Kasumi

Kasumi (Japanese: 霞) is a nukenin ("missing shinobi") and former member of the Mugen Tenshin clan, who debuted in the first Dead or Alive back during the 1996 arcade release. One of the original eight characters, Kasumi became a main protagonist of the Dead or Alive series and is often viewed as the series mascot. She was the winner of the first Dead or Alive Tournament.
Originally second-in-line for the title of clan master within the Mugen Tenshin, Kasumi became nukenin, after she ran away from home in order to avenge her older brother, Hayate. She is also the half-sister and cousin of Ayane, as well as Honoka's cousin.
== History ==
Spoiler warning! Major plot details and endings below. (Skip section)
=== Childhood ===
Kasumi is the daughter of Shiden and Ayame, who was born into the Mugen Tenshin's head family, making her second-in-line to the title of clan leader, after her older brother Hayate.
Before entering Dead or Alive tournaments, Kasumi and Ayane - unaware that they were related - were best friends, although the clan saw Ayane as "cursed" and didn't want Kasumi or any other children to be around her. Since childhood, Kasumi has been pampered and spoiled as she lived a privileged life full of expensive clothes, servants and the respect of the rest of the Mugen Tenshin clan. According to their mother, Ayame, Kasumi and Ayane used to have fun catching fish for the family. Her relationship with Hayate was also ideal, with the two playing games and training together happily.
However, once Ayane learned of her true heritage – a product of the rape of Ayame, making her Kasumi's half-sibling – Kasumi's friendship with Ayane ended due to Ayanes bitterness and envy over her mistreatment by the clan, centering her animosity on the "princess" Kasumi.
=== Running away and the First Tournament ===
When Kasumi was seventeen, her uncle, the rogue ninja Raidou, returned to the village to obtain the Torn Sky Blast technique; a ninpo spell used by the clan's leaders. Defeating even the prodigious Ayane, Raidou eventually managed to mimic the technique from Hayate, and rendered the boy both comatose and paraplegic before escaping. As Kasumi was not present during the attack and nobody told her what had happened, she was left clueless as to what happened until much later.
Due to Hayate's dire state and the unlikelihood of his recovery, Shiden chose Kasumi to become the clan’s eighteenth master. Her worry over her brother seemed to affect her training, but she managed to learn the Torn Sky Blast at least. Wanting to know the truth, Kasumi turned to Ayane, and believing that Kasumi would never become a great leader anyway, she told her that Raidou was the one who harmed Hayate.
With the truth finally out, Kasumi decided to take possibly suicidal action and left the village without permission in order to find Raidou and take revenge on him for Hayate, although this meant she would become a nukenin and marked for death. The clan quickly found out about Kasumi's leave, and Ayane was ordered by Genra to find and kill her. Ayane tried to stop her on the bridge just out of the village, but Kasumi was saved when Christie appeared on a helicopter and separated the two shinobi with gunfire. Although Kasumi didn't know Christie, she jumped on the helicopter and they flew away from Ayane.
Now in the company of Christie and Bayman, Kasumi learned that Raidou was taking part in the Dead or Alive World Combat Championship, which was being sponsored by the Dead or Alive Tournament Executive Committee, the company they work for. They took her to the cruise liner Freedom Survivor, where the tournament would officially begin and Kasumi signed herself up.
While the start of the tournament is being officially announced, Kasumi finds Ayane in the crowd. Ayane tells her that she is there to avenge Hayate too, as well as kill her, under the orders of her foster father Genra. The girls quickly discover that Raidou is working with the head of DOATEC, Fame Douglas, but when Ayane tries to get him, even though Kasumi tries to stop her, the girl is beaten back. Fame then tells Kasumi that if she wants to face Raidou in battle, she has to come out as winner in the tournament.
Kasumi fights her way through the tournament, and does come out as the winner of the tournament, meaning that she will have to face Raidou in the Danger Zone. She manages to defeat Raidou, and was happy because she thinks she had avenged Hayate, but Raidou awakens stronger than before, with inhuman strength caused by DOATEC experiments. Their battle ends in a Torn Sky Blast duel, and with the help of Ryu Hayabusa from the sidelines, Kasumi overpowers Raidou in the end and he is finally killed.
