Sumireko Usami - Touhou

Sumireko Usami (宇佐見 菫子 Usami Sumireko) is a human esper with psychic powers (ESP) who is the first president, and only member, of the Hifuu Club in Higashifukami high school and lives in the Kanto region of Japan from the Outside World. After the events of Urban Legend in Limbo where she tries to get through the barrier to get within Gensokyo, she eventually gets the ability to go to Gensokyo through her dreams. Sumireko is a playable character and possible opponent in Urban Legend in Limbo and Antinomy of Common Flowers, being also the main antagonist in the former. Sumireko later shared the role of the main character with Rinnosuke Morichika in Curiosities of Lotus Asia since the series became published in Strange Creators of Outer World starting with chapter 28. Sumireko is also the main protagonist of Violet Detector and The Grimoire of Usami.

General Information Personality Sumireko has shown herself to be extremely intelligent, determined, passionate, and hubristic in equal parts. Due to having her having psychic abilities, Sumireko started considered herself superior to other people since middle school and was unable to make friendships in school since she viewed others as them as trying to drag her down.[3] She strongly dislikes the modern society of the outside world due to being dictated by modernized corporations and is much more interested into the occult/fantasy, in the sense of actually being directly involved with it in real life. She goes so far into the occult that it can sometimes endanger her life at times. Sumireko often gets excited of the thrill of danger however. [4]

Sumireko describes herself as having been a bit of a loner prior to her arrival in Gensokyo but ever since she started coming to Gensokyo and befriending many inhabitants from there, she considers her discovery of Gensokyo to be the best thing to have happened in her life due to the friendships she's made there. [5] Sumireko seems to hold several contradictory opinions, although it comes off less as hypocrisy, and more as though she hasn't been able to fully make up her mind about certain subjects due to her inexperience of being a teenager. She also tends to use friendly nicknames a lot of her close friends such as Reimu and Marisa.

She also describes herself as being chuunibyou,[6] a term usually used mockingly, with a sense of personal pride, alluding to her psychic powers and other magical abilities. In spite of that pride, she does lament that nobody in the Outside World seems to be able to understand her or her passion about the occult and Gensokyo. This may also be in part due to how highly opinionated she is, espousing her beliefs about the "phoniness" of the Outside World's dominant consumerist culture at the slightest provocation.[7] She also dislikes drugs such as smoking and alcohol likely due to the amount of students in her hometown who would do drugs during flower viewings.[8].

Abilities Esper Sumireko is a strong psychic, capable of various powers associated with the occult, including but seemingly not limited to levitation, pyrokinesis, hydrokinesis, telekinesis, psychokinesis, and teleportation. [9] [10]

Traveling to Gensokyo through her dreams After the events of Urban Legend in Limbo, Sumireko gains the ability to travel to Gensokyo in her dreams through a doppelganger which maintains her "permanent" presence in Gensokyo and is actually also youkai-like.[11] She is able to recall the memories of both the time spent possessing the body of her doppelganger as well as those from her "normal" life in the Outside World, allowing her to live a double-life in both worlds. [12] When this happens, this lead to her dream soul coexisting and even sending objects and eventually humans in Gensokyo to the outer world to lessen the shock of the Great Barrier. [13] According to Yukari, she also strengthened the barrier as well.[14]

Occupation Sumireko lives in the Kanto region of Japan and attends Higashifukami high school as a model student where she created the Hifuu Club, an occult club that specializes in research other worlds, where she is also the president and the only member of. She eventually discovered Gensokyo, leading into the events of Urban Legend in Limbo. Since then, she's been going to Gensokyo whenever she dreams and spends time learned about Gensokyo, posting pictures of it online or hanging out with her friends. She eventually starts going to Kourindou often and convinces Rinnosuke Morichika to let her officially work as a part timer there.

Possession Sumireko has a Liberator-like 3D printed handgun.

Sumireko has brown eyes and shoulder-length brown hair tied in pigtails. On her head is a black fedora with a white bow along with red-framed glasses. She wears a purple plaid skirt and matching vest (resembling a jumper dress), over a long-sleeved white blouse and a black bolo tie with a clasp shaped like a "Quimbaya airplane". Along with this, she wears white socks with bows and black shoes. Sumireko generally carries Zener cards, a tablet computer marked with a hexagram on the back, a smartphone in a white case with various blue shapes on it, and a light-blue liberator. She also wears white gloves, and a black high-collared cloak with a red interior inscribed with pinkish-white runes, and a series of white lines at the bottom rim of the backside.

