Characters / The Irregular at Magic High School - Main Characters

All spoilers regarding the first 11 volumes are unmarked. Examples pertaining to volumes 12 onward can be spoiler tagged if deemed necessary.

The Irregular at Magic High School Main Character Index
Main Characters | Close Friends Of The Shiba Siblings | Magician Houses And Families | The Yotsuba Clan | Other Master Clans | Foreign Characters | Miscellaneous Characters

Main Characters

Tatsuya Shiba

Tatsuya Shiba

Voiced by: Yūichi Nakamura (Japanese), Alejandro Saab (English)

Course: 2 (Volume 1~11), Magical Engineer Course (Volume 12~)
Year: 1^st (Volume 1~11), 2^nd (Volume 12~)
Class: E

The male protagonist and the elder brother of Miyuki Shiba.

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• Accomplice by Inaction: The novels' narration makes a point of telling us that, had Tatsuya known about the plot to bomb a stadium full of innocent people, he still would've done nothing to stop it, even if he was fully capable of doing so.
  • Similarly, he's unable to do anything when his Course 2 friends are ridiculed. Fortunately, Erika intervenes.
• Action Hero: Super-soldier and one of the strongest fighting mages in the world.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: He is more affable and compassionate in the anime adaptation. Also, most of his internal narration was cut, as a result of the Pragmatic Adaptation, so his attempt to act like a normal person comes off as less of an act.
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: His default method of soothing Miyuki.
• Almighty Janitor: He constantly outperforms Course 1 students despite being a Course 2 student, due to poor results in practical testing. However, it turns out that the criteria used for testing practical magic ability are faulty for irregulars like Tatsuya.
• Almost Kiss: Twice. Miyuki nearly kissed him while he was sleeping, and they needed to be very close in volume 11 for Miyuki to kill a Parasite.
• Aloof Big Brother: Was this to Miyuki until she decided to get closer to him.
• Always Someone Better: A lot of people got massive inferiority complexes after seeing his skills.
• Anti-Hero: The Pragmatic variation. On the one hand, he is a rather kind guy, and on the other, the lack of strong emotions and the constant need to obey the clan because of Miyuki made him cynical and ready to do violent deeds.
• Anti-Magic: He is able to use the two strongest Counter Magic Gram Demolition and Gram Dispersion. He also found a way to use Cast Jamming without Antinite. Taken up to eleven with his new magic Gatekeeper, where he completely blocks a magician from using magic.

• Awesomeness by Analysis/Super-Senses: Elemental Sight.

• Badass Boast: Gives one before going to fight Blanche's Leader and his minions.
  Mayumi:... Tatsuya-kun, are you planning to fight them?
  Tatsuya: That's an incorrect way to put it. I'm not going to fight them, I am going to annihilate them.
• Badass Bookworm: Despite being his badass self, he got the top score on First High's written exam, has an extremely large knowledge of pretty much everything, and he's always looking into things. Miyuki even finds him digging into information on the so-called Philosopher's Stone. His skills immediately get him asked to join the Thesis Competition (bookworm competition) when he hadn't even applied.

• Badass Fingersnap: Combined with volume amplification to beat Masaki in Monolith Code.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: After the events of Yotsuba Maya's kidnapping the Yotsuba family agreed to the use of Yotsuba Miya's Mental Interference Magic on her own unborn son. The idea was to create the ultimate magician, a person so powerful that he could protect the Yotsuba forever and prevent any more tragedies such as the loss of over 30 members of the Yotsuba clan in their private war with Dahan including the deaths of key individuals such as the Clan Head. To put it bluntly, it worked. Tatsuya was born with the power to literally destroy the world. The subsequent operation to neuter his emotions was to prevent his magic from accidentally going out of control due to an emotional outburst. A large number of the Clan including several branch family heads were terrified of Tatsuya's power. They wanted a magical demigod and got one only to realize that they had a ticking time bomb on their hands.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Other than Miyuki, he also has a soft spot for his second cousins, the Kuroba twins (Fumiya and Ayako). Might have something to do with the fact that they were the only Yotsuba who was nice to him for the first 12 years of his life. He once abandoned his mission to save them when they're struggling to defeat the enemy.
• Being Watched: Sometimes he doesn't even need to use Elemental Sight to know it.
• Beyond the Impossible:
  • Flight magic was considered impossible using Modern Magic (it could be done with Ancient Magic) until he discovered a way for Modern Magicians to do it.
  • Elemental Sight allows him to read activation sequences, which is impossible for other magicians, so they can't use Gram Dispersion or his version of Cast Jamming.
• Beneath the Mask: He considers most people various degrees of expendable, and others instinctively understand this when they see him angry.
• Benevolent Boss: He's not upfront about some of the duties that will be expected of his employees, but otherwise is a fair and informal authority figure who protects them from many of the hazards of magician life.

• Big Brother Instinct: Endangering Miyuki is the only way to genuinely anger Tatsuya. The one time Miyuki's life was actually in danger he went on a rampage so devastating it earned him the nickname Mahesvara from the Chinese. He killed their guys so hard an entire nation dare not even speak his name. At the same time, his concern for the happiness Miyuki comes to such an extent that he seems to be ready to truly love her as a woman if need be. As a result, he did not even reject her after her declaration of love, saying that he might be able to fall in love with her in the future.
• Big Brother Is Watching: Literally. Can keep an eye on Miyuki at any time with Elemental Sight. Not that she minds.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • To save Erika and Mikihiko from the parasite.
  • Also to save Mizuki from being possessed.
• Blood-Splattered Warrior: After killing a terrorist at Yokohama.
• Bodyguarding a Badass: As Miyuki's guardian.
• Born Winner: Even though not everybody can use magic and some lineages are more powerful than others, Tatsuya qualifies. The Yotsuba is the most powerful clan among the 10 Master Clans in Japan. There are two magician lineages in the Yotsuba clan. Some of them are born with a strengthened mind manipulation magic (Miyuki and Miya) and the others are born with very strong abilities. Tatsuya and Maya belong to the latter category.
• Boyfriend Bluff: Invoked. When out on the town, he and Miyuki pretend they're a couple to protect her from unwanted attention.
• Bridal Carry: Done to Miyuki from time to time. Who totally loves it.
• Broken Ace: His practical school results aside, he is a Teen Genius and is good at every sport, he is so good that his friends joke that he's omnipotent. But most of his friends aren’t aware of his troubled past and how Tatsuya views himself because of the operation.
• Brother–Sister Team: When working with Miyuki.
• Bullet Catch: Played with in Volume 7, he used his Decomposition on the physical body of the bullets, giving the impression that he was catching them.
• Bullying a Dragon: Many people take his Course 2 status to mean a lack of ability; while wiser heads acknowledge that regardless, his combat ability is first class, some never do learn the lesson. Most egregious though are those connected to the Yotsuba family. They are well aware that Tatsuya is a strategic class magician and thus Person of Mass Destruction which is bad enough. The fact that his adoring sister Miyuki is slated to be the next head of the House and is a powerful magician in her own right seals the deal. Just how well do they expect to be treated when they have heaped nothing but scorn and contempt on her beloved brother when Miyuki ascends to her position as the head of the Yotsuba?
• Byronic Hero: His vast practical capabilities are matched only by his inability to deal with uncomfortable subjects in ways other than denial or murder.
• Bystander Syndrome: Tatsuya feels sympathy for the victims of Course 1 bullies, but doesn't do anything to help them until Miyuki prods him into it. He's very 'all or nothing' that way.
• Celibate Hero: Justified. He can't feel strong emotions like love.
• Chessmaster Sidekick: During the Nine School Competitions, as an engineer.
• Character Development: At the end of the series, Tatsuya manages to actually articulate a desire for something. This is significant because of how close he was to being an Empty Shell at the beginning.
  • In the same book, he searches for a way to peacefully neutralize Minoru, even though he is a target, and give him and Minami a happy ending.
• Chick Magnet: One of the most striking examples of this in the anime, it seems, almost all of the heroines of the show are deeply in love with him, including even his own sister. He became more popular with girls after demonstrating his prowess during the Nine Schools Competition.
• Child Soldier: He joined the 101st Battalion since he was 13. His training started at a very early age and included fighting animals. He fought and killed a 30-year-old man when he was just 6 years old!
• Clueless Chick-Magnet: His lack of a normal range of emotions means that he often misses the hints that a good number of the girls/women around him are romantically interested in him. When clearly faced with a declaration of love, he demonstrates himself to also be a Celibate Hero.

