Hizuru Minakata

Hizuru Minakata (南方 ひづる, Minakata Hizuru) is a mysterious woman, who visits the island for the first time in 14 years for a certain reason. She is also known as Ryunosuke Nagumo, author of the novel "Swampman".

Appearance
Hizuru is an adult woman with long black hair and violet eyes. She has a mole on the left side of her mouth. Hizuru tall woman wearing a suit and glasses.

Plot
Hizuru heads for Hitogashima and on the boat, Shinpei bumps into her and she slaps him. The next day Shinpei visits the shrine to get an exorcism. He goes into the woods and finds Hizuru bleeding. As she tries to warn him, shadow Mio appears and shoots her in the head.

The second time Shinpei awakens on the boat, Hizuru asks him if he is okay, as he seemingly had a nightmare. He asks her if she was ever shot with a handgun, but that causes Hizuru to even more wonder if he is okay.

On the third time, a bit more than a hour after arriving on Hitogashima, Hizuru hands upside down from a tree and records herself, explaining that she ate and that she is hanging upside down to think better. She then observes Shiori, commenting that its walking free among the people and plans on keep watching for the moment.

At the summer festival, little before the ceremony, Hizuru finds shadow Mio trying to break Shinpei's leg on the stairs towards the shrine, and blows Mio's head with her shotgun. Mio retreats in her shadow and slides towards Hizuru, attempting to stab her from behind, but Hizuru dodges and shoots her shadow, which kills Mio. Hizuru then introduces herself as Ryunosuke Nagumo and explains she came to save Shinpei Ajiro. Seeing a shadow, Hizuru then hides with Shinpei and they see Ushio running up the hill, but Hizuru tells him to not go as the shadows are gathering there. Hizuru explains that shadow's true forms are their flat shadows on the ground and they don't like being stepped on. They eat by eating human data, but for the sense of taste, they need to consume the human, which leaves black stains. She has been killings many shadows since she came on the island, but their numbers keep increasing fast. Seeing a flash on the hill, Shinpei asks Hizuru for help and they head uphill.

There, they witness a massacre and a big pile of corpses. Hizuru shoots Shadow Sou's hands and saves Mio from him. However, a shadow then produces another from itself which points a gun at Hizuru, making her realize its the parent shadow. Seeing a glimpse of the future, Hizuru sees she is shot in the head and dodges in the last moment and gets shot in the arm. The parent shadow then starts consuming the humans, offering them to their Mother, who then appears in the sky and Hizuru recognizes her as Heine. As everyone on the island starts to be consumed, Hizuru apologizes to Shinpei, stating she should have believed the message earlier. Shinpei tells her its not too late and asks her to shoot him in the head as he will return in time back to 22nd. Hizuru believes him and tells him that if he returns, to find her and tell her his name is Shinpei Ajiro. Hizuru then shoots Shinpei and gets consumed by the shadow.

On the fourth time, upon stepping on Hitogashima, Hizuru notices a man's shadow avoiding her foot. She overhears Mio calling Shinpei "Shin" and considers he may be Shinpei Ajiro. She notices a message about Ushio Kofune's funeral and recognizing the name she goes to the funeral. There she meets Masahito Karikiri, who recognizes her, but quickly recalls why she couldn't stand him. She meets Alain Kofune and recalls how she used to spend time in the Kofune restaurant. She overhears Alain that Shinpei and Mio will be late and questions Alain about Shinpei. Realizing its Shinpei Ajiro, she decides to leave and avoid meeting him for now. Alain follows her and tells her that Ushio had marks on her neck similar to strangling and feels her death sounds similar to Ryunosuke Nogumo's. Hizuru returns to check the mark on Ushio's neck. As she leaves, he asks Alain if Ushio mentioned she met a doppleganger, but he didn't knew. Asako, an old friend of Hiruzu, recognizes her and explains that Ushio saved her daughter Shiori Kobayakawa, however, Hizuru notices that Asako's shadow is avoiding her foot and that the whole Kobayakawa family are shadows.

Hizuru meets with Ginjiro and tells him about the Kobayakawas. As the shadows number increases, Ginjiro states there is one that can generate new shadows. Hizuru speculates that Shiori was being drowned by Shadow Shiori, and then erased Shiori and acted as she was the one being drowned, and later killed the rest of the Kobayakawas. Hizuru gives her second phone to Ginjiro and tells her to tell him if it rings. At the crematorium, she follows Alain in the bathroom and puts a "maintenance" on his toilet stall. A Shadow Alain comes and opens a stall, but finds Hizuru, who then smashes his shadow on the ground with a hammer and kills it. She receives a call from Ginjiro that Shinpei contacted him after solving her code and goes to meet him at the fourth battery. There Ginjiro explains that to solve Hizuru's code, you must know that Hizuru and Ryunosuke are the same person, which is something that only he knows or if a shadow copied Hizuru. Meeting Hizuru, Shinpei reveals his name is Shinpei Ajiro and wants an autograph from Hizuru. Hizuru tells him to correct her if she says something false. She then explains that he didn't knew who she was while on the boat and the only way a human to know her real name is if she had revealed it. Hizuru notes that this isn't the first time he experienced July 22nd and repeated in multiple times. This would mean, he is a time traveler. Shinpei starts crying and confirms.

Etymology

 * Hizuru's surname Minakata means "south/southern/southward/southwardly" (南方).