Professor

The Professor (博士) (real name unknown) is a character introduced in Toaru Majutsu no Index. An elderly man, he is the leader of MEMBER, an underworld organization that answers to the Academy City Board of Directors and Aleister Crowley directly.

Appearance
With the height of 160 centimeters, the Professor is a short elderly man, though is described as middle-aged. He wears business attire, a shirt with tie, under his lab coat. He wears rectangular spectacles. His most notable feature is his long hair that stands up on its ends.

Personality
As an active member of the dark side of Academy City it is only natural that he should act ruthless toward his enemies, as evidence on his attack against Kakine Teitoku. He is very intelligent, able to figure out that Kouzaku Mitori may be acting against MEMBER.

The Professor is attached to formulas as they are efficient, and calls them beautiful. He wants to find this sort of beauty hiding in the corners of the world and softly admire them. This is apparently why he is loyal to Aleister Crowley as he believes he can give him the means to attain it.

Background
According to the Professor, art brought him despair in the winter when he was 12 years old. He adored European architecture, and fell in love with the large scale creations that people made in order to complete a single ideal of beauty. However, at the same time, it was hard for him to understand them. According to him, to thoroughly understood every little piece of the design, but that large scale creation requires an equally large amount of time to create, ergo even greater things to focus on. It was simply inefficient for him. Because of this, his ideal of beauty apparently shifted to formulas as all sorts of beauty is included in the smallest possible space and being more efficient.

To achieve this ideal of beauty he apparently willingly became Aleister's dog and the leader of MEMBER. His team is later joined by their newest member Xochitl, apparently aware that she is a magician.

Battle Royale Arc
He and his team have been described as Aleister's loyal dogs. He openly trusts the technology provided by the higher-ups and their power to rule the city, and with this trust allows him to gain insight into the various movements of the factions.

The Professor first appears in an open-air cafe with Xochitl doing some research on a couple of papers related to the AIM diffusion fields and gives a small lecture to her about it and the possible applications that can be done with it. Baba Yoshio via his Type: Great Dane then appears before him immediately after the attempted assassination of Oyafune Monaka. He informs the Professor that SCHOOL and GROUP has made their move. The Professor asks Yoshio if they have made contact yet, to which Yoshio says that GROUP has failed at capturing them, and that it is currently unknown whether they can catch up to them. Hearing this, the Professor concludes that the other organization has made their moved as well. The Professor states that from the start organizations like them have reasons for their complex behavior, being repressed by the powers at the top and were subject to control. However, the Professor states that because of the riots that rose along with the 0930 incident, the majority of the Powered Suits were sent out to mop-up at Avignon. The Professor then says that it is a big opportunity for them as the suits cannot be used freely. Saraku then appears and asks if the opportune time will be soon, to which the Professor confirms. Xochitl then asks how the Professor could predict the other organization's movements even though the information from the higher-ups might be incorrect, to which the Professor says is because the top brass possess the technology to make that possible (most likely referring to UNDER_LINE). After the Professor sees Tsuchimikado Maika ride a cleaning robot, he becomes seriously impressed. Yoshio then says that the Professor should refrain from thinking of strange ideas.

Aware of BLOCK's plans and GROUP's response to it, the Professor orders Saraku to defend the antenna of the satellite Hikoboshi II as its destruction would cut of Academy City's surveillance and making it vulnerable from outside attacks. This too is made aware to the Professor. Later, apparently knowing where Kakine Teitoku went to after stealing the Tweezers from the Elementary Particle Engineering Laboratory, he has Yoshio's Type: Great Dane robot accompany him to District 4. He uses his Mimosa to attack Kakine who has begun wearing the Tweezers, killing his driver in a gruesome manner. Kakine becomes aware of him, to which the Professor laments on how losing a Level 5 would be a shame. Kakine ponders on which faction he is from, to which the Professor states that is of MEMBER. The Professor then asks Kakine if he smokes, though he doesn't reply. The Professor makes a metaphor on the situation, comparing Kakine to a child doing something because he thought it was cool, annoying Kakine. Using the Tweezers Kakine noticed for the first time of the Professor's Mimosa, stating them to be Nanodevices. The Professor claims that the Mimosa are not as grand as Kakine presumes and explains its properties to him. At which point, Kakine becomes surrounded by him and attacks him.

Outside of the warehouse where the Mimosa are attacking Kakine, Yoshio comments on the accurate information the higher-ups provided regarding Kakine's location. This prompts the Professor to say that is the power of the upper classes, as such it is impossible to run away in Academy City since it is their territory. The Professor then begins eating a fruit as he tells Yoshio on how he became attached to formulas because art brought him despair when he was 12 years old. Afterwards as he looked on his watch, he deemed that the Mimosa has already eliminated Kakine. He tells Yoshio that they should not reclaim the Tweezers and that the other members of SCHOOL should have already been taken out. Though in thought, he worries about killing a Level 5 but reassures himself that Aleister can just make another one. Yoshio asks about Saraku, to which Professor, apparently knowing that Accelerator referred to him as Kill Point, confirms that he is still alive as Accelerator struck him with none fatal wounds. Here, he asks Yoshio to retrieve him when he has the time. However, Yoshio doesn't respond as there was a loud explosion, inadvertently dispersing the Mimosa and making it useless. There, the Professor discovers that Kakine Teitoku is alive and without a single scratch on his person. Kakine has overheard the Professor's short story of his life, to which the Professor tries to attack him using the Mimosa but discovers that they have been dispersed too much by the explosion. At his wit's end, Kakine tells the Professor that "It’s about time you had another dose of despair." Kakine presumably kills him afterwards, though in what manner is unknown.

Daihasei Festival Arc (Railgun)
On the first day of Daihaseisai he contacts a disguised Xochitl to carry out her first mission as part of MEMBER, and that is to investigate Kouzaku Mitori, the go-between they had for MEMBER and the Academy City Board of Directors. Professor suspected that Kouzaku may be following orders from another person and are deceiving them in order to jobs for that person.

Equipment
The Professor carries with him Mimosa, apparently a name he gave to the technology himself. To any regular human, it can tear their cells apart one at a time. Its effects are visually gruesome.

Design Evolution
Appearing only in a single volume, Professor's design remains static throughout the series. His preliminary design bares little change from his finished design. According to Haimura, Professor looks like Desty Nova from Battle Angel Alita.

Quotes

 * (To Baba Yoshio, from volume 15): "...I want to find the beauty hiding in the corners of the world and softly admire that wonderful beauty. I will bow down to whoever I have to in order to do that. I don’t care if I’m called Aleister’s dog."

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Profesor