• Code Name: Oguro Ryuuya.
• Commonality Connection: With Ayako, due to their similar magics.
• Covered with Scars: Has many scars all over his body, though they're hidden by his clothing.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Tatsuya defeats Vice President Hattori in less than 5 seconds during their first battle. Made somewhat ironic by how the latter planned to use speed abilities to gain the upper hand and stating that whoever attacks first is pretty much the winner.
  • He single-handedly curb-stomped the Great Asian Alliance army that invaded Okinawa three years before the start of the series after some of the soldiers allied with them shot Miyuki. He had the 101st with him, but he was so enraged that he practically decomposed everything before it could touch him or before his allies could shoot it, all while restoring any allies that fell in battle. He concluded the affairs by field-experimenting his new shiny magic theory - "Material Burst"- for the first time and proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that, regardless of the Yotsubas' beliefs regarding his ability as a magician, he was stronger than all of them and the only reason he didn't bother to correct them was that he only cared about Miyuki.
• Cursed with Awesome: Being recruited into the Competition. Though an honor, it creates emptily courteous social situations where the other competitors know that he's magically inferior to them and he knows that they know this, but both have to act like they don't. Also, Masaki (accidentally) shot him.
• Deadpan Snarker: Often, he is the only sensible person among those around him.
• Death and the Maiden: In Dream Game, the MMORPG slots him and Miyuki into the roles of a beautiful damsel and the underworld god keeping her captive.
• Death Glare: He gives one to a saboteur in episode 17. He only stopped because Retsu Kudou personally came to the inspection area to see what was the ruckus was.
• Declaration of Protection: To Miyuki. Many times.
• Disintegrator Ray: Can perform this with his Decomposition magic.
• Ditzy Genius: A downplayed example. For example, he knows that incest is unacceptable socially, and he knows that people don't like hearing about unacceptable, but these pieces of knowledge don't quite connect in his mind. Therefore, he doesn't realize that joking about incest might be a bad idea. Or that Miyuki might be forced into an Arranged Marriage, or just how unlike a civilian he acts, etc.
• Due to the Dead: He got the idea for the Stellar Furnace on the anniversary of Honami's death, implying that it's to prevent magicians like her from being treated as disposable.
• Hates Being Touched: He instinctively panics upon being touched, or when any physical interactions go in a surprising direction.
• The Dog Bites Back: Immediately after his "operation", he killed the guy who'd performed it. You see, even if a victim's emotions are excised, their memories of who hurt them are not.
• Don't Make Me Destroy You: When Erika is about to reveal the fact that she knows about his true identity, he orders her to stop speaking. This is because if she didn't, he would have to kill her to protect the secret.
  • In volume 31, Tatsuya makes this statement to the media after the attack of Miyaki Island, after admitting that he might have killed Igor, the NSU Apostle.
• Doublethink: He does not identify himself as an incestuous person. He would marry his sister- and he doesn't feel disgusted by her incestuous tendencies at all- but in a totally normal, fraternal sort of way.
• The Dreaded: Those who know his true powers, most notably the Chinese, are very scared of him. Also, in volume 17, he becomes this to the school after the reveal that he and his sister are Yotsuba.
  • In Volume 31, Tatsuya and, by extension, the Yotsuba as a whole, has been agreed by the In-Universe world governments and militaries to have equaled or surpassed the 4 World Superpowers.
• Earn Your Title: Got named Mahesvara after the battle of Okinawa where he restored soldiers who were fatally injured and decomposed his enemies completely.
• Emotion Suppression: He can't feel his emotions fully due to the process that made him an Artificial Magician, which leaves him somewhat disconnected from others his age.
  • The only one which stayed intact is his "brotherly love"
• Energy Ball: Gram Demolition is a cannonball of psions.
• Epic Battle Boredom: Was decomposing his enemies without being attacked even once at 13.
• Everyone Has Standards: He doesn't judge Miyuki for magically lobotomizing their enemies, but he quietly prevents the spells from connecting. It's unclear whether this was to protect her perceived moral purity or out of empathy for the victims (because he knows what being Mind Raped is like).
• Experienced Protagonist: He is still training and becoming stronger, but he was already one of the strongest magicians at the start of the story.
• Famed In-Story: By the time of Cygnus Maidens, even the cafe Tatsuya and his friends frequented is treated like such hallowed ground that most students don't go there. Mei is especially inspired by his achievements.
• Fantastic Nuke: Material Burst.
• Fighter, Mage, Thief: In Monolith Code, as the thief.
• The Gadfly: Not even brainwashing completely stemmed his desire to fuck with people. This is one reason Miyuki is so confused about their relationship- she is his favorite target, and he never tells her whether he's being sincere or not.
• Gadgeteer Genius: He invents a lot of interesting CADs that prove to be useful for his friends, such as the flying spell Miyuki uses during the Nine Schools Competition.
• Geek: He leaves software laboratories only at the behest of the military or his family, much to Miyuki's annoyance. In the flashback arc, she's surprised when he expresses interest in a CAD, because it's the first time he's talked about anything much.
• Good Thing You Can Heal: His Self-Restoration will automatically restore his body when he is significantly injured or when an abnormality occurs which reduces his combat ability. He can restrain it through conscious control to punish himself or prevent others from noticing his ability.
• Goal in Life: His dream is to develop a Gravity Control-Type Thermonuclear Fusion Reactor so that magicians won't be treated as mere weapons.
• Greater-Scope Paragon: In the sequel series, Tatsuya's main role is to provide intel and infrastructure to his employees working "on the ground".
• Grammar Nazi: In the crossover game, he responds to Kirino's declaration that she will kidnap Miyuki and make her her younger sister with, "Younger sister?"
• Grew Beyond Their Programming: Tatsuya is a lot more "human" than he was when he was young. (Or better at acting human, anyway.) This implies that his issues are partly because of magic and partly the natural result of someone being raised without affection.

• Guns Akimbo: He is one of the few magicians who can use two CADs at the same time. He actually has three CADs—twin pistols and a bracelet-type—during the Newcomers Monolith Code competition.
• Gun Fu: In anime episode 16, to destroy Masaki's Air Bullets.
• The Gunslinger/Mage Marksman: Very good with guns and gun-shaped CADs.
• Happiness in Slavery: The only emotion left unmuted by the Yotsuba's operation was Tatsuya's empathy- specifically, his empathy for his designated 'master'. The most happiness he will ever feel is that of his controller, so even though he's not brainwashed in the typical sense, he pretty much has to obey. Miyuki hasn't been able to fix this, so in the meantime, she compensates by serving him in different ways than he serves her.
• Healing Factor: To the point of being able to survive a shot through the heart like it was nothing.
• Healing Shiv: He can apply his Healing Factor (Regrowth) to anyone by shooting them with his gun.

