Saiki Umi

Saiki Umi is the Ultimate Small Business Owner. Prior to the events of the novel, she was in the process of being scouted for Hope's Peak Academy. She is heterosexual. She serves as a very minor antagonist in the early chapters.

## Appearance

Saiki has reddish-pink hair that she wears Sailor Moon style in two buns on her head and blue eyes. She wears a light red dress shirt that's mostly unbuttoned, a black undershirt, and a dark red striped skirt. She has small black earrings.

## Personality

Saiki is demanding, blunt, and harsh. She stands strongly against plagiarism and theft and promotes original ideas and hard workers. She comes off as a bully, but she has a good heart and will fight for her friends. She's very hard on herself, often stating that she isn't worthy of being called a strong businesswoman. She easily grows attached to people and falls in love even easier, though this doesn't make her feelings any less genuine. She also easily gets pissed off at people, and has a wide variety of insults she constantly uses. She's not very forgiving, and she often jumps the gun during class trials, accusing whoever she feels is guilty. Incredibly against the killing game show, she works to undermine it the only way she knows how: relentlessly bullying Monokuma.

## Relationships

Not much is known about Saiki's family, but Monokuma states that she has a sister during the outside world motives.

During the killing game show, she forms many relationships with the other students, both positive and negative.

Kiya Anju befriends her in chapter two, manipulating both her and Toyoda Keita into revolting against Tauji Hairi. The affects of this continue to last in chapter three.

Toyoda Keita becomes a very close companion of hers, and it's strongly implied that there was something more between them. She tells Hosoo that Toyoda was one of the only people who didn't think of her as a bad person.

Hosoo Yushiro is continuously referred to as someone she trusts, though she states it's only because she thinks he's too dense to commit murder.

Tauji Hairi and Saiki have a negative relationship in the earlier chapters, as Saiki believes that she doesn't deserve to ascend to a leadership position. However, in chapter four, the two become close as Tauji helps her through her grief.

Monokuma becomes the main target of her bullying, and in chapter four, he launches an anti bullying campaign against her. This doesn't do much, though, as the other contestants eventually join her in making fun of him.

Other relationships of note include Kanda Akio and Shima Tokaji.

## Life

### Early life

Not much is known about Saiki's life before the game show, though she does talk about the small business she owns from time to time.

### The killing game show

#### Prologue

Waking up alongside fifteen other contestants, Saiki finds that she’s been kidnapped and forced to compete in a killing game show.

#### Chapter two

In light of the inner circle situation, Kiya Anju manipulates Saiki into turning against Tauji. Saiki helps lead the main charge against the injustices. The situation spiraling out of hand leads to the second murder. Saiki also befriends Toyoda Keita during this time, and at the end of chapter two, they inform Hosoo of their theory that tunnels exist beneath the facility.

#### Chapter three

Saiki spends most of her time with Toyoda, and the two attend the basketball game together. Saiki plays in the game, while Toyoda only comes to support her. Halfway through the game, he stands up and leaves, causing Saiki to think that she's not that important to him after all. After the game, though, his body is discovered in the spa, along with Morimoto Motomori's. Saiki immediately falls into a deep depression, though it's quickly replaced with a righteous anger as she becomes determined to find the killer. At first she refuses to believe the murderer is Kiya, as she trusts her, and is completely convinced it's Tauji. But as soon as the truth comes out, she quickly turns against Kiya, even going as far as physically attacking her on stage. Tauji attempts to comfort her, and when it's all over, Saiki remarks to Hosoo that she thought she would feel better after the execution, but she only feels worse. This starts the beginning of her character redemption arc.

#### Chapter four

Comforted and encouraged by Tauji, Saiki comes up with the idea to hold a memorial service for everyone who died. Before they can, however, Monokuma presents the next motive: events taking place in the outside world in their personal lives. After one round of this jeopardy style game, the group decides to stop playing, turning their attention onto the service once more. However, Monokuma leaves their 500 motives on their beds in the form of a letter. Saiki discovers that her business has been sold to some corrupt CEO. The group moves forward with the memorial service anyways after promising each other not to kill anyone, and it goes smoothly. The next morning, the group discovers the body of Izuhara Isao in the cafeteria.

#### Chapter five

After discovering the body of Rai Gihei, Saiki comforts Shima Tokaji, as she also knows what it's like to lose a loved one. Their moment together doesn't mean much to her, though, as she becomes convinced that he is the culprit. Angered by the fact that he supposedly abused someone's trust in him, she leads the prosecution, though she backs down once they get deeper into the case. After the trial, she makes a promise with the others to end the killing game show, and tells Kanda Akio that he's allowed to form his own opinions.