Shijima Mei

Shijima Mei (シジマメイ) is a supernatural at Kamome Academy and the current School Mystery Number 4. She was created in the likeness of a former student at the Kamome Academy, Shijima Mei (四島メイ).

For clarity, this article refers to the School Myster Number 4 as "Shijima" and the past Kamome Academy student as "Mei".

Appearance
Shijima has messy locks of brown hair that she puts into two short braids. She wears a dark-coloured blazer over a button-up shirt and dress. She ties a ribbon bow on the shirt and wears flats with dark socks. She also has round glasses.

The "real" version of her does not have glasses or braids, but long messy hair. The only notable difference is that the real Mei's hair is a different shade of brown. She wears a hospital gown with a bandaged arm. As a regular student, she wore the Kamome Gakuen's middle school uniform with braided hair, but without glasses.

Personality
Shijima at first glance appears to be childish and cheerful, always smiling. She is also empathetic, offering to comfort Nene during her capture. At the same time, she is also sarcastic and cruel, having no problems with suggesting murder or threatening to hurt someone.

She appears to have an interest in art, with her introduction showing her painting. She is also prone to destroying her own artwork in fits of frustration, as a result, the fabricated characters commonly crumble and disappear.

With the reveal of the true Shijima Mei, the School Mystery Number 4 is simply an idealized and healthy version of her. Because of that, these two share similar personality quirks, such as being fascinated by Nene's ankles upon meeting her. The real Mei is determined and optimistic, stating that she has "no intentions of dying" even when deathly ill.

Shijima is protective and loyal towards the real Mei, having been created by her likeness' hope to live until tomorrow. As a result, she is devastated by her rumor and her inability to change her original's fate. Shijima believes there is no point in fiction and feels little care towards her role as the School Mystery Number 4.

The Melancholy of the New No.3
Shijima Mei appears at the end of the arc, being revealed by Tsukasa as a present for Mitsuba. She is seen crying and cowering under a table in fear.

Shijima Mei (四島メイ)
Shijima, the supernatural, was created by Mei when she was tasked to create a painting of a tower. Shijima is Mei's ideal healthy self, who is able to live on within the Atelier tower and draw in her place. While Mei quickly forgets the encounter, the supernatural remains by her side until the end, observing all of her struggles and anxiety.

Shijima is fiercely protective of Mei as a result, vowing to complete her painting. Soon after Mei's passing, the School Mystery Number 4's rumor spread and drastically changed the story to that she had taken her own life. Shijima became distraught, believing that she had failed her duty and that there is no point in fiction, as it won't change reality.

For a long time, Shijima held a wish deep within her heart that she "wants to meet [Shijima Mei] again". Tsukasa later grants her this wish and allows her to visit Mei's dream before her death. Shijima begins to attack her other-self, making Mei think that she was a crazy person. She believes by killing Mei, the painting would never be completed and "Shijima-san of the Art Room" would have never been born. She does not wish to remain as a piece of fiction that only caused Mei harm.

Mei, on the other hand, is flattered by the attention Shijima gives her. She believes Shijima is her drawing, her dream and her hope. Because of her alter self/fiction, Mei was able to live on in spite of the cruel reality. Not only that, she reassures Shijima that being a School Mystery is cool, like the rumor about the school's stairs.

As they part ways, Shijima was unable to say anything, only watching as her other-self return to her reality, looking onwards.

Shijima-san of the Art Room
Nene first met Shijima in the picture world's Atelier tower after Shijima jumped to grab her ankle, fascinated by its size. Initially, Nene thought of Shijima as a reasonable supernatural after she readily tells them of the way to escape the picture world, but would change her mind after hearing her in full. Shijima believed deeply the fictional did not have any value and encouraged Nene to kill the main characters in order to return to the real world.

