The reason Level 0s started being attacked was Skill-Out.
It was them who first started attacking espers.
That said, they didn't actually get into fist fights. It was more like slight arguments. However, as Skill-Out grew larger, the delinquent side grew stronger.
But the revenge for that did not stop with just Skill-Out. If a Level 0 was walking around the city and the espers didn't like it, that Level 0 would end up being the target. The brunt of the damage did not fall on the armed groups of Skill-Out. It fell on the truly innocent Level 0s.
It went from elementary school students to college students. There was no discrimination in the targets. And the attacks were gruesome. The violence spread in no time.
A call for "Just Revenge" was given online and it gathered half-serious responses. As the situation escalated, a large number of powerful espers announced they were taking part in it. It no longer had anything to do with the original people. It was just a desire to act violently and hit people free of risk and free of guilt. It was a means of relieving stress. Just for that, a large number of people began being attacked out of nowhere.
And amid it all, there was one post on a BBS.
"I found an idiot school. All the students are Level 0. It's because of schools like that that everything is getting so violent. We need to bring a hammer to this incarnation of evil. I need people to help me take out the trash."
The indicated school was the kind of elementary school you could find anywhere.
The students that attended the school had no connection to Skill-Out.
But that kind of logic didn't get through to the attackers. All of them just couldn't get over the fact that they had been made a fool of by Level 0s once. By that point, the attackers themselves didn't even really know who it was they were attacking.
Komaba Ritoku did not like conflict.
But…
For that very reason…
He decided that they had to take responsibility with their own hands.