Masahito Karikiri

**Masahito Karikiri** (雁切 真砂人, *Karikiri Masahito*) is the chief priest of the Nitto Shrine in the northern part of Nittogashima and the head of the Karikiri family, which is in charge of rituals. He is soft-spoken and easy to talk to, but his long stories are his weak point.

## Appearance

Masahito is an young, very tall adult man with medium long light brown hair. He wears glasses and is usually in his priest uniform.

## Plot

Masahito performs the funeral of Ushio Kofune and calls Shinpei Ajiro to help with the procession.

### 4th Loop

On the fourth July 22nd, at the funeral, Masahito recognizes Hizuru Minakata, even though its been fourteen years. She asks him if Ushio is from the Kofune restaurant and he confirms. He wonders why she came back, but as she was replying, he interrupts her, guessing she studied for being a teacher or doctor. Hizuru gets annoyed and tells him she remembered why she couldn't stand him. Masahito then calls Alain wanting to see if he will recognize Hizuru, but Hizuru reveals her name.

At the funeral crematorium, Shinpei asks him if he knows about the shadow sickness and Masahito confirms as it was his grandfather who named it. As he describes the woman on the boat, Masahito guesses he is talking about Hizuru.

### 7th Loop

Shinpei goes to speak with Masahito at the shrine. They talk about video games and then Shinpei tells him about the Swamp Man novel, where the protagonist gets replaced by a perfect copy and no one notices. He then retells the Hiruko legend and how the shadow sickness started with the whale that washed ashore, turning to a girl and ate it. Masahito laughs at Shinpei for thinking the shadows are real, but Shinpei throws pictures at him, telling him that he very well knows its true as Masahito was there. Masahito sees a 70 years old picture with him on it, and a 40 years old picture with him, Haine and their child. Shinpei wonders if he should call him Shidehiko Hishigata and that he is a human-shadow hybrid.

Masahito then explains that during the famine in 1732, they turned hundred of the islanders into shadows and that way they needed less food to survive, which he believes saved the island. Ushio gets angry and asks him about Shinpei's parents. Masahito then explains they found the Hiruko cave and wanted to go public, so he had to kill them, but wonders if they would have been happier if he made them shadows. Masahito notes that Shinpei probably wonders why his arm isn't injured. Ushio unable to take it anymore, shows up and kills Masahito. Moments later, another Masahito who turns into Shide comes out and kills both Ushio and Shinpei.

### 8th Loop

Haine contacts Hizuru and Mio, while having copied Shinpei, and arranges a meeting with them at different locations. She sends one Masahito at Alain's garden, while another takes with her.

At Torajima, Hizuru as Ryunosuke arrives, but recognizes Haine right away. Masahito comes and attacks Ryunosuke, but he easily dodges. Haine explains that she was tormented by eating her friend's brother and expelled part of her self and his data, but there was a slight incident and coordinates in time shifted, so Ryunosuke can control Hizuru from 2 seconds in the future. However, she can see his movements and relay that information to Shide, which removes Ryunosuke's advantage. Masahito reveals a black mud, stating its consist of former shadows and once it comes with contact of his will, it transforms. He turns to Shide and fight Hizuru, but because of the black mud, she can't hurt him. Ryunosuke is looking for a way to escape, but Hizuru refuses and states she has a plan on taking Shide. As they fight, Hizuru transfers Ryunosuke into Shide's armor, Ryunosuke is then able to take control on part of it and creates his own shadow. With half of his armor got, Masahito can no longer maintain his Shide form. Meanwhile, Shinpei and shadow Mio face the other Masahito, who informs them that they are too late and Mio and Sou have been send for Haine to eat. He suggest Mio to kill Shinpei, so that he restarts the loop, but Mio instead cuts Masahito's head, who then states they will meet in the next loop. Shinpei then receives information about the fight with Hizuru and decides to restart the loop.

### 9th Loop

With the loop restarted, Shide got the fight Hizuru again, but this time knew all of her tricks and easily defeated and stabbed her in the chest with the spear. When Shinpei comes, feeling Ushio from his pocket, Haine decides to retreat with Shide.

Haine asks Masahito if during the search earlier, there was a stray that ignored her call, since its been two hours since she lost Shinpei's location. Her handprint is still on Shinpei, but he can isolate his presence, just like Masahito while in the mud. Masahito wonders if they gave too many hints to Shinpei and since most stray's are looking for Ushio, if they decide to invade Hiruko Cave, they can easily reach Haine. However, Haine doubts they will attempt that unless they are fully prepared. Haine suspects that Shinpei is hiding as maybe the Ushio that's with Shinpei is the only one who can locate the Ushio in the sea and are trying to get to her before Haine. Figuring that Shide has no idea from where Shinpei came, Shinpei loops back.

### 10th Loop

Haine realizes that Shinpei looped back and is located in the Hiruko cave and they head towards him with Masahito. They reach them at the black barrier, but Ginjiro stays behind to stop them while the barrier closes. Shide and Haine later still manage to catch up to Shinpei. While Shide fights Ushio, Haine tells him how to dodge, but Shinpei tricks Haine and injures her. Without Haine, Ushio kills Shide immediately. A second Shide appears, but as Ushio punches Hiruko's main body, his mud armor falls off and he is killed by Mio.

## Etymology

* The name **Masahito** means "real, genuine" (真) (**ma**), "sand, grit" (砂) (**sa**) and "person" (人) (**hito**).
* Masahito's surname **Karikiri** means "goose/wild goose" (雁) (**kari**) and "cut/cutoff/off, be sharp, ardent, eager, acute, keen" (切) (**kiri**).