Keiji Shinogi

I'll warn you. SPOILERS. This article contains spoilers for Chapter 3, Part One, Section B.

Overview
Gallery
Quotes

Keiji Shinogi
篠木(シノギ) 敬二(ケイジ), Shinogi Keiji?
篠木(シノギ) 敬二(ケイジ), Shinogi Keiji?
Identification
Aliases	Blond man (金髪の男, Kinpatsu no otoko?) Mr. Policeman (おまわりさん, Omawarisan?)
Affiliation	Japanese Police
Occupation	Ex-police detective
Biographical Information
Age	Over 20
Date of birth	♎ October 9
Relatives	Unnamed mother
Physical Description
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Height	185.5 cm (6'1")
Weight	81 kg (178.6 lbs.)
Hair color	Yellow
Eye color	Grey
Personal Status
Status	Alive
Survival rate	9.5%

Keiji Shinogi (篠木(シノギ) 敬二(ケイジ), Shinogi Keiji^?) is an ex-detective and one of the 20 chosen participants to play in the Death Game.

Appearance

Keiji is a tall man with a muscular build. He has short, bleached blonde hair and grey eyes with dark circles underneath. Keiji wears a grey short-sleeved shirt with a black vest over-top with brown pants.

In the past, he had dark hair and bright eyes. He's only shown wearing his police uniform during this time, which consisted of a blue, long-sleeved uniform shirt bearing an emblem on the left sleeve. He also wore a grey undershirt and a light blue tie with blue pants. 

Being a participant of the Death Game, he wears a collar device. 

Personality

Keiji is shown to be pretty casual and level-headed during the Death Game, though he comes off as shady to some of the participants. He usually refers to himself as "the friendly policeman" in an effort to establish himself as trustworthy and makes a pretense of being less cunning than he really is. 

He's observant and canny and is quite good at reading other people and knows when to speak up and when to leave them be. 

He's also encouraging and gentle with the younger participants, making it his job to at least keep watch over Gin.

In certain situations, Keiji's responses appear flirty to distract others and avoid answering, sometimes even to joke around. Evidence of this is during Russian Roulette when Sara asks why he trusts her so much, in which he replies that it's because she's cute. Another occasion is when Reko asks what Keiji and Sara are doing, he replies that the two are on a date.

History

Background

To become a police officer in Japan a person must at least be a high school graduate and must pass a national exam. Once these requirements are met the person must undergo a year of training which consists of classroom, field, and physical training in order to prepare them for work as an officer.

Keiji worked with Megumi Sasahara on the police force in the past. He once shot a person while working on the job and hasn't been able to fire a gun since the incident, where someone yelled out that the "criminal" was armed, resulting in Keiji shooting his childhood hero and accidentally murdering him.

The Death Game

❗	This section requires expansion.

— Response to "You were investigating alone?"

Supposedly, Keiji was working with a co-worker investigating a criminal group of petty thieves. When they got separated, Keiji was knocked out and kidnapped by ASU-NARO.

Keiji and Megumi's First Trial.

His First Trial was with his old police superior, Megumi, and it took place in the White Room on the second floor. Keiji had the power to free Megumi, who was chained up, by pressing a switch. But Keiji had things he needed to settle with her first. Time ran out while Megumi begged to be freed, claiming she was only following orders. Before Keiji could come to a decision, time ran out, and the chains pulled Megumi apart, killing her.

Later, Keiji would meet most of the other surviving participants in the Central Hall of the first floor. Once Sara regains consciousness, Keiji casually tries to organize everyone in some semblance of order. He encouraged everyone to introduce themselves and ask Sara to take the lead, despite going through the trouble of claiming to be a police officer.

Sara is somewhat reluctant, but Keiji deflects and shrugs off any responsibility that would put him in the spotlight, often making Sara the head of the group.

At the end of the discussion, Q-taro reveals that his First Trial was carrying a box. Inside the box is a doll head, and everyone else is then tasked to finding the doll's other body parts. When the group splits up to explore the area, Joe partners up with Keiji out of suspicion. The two, Kai, and Q-taro make a concentrated effort of examining the Blue Room. When Keiji finds a pistol there, he gives it to Sara for safekeeping. He flirtatiously dodges answering Sara when she asks him why he trusts her, mildly explaining that Joe would be uneasy with him holding the gun.

Sara, who had been partnered up with Sou, returns later with both dummy and live bullets. When Sou exit's the room, the remaining five become trapped in the room. They are coerced by a painting known as Meister into playing a variation of Russian roulette. When the time came to choose who would be the shooter, Keiji backed up Sara. He also eventually had to admit the reason why he, the seemingly most suited person to pull the trigger, couldn't. The trauma of killing someone affected him so badly, he had no confidence he would safely use a gun.

