Kyoya Yarizaki

“I am the Second Piercing Lancer.”

 - Kyoya Yarizaki 

Kyoya Yarizaki (槍崎協矢 Yarizaki Kyōya) is the main protagonist of the webmanga Shugeki Lancer.

After the death of his brother Touma Yarizaki, Kyoya vowed to follow his footsteps and one day get selected for the Japanese National team in table tennis and challenge the world's greatest. He transfers to Touran Academy at the beginning of the series and is treated as a dependable player known as "The Second Piercing Lancer".

Appearance
Kyoya has black hair and brown eyes, sharing similar features to his brother. His hair is mid-length and is spiked at the bottom and the side. He is usually depicted as wearing the Touran Academy Jacket or the Touran table tennis club uniform, but is shown wearing very casual clothes out of uniform, such as a gray zip-up jacket.

Personality
Kyoya is depicted mostly as being passive and emotionless, however can quickly switch into being passionate about standing up for his comrades during conflict. At times he is shown being clueless or witty even without showing large emotions seen mostly around his interactions between his close friends Kiichi Tamuro and Shou Kitahara. When his passionate side comes out during intense matches, he is shown having confidence and pride, enjoying a tough fight and playing at full strength, which can lead his teammates to victory, but also lead him to make the wrong choices.

Plot
Early Age

From an early age Kyoya looked up to his brother Touma Yarizaki, as a role model for being one of the greatest youth players of table tennis in Japan leading him to have a passion to learn from him. He lived a very happy and peaceful childhood within a close family consisting of his mother Chisa Yarizaki, father Gou Yarizaki and brother Touma Yarizaki.

At the age of 14 his brother Touma along with his father die from a car accident when travelling to a match held within the Tokyo Sports Stadium. This horrific accident changes Kyoya into wishing to follow his brother's dream and taking the title "Piercing Lancer" for himself, devoting the next 3 years of his life to table tennis training.

Touran Academy

In his second year of high school, aged 17, Kyoya transfers to Touran Academy, saves Kiichi Tamuro and confronts thugish former Touran member Ichiro Onimura leading him to join the team. Kyoya is immediately idolized by Tamuro for his skills and their friendship begins to grow due to them being in the same class. This friendship then branches out to both Kagayaki Nijino and Yota Daimon, two students also in the club, where he grows a sense of respect toward both of them. Kyoya challenges Daimon to a practice match in order for him to not only show off his own skills but to learn the strength of Touran's captain. This match is cut short, after Kyoya realises how strong Daimon is and understands that he still needs to practice harder for his dream to become a reality.

Kyoya along with Tamuro is then requested to find one of the former members of Touran, a player named Shien, said to be always seen in a certain alleyway. He soon finds out to his surprise that the one they were looking for was a female delinquent named Kiyoko Shien, learning that she was once one of the ace players of the team but has no interest to play anymore. Kyoya becomes frustrated that he can't recruit Shien due to her having extraordinary skills that would be wasted if she continued the life that she has. After a confrontation between Daimon and Shien, she joins their team and returns to being the ace. Kyoya has a strong respect toward Shien, not only because of her incredible skills in table tennis, but her strong spirit and will to lead her comrades in the right direction.

VS Nanabana High school

A letter is then sent to Kyoya out of the blue, asking for a match. The sender turns out to be Kazuma Nanjo, a charismatic, flirtatious guy who is skilled in the sport. Kyoya suffers an injury to his arm during the match due to Nanjo's tricky playstyle, and after losing to him, Kyoya grows a rivalry and passion to defeat him leading to their multiple confrontations in the future.

The team is challenged by Nanjo and his club to a practice match, where Kyoya faces up against the mysterious Shuyu Kuromine as well as Nanjo himself. Both enemies back him into a corner, as well as his arm injury getting worse, lead him to develop a new technique the "Rakuraisou" in order to overcome Nanjo's defense. He is then struck by confusion as he loses instantly to Shuyu, becoming a reminder to him once again that he needs to grow stronger for his new team to strive.

Whirlwind Cup - Round 1 VS Kenran Academy Before the first round begins, Kyoya ends up being in a confrontation with Minato Akai, a mysterious prodigy who looks up to the original piercing lancer, where he demands that Kyoya makes it to the tournament finals, becoming the start of a new rivalry. During the 2 month gap between Touran's practice match against Nanabana and the regional tournament the Whirlwind Cup, Kyoya focuses on growing his skills with his left arm, due to his injured right. This allows him to create a new style of unexpected play shown in his match against Miki of Kenran Academy, where he uses heavy powered smashes with his left. He also takes on Noa Awekawa in a battle of wits, where he figures out the link between the candy that she's eating and the playstyle she uses at the same time. Due to Tamuro's genius idea of figuring out the weakness behind Honoka Hinomiya's "Dance of the Phoenix", Kyoya uses that knowledge to his advantage to stop her other technique the "Crimson Claw" by doing the opposite, and stepping back from the ball.

Whirlwind Cup - Round 2 VS Tamagaoka Academy

Kyoya is forced to take a leadership approach in the second round, due to Tamagaoka hiring thugs to stop Touran's two strongest; Daimon and Shien from attending the match on time. Due to this, Kyoya is shown having a stronger more reliable side, where he guides both Tamuro and Kagayaki with the help of their coach Tatsuya Kurogane in gaining confidence for them to both awaken their first special techniques. Kyoya's match in this round is a rematch with Ichiro Onimura, where both sides want to settle their score from their first meeting. He then abandons his main playstyle that Onimura had studied relying on only his gut instincts in order to become unpredictable to his foe.