Unfortunately for Kasumi, she is kidnapped by DOATEC, and is taken to their labs in Germany, so they can use her DNA for their experiments; as she managed to defeat their top experiment, they believe that she will be useful in their plans to create the ultimate fighter.
=== Escaping DOATEC and the Second Tournament ===
After being held captive for a while by DOATEC, Hayabusa manages to find her and sets DOATEC Germany on fire. During the chaos, Kasumi is helped out of her cell by Kasumi α, a clone created from her DNA. Although shocked by the sight of her double, she follows Alpha into one of the labs. Once there, Alpha tells Kasumi that they are "sisters", and Kasumi hasn't been a good sister because she keeps Hayate to herself, so now he belongs to Alpha. Realizing that Hayate had been taken by DOATEC, Kasumi fights Alpha. The noise leads one of the scientists, Lisa Hamilton to them and Kasumi demands to know where Hayate was. Lisa tries to silence her by threatening to shoot her, but Kasumi is saved by Hayabusa, who takes her after from the building, after Lisa and Alpha escaped.
While with Hayabusa and Irene Lew, they learn from stolen DOATEC data that Hayate was actually at DOATEC Germany at the same time as Kasumi. Worried about her brother's safety, Kasumi goes against Hayabusa's orders and runs off to find Hayate. Although Hayabusa sends Ayane after her, Kasumi manages to escape her.
Sometime later, Kasumi finds Hayate alive and well, but as Hayate is suffering from amnesia, he cannot remember her. Hayabusa appears before them and tells the two siblings to fight each other, as "once reunited in combat, fists which are bound by blood will revive the deepest soul of the shinobi", meaning that Hayate will remember his true self. During the fight, Kasumi is defeated, and Hayate remembers everything. While Hayate and Hayabusa have to fight Alpha and a brainwashed Ayane, set upon them by Genra, Kasumi presumbly wakes up and runs away, as Hayate cannot find her after the battle.
=== The Third Tournament ===
Homesick and constantly hunted, Kasumi still wishes to see Hayate, but has to go into hiding from the Mugen Tenshin clan again. She spends some time in the geisha district of Kyoto during her running, and to cover up her shinobi identity, she dresses as a normal high school girl and acts like a normal civilian in public to get by. She appears to have become ill from running and living rough, because she develops a fever. When she is half-passed out on the road, she is found by a local maiko Kokoro, but refuses her help. When she sees Ayane, she panics and runs away again.
During the third tournament, Kasumi tries to find Hayate, who is, at this time, with Ayane and Hayabusa trying to track down Genra, who has turned against the clan. Kasumi crosses paths with Ayane, but apparently her sister is focused on taking down Genra, so she isn't going to kill her; although Ayame has previously asked Ayane to help Kasumi rather than be against her. Ayane lets Kasumi try to get to Hayate, but not before she fights her for her troubles.
When Kasumi finally meets up with Hayate, he is torn between the code of the clan to kill nukenin and his desire to see his sister again. He tries to save her, saying that they can pretend they didn't meet, but Kasumi is prepared to fight her brother. After the fight, Kasumi escapes again and goes into hiding once more.
=== Zack Island ===
She was later given an invitation for a supposed Dead or Alive tournament that was going to be held at Zack Island. However, she discovered alongside the rest of the prior participants that it was a hoax, but decided to make the best of their situation for the two weeks on the island.
=== The Fourth Tournament and the Fall of DOATEC ===
During the time of the fourth tournament, Kasumi catches word of the Mugen Tenshin's plan to attack DOATEC and take their revenge against the company. Worried about everyone's safety, Kasumi risks her life visiting the outside of the village, and finds Hayate. As she tries to convince him to stop the war against DOATEC, Hayate remains quiet and Ayane arrives to interrupt them, providing enough of a distraction for Hayate to leave and continue on with his mission.