• Heroic Self-Deprecation: He feels that Leo's friendship is wasted on him because, being almost emotionless, he can't appreciate it as much as a normal person would.
• Homage: To Batman, in volume 12.
• Humble Hero: Despite his strength and his talents he thinks he is nothing special. This is because A) he thinks that heroes must have selfless motivations to be heroic, and B) all Clan Guardians are engineered and expected to be on par with trained soldiers. Indeed, one of the reasons his exploits draw so much attention is because onlookers don't know he's Clan-blooded.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: The reason why most of his senpai exploit him is that a super useful and effective subordinate.
• Hypocritical Heartwarming: Privately, he admits that Miyuki has violent tendencies. But Maya sucks and they have to close ranks against her, so when Maya says that Miyuki isn't "a perfect lady", Tatsuya loyally disagrees.
• Hypocrite: In the Conference arc, Tatsuya says that the magical community does not enforce Arranged Marriages (only encourage them). This prompts Mari to ask how much choice Tatsuya and his sister had in who they were married to.
• I Am Who?: In the Dream Game crossover, Tatsuya and Miyuki are dragged into a video game to serve as NPCs. They deduce that Miyuki is supposed to play the role of Geror, and Tatsuya one of the male family members who protects her. But they gave the SAO developers too much credit for being mythologically accurate: Tatsuya actually plays the role of the god of death, a Hades-esque figure who keeps Gerd trapped in the underworld.
• I Am Not a Gun: He's getting there...slowly.
• I'm Having Soul Pains: Can inflict this with Far Strike.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Can snipe 36 targets simultaneously.
• I Lied: He pumps one of No-Head Dragon's leaders for information before killing him.
• Incest Subtext: Tatsuya plays it for laughs. Nevertheless, the series has a lot of frank ship tease between him and Miyuki, more than any other girl. And although in the future it is explained by a number of the nuances of their past, overly intimate nature of their relationship and regular his thoughts about her beauty may directly have such subtext..
  Even sleeping with a one-of-a-kind beauty like this, fortunately, wouldn’t set his libido to work. That wasn’t to say he had no sexual urges at all, though, and it made him far too uncomfortable thinking about embracing his sister in the same futon. The soft sensation of her skin had felt good, which only multiplied the embarrassment. He obviously couldn’t have fallen back asleep like that.
• Innocent Innuendo: In book 23, he remarks on the 'intimacy' of the ritual he and Miyuki are about to perform. To Miyuki's surprise (and disappointment), he means spiritual intimacy.
• Invincible Hero: He always loses against Yakumo but has yet to lose against other opponents. He wishes to remain unbeatable so that Miyuki will be proud of him.
• Irrational Hatred: He didn't like Miyuki when they were kids. Not because of anything she'd done, but because she was closely related to Miya, the woman who destroyed his life. This is why Miyuki had to initiate the friendship that has benefited Tatsuya so much.
• I Just Want to Be Free: All he wants is to live a nice peaceful life with his sister. Unfortunately, there are many factions who want to control them, and he can't kill all of them without plunging the world into anarchy. Hence, the series' plot is about his efforts to civilly maneuver away from these factions and keep his powers a secret. Naturally, he fails.
• Jerkass Ball: Although the author mostly tries to portray Tatsuya as a Nice Guy and a very pacifist man, sometimes he gets demonstratively cynical or pro-nationalistic scenes only so that the development of the arc does not go along a peaceful path, and Tatsuya constantly reminds the reader that he's "emotionless".
• Knight Templar Big Brother: If you threaten Miyuki in any way, your life insurance better is paid up.
• Kung-Fu Wizard: Practices Ninjutsu, although in this setting it's considered Ancient Magic.
• Lightning Bruiser: Strong, fast, and with a Healing Factor. Even his sister sometimes uses dangerous spells against him, because she knows that he will instantly recover from them.
• Literal Genie: He is bound to consider Miyuki's happiness his happiness, but this doesn't mean he has to obey her, or do what she wants if there is a strong reason not to. On Okinawa, for example, she ordered him not to fight the invaders; Tatsuya refused, because his brotherly instincts were telling him it would feel really good to kill everyone threatening her.

• Metaphorically True: He does not consider himself part of the Yotsuba clan. He's directly descended from them (in a society where Superpowerful Genetics are very important), and he does a lot of work under duress for them, but emotionally he is disowned and very happy to be that way. So when Mayumi notices Tatsuya's strong magic and asks if he's from a clan (in the biological sense), he answers convincingly that he isn't (in the social sense)...and believes it to be true himself.
• Milking the Monster: No one (except Miyuki) really wants Tatsuya alive, as his very existence is a risk to the world, but since he's not about to let anybody kill him, various factions find it useful to have him around. Would you dismiss someone who can duplicate jewelry at a moment's notice?
• Mind Rape: Was subjected to one as a child, apparently while conscious. It's one reason why he's so unwilling to leave the Yotsuba, its perpetrators.
• Mr. Exposition: The author loves to report details about the world and current events through Tatsuya's speech and thought.

