Hijiri Shinozuka

**Hijiri Shinozuka** (篠塚 聖, *Shinozuka Hijiri*) is a main character of Iris Zero. He is a student of Class 2-6 and the classmate of Toru Mizushima.

## Appearance

Hijiri has messy brown hair, emerald-green eyes and he is taller than most of the characters in Iris Zero.

He usually wears sleeves that are too long so that they either fully or partially cover his hands, this is probably to hide the scars on his wrist where he used to cut himself. In the summer, he has worn a wristband to hide his scars. In addition to his sleeves, his shirt is usually not tucked in.

## Personality

Hijiri is a seemingly carefree and laid-back guy who is always playing around and smiling. However, he has also been shown on multiple occasions to be to be quite clever and sharp, being able to figure things out and understand situations quickly. He is also quite good at analysing people. He states this is due to his "tenancy and counterplan of the future". He can be a rather secretive person and doesn't talk much about his intentions.

Before meeting Toru Mizushima, Hijiri was a very cold person with a "cold flower bud" as his happiness, as seen through Satsuki Tachibana's iris. This was mainly because of his ability to see when a living thing was near death. It made him realize that everything would eventually die, which made it difficult for him to treasure anything. He realized that some day, even he himself would die, and began cutting his wrist. After meeting Toru, he realized that it was alright to live life out, even if he didn't know what his purpose was. Hijiri is actually very skeptical about the bond that Toru made with Koyuki Sasamori and the rest of their friends. He seems to believe that their friendship will not last long

## Background

Hijiri would never enjoy anything in life, because he knew that everything would die eventually. This made him become a rather cold person. He had a friend named Yuka Katagiri, who had a crush on him. When she introduced him to a tutor and he began attending, he met Satsuki Tachibana and eventually fell in love with her. However, one day, he noticed a butterfly fly beside Satsuki and began following her, trying to learn her cause of death, while thinking that his purpose to live was to save her.

However, the number of butterflies only increased, to the point that he couldn't even see her face behind all the butterflies. Thinking that she would surely die, he went to the bathroom to cut himself again, but he was shocked to see that Toru Mizushima was there, and that he knew about Satsuki's near-coming death. Toru proposed to him that he would save her with his iris, but he had to stay away from her, because he was also interested in her. Having no hope left, he decides to leave it to him, but later rushes to find Satsuki once Katagiri told him that he was actually an iris zero. Shockingly, when he found Satsuki, there wasn't a single butterfly on her. It was then revealed that Katagiri planned to drive Satsuki into danger using her iris "to see danger" out of jealousy.

Later, Hijiri meets Toru and tells him that he realized what he said about him being interested in Satsuki was a lie, and asks for an explanation. Toru tells him that he learned about his iris from when Hijiri was not watering certain flowers, and that those flowers would eventually die. He concludes that his iris was "to see something's time of death" when he began following Satsuki", and stated two reasons for helping him save her: One was to save someone's life, and mainly because he would attract attention if she were to disappear, as she sits in front of him in class.

After that, Hijiri began sticking close to Toru, despite him being an iris zero, and eventually became his best friend.

## Talents and Abilities

 File:Iris Zero 10.jpg  Hijiri has an iris ability that can "see when something is near its time of death". The closer something gets to death, the more black butterflies gather around that person/thing.

The first black butterfly will come when the first event that triggers a possibility for death happens. For example, if the person were to die in a car accident, the first black butterfly would most likely appear when they get their driving license, and more will come until the actual accident itself.

However, this fate is not unchangeable. If something were to happen that would stop that person from getting into an accident, then all the butterflies would leave once the possibility of death disappears.

## Etymology

* The name **Hijiri** means "holy" (聖).
* Hijiri's surname **Shinozuka** means "dwarf bamboo" (篠) (**shino**) and "mound, hill/hillock, heap, knoll, pile, drift, stack, bank" (塚) (**tsuka**/**zuka**).

## Trivia

* Hijiri is left-handed .
* Hijiri prefers rice over bread .
* Nanase Kuga asks Hijiri to be his boyfriend for the day .
	+ When he accepted Nanase's request, Hijiri understood Toru Mizushima's ordeals with requests from Koyuki Sasamori .

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Iris Zero Manga: Volume 2
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Iris Zero manga chapter 25