| “ | I survived all this without a worker bee. You and I are very different. I'm the real queen. I'm the strongest. | ” |
Sumireko Hanabusa (英 純恋子; Hanabusa Sumireko) is one of the main characters of the manga and anime series Akuma no Riddle. She is a former student of the 10th year's Black Class at Myojo Academy, which was a competition to see which student would kill Haru Ichinose first. The reward was anything the killer wished for. Unlike the other assassins, Hanabusa solely wished for her own victory, meaning that killing Haru would be the reward in and of itself.
Appearance
She has long, peach-colored hair and icy blue eyes, which are similar to Tokaku's eyes. She usually wears a pink plaid dress with a collared white shirt under it. There is a black ribbon on tied under the collar. She also wears a white vest over it. She wears it with long black socks and white shoes.
Her limbs are revealed to be prosthetics, as her original ones were injured and amputated. For daily use, she uses models which mimic human limbs. In battle, she adopts a much more hostile form as a cyborg. In her cyborg form, the mechanical workings of her limbs are exposed. She wears an open purple bra and underwear with gold pattern, which is attached to metal fittings that run along the side of her body, ending in a plate mechanism on her back. Her arms are detachable and allow her to equip a variety of weapons.
Personality
Sumireko hides behind a façade of weakness and proper ladyship initially. She claims she must be around furniture from home due to her weak body. But this does not stop her from being forthcoming about her intentions and emotions. When Takechi is bullying Mahiru, she swoops in without hesitation and returns the strap to Mahiru, even telling the victim to pull herself together. When the class is preparing for the play, she also voices her dissent with working backstage.
Her determination is also hinted to rival Haru's. Like Haru, she endured assassinations against her due to her familial connections and vast wealth. At a young age, her limbs were injured. She had no qualms in demanding that they be cut off and replaced with stronger arms and legs, showing her strength and resolution. This manifests in a fierce competitive attitude she has against Haru, who she wants to prove herself better than.
While she can be daunting and unapproachable, Sumireko is shown to have a soft side, particularly for her roommate, Mahiru. She attempts to invite the other to tea and is utterly crushed at the prospect of refusal. She also coddles her, covering her eyes from bright light and hugging her when the darkness from the blindfold scares her.
Synopsis
History
She is the daughter of a company CEO who runs the Hanabusa Financial Clique. The company has no direct blood relation to Haru's family, but she is shown to have known Yuri prior the events of Class Black. Due to the Hanabusa Clique's rapid growth after the Meiji Restoration, it gained many rivals. Because of that, ever since she was a child, her life has been targeted by many who have all tried to kill her. It is a story and situation that is quite similar to Haru Ichinose's past. Like Haru, she survived through the ordeals. But her body didn't come out unharmed.
Due to a certain attack, her limbs became damaged. While recovery was possible, Sumireko demanded that such weak limbs be cut off entirely. Doing so, she attained a cyborg body. She spends a lot of time in rehabilitation getting used to her new appendages, ultimately becoming stronger before enrolling in the Black Class at the behest of Yuri.
Black Class
Sumireko is the last student to arrive to the Black Class. Her appearance is accompanied by a huge desk and personal chair, which prompts the others to speculate of her wealthy status.
Venus Festival
For the class play, Sumireko initially works backstage with Isuke and Mahiru on props and costumes. Both she and Isuke throw the work onto Mahiru, claiming it to be beneath them. On the day of the play, she plays Lady Capulet.
Assassination Attempt
Sumireko was the ninth person to attempt an assassination attempt on Haru after sending out a warning letter. Her true intentions are not revealed at first, as she gives Haru a letter to a tea party at Myojo Academy's top floor. She arrives with Tokaku, who Sumireko seems to be annoyed, saying she was not invited. Sumireko leads them to a large dining hall, with a long table at which dolls of the previous assassins are seated, along with a live Otoya, who was captured earlier by Sumireko. All three girls proceed to take a seat. Sumireko and Haru proceed to make small talk while Tokaku sits by silently. Haru, not wanting to fight anymore, asks if she can grant Sumireko's wish, to which Sumireko replies yes. Her wish will be granted by defeating Haru and proving that she is the strongest Queen.
Sumireko begins her assault by attacking Tokaku with the puppets, which are easily destroyed, but it only serves to distract Tokaku. Meanwhile, Sumireko has a plexiglass wall descend in order to separate Tokaku and Haru, to make the latter an easier kill. Thinking fast, Tokaku lassoes a cord around Sumireko's legs, pulling her to Tokaku's side of the wall.
Tokaku proceeds to fight Sumireko, but is quickly overpowered and thrown into a wall. Sumireko attacks her quickly at close range. However, in an attempt to defend herself, Tokaku picks up a piece of the wall, which Sumireko punches. The impact causes parts of her skin to peel away, revealing metal beneath her skin. Sumireko begins to flex showing her true metal limbs.
