Azumi

Azumi is candid, excitable, and inclined to use humor even when his audience does not respond. His failed introduction at school leaves him embarrassed, making Shijima's uninhibited laughter especially meaningful to him. He subsequently tries to amuse her and imagines spending more time with her outside school.

He is less willing than the city's residents to accept an explanation merely because it is traditional. When Shijima disappears and those around him behave evasively, he questions them openly, researches the festival's symbols, and challenges the collective insistence that her selection is fortunate.

Azumi can be impulsive, but his recklessness is rooted in empathy. Once he recognizes that Shijima is in danger, he acts immediately despite warnings about legal consequences, supernatural forces, and the city's overwhelming social opposition.

Azumi can see supernatural entities that are imperceptible to most people. This allows him to recognize the unnatural forces surrounding the city and understand that the port-opening ritual poses a genuine threat. No explanation is given for why his perception emerged after moving there.

He has no established supernatural combat techniques. His practical strengths are observation, persistence, quick decision-making, and sufficient skill with a motor scooter to attempt an improvised rescue through the festival grounds.

Azumi serves as the reader's entry point into the city's concealed traditions. His concern about Shijima's absence leads him to investigate the Konoshiro's Hook, a public artwork attributed to Shingo Takahara, and to connect it with the festival ceremony.

At the waterfront, Yoshifusa and other informed residents reveal that the Pesca Princess is not merely a ceremonial representative. The city intends to surrender Shijima to a deep-sea entity as part of a sacrificial custom maintained by its established families. Azumi rejects their claim that the ritual honors her and removes her from the ceremony on his scooter.

His intervention ultimately confronts him with Shijima's own acceptance of the role. Although she thanks him for trying to save her, the conflict between his refusal to lose her and her determination to fulfill the ritual drives the one-shot toward its supernatural conclusion.

Shijima — Azumi's classmate, friend, and romantic interest. Her genuine laughter gives him confidence, while his attempt to rescue her expresses his refusal to accept the city's fatalistic view of her selection.

Yoshifusa — A classmate who knows more about the city's customs than Azumi initially realizes. Their friendship fractures when Yoshifusa defends the sacrificial tradition and discourages Azumi from interfering.

Shingo Takahara — The deceased artist credited with creating the Konoshiro's Hook. Information attached to Takahara's artwork provides Azumi with an important clue during his investigation.