Keiji Shinogi

篠木(シノギ) 敬二(ケイジ), *Shinogi Keiji*?

* Current
* Police Uniform
* Child

### Cause of death

Unknown Death after Nao Egokoro got the most votes during the second Main game. (Ending 1)

**Keiji Shinogi** (篠木(シノギ) 敬二(ケイジ), *Shinogi Keiji*?) is a former police detective and is one of the 20 participants chosen to play in the Death Game.

## Appearance

Keiji is a tall man with a muscular build. He has short, fluffy, bleached blonde hair and gray eyes with dark circles underneath. He wears a long-sleeved gray shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a black vest, brown pants, and black dress shoes.

Being a participant of the Death Game, He wears a Collar as do all participants, Dummies, and Floor Masters.

In the past, Keiji is shown with black hair and bright eyes. He's depicted his police uniform during this time, which consists of a blue, long-sleeved uniform shirt bearing an emblem on the right sleeve. He also wears a gray undershirt and a light blue tie with blue pants.

In a childhood flashback, he is shown to be wearing a purplish-blue/bluish-purple short-sleeved shirt with light purple sleeves that contains a tan stripe. He also has a light-purple stripe going down his shirt with some brown shorts.

## Personality

Keiji is shown to be pretty laid-back and level-headed during the Death Game, though he comes off as shady to some of the participants. He usually refers to himself as "the friendly policeman" in an effort to establish himself as trustworthy, and makes a pretense of being less cunning than he really is.

He's observant, canny, and is quite good at reading other people. He has good instincts regarding when to speak up and when to remain quiet.

He's also encouraging and gentle with the younger participants, making it his job to keep watch over Gin.

In certain situations, Keiji's responses to other characters appear flirty. This is something he employs to distract others and avoid answering questions about himself, or even to just joke around. Evidence of this is during Russian Roulette when Sara asks why he trusts her so much, in which he replies that it's because she's "cute". Another occasion is when Reko asks what Keiji and Sara are doing, and he replies that the two are on a date.

## History

### Background

When Keiji was young, he lost his mother's bicycle in a river, which was retrieved and fixed by a local member of the force who called himself Mr. Policeman. This event made Mr. Policeman his childhood hero, and this admiration furthered when Keiji got into a fight with several other boys, which was seen by Mr. Policeman. After the incident, Mr. Policeman invited Keiji to the police station for coffee, and gave him his good luck charm. Because of this event, Keiji was inspired to become a policeman himself when he grew up.

To become a police officer in Japan, a person must at least be a high school graduate and must pass a national exam. Once these requirements are met, the person must undergo a year of training which consists of classroom, field, and physical training in order to prepare them for work as an officer. Keiji took the national exam and year of training, and eventually joined the police force, working under Megumi Sasahara.

However, Keiji found out early on in his tenure that Mr. Policeman had left unwillingly, apparently due to discovering corruption within the police force, particularly within Megumi's command. Keiji's career reached an untimely end after a routine arrest, during which he was misdirected by a disguised Sou Hiyori into shooting and accidentally murdering an "unarmed criminal", none other than his childhood hero, Mr. Policeman. With no other witnesses, Megumi made a deal to ensure that Keiji wasn't subjected to disciplinary action as a result. This disgusted Keiji to the point that he resigned from the force, and he is left unable to fire a gun since this incident. He is haunted by hallucinations of Mr. Policeman, wracked with guilt over his actions.

### The Death Game

Supposedly, Keiji was working with a co-worker investigating a criminal group of petty thieves. When they got separated, Keiji was knocked out and kidnapped by ASU-NARO.

His First Trial takes place with his old police superior, Megumi. During the trial, Keiji has the power to free the chained-up Megumi by pressing a switch, but the unresolved conflict between them complicates matters. Megumi begs to be freed, claiming she was only following orders. Before Keiji can come to a decision, time runs out, and the chains pull Megumi apart, killing her.

Later, Keiji would meet most of the other surviving participants in the Central Hall of the first floor. Once Sara Chidouin regains consciousness, Keiji casually tries to organize everyone in some semblance of order. He encourages everyone to introduce themselves and ask Sara to take the lead, despite going through the trouble of claiming to be a police officer.

Sara is somewhat reluctant, but Keiji deflects and shrugs off any responsibility that would put him in the spotlight, making Sara the head of the group.

