IMAGINE BREAKER explanation and permission post
Warning: This post contains spoilers for pretty much all of the first season of index and a few parts of railgun. You can probably watch railgun and still be surprised as Touma isn't a main character there. However this completely spoils index. If you were planning on watching this series I suggest taking the time to watch it before reading this if it's at all possible.
THE IMAGINE BREAKER IN CANON
Touma's ability is Imagine Breaker, an ability which negates all supernatural powers, including the effects of magical, psychic, and divine powers (which may also include his good luck and God's blessing according to Index), because of this the people testing psychic abilities cannot detect or classify his abilities, as such Aleister Crowley considers him neither a psychic nor a magician but rather a normal person with a unique ability.
At first, the source of Imagine Breaker appeared to be his right hand only, but in later episodes, it is questionable that his power doesn't concentrate on one part of his body. It appears his right hand is the only part that can actively negate supernatural things, with the rest of the body immune to supernatural effects, like heat from Innocentius that can even melt metal door handles. Though this is still debatable, as Ars Magna can bypass Imagine Breaker and go straight into the brain to affect Touma's memories.
In two different instances, Touma demonstrated that he can dispel to an extent the effects of an area-wide attack. One instance is blocking the effects of electricity Misaka Mikoto created, through putting his right hand out to act as a lightning rod for the electricity to be directed to his right hand and Imagine Breaker as opposed to another part of his body without the Imagine Breaker's protection. The other one is blocking a portion of Kaitabi Hatsuya's Graviton from hitting the people behind him using Imagine Breaker as a shield. Nonetheless, it is required for him to have physical contact to initiate the effects of his power.
Imagine Breaker also seems capable of affecting an angel, since Gabriel who became Misha using Sasha Kruezhev's body doesn't dare to take a candy directly from Touma's right hand, and the artificial angel Kazakiri Hyouka is subconsciously afraid of physically touching Touma.
So far there are only a few attacks which can "surpass" Kamijou Touma's Imagine Breaker power canceling speed; Index's Dragon Breath and Stiyl's Innocentius. The Curtana's Dimensional Cleavage Formula is a different case, as it does not fall under the 'surpassing cancelling speed' category, but 'After this window of opportunity it can't be negated' category. Kanzaki stated Imagine Breaker can negate a dimensional cutter attack if it comes into contact within 1.25 seconds.
THIS IS A LOT OF INFORMATION so for those of you who are completely confused here's some bullet points.
→ Imagine Breaker basically destroys anything that shouldn't exist. Magical Powers, Psychic Abilities, anything like that. But he needs physical contact with the 'thing that shouldn't exist' for it to work. This usually works by him holding out his right hand or punching you with it.
→ He's just an average person when it comes to physical attacks. Meaning he can't hold out his right hand and magically repel your punch.
→ This means if you were to use telekinesis to throw a rock at Touma all he'd be able to do is run. If you used the telekinesis on him directly he could block it.
→ Anything that affects the brain directly could work depending on the situation, comment and we can talk it out.
→ Angels, for some reason, are screwed. Canon hasn't explained this one fully but my suggestion is to not touch Touma at all. In fact angels should have a psychological fear of touching him. Like a cat that knows not to eat food that will make it sick.
→ There are a couple of attacks that Touma may be unable to cancel but he can still block it and keep it at bay.
Here's some youtube videos to demonstrate Touma's ability a little more clearly.
In the beginning Touma is able to block Misaka's Electricity no problem, this is because she forms it with her Psychic Abilities. However when Misaka uses her abilities to form a 'chainsaw' out of the iron in the ground this becomes a physical attack, meaning he can't block it.
Skip to 2:39. In this you'll see that Touma can't block Index's attacks. This is because the spell is faster than Touma's Imagine Breaker can cancel it so they end up in a stale mate. We're talking about seconds here, though. It'll depend on the characters ability if it can actually beat the Imagine Breaker, though. In this video you'll start to see Touma's hand crack and bleed so it's obviously too much for his hand, physically, to take. This is another important thing to keep in mind in a stale mate situation (Although Even John Pen Mode Index admits that it's not an effective way to beat Touma).
The Imagine Breaker doesn't just work on attacks. It works on anything that 'shouldn't exist' such as Index's clothing here. Index does an okay job at explaining her clothing so I'll let her do the talking.
THE IMAGINE BREAKER AND MAYFIELD
→ Touma can only use his imagine breaker on non-droned characters. Touma's Imagine Breaker cannot undrone any characters and it does not have any affect on NPCs.
→ Touma's Imagine Breaker will have effects on the characters that are mun controlled. For Example: During the mun run raven blood event Touma was able to use his Imagine Breaker to bring Misaka back to her true self.
→ Touma usually uses his right arm to either nullify attacks or punch people. It'll depend on your powers as to which one he'll use.
Now I know people may not want to deal with such a Hax power and therefore I'll be asking people before oocly having Touma march up to their door to pick a fight. But if you don't want to fight Touma it's actually pretty easy to avoid.
→ Most of the time Touma only fights someone to protect others. There are a few rare examples of this but most of the time conflict can be avoided if you aren't messing with people.
→ The only real example of this not being true is when Misaka picks a fight with him over and over until he finally gives up and fights her. Although at first he refuses.
