Sumire Yoshizawa

Sumire Yoshizawa, is a playable character from Persona 5 Royal. She is a first-year transfer student at Shujin Academy and a talented gymnast who gets involved with the Phantom Thieves of Hearts.

During the events of the game, she goes by the name "Kasumi Yoshizawa," assuming the identity of her sister after an incident that took her life. With Takuto Maruki's help, he made her cognitively assume she was her sister, letting her live a normal school life.

During the third semester events of Royal, upon being faced with the truth of her identity, albeit resisting to return to her old self, with encouragement from the Phantom Thieves, she finds the ability to face the truth as well as move on and find the faith needed for her to fulfill her dreams as a gymnast. Additionally, she cooperates with the group in taking down Maruki, who has been rewriting reality via cognition to cleanse the world of pain since New Year. In combat, her code name is Violet.

Appearances

 * Persona 5 Royal: Playable Character; Faith Confidant
 * Persona 5 (Manga): Major Character
 * Persona 5: Mementos Mission: Cameo (B&N Exclusive)

Design
Sumire Yoshizawa has long red hair tied into a ponytail with a red ribbon bow or a green, checkered ribbon instead with bangs over her forehead, red eyes, pink lips and fair skin. She wears a Shujin Academy wintertime uniform with black pantyhose and red loafers. Her summertime school uniform is modified; she wears a white dress shirt under a beige button-down vest with vertical lines, white socks with black lining and orange loafers.

In midwinter, Sumire wears a red overcoat, black pantyhose and black high-heeled Mary Jane shoes as her casual clothes. During regular wintertime, she wears a knitted cream-colored sweater with a knee-length orange skirt and black ankle boots. Her summertime casual outfit consists of a celeste blouse with black polka dots, white shorts and blue and brown sandals.

In the Metaverse, Violet wears a black mask with silver highlights and has a black ribbon tied to her ponytail. Her main outfit consists of a strapless black leotard, a chain belt with two silver roses motifs, and a scabbard for her rapier attached to it, a black choker and red gloves. Her black bolero jacket has gold buttons, ruffled sleeves and three floor-length coattails. She wears thigh-length hose and stiletto-heels that resemble ballet shoes on the top. Violet's Metaverse outfit remains the same no matter her current attire or mental state in the real world.

The Cognitive copy of "Kasumi's sister" (Actually Sumire, or this "Kasumi" herself) seen during the 3rd of October has her hair down and wears a pair of glasses. Cognitive "Kasumi's sister" also wears a leotard and has dull, soulless eyes.

When Sumire begins to accept who she truly is, she wears black glasses and leaves her hair down. Her winter outfit consists of the Shujin Academy winter uniform, this time worn underneath a charcoal gray trench coat, a pair of scarlet gloves and a matching scarf. Her gymnast outfit is a one-piece bluish-violet leotard with white gymnastic shoes, and she ties her hair when she is practicing gymnastics. If Sumire's Confidant is completed, she'll return to wearing her hair in a ponytail in remembrance of her elder sister Kasumi. Additionally, she will have her hair in a ponytail in the ending cutscene regardless of confidant completion.

Personality
Sumire Yoshizawa is a cheerful, elegant and friendly person with a seemingly perfect life, as she received a Shujin scholarship and was (supposedly) nearly uncontested in gymnastic competitions. She also appears to be quite clumsy and careless, as she is shown outright missing the mark at the batting cages even if her reflexes are usually excellent, and she lets her phone's battery run out while texting the protagonist. Despite the fact that she can cook, she is unpredictable and somewhat awkward at it, since she isn't sure about the ingredients, and she often uses stamina replenishing food due to her gymnast tendencies. She has high metabolism, and as such can put away a large amount of food and still ask for seconds. She always refers to her fellow friends as "Senpai" no matter the situation, since she's the youngest member of the Phantom Thieves who has an educative degree.

Despite her supposedly cheerful and bold personality, she sometimes experiences bouts of depression for no apparent reason; usually if the protagonist meets with her, she will end up with a gloomy mood for the slightest of mistakes, regardless if said mistakes are real or perceived. When practicing gymnastics, she also often feels like her body isn't hers and she cannot execute complicated moves properly despite knowing how to perform them.

At first, she dislikes the very idea of the Phantom Thieves, as she believes that people should learn how to solve their own problems instead of relying on them. Although she acknowledges that the Phantom Thieves do good by helping people, she worries that people may become too heavily reliant on the Thieves to solve their problems. Despite this, Sumire adores the protagonist because she considers him as a mentor figure towards her, causing her Phantom Thief outfit to resemble his.