She then proceeds to chase Tokaku around the room, while Tokaku fights her off with a variety of weapons which are knocked away from her, including a knife which lands near Otoya. Freeing herself, she joins the fight against Sumireko, grabbing a kukri off the wall. Otoya's attack surprises Sumireko, but she is able to dodge. After several attempts, Otoya is finally able to stab her knife into Sumireko's arm, but is promptly punched into the wall. Tokaku, capitalizing on Sumireko's weakened and distracted state, kicks the knife in Sumireko's arm, driving it further in. Sumireko then kicks Tokaku into the wall, detaching her damaged arm to replace it with a machine gun attachment.
Tokaku is again driven into a corner by Sumireko's machine gun arm, but in a quick move grabs a revolver off the wall, shooting the overhead chandelier and dropping it onto Sumireko. She is knocked down, but easily picks up the chandelier and tosses it onto Tokaku. On the other side of the glass wall, Haru grabs a rocket launcher, blasts a hole into the door, and runs. Sumireko takes the bait and follows her out.
Haru pretends to take the elevator down, causing Sumireko to forcefully open the door and drop down through the elevator shaft, using her machine gun arm to shoot into the elevator itself. Haru carries back an armful of grenades, pulls the pins, and drops them into the elevator shaft, where they explode around Sumireko.
Sumireko has survived, however, by climbing out. She chases Haru to the roof of Myojo Academy, where Sumireko's limbs are shown to be damaged. Thinking she has Haru cornered, Sumeriko launches her razor sharp nails at Haru. The nails are attached to metal wires but they miss Haru and wrap around the railing of the academy's roof. With the wires wrapped around the railing, Haru tackles Sumireko, pulling both her and Haru over the roof's edge. With both of them hanging off the nail wires, Haru kicks at Sumireko's machine gun arm attachment repeatedly. Sumireko is summarily detached, falls through the academy's roof, and fails her assassination attempt, leading her to be the eigth person to be expelled from the Black Class.
After Black Class
Sumireko takes Mahiru to live with her. To keep the other close, she steals Haru's strap and goads her to take it by force. Mahiru therefore remains in her mansion as a maid servant. When night falls, Shinya goes to try and kill Sumireko to retrieve the strap. Sumireko treats the whole thing as training for herself. While this arrangement seems to work, Shinya warns Sumireko that Mahiru would come to hate her if she continues doing as Takechi did. Sumireko replies that she is aware, which is why she will return the strap one day to Mahiru as a memento.
Manga-Anime Differences
Sumireko's assassination in the manga was much more straightforward, lacking the use of mannequins. She also did not capture Takechi. She just invited Room 1 to her party and then jumps into battle.
Skills and Abilities
Sumireko's true form
Thanks to her body modifications, Sumireko possesses versatile means to kill. Her limbs can be swapped out for a variety of deadly weapons, like a machine gun, grappling hook, and other prosthetic replacements. Even without a special weapon, however, she is able to climb on walls, much like a spider, and her punches are hard enough to smash dents into reinforced walls. The material of her prosthetic limbs is harder than Otoya's scissors, which she can crush with ease. From the battle pose she takes; it can be assumed that she has trained in some form of martial arts. Her strength is also notable, as she can lift a chandelier and throw it with ease. Her constitution is also very good, as a bundle of grenades could not incapacitate her.
Trivia
- Sumireko claimed that Haru caused the most physical damage to her out of all the fights she ever had.
- After she is expelled, there are Iceland poppies on her desk, which symbolize comfort.
- The creator of Akuma no Riddle stated that she has a crush on her roommate, Mahiru Banba.
- The kanji of her surname (英) is read as "Hanabusa" (meaning "the calyx of a flower") but it can also be read as "Hana" (meaning "flower").
- Her assassination attempt, and episode 10 in general, has a lot of elements from the previous assassins and/or their episodes... Otoya came back herself, and the way she got free from Sumireko's binding is the same as Haru escaped from Otoya, Nio taking care of Otoya and how Otoya became scared of Nio's tattoo also in remembrance of that event in the episode. A Grenade is used by Haru to Sumireko (which may or may not be reference to Kouko in the Opening Sequence). How Sumireko defended herself from Tokaku's weapon, by crossing her arms, is similar to Haruki (She deflected Tokaku's bullet by her arm while Haruki blocked Tokaku's Knife by the iron gauntlet). Her intervening Otoya is also a reference of when Hitsugi poisoned Shiena. Sumireko gave a riddle to the protagonists like Suzu did. She invited Haru to a tea party, like Isuke did. And she tried to separate Tokaku from Haru, like Isuke and Banba did (though hers failed)
- Her hobbies are gardening and tea party.
- Her favorite food is Ladurée Macarons and her least favorite food are green beans.
- She sleeps in average 10 hours.
- Sumireko was designed to be a foil of Haru.
- She has the same Japanese VA as Sonia Nevermind in Danganronpa.