Hidemasa Miyaji

Hidemasa Miyaji (宮地 秀正) is a character in The Rising of the Shield Hero. He is an antagonist of volume 17.

Appearance
Hidemasa is a young man with black hair and Japanese features with a type of "mature coolness" about him. He wears a black and silver coat over a vest, pants, and boots.

Personality
Naofumi describes him as arrogant. He displays many of the same flaws the holy heroes from Raphtalia's world had before their curses. He has a strong dislike for anything he sees as cowardly in battle. Like the other Vanguards of the Waves, he likes to have a harem of women who can do his will.

Abilities
Miyaji seems to be a competent fighter and a skilled strategist. He knows how to use traps and think ahead of the battle.

Magic
This support magic greatly boosts all stats of the targets, making the targets capable of move nearly twice as fast and covers them with a membrane that reduces incoming damage.
 * Hero's Melody「英雄の旋律 Eiyuu no Senritsu (lit. Melody of Heroes)」

Vassal Musical Instrument
Miyaji gained the Vassal Musical Instrument soon after being summoned to Glass' World. While he isn't inherently skilled at music like Itsuki, he is able to use the instrument to attack, buff and debuff enemies. Skills from the Vassal Musical Instrument can be interfered with musical dissonance.

As Miyaji plays his instrument, bolts that look like music notes fly out wildly from the instrument at high speeds.
 * Unnamed Explosive Notes


 * Music Stream「ミュージックストリーム Myuujikku Sutoriimu」

This skill fires a large amount of arrows towards the target. Miyaji mentions that when he tried to use this ability, the notes flew out in random directions.

Curse Series
Hidemasa's cursed weapon takes the form of an electric guitar.

Creates a voodoo doll and pin that can be used with an opponent's hair to cause damage. The effect can be resisted and possibly reflected by shikigami. It is unknown whether this "ability" is a skill or magic. As Miyaji plays his instrument, the air around the targets thickens up akin to travelling through water. This slows down the target and makes moving much harder. Miyaji plays and creates barriers of thickened air around his allies. This is a mistranslation of the above ability when it loses its effect when Itsuki was interfering with dissonance, where it was described as barriers of thickened air around Miyaji's allies being dispersed instead of thickened air that were slowing Naofumi & co's movements being dispersed. This skill fires off countless notes from the instrument towards the targets.
 * Cursed Song Woodoo-Voodoo「呪歌・牛ノ刻参り Juka - Ushi-no-koku-mairi (lit. Cursed Song - Visiting on the Hours of the Ox)」
 * Unnamed Debuff Magic/Skill
 *  Unnamed Barrier 
 * Demon's Melody「悪魔の旋律 Akuma no Senritsu (lit. Melody of Demons)」


 * Unnamed Speaker Summoning Skill

Summons a relatively big speaker by his side, its effects are unknown though.

Technology
Through research into the dragon hourglass and the Legendary Weapons, Miyaji and S'yne's sister were able to learn how to suppress the Legendary Weapons from Raphtalia's world. As a byproduct, it also depowers magic and techniques from Raphtalia's World. According to S'yne's sister, this is a inherent defensive mechanism of each world to prevent Legendary Weapons from being used from invasion. Activating this defence requires the possession of the majority of the Legendary Weapons.

Background
During the summoning of the Legendary Heroes of Glass' World, Hidemasa apparently got caught up in the process and was summoned as an extra fifth "hero." However, the day he was summoned he also disappeared and was not seen until he became the Vassal Musical Instrument Wielder. As the Vassal wielder of his country, he holds the position known as the successor to the king. Soon after he was summoned he was greeted by Kizuna and Glass but two groups could not see eye to eye.

Volume 17
As Kizuna went around her world to reunite the countries against the people behind the waves, Hidemasa and another reincarnated individual (who was a spy in L'Arc's forces) captured and kidnapped her. As soon as they were able, Naofumi, Glass, and the rest of the heroes went looking for Kizuna. With help from the Vassal Mirror, they were able to teleport into the Vassal Musical Instrument Country and confront Hidemasa. As they stormed the complex, many of Hidemasa's traps went off which teleported and separated the party throughout the underground labyrinth.

Naofumi, Itsuki, Raphtalia and Glass were the first to confront Miyaji. The false hero feigns innocence about Kizuna's capture and then plays victim. Naofumi tries to reason and then extract a confession the Miyaji who then admits to killing the Jewel, Blunt Instrument, and Ofuda legendary heroes. Tired of talk, both groups decide to fight, however, Hidemasa suppresses the legendary weapons and techniques from Raphtalia's World. As the battle continues, S'yne's sister, Mald and Malty join Miyaji while the other heroes trickle their way in to help Naofumi and his group. When the Vassal Mirror and Vassal Book appear, Miyaji finally starts to lose the battle. The accessory suppressing the Vassal Musical Instrument is destroyed as a team effort and the liberated weapons leaves Miyaji for Itsuki. Getting desperate, Miyaji tries to take the Vassal Axe from Mald but is chopped down and has his soul destroyed in retaliation.

Legendary Heroes

 * Naofumi Iwatani: To Naofumi, Miyaji was mostly just another vanguard of the waves. However, Miyaji was successful in suppressing Naofumi's Legendary Shield. The two fought a difficult battle and Naofumi was nearly killed. However, in the end Miyaji lost.
 * Itsuki Kawasumi: Itsuki is the legitimate wielder of the Vassal Musical Instrument that Miyaji had stolen. Miyaji was dependent on the Vassal Weapon that he couldn't even use very well and thus Itsuki was his natural enemy. Even without the Vassal Musical Instrument, Itsuki was able to play musical dissonance to interfere with Miyaji's magic. In the end, The Vassal Musical Instrument was liberated and it flew out of Miyaji's hand to Itsuki.
 * Kizuna Kazayama: As a vanguard of the waves, Miyaji's mission directly opposes Kizuna's goal to unite the countries to fight against the waves. As a result, he captured, kidnapped her and then petrified her with an accessory to keep her with the curse of sloth.

Others

 * Malty S Melromarc: As one of the vanguards of the waves, Miyaji had a weakness for women. Malty fully took advantage of this and manipulated the false hero to try to defeat Naofumi. However, Malty hardly did any work in the battle against Naofumi and did nothing to assist Miyaji.
 * Mald: Mald was another manipulated by Malty and thus had no direct connection with Miyaji. Instead, the two competed with each other and bickered often with their differing ideologies. When Miyaji lost his Vassal Musical Instrument, he tried to steal Mald's Vassal Axe but Mald killed him instead.
 * S'yne's Sister: Similar to Malty, it appears that S'yne's sister was also manipulating Miyaji for the purposes of testing out new technology. However, S'yne's sister is an incredible fighter and much more of a free spirit. Instead of helping with the main battle, S'yne's sister decided to pick on S'yne for the entirety of the battle, not even caring the Miyaji was killed

Etymology

 * The name Hidemasa means "excellent, outstanding" (秀) (hide) and "right, proper" (正) (masa).
 * Hidemasa's surname Miyaji means "temple, shrine, palace" (宮) (miya) and "earth, land" (地) (chi/ji).

Trivia
Information to be added later on.