Throughout the Picture Perfect arc, despite being on opposite sides, Shijima never directly antagonised Nene. However, she is able to monitor the picture world with her clones and confront Nene's escape attempts. After Nene was captured, she appeared at the jail cell to check up on her. When she found her crying, she attempted to cheer Nene up, drawing her a box of chocolate and even ending Nene her hands for comfort as per request. Nene explains to Shijima that despite everything she learned about herself, by escaping the picture world, she will be okay. This frustrates Shijima as it reminds her of someone in her past who had said the same thing, but to no avail — drawing out her real wish for Tsukasa.

After travelling to Mei's dream with Nene, Shijima once again agreed to assist Nene escape. She prevented Hanako-kun from using his Hakujoudai powers within the picture world, allowing for Nene to sneak away unnoticed.

When Nene escapes from the picture world, they meet again in Shijima's boundary, but finally, for the first time, this time — the Shijima inside the fake world was also a clone. Shijima chastises herself for dragging Nene into the picture world, but Nene refuses to accept this. Nene instead thanks Shijima for the chance to experience a beautiful world, a statement that Shijima accepts with gratitude.

"Brush-chan"
This paintbrush first appeared to help Nene on her escape from the picture world's Kamome Academy. Nene nicknamed it "Brush-chan". The paintbrush is able to take down a patrolling Shijima clone in order to gain Nene's trust.

After being fixed by Kou, the paintbrush returned once more to aid Nene and company. It was revealed the paintbrush is a failed clone of Shijima Mei that wasn't destroyed. The paintbrush has a mind of its own and contained reflections of Shijima Mei's real feelings — that she always wanted to help Nene all along.

The real Shijima Mei
Upon being transported by Tsukasa back in time, Nene finds herself inside Mei's dream before her death. Mei rescues Nene from a quarrel with Shijima by pressing the emergency call button, summoning the ghostly nurse apparitions in the hospital ward.

The two were able to bond after Mei asks Nene to hear out her wish — being able to eat pancakes with a friend. Mei is very friendly and affectionate with Nene, feeding her a piece of the pancake to cheer her up and making 'girl talks', asking Nene to call her "Mei-chan". Like her counterpart, she is also fascinated with Nene's big ankles and doesn't refrain from poking fun at it.

Mitsuba Sousuke
TBA

Hanako
TBA

Yugi Tsukasa
TBA

Minamoto Kou
TBA

Number 4's Powers
As the School Mystery Number 4, she haunts the art room of the Kamome Academy where her painting resides. Her boundary is the Atelier tower inside the painting.

With her power, Shijima Mei is able to create worlds within her paintings that reflect wishes deep within people's hearts. The inhabitants of the worlds are additional paintings created by her. They are life-like and identical to their real-life counterpart. If the original painting of the character is destroyed, the version that exists in the picture world crumbles as well. It takes approximately 20-30 minutes for the character to be rebuilt.

Once someone has been pulled into her world, they will have to follow her words or they will remain trapped. The longer you stay in the fictional world, you'll slowly forget about your original life. In order to escape these worlds, you'll have to find the main characters in the fictional world and kill them. It is later revealed that there is an emergency escape within the world, usually placed in an area the main character will never be able to reach. The escape changes frequently in location.

Shijima is aware of everything that happens within her picture world, as she immediately responds to Aoi and Akane spreading her rumor. Other non-real humans outside of Kamome Academy can change their appearances into Shijima's, implying everyone within the world is either an extension of her or her clones.

Additionally, she is able to clone herself by drawing herself. She uses this ability to create and oversee the picture worlds, as well as answer any unwanted social interactions. Her original self remains at the Atelier tower, painting. These clones retain reflections of her feelings and have a sense of identity, although any failed clones are disposed of immediately.

The aspect she controls within the Kamome Academy is currently unknown.

Trivia

 * As stated on her student card, Shijima Mei was in class 3-E of the Kamome Academy Highschool Division. This places her age at 17-18 at the time of her death.
 * She was born in the Shōwa era.
 * Shijima uses "ワタシ" (watashi, katakana) while the original Mei uses ”わたし" (watashi, hiragana).

Shijima/Image Gallery
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