he eventually dies his second death. His last thoughts are of Reiko and her face. In the novel S, set twenty-five years after the events of Spiral, Ryuji is revealed to be the real identity of , an apparent serial killer who murdered four girls and made an attempt on Akane Maruyama's life. Ryuji tells Takanori and Akane that he had impersonated the real Kashiwada in his attempt to apprehend Hiroyuki Niimura, his student and a fundamentalist who wanted to rid the world of Sadako clones for good, targeting four clones whom Ryuji spared because he thought that they posed no danger. He failed in saving them all, but managed to save Akane when Niimura attempted to kill her. However, this ended up implicating the real Kashiwada, who was subsequently captured and executed by the authorities. Ryuji then reveals that he is Akane's biological father, fathering her with Masako Maruyama, the Sadako clone born from Mai Takano's womb. He then bids them farewell before leaving Loop, attempting to reach the real world once more. In the film series, Ryuji is portrayed by Hiroyuki Sanada. In the films, Ryuji is nicer and is not implied to be a rapist like in the novel. He is also the ex-husband of protagonist Reiko Asakawa, the gender-flipped version of Kazuyuki, Ryuji's best friend in the novel. Ryuji also possesses ESP powers similar to Sadako which he passes down to his family. Yoshio Harada portrays him in Ring: Kanzenban, while Tomoya Nagase portrays him in Ring: The Final Chapter. Seiji Kashiwada, Ryuji's fake identity, is played by Yusuke Yamamoto in the adaptations of S, Sadako 3D and Sadako 3D 2, but this version of Kashiwada is not connected to Ryuji, instead a person whom Sadako uses in aid of her revival. In the television series, Ryuji is instead a sociopathic occultist who is revealed to be the son of Sadako having been passed on her powers. His relationship with Asakawa is not close but rather exists for the purpose of solving the curse of the videotape. Ryuji's counterpart in the American film series is Noah Clay, portrayed by Martin Henderson, while in the Korean version, his counterpart is Dr. Choi Yeol. Mitsuo Ando is the protagonist of the second novel, Spiral. A forensics doctor and autopsy surgeon, Ando was friends with Ryuji Takayama in medical school before he turned to mathematics and has to perform