Kazuya Mishima (三島 一八 Mishima Kazuya) is one of the main characters in the Tekken series. He appears in all Tekken games except Tekken 3, in which he only made two cameo appearances. Although he is seen as the main protagonist and hero of the first Tekken game, Kazuya became one of the main antagonists of the series ever since Tekken 2. Kazuya is the son of Heihachi Mishima and Kazumi Mishima, the possible love interest of Jun Kazama, and the father of Jin Kazama. He is also the adoptive brother of Lee Chaolan, the half-brother of Lars Alexandersson and Reina, and the grandson of Jinpachi Mishima.

Biography

Kazuya was born as the son of Heihachi Mishima and Kazumi Mishima and raised on the Mishima Estate, the Mishima Clan's enormous aristocratic home in Japan. Kazuya's mother loved and doted on him, as did Kazuya's grandfather, Jinpachi Mishima, who also taught him Mishima Style Fighting Karate from a young age. Kazuya's life took a turn for the worse, however, when he was five years old. First, his beloved grandfather disappeared (Kazuya would later discover he was imprisoned by Heihachi under the family temple, after Jinpachi failed to retake the Mishima Zaibatsu from Heihachi, who had previously launched a coup against him). Then, Kazuya's mother was killed by Heihachi. Unbeknownst to Kazuya, his mother had been tasked with stopping Heihachi from going down a warmongering path at all costs. When her cause seemed lost, she fell into a series of illnesses and was eventually taken over by a demonic alter ego which attempted to kill Heihachi.

That same year, Kazuya confronted his father after learning of his mother's death, but he was defeated almost immediately by him. Heihachi proceeded to throw five-year-old Kazuya off a cliff. Heihachi claimed that his son was weak and would have to survive and climb back up if he was to be his true heir and successor. Heihachi later revealed he also wished to test if Kazuya had the supernatural ability to survive the fall, fearing he may have the same 'illness' as his mother.

As a result of the fall, Kazuya's latent Devil Gene was awakened, a genetic curse that is activated by a fatal or near-death experience. In early game manuals, this was characterized as making a 'pact with the Devil'. In later games, however (Tekken 4-Tekken 7), it was clarified that Kazuya possessed a special genetic make-up passed on through his mother's family, that allows one to host an immaterial creature known only as Devil. As well as granting superhuman power and transformative ability, this creature exacerbates negative emotions in its host, especially anger, hatred, and fear. With the aid of this newly activated power, Kazuya was able to climb back up the cliff he had been thrown down.

After this, Kazuya was raised by Heihachi. According to some sources, Kazuya was actually quite frail and timid as a boy and was the victim of years of abuse at the hands of Heihachi. In Tekken 7, he is more defiant towards Heihachi as a boy, though Kazuya is still small and powerless against him. Little is known about the rest of Kazuya's childhood, though it is clear he continued to be raised by his father. This is evidenced by Kazuya's profile in the first Tekken, which states that, since his father is a rich businessman, Kazuya does not need to worry about money, implying that Kazuya remained a part of Heihachi's household. It is also stated that Kazuya and his adoptive brother, Lee Chaolan, were raised from childhood as rivals, and that Heihachi adopted Lee because he was a skilled scrapper living on his own in the street, meaning Lee would have to be older than four years old when he was adopted. Kazuya and Lee were thus both raised together by Heihachi who taught them both the family fighting style. It is also known that, before the events of the first King of Iron Fist Tournament, Kazuya participated in martial arts tournaments or unofficial fights around the world. In one of these fights, Paul Phoenix fought him to a draw, and Paul subsequently considered Kazuya his rival. When the first King of Iron Fist Tournament was announced, 26-year-old Kazuya took the opportunity to get back at his father, setting the stage for the first game. Revenge would not be his only reason for entering the first tournament, however, as his character profile in the first Tekken stated that his reasons were both to exact revenge and to use his father's vast fortune to carry out his plans for world domination. The Russian military even learned of these plans and entered the first Jack android into the tournament to stop him.

