Umeshi Hanabioka

**Umeshi Hanabioka** (花火丘 梅四 *Hanabioka Umeshi*) is a supporting character in the Jujutsu Kaisen series. She is a cursed spirit working at the Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical College as a grade 1 jujutsu sorcerer and teacher.

## Appearance

Umeshi Hanabioka is a slim woman of above-average height with primarily long legs. Her messy hair fades from black to red and had four small buns sectioned off with bobby pins and barrettes on the back of her head. She has two black crescent markings under each eye, later revealed to be four of her eyes.

While working, she wears a black fitted dress with a gakuran-like fold at the top. It’s fastened with the gold Jujutsu Tech button at the corner and has a zipper on either side of her torso. The sleeves are extremely long to hide her extra pairs of arms and she wears red shorts under the slit-cut garment. Her black socks have a red stripe at the top, much like the stripe along the bottom of her dress, and she wears black platform sandals. Her cursed tool is hooked on the side of her dress.

## Personality

Despite being a cursed spirit herself, she finds the species to be arrogant and insufferable to be around. She particularly bears a grudge towards Mahito for his treatment towards her sister Nezumi, and wants nothing more than to eradicate him and all other cursed spirits for what he and his group have done.

This attitude towards cursed spirits does not however affect her own image. She’s more than aware of the immense power she has and despite her distaste towards domineering figures, she herself can become quite self-assured even during simple conversations with others, making her quite the hypocrite.

Because of how she feels about cursed spirits, Umeshi can tolerate the presence of humans much easier despite her over-zealous demeanor. Originally during her time at Jujutsu Tech, not only the staff but the students as well didn’t enjoy her presence as she wasn’t used to having to cooperate with people in such an atmosphere. However, after working at the school for over two years, she eventually adjusted to life there and actually enjoyed teaching about cursed spirits and properly training students.

Commanding and positively sadistic on the surface, Umeshi can also be quite caring in her own way. Whether it be from offering extra tips to students on fighting techniques or supplying her peers with necessities they may need in certain situations, she has grown to enjoy the company of her fellow teachers and the students she’s taught at the school. She’s instead been trained to direct the negative energy inside her solely at her hatred towards cursed spirits.

This has lead to Umeshi being a rather harsh opponent even in simple training procedures. Whenever faced with something that has to do with fighting or her goal of killing cursed spirits, she becomes aggressive and brutal in her approach. She’s completely overtaken with the desire to cause chaos and misfortune for cursed spirits and doesn’t care whether it puts her at risk.

## Abilities and Powers

**Overall Skill Level**: Umeshi is an incredibly talented jujutsu sorcerer, who Masamichi Yaga says is more than worthy of her position and is one of closest to becoming a Special Grade 1. Her unwavering determination and vast knowledge of cursed energy and jujutsu give her recognition as one of the most proficient sorcerers among the ranks. Umeshi is extremely tactical and intelligent with unbelievable perseverance.

**Enhanced Endurance**: Umeshi has unbelievable endurance. Despite her low stamina and fragility, she always pushes herself beyond her limit and is consistently able to use her jujutsu in conjunction with hand-to-hand combat.

**Enhanced Reflexes**: While not very athletic or gifted with much stamina, Umeshi has immensely impressive reflexes that allow her to easily evade attacks both ranged and melee-based. Because of her poor eyesight, she’s grown accustomed to feeling vibrations in the air and her surroundings to properly dodge and move swiftly. This natural ability tied with her ease in using her chain whip-like weapon, brings an efficient and harsh way to battle.

**Great Tactical Intellect**: As a cursed spirit herself, Umeshi bears a great deal of knowledge on jujutsu and cursed energy. She has plenty of experience dealing with spirits and can easily adapt to whatever opponent she may face. She’s capable of quickly pointing out weaknesses in adversaries and finding ways to properly defeat them, despite the damage it may cause in the long run.

**Master Armed Combatant**: Umeshi defaults to using her whip-like chain she has hooked on the side of her dress in battle. She handles the weapon with such precision and force that she can cut through projectiles easily and was able to nearly sever Jogo’s head clean off with it. She can snappily send it towards enemies to create deep gashes and shines whether faced with close or long-ranged combat.

### Jujutsu

 **Charlotte’s Web** (シャーロットのおくりもの *Shārotto no okuri mono*): Umeshi can shoot silk from her hands much like spiders can. The material is capable of slowly diminishing someone’s cursed energy as long as it’s attached to them.

## Trivia

* According to Jujutsu Kaisen Official Fanbook:
	+ Her hobby is gardening and keeping bugs off of the plants.
	+ Favorite Food: Meat (primarily pork)
	+ Least Favorite Food: Fruits or vegetables (they’re difficult for her to digest)
	+ Cause of stress: Citrus smells
* Gojo tried introducing Umeshi to Digimon, but she found it boring.
* The only media Umeshi enjoys is mystery.
* Umeshi has trouble reading not just because of her eyesight, but also because she cant focus. She’s also a visual learner.
* She says she gets her reflexes from her previous interest in dance.
* She hopes to save her sister but still resents her for her decision to stay with Mahito.
* The names of the techniques Umeshi uses are all references to creatures, stories, or characters inspired by spiders. These include:
	+ Charlotte’s Webb, the children’s book by E.B. White.
	+ Little Miss Muffet, the children’s nursery rhyme.
	+ Black Widow, the Marvel character a part of the Avengers.
	+ Gohma, a spider-like boss from The Legend of Zelda series.
	+ Metebelis III, the name of a planet in Doctor Who inhabited by the Queen Spider.
	+ Aragog, the giant spider at Hogwarts in Harry Potter.
* The surname “Hanabioka” contains the kanji for “firework” (花火 hanabi) and hill (丘 oka). Her first name is a combination of “plum” (梅 ume) and “four (四 shi).
* Her chosen theme music is “UNHAPPY CLUB” by the band Kami-sama, I have noticed, and “Wagamama De Gomakasanaide” by THE ORAL CIGARETTES.