Iijima is a retiring teenager, who appears just a fex times in the whole manga. He seems to be the one who analyse the best way Hikaru's evolution during the last months hikaru is an insei. Nice or not, his role is equivocal, it's very difficult to place him in Hikaru's friends or Hikaru's detractors.

A sad and pessimistic self-taught.

In opposition to a lot of inseis, Ijima learns go alone. He reads books, studies kifus, and sometime goes to go salons. He hasn't a master, what he deplores. Although he's one of the inseis who are in the first class, he's not as strong as people like Isumi, Waya, or Honda who are leaders in the group. He always stays behind them, waiting to his moment (that he'll be waiting a while). He often loses, what makes him depressing. He always says he's going to stop being insei, but he doesn't do it. He leaves the school just a few months after the last pro exam which made Shindo a pro.
He's not very lucky at play : He's Hikaru's first opposant while he arrives in the first class, and at the beginning of the pro exam. He lost his two matches... Who wouldn't find that go is boulshit then??? Moreover, he is pessimistic, thinking he has no future in the go world.
Since he's a good stundent, a few other inseis advise him to stop playing go.

A good observer.

Ijima is a retiring boy, but a very good observer of the world around him. He observes and analyses his opponents' strenghs and weaknesses since he sees in every other go player, a rival, that's why he's always cagey what makes him being alone. Ijima is an individulistic guy, then he has the best position to be the one who analyse everything for us. He looks after Hikaru's progression and sees all the psychological variations in Hikaru's mind. He's amazed of Hikaru's tranformation between the preliminaries and the pro exam... amazed and annoyed. He seems to be jealous of Hikaru's progresses: When he's told the reason, he takes it out on Waya and Isumi. He only thinks to his chances to pass the pro exam… which are decreasing…

Nase's friend and confident.

Although the fact that Ijima isn't very closed to the other inseis, he is very often with Nase. They meet to the station or they go there together. Nase is one of the few who are closed with Ijima. They speak about go or other things together: Nase tells Ijima about her love stories, how it begins, it happens... and ends. He's the only one she speaks about that with. She sometimes has bad feelings like him, but she's a bit more optimistic and hangs on her dream. It makes Ijima still believing he can make it. Maybe there's a future love story...

Hikaru:

Nase: