Sumi Saimori

* Anime
* Manga
* Live-action

**Sumi Saimori** (斎森 澄美, *Saimori Sumi*?) was a member of the Usuba family, the first wife of Shinichi Saimori and the mother of Miyo Saimori.

## Appearance

Sumi was a young frail woman with refined features. She had pink eyes, well-shaped lips and beautiful, long, shiny black hair. She often dressed in a pale-pink kimono that matches the color of the cherry blossoms so perfectly that it made her look like a cherry tree sprite. It was her favorite kimono. Sumi looked incredibly delicate, , as if she might fade away at any moment.

Her daughter Miyo bears a striking resemblance to Sumi.

## Personality

Sumi was consistently shown to be a compassionate and dutiful woman throughout her life.

She even continues to be friends and possibly more with her cousin, Naoshi Usui, despite his clear sociopathic tendencies early in their childhood.

## History

Sumi was born as the daughter of Yoshirou Usuba and sister of an unnamed brother. She was part of the Usuba family, a clan with a long family history with members possessing special powers. As their abilities would breed conflict and disorder, a strict code of conduct was placed on the family. Because of that, like the rest of the family, she had to live under a pseudonym. She attended girls’ school in the Imperial Capital under the name "Sumi Tsuruki".

Sumi awakened the Gift of Telepathy, a Gift that rarely come along, which excited the whole Usuba family. As a Telepathy user, Sumi was expected to give birth to a Gift-user with Dream-Sight, which is considered the strongest Gift of them all. To try to increase those chances as much as possible, her father wanted to marry her to Naoshi Usui, a distant relative, when she is of marriageable age. But that didn’t work out when the business of the family's firm, Tsuruki Trading, waned and the family was living in near starvation. 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, her father could see that the Saimoris were heading into decline and never wanted to hand his precious daughter over to a family like them. He was against the marriage and rejected the offer, but the Saimoris were persistent and would keep sending proposals. Ultimately, in order to save her family, Sumi overcame Yoshirou’s objections and accepted their offer without consulting her father.

After Sumi married Shinichi Saimori, her family received financial assistance from the Saimoris and the Usubas were able to recover from the financial slump. Her husband Shinichi was opposed to their marriage, as he was in love with a woman named Kanoko and had to break off his relationship with her on his family's insistence on the arranged marriage. His parents were hungering after the Usuba Gift after the Emperor told them about the Dream-Gift potential and passed them a heavy sum to pursue Sumi. From their loveless marriage, Miyo Saimori was born. With her Telepathy ability, Sumi discovered that her daughter indeed had the Gift of the Dream-Sight. Fearing that Miyo’s abilities would be exploited, she sealed daughter's powers away as soon as she was born and pretended she didn't have any.

When her husband discovered that Miyo couldn't demonstrate the Spirit-Sight ability, he was under the impression that she is Giftless and resented her for it. He'd felt bitter dejection when the child of the woman he’d been forced to marry in spite of his love for another hadn’t fulfilled the familial expectation of inheriting the Gift. To Sumi's sadness, he turned his back on Miyo, who begged him not to reject his daughter. When Miyo was two years old, Sumi passed away from illness and her husband wasted no time in remarrying his former lover.

## Abilities

### Gifts

* **Telepathy**: As one of the special powers of the Usuba family, this Gift enables Sumi to affect the minds of other people. She could use it to express thoughts in one’s head and feelings in one’s heart without resorting to verbal or bodily avenues of communication. Having this gift also meant that her children would be born with the gift of Dream-Sight.

### Techniques

* **Sealing**: Sumi possesses the power to place a seal on an individual, effectively restricting or blocking their Gift. It was through this method that Sumi sealed her daughter's Dream-Sight, preventing its use and concealing it from detection.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3  Novel, Volume 2 Chapter 2
2. ↑  Anime, Episode 1
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1  Novel, Volume 1 Chapter 2
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8  Novel, Volume 2 Chapter 3
5. ↑  Novel, Volume 3 Chapter 6
6. ↑  Anime, Episode 11
7. ↑  Novel, Volume 2 Chapter 5
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1  Novel, Volume 1 Chapter 1