Kamijou Touma

Kamijou Touma (上条 当麻) is the main protagonist of the Toaru Majutsu no Index series and an important character in the Toaru Kagaku no Railgun side stories. As a Level 0 Academy City first-year high school student, his point-of-view allows the audience to become acquainted to the mysterious world of Toaru Majutsu no Index, and is mostly involved in the events of its Magic Side.

He possesses the mysterious "Imagine Breaker" in his right hand, which is capable of negating all forms of magic, esper powers, and other divine abilities. This, according to Index, even includes his own good luck as they are the blessings of God.

He has a very strong desire to aid all those who are in need even if it means putting his life on the line, and will not hesitate to challenge an opponent who is several times more powerful than himself. Because of his willingness to help others unconditionally, he has attracted the affections of many characters in the series, which Himegami Aisa jokes about, stating that his life is like a dating simulation where he is bound to unlock more paths to more girls.

Etymology
On its own, Touma's name spelled in kanji doesn't mean anything special. However, when other characters reference the pronunciation of "Kamijou", it takes on different seemingly coincidental meanings. When Touma first meets Kanzaki Kaori she believes his name means (神浄討魔) in kanji as opposed to (上条当麻). Kaori's interpretation translates to One who Purifies God and Slays Demons

Later in volume 14, Touma's family name "Kamijou" (上条) is homophonous to La Persona Superiore a Dio (神上) in Japanese. The author's Afterword section also mentions a tantalizing hint on what the difference is between these two possible alternative translations of Touma's name, though in-universe none of the characters have noted the similarity as it is obviously in a different language.

Finally and possibly coincidental, another interesting case is that Touma's given name homophonous to 透魔, which can be translated as "Invisible Demon". This is interesting as Touma wields an incredibly powerful and invisible force in his right arm which is temporarily released if that arm is severed, one so powerful that even Fiamma of the Right feared it.

Childhood
Touma is the son of Kamijou Touya and Shiina who live outside of Academy City. During his childhood he was often seen as a jinx because of the misfortune that his right hand creates and he was called "god of pestilence" by people around him. Once, a bankrupt and superstitious person blamed Touma for his own misfortunes and tried to stab him, resulting in a TV station hearing about the incident and trying to make a supernatural show based on Touma, as well as releasing images of him without his family's consent. Touma's father sent him to Academy City when Touma graduated from kindergarten as it was a place where many unique and gifted people lived free from superstition and Touma could be free from the kind of things he had experienced back home. This however, was somehow a deliberate plot by Aleister Crowley to bring Touma into the City, and one of the most obvious effects of this is the birth of Kazakiri Hyouka out of the fear of the Imagine Breaker.

Life in Academy City
However, during his time in Academy City as a child, Touma wrote letters to his father, from there, he determined that even in the city of science people still treated Touma differently due to his terrible luck.

During his tenure in Academy City, Tsukuyomi Komoe recalls that he used to be a "naughty boy". It is also during this time that he discovers that his right hand can somehow dispel supernatural powers, specifically the psychic powers used by the students of Academy City. This power, named Imagine Breaker, was only known by a few of Academy city's high-ups, especially by Aleister Crowley and Heaven Canceller. Since then, Imagine Breaker was secretly held as a power of great importance, despite how it was put within the Level 0 tier, as demonstrated when Academy City Board of Directors ordered the retrieval of Imagine Breaker while keeping their best efforts in to keep Touma alive during the World War III.

The current high-school class Touma is treated as a precious person due to all their bad luck being attracted to him, as shown when they rejoiced when they discovered Touma forgot his homework. Meaning, they get off lightly from things such as teachers' annoyance at the poor turnout of homework and the like. This is unlike how Touma's life was before he entered Academy City, and raises issues such as Imagine Breaker's power might have been sealed away sometime between him entering Academy City and the present day, seeing how his bad luck affects Touma alone instead of before when it also influenced the people around him. However, Touma's classmates, mainly the male students, do resent Touma for one thing – his impossibly good luck at getting girls' attention. This is due to many girls sympathizing with Touma's bad luck, and has gotten to the point where Fukiyose Seiri, the only one who is critical of Touma's lazy attitude to life, is called the 'Girl of Steel Walls' and 'the Girl who is completely wary of Touma'. Many of Touma's classmates say, "Though Touma keeps saying he's unlucky, he has the best position," and joke about if nobody can stop Touma, humanity will end due to him taking all the girls. Surprisingly, Touma still hasn't gotten into a serious romantic relationship even with this kind of female support, possibly due to his friendship with Tsuchimikado Motoharu and Aogami, often joking of supporting Touma to build a harem that covers every type of fetish imaginable. Touma said he'd break Aogami and Motoharu's fantasies on this topic using his Imagine Breaker. Motoharu named Touma's 'ability' to get girls chasing after him without much effort as the Kami-yan disease, and applied this to Stiyl Magnus after hearing about how Stiyl got chased by Tsukuyomi Komoe and couldn't even throw her off easily using the 'Opila' runes. Komoe also once half-seriously said he might have an esper ability (AIM dispersion field) that causes girls to trickle down to him. Most people around him, such as Index and Misaka Mikoto, consider it "normal" for him to have girls around him and are usually quick to jump to conclusion about what he's doing (or done).