Although the attack is on the go, Kasumi pursues everyone to DOATEC's TriTower headquarters so she can still stop the chaos. There, she confronts Helena Douglas, the current head of DOATEC, and begs her to leave the shinobi alone. However, Helena tells her that DOATEC's latest creation - a modified Kasumi α, renamed Alpha-152 - is about to become active. Helena is about to shoot Kasumi, to stop her from being involved, but she is saved by Hayabusa, who is there helping Hayate, and Kasumi fights her way past Helena.
She then heads down to the lab to destroy Alpha-152. She fights her clone to her best efforts but in the end it appears Alpha-152 escapes in the chaos of the destruction wrought by the Mugen Tenshin invasion. After the match, having herself escaped the burning building, Kasumi is last seen watching Helena entering the blazing helipad. As Kasumi tries to stop her, Ayane prevents her from going after Helena, who by doing so saves Kasumi's life as the building starts exploding mere seconds later.
=== New Zack Island ===
Shortly afterwards, she continued trying to find Hayate, and eventually tracked his seeming last location to New Zack Island, although she ultimately decided to stay for the week despite not finding him. During her stay, she had a brief dream as a mermaid and being caught in a net while trying to pursue a fish only to wake up, an allegory to her freedom from the laws of nukenin.
=== The Fifth Tournament ===
At some point between the events of the fourth and fifth tournaments, it appeared that Kasumi went into hiding with the assistance of Hayabusa and his ally Muramasa, who made sure that no one knew where she was.
However, Victor Donovan had continued Project Alpha with his new origination MIST, and one of the clones produced managed to leave the facility - it's unclear if it was allowed to leave or it escaped. This clone believed that it was the real Kasumi and held the same desire to locate and destroy Alpha-152 as the original did. It turned to Helena for help, but turned away from her when the woman tried to get Hayate involved, believing that Alpha-152 would be too much for Kasumi to handle alone. The clone felt that it needed to face Alpha-152 by itself and left. Its behavior seemed to make Hayate suspicious so he ordered Ayane to follow.
While trying to keep away from her pursuers, the clone traveled to New York and asks Lisa where Alpha-152 was, but received no answer. After much travelling, the clone got fed up and returned to Helena demanding for Alpha-152's location. Helena reveals that Alpha-152 was hidden at an DOATEC-owned DIG oil rig, but she would be sending Hayate, Ayane, and Hayabusa there as well, much to the clone's dismay. After fighting her way past Rig and Lisa, Kasumi finds and defeats Alpha-152, but is soon found and attacked by the other shinobi, who had by then worked out that this Kasumi was a fake. The clone is slain, and the shinobi are attacked by MIST which led to Hayate's capture.
Hayabusa sent a message to the real Kasumi telling her of their problem and she finally comes out of hiding to aid them. She rushes to the oil platform and fights her way past Christie and Rig to get to Hayate, who had been forced into reactivating Project Epsilon. With Lisa's help, the shinobi succeeded in releasing him, however they are too late to stop Donovan from beginning Phase 4 of Project Alpha: mass production of the best clones. Following a long battle against Alpha-152, the clone and the lab is destroyed, with the shinobi managing to escape.
The next day, Kasumi thanked Hayate and Ayane for their help before taking her leave, swearing to defeat Donovan at all costs.
=== Back on New Zack Island ===
After her last mission, Kasumi returned to her hobby of fortune reading, that leads her again to New Zack Island. She wonders why it always leads her again to the island. In order to find out, she decides to spend some time on the island.
During the last day on the island, she found out that maybe she had come to the island in order to remember her life before running away. She wanted to stay longer, but unfortunately she had to go.