At the end of the discussion, Q-taro Burgerberg reveals that his First Trial was carrying a box. Inside the box is a doll head, and everyone else is then tasked to finding the doll's other body parts. When the group splits up to explore the area, Joe Tazuna partners up with Keiji out of suspicion. The two, Kai Satou, and Q-taro make a concentrated effort of examining the Blue Room. When Keiji finds a pistol there, he gives it to Sara for safekeeping. He flirtatiously dodges answering Sara when she asks him why he trusts her, mildly explaining that Joe would be uneasy with him holding the gun.

Sara, who had been partnered up with Sou Hiyori, returns later with both dummy and live bullets. When Sou exits the room, the remaining five become trapped in the room. They are coerced by a painting known as Meister into playing a variation of Russian roulette. When the time came to choose who would be the shooter, Keiji backed up Sara. He also eventually had to admit the reason why he, the seemingly most suited person to pull the trigger, couldn't. The trauma of killing someone affected him so badly, he had no confidence he would safely use a gun.

After Russian Roulette, Joe decides to partner up with Sara since Sou hadn't returned. Keiji finds Sou. And either together, or separately, find a Secret Room in the back of the kitchen, off to the side of the Pink Room. Inside the room is a password-protected laptop.

Once all the other limbs are discovered, the group meets in the Pink Room where the doll's torso is located. Keiji is the one to skillfully put the parts together. The room fills with smoke and reveals Sue Miley, the Laughing Doll. Miley gives some vague hint about the Death Game and that they'll all be playing the Main Game later. The group then participates in the Second Trial, where they are told to vote for any one person. With the exception of Nao Egokoro and Sou, everyone else votes for themselves. Unfortunately, Kazumi Mishima gets the majority vote and is killed. Mishima's head is burned off his neck completely as well.

While everyone else is shocked, Gin Ibushi and Nao sit beside Mishima's corpse. When Joe demands to know who had voted for Mishima, Keiji is the one who tries to keep things peaceable. While the others wander off, Keiji stays the Pink Room. He respectfully gives Nao and Gin room to mourn, despite wanting to get a closer look at Mishima's collar.

When it's announced that Mishima's body will be cleaned up, Nao, in shocked denial, steals Mishima's head. Gin, Keiji, and Sara attempt to follow, but the latter two loses sight of the other two. Keiji and Sara find Gin on the newly opened up second floor where they save him from the Birdcage Game with Keiji shining the flashlight and Sara pressing the switch.

The three return downstairs to another blackout and meet back up with the others at the Bar. Sara had found a passed out suspicious man before Nao had run away, and the man had awoken. Again, Keiji has Sara lead the interrogation. But, Gonbee Yamada seems to be as much a victim as the rest of them.

After clearing the puzzle in the Mirror Room, Keiji and Sara find Nao in the previously locked kitchen after finding a key on the second floor. After calming Nao down and sending her off to Reko Yabusame, they look in the box where Mishima's head was stored in to find it empty. The kitchen also has an empty knife case and the number code to enter the Black Room and White Room on the second floor.

When they enter the White Room, Sara gets an uncomfortable feeling of heavy air; sensing a bad feeling. Keiji tells Sara that he "bets someone died here," noting that it probably took place around the time of the First Trial. Keiji gently encourages Sara to leave, saying he'll examine it on his own.

At some point, Keiji picks up a Commoner card for the Main Game.

Shortly after, Keiji presumably gets knocked out and brought to the Last Supper Room. During the first Main Game, Keiji suggests to focus on 'suspicious characters' first before getting into the card roles. Once Kanna, Gin, and Nao are called out by Q-taro for being "useless," Keiji suggests to Sara to draw it out of them, as it's 'only something she can do.' He frequently asks Sara for her input, such as when Reko is being suspected after the name "Alice Yabusame" appears on the sheet Gin put back together (Yabusame being Reko's last name.) Later on in the main game, Keiji distrusts Nao's statement of her holding Mishima's head the entire time and never letting go. He cites this as when he and Sara looked inside of the box she left in the kitchen, it was empty. Keiji remains helpful throughout the course of the Main Game until the preliminary voting, where he receives zero votes and is deemed safe from being the chosen one to get the most votes. He later remarks that 'our votes will decide our fates.' While Sara inwardly panics as she's eligible to receive the most votes, Keiji abruptly tells her to get a grip, before apologizing and moving on. He says that all they need to do is narrow it down to a single person that is safe to vote for, being that if the Keymaster or Sacrifice gets the majority vote, they'll all die.

