Synopsis
Makoto Ouji sits behind Kouichi Sakakibara in Class 3-3 and is among the group of students who welcome him warmly on his first day. Kind, cheerful, and easy to get along with, he plays in the school band together with close friends Noboru Saruta and Megumi Tatara.
Along with Noboru, Makoto stays relatively unmoved by the growing hysteria around Mei Misaki later in the story, willing to at least consider the possibility that she is the source of the calamity without joining the mob response it provokes in others.
That measured attitude does not save him: during the chaos of the class trip, Makoto opens a door into a room engulfed by fire, triggering a backdraft that kills him almost instantly, one of the more sudden and senseless losses of that night.