However if you still don't want to fight him for any reason please comment here. Touma is pretty dense so I can always play that up. You should also comment if you do want to fight him so we can work something out and figure out your powers vs the imagine breaker!
THE IMAGINE BREAKER IN CANON
Touma's ability is Imagine Breaker, an ability which negates all supernatural powers, including the effects of magical, psychic, and divine powers (which may also include his good luck and God's blessing according to Index), because of this the people testing psychic abilities cannot detect or classify his abilities, as such Aleister Crowley considers him neither a psychic nor a magician but rather a normal person with a unique ability.
At first, the source of Imagine Breaker appeared to be his right hand only, but in later episodes, it is questionable that his power doesn't concentrate on one part of his body. It appears his right hand is the only part that can actively negate supernatural things, with the rest of the body immune to supernatural effects, like heat from Innocentius that can even melt metal door handles. Though this is still debatable, as Ars Magna can bypass Imagine Breaker and go straight into the brain to affect Touma's memories.
In two different instances, Touma demonstrated that he can dispel to an extent the effects of an area-wide attack. One instance is blocking the effects of electricity Misaka Mikoto created, through putting his right hand out to act as a lightning rod for the electricity to be directed to his right hand and Imagine Breaker as opposed to another part of his body without the Imagine Breaker's protection. The other one is blocking a portion of Kaitabi Hatsuya's Graviton from hitting the people behind him using Imagine Breaker as a shield. Nonetheless, it is required for him to have physical contact to initiate the effects of his power.
Imagine Breaker also seems capable of affecting an angel, since Gabriel who became Misha using Sasha Kruezhev's body doesn't dare to take a candy directly from Touma's right hand, and the artificial angel Kazakiri Hyouka is subconsciously afraid of physically touching Touma.
So far there are only a few attacks which can "surpass" Kamijou Touma's Imagine Breaker power canceling speed; Index's Dragon Breath and Stiyl's Innocentius. The Curtana's Dimensional Cleavage Formula is a different case, as it does not fall under the 'surpassing cancelling speed' category, but 'After this window of opportunity it can't be negated' category. Kanzaki stated Imagine Breaker can negate a dimensional cutter attack if it comes into contact within 1.25 seconds.
THIS IS A LOT OF INFORMATION so for those of you who are completely confused here's some bullet points.
→ Imagine Breaker basically destroys anything that shouldn't exist. Magical Powers, Psychic Abilities, anything like that. But he needs physical contact with the 'thing that shouldn't exist' for it to work. This usually works by him holding out his right hand or punching you with it.
→ He's just an average person when it comes to physical attacks. Meaning he can't hold out his right hand and magically repel your punch.
→ This means if you were to use telekinesis to throw a rock at Touma all he'd be able to do is run. If you used the telekinesis on him directly he could block it.
→ Anything that affects the brain directly could work depending on the situation, comment and we can talk it out.
→ Angels, for some reason, are screwed. Canon hasn't explained this one fully but my suggestion is to not touch Touma at all. In fact angels should have a psychological fear of touching him. Like a cat that knows not to eat food that will make it sick.
→ There are a couple of attacks that Touma may be unable to cancel but he can still block it and keep it at bay.
Here's some youtube videos to demonstrate Touma's ability a little more clearly.
Click to viewIn the beginning Touma is able to block Misaka's Electricity no problem, this is because she forms it with her Psychic Abilities. However when Misaka uses her abilities to form a 'chainsaw' out of the iron in the ground this becomes a physical attack, meaning he can't block it.
Skip to 2:39. In this you'll see that Touma can't block Index's attacks. This is because the spell is faster than Touma's Imagine Breaker can cancel it so they end up in a stale mate. We're talking about seconds here, though. It'll depend on the characters ability if it can actually beat the Imagine Breaker, though. In this video you'll start to see Touma's hand crack and bleed so it's obviously too much for his hand, physically, to take. This is another important thing to keep in mind in a stale mate situation (Although Even John Pen Mode Index admits that it's not an effective way to beat Touma).
The Imagine Breaker doesn't just work on attacks. It works on anything that 'shouldn't exist' such as Index's clothing here. Index does an okay job at explaining her clothing so I'll let her do the talking.
THE IMAGINE BREAKER AND MAYFIELD
→ Touma can only use his imagine breaker on non-droned characters. Touma's Imagine Breaker cannot undrone any characters and it does not have any affect on NPCs.
→ Touma's Imagine Breaker will have effects on the characters that are mun controlled. For Example: During the mun run raven blood event Touma was able to use his Imagine Breaker to bring Misaka back to her true self.
→ Touma usually uses his right arm to either nullify attacks or punch people. It'll depend on your powers as to which one he'll use.
Now I know people may not want to deal with such a Hax power and therefore I'll be asking people before oocly having Touma march up to their door to pick a fight. But if you don't want to fight Touma it's actually pretty easy to avoid.
→ Most of the time Touma only fights someone to protect others. There are a few rare examples of this but most of the time conflict can be avoided if you aren't messing with people.
→ The only real example of this not being true is when Misaka picks a fight with him over and over until he finally gives up and fights her. Although at first he refuses.
However if you still don't want to fight him for any reason please comment here. Touma is pretty dense so I can always play that up. You should also comment if you do want to fight him so we can work something out and figure out your powers vs the imagine breaker!