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 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.

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).