• More than Mind Control: Miyuki's influence doesn't change Tatsuya's personality so much as it dilutes it to human levels. (He's still introverted, but he doesn't completely cut himself off from others.) This implies that the operation just amplified his nature, through crippling his capacity to be affected by others' treatment of him.
• Mundane Utility:
  • He knows his power level means he can basically say whatever he wants to whoever he wants. What are they going to do, kill him?
  • He has used Elemental Sight several times to check whether Miyuki is drunk. To his horror, the answer is always "no".
• My Greatest Failure: He will never be able to heal himself from what the Yotsuba did to him, and he knows it.
• Mythical Motifs: Dragon. His Code Name, Oogura Ryuuya means Great Black Dragon.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Mahesvara, the destroyer and restorer of worlds.
• Nepotism: The employees of Four Leaves Technology disliked him at first because his young age and relation to the company's owners seemed a sure sign that this trope was happening. They warmed up to him once he showed that he was genuinely worthy of the job.
• Nerves of Steel: He always remains calm and focused no matter how dire the situation is.
• Nice Guy: Despite his stoic and aloof personality, Tatsuya is unfailingly polite and honest to everyone he meets. Miyuki once said he can be nice to a fault in the strangest of ways.
• Noble Bigot: As a man in a patriarchal society, Tatsuya never really thought about how being forced to bear children would make his sister feel. (To be fair, he has more than enough problems of his own to deal with, including social blindness.) He just assumed that if it was what society did, it must work. Once Miyuki got up the courage to tell him she has a problem with it, he's more understanding.
• Non-Idle Rich: The engineers of FLT were initially horrified to hear one of their shareholders' sons would be joining them. Much to their relief, Tatsuya proved to be a genuinely capable and diligent boy who treats lab work as a refuge from the family that disowned him.
• Not Blood Siblings: Played with. Upon his age of majority, the Yotsuba house declares that he is secretly the son of Yotsuba Maya making him Miyuki's first cousin. As the marriage between cousins is legal in Japan, Tatsuya is then engaged to Miyuki. This is a legal fiction cooked up by Yotsuba Maya to legalize the sibling marriage. Miyuki is an enhanced magician and thus their pairing would avoid the usual drawbacks of incest with regards to deformities in their children.
  • At the same time, this move still has its own nuances, as Shiba siblings' aunt Maya and mother Miya were identical twins, their genes are the same, so even if Tatsuya really is Maya's son, he is genetically as close to Miyuki as a half-brother would be.
• Not So Stoic: Some of his inhumanity is permanent, some of it just comes from growing up with no one but his abusive family and their employees around. He's still discovering where the limit is.
• Oblivious to Love: He rarely notices when a girl likes him. This is due to Tatsuya's lack of strong emotions.
• Official Couple: In the Magian Company sequel, he kisses Miyuki.
• One-Man Army: He alone can stop an entire invasion of the enemy, destroying the entire enemy fleet with one large nuclear explosion, or scattering a powerful enemy spell that the enemy has been planning for years.
• One-Hit Kill: When using Mist Dispersion to decompose the whole body.
• Paralyzing Fear of Sexuality: He was not raised as a human being, so physical intimacy and the loss of self-control that comes with it is confusing to him. Miyuki has to ease him into it very carefully and occasionally manipulatively; when Mayumi makes more forceful advances, he physically pushes her away and flees the room.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: The only degree to which he can express anything other than total rage. For example, during a conversation with his father, Tatsuya says calmly that he "can't" hate Miyu. His expression says "because she emotionally mutilated me, that bitch". Similarly, during the Reminiscence arc, he was always quiet and obedient but clearly angry at... everyone.
• Person of Mass Destruction: As a Strategic Class magician. His strongest magic "Material Burst" is capable of converting matter to energy according to Einstein's E=MC^2 equation. In theory, he could vaporize the Earth. Word of God even states that Tatsuya doesn't have an upper limit in decomposing substances, as long as he can perceive it.^note There is no upper limit to how much energy Material Burst can convert. If the object's structure is somewhat uniform the energy can be converted indefinitely. Here, "uniform structure" doesn't mean that its components are uniform, but that there's no functional complexity, as there is in gears, circuit boards, the organs of higher-functioning beings, and dividing. For example, even objects like small planes, over which various minerals are spread out unevenly, are uniform in structure in the sense that they are "a lump of minerals". And so, if Tatsuya is able to merely perceive it - even if it's a tiny planet - he can convert it to energy and eliminate it. Meaning that he can decompose an entire planet and convert it into energy for Material Burst, capable of destroying an entire galaxy.
• Plagiarism in Fiction: His "father" takes credit for nearly all of Tatsuya's inventions; Tatsuya cannot stop this because minors cannot legally register patents in their own name. One reason Miyuki insisted he attend school was so he could meet people who would appreciate his skills.
• Please Wake Up: He did not take Honami's death well at all, and continuously tried to regenerate her despite knowing it was impossible.
• Power of the Void: A void which can be either cold and empty or full of potential, depending on how Tatsuya feels at the moment. The Yotsuba tried to weaken this void by destroying his emotions, but obviously, that only made it bigger. This is why people "in the loop" feel uneasy about him; it's one thing to fight a conventional enemy that can be manipulated or bought off, but forces of nature like Tatsuya will just swallow you whole if they feel like it. And there won't be anything of you left, even a corpse.
• Pro-Human Transhuman: He is well aware that his nature is not normal, and believes that people who are normal are more valid/safe/good than he is. This belief also comes from admiration of their capabilities; intact humans manage to juggle caring about a lot of things, while Tatsuya is driven to distraction caring about one.
• Promoted to Playable: A non-video game example. After the school's Monolith Code Team gets badly injured, he's forced to participate.

• Razor-Sharp Hand: Can coat his hand with Decomposition magic to tear the flesh of his enemies.

• Reed Richards Is Useless: Because the setting is very futuristic, he channels most of his intellect into dealing with magical problems. There's no real need for him to do otherwise.
• Revenge Before Reason: The military gave him equipment to fight Okinawa's invaders, some of whom killed Miyuki (she got better), on the condition he would not hurt anyone who surrendered. Tatsuya agreed but later tried to break this promise on the battlefield. Luckily, a soldier was around to remind them that they had a deal.
• The Rival: Seen as one by Masaki and Shinkurou.
• Rousseau Was Right: He's soulless, but he's not a jerk unless someone gives him reason to be.

• Rule of Symbolism: Tatsuya is heavily based on Lord Shiva, the Hindu God of Universal Destruction and Recreation. His appellation, Mahesvara is another name for Lord Shiva. Shiva is himself the most powerful being alongside Brahma and Vishnu in Hindu Mythology.
• Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: He had no childhood to speak of, so he basically threw himself into academia to avoid thinking about his very bleak familial situation.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Both Erika (good friend and fellow Course Two Student) and Mayumi (Student Council president) are more energetic than he is and more passionate about their goals. He is more about quietly responding to what they do.
• Science Hero: Tatsuya personally developed his own weapons and is known as one of the best technicians in the country. Moreover, his main goal in life is to become an engineer.
• Security Cling: He requests one from Miyuki while searching for Zhou because her recent near-death experience made him irrationally afraid of looking away from her.
• Secret Identity: He is the software developer half of the legendary CAD technician known to the public as Taurus Silver; his mom is the sister of the current head of the Yotsuba clan.
• Secretly Selfish: He goes along with most requests/orders other people give him, but only because A) he's been conditioned to, and B) obeying is usually easier than refusing. As long as the people he cares about are safe, he doesn't really care what goes on in the world.
• Selective Obliviousness: It's hinted that Tatsuya knows or at least suspects the reason why Miyuki sometimes acts strangely, but he deliberately tries not to notice it, because he considers such suspicions to be unacceptably offensive.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Subverted: Miyuki is literally the single important person in his life, but he is not capable of experiencing romantic attraction even to her. After their marriage is arranged by others, he says he will "try" to see her as a woman, but that's for her sake, not something he feels himself.

• The Sociopath: Became one after experiencing a Mind Rape in his childhood. Though not actively malicious, he can't value the lives of strangers or reliably interpret people's emotions. It's also played with in that he clearly values the well-being of his sister and his friends above all else, so many of his actions lead to benign outcomes rather than harmful ones.
• Spock Speak: He talks very formally.

• The Stoic: Largely due to not being able to show emotions any longer due to various things done to him. However, threatening Miyuki will still make him upset and he'll show you a Death Glare so terrible you'll regret incurring his wrath.
• The Strategist: His combat technique is based on this, since, due to the lack of real abilities of modern magic, Tatsuya is forced to rely on good combat strategy and his physical skills.
• Stock Light-Novel Hero: Deconstructed.
  • The Invincible Hero aspect, which is so prevalent in light novels. His soul was changed when he was still in his mother's stomach, and in childhood was forced to become Child Soldier to master the most powerful magic known to man so that he could guard the Yotsuba family forever. Many people, however, fear a possible Beware the Superman scenario and would rather keep their distance from him. The Yotsuba family even created Miyuki to restrain him.
  • His Stoic nature isn't by choice. To prevent him from destroying the world on a whim, the Yotsubas altered his brain chemistry and made him unable to feel any strong emotion, except for his love for Miyuki.
• Straight Man: He typically does not understand or care about his friends' social antics, and much of the series' comedy comes from this.
• Straw Vulcan: For example, he does not appreciate the council tradition of using physical documents (as opposed to more efficient electronic records).
• Strong Family Resemblance: Almost prevented. On the one hand, he is very similar to his father, and on the other, he is almost no similar to his sister with the exception of hair and eye color. As it turns out in the future, it is because the genes of his sister have been specially improved. Thus, they are different in appearance.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Because of the lack of strong emotions, Tatsuya may seem cold or sometimes even a cynical young man, but when he interacts with Miyuki, he immediately becomes a gentle, responsive, and loving older brother. Moreover, as he lives in high school and interacts with his friends, it seems that he is gradually becoming more and more relaxed as a person.