In reality, her cheerful mannerisms were merely a facade; Sumire is actually a reserved and introverted person, in addition to being so suicidally depressed and convinced of her own worthlessness to the point where she resents any attempts to cheer her up, although this changes for the better as the protagonist advances her Confidant. She suffered from an inferiority complex towards her near-perfect sister, fueled by being helped throughout her life by her. She has told the protagonist that Kasumi does most of the work for the sisters bar preparing dishes, including arranging her very own bedroom. Her self-loathing created a despondent reaction to Kasumi's attempt at consoling her, believing it to be patronization rather than the genuine care she had. Her negative reactions to Kasumi ultimately resulted in the tragedy that ended her sister's life. The trauma of the incident instilled even more negativity and added survivor's guilt to her piling self-deprecation. Even long before Kasumi died, she was already suffering from severe mental problems, including an escapist desire that she should become Kasumi, or die. Her encounter with Takuto Maruki ultimately provided an out by confiding in him her wish to become Kasumi, granting her mental stability by becoming her sister whom she both loved and was jealous of.

This however, proved to contradict her very statement to the protagonist that people should solve their problem by themselves and caused her a new set of troubles, as when Sumire was "Kasumi," Maruki only made Sumire think that she was "Kasumi" instead of outright turning her into Kasumi, resulting in the sisters' strengths and weaknesses mixed up and colliding with each other, which contributes to her inconsistencies in gymnastics and cooking. This also explains her odd depressive fits when she was still "Kasumi," impairs her ability to perform and presumably led to her head teacher threatening revocation. Other students also alienate her as they still see her as the inferior Sumire and not Kasumi, and for them, she is undeserving of the scholarship and is merely a mentally unstable person. (Although for her, due to the cognitive manipulation making her think that she's Kasumi, she just believed that people are only jealous of her talent and special treatment.)

Sumire's suicidal depression manifests itself as constant feelings of worthlessness and suicidal/self-defeating thoughts, believing that she was so worthless after her sister's death, that if she couldn't become Kasumi, she should rather just die. It's also implied that she suffers from depressive fatigue (based on her Rank 7 Confidant where she tells the protagonist that she fatigues quickly when using the machines in the fitness centre, despite the fact that she is supposed to be a very athletic person), and later on, after her survivor's guilt had taken form after Kasumi's death, a lack of enthusiasm in daily activities that she used to enjoy, such as cooking or gymnastics. Due to her near-nonexistent self-esteem, she also apologizes a lot even concerning unnecessary situations, sometimes even apologizing when somebody tells her that she doesn't need to apologize for something.

Despite Sumire's inferiority complex towards Kasumi, she is by no means lacking as she can place high in competitions, even achieving 1st and 2nd place ranks, indicating that she is actually above average at it. Many have noted, including Kasumi herself, that she is not lagging far behind Kasumi. It is only due to her tendency to greatly underestimate her abilities that she is does not reach her full potential. Sumire fails to notice that Kasumi's self-confidence is the key to her success and that she can achieve similar results if she tries to be herself rather than emulate her sister as her coach has stated.

Additionally, much unlike Kasumi, Sumire is said to be a decent cook, as when she was "Kasumi" she was able to prepare a curry bento with a similar taste as the curry served in Leblanc.

During the third semester events, Sumire finds a middle ground between the two philosophies she's challenged by: she decides to finally solve her own problems and stand up for herself against the future (Kasumi's beliefs), but by deciding to take matters into her own hands, she also resolves to stop Maruki from creating the ideal reality and to help the population of Tokyo with its new crisis, and accepts others' help when needed (the Phantom Thieves' beliefs).

Sumire also becomes easily flustered in pressuring situations, such as during the romance option in her Confidant, during which she stutters and freezes when the protagonist leans in to kiss her. Sumire's fashion senses are outright horrendous and is prone to choosing bad or overly gaudy clothing.

In the Metaverse, Sumire is a significantly different person. She acts much more aggressively and determined, being a confident and focused fighter without any traces of her introverted tendencies in the real world. Her fighting style is graceful and precise, not dissimilar to the gymnastics she practices in the real world.