Relationships Reimu Hakurei & Marisa Kirisame After Urban Legend in Limbo, Sumireko becomes good friends with Reimu and Marisa and often hangs out with them as seen in Curiosities of Lotus Asia, Wild and Horned Hermit and Grimoire of Usami. Reimu and Marisa are also frequently seen doting on her to make sure she's safe and not getting into trouble. Reimu, in particular, is very strict about watching over Sumireko. Despite Sumireko not liking being restrained too often, she truly cares for Reimu as a friend after she helped her in the events of Urban Legend in Limbo and even considers Reimu to be her first friend.[15][16] Marisa also chats with Sumireko and tries to give advice on how to talk to the local residents. They seem to have become good and playful friends such as when Marisa playfully tries to smack Sumireko after being told she looks like she's wearing a Halloween/cheap outfit as Sumireko blocks her attack while laughing playfully. [17]

Rinnosuke Morichika Rinnosuke shows a great deal of care towards Sumireko often worrying about her safety while Sumireko enjoys sharing knowledge of the outside world with Rinnosuke even if he doesn't always understand her outer world habits and terms at times. Eventually, Sumireko urges Rinnosuke to let her work as a "part-timer" at Kourindou.[2]

Mamizou Futatsuiwa In Urban Legend in Limbo, after going to the outside word, Mamizou tricks Sumireko into being trapped in Gensokyo. Afterwards, she and Kasen let her go back to the outside. In Alternative Facts in Eastern Utopia, Sumireko mentions that Mamizou often visits her in the Outside World. The exact details of this aren't known, but Sumireko implies that they're friends when calling her Mami, and that Sumireko respects her as an elder. [7]

Kasen Ibaraki In Urban Legend in Limbo, Kasen expresses resentment that Sumireko views youkai with such a casual and playful attitude, feeling that Sumireko should show youkai more respect. [18] Despite that, it's shown in Wild and Horned Hermit that Kasen has grown a bit softer on her in more recent times. She states that Sumirekos power comes to Gensokyo through her own power.

In Curiosities of Lotus Asia, Kasen meets Sumireko occasionally and even secretly tours with her to visit places in Gensokyo like the Youkai Mountain and the Scarlet Devil Mansion usually to avoid Reimu's strict guidance. to procure items from the outside world. This is also mentioned in Alternative Facts in Eastern Utopia where Sumireko even calls her "Kasen-chan" showing she considers her a close friend. [7] or "Kasseny" [19] During Sumireko's 3 week disappearance, Kasen visited her in the outside world to confirm her safety.

Fujiwara no Mokou Initially annoyed by Sumireko, Mokou challenged Sumireko to a duel. [20] The two were able to match each other's strength. Mokou extended an invitation to have a rematch sometime in the future, admiring the young girl's fighting spirit and passion, and thanking her for giving her a tough challenge. After fighting again, Mokou helped Sumireko getting out of the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. [21] It appears the two have become friendly rivals. [22] She returns to Hakurei Shrine to return something to Sumireko but ends up fighting Reimu instead. She instead gives the item to Reimu and entrusts her to give it back to Sumireko. In the end of the game, Reimu gives the item back to Sumireko which turned out to be her ESP card.

Yukari Yakumo In Alternative Facts in Eastern Utopia, Yukari comments that she doesn't see letting Sumireko move in and out of Gensokyo as a problem and even says she's strengthening the barrier by doing so. Yukari would help Sumireko at other times in the series such as in Antinomy of Common Flowers[23] and Violet Detector[24] (Assuming this isn't a dream dweller of her).[25] In Grimoire of Usami, Sumireko refers to Yukari as "Miss Yukari" showing she has high respect for her.

Doremy Sweet In Antimony of Common Flowers, Doremy teams up with Sumireko. During the incident, Sumireko is faced with fighting both her dream-self and her occult doppelganger, who have also teamed up to take down the "real" Sumireko. Doremy expresses confusion over how there can possibly be three Sumirekos at the same time in Gensokyo, but ultimately helps Sumireko resolve her issue at the time. In Violet Detector, Doremy fights and helps explain the situation Sumireko is in.

Minor relationships Renko Usami Due to her name, similar appearance and involvement in the creation of the Secret Sealing Club, she may have some kind of relation to Renko. However, the specifics of this connection is as yet unknown. Her profile suggests she is an ancestor of Renko, from the present time.