=== The Sixth Tournament and Raidou's Resurrection ===
During her time on the run, she maintained contact with her mother via letters. However, while composing another letter, she stopped due to sensing a foreboding element. At some point, Mai Shiranui tracked down Kasumi, and announced her arrival by throwing a paper fan at her, forcing Kasumi to dodge by teleporting from her bench. Mai Shiranui then asked if she was the strongest kunoichi, with Kasumi acknowledging Mai's presence. Mai, noticing her Mugen Tenshin symbol, deduced that Kasumi must be intelligent before requesting a spar to see who was the strongest in Japan. After the spar, Kasumi and Mai chatted, with Mai admitting that exercise always leaves her hungry. She also had a near run-in with Marie Rose and Honoka at her favorite shop, and overheard them talking about a ninja who frequented the location, with Kasumi deducing from Marie Rose's description that her half-sister Ayane had earlier encountered them.
Kasumi was eventually ambushed by Phase 4 clones of the Alpha project, although she was saved by Ryu. She then accompanied him so they could deal with MIST. Eventually, their travels took them to a ruined highway. After Ryu dealt with a robot made in her evil uncle Raidou's likeness, she received a butterfly familiar from Ayane requesting assistance, with Kasumi expressing shock that Ayane would actually sent her an SOS.
They then headed by chopper to MIST's lab with the help of Ryu's old CIA contact, Irene Lew, and upon rendezvousing with Hayate, they stormed the facility to rescue Ayane. Kasumi then encountered NiCO, the head researcher, who intended to dispose of Ayane and Honoka due to having successfully revived Raidou. While Hayate pursued a Phase 4 clone to retrieve Honoka, Kasumi was forced into a fight with her half-sister due to NiCO brainwashing the latter. After Ayane was subdued, Hayate returned with Honoka and reassured Kasumi that she was merely unconscious. Kasumi, alongside Ayane and Hayate, then engaged Raidou in a final showdown, eventually destroying him into nothingness via a joint effort. Kasumi then left, although not before briefly recalling her childhood.
=== Arrival on the Venus Islands ===
Similar to her earlier vacation at New Zack Island, she ended up headed to the Venus Islands thanks to a fortune telling her to go there. She then briefly pondered what the fortune meant until she stumbled upon the Owner of the island. Upon being informed of the Venus Island's local Venus Festival and being requested to help set it up, although she was reluctant, she ultimately agreed to do so.
== Character ==
=== Appearance ===
Kasumi is a slender, physically-fit, and petite young woman. She was designed to appear "soft" (based on the idea that Dead or Alive is softer in concept compared to Ninja Gaiden, thus making her symbolic of the series) so she was originally designed with a childlike and youthful appearance, with fair skin, a round face, small facial features and wide, amber eyes. For Dead or Alive 5, her design was slightly altered to appear more mature, so she now has an oval-shaped face and narrowed eyes. Her hair is also seen noticeably shorter, as it only reaches to her lower shoulders, rather than her hips.
Originally, her long hair appeared to be a chestnut brunette. However, since Dead or Alive 2, it has lightened over the years to a ginger or copper shade. To date, she has had the following different hairstyle options: a low or high side ponytail, french braid, (with two different ribbon options), or her hair down.
Her trademark outfit is a blue, side-tie dress with short puffy sleeves, white trim, her name (written in Japanese) stitched in gold on the back, and a light-colored phoenix pattern on the skirt, complete with stockings, low heeled sandals, blue & white leg guards and arm-guards. As well as this outfit - and variations of said outfit - Kasumi sports other shinobi costumes as well as modern casual clothes and Japanese school uniforms, suited for average, everyday girls.
In Dead or Alive 5 when she was under Muramasa's care, she was seen wearing a blue short-sleeved traditional kimono dress with a red rope tied on her back and white flower designs on her baggy sleeves. She also wears a black obi with two white leaf designs and white tabi.
As she infiltrates MIST, saving her older brother Hayate and fighting against Alpha-152 during Phase 4, she wears a black sleeveless v-neck skin-tight ninja suit with a blue bra underneath and four holes in each side on her top, matching black leg guards and boots. She also wears matching black long leather gloves and wears a blue choker on her neck. Kasumi's ribbon is now blue instead of yellow when she is tied in a high ponytail until she removes it in the end as her wakizashi sword on her back is tied in a blue rope instead of red. Her ninja suit resembles a catsuit as opposed to her trademark outfit.
