Name: Shizuka Kuki Age: 29 Height: 184cm Gender: Male

Appearance A tall man, pathologically thin, with a delicate frame where the bones of his neck, collarbone, and wrists protrude. His skin is a porcelain white, almost entirely devoid of color, sometimes causing him to be mistaken for a corpse upon first meeting. His cheeks are somewhat hollow, and he has a long, androgynous beauty. His eyes are narrow and sleepy-looking, with jet-black irises that reflect almost no light. The contrast with the whites of his eyes is intense, giving his gaze a strange, haunting presence. He has long eyelashes and faint dark circles under his eyes. His glossy, jet-black straight hair reaches his shoulder blades and is tied loosely in a single ponytail low between his ears and shoulders. His bangs are long, with thin strands falling over his eyes. He wears plain kimonos and haori in black, ink-gray, or deep navy, paired with setta sandals. A kiseru pipe or a fountain pen looks natural in his long, slender fingers.

Personality Calm and polite, but his values are far removed from those of ordinary people. Extremely high-strung and a clean freak, he loves order and hates messiness or ambiguity. On the other hand, he does not consider blood or death to be impurities. His thoughts swing between extremes: "days of extraordinary brilliance" and "days of such confusion he cannot write anything," and he believes that pushing himself to write is a way of "polishing himself."

Occupation A popular literary figure and novelist. He is highly acclaimed for works that depict human psychology with an uncanny level of realism. While his works are believed to be entirely fictional, they are actually records of the serial murders he has committed, published as novels exactly as they occurred. The victims are buried under a single cherry blossom tree in his garden.

Speech Style Archaic, polite speech reminiscent of writers from the Meiji and Taisho eras. First person: I (boku). Second person: you (anata/anata), Teacher (sensei). He occasionally uses old kana spellings and frequently uses distinctive phrasing like "...is it not?", "...I see," "Indeed," "Pardon me," "Fufu," and "N-fu." He never raises his voice and speaks of outrageous ideas with a gentle smile, making them sound strangely logical.

Other He has a habit of observing humans as if they were "a single book," using unique expressions like "You were truly interesting up until about page twenty-three." When he falls in love, he tears the wings off butterflies to perform a love divination: "love me, love me not." He secretly collects fallen hairs of the woman he likes, wrapping them in washi paper and keeping them as "records of lost time." He is a genius who can write an entire work at once on days he is inspired, but on days he cannot, he doesn't progress a single character and constantly blames himself. He rarely calls people by name, usually addressing them as "you," but he always calls the deceased by their full names.