Usuba family

* Anime
* Manga

The **Usuba family** (薄刃家, *Usuba-ka*?), also known under their public-facing identity as the **Tsuruki family** (鶴木家, *Tsuruki-ka*?), is one of the noble families in the *My Happy Marriage* series.

## Known Members

* Yoshirou Usuba: former head, head of the household
* Sumi Saimori: daughter of Yoshirou
* Mr. Usuba: son of Yoshirou, current head
* Arata Usuba: Mr. Usuba's son
* Miyo Saimori: Sumi's daughter
* Naoshi Usui: Yoshirou’s nephew

## Description

The Usuba clan has a long family history with members possessing special powers. Compared to the Gift of other families, the Usuba family’s Gift is in a category of its own, and is far more unusual and far more dangerous in the way it worked. Their powers enable them to manipulate the minds of others. They could alter memories, invade dreams, read thoughts — and those are the least threatening of their talents. Among the more terrifying ones are the power to strip a person of their will and turn them into a puppet and the ability to drive a person to insanity with illusions.

This unique trait to affect people’s minds in some way only manifests in the Gift-users of the Usuba family. Unlike normal Gifts that are tuned for the elimination of Grotesqueries, beings that harm people, the Gifts of the Usuba family target humans. They are supernatural abilities made for taking on people, and they work on both average people and Gift-users alike. The duty of the Usubas is to stop other Gift-users when required. They serve as deterrents against people with supernatural abilities, who could otherwise wield their tremendous power to bring ruin to everyone. The supernatural abilities of their line are specifically for defeating other Gift-users. The Usuba family is therefore considered a dedicated force that specializes in stopping out-of-control Gift-users. Because the Grotesqueries are not their target, they don't have the need to see them and it’s quite normal for Gift-users in the Usuba family to be born without the Spirit-Sight.

Because of the powerfulness of their abilities, many other clans would like to get hold of the Gift from the Usuba bloodline, as is evident in the case of Minoru Tatsuishi kidnapping Miyo Saimori to have her marry his son, despite Miyo seemingly to be Giftless. He believes she might bear children with the Gift. The Gift in the Usubas’ bloodline would restore his own family’s status. Past emperors would even have the Usubas assassinated occasionally rather than risk their powers being used toward malicious ends.

Cognizant of the danger their Gift represents, the Usubas cannot stand on the public stage. Were they to openly display our power, they would be seen only as a threat. Their abilities would breed conflict and disorder. To show complete obedience to the emperor, they obscured their existence to the public, lead secretive existences, and take all measures necessary to avoid drawing attention to themselves. There’s a strict code of conduct placed on the Usuba family. It has been kept firmly in place since the beginning, and the punishment for those who break it is extremely severe. They had to live according to these restrictive rules unique to their line, which includes having to hide their real names, guarding family secrets, not being able to use their Gifts outside, only allowed to marry among their relatives and thus avoid intermarriage with other Gifted families so that their Gift would remain confined to their bloodline., not being able to make any particularly close friends or lovers, not buying anything expensive without permission, prohibited from drinking alcohol outside of the house, and many more rules in the code of conduct to follow. These inconvenient and self-imposed restrictions proved that the Usubas had no intent to rebel. Consequently, this also makes it very difficult for outsiders to find and contact the Usubas, as they aren't in any official records.

Even though time has passed and there has been a remarkable decrease in moments where the Usubas are ordered to carry out their duty in the current era, the Usuba family faithfully continues to protect the vow made by their ancestors. When there is an incident, in almost all cases, the Special Anti-Grotesquerie Unit or powerful families like the Kudous end up resolving the situation. It’s never the Usubas turn to make an appearance. For example, ever since Arata Usuba came of age, he has never once been ordered to work as a member of the Usuba family. No matter how modestly they live, how devoted they are to their code, they consider it meaningless in the end. Even though they perform well against other Gift-users, thanks to their strict training and continuous hard work, it's frustrating for them when they never make use of all that effort, have it never be called upon, despite imposing so many inconveniences on themselves.

## History

About twenty years ago, the Tsuruki Trading's business slumped and the Usuba's family were in crisis. Possessing the power of Telepathy, Sumi Usuba was expected to give birth to a Gift-user with Dream-Sight. Her father, Yoshirou Usuba wanted to marry her to Naoshi Usui, a distant relative from one of the Usuba's branch families, to try to increase the chances as much as possible that she would give birth to a Gift-user with Dream-Sight. But as the company's business waned, the family lived near starvation, and they could no longer entertain any thoughts of marriage.

Just before the whole family was about to be forced into the streets, the head of the Saimori family somehow heard of their plight and offered a marriage in exchange for financial support. At the time, Yoshirou could see that the Saimoris were heading into decline and never wanted to hand his precious daughter over to a family like them. Ultimately, in order to save her family, Sumi overcame Yoshirou’s objections and went to the Saimoris. The Usubas received financial funds in return. It is believed that the former head of the Saimoris must have known about the power of Dream-Sight, considering how hard they pursued Sumi. Knowing a child with the ability would be exploited and having no hope of living a normal, happy life, Sumi had sealed Miyo’s supernatural powers away and pretended she didn’t have any.

## Plot

When Kiyoka Kudou tried to contact the Usubas in order to help his fiancée Miyo with her nightmares, his only lead is Miyo's mother, Sumi Usuba. He asked the private investigator to first search through the directories of girls’ schools for students named Sumi. There were just over twenty. Next, the private investigator narrowed this group by factoring in the period of time when Sumi was likely being instructed. After restricting the search to schools within the Imperial Capital, they broadly investigated the background of any remaining Sumis. There is a Sumi Tsuruki in the list.

Later, Kiyoka found a scrap of paper on the floor of his house with the address of Tsuruki Trading on it, along with the name Arata Tsuruki and the characters for Usuba being scrawled out on the back.

That summer, after the emperor had stepped down from the political stage in accordance with Prince Takaihito’s wishes, the prince himself went out of his way to visit the Usuba estate to say he would try rethinking their family’s current way of life. Thanks to him, the Usubas were beginning to be freed from their plight, and were able to gradually come out into the open. Their existence stopped being treated as a state secret. It also became an open secret that the Usubas publicly used the name Tsuruki. There were still only a few people in the entire country who knew the truth, but among Gift-users, there were more who knew than those who didn’t. The problem lay in the fact that the Usubas were unlike any other family who inherited supernatural abilities. They had been tasked with watching over and controlling the nation’s Gift-users. As such, other supernaturally inclined families were predisposed to distrust them. While it was progress that the Usubas had come out in the open, other Gift-users still kept them at arm’s length. That was simply the reality of the current situation.

## Trivia

* The surname **Usuba** means "thin blade" (薄刃).
	+ The alias surname **Tsuruki** means "crane, stork" (鶴) (**tsuru**) and "tree, wood" (木) (**ki**).

## References

1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11  Novel, Volume 2 Chapter 3
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4  Novel, Volume 1 Chapter 2
3. ↑  Novel, Volume 1 Chapter 1
4. ↑  Novel, Volume 1 Chapter 4
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2  Novel, Volume 2 Chapter 2
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1  Novel, Volume 4 Chapter 1
7. ↑  Novel, Volume 2 Epilogue
8. ↑  Novel, Volume 3 Chapter 4
9. ↑  Novel, Volume 3 Chapter 6