Ioka

Ioka
"You get to be a main character right until the end, but I only get a teeny tiny little role."
Japanese	井岡
Alias	Koji Ogata
Family	Daughter (unnamed)
Status	Never alive
Games	None
Other Appearances	Zero Novel

Ioka is a character in Zero Novel. He is an editor and professional acquaintance of Mafuyu Hinasaki.

Zero Novel

Ioka and Mafuyu met while working on research for a magazine. He is about ten years older than Mafuyu, but looks young and dyes his hair. At the time of the novel, he has been hired by Tecmo to find an author to novelise their game. He accompanies Mafuyu to meet the game's producer and director at their offices in Ichigaya, and is mystified when it turns out that Mafuyu's appearance and background are identical to a character in the games. It is Ioka who suggests they should visit the real house that inspired the game's Himuro Mansion to investigate. While playing the game to try and learn something, Mafuyu notices that Ioka also looks just like one of the game characters, the editor Koji Ogata.

Ioka, Mafuyu and the game's scenario writer, Shibaguchi, travel to the Tohoku region together. However, once they enter the mansion, reality begins to blur with the world of the game, and Ioka starts acting strangely. He wanders off, appearing and disappearing at random, and at times seems to believe that he is really Koji Ogata, stating that he has a grudge against Shibaguchi for making him such a minor character.

At the end of the novel, it is revealed that Ioka was never a real person. He was a virtual projection created by Kitaike, and all Mafuyu's earlier memories of him were false memories implanted by hypnotism.