Whirlwind Cup - Round 3 VS Kurokouzan High school

During the time between the second and third rounds, Kyoya befriends transfer student Shou Kitahara, due to her being in the same class and having a similar interest toward table tennis. Furthermore, after she shares her story about her old school, the two end up having a strong connection of trust which lead to their friendship. In the third round of the tournament Kyoya teams up with Daimon, who is eventually switched out for Shou and applies his knowledge and abilities to support both players. In the beginning, Kyoya learns through experience that the secret to Ginji Nakatani's "Mirror Doubles" is to move in the opposite direction that the ball is going toward, leading both him and Daimon to have a winning chance. He also uses Karen's "Thorns of the Black Rose" to his advantage, wearing down his own racket in order to stop Ginji's strategy. When Gou Takagami; one of the phantom gods gets substituted into the match, Kyoya is initially in shock at how strong his enemy is. However after calm assessment Kyoya resorts to striking from behind his teammate Daimon, in order for it to be impossible for Takagami to predict where his strikes are going and deflect the ball on his racket to power him down. Whilst this tactic doesn't work forever, after Shou is substituted in, Kyoya is then able to trick Takagami into expecting him to do the same, only for Shou to be the one that goes through with the strategy. After Takagami stops holding back, Kyoya is pushed into a corner, where he awakens an incomplete "Shindo Eye", leading his right eye to glow yellow and lead him into deciding the best possible path in the situation. He learns quickly that this power drains his stamina at an unbelievably fast rate.

'''Whirlwind Cup - Round 4 VS Nanabana High school '''After meeting a mysterious boy named Koyo in the park after practice, Kyoya reunites with his old rivals from Nanabana High school, seeing the growth in both Nanjo and Koizumi. They declare that they are all friends today, but enemies the moment the match starts. Nervous about the growth in his rivals strength, Kyoya assesses his situation and heads for the match. He accidentally stumbles across Shuyu and Koyo arguing in the hallway, where he learns that his new friend is Shuyu's brother, but also that he doesn't have much time left to live. Containing this knowledge to himself, he heads for the match.

Matches
Kyoya vs Onimura (Ch. 1) First-to-three Unofficial WIN

Kyoya vs Daimon (Ch. 2) Entry Match DRAW

Kyoya vs Shien (Ch. 4) Practice INTERRUPTED

Kyoya vs Nanjo (Ch. 4) Unofficial LOSS

Kyoya vs Nanjo (Ch. 6) WIN

Kyoya vs Shuyu (Ch. 6) LOSS

Kyoya vs Noa (Ch. 11) WIN

Kyoya vs Honoka (Ch. 11) WIN

Kyoya vs Onimura (Ch. 15) WIN

Kyoya & Daimon vs Karen & Ginji (Ch. 18) WIN

Kyoya & Daimon vs Ginji & Takagami (Ch. 18) LOSS

Kyoya & Shou vs Ginji & Takagami (Ch. 19) WIN

7 Wins - 3 Losses - 1 Draw - 1 abandoned

(Win percentage 63%)

Abilities
Kyoya's general playstyle is vastly similar to Touma Yarizaki's. He resorts to fast, powerful smashes that pierce through his enemy's weakpoints and uses his quick deduction skills to find the right timing and accuracy. Whilst Kyoya has an extremely powerful playstyle, his lack of stamina is his main weakness which gets easily depleted by using these strong techniques multiple times in a row.



Kouraisou (Lightning Spear) (Smash type)

By concentrating all his energy in his right side and twisting his body, the Kouraisou much like a spear pierces through anything and cannot be deflected with just sheer power. A technique inherited from Kyoya's brother Touma Yarizaki during his pro days.



Rakuraisou (Descending Thunder Spear) (Smash type)

A form of the Kouraisou that evolved due to Kyoya not being able to use his right arm. Through throwing the racket with his weaker hand into the air and bringing it back down with his dominant one, charged up power of the Kouraisou is transfered, creating a thunderous wall breaking smash.

Shindo eye (incomplete)

Kyoya gained an incomplete Shindo Eye when confronted with the strength of Phantom God Takagami. By using this ability, his right eye glows a bright yellow which leads him into deciding what the best course of action is to overcome anything thrown his way. The drawback of such a power being used is that his energy levels strain easily, leading him to not be able to use it multiple times in a row.

Friendships

 * He is close friends to Kiichi Tamuro, Shou Kitahara and Kagayaki Nijino, due to them all being the same age and being a part of the Touran Academy Table Tennis Club.
 * He respects Yota Daimon, Kiyoko Shien and Tatsuya Kurogane, as they are leaders in the club and have more experience then he does.
 * He admires his own brother Touma Yarizaki and wishes to fulfill his dream.
 * He believes that Kazuma Nanjo, Honoka Hinomiya and Ichiro Onimura are rivals.

Trivia

 * Kyoya's Japanese Kanji name 槍崎協矢 consist of both 槍 Yari (Spear) and 矢 Ya (Arrow) relating to his special techniques being based on weapons used by knights, most notably the spear within his Kouraisou technique. 協 Kyo comes from the word 協力 Kyoryoku, which means to unite, signifying his importance to the series being the main character in the center of the story.
 * Kyoya's heavy use of piercing moves (as well as having the title "Piercing Lancer") come from the author's vision he had when thinking of a super-powered table tennis series, imagining a ball piercing through a racket. Thus, Kyoya's techniques tend to be strong smashes, rather than technical hits such as Tamuro or Kagayaki.
 * Kyoya is originally seen using a Pencil Grip in matches. This is replaced for a more standard style of play from Chapter 8, at the start of the Whirlwind cup. Whilst this is a change in stylistic choice, the explanation could be made that in the 2 month time period between Chapter 7 and 8, Kyoya focused more on heavy strikes using his left hand, thus resorting in a more basic playstyle.