Kyoya possesses a genuine charisma that allowed him to dominate the entire Tohoku region in just two years; his popularity is so immense that when Jo-gasaki threw a grenade, two of his closest aides immediately shielded him with their own bodies. He frequently uses the word "love" and holds a uniquely philosophical worldview even among the cast of Human Bug University. According to him, "If you love someone, you understand what they can and cannot do, and what they want or don't want done to them," and he claims that "being loved is scarier than being hated." However, his final words revealed that he truly loved no one except his late girlfriend, Chihiro. He only said "I love you" to Chihiro in his imagination, and in his final monologue, he stated she was the only one he ever loved. He possesses almost zero sense of camaraderie; while he may offer superficial words of appreciation to his subordinates, he is consistently depicted as feeling almost no grief over their deaths. His manipulation and intense pressure on his followers appear to be driven by surface-level emotions. While he generally gives the impression of a mild-mannered, aloof, and gentle man, the madness hidden within him is terrifying enough to make Kotaro Kurosawa flinch and to convince the likes of Kanata Kotoge, Kosuke Kobayashi, Shigeo Ijuin, Emma, Tatsuomi Uryu, and Shintaro Kosaka that he is no ordinary man. He is incredibly proud and combative, once throwing a knife at Kenji Jo-gasaki, the leader of Raijin, during a negotiation to bring them under his wing. He is also cold-blooded, pressuring subordinates he sends on hits by telling them he will kill them if they fail. He claims to expand his power as if it were a game to kill time, though this was likely a front; it was later revealed his true motivation was to negate Chihiro's fear that he would die as a result of his expansion. Since Chihiro's death, he has continued to hold internal dialogues with her in his mind, despite her being gone, revealing a darkness deeper than any other character in the series. He has many devoted followers, and while he isn't entirely heartless—offering words of appreciation for executives like Masaki Kadonaka and Shinichi Jodo who fell in battle—the creators have officially stated that his base personality is one of cold-blooded ruthlessness. This side became prominent after he attacked Kaise's funeral. When he saw Sakakibara, one of his executives, cough up blood due to terminal stomach cancer, he prepared to discard him without hesitation. After deciding to expand the organization through an alliance with Mad Cartel, his initial gentle aura vanished completely. He showed no reaction to the corpse of Aso, a long-time companion, and became a figure of pure madness who oppressed his subordinates and mercilessly killed anyone he deemed a rebel.