• Super-Soldier: He's an artificial magician and considered a top-secret asset of the military- equal to a strategic weapon like an ICBM.
• Talker and Doer: With his fellow engineer Ushiyama, although both are exceptionally knowledgeable. Tatsuya creates innovative software prototypes far ahead of anything on the market, Ushiyama tests these prototypes and houses them in hardware.
• Teen Genius: Since Tatsuya from his earliest childhood was forced to engage in constant self-education and improve his analytical abilities, by the age of 15 he is a teenager with brilliant intelligence and such a speed of thought that he is able to instantly calculate any sequences in foreign spells. Moreover, he is so smart, that even his own father-scientist envies and hates him.
• Technician vs. Performer: He can technically dance well, but there's no emotion or spontaneity in it.
• Terms of Endangerment: When Miyuki was young and foolish, she once tried to command him to treat her with more intimacy. Tatsuya obeyed- because he had to- but the way he did terrify her so much she fled from the room apologizing.
• Terrifying Rescuer: The young child Kokoa merely looks at his stern face and tries to hide.
• Terror Hero: Due to the mystery surrounding his magics, people tend to be afraid when he uses them and he is fully aware of it.
• The Tease: After they get engaged, he deliberately flirts with Miyuki because he finds her flustered-ness cute.
• That Makes Me Feel Angry: He does not see the irony of feeling sad that he can't empathize with his friend's emotions.
• Threshold Guardian: Tatsuya was the first- and not the last- person Miyuki had to convince to follow her, not just obey her.
• Token Evil Teammate: For the student council. For example, he's the one who enacts their plan to coerce Azusa into becoming the next president.
  If he drove her into a corner, she really might break down crying. No, there was no “might”, the possibility was high.
  However, if he was going to give up just like that, he would never have undertaken to persuade her in the first place.
• Touch of Death: His Decomposition magic at full contact.

• Tranquil Fury: Partly due to not being able to really display emotions any longer.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behaviour: He was a Child Soldier, after all. At the age of six, he was already seeking allies. Not friends- allies.
• True Final Boss: When the group was discussing which roles they'd play in an RPG, they pegged him like this. (Well, most of them did. The others considered him a hermit sifu.)
• Tyke-Bomb: Trained since his childhood to be Miyuki's guardian, his mother even removed all his emotions save for his love for his sister so he'll do his best to protect her at any cost. The novels reveal that this was done in order to prevent him from possibly going berserk and destroying the planet with Material Burst. There was a sizable faction that thought he should be killed outright just to be safe.
• Ultimate Blacksmith: A software example. Tatsuya programs CADs precisely for the person who is going to use them, which no one without Elemental Sight can do. He plays a large part in creating the spells that jump Masaki and Miyuki to Strategic-Class level. Such creations have the effect of increasing the wielders' magical power significantly- although in reality their actual capabilities have not changed- and are much more comfortable to use.

• Underestimating Badassery: People looked down on him because he is a Course 2 student.
  • He is also on the other end of this trope; he doubts Azusa's capability because she's so excitable. Mayumi assures him otherwise.
• Undying Loyalty: He will unrepentantly let thousands die just because Miyuki ordered him to rest. This is also why he accepts Miyuki's feelings towards him, despite not approving of incest.
• Unknown Rival: He has never met Abby, the pioneer of FAE theory, yet he is motivated by the desire to create spells as great as hers are.
• Urban Legend: Many people think Mahesvara doesn't exist.
• Unwanted Harem: In his case, it's an Unnoticed Harem. Aside from Miyuki and Honoka, Tatsuya gets borderline romantic moments with Mayumi, Erika, Lina and Pixie, all of whom have expressed interest in him on different points of the series.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The "Scorched Halloween" event that he caused made the Japanese navy very concerned- especially since they didn't know the perpetrator was technically on their side- so they did some very illegal things in order to 'protect' their country. This forms the plot of the movie.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Mayumi. Most of their interactions are verbal sparring.
• Weak, but Skilled: He is this when he is not using his innate magics.

• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Sometimes wonders what is romantic love since he can't feel it.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Miyuki is literally his sense of life and at the same time, it's a guarantee. If something happens to her, he will destroy the world.
• Workaholic: He is not this trope, but appears to be it because he finds doing a lot of engineering work more comfortable than the small amount of social work refusing it would require.
• Willfully Weak: Since he must hide most of his abilities, he can't fight at full power. Granted, a few of his abilities are also not readily available to him. An example would be his Decomposition magic "Material Burst" which requires the "Third Eye" CAD in possession of the military as well as Miyuki removing her suppression effect on his power.
  • The thing about "Material Burst" is that he can only use it within a certain range- a range small enough that enemies who possess rockets can attack him in turn. The "Third Eye" CAD just allows him to fire "Material Burst" at a safer distance.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Many people think Tatsuya is too mature to be a teenager.
• The Wise Prince: Wise enough that he doesn't regret at all the tragic circumstances separating him from his birthright.
• You Are What You Hate: His similarity to the government's crazed drone-magicians only makes him more convinced they should be eliminated.
• Young Entrepreneur: His identity as part of "Taurus Silver" is revealed before he hits adulthood, causing a huge and very unwanted media frenzy.
• You Said You Would Let Them Go: On Okinawa, the miliary agreed to equip Tatsuya on the condition he spare any surrendering enemies. He did not. (After Yanagi punched him, Tatsuya reconsidered.)

Miyuki Shiba

Miyuki Shiba

Voiced by: Saori Hayami (Japanese), Anairis Quiñones (English)

Course: 1
Year: 1^st (Volume 1~11), 2^nd (Volume 12~)
Class: A

The female protagonist, the younger sister of Tatsuya.

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• Almost Kiss: Thrice. She nearly kissed Tatsuya by mistake (she fell) while he was sleeping. Though the situation only came about because she was tempted to kiss him in the first place. Their lips were also very close in volumes 11 and 20.
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Whenever things do not relate to Tatsuya.
• The Ace: Her Magic Power is very high and she can use magic with complex processes very easily.
• Action Girl: Because of her high position in the clan, Miyuki is much less involved in the clashes than her brother, but when it happens, she turns out to be as dangerous as he is.
• Aggressive Submissive: She put a lot more thought into getting into Tatsuya's bed than anything that would logically follow.
• An Ice Person: She specializes in cooling magic.
• Anti-Magic: Zone Interference, a wide area Counter Magic. Hers is one of the most powerful in the world.
• Area of Effect: She is better with magic with a large radius.
• Artificial Human: As revealed in volume 17. She doesn't mind, because her original body is long dead and her artificiality is one reason she's so powerful.
• Attractiveness Isolation: In the Honor Student spinoff, Honoka thinks that she admires Miyuki's abilities and would like to make friends with her. Then she looks at the crowd of would-be suitors swarming Miyuki and decides it's not worth it. (They do become friends later, but only once Miyuki takes the initiative to approach her.)