Okina Matara In Violet Detector, Okina ultimately assists Sumireko with resolving her real-self/dream-self/doppelganger mix-up situation, but not before toying with her for a little bit. As (real) Sumireko loses her memories of the incident, it's unknown if she remembers Okina at all.

Shinmyoumaru Sukuna Sumireko finds Shinmyoumaru adorable, claiming to want to somehow take her home as a pet, much to her annoyance.[21][26]

Aya Shameimaru In Curiosities of Lotus Asia, Aya goes to Kourindou tries to interview Sumireko for her new upcoming magazine, Bunbunharu Weekly, in the hopes of falsifying information to make Sumireko look like a threat to Gensokyo. After saving Sumireko from the winter cold with the help of Reimu, Aya tries to interview Sumireko only for Sumireko to confuse her thinking she could be a Dokuro model, humiliating her in front of the laughing Rinnosuke and Reimu. Aya, Sumireko and Reimu agree to interview at the shrine leading to the interview in Alternative Facts in Eastern Utopia. Aya tries to again twist a narrative about Sumireko forming an alliance against Gensokyo. She eventually doesn't publish the magazine due to Kakashi Spirit News/Hatate calling her out for falsifying information and due to the fear of Hecatia saying the Lunarians like Sagume might be using her magazine to falsify information in their favor.

Appearances Spin-offs Literature Urban Legend in Limbo Sumireko is the main antagonist of Urban Legend in Limbo and the final boss in most of the characters' scenarios in story mode.

Sumireko manages to go through the Great Hakurei Barrier by using the Occult Balls, which are special stones gathered from Mystery Spots in the Outside World. However, after a short period, she is suddenly ejected from Gensokyo. Learning from this, Sumireko starts with brief excursions into Gensokyo to learn more about it, appearing to anyone who catches sight of her as an ominous black shadow.

Sumireko soon devises a plan to spread rumors of the Occult Ball's powers and scatters them around Gensokyo for its residents to find. Once the balls are gathered, they warp back to the Outside World along with whoever gathered them all, just for enough time for Sumireko to learn about them before they are transported back. She then re-enters Gensokyo and scatters the balls again, thus beginning the incident of Urban Legend in Limbo. Her plan works for a while, and although she is baffled at why everyone who comes out of Gensokyo ends up fighting her, she enjoys it nonetheless.

Soon enough, Mamizou Futatsuiwa is made aware of the incident and devises her own plan: she claims to have Gensokyo's own Occult Ball in her possession when challenging Sumireko, claiming it would allow her limitless travel between Gensokyo and the Outside World. Mamizou instead tricks Sumireko into entering Gensokyo the proper way, which does let her stay there, but as Sumireko does not know how to get back out, she is trapped in Gensokyo.

Sumireko's story mode in Urban Legend in Limbo follows her as she is trapped in Gensokyo, whose residents attempt to scare her to teach her a lesson. In the end, she is confronted by Toyosatomimi no Miko, who reminds Sumireko that she can use the Occult Balls to escape Gensokyo temporarily. She returns to the Outside World, and believing she will eventually be killed by the youkai of Gensokyo, she decides that when her time in the Outside World runs out, she will sacrifice herself to, purportedly, unleash the full power of the Occult Balls and destroy the Great Hakurei Barrier.

Before being brought back to Gensokyo, she is confronted by Reimu in her own story mode, who realized that one of Sumireko's Occult Balls was swapped for a Lunar Capital ball, which if activated would link Gensokyo with the Lunar Capital instead. Reimu defeats Sumireko and saves the Great Hakurei Barrier, while Marisa studies the Lunar Capital ball afterwards right before the events of Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom. Upon returning to Gensokyo, Sumireko is detained by Reimu, Mamizou and Kasen Ibaraki. Deciding Sumireko was no longer a threat, they return her to the Outside World through the proper method.

A few days later, Sumireko reappears at the Hakurei Shrine, as she had discovered that ever since leaving Gensokyo, she could travel back there in her dreams. No longer antagonistic, she befriends Gensokyo's residents in earnest, and her tales of the Outside World turn her into a brief celebrity.

Antinomy of Common Flowers Sumireko is a playable character with an unlockable story mode in Antinomy of Common Flowers. In her story mode, she visited Gensokyo at a bad time as the Dream World has been thrown into chaos by the Yorigami Sisters' incident, and she ends up trapped there as a result.