In Dead or Alive 6, Kasumi receives a brand new default costume in the form of a predominantly black ninja bodysuit with white gloves and what looks like tabi with heeled kunoichi shoes, as well as sections with blue accents. Her suit is detailed with her name in gold Japanese Kanji on the back like her various ninja attire, armored pads on her arms, and shins, and she wears her sword on her lower back. She once again dons her blue ribbon in this outfit, and she has a small Sakura flower symbol on the front of the bodysuit as well. Like the other characters, she has other recolors of this outfit that the player will freely be able to choose.
Like the other fighters, if she is hit with a break blow, her ponytail will come undone letting her hair down. Her loose hair is noticeably somewhat thicker and longer than before as well, no longer being as thin as before.
=== Personality ===
Kasumi is portrayed throughout the Dead or Alive series as a more compassionate character than many of the other fighters. She is an honorable and kind spirit, and although a highly skilled kunoichi with deadly abilities, she does not enjoy or wish to fight. Many of the statements she makes in the game series before a round begins reflect her desire to avoid confrontation. Much of the reasoning behind this comes from the fact that in all appearances in the tournaments (with the exception of the first) her motive was not to fight or win but to meet Hayate.
Kasumi is shown to be a "soft" character; she is not afraid to speak her mind, but as a soft person, she is emotional, honest, and always helps people. She is a highly intelligent, caring, and gentle person. She is demonstrably family orientated and would like nothing more than to return home in peace. There were instances where she refused to show mercy, though, such as when she willingly goes to take revenge upon Raidou and subsequently kills him in the first game, and fighting her clone in the second game.
However, in Dead or Alive 5, in the last chapter of story mode, Kasumi's personality has changed drastically. She's still the caring person that she is, however, Kasumi is shown to be mentally stronger. She is shown to engage in battle when she needs to instead of avoiding it. An example of this is when she fights Christie, who was in her way. She also has a much stronger will as she was ready to destroy the Phase 4 project and defeat Victor Donovan at any cost. She is seen to be much happier as well and is finally at peace with both Hayate and Ayane. She also seems to have great maturity for someone her age.
The Xtreme series implies she is somewhat modest about revealing her body, as in Xtreme 2 and Paradise if she performs a pole dance, she admits feeling a little embarrassed about it. Likewise, in Xtreme Venus Vacation, she is shown to be embarrassed at having to wear an extremely revealing outfit.
In Dead or Alive 6, it seems like Kasumi has fully grown into a willing fighter as she no longer shows any reluctance to fight, especially when seen in her intro pose against Raidou whom she harbors a strong hatred for. She still however questions her reason for fighting Ayane and Hayate. She overall appears to be at her peak in terms of mental and physical strength and shows no fear when it comes to protecting her siblings and those she cares about.
=== Etymology ===
The kanji used to spell Kasumi's name (霞) means "mist", a light fog. Mist and fog are often used as a symbol of isolation and loneliness, maybe alluding to Kasumi's isolation from her clan, forced to live alone. Mist can also represent unclear thinking, possibly reflecting Kasumi's personality who, as a compassionate, empathetic character, is powered by emotion and will react by her feeling rather than think things through first, such as her leave from her clan to take revenge for Hayate.
Mist could also be a physical link to her; just as mist cannot be easily contained, Kasumi has also been proven to be hard to "contain" and be captured by the clan's assassins and has been able to avoid them for a long time.
Finally, mist can be a symbol of the indeterminate phase in development, when things have yet to be defined. As she is a nukenin, Kasumi could be seen as living in an indeterminate state, unsure if tomorrow will bring her death or good fortune.
== Game Appearences ==
=== Super Smash Bros Accelerant ===
She appears as a newcomer.
She appears in the chapter 15: Mid-Summer Rush, when she's transformed into a cybernetic clone of Mecha Sonic.
===Project X Zone 3: Sacred Destinies===
Kasumi appears as a Solo Unit.
==Gallery==
==Trivia==
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