Airi Katagiri

Airi Katagiri (片桐 愛梨 Katagiri Airi) is a high school student and Satoru Fujinuma's co-worker at Oasi Pizza. She gets involved with Satoru when she realized oddities as Satoru managed to save people from life-threatening incidents and she was one of the few who decided to trust Satoru when he was framed as his mother's murderer.

Appearance
Airi has waist-length brunette hair that has a fringe spreading over her forehead and dark eyes. As a high school girl, she has a typical uniform, a blue shirt, with a red ribbon around the collar, a navy checkered skirt above her knees, with black socks and loafers.

Her bag's straps are navy and the bag itself is cylindrical and mint-colored, with Chick Charms attached on to it.

Personality
Airi has an optimistic personality and is quite reliable, as shown when she helped Satoru on multiple occasions. Airi believes it is important to express one's own desires and beliefs out loud in hopes of making them a reality one day. She tends be playful with Satoru, often joking about his strict personality. Similarly to Satoru, Airi tends to be blatant and often expresses her thoughts out loud, but in a rather mature manner with little interest of someone else's opinion. When Satoru is accused of murder, she demonstrates her loyalty by not only listening to him and giving him advice, but letting him hide out at her house. Airi holds a certain interest in photography, as she believes that pictures never lie.

History
When Airi was in elementary school, she and her dad went grocery shopping and a chocolate bar fell out of his pocket. Since it was a small town, they knew the owner. If he admitted to stealing it and apologized, the owner said he would let the matter drop. But her father wouldn't admit to it. She says that it was the first time she heard him yell. The owner felt obligated to contact the police, and her father, a member of the local agricultural coop, was suspended for three months as punishment. Her father quit the coop, got a divorce, and left home. Her mother thought that he really did steal it.

She currently lives with her mother's older brother and his wife. Her parents live out in the country. She was going to find a boarding house so she could commute to high school, but they invited her to stay with them in Chiba. Years later, her mother expressed to her that she regretted not believing in him.

After Satoru wakes up from his 15-year coma and regains his memories, she meets Satoru in their former meeting place while taking shelter from the snow.

Quotes
"Those who believe want to be believed as well."

- Airi's words when she's telling Satoru Fujinuma about her dad.

"I want to believe you for my own sake. It's the flip side to someone saying, "please believe me.""

- Airi to Satoru Fujinuma

"The thing about words... Say them out loud, and I think they start to come true."

- Airi's words when visiting Satoru Fujinuma in the hospital

Trivia

 * Her name Airi means "love, affection" (愛) (ai) and "pear" (梨) (ri).
 * Airi's surname Katagiri means "single-" (片) (kata) and "foxglove tree" (桐) (giri).
 * Airi's phrase, "Are you stupid?", when talking to Satoru Fujinuma was also frequently used by Kayo Hinazuki in 1988.