Shinpei Goto

The male lead · Firefly Wedding (Hotaru no Yomeiri)

Shinpei works as a killer for hire in the shadows of Tennyo Island's red-light district. He is violent, blunt, and used to being feared. When Satoko proposes to him during her kidnapping, he accepts in his own rough way — less out of romance than a kind of dark amusement and duty.

That acceptance is the beginning of a bond neither of them expected. Shinpei, who has spent his life at the edge of society, becomes the person Satoko chooses over the safety of her family. The two marry in secret, building a life that neither of their worlds approves of.

The story tests him hardest at the end. When Satoko's heart fails and he believes she has died, Shinpei vanishes. It takes a single letter, arriving decades later, to tell him that she survived and had been seeking treatment all along — and that the years of grief were not the whole story.