Yobou Banka

Yobou Banka (誉望 万化), also known by his moniker, the Boy with goggles (ゴーグルの少年), is a minor character that is introduced in Toaru Majutsu no Index. An operative of SCHOOL, he is the first member of the organization in their debut to be seen and the first one to be killed in action.

Appearance
He is depicted as having somewhat spiky hair. In Toaru Majutsu no Index, he wears a puffy vest over his shirt, while in Toaru Kagaku no Railgun he wears a flannel shirt over his shirt. His most distinctive feature is the metallic goggles on his face that surrounds his entire head just like Saturn's rings. Plugs are inserted into it all around, and countless cables connect them to a machine on his back.

Personality
Little is shown about him, but he didn't show any hesitation when dispatching an associate, Management, who had become too much a liability to SCHOOL's plans to be kept alive. He seems to be at least easy-going enough to laugh at the fact that the Man on the Phone mocked Kakine Teitoku for using wings.

Background
Sometime before joining SCHOOL, Banka became dissatisfied with the ranking system and deemed himself strong enough to be a Level 5. He later challenges Kakine Teitoku for his place among the Level 5s but loses bitterly. SCHOOL later wins him over and joined after shortly. However, his fight with Kakine has given him a trauma and makes him sick.

Battle Royale Arc
Receiving word that Management has been captured by GROUP's clean-up team, he is sent to kill him, most likely to silence him in his association with SCHOOL's plot. He attacks the paddy wagon carrying Management, ramming into a guardrail and then ripping it in half. However, he leaves all the GROUP subordinates alive as he does this. After Management gets out, still reeling from the wound he sustained against Tsuchimikado Motoharu, he finds Banka approaching him. Despite the pain, Management manages a meek smile, apologizing for his blunder. Banka says that he should not mind it for he is the one who should apologize. Management then asks how to unlock his handcuffs so that they can leave already. However, he suddenly screams as Banka crushes his hands and head, killing him, and says "too bad" to his plight regarding the handcuffs.

Yobou Banka was apparently with Kakine Teitoku and the Girl in the dress while they wait for the security in the Elementary Particle Engineering Laboratory to be disrupted after Sunazara Chimitsu's attempted assassination on Oyafune Monaka. He, Kakine, and Girl in the dress enter the facility to retrieve the Tweezers, and are later forced to engage against ITEM in battle in order for them to escape. He is later killed by Mugino Shizuri who then takes his blood-spattered goggles as a trophy.

Dream Ranker Arc
The events leading up to the confrontations of the various Dark Side organizations in October 9 is told in Toaru Kagaku no Railgun. At the height of the Indian Poker card fad, the Girl in the dress have him look up on the Indian Poker cards as there are scientists leaving essences of themselves within the cards as insurance, and that information on the Tweezers have been leaked in one the cards. Using his computer expertise, he narrows down a list of conversations regarding Indian Poker, and wants the organization to investigate each one of them. One of these conversations comes from Saten Ruiko, a friend of Frenda Seivelun of ITEM. He orders a team to abduct Saten but are foiled by Frenda Seivelun.

Meanwhile, he himself investigates one of the leads, infiltrating a facility on his own. Using his ability is able to copy the contents of an Indian Poker card from the facility and into the empty Indian Poker card he is holding. He is later contacted by the team he had ordered to get Saten, and found that they have been defeated by someone. Seeing that there might be something bigger about Saten than he realized, Yobou orders Yumiya Rakko, SCHOOL's sniper, to hunt them down.

Banka later returns from his mission, having gathered three Indian Poker cards plus a researcher from the facility he infiltrated. As Rakko still hasn't returned, he hopes she isn't up to her old tricks, where she delays finishing her mission just so she can make her target suffer more. Banka later goes to the mall where Rakko was supposed to be after her battle with Frenda and later saves her life. In spite of this, the battle with Frenda left Rakko severely wounded, losing her powerful sense of smell and the lower half of her face replaced with metallic beak-like machine. When SCHOOL later had a meeting with Kakine, congratulating them in getting the information for where the Tweezers where from the Indian Poker cards, Rakko begins talking out of place. This annoys Kakine to the point where he threatens her. While Rakko leaves out of frustration in not being able to go directly find and attack Frenda, Banka on the other hand remembers his trauma and leaves as he becomes sick.

Abilities
Yobou is a Level 4 Psychokinesist. He makes use of his ability in combination with his goggles.

Mugino Shizuri proclaims that Yobou was someone without any real power, though it is unsuited for combat, Yobou has an esper power that is useful within the context of his organization's operations. It is revealed that he is "an esper that can skim fragrance components". It is demonstrated when he copies the contents of an Indian Poker card from an insufficiently airtight safe onto a blank card in his hand.

Other abilities
Using his goggles, Yobou can analyse, extract and rewrite information; by combining his psychokinesis ability and the technology, namely his goggles, Yobou can perform various manifestation such like pyrokinesis, silencing, transparencing, electronic manipulation, etc. Based on this, Yobou can perform deeds from narrowing down a list of results in a search to be more relevant, to being able to infiltrate an entire laboratory on his own undetected.

Despite Mugino's words, he can still be considered powerful as he can crush and rip an entire car in half with enough precision to keep the people inside it alive, and also crush Management's head and hands by moving his fingers as if swiping a card.

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Banka Yobou