Past
The Yoshizawa sisters, Kasumi and Sumire, lived alongside their father Shinichi Yoshizawa, the director of the talk show where Goro Akechi was first met. Aside of him, they also lived alongside their mother and grandmother. Both sisters, training to be gymnasts, were on good terms with each other and shared the same coach, Hiraguchi. Kasumi was a quick learner, but Sumire had trouble remembering most of her moves. However, her coach rewarded the sisters with ice cream for good performances, which Kasumi would always share with her no matter what. Kasumi also arranges most of the sisters' daily life, including Sumire's bedroom, with the exception of preparing dishes, since compared to Sumire, she was a mediocre cook. Eventually, both sisters promised to go to internationals as a sister duo.

While Sumire is no means a bad gymnast, due to Kasumi's significantly better memory, reflexes and agility, Kasumi outperforms her in virtually every way, gaining the top performance most of the time while Sumire was merely above average. (Although this is partially due to Sumire trying to imitate Kasumi's moves despite being explicitly told by her coach not to). Furthered by Kasumi deciding most of the things between them, the jealousy against her older sister caused Sumire developing a toxic mindset where she wished to become Kasumi herself or die. The thought constantly plagues her mind, and she would even denounce herself as someone who wouldn't be pitied even if she died. This eventually degenerates into suicidal depression. A month prior to their first year of high school, the stress accumulated into her running away from Kasumi after a training session. Sumire was nearly hit by a car without looking and only survived because Kasumi pushed her out of the way at the cost of her own life, resulting in Sumire’s already crippling depression worsening courtesy of survivor's guilt. Sumire believed that she caused her sister's death and stole her dream, and she wanted to take Kasumi's place in order to continue her legacy of being an uncontested gymnast and a perfect person.

By recommendation of her parents, Sumire consulted therapist Takuto Maruki to help her overcome her depression. She told Maruki the only way for her to cope was to live as her sister. It's implied that Maruki was reminded of his own trauma when talking to her and he subconsciously made Sumire think that she is Kasumi, and he also made "Kasumi" confidently believe that Sumire died instead.

Sumire enrolled into Shujin Academy thinking that she was Kasumi and quickly managed to obtain a scholarship, with Shujin heavily disregarding her actual issues beforehand. It's also implied that, despite believing herself to be Kasumi, people around her still recognize her as Sumire and believe that she is delusional. Her coach even told her to take a break from training for a while, which she dismisses as a mental block. Her athletic capabilities are also identical to Sumire instead of being those of Kasumi's, as when she attempts to use a complex gymnastic move that Kasumi can use without issues, "something" is preventing her from executing it properly. It was also implied that her father calls her back home if she took too much time alone because he fears that the cognitive overlay would peel off and she might actually commit suicide.

Shujin Academy
Yoshizawa first meets the protagonist on their way to school on the train, when she's trying to lend a seat for an old woman only for a man to occupy it. He then ignored her by pretending to sleep. The protagonist encourages her to speak up, but she decides not to cause a ruckus. When exiting the train, Yoshizawa thanks the protagonist for his attempt to help her.

Despite Yoshizawa transferred to Shujin during Kamoshida's reign of tyranny, since she is not a member of the volleyball team, Kamoshida does not appear to harass her like other girls at school. Instead, out of spite against the protagonist, he still attempted to discourage her from interacting with him; he told her the rumors about him throughout Shujin, that he was supposedly a "delinquent," much to her shock.

On May 13th, Yoshizawa is seen at the entrance of the counseling office with Maruki talking about how everything's been going before she enrolled to Shujin, and she recommends the protagonist to take his counseling.

In preparation for the park cleanup in late May, Yoshizawa is rushing to go to the school to pick up her jersey, but an old man is constantly pestering her, asking for her number and claiming he will drive her to the park. The protagonist intervenes, forcing the old man to back off, much to Yoshizawa's gratitude. After the park clean-up, Yoshizawa approaches the protagonist and thanks him for rescuing her, and apologizes for her comment against him, having been fed false rumors by Kamoshida and some of her classmates. After the protagonist introduces himself, she leaps to catch a balloon for a young girl, dropping her student handbook. As she returns it to the girl, the protagonist picks up the handbook, which lists her name as "Kasumi Yoshizawa." Intrigued by her moves and status as a gymnast, the protagonist requests for her to teach him some acrobatic moves. In return, she asks that he acts as a confidant for her practices to improve herself. With a deal struck, they form the Faith Confidant and Yoshizawa starts with some basics.

On June 6th, She is at the entrance of the school hoping for the rain to stop. Morgana had an umbrella prepared for the protagonist. Yoshizawa said that she's fast enough to run to the station, but because the protagonist was heading to the station, he offers her to walk with him there together. After they arrive at the station, some of the other students at the station mistake him as her boyfriend.