• Barrier Maiden: Half her MCA unconsciously goes towards locking away (some of) Tatsuya's power, so he can only annihilate really big chunks of the world instead of all of it. After Tatsuya's true identity is exposed and Maya refuses to protect him from the resulting assassins, Miyuki goes 'fuck it' and has her brain altered so it is no longer the trope.
• Big Brother Attraction: Let's just say she loves her brother Tatsuya a lot. She so much in love with his brother, that she considers herself belonging to Tatsuya and wants to marry him. So, as Miyuki finds that her body and soul belong to Tatsuya, in his own words, she was ready to let him do with her whatever he wants. This is emphasized in Volume 11, where she declares a willingness to show Tatsuya "her hidden places" or to have sex with him.
• Big Brother Worship: Miyuki worships Tatsuya incredibly much. She even refers to him as "oniisama".
• Brains and Bondage: She believes that rule by the strongest is entirely logical. And hot.
• Broken Ace: Outwardly, she is perfect. She can't really afford to be seen as anything else, since her family are bastards, everyone is (justifiably) terrified of her undisciplined magic, she is unrequitedly in love with her own brother, and there is a very real possibility she'll have to kill him to stop the world from going kaboom. Even her friends, after Miyuki's true identity is revealed, take a day or so to wonder 'Do we really want to be close to someone from that family?'
• Brother–Sister Team: When working with Tatsuya.
• Black Sheep: In a different way than her brother. Miyuki is extremely outspoken and emotional, partly as a reaction to the coldness of everyone else in her family.
• Bodyguard Crush: She is in love with her bodyguard and personal servant.
• Born Lucky: Even by artificial human standards, she came out well.
• Character Development: After the sequel Time Skip, she has become a lot more comfortable with her sexuality, neither denying it exists or overcompensating by pushing Tatsuya into things they aren't ready for.
• Clingy Jealous Girl:
  • She doesn't take it too well when Mari teases Tatsuya about Mibu in episode 4 which causes her to freeze up the table around the student council. And she does it again after Mari teases him about Mayumi a moment later in that episode.
  • She gives the green light to Honoka to go after her brother and sometimes helps Honoka out with this matter.
  • Although after the news of their engagement, she tries to be more reserved, fearing that because of her jealousy she may lose the only chance to be a couple with Tatsuya, she still can not hold back when she thinks he is too cold. In particular, she demonstratively begins to call her brother Tatsuya-sama, even in personal communication, to emphasize that they are no longer a brother and sister to others, so he must begin to perceive her as a bride.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: She tries to lead her brother through his many heartbotomy-induced blind spots.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: To a captured member of Blanche in Yuutousei.
• Cooldown Hug: With Tatsuya after she freezes everyone during a student assembly.
• Coming of Age Story: The Reminscence arc is hers; it explains why she acts the way she does presently, and shows her learning about what being a Yotsuba means (as well as her growing sexuality) and deciding what she is going to do about it.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: During the mirage bat event in her 1st 9-school competition, she completely dominates her competitors (extra points for Miyuki being a junior competing in the senior event). Even after Tatsuya was asked to submit her CAD due to the complaint from other schools, after which the committee decided to leak the code to the other schools allowing them to copy the flying technique Miyuki used, she still completely floors them due to their inexperience with using said spell. What makes it golden is that she ALREADY was the number 1 player even before she decides to crush those players' pride into oblivion with the Flying spell.
• Dance Battler: She uses long-range magic and flight to maintain aristocratic distance from enemies, as seen in Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax.
• Does Not Like Men: Believes her entire body and heart belong to Tatsuya. Going so far as to be disgusted by the concept of being touched by anyone at all except Tatsuya. She also despises the mere notion of marrying anybody but her brother to the point that she breaks out of her nice-girl character in anger and emotional despair.
• Defector from Decadence: By Yotsuba standards of 'decadence'. She could dominate the world, but she would rather do what little she can to heal Tatsuya's soul.
• Designer Babies: Miyuki was created artificially as Tatsuya's sister, so that she can restrain his strength with the help of her outstanding magical abilities and stop him if necessary. In consequence, although she has the same parents as Tatsuya, their genes are different enough that incest between them could result in a healthy offspring.

• Dramatic Irony: One of her unique spells makes a target's emotions run riot, much like her own.
• Dude Magnet: Due to her perfect appearance, she often becomes the object of attention from guys. She doesn't like it.