After Russian roulette, Joe decides to partner up with Sara since Sou hadn't returned. Keiji finds Sou. And either together, or separately, find a Secret Room in the back of the kitchen, off to the side of the Pink Room. Inside the room is a password-protected laptop.

Once all the other limbs are discovered, the group meets in the Pink Room where the doll's torso is located. Keiji is the one to skillfully put the parts together. The room fills with smoke and reveals Sue Miley, the Laughing Doll. Miley gives some vague hint about the Death Game and that they'll all be playing the Main Game later. The group then participates in the Second Trial, where they are told to vote for any one person. With the exception of Nao and Sou, everyone else votes for themselves. Unfortunately, Mishima gets the majority vote and is killed. Mishima's head is burned off his neck completely as well.

While everyone else is shocked, Gin and Nao sit beside Mishima's corpse. When Joe demands to know who had voted for Mishima, Keiji is the one who tries to keep things peaceable. While the others wander off, Keiji stays the Pink Room. He respectfully gives Nao and Gin room to mourn, despite wanting to get a closer look at Mishima's collar.

At some point, Keiji picks up a role card for the Main Game.

When it's announced that Mishima's body will be cleaned up, Nao, in shocked denial, steals Mishima's head. Gin, Keiji, and Sara attempt to follow, but the latter two loses sight of the other two. Keiji and Sara find Gin on the newly opened up second floor where they save him from the Birdcage Game with Keiji shining the flashlight and Sara pressing the switch.

The three return downstairs to another blackout and meet back up with the others at the Bar. Sara had found a passed out suspicious man before Nao had run away, and the man had awoken. Again, Keiji has Sara lead the interrogation. But, Gonbee Yamada seems to be as much a victim as the rest of them.

After clearing the puzzle in the Mirror Room, Keiji and Sara find Nao in the previously locked kitchen after finding a key on the second floor. After calming Nao down and sending her off to Reko, they look in the box where Mishima's head was stored in to find it empty. The kitchen also has an empty knife case and the number code to enter the Black Room and White Room on the second floor.

Sara gets the impression of blood and death.

When they enter the White Room, Keiji pretends it's his first time there, and gently encourages Sara to leave, saying he'll examine it on his own.

Relationships

Sara Chidouin

Keiji has subtly guided others into giving their trust to Sara to establish some kind of order at the beginning of the Death Game. Keiji often tells Sara that she's cute, as a way to distract or deflect her attention from further explaining himself, which Sara herself notes. When investigating, he himself usually confers with Sara to further discuss possibilities and theories.

While he appears to care for Sara to some degree and seems to believe in her, his own issues lead him to hesitate on the most critical moments, at least in regards to his thoughts and feelings. Otherwise, he's seen willing to trust his life in her hands, regardless of Sara's feelings on the matter.

He also understands Sara and is aware of her hallucinations following the first Main Game. He told Gin to keep Joe's keychain to himself so as to avoid triggering her into furthering her downward spiral.

Megumi Sasahara

When Keiji was first introduced to Megumi he spoke to her respectfully. She was his direct superior despite her being an "elite."

While not directly stated, Megumi took Keiji under her wing and made an effort to keep him ignorant of the seedier aspects of the police force. When Keiji asked about whether she knew of his hero, Megumi shot down further inquiries. And when Keiji killed that same person, a criminal suspect, she supposedly made backdoor dealings to protect Keiji from the fallout.

However, rather than be grateful, Keiji was disillusioned and quit the police force; believing he should have answered for his crime. He calls her help, "the worst kind of debt..."

When later, the two are kidnapped for the First Trial, Keiji had the option to free the chained up Megumi immediately. However, he believed he needed to speak to her before releasing her. Keiji seemed to have grown a festering resentment toward Megumi, and his inaction led to her direct death.

It is implied that he may be suffering from hallucinations of Megumi, though it's just as likely to be Mr. Policeman.

Mr. Policeman

A neighborhood police officer, as a child Keiji looked up to him. Mr. Policeman influenced Keiji, who didn't have a father (as far as can be inferred), into becoming a police officer in his own right.

After a fight Keiji had with other children, Mr. Policeman patched him up at his police box. This, along with their first meeting where he fixed up Keiji's bicycle after diving into a river to retrieve it, displays a level of kindness that deeply affected Keiji's idolization.

