Shinji

''"I love animals!" "I'm not hiding anything mommy."''

Shinji was a young human boy who was killed in a car crash and possessed by a low-grade breed shortly afterwards. He was responsible for a series of eaten animals found near the housing complex where he and his mother lived.

Personality
It is unknown what his personality was like as a human. While possessed, he was highly manipulative and a skilled liar. Using the innocence of his boyish body, he told Riho that he loved animals but wasn't allowed to bring them home because his mother had forbidden him, even going so far as to say his mother scared him and leading Riho and her friends to initially believe his mother was the nightbreed. In reality, he fed on small animals, like a kitten he had found, to sustain himself, leaving his mother to dispose of the bodies. When cornered by Shido, he ran on all fours and growled like an animal rather then speak.

History
Shinji was struck by a car while playing and killed. A low-grade breed possessed his body while it was still in the hospital, reanimating it. Shinji's mother, who had been unable to accept her son's death, reacted with relief and joy and did not question his sudden resurrection. Shinji's mother had duitifully disposed of the remains of the animals her possessed son ate, all while deluding herself into saying her sweet Shinji could never be capable of such a thing. The string of devoured animal bodies caught the attention of the NOS who assigned Yayoi Matsunaga to investigate the case.

A Mother & Her Son
He found a kitten that had been abandoned in a playground near his housing complex on a rainy day. Shinji was startled by the vampire's approach. When Riho asked if the kitten was his, he said he'd just found it abandoned. When Riho advised that he ask his parents to let him keep it he reacted in fear, saying that although he loved animals his mother would say no. His mother would only get upset for asking and she scared him very much. Seeing his fear, Riho offered to take care of it and said they use the playground as a meeting place. Shinji's mother appeared and, furious he might be thinking of bringing the kitten home, dropping her umbrella and grabbing him by the shoulders. She harshly ordered him not to touch animals and snapped that she was only concerned for his good. Terrified, Shinji agreed and was dragged back to the apartment, the umbrella left on the ground.

The next day he met Riho, Yayoi, and Shido at the playground and took custody of the kitten back. He smiled and laughed as he cuddled the kitten. Though Riho was concerned about what his mother would say he promised he wouldn't let her find out and returned home with the kitten.

After dropping off the dead body of a dog Shinji had fed from, Shinji's mother returned to the apartment and heard the kitten Shinji was hiding. When she demanded to know what he was hiding, he shakily remarked he wasn't hiding anything, but his mother found the kitten and ran off with it anyway over Shinji's lament.

He later met Riho at the playground again, who tried to comfort him that the kitten was bound to become a tough stray and survive. When Riho asked why his mother didn't like animals so much, he fearfully hesitated before answering that he didn't know. Sensing he might be about to be exposed, he asked Riho if it really was just a matter of her disliking animals. He said he knew lot of animals had been killed in the area and that all of them were animals he brought home and his mother took away from him - they ended up dead the day after she left with them. Scared, he told Riho that his mother couldn't be behind the deaths, but wasn't sure, badly shaken.

That night, Shinji had recently eaten the kitten he had found earlier in the episode and his mother left the apartment to dispose of the body. His mother was about to be killed by Yayoi, who caught her in the act, when Shido stopped her, sensing the bloodlust of a breed was emanating from a back room in the apartment - Shinji. Shido opened the door to his room while he was in the middle of finishing his meal with the kitten. Recognizing he had been found out, Shinji smiled at Riho's disbelieving cry.

Shido pushed aside Shinji's mother in an attempt to kill the breed, but Shinji leapt away. After a brief chase, Shido managed to corner Shinji. As he was about to bring his blade down, Shinji's mother leapt in front of the blade and caught it with her hands, badly injuring them. She refused to let Shido kill him, determined to take the hell of life with the nightbreed over losing her "son." Shinji allowed his mother to wrap her arms around him, lapping the blood on her palms, evidently still hungry.

Giving up on the absurd mother, and since no humans were in danger, Shido left them at large.