• Doublethink: Miyuki's stratified upbringing essentially twisted her psyche into a pretzel. Therefore, she can both attack Tatsuya for looking at other women and tell Shizuku smilingly, a few volumes later, that her affection for him is completely unconditional.
• Eating the Eye Candy: In Reminiscence, she enjoys watching Tatsuya exercise shirtless. She feels embarrassed when he almost catches her doing this, although- being just a teenager then- she doesn't quite understand why.
• Even the Girls Want Her: It seems that Izumi Saegusa is in love with her. Moreover, Izumi even wants Tatsuya to marry her older sister, so that Miyuki will officially become her "Onee-sama".
• Everyone Can See It: It is painfully obvious to everyone except Tatsuya that Miyuki's love for Tatsuya isn't sibling love. He can't see much of anything outside of cold-calculations. Ever since Tatsuya saved Miyuki after she was severely wounded three years prior to the series, she has devoted her life to him. As a result, everything that she does, how she acts/thinks, what she is involved in or what her personality is like, etc. is because of Tatsuya. In short, everything involving/revolving around her, good or bad, is because of her feelings for Tatsuya.
• Everyone Hates Mathematics: She's not as good at mathematics as she is at other subjects, though this is highly relative. She's still exceptional at it.
• The Fashionista: Although this is not the defining character trait, she is known for wearing different stylish outfits and hairstyles. According to the illustrations and text in the series, she wears masks and hooded dresses/hooded scarves if she doesn't have hairstyles that hold her hair back to go with her outfits. Those hairstyles include ponytails, buns and headbands. Based on those illustrations and text, the author and illustrator combined outfits and hairstyles from real-life and from stuff like Disney's Frozen for all of Miyuki's hairstyles and outfits.
• Father, I Want to Marry My Brother: Several of her internal monologues throughout the series directly refer to this trope. Later in the series they become engaged, when it turns out that Miyuki has a genetically modified body, so she can become his wife, and in this regard, their aunt announces their engagement in volume 16.
• Finders Rulers: One reason she's the next heir of the Yotsuba is because their strongest Human Weapon holds allegiance only to her. The trope is also inverted: many dissenters wanted her to be the heir provided she didn't keep Tatsuya by her side (they didn't want him to have more power over the clan than he already did).
• The Force Is Strong with This One: Although Tatsuya was Miyuki's slave, she always felt uncomfortable around him in a way she could never quite articulate until she realized he was a magician who could nuke her off the face of the earth. (It is the nature of Anti-Magic to not be noticed.)
• Friendly Rivalry: With Honoka and Shizuku.
• The Gift: Being from the Ten Master Clans she is naturally this, though even compared to the others she can use complex magic for even mundane things with ease.
• Gilded Cage: The last heiress of the Yotsuba was kidnapped and tortured, so they do everything in their power to stop it from happening again. She can't even take walks alone, and the family habitually deceived her so she wouldn't get involved in any of the important stuff they were doing.
• Green-Eyed Monster: She couldn't enjoy most of her first trip to Okinawa because she was consumed by feelings of envy: Tatsuya was calmer than her, Ayako and Fumiya had more affectionate parents, and everybody knew more about everything than she did. She knew she was being rude, but couldn't bring herself to act any other way.
• Heel Realization: She always felt compassion for the Yotsuba's slaves, secretly, but her desire to conform to her family prevented her from acting on those feelings. Then came the Okinawa invasion, when one slave (Tatsuya) healed her of a fatal injury and another one (Honami) died to protect the island. After that Miyuki stopped caring.
• Hime Cut: She has the traditional hairstyle for a Yamato Nadeshiko.
• Hope Bringer: To Tatsuya. He had not expected that someone as privileged as the Yotsuba heiress would have any compassion, and realizing otherwise made him less pessimistic about people in general, enough to try making friends.
• Hopeless Suitor:She's fully aware that Tatsuya doesn't see her as someone of the opposite sex since they are blood-related. She is then informed that she is going to be married to Tatsuya when she becomes the head of the Yotsuba family, much to her extreme approval and happiness. And although she seems quite happy with the fact that, technically, it is still his sister, Miyuki said every time when the others have questioned "legend" about of their cousins status.
• Hot-Blooded: One reason why she rebelled against her family's expectations is that they required her to be civil around people she hated, and to ignore their brainwashing of children who didn't fit in. Miyuki is the sort of person who doesn't feel alive if she's concealing her feelings, so around the age of 13 she basically stopped trying.
• An Ice Person: Miyuki specializes in cooling magic^note  Specifically, according to the series' modern magic categorization system, Miyuki specializes in Speed-type magic, which is magic that acts upon the speed vectors of molecules—which logically means she should also be proficient at setting things on fire by speeding up particle velocity and collision, as demonstrated by her mastery of Inferno, which displays both sides of the Speed-type magic that Miyuki specializes in.. Her cooling magic, however, is a physical manifestation of her natural mind-affecting magic. Her most powerful magic, "Cocytus", freezes the consciousness of its target. Not the target's neurons, mind—their soul. It could be considered a Fate Worse than Death.
• Image Song: "Mirror", one of the anime's ending themes, is narrated from her perspective.
• Implied Love Interest: Along with what has been said above, Miyuki is strongly implied as one of such heroines. She from the very beginning is next to Tatsuya and despite the fact that they are siblings and he does not see a woman in it, together they share most of the romantic moments in the series. Moreover, as the only close person in his life and as the only girl to whom he can have strong feelings, it is Miyuki who is jealous of him towards other girls.
• Incest Subtext: Contrary to Tatsuya she really means it. However, later in the 16 th volume of the novel it turns out that as a consequence of a variety of genetic experiments in early childhood, she and Tetsuya completely free from any negative consequences of inbreeding, and their aunt adopts Tetsuya and announces it to his son, effectively turning them into cousin brother and sister, thereby opening up the possibility for their subsequent marriage.
• Informed Attractiveness: Everyone calls her the one of the most beautiful girls and even her own brother has repeatedly noted her spectacular beauty. She looks very perfect, that later gets his explanation, she is an "improved" magician, so her body was maximally improved through genetic engineering. (and when seen from a Japanese perspective it's true since she is the good example of Japanese beauty, in other words Raven Hair, Ivory Skin).
• Insecure Love Interest: She is convinced that Tatsuya won't love her if she breaks from society's conventions of what a 'good' woman should be (i.e, docile, self-disciplined, and innocent), in defiance of all logic. Unbeknownst to her, Tatsuya has known that she's violent for some time and doesn't mind it.
• In-Series Nickname: "The Queen" and also the "Snow Queen".
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Subverted: Although it would seem she perfectly understands the inadmissibility of such relationships and therefore will not try to seduce her brother, Miyuki immediately becomes an extremely jealous girl if there is the slightest opportunity to be with him.
• Leeroy Jenkins: She is good at attacking. Dealing with what an opponent does afterwards? Not so much.
• Naughty by Night: Regardless of the elegant facade that magician society demands, her mind is in the gutter 24/7. Sometimes she fakes naivete because it will make Tatsuya will pay (more) attention to her.
• Not Blood Siblings: Played with. Although Miyuki is certainly Tatsuya's own sister, which was confirmed by himself and Maya, their genes are different due to the fact that Miyuki was created artificially from the fertilized egg of Tatsuya's parents and subsequently genetically modified. Thus, this allows their aunt to announce their engagement as a cousins, without worrying about the health of their offspring, despite the fact that their couple will actually be an incest between brother and sister.
• Jerkass Ball: In some cases, her attitude towards ethics and violence can be reversed, depending on the needs of the story.
• Lady of Black Magic: Her magic is specialized for covering a large area and is very powerful.
• Leeroy Jenkins: She's good, but not good enough to justify her impulsive attacks.
• Like Father, Unlike Son: It's like all the emotion and honesty that her mom didn't have went into Miyuki.
• Little Sister Heroine: Very bright, almost archetypal example. However, in the future more and more implied that Miyuki purposefully playing the "role" in order to deceive his brother and convince him of the need to care for her.
• Living Emotional Crutch: To Tatsuya.
• Luminescent Blush: Every time Tatsuya compliments her, only her cheeks blush, as the trope page clearly states. Every time.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Nobody in the Yotsuba really wanted to talk about Tatsuya's mutilation, especially not Tatsuya himself, so for most her childhood she had no idea why Miya ordered him to guard her. Even in the present day Tatsuya doesn't tell her that she's an Artificial Human created to seal his powers.
• Love at First Sight: It took her no more than two weeks to fall in love with Tatsuya. The fact that he was her own brother did not really hinder this.
• Love Hungry: Invoked, since her Love Interest is her own brother, who for moral and physical reasons does not see a woman in her.
• Lunacy: Cocytus is a Lunar Magic.
• Male Gaze: The anime adaptation, and especially the film, are very fond of showing her figure in tight-fitting dresses from profitable angles.
• Mafia Princess: Was one before she took a more active role in family politics, though the Yotsuba aren't literal yakuza. She was deliberately raised to be attractive and ignorant, so that she could get the family some much-needed positive PR, charm whatever husband they chose for her, and generally stay out of the way while the Yotsuba's real leaders maintained their clan's power.
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl: She suggested that Tatsuya attend school so he could broaden his horizons beyond work.
• Manga Effects: The interesting thing about this is that there are no times she makes any of the iconographic body features, actions and everything else aside from two times only in the second to last volume of year 1 (Volume 10) and they don't count as manga effects as the parts of her face and body that are exaggerated are the same parts of her younger self from Volume 8.
• Mistaken for Romance: Her and Tatsuya, at least it's not romance for him.
• Monster Brother, Cutie Sister: A subversion of the trope. Tatsuya is a cold, intimidating soldier, whose lack of interest in conversation (combined with his incredible intellect) often make people feel like he thinks himself above them. Miyuki, his much prettier younger sister, impresses everyone with her politeness and approachability...because she's under incredible pressure from her family to act that way, as the next heir. Both siblings are heroic, but in battle Miyuki shows her volcanic temper and willingness to Mind Rape; Tatsuya kills his enemies quickly and considers most conflicts Nothing Personal. This is reflected in their eye color, Miyuki's eyes being a pale, icy blue, and Tatsuya's a deeper, warmer color.
• Moral Guardians: When she was young, she got offended by a couple canoodling in public, and had to restrain herself from freezing the beach. Like most examples of the trope, it's meant to show more about her inner turmoil than their supposed lewdness.
• My Brother Is Off Limits: For obvious reasons. She tried to hold back for Honoka though.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Sometimes, when she is with her brother. Given that Tatsuya has a justified reason for being as dense as he can be, she's a lot more perceptive then he is.
  Tatsuya: I'm always being saved by you getting angry in my place.

• Official Couple: In the Magian Company sequel, Tatsuya kisses her.
• Oh, Crap!: When she was young, she once saw Tatsuya smile, and she realized that he was a human being with feelings just like her. Then she realized what that said about her, who had treated him like a doormat all their lives.
  • In the spinoff, she decides to go after a terrorist alone. This is fine for a few minutes, because her magic is stronger than his and she can No-Sell guns, but then he pulls out a knife and things go south real fast.
• Ojou: A less obvious type 1 than Mayumi, but as the daughter of the lead of the 10 major magical clans, Miyuki has unrivaled grace, education and upbringing.
• One-Woman Army: Her AoE magic is totally suitable for this task. She cleared out an entire warehouse full of armed soldiers, with one spell.
  • Her new Strategic Class Magic, Glacial Age, literally froze the ocean which stopped the Miyaki Island Invasion force in Vol. 31
• Out-of-Character Moment: Despite her "apparent" infantilism and spoiledness, in a series of important moments for the plot, Miyuki becomes very serious or even cynical. Although it is believed that this is her original mature personality, the plot depicts this rather controversially.
• The Paralyzer: As a Yotsuba of the first lineage Miyuki inherited a Mental Interference magic. Her Cocytus can freeze minds.
• Patient Childhood Love Interest: Subverted: Although Tatsuya is her own brother and is always with her, for a long time she simply enjoyed his presence and at least thought that she did not really need a real incestuous relationship with him. However, their family and classmates at their new school think differently.
• Perfectly Arranged Marriage: To Tatsuya. Although technically Tatsuya her brother, she was so heavily genetically modified that her theoretical incestuous relationship with his brother will not have any negative consequences It may also be somewhat one-sided though, as the other half has stated that he only sees her as a sister and promised that he will try his best to love her as a woman.
• Person of Mass Destruction: In vol. 31, Miyuki acquires a Strategic Class Magic called "Glacial Age" with Tatsuya's help.

