Naoya Zenin

Naoya Zenin is an antagonist in the Jujutsu Kaisen series. He is one of the sons of Naobito Zenin and believes himself to be the true heir of the Zenin Family. Naoya is also the head of the clan's elite unit of jujutsu sorcerers, the Hei. He serves as the primary antagonist of the Itadori's Extermination Arc and a minor antagonist in the Perfect Preparation Arc.

Appearance
Naoya is a relatively tall young man with a fit build. He has sharp brown eyes and dyed blonde hair accented with his black roots. He almost always has an arrogant grin plastered across his face and believes himself to have an appearance befitting a clan head, implying he's much better looking than other members like Jinichi. He has three piercings in his left ear, one in his ear lobe, and two more toward the top.

Naoya wears a traditional attire that resembles most of his clansmen. He sports a white long-sleeved shirt that buttons at the color underneath his dark blue kimono. He completes his outfit with light-colored hakama bottoms and sandals.

Personality
From a young age Naoya was always praised told by others that he was a genius. He was severely spoiled as the youngest and most promising of the Naobito's children, conditioned to view himself as his father's successor. As a result, Naoya's arrogance grew to unbridled levels even as a small child. He looked down on all those he views as weaker than him, which is the vast majority of the people Naoya came across.

The only person Naoya ever appeared to have any respect for was Toji. He went to visit him as a child to mock the pitiful man without cursed energy but was instantly able to recognize Toji was extremely strong in spite of that. This led Naoya to embrace the ideology that the sin of the insignificant is the ignorance of true strength. Naoya felt he was one of the only ones who understood Toji and strived to be as exceptional as he was.

Naoya confidently pursued strength to the point where he viewed everyone else as inferior to himself. He refused to acknowledge anyone's talent, referring to his elders, Jinichi and Ogi, as weaklings despite their experience as senior members of the clan. Naoya's reckless and conceited attitude irritates even his fellow clansmen, to the point where Ogi and Jinichi attacked him for being excessively pompous.

Raised in an environment that breeds superiority, Naoya developed several sociopathic and narcissistic tendencies and strongly embodied all the stigma about the Zenin clan. He has no family values whatsoever other than trying to outdo everyone to become head of the clan. He didn't express any amount of concern for Naobito, his father, on his death bed and has said more than once that he hates all his older brothers as well. Naoya views women only as wives and casually told Maki and Mai's mother that a woman who can't walk three paces behind a man should be stabbed in the back.

Upon learning that Megumi usurped him for the head of the clan, Naoya didn't hesitate to plot a way to kill him. Naoya was well aware that his clansmen might prefer Megumi to himself but didn't care at all for their approval. He had no issues attacking Megumi's allies in an attempt to draw him out and was willing to kill them in order to do so.

Naoya set his pride aside momentarily to work alongside Yuta Okkotsu, but only did so to achieve his own self-serving goals. Even after Yuta checked on him after his loss to Choso, Naoya was irritated with the young man for looking down on him.

Dissatisfied with his plans going awry, Naoya took out his irritation with Maki and mocked her repeatedly upon her return to the Zenin clan's property. He called her scum, taunted her for her scars, and devalued her as a person not only for her appearance but her inability to use jujutsu as well. He called her a lapdog for following Yuta and Megumi, and threatened to abuse his own cousin in the same manner that he used to bully her in the past.

Upon learning of the Jinichi and Ogi's refusal to leave Megumi the family fortune, it was confirmed that Naoya was not the clan's first choice. This irritated Naoya, but he was fine with the conspiracy to get rid of Megumi, Maki, and Mai so long as it served him in the end.

Mai sacrificed herself in exchange for granting Maki a body with power comparable to Toji's. As Maki massacred her way through the Zenin clan, Naoya didn't show the slightest hint of distress for his family members. In fact, he was amused by Maki's power and simply teased her for being so ruthless.

Naoya refused to acknowledge Maki as being in the same realm of strength as Toji. That is a title that Naoya desired and he fought Maki to deny her that more than he did to avenge his own clan. Up until the moment he was defeated, Naoya remained in denial and referred to Maki as nothing more than an imposter.

Even after being brutally bested by Maki, Naoya mocked her for not finishing him off. However, fate's sense of irony came for Naoya in the form of Maki's mother stabbing him in the back, just as he said women deserved. As Naoya was losing his life in such a pitiful manner, all he could do was use his last words to insult his assailant.

Abilities and Powers
Overall Skill: Naoya is a special grade 1 sorcerer who is supremely confident in his abilities for a reason. A major testament to his strength is that he is the head of the Zenin clan's unit of most powerful sorcerers. This makes Naoya one of the strongest jujutsu sorcerers in all of the Big Three Families.

Naoya is comfortable in close combat and employs Projection Sorcery just as efficiently as his father. He was able to engage Yuji and Choso at the same time with little effort, landing a blow before getting away unscathed.

For the majority of the early stage of his fight with Choso, Naoya overwhelmed the special grade Death Painting Womb with ease. However, Naoya was unaware his opponent was half cursed spirit and relied too heavily on his knowledge of Blood Manipulation. Naoya is an excellent fighter who uses his mind and body, but his cocky attitude tends to get in his own way.

Immense Speed And Reflexes: Naoya is capable of moving super fast, shown being capable of blitzing Choso and Yuji Itadori, traveling so fast that it makes it seem like he teleported. Naoya has also displayed excellent and blinding reflexes, being able to evade multiple attacks while being able to process his surroundings just as quickly.

His prowess in movement speed also enables him to single-handedly take on 2 expert combatants simultaneously, evading attacks and dealing swift blows effortlessly. Naoya also seems to be able increase his speed even more, as he states “Shall I try upping my speed?” which also implies he was far from moving at top speed, judging by his casualness when saying those words.

When fighting Choso, he was able to move at such high speeds that Choso did not have the time to use Convergence, making him unable to use Blood Manipulation attacks such as Piercing Blood. Even when Naoya was unable to move freely due to Choso's blood weighing him down, he was fully confident he would be able to dodge Piercing Blood, implying once again he was far from moving at top speed.

Battles & Events
Itadori's Extermination Arc


 * Choso vs. Naoya Zenin

Perfect Preparation Arc


 * Maki Zenin vs. Naoya Zenin

Trivia

 * Naoya's first name contains the kanji for "honesty, frankness" (直) and "exclamation, alas" (哉).