Due to Touma being a Level 0, he has to take even more make-up lessons than usual as he does not have the required academic achievements. Though by no means does this mean Touma is not intelligent; as in many occasions he has shown quick thinking in combat. Lessar even outright stated that Touma is extremely smart in some aspects but not others. It is also shown Touma at least has a good grasp of physics, when he calculated the flight path of an HsB-02 flying pass.

Even before the start of the series, Touma could not ignore someone in trouble and will help people regardless of who they are. Indeed, this is how his life is intertwined with that of Mitsuari Ayu and Shokuhou Misaki. Ayu is a girl who was in an impasse in her development as an esper and attempted to commit suicide in Ground Geo on the same day as Touma met Misaki. He would've been able to save her if not for him misplacing his cellphone at that time he met Misaki, which she later hands to Anti-Skill. Touma would later visit Ground Geo as it was the sight of Ayu's suicide attempt and there meets Misaki again, preventing her from destroying her own memories due to the depression she was feeling at that time. They would later meet up several times, with Touma later giving her a cheap whistle to Misaki. Their relationship can compared to that between Touma and Mikoto—acquaintances that often run into each other in the city. Indeed, it is in these similarities that Misaki even hypothesized that it may be the reason why she can't stand her. This comparison would also apply to Touma saving Misaki, when he uses his own body to protect Misaki from Deadlock as she used her powers to thin their ranks. The result of this encounter is also quite similar to that of Touma and Index, ending with Touma losing his memories of Misaki, though in this case, Touma can no longer make new memories of Misaki and will forget her after they meet.

As for Mikoto, Touma first meets her when she was being harassed by thugs. At first, she was impressed that he was the only one who was willing to come to her aid (even though she could have handled the thugs all by herself). She then became annoyed by him after he accidentally insulted her, resulting in her discharging a powerful amount of electricity on the thugs as well as Touma, though he was unaffected because he used his right hand. This became the catalyst that made her consider him someone she must beat. For some time, Mikoto continually stalked Touma demanding him to fight her, even though she was still unaware of the power of his right hand.

Touma lives on the 7th floor of his apartment building.

Regarding his memory loss
So far, only a few people know the truth about Touma's memory loss. They are Heaven Canceller (also known as the 'frog-faced doctor'), Terra of the Left, and Misaka Mikoto after she overhears the conversation between Touma and Terra of the Left in the incident to do with the Document of Constantine. During World War III, it is shown that Fiamma of the Right is also well aware of his memory loss and told this to Index via telepathy through the mental link established by the John's Pen control on his hands. On the SS Love Letter Kumokawa Seria mentions that Touma knew how to "talk" to her and she mentions about "that place devoid of your memories" making her another person who knew about his condition. Shokuhou Misaki also knows about Touma's memory loss, but only about the one he suffered after he saved her in the past. Whether she is aware about his last one or not is unknown. Even Mitsuari Ayu is implied to know, as she tells Misaki that Touma's memories have been lost beyond their powers.

Appearance
His most striking feature is his spiky black hair, apart from which he looks like an ordinary high school student. It's been mentioned that his spiky hair isn't natural, but was made that way using hair gel after seeing it on a fashion magazine a while back.

His father remarks that Touma looks just like his mother when he is worried about something or is thinking deeply.

Because he resides in Academy City, Touma is often seen wearing his school uniform along with an orange T-shirt underneath it. This applies to both the summer and winter versions of his uniform (though when wearing the winter version he doesn't button it). Because of his tendency to wear his uniform in such a manner and the fact that he seems to attract trouble, many easily mistake Touma for a delinquent. On holidays and weekends, Touma generally wears a casual shirt and pants.

Design evolution
The preliminary design for Touma had looked more adult, but was changed later on to fit the story, as well as the fact that his size would not fit the light novel illustrations. This would be a common problem for Haimura, redrawing Touma several times to change his head-size ratio. Even until volume 2 he was still not satisfied with the design, and kept changing Touma's design to a more deformed look that would be apparent later on in the later novels.

By volume 12, with the advent of the changes of the season in the setting, as well as the change of clothes, the change of style has become more apparent, with characters getting even more deformed, having bigger heads and their arms and legs being shortened.