Tekken 2 saw Kazuya's true nature revealed in full. Kazuya won the Iron Fist Tournament, threw his father off the same cliff he'd thrown him, and then took over as the new CEO of the Mishima Zaibatsu, the family's economic empire. After killing his father (or so he thought), instead of bringing justice and honor to the Mishima Zaibatsu and righting the wrongs of his father, Kazuya repeated the corrupt practices of his father and turned it into an even much more ruthless and evil organization. His crimes included kidnapping, extorting money from several businesses and many organizations, ordering assassinations, and smuggling endangered animal species. He even seized control of nearly all of Japan's northernmost and second-largest island, Hokkaido, and planned to build his own independent nation and a strong military force there. During this time he also abandoned his nationality, suggesting his earlier plans for world domination were still his end goal. As part of realizing this dream, he attempted to genetically engineer animal soldiers and even genetically engineered a dinosaur from fossils and kangaroo DNA. In order to demonstrate his martial superiority, Kazuya decided to hold another Iron Fist tournament. Before or during the tournament, Kazuya encountered a woman, Jun Kazama, whom he later described as mysterious and approaching without fear. The two became close, as Jun sought to save him from the influence of Devil, and later bore his child. At this time, Kazuya's Devil was trying to completely take over his mind and body, and both Jun and the mysterious entity, known as Angel, struggled to keep it from controlling him entirely. At the final round of the tournament, however, waited none other than the man Kazuya thought he killed two years ago: his father. Conflicted by Jun and Angel's influence, Kazuya was defeated by Heihachi. Heihachi then flew his body over a volcano and tossed him into it, apparently killing Kazuya. Kazuya's Devil was split in two and part of it escaped his body to eventually make contact with his son, who succeeded his father as the series' new protagonist.

This would not be the end for Kazuya, however. Against all odds, a newly established, cutting-edge, bio-technology company, G Corporation, located Kazuya's remains days later. After an unknown period of time, G Corporation succeeded in restoring Kazuya to life. They eventually reached an agreement with him to use him as a test subject. Kazuya had learned from his mistakes: the next time he faced Heihachi, he wanted to be in full control of his Devil powers. Of course, this plan did not go as Kazuya intended. Twenty years after Kazuya had been thrown into a volcano, Heihachi heard rumors that G Corporation had some of Kazuya's remains. Heihachi desired to make use of Kazuya's genetic material in order to enhance his power by creating a synthetic Devil Gene. Heihachi had his Tekken Force invade G Corporation. He launched a dual strike on G Corporation laboratories in Nepal and Nebraska. At the Nebraska facility, however, Kazuya was revealed to be alive and took out Heihachi's Tekken Force squad.

Once Kazuya's existence was revealed, Heihachi set up a fourth Iron Fist Tournament to lure Kazuya and his son, Jin Kazama, out into the open. At the end of the previous tournament, Heihachi had shot Jin, revealing that Kazuya's son also possessed the Devil Gene. Jin had fled and been in hiding for two years. Heihachi needed genetic material from one of them for his Devil-Human Integration Program. Kazuya entered the fourth tournament, despite knowing it was a trap set up by his father. He was due to fight his son (and meet him for the first time) in the semi-finals of the tournament, but Jin was kidnapped by Heihachi's Tekken Force before this could happen. They instead met after Kazuya lost the final round of the tournament to Heihachi. Heihachi took Kazuya to where he had imprisoned Jin in Hon-Maru. On meeting Jin, Kazuya became possessed by his Devil. It took over his consciousness without transforming, threw Heihachi aside, and sought to absorb the rest of itself from an unconscious Jin, taunting him as it did. Kazuya was able to fight his Devil for control, however, mimicking Devil's own technique to instead assert total control over Devil himself. Kazuya was able to silence his Devil and merge with it. Ever since this event, Kazuya has been able to transform into his Devil form at will. Despite this, he was still defeated by Jin, who attacked him and then Heihachi, before showing mercy and fleeing into the night.

Still at Hon-Maru, Kazuya and Heihachi were subsequently attacked by JACK robots. After initially working together, Kazuya threw Heihachi into the robots and fled as they were detonating. The resulting explosion unleashed the re-animated Jinpachi Mishima from his tomb under Hon-Maru. Jinpachi had starved to death, and a vengeful spirit now possessed him. Struggling against this spirit, with his last remaining human consciousness, Jinpachi took over the Zaibatsu and called a fifth tournament to find a fighter strong enough to kill the vengeful spirit and lay him to rest. Kazuya spent most of the Iron Fist Tournament 5 seeking the perpetrator of the attack on Hon-Maru. When it was revealed that G Corporation had betrayed him and ordered the attack, Kazuya killed the G Corp executives responsible and seized control of the corporation. He became its new CEO between the events of Tekken 5 and Tekken 6. Jin Kazama, however, had gone on to win the Iron Fist Tournament, and with Heihachi still absent, Jin ascended as the Zaibatsu's new CEO.

