Shinonome Masaki

### Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions of violent child sexual abuse.

Shinonome Masaki is Shinonome Azuma's uncle. He is extremely sexually abusive to Azuma, and could be considered a major antagonist in the story despite having little bearing on the plot as a whole. He is the only member of her family to die by suicide rather than being used as a reserve tank, and is the last of her extended family to die. He is forty five years old. Interestingly, he is never referred to by name in the manga, and it can only be found on the family profile.

## Appearance

Masaki is tall and thin with dark, curly hair and a receding hairline. His cheeks are slightly sunken, and he wears rectangular glasses. He is only ever seen wearing button up shirts and dark pants.

It is worth noting that in the beginning of the manga, Azuma's experiences with Alice in Mirrorland syndrome are most apparent with his and Bunchou-chan's reflections. Due to the trauma Azuma experiences at his hands, she sees images of genitalia in reflections involving him, including seeing his nose as a penis and seeing a vagina where his eye should be through his glasses. When looking into his eyes, she sees herself reflected naked. The doctor that diagnosed Azuma suggested that she was experiencing some form of intense stress at home to cause the disorder, and it is likely that, despite experiencing abuse from all four members of her extended family, it is Masaki's actions that traumatize her to the point of developing Alice in Mirrorland syndrome.

## Personality

Masaki is a pedophile who preys on Azuma. He tries to convince her that he is her ally, screaming at his son when he saw that he had hit her. He tells her that he needs to help her study to do well in the entrance exams next year, but the times he visits her for "studying", he rapes her. Azuma is terrified of him, and seems, reasonably, to have the strongest aversion to him over all the other members of her extended family.

Though he is a monster to Azuma, he seems to care deeply about his two sons, calling Kazuya a good and honest boy, and Hiroki a hard worker that he is proud of. When they die, he is distraught, and he deludes himself into believing that Kazuya is only sleeping. Nonetheless, he does seem to register that this is not genuinely the case, and attacks Azuma with a knife, claiming he has to kill her for being a "grim reaper", and that he is a kind uncle for doing so and that she should be grateful. Before he can injure her, Hijiri Seki saves Azuma and beats Masaki to a pulp. Later, when Azuma visits her home, she finds that Masaki has hanged himself in her bedroom. This is understandably a shocking scene to her, but she is more overjoyed than anything, and runs around the house doing things she would have been beaten for previously, such as drinking milk directly out of the container.

In a confession to Azuma, he states that he had been "sick" with pedophilia since he was in high school, and that he had only married his wife to avoid gossip. It seems he held no romantic affection for her whatsoever, but he does seem to care for her, as he slept with her when she felt unwanted 2 or 3 years after they were first married, and tells Azuma that she was a gentle wife and a great mother. He tells Azuma that her entering the household disrupted the peace, as he had an erection as soon as he saw her, that his wife must have known what was going on and taken it out on Azuma, and asks Azuma to forgive her. He is overall an irredeemable character and the cruelest to Azuma.