She teams up with Doremy Sweet to traverse through the Dream World and reach Gensokyo, whereupon they are tasked by Yukari Yakumo to dispatch Sumireko's own Dream Soul that has been released into the Outside World by the incident. Curiously Sumireko somehow encounters two of her own Dream Souls, but defeats them with Doremy's help. She awakes in the Outside World afterward, greeted by Doremy to confirm that she is the real Sumireko.

Violet Detector Player sprite Enemy sprite Sumireko's player and enemy sprites in VD Sumireko is the main protagonist of Violet Detector. For some time, she has been having the same weird dream, in which she is constantly attacked by the residents of the dream world for no reason. She finally discovers that the dream dwellers hold a grudge against her for having a flesh body allowing her to go in the real world, and Doremy Sweet tells her that she can only expect the situation to worsen. After some time, she encounters and fight against Okina Matara. Okina is impressed by Sumireko who has been able to fend off the dream dwellers for quite some time. She offers her some help, in order to make the dream dwellers recognize her strength and make them stop attacking her. But in order to achieve that, she has to defeat even more powerful nightmares, so Okina lends Sumireko some powers on top of her psychic abilities, allowing her to cheat death in certain situations.

Sumireko then goes on and fights powerful nightmares, in the form of strong dream dwellers teaming up against her. After a week of fighting, she encounters another Sumireko. During that confrontation, she realizes that she was actually the Dream Soul of the real Sumireko, the other one, who is trying to get her body back. But at this point, Dream Sumireko has become stronger than the real Sumireko and is able to defeat her.

Okina, not willing to take any side in the confrontation between the two Sumirekos, decides to take back the power she lent Dream Sumireko to make things fair. The real Sumireko challenges her dream self once again and eventually defeats her.

The next day, Sumireko wakes up in the real world as if nothing happened, having no recollection of what transpired in her mind. She stopped having those nightmares, but the photos of danmaku battles still lie in the memory of her smartphone.

Grimoire of Usami Sumireko is the creator and writer of this grimoire, having her surname in the title as a result. In it, imitating Marisa Kirisame, she recollects information about the danmaku of various characters who appeared at the firework festival, cataloging and critiquing their patterns. However, some of them wanted to hijack the festival to turn it into a "real danmaku festival", but at the end it ended without major inconveniences.

Wild and Horned Hermit In chapter 29, Sumireko appears in the Hakurei Shrine, where it also appears an strange bubble. After Reimu Hakurei tried to defend Sumireko, the bubble pops on Reimu's gohei and Reimu collapses and starts sleeping. Sumireko realizes that Marisa Kirisame did the same. Kasen Ibara appears and, after Sumireko explains the situation, she thinks they are dream souls with the dreams Sumireko had to had instead of her traveling to Gensokyo. As a result, Marisa had a dream where she was in Sumireko's school. However, Marisa's dream ended up in Reimu's.

In chapter 31, she appears in the Hakurei Shrine in the "World UFO Day," and accidentally summons a UFO, which irritated Reimu.

Curiosities of Lotus Asia In Curiosities of Lotus Asia, Sumireko helps Rinnosuke Morichika identifying stuff from his shop and talks with him, Reimu and Marisa about the Outside World. On the other hand, they catalog Sumireko's trials and tribulations as she integrates herself into Gensokyo life, with the development of her occult doppelganger, and her disappearance during Violet Detector. She has taken up a part-time job at Kourindou, helping Rinnosuke curate the store inventory in return for unwanted antiques she can resell in the outside world.

Whispered Oracle of Hakurei Shrine Main article: Whispered Oracle of Hakurei Shrine: Sumireko Usami Reimu Hakurei writes a fortune slip about Sumireko as a way of cleaning up in the aftermath of an incident.

Expose the Esoteric! The Secret Sealing Club's First President Sumireko Usami

Species: High-school girl Ability: Capable of manipulating psychic powers

She was a genuine psychic.

Thanks to the sense of omnipotence common to youths who furthered their knowledge via the internet, and to the talents she was born with, she began to think that "she was superior to other people," particularly around the time when she was in middle school.

It wasn't to say that friends were useless or anything. It was just that they were useful to have from a simple knowledge standpoint. What she really thought was that "friends are beneficial for the sort of people who actually need them. Like, the sort of people who want others to flock around them." In the back of her mind, she mocked them.

Thus, unable to make any friends, (although she herself would frame it as "I didn't make any because I just didn't need any"