Jin then declared war on the world, apparently without reason. He later revealed he believed he was avoiding a greater evil, seeking to destroy the Devil Gene, toppling corrupt governments and corporations, and was apparently also influenced by the growing control of his own Devil and Azazel over him. Kazuya found himself in the position of being one of the few powers large enough to challenge the Zaibatsu's warmongering. He militarized G Corporation and declared war on the Mishima Zaibatsu, and at this time was heralded as a hero for his actions. Kazuya followed Jin to a desert in the Middle East, where a source of power linked to the Devil Gene was rumored to reside. He withdrew, however, after meeting his half-brother, Lars Alexandersson, and instead chose to re-gather his power back in Japan.

After Jin went missing following his confrontation with Azazel in the desert, Heihachi returned from the shadows and took control of the Mishima Zaibatsu in Jin's absence. At the start of Tekken 7, the war between the Zaibatsu and G Corporation continued. After waging media warfare against one another, Kazuya and Heihachi finally met in a volcano to confront one another, though not before Heihachi had revealed Kazuya's Devil form in a live broadcast and dictated his version of past events to a journalist. In their final confrontation, Kazuya defeated his father and threw his body into volcanic magma. Despite there being no current head of the Mishima Zaibatsu and G Corporation apparently winning the war, the violence continued, and Kazuya appeared to be set once more on world domination.

Six months later, Kazuya was confronted by Jin Kazama in New York. The two battled, with Kazuya emerging victorious after transforming into Devil. He then issued an announcement to the world at large: he would be hosting a new King of Iron Fist Tournament, and rather than a battle for money or control of the Mishima Zaibatsu, this tournament would decide the fate of the fighters' country of origin.

Tournament matches were held across the world, with the finals taking place in a coliseum in Italy. Kazuya appeared in person for these final matches, harnessing the chaotic emotions of the audience in order to enact his plan: to resurrect Azazel. He successfully drew Zafina to the coliseum and released Azazel, who had been sealed away within her right arm. The two did battle, and Kazuya once again was victorious. He absorbed Azazel's power and became True Devil Kazuya. Jin retreated to Yakushima while Kazuya was held off and eventually forced to withdraw through the combined efforts of Lars Alexandersson, Lee Chaolan, Alisa Bosconovitch, Victor Chevalier, Reina, and Claudio Serafino.

Kazuya sent armed forces to Yakushima to stop Jin from regaining control of his Devil Gene, planning to kill Jin with his own hands. When Kazuya himself arrived on the battlefield, he wiped out multiple units from both sides with a powerful laser blast. After finding Jin, who had been unconscious within a shrine for an undetermined amount of time, Kazuya was held off from his attack by Lars.

The two fought, but before Kazuya could land the final, possibly fatal blow, Jin reawakened to rescue Lars. Kazuya and Jin began to battle in their respective Devil forms until Kazuya formed a large ball of energy with the intention of destroying the island and all those upon it. In order to stop this attack, Jin was able to transform into an angelic form, which he then used to continue his fight with Kazuya.

The two appeared to be evenly matched, with the battle continuing until Jin's Kazama abilities were able to purify both he and Kazuya, ridding them both of their Devil Gene. Kazuya ultimately failed to defeat Jin, left unconscious in the remnants of a comet that had fallen to the earth. Some time after this battle, Kazuya's unconscious form appeared to have been found by Jun Kazama.

Appearance

Kazuya has black hair swept into a spike at the back of his head. Since Tekken 4, his left eye constantly glows red, and his body is a patchwork of numerous scars and burn marks after his reconstruction by the G Corporation. His main outfit in the series has consisted of karate pants with red gloves, however in Tekken 7 it changed to a trench coat and suit. As a boss in Tekken 2, he wore a purple tuxedo, which has made sporadic reappearances throughout the series.