Kagami Sumika (鑑 純夏) is one of the main heroines of Muv-Luv Extra and is of major importance in Muv Luv Alternative. She has also made appearances in various other works by age.
Extra[]
Sumika is the childhood best friend of Shirogane Takeru, who has lived next door to him nearly her entire life. For her, she can barely imagine what life without Takeru would be. She cherishes the various memories that Takeru has given to her, as well as things like the "Santa Rabbit" he gave to her one Christmas. Another portion of her childhood was when she often played with Takeru in the "Pee Park." She continues to live a normal everyday life with Takeru, expecting to continue living those carefree days forever, until one morning, when she goes to wake Takeru up after his parents leave for an extended vacation and finds a mysterious woman in his bed...
She is a bit of an airhead and has a bubbly personality, which leads to Takeru often teasing her under various circumstances, which in turn leads to light-hearted fights that tend to attract the attention of their classmates. She is a hard worker and always tries her best in school, despite not being particularly smart.
Her room is right across from Takeru's, with only a small space separating their windows, and they often have short conversations before going to bed.
She keeps a personal diary, where her daily life, and most importantly, her memories and feelings for Takeru are written.
As time goes on, she soon realizes that she has to take action to get Takeru to notice her as a woman, and that her relationship with him can't stay the same forever. She often wonders if she acted as too much of a childhood friend to him, instead of asserting herself as a woman. She even acknowledges that she doesn't have the same appeal the other girls have, as her life revolves so heavily around Takeru that she feels she may be too one-note for him.
Despite being love rivals with Mitsurugi Meiya, she has an amiable relationship with her. Even with their obvious conflict of interests, they both recognize that if it wasn't for Takeru, they could have been close friends.
She has a signature attack that she has dubbed "Drill Milky Punch!". As of the final battle in Altered Fable the Drill Milky Punch has been surpassed as Sumika's finishing move by a new combination attack birthed from the rage she felt after seeing Takeru's condition while being held prisoner by the main antagonist. This move, which ends up launching her into Low Earth Orbit where she becomes trapped on a satellite, is named the "Drill Milky Phantom."
Unlimited[]
After Takeru is thrown into the Unlimited world, he struggles to cope compared to his already fit mates. One day while he's thinking about his misfortune and how he is unfit compared to everyone else, he laughs as he thinks that Sumika would fare much worse. At that point he realizes something: everyone from his old world is here except for Sumika. He asks his team about her, but no one recalls ever meeting someone named Sumika. Later he asks his Instructor the same thing, but she also says she doesn't know. After being asked by Takeru, Yuuko looks up on Sumika and she tells him that a person by the name of "Kagami Sumika" does not exist in this world.
Aside from flashbacks Takeru has to his normal everyday life, Sumika doesn't directly appear in Unlimited and Takeru eventually becomes convinced she doesn't exist in this world, however, she still plays a very important role in the game. As Takeru interacts with everyone in the Unlimited world, causality information begin flowing into them from Extra, including speech mannerisms (e.g. Meiya suddenly calling him "Takeru" instead of "Shirogane" after a few days with him, surprising her squad and then saying she hadn't noticed doing so), but most importantly, memories of their interactions with Takeru and Sumika.
As the girls begin to slowly fall in love with the boy for various realistic reasons (most notably him being the only boy around them), they also began to feel uneasy because of the girl "Kagami Sumika". Before the game ends, the chosen girl confronts him about her love for him and ask him if the reason he can't accept her love is because of his feelings towards "Kagami Sumika", shocking him because he only brought up Sumika's name once, many months ago.
The last mention of Sumika in Unlimited is the final letter Takeru writes to her before the game ends.
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Spoiler Alert! | |
| This article contains major spoilers. Do not proceed unless you want to be spoiled. |
It is unknown why all records of Kagami Sumika were erased in the Unlimited/Alt world. Shirogane, who reported as killed/captured by the BETA, still had his records left intact meaning the government didn't erase the records of everyone they thought were reduced into human brains.
Alternative[]
Much the same as Unlimited, Sumika at first doesn't directly appear in Alternative except for flashbacks, until a certain chain of events makes Takeru seek a way back to his world.
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Spoiler Alert! | |
| This article contains major spoilers. Do not proceed unless you want to be spoiled. |
It is revealed that Sumika, along with Takeru of the Alternative timeline and many of their friends and family were held captive in Yokohama Hive by the BETA. One by one they were taken from their holding cell until eventually only Sumika and Takeru were left. When a Soldier class came to take Sumika, Takeru tried to defend her and was horribly killed in front of her in the process. That and the following torture and experiments the BETA conducted on her left a big mental scar on her. After the experiments, all that was left of her was her brain, which was recovered by UN forces after Operation Lucifer.
Following that, the combination of the after effects of the G-Bombs and her intense desire to meet her love interest once again caused the events of Unlimited and Alternative to be set in motion. The side effect of that however caused her to be erased from existence from the world of the BETA. All traces of her existence, including all memories anyone had of her, were erased by the world. The only proof of her existence was her remains. This is similar to what Takeru faced when he returned prematurely to the Extra branch after the XM3 trials, with the exception that he managed to avoid Sumika's fate thanks to Extra Yuuko's intervention.
She later died by the hands of Kouzuki Yuuko, and indirectly by Takeru, when the former successfully created the 00 unit using a replica of Sumika's body and her brain that was recovered from the hive. According to Yuuko, the technology to allow the brain to survive outside the BETA cylinder does not exist in humanity's hands, so Sumika's death was an unavoidable consequence of creating the 00 unit. Takeru is shocked by this revelation, but he acknowledged that there was no way to know what Sumika was experiencing as a brain, so her death may have a blessing to her.
See 00 Unit for further detail.
Quotes[]
EXTRA: "I must be the only one who can hold a conversation with you, Takeru-chan."
EXTRA: "Would you look at me... not as a childhood friend, but as a woman?"
ALTERED FABLE:
Kasumi: "Dignity...? ...What is that?"
Sumika: "Beats me, I've never eaten that dish before"
Etymology[]
- Kagami means "mirror" (鑑).
- Sumika means "pure, clean, simple" (純) (sumi) and "summer" (夏) (ka).
Trivia[]
- Her name, along with Mitsurugi Meiya, Tamase Miki, and Yashiro Kasumi, appears to be a reference to the Three Sacred Treasures of Japan -- the sword, mirror, and jewel. Sumika represents the Yata no Kagami, the eight-span mirror.
- She is 156cm.