Masaaki Shirami

Masaaki Shirami (白身 正亜希, Shirami Masaaki) is a criminal killed by Light Yagami as a part of an experiment to test the Death Note.

Appearance
Shirami is an older man with a short crop of dark-colored hair and a double chin.

Plot
Shirami is a serial arsonist, committing a total of five cases of arson in northern Tokyo, burning property completely to the ground and killing thirteen people. On November 5, 2003, (2006 in the anime) he was arrested while attempting a sixth arson.

In order to test the limits of the Death Note, Light Yagami writes Shirami's name. In his prison cell, listed as Prison #21, he cuts his finger and draws a five-pointed star inside of a circle on his cell wall. After doing so, Shirami dies from a heart attack.

When the circumstances of Shirami's death reach the Task Force, L recognizes it as a test and stops the police from releasing the information to the media. Light sees the results of his tests by accessing his father's NPA account through their home network.

In other media
Masaaki's role is essentially the same in the Death Note 2015 television drama. His name is written as "Shiromi" in the official subtitles. Instead of a pentagram, he draws an apple. He dies of a heart attack at 6am on July 3rd, 2015.

Matsuda, Aizawa, and Mogi investigate the death. Matsuda called in Mogi and Aizawa because the drawing on the wall is unusual. Matsuda thinks the drawing is an apple, while Aizawa thinks it's a tomato, and the two bicker about it.

During the Task Force meeting later, L asks that the information not be released, but someone has already leaked it to the press. Light reads the results in the news on his phone during class.

Trivia

 * In addition to Shirami, Light's tests also work on Ken Yadanaka and Tasayoshi Yoda. His tests fail on Shiniichiro Yamasaki, Yuzo Butsura, and Hitoshi Kabeoka. The next day, he does another successful test on Matsushiro Nakaokaji.
 * What Shirami drew was a pentagram, a symbol of the religion of Wicca. However, despite its relation to the Wiccan religion, these pentagrams are often mistakenly associated with Satanism, which is possibly why Light chose to have him draw this.