Mr. Policeman seemed surprised that Keiji wanted to become a law officer like him at first, but was encouraging; he gave Keiji his safe-birth-good-luck charm shortly before he was going to be a father. Keiji kept the charm through adulthood in the hopes of reuniting with his personal hero and giving the charm back.

Due to unexplained circumstances, Keiji and other officers corner Mr. Policeman and he is shot by Keiji unknowingly. Keiji is severely traumatized by the incident. Among other reasons, this leads Keiji to quit the police force.

"Don't end up like Mr. Policeman."

It's implied that Mr. Policeman is one of the hallucinations Keiji sees, though it's just as likely to be Megumi.

Keiji also picked up on how Mr. Policeman referred to himself as such in the third person to reassure others. And like Mr. Policeman, Keiji appears to make an effort to be kind to children.

Appellations

• Participants A
• Participants B
• Organization members
• Other

Person	What they call Keiji		What Keiji calls them
	English	Japanese	English	Japanese
Sara	Keiji	ケイジさん, Keiji-san?	Sara	サラちゃん, Sara-chan? サラ, Sara?
Joe	Keiji	ケイジさん, Keiji-san? おまわりさん, Omawarisan?	Joe	ジョーくん, Joe-kun?
Keiji (self)	オレ, Ore? おまわりさん, Omawarisan?, lit. "Mr. policeman"
Shin	Keiji	ケイジさん, Keiji-san?	Sou	ソウ, Sou?
Gin	Mr. Policeman	おまわりさん, Omawarisan?	Gin	ギン, Gin?
Kanna	Mr. Policeman	おまわりさん, Omawarisan?	Kanna	カンナちゃん, Kanna-chan?
Q-taro	Keiji	ケイジ, Keiji?	Q-taro	Qタロウ, Q-taro?
Reko	Keiji	ケイジ, Keiji?	Reko	レコ, Reko?
Alice	Keiji Keiji Shinogi	ケイジ, Keiji? 篠木 敬二, Shinogi Keiji?	Alice	アリス, Arisu?
Mishima	Keiji	ケイジさん, Keiji-san?	Mishima	ミシマさん, Mishima-san?
Nao	Mr. Policeman Keiji	おまわりさん, Omawarisan? 刑事さん, Keiji-san?, lit. "Mr. detective; Mr. police officer"	Nao	ナオちゃん, Nao-chan?
Kai	N/A	N/A	Kai	カイ, Kai?

Person	What they call Keiji		What Keiji calls them
	English	Japanese	English	Japanese
Kurumada	Keiji	ケイジ, Keiji?
Hinako	Keiji Mr. Policeman	ケイジさん, Keiji-san?
Ranmaru	Keiji	ケイジさん, Keiji-san?	Ranmaru	ランマル, Ranmaru?
Mai			Mai	マイ, Mai?
Anzu
Hayasaka			Hayasaka	ハヤサカ, Hayasaka?
Megumi	Shinogi	篠木くん, Shinogi-kun?	Ma'am Miss Megumi Megumi	メグミさん, Megumi-san?
Kugie

Person	What they call Keiji		What Keiji calls them
	English	Japanese	English	Japanese
Miley	N/A	N/A	Miley	ホエミー, Hoemi?
Ranger	Keiji Keiji Shinogi	ケイジ, Keiji? シノギ ケイジさん, Shinogi Keiji-san?	Ranger	ノエル, Noeru?
Safalin	Keiji Shinogi	篠木 敬二, Shinogi Keiji?	Safalin	ハンナキー, Han'nakī?
Gashu	Mr. Keiji	ケイジ様, Keiji-sama?	Gashu	ガシュー, Gashū?
Sou	Keiji Shinogi Keiji	シノギ　ケイジ, Shinogi Keiji? ケイジ, Keiji? ケイジさん, Keiji-san?

Person	What they call Keiji		What Keiji calls them
	English	Japanese	English	Japanese
Mr. Policeman	Kiddo Keiji	ボーズ, Bōzu? ケイジ, Keiji?	Patrolling geezer	巡査のおっさん, Junsa no ossan?

Trivia

• His likes are listed as meat, parks, and night in his character profile.
• The kanji that make up his first name are 敬, kei^?, lit. "respect; reverence" and 二, ji^?, lit. "two".
• The kanji that make up his last name are 篠, shino^?, lit. "bamboo grass" and 木, gi^?, lit. "tree".
• He is left-handed, as stated in a tweet from February 15, 2018. This is also shown in the arm wrestling minigame.
• He has a 9.5% chance of winning the Death Game.
• According to Gin, Keiji smells "like a lady-killer".
  • Additionally, when trying to rename Midori using Keiji's full name, he will say he's "not fond of sounding like a ladykiller".