On July 11th, she, the protagonist and Akechi hang out at a café, in which Akechi asks her about her stance on the Phantom Thieves, whom she states she disagrees with.

On July 17th, after hanging out with Yusuke and Ryuji at the summer fair, the protagonist meets Yoshizawa near a construction site where she appears depressed. She was grieving for her sister whom she promised to go the gymnast internationals with. However, her sister was killed in the aforementioned car accident.

On September 11th, the last day of the Hawaii trip, she tries to surprise the protagonist. She came to talk about the tournament and shows him a lucky charm that she brought to wish her good luck in the upcoming tourney.

On September 13th she makes a slight appearance only having small talk with the protagonist and Ryuji Sakamoto.

On October 3rd, Yoshizawa is called by a teacher who told her that her scholarship may be revoked due to bad performance in the gymnastic internationals. The "bad performance" was merely a 3rd runner up position. Nevertheless, the teacher, now joined by the Vice Principal, went to a quarrel with Maruki, which was being eavesdropped by Yoshizawa. They think that she must get first place to restore the school's reputation after it got tainted by Kamoshida's case. They decide that threatening to revoke her scholarship would motivate Yoshizawa to do better, despite Maruki saying that it would only be putting undue pressure onto her.

When she returns to the construction site, the protagonist comes across her and she accidentally triggers a copy of the Metaverse Navigator on her phone after correcting a random passerby that the site is a "Stadium," not a "Research Lab." It accidentally causes Yoshizawa, the protagonist and Morgana to intrude into an unknown Palace resembling a fusion between a psientific hospital and a futuristic paradise. She meets a cognitive copy of what appears to be her sister, which was quickly crushed by a Shadow, which chastises her for not knowing pity. This causes her to awaken Cendrillon, who defeats the Byakhee and helps the trio escape. Morgana attempts to persuade her to join them, although she rejects the offer, as she needs to focus on her gymnastics.

On October 11th, Yoshizawa invites the protagonist to join her for lunch for no particular reason. Maruki sees them and decides to join them. Maruki comments on how much stronger Yoshizawa has become, and Yoshizawa says that it's thanks to the protagonist and his friends who enabled her to put her problems in the past and move on. After both the protagonist and Yoshizawa have left, Maruki shows a brief look of concern.

During the Shujin school festival, after the Phantom Thieves agree to Akechi's deal to work with them, Yoshizawa forcibly drags the protagonist into the auditorium for the festival afterparty. She insists that the protagonist dance alongside her and even goes on stage herself to bust a move.

On November 17th, Yoshizawa invites the protagonist up to the roof of the school for lunch. She asks him if he is going to continue being a Phantom Thief. She expresses concern that the protagonist may get into trouble due to rumors about their responsibility for the principal’s death. When the protagonist and Morgana affirm their choice to continue, Yoshizawa respects their wishes and offers her help, if they need it.

On November 19th, Yoshizawa tails the protagonist and his team to Niijima's Palace, and aids him during his subsequent escape from the authorities, helping him dispatch a group of Shadows who had surrounded him.

On November 25th, she visits the protagonist at Leblanc, and is relieved he survived the interrogation. She admits that after hearing Morgana and the protagonist mentioning November 19th during their talk on the rooftop, Yoshizawa knew they were doing something, so she followed the Thieves into Niijima's Palace. She then asks to join the fight against Masayoshi Shido. She is rejected as the protagonist believes that Yoshizawa does not know how dangerous Shido is, and feels Yoshizawa should not be involved. Yoshizawa relents in exchange for the protagonist promising her that he will return safely.

After changing Shido's cognition, on the day the protagonist returns to school, he is congratulated by Yoshizawa, and she offers the protagonist to go somewhere with her. However, this is interrupted due to the upcoming exams.

On December 21st she makes a slight appearance only having small talk with the protagonist and Ann about exams.

Taking Back Reality
The following events will only occur if Takuto Maruki's Confidant is maxed, since completing it is required to unlock the entire story arc.

She celebrates alongside the protagonist and the party on January 1st. When meeting the protagonist, she mentions that it's odd that nobody else is at Meiji Shrine, which is usually crowded on New Years. Once she goes back to the train station with the protagonist, her father called her back home to spend time with her family, in which the protagonist can sense him calling her with her real name, although with a distorted effect, implying that he was still calling her "Sumire," to the confusion of both of them.

