Kyoka Jiro (耳じ郎ろう響きょう香か Jirō Kyōka), also known as the Hearing Hero: Earphone Jack (ヒアヒーローイヤホン＝ジャック Hia Hīrō Iyahon Jakku), is a student in Class 1-A at U.A. High School, training to become a Pro Hero.
Appearance
Kyoka is a petite, fair-skinned girl with a slender build. She has triangular, lazy-looking onyx eyes with notably long lower eyelashes, and rather small eyebrows. Her hair is short, only around chin length, and is dark purple in color with an asymmetrical fringe, and two reflections shaped like sound waves on either side of her head. Her most prominent features are the flexible, plug-like earphone jacks hanging from each of her earlobes at the end of two thin cords, which act like extra limbs; she seems to be able to control these at will, and they are very flexible, able to change length if so desired.
Unlike the other students, Kyoka sometimes wears a waistcoat over her school uniform, in place of the usual U.A. blazer.
Her hero costume consists of a black leather jacket, long salmon-colored shirt with several rips at the collar and hem, black pants, and boots with stereos built into their shafts. She also has two small, triangular red paint marks just below her eyes, a plain black choker, and white fingerless gloves.
Later on, her costume gains a set of headphones and two bracelets that double up as her amplifiers, and she changes her facepaint to two larger chevron-shaped marks.
Personality
Kyoka has a pragmatic, unenthusiastic and teasing personality that is mostly shown to those she finds irritating, like her fellow classmate Denki Kaminari, whose cluelessness makes him an easy target for her snarky comments. Kyoka is not always like this though, as she does enjoy socializing with others, in which case she is usually nice and friendly.
Kyoka often gesticulates through her elongated earlobes in place of her hands. She can also be quite aggressive, evidenced when she uses the Earphone Jacks her Quirk provides to physically punish people when provoked, or to keep them in line, most notably Denki and Minoru Mineta. During hero activities, however, Kyoka prefers smarter approaches, usually by coming up with a plan herself. She is surprisingly organized and makes sure to convey her ideas in a way that’s easy to understand.
Despite the fact that she comes off as cold and indifferent, Kyoka also has a much more sensitive side, being very defensive towards her friends, empathetic with others’ feelings and getting flustered when her talents and capabilities are brought up.While Kyoka is hard to unnerve or surprise, she is afraid of horror-based activities and has an aversion to nudity. She is a bit self-conscious about her looks as well.
Like her parents, Kyoka has a major interest in rock music and owns several instruments which she is able to play to some extent. However, she seemed to be somewhat embarrassed about her interests at first, because she perceived them as completely unrelated to heroism, but thanks to a great presentation during the U.A. School Festival Arc, she was able to outgrow that mindset.
Abilities
Overall Abilities: While the extent of Kyoka’s abilities have yet to be shown, she does utilize the prehensile nature of her Earphone Jack Quirk in whip-like fashion, and use the sound generating effects of her Quirk to shock targets with vibrations, effectively stunning, and sometimes defeat them.
- Swordsmanship: Though she does not directly use a sword in combat, Kyoka has shown to be skilled enough to wield a sword Momo Yaoyorozu had made during the attack on U.S.J, and using it hold her own against members of the League of Villains.
- Keen Intellect: Despite here unenthusiastic demeanor, Kyoka is quite intelligent, scoring 7th place in the midterms, displaying her skill in academics. She is also quite strategic, as she took advantage of the volatile nature of Denki Kaminari’s Quirk to allow the Stun Gun Hero to electrocute multiple villains during the U.S.J. Incident.
- Musical Talent: Kyoka is able to play the bass, which is her preferred instrument alongside the guitar. She can play other instruments as well, like drums, but only to a limited extent. Her singing voice is described as “husky, but heavenly”.