At the commence of the second-half of the Main Game, Keiji offers to go over the roles and their powers, and later remarks that Kanna and Sou are working together once Kanna claims she's the Sage and Sou is the Keymaster. Sara points out that there's a way to determine who's lying and who's telling the truth; via the card roles. He offers to 'take a gamble on it,' and asks Joe the design of the Keymaster card. Once Kai is revealed as the Sage and Joe is revealed as the Sacrifice, Joe's execution commences. After Joe's death, Keiji stops Sara from clicking the device that supposedly would've saved him.

Following the death of Joe, he notices Sara also experiencing hallucinations, and tells her that he experiences them too. He says that she has to ignore the hallucinations, or she'll end up like him.

During the Final Attraction, Keiji places 5th place in the Trust Bartering Game. This means that he is neither pinned to the target nor lifted to the Impression Room, and remains on the ground along with Sou, Alice and Kanna due to his high amount of tokens.

After either Reko or Alice's resulting death, Keiji is forced along with the rest of the remaining participants into playing the Main Game again, this time by Gashu Satou. He starts off as the Sage, and uses his knowledge of the Keymaster's identity to exchange their card with Sara's at a Ring-Up Box to earn her trust.

He is with Sara when they find Gin going down to the first floor, and they explore it together, finding a powered-off Miley doll, a person in a hospital bed, and a video of a man's death in the Pink Room. They also inspect the security footage and find Q-taro placing the cards Sou found and silent footage of Kai and Joe talking. The two return to the second floor, not having found Gin.

Keiji's initial plan was to trap and have Sou die in the second Main Game. However, in respect to her wishes, Keiji ends up voting for Kanna Kizuchi when she volunteers to sacrifice herself.

Keiji is paired with Hinako Mishuku for the Murderer Sub-Game. He continues to help Sara as best he can, and is one of the people who signed the contract, and seems panicked when he sees it in the classroom. During the game of tag, when Sara begins panicking over being tagged, if alive, Kanna touches her shoulder and makes herself it. Keiji then touches Kanna, saying that he can't let Kanna accept it. Once they find Midori, he throws Keiji a gun, which turns out to be the same gun he shot Mr. Policeman with, Keiji begins having a panic attack and flashbacks ensue. We learn that Mr. Policeman was kicked off the force by Megumi for trying to expose a "certain darkness" in the police force. Keiji attacks Midori and the battle begins. Keiji tries but fails to kill Midori, and Midori pushes him into a coffin and locks it. Midori tells Sara that the only way to save Keiji from being cremated is to sign his contract.

Sara considered signing the contract but Ranmaru rips it up preventing her and Keiji agrees that she shouldn't sign it. Midori instead sets a timer for the cremation and tells them to find a solution. Sara and the others go to the Security Office and operate the coffin controls after using Midori's ID card and Mai's fingerprint. They open the coffins freeing Keiji. Keiji is greeted by Mai and Q-taro who are hiding from Maple. They leave the safety of the locked cemetery and find Maple passed out on the gallery floor. After talking to her they discover a Midori head and Safalin's lab. They decide to charge the Midori head so they can use it for the banquet and Keiji heads to the fifth floor. When searching for the charger he encounters Kurumada who mistakes his goal as wanting to forsake the dummies and tries to stop him. This leads to Keiji **hallucinating** and panicking, hitting Kurumada and thinking he killed him. He then heads back to the elevators but hears the fake broadcast Ranmaru made. He heads to the classroom and confronts Ranmaru who tells him to hand over the Midori head and that he heard Keiji kill Kurumada. Then Sara appears answering Ranmaru's fake summons. Keiji tries to get her to stay away but Ranmaru shock her and she passes out in his arms. Keiji is gone when Sara wakes up.

In the banquet Keiji does not appear and Midori becomes confused and tricked into thinking Keiji is in one of the coffins. Sara is also momentarily convinced until Keiji reveals himself to be alive. Meister almost executes Keiji because he thinks he has violated the rules of the game but after Midori is killed he reveals that it was a trick using Midori's collar which is not a violation. Keiji then moves onto the the main game with the other surviving participants.