On the next day, as the protagonist is discussing the oddities with Akechi, she calls and informs him of the emergence of a Palace. She then joins their investigation. Upon investigating the Palace, one of the monitors display the details of her sister's death, revealing her name to be "Sumire Yoshizawa." From this point on, she has headaches whenever she tries to recall her memories. Going further into the Palace, after taking down a pair of Belial, a projection plays back what appears to be a girl resembling Kasumi celebrating a tournament victory while reaching out to her younger sister "Sumire," which causes her to go further into distress. Along the way, various shadows and an announcement system warn them to not go further into the palace, particularly addressing Yoshizawa.

The master of the Palace, Maruki himself, reveals that he was the orchestrator of the strange incidents, such as the reappearance of Wakaba Isshiki and Kunikazu Okumura, or Morgana taking the form of a human boy, as well as the voice in the announcement system. Since the trio ignored his warnings beforehand and because Yoshizawa demands to know the truth about herself, Maruki displays a video showing that Kasumi was the one who died in the car accident, and the "Kasumi" with the protagonist is her younger sister Sumire who indirectly caused Kasumi's death by running into traffic. Her Metaverse clothing dissolves and the bow tied in her hair falls off, dropping her hair down. Now in vehement denial of living the truth as explained by Maruki and Akechi, Sumire expresses the desire to keep her identity as Kasumi, prompting Maruki to seize her from the protagonist and Akechi, sending a Hastur to occupy them. After it's defeated, Maruki and Sumire vanish, as he tells the boys to talk to him again after a week of reconsidering. Presumably to prevent Sumire's parents from panicking and to keep the deal personal, Maruki also manipulated them to think that she's in a training camp.

When the protagonist and Akechi return to Maruki's Palace and reject his offer of his new world, Sumire awakens in her Metaverse clothing. Desiring to hide from the truth and continue to assume her life as Kasumi, she fights the protagonist one on one as Akechi backs off in fear of killing her with his combat instincts. She will go down after a few attacks. After that, Maruki forcefully restrains her, keeping her away from the boys, forcibly removing her Persona to keep them at bay. Her Persona, however, is driven berserk by Sumire's refusal to accept the truth, forcing the duo to fight Cendrillon herself. This proves fruitless, as Cendrillon is incredibly powerful and constantly absorbs the Byakhee near her. The duo are outmatched until the other party members who denied Maruki's reality return and help defeat it. Maruki lets them go and tells them to come back on the 3rd of February. She reappears in the real world on the next day as Sumire, distressed by the resurfacing of her memories.

Sumire meets with the protagonist once again and admits that she agreed with Maruki because she could not cope with her sister's death. After eavesdropping on the party's conversation with Lavenza, Sumire is inspired by how they are determined to face their pain instead of running away. She resolves to face her sadness and overcome it as her own person.

When she officially joins the party in Maruki's Palace, her codename is "Violet" and her name becomes "Sumire Yoshizawa." Her Confidant portrait also becomes her original bookish look until her Confidant is maxed, and initially her Metaverse clothing is unstable. On the way to the auditorium, she was instantly surrounded by five Shadows dropping down from the ceiling. After failing to call her persona, she tears off her mask again, initiating her true awakening where she rebels against her old weak and cowardly self, and Kasumi's soul was fused with Cendrillon alongside it. Additionally, inside the Metaverse, she wears her hair tied up just like Kasumi. After the event, her Confidant is "restored," changing from a black border to a white one and regaining 5 more stars in order to truly complete it.

If the protagonist accepts any of Maruki's offers to accept his reality, Sumire will be reverted back into "Kasumi Yoshizawa," and will completely inherit all of her abilities instead of being a mere incomplete copy of her, and others will presumably recognize her as Kasumi as well.

After Maruki's defeat and the collapse of his actualization powers, the protagonist returns to juvenile hall. Sumire is the one who suggests they all get him out, rather than Ann in the original game. If the protagonist maxed Sumire's Confidant during the third semester, she will ask her coach for a temporary break so she can look for evidence to prove his innocence. Her coach rejects her request and instead offers to help in her stead by using her own connections so that Sumire can still continue her training, telling her that the protagonist would want that.

She also picked up the newsletter about the murder of Rumi's parents and handed it to Futaba.

