto the shotgun for better accuracy. A single magazine of the shotgun can up to 30 rounds of 00 buckshot.

Vehicles
Hound Dogs use stolen vans that are painted black for use as transportation and to carry their extra equipment. Because the cars are stolen, the car plates have been replaced, and have had some of their parts removed and tampered with, and finally the cars are given a black paintjob.

Olfactory Sensor
Derived from their use of it, the Hound Dogs' most notable equipment is the Olfactory Sensor (嗅覚センサー), a portable machine that can track the scent of a person even in the rain.

Originally for use by perfume and deodorant industries, it was later however converted for military use. The machine is shaped like a handgun with a suppressor, however, the muzzle is actually a sponge-shaped sensor similar to how a microphone looks. A 3-inch LCD monitor is mounted on it where the user can track the target scent. In the anime adaptation, the Scent Sensor is radically different to the novel version, it looks similar to a mine-sweeping or metal detecting device.

The only weakness to the Scent sensor is that the scent can be covered by a special cleaning agent, which is used by the Hound Dogs themselves, as well as the Third Resource Recycling Processing Facility.

Others
Other equipment the Hound Dogs possess are medical tools for the use of treating injured comrades, as well as portable equipment used to measure a body's life signals.

Hound Dogs also carry wireless radio for use in communication with each other during missions.

Due to their covert status, the Hound Dogs destroy any traces of their presence in an area. Hound Dogs use an acid spray to remove any evidence of their presence, such as fingerprints, blood stains and DNA information.

The remnants of the Hound Dogs that chase Hamazura Shiage in Volume 19 use Hard Taping.

Daihasei Festival Arc

 * Main article:Daihasei Festival Arc (Railgun)

Special armed forces controlled by Kihara Gensei appear above a rooftop as Shokuhou Misaki and Misaka Mikoto get nearer to the building where Exterior is being kept. Later, Keitz Nokleben is overwhelmed by the special armed forces, forcing him to take Misaka 10032 up on the roof, while they take over the facility. They later leave right before Misaki and Mikoto arrive probably under the orders of Kihara Gensei. Later, being easily tracked down by Shirai Kuroko, Kouzaku Mitori laments about Hound Dogs erasing only their own tracks. This implies that the armed forces guarding Exterior were actually Hound Dogs.

Academy City Invasion Arc

 * Main article:Academy City Invasion Arc

Both Kamijou Touma and Accelerator struggled against Kihara Amata and his Hound Dog unit, after they are mobilized to kidnap Last Order for Fuse=KAZAKIRI's activation by Aleister Crowley, during Vento of the Front's invasion of Academy City.

After Accelerator escapes, the Hound Dogs where separated into small groups to kill Accelerator, Index and any witnesses, and to retrieve Last Order. Accelerator slaughtered several members of Hound Dog that were after him in the Third Resource Recylcing Processing Facility and later the hospital Heaven Canceler works in, while Touma tried to shake them loose after discovering his and Last Order's presence, the Hound Dogs that are after them are later taken down by Vento of the Front's arrival.

Due to Touma's nature as an eye witness, Touma is hounded by the members during the activation of Fuse Kazakiri, and later seeks the aid of Misaka Mikoto to distract them while he deals with Vento and Hyouka.

A group of the Hound Dog forces are with Kihara Amata, where they are later killed during Accelerator's final face-off against his former mentor.

DRAGON Arc

 * Main article:DRAGON Arc

The remnants of the Hound Dogs left over from the 0930 Incident are under the command of Measure Heart, an esper who used to belong to SCHOOL. Under orders from Aleister Crowley, the Hound Dogs are to track down Hamazura Shiage and eliminate him, due to him surviving the Battle Royal and managing to actually defeat Mugino Shizuri. As the Hound Dogs are about to finish Shiage off Mugino shows up and defeats them, saying only she has the right to kill Shiage.

Pseudepigrapha Railgun

 * Main article:Pseudepigrapha Railgun

In a short omake, the Hound Dogs are used by researchers in the Level 6 Shift in order to figure out what panties Misaka Mikoto wears. They invade the Tokiwadai Middle School, but is swiftly defeated by the Tokiwadai Dorm Supervisor.

List of known members
Apart from Kihara Amata, all of the names below are code names used by Hound Dog. Currently, the real names of the members are as of yet unknown.
 * Kihara Amata (Deceased leader)
 * Orson
 * Rod (Deceased)
 * Nancy (Deceased)
 * Vera (Deceased)
 * Caines (Deceased)
 * Dennis (Deceased)
 * Mike (Deceased)
 * Olaf
 * Lulu

Trivia

 * Hound Dog would be the first military unit to be controlled by a Kihara, the second one would be the Multi Active Rescue organization, which is controlled by Therestina Kihara Lifeline.