• Phlebotinum Rebel: She was created to kill Tatsuya if he ever threatened the world. In accordance with Murphy's law, she came to sympathize with him over her creators and it is unlikely that she will want to uphold her duty.
• Power Incontinence: When she gets emotional things around her tend to get frozen. Explained in the novels in that Miyuki is using 50% of her power to suppress Tatsuya's magic. The moment she releases the seal, she gains full control of her magic.
• Protectorate: Tatsuya's duty is to protect her.
• Rage Against the Reflection: Her upcoming Arranged Marriage forces her to mentally confront problems that she would really rather not.
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: She is black-haired and pale-skinned, and everyone calls her the most attractive of all the girls.
• Rebellious Spirit: When she was young, what she hated more than anything was the fact that no one was angry about things they should have been. Sometimes she lashed out at her Guardian just to make him get honestly, properly angry for once. (It didn't work.) Over time, she came to understand that loving her "inferiors" heals their conditioning more than rage can.
• Redeeming Replacement: She will be the first Yotsuba leader to give a fuck about the morality of enslaving, brainwashing, etc, and the first to take an active political stance on anything (by aligning herself with a company that's pro-magician rights).
• Rescue Romance: Subverted. She says that she fell in love with Tatsuya when he saved her life at Okinawa, but the prequel shows she was interested in him days before that.

• Sadistic Choice: In the Reminscence arc, learning about what her family did to Tatsuya forced her to make one. She could break from the people who had never shown her anything but support and love (admittedly, highly conditional love), or she could ignore their Mind Rape of one of their own children. She chose to do the right thing, though even now being reminded of what she gave up drives her to tears.
• Satellite Character: Miyuki's character is mainly based on her relationship with Tatsuya. She actually invokes this though, because she feels she has to.
• Satellite Love Interest: Tatsuya in the literal sense is the meaning of her life, and marriage with him is her main goal. The appearance of everything else in her life depends only on him.
• Secret Identity: Must hide that she is a Yotsuba.
• Selective Obliviousness: She wants to believe that she isn't incestuous, but can't quite get there.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: As heiress of the Yotsuba, it is her duty to inherit and pacify the...problem...that Miya left behind.
• Sex Is Evil, and I Am Horny: The main reason she attacks Tatsuya in the first volume is because he either doesn't reciprocate her attraction to him, or he does but hides it better than she does. So not only is she perverted, but she is alone in her perversion.
• Ship Tease: Considering her feelings for him, most of her moments with Tatsuya are this.
• Siblings Wanted: She was happy the first time Tatsuya disobeyed her orders in Reminiscence, because it was the first time he acted like a brother to her instead of a obedient drone.
• The Sixth Ranger: Even though she spends more time with Tatsuya, she qualifies by not being one of his classmates. Her two friends too.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Men do not interest her at all, unless it's her brother Tatsuya. She even feels a little squeamish towards them, although she is able to communicate with them.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: She favourably contrasts Tatsuya's gentleness and regard for her desires to the sexual harassment Honami forces on her.
• Slave to PR: She can't dissuade Masaki's advances as firmly as she'd like to because Maya has ordered her not to upset his family. This even extended to going on a date with him.
• So Beautiful, It's a Curse: She is such a Dude Magnet that she can't go out without being approached by various persons.
• The Social Darwinist: She is aware that this mindset was indocrinated into her by her family and isn't right, but she still believes in it to some degree.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: The spinoff makes it explicit that she tries to tease Tatsuya by wearing sexier outfits at home.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: In Reminiscence, past!Miyuki thinks to herself that she's not among the girls who admire Tatsuya's "kindness, [..] calmness, and gentle features". Her words.
• Spanner in the Works: The Yotsuba's grand plan to control Tatsuya and hold the world hostage was derailed just by their heir being a genuinely good person. If there is any hope for him, it lies with her.
• Stepford Smiler: Can don an archaic smile to hide her feelings.
• Strong Family Resemblance: As Tatsuya resembles his father, Miyuki is very similar to his mother and aunt, especially in youth. This somewhat contradicts the subsequently discovered facts that her beauty is the result of genetic interference, however, Maya said that they only "improved" existing genes.
• Through the Eyes of Madness: Downplayed. A lifetime of conditioning and sexual repression means that her narration is filled with obvious hypocrisies, lies, and occasionally self-censored sentences. Sometimes this goes past narration into full-on mental blackouts.
  That was the duty given to him. I had to follow in the footsteps of Aunt Maya. Tatsuya wasn’t my brother but rather—
  Suddenly, I felt a pinprick deep within my mind. I was pretty sure that I lost track of where I was for a moment. That was just an illusion, of course. I’d been invited to Uncle Mitsugu’s party, and there he was, making a difficult face.
  …Was I thinking about something important…? No, it’s probably just my imagination.
• Third-Person Person: Whenever Miyuki talks with Tatsuya or is alone with him.
• Tsundere: Type B combined with Oblivious to Love by Tatsuya. Miyuki progresses as a tsundere with the development of history, becoming more pronounced example of such characters after the 16th volume, when her no longer needed to hide their feelings after her declaration of love and engagement with Tatsuya. So, as Tatsuya for obvious reasons, can not respond to her feelings, at least for the moment, Miyuki often shows tsun-tsun at the other girls who are potential love interests of her brother, especially Honoka and Mayumi.
• Tomato in the Mirror: Miyuki accepted early on in her childhood that Guardians are human beings who deserve rights, which is convenient given that she's also an artificial creation.
• Tranquil Fury: Even better at it than her brother. And she is noted to be very scary when in this state. Obviously, it is because of her feelings for Tatsuya, which she developed since Tatsuya saved her from dying after being shot during the Defensive Battle in Okinawa which is the only time she was dying, losing body parts, being in a coma and everything else, and those feelings for her brother cause her to be angry or emotional whenever she is ogled by other guys or when other girls get close to Tatsuya.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behaviour: She knew a fatal spell and deliberately used it on an enemy during the Okinawa incident.
• Virgin Sacrifice: As long as she is alive, Tatsuya is incentivized to protect the Yotsuba (because their deaths would sadden her). The Yotsuba created her to serve this purpose.
• Warhawk: She does not see anything wrong with martially forcing people to do (what she thinks is) the right thing. Coupled with her impatience, this means that she must often be restrained from 'solving' every conflict in her life with violence.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Subverted. She thinks having an artificial body is awesome, especially since it makes her more badass than 90% of organic humans.
• White Sheep: She is one of the few Yotsuba who have a functioning conscience. Which isn't to say that she's a good person, but she has standards, like not hurting family and not hurting innocents.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Tatsuya doesn't know that his sister does things like torture captives for information, and she desperately wants to keep it that way.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: She is the embodiment of this; a gentle lady with Raven Hair, Ivory Skin who wears her hair in a Hime Cut. Always graceful and polite, as well as devoted to her family (her brother in particular) and possessing a great deal of inner strength. As stated elsewhere in her sheet, her family bred her to fit this trope, and she is not as gentle as she initially appears.
• Yandere: (Down-)played for laughs; she isn't actually dangerous to her brother's many admirers, but a lot of people are scared of her.