After all other party members had chosen their own paths, if the protagonist maxed her confidant beforehand, she sends her own parting conversation to the protagonist via SNS during a practice break. She displays the snapshot she took with him during New Years and confesses that image was symbolic on how buried she was in Kasumi's identity back then, and vows that she will no longer end up like that anymore, and she will stand on her own feet. She proceeds to send the protagonist a picture of her doing gymnastics, and thanks the protagonist for helping her move forward in life. Finally, she assures him that she will take internationals by herself and not as Kasumi, and will climb to the top of the world on her own.

If the protagonist maxed her Confidant and has entered a romance route with her, he can then date her on Valentine's Day, as well as White Day.

In the epilogue, she meets the protagonist at the train station and briefly bids him farewell before he departs.

Confidant
"Kasumi's" Confidant is established during the 5/30 field trip, in which it automatically goes to rank 1. This Confidant only has five ranks instead of ten and the protagonist is not given access to the Arcana's ultimate Persona due to it being a false Arcana. The protagonist gets +5 max HP every time he hangs out with Kasumi. Upon reaching certain ranks, the Confidant also grants the protagonist abilities that help him ambush enemies such as using his grappling hook to ambush from a distance or also help evade shadows who nearly ambush him. Her Confidant can only be accessed by responding to her text invitations, and she is not available in the overworld until Kichijoji is unlocked. Even if her Faith Confidant is "maxed," she can be invited for a hangout.

Rank 6 to 10 of Sumire's Confidant unlocks during the 12th of January, right after her true awakening at the third forced infiltration of Maruki's Palace, where Kasumi replaces her Cendrillon and her Arcana becomes real after a fight with five Loa. However, the protagonist cannot proceed the Confidant until the 13th, since he will not be allowed free activity during the 12th. Unlike the first 5 ranks, Sumire can be invited to Confidant-related hangouts in Kichijoji.

Completing Sumire's Confidant unlocks the fusion of Maria and evolves Cendrillon into Vanadis. Afterwards, her overworld portrait resembles Kasumi, as she ties her hair in memory of her.

The first half of Kasumi's Confidant revolves around her struggle of being stuck in a choreography block. Kasumi's Confidant automatically starts during the field trip when she shows the protagonist her reflexes by helping a child retrieve his balloon, which prompts the protagonist to request her to teach him moves as Morgana deems it useful for their Phantom Thief activities. In return, Kasumi requests that the protagonist act as her advisor when she needs him.

Kasumi feels pressured by the expectations given to her due to the upcoming competition and is quite depressed due to a mental block that leads to her coach telling her to take a break from gymnastics until she finds her moves. This makes her feel she is far from fulfilling her dream to reach the internationals, which she shared with her deceased sister. The competition ends with her getting 3rd place. While she's not quite satisfied with the result and later on Shujin uses this as a threat to revoke her scholarship, she thanks the protagonist for helping her get out from her mental block.

Multiple inconsistencies around her behavior can be spotted in these hangouts, which foreshadows that the Kasumi that the protagonist hangs out with is still Sumire, who is still subconsciously inside her.

The second half of her Confidant revolves around her acceptance of her true self, Sumire, and trying her best to make people around her, especially her coach, acknowledge her. Sumire begins her gymnastics practice again, yet her coach comments that she's still lacking. Sumire admits how she feels inferior to Kasumi, especially whenever being compared to her. While Sumire wants to fulfill her shared dream with her sister, she's also determined not to live in the shadow of her success and prove her own worth. As she trains with the protagonist's encouragement, Sumire gradually develops feelings for him. At Rank 9, Sumire finally confesses to the protagonist. If the protagonist reciprocates, they'll enter a romantic relationship. If the protagonist rejects her confession, Sumire thanks the protagonist for his honest answer. Regardless of his choice, Sumire will still invite the protagonist to watch her gymnastic practice. In said practice, her coach finally praises how much Sumire has grown. She also reveals that Kasumi never once looked down on Sumire, despite her successes and in fact had always seen her sister as her rival. This revelation shocks Sumire, motivating her more to fulfill their dream to reach international competition in honor of Kasumi.

Party
Although Sumire awakens in early October, she does not join the party until January 2nd, before leaving again and returning and officially joining on January 12th.

Stats

 * Notes: This is only the first phase of Cendrillon boss fight on January 9. For more information on this boss, see here.

Etymology
Kasumi is often translated as "mist," but can also be translated as "flowers" or "blossoms." Her surname, Yoshizawa, does not have any direct meaning but was the same surname as, famous for being considered the creator of origami.

"Sumire" also means violet flowers in Japanese, alluding that she has been overshadowed by Kasumi.

In the language of flowers