## Relationships

### Sara Chidouin

From the outset of the Death Game, Keiji subtly guides others into granting Sara their trust. Keiji often tells Sara that she's "cute" as a way to distract or deflect her attention away from having to further explain himself or his history, which Sara herself notes. When investigating, he usually confers with Sara to develop possibilities and theories.

While he appears to care for and believe in Sara, his own issues lead him to hesitate during critical moments, at least in regards to his thoughts and feelings. Otherwise, he's shown as willing to trust his life in her hands, regardless of Sara's feelings about taking on that responsibility.

He also understands Sara's feelings of guilt after the events of the first Main Game. At the beginning of Chapter 2 Part One, Sara can confess that she is seeing hallucinations of Joe. Keiji offers Sara a chance to rest on his shoulder, an opportunity she takes regardless of the player's choices. Once she falls asleep, he says aloud: "You too, huh?" and a red arm, illustrated in the same style as Sara's hallucinations of Joe, reaches out for his shoulder. This establishes that Keiji and Sara share a similar struggle in being haunted by the deaths of others. Keiji's position throughout the game is that it is best for Sara to never acknowledge these hallucinations, lest she "end up like Mr. Policeman" (referring to himself). Later on, Keiji instructs Gin to keep Joe's dog keychain a secret to avoid triggering Sara's hallucinations. He does this again with Ranmaru when they find it on Floor 5 in Chapter 3. Even when Sara has gotten over Joe, he is still cautious and paranoid about Sara's mental health.

Alongside Gin, Keiji has an in-game "partner ability" that can be shared with Sara. When activated, it's used to figuratively 'grasp' someone's heart, allowing Sara to perceive that person's inner thoughts and feelings.

### Shin Tsukimi

After Shin reveals his manipulative nature to the others, he and Keiji develop a very antagonistic relationship, arguing during the first Main Game. On the second floor Shin frequently goads and teases Keiji such as when he asks him to trade tokens with Sara and shows them his collar. In the second main game Keiji comes up with plans to try and counter Shin's attempted manipulation of the game.

If Shin lives in Chapter Three, upon the prospect of Keiji's execution at the banquet he becomes upset, yelling about how Keiji can't die, implying that he cares for Keiji somewhat despite the fact that he voted for Kanna in the second main game. Keiji seems unsure of how to receive Shin's outburst and says nothing.

### Q-taro Burgerberg

Q-taro and Keiji are a bit at odds during the Russian roulette game on the first floor and their differing views on Sara, but afterwards seem to be on good terms. On the third floor they work together multiple times and set a plan during the second main game. After Keiji is freed from his coffin, they once again work together and seem to care about each other. Keiji is distressed to learn of Q-taro's sacrifice.

### Megumi Sasahara

When Keiji was first introduced to Megumi he spoke to her respectfully. She was his direct superior despite her being an "elite."

While not directly stated, Megumi took Keiji under her wing and made an effort to keep him ignorant of the seedier aspects of the police force. When Keiji asked about whether she knew of his hero, Megumi shot down further inquiries. When Keiji killed his childhood hero, a criminal suspect, she supposedly made backdoor dealings to protect Keiji from the fallout.

However, rather than be grateful, Keiji became disillusioned and quit the police force, believing he should have answered for his crime. He calls her help "the worst kind of debt".

When the two are later kidnapped for the First Trial, Keiji has the option to free the chained up Megumi immediately. However, Keiji's festering resentment toward Megumi meant he did not act, and this inaction directly caused her death.

### Mr. Policeman

A neighborhood police officer whom Keiji looked up to as a child. Mr. Policeman influenced Keiji, who (it is implied) did not have a father, into becoming a police officer once he grew up.

After a fight Keiji had with other children, Mr. Policeman patched him up at his police box. This, along with their first meeting where he fixed up Keiji's bicycle after diving into a river to retrieve it, displays a level of kindness that deeply affected Keiji's idolization of him.

Mr. Policeman seemed surprised that Keiji wanted to become a law officer like him at first, but was encouraging; he gave Keiji his safe-birth-good-luck charm shortly before he was going to be a father. Keiji kept the charm through adulthood in the hopes of reuniting with his personal hero and giving the charm back.

Due to unexplained circumstances, Keiji and other officers corner Mr. Policeman and he is shot by Keiji unknowingly. Keiji is severely traumatized by the incident. Among other reasons, this leads Keiji to quit the police force.

Mr. Policeman is one of the hallucinations Keiji sees.

Keiji also picked up on how Mr. Policeman referred to himself as such in the third person to reassure others-- calling himself "your friendly policeman" and "Mr. Policeman." And like Mr. Policeman, Keiji appears to make an effort to be kind to children.

## Appellations

* Participants A
* Participants B
* Organization members
* Other

 Mr. Policeman | • Kiddo• Keiji

## Trivia

* His likes are listed as meat, parks, and night in his character profile.
* The kanji that make up his first name are 敬, *kei*?, lit. "respect; reverence" and 二, *ji*?, lit. "two."
* The kanji that make up his last name are 篠, *shino*?, lit. "bamboo grass" and 木, *gi*?, lit. "tree."
	+ Incidentally, both Keiji and Megumi share the same meaning on the first part of their last name.
* His name also sounds like 刑事, *keiji*?, which means 'police detective'; this a deliberate pun.
* He is left-handed, as stated in a tweet from February 15, 2018. This is also shown in the arm wrestling minigame.
* He has a 9.5% chance of winning the Death Game.
* According to Gin, Keiji smells like "saucy pheromones" and, later on, like "a lady-killer".
	+ Additionally, when trying to rename Midori using Keiji's full name, he will say he's "not fond of sounding like a ladykiller".
* Keiji and Kai are the same age, which is why Nankidai tends to draw them with an absurd rivalry in his twitter posts.
* As of Chapter 3, Part One, Keiji, Sara and Gin are the only participants who cannot die or have their fate chosen by the player outside of game over sequences.
* On the online character profile Nankidai posted on May 2019, Keiji's height was listed as 185.5 cm. In the *Character Settei Materials* (2021) book, this was rounded down to 185 cm.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 1, Part One. *Your Turn to Die ―Death Game By Majority―* (キミガシネ　―多数決デスゲーム―) by Nankidai. August 28, 2017.
2. ↑ Nankidai (July 14, 2019). 生放送ご来場ありがとうございました！7/14 (Japanese) (Video). Pixiv Fanbox. (~1:56:50)
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Nankidai (May 30, 2019). Kimi Ga Shine Character Profile Vol. 1 (キミガシネ　キャラクタープロフィール第1弾, *Kimigashine kyarakutāpurofīru dai 1-dan*?) (Japanese). Pixiv.?) (Japanese). Pixiv.
Nankidai. Tokyo: Dwango. 2021. Print. *Kimi ga Shine Character Settei Materials: Survivor Roster* p.6, Hair section: "It's fluffy (フワッとして), pointy, blonde. Not natural, dyed."
5. ↑ Comparative law and justice. Wikipedia.
6. ↑ Chapter 2, Part Two, Exploration with Keiji. Your Turn to Die ―Death Game By Majority― (キミガシネ　―多数決デスゲーム―) by Nankidai.
7. ↑ Chapter 2, Part One, Sara's nightmare. Your Turn to Die ―Death Game By Majority― (キミガシネ　―多数決デスゲーム―) by Nankidai.
8. ↑ Chapter 2, Part Two. *Your Turn to Die ―Death Game By Majority―* (キミガシネ　―多数決デスゲーム―) by Nankidai. May 21, 2019. During the Main Game.
9. ↑ @nannkizum (September 5, 2018). 4-koma #40 (Japanese) (tweet). Twitter. Retrieved on October 10, 2021.
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Mishima's Story. *Your Turn to Shine: Island Existence* (キミガシネ番外編　～生存島～) by Nankidai. December 20, 2019.
11. ↑ @nannkizum (February 15, 2018). Nankidai corrects a mistake he made (Japanese) (tweet). Twitter. Retrieved on February 15, 2018. “"Damn, Keiji is left-handed, so I corrected it."”
12. ↑ Nankidai (July 14, 2019). 生放送ご来場ありがとうございました！7/14 (Japanese) (Video). Pixiv Fanbox. “The reason why Kai-san and Keiji-san are the same age is, um-- Inside my heart, it recognizes that and that's why probably in my usual twitter posts where they're paired, 'they readily quarrel, right?' It's like that. (カイさんとケイジさんわ同年代なのは, あの--自分のね, 心の中でその認識なので, 多分いつもの twitterの対で, ちょっと こぜりあいしてるよね、みたいな、やてますよね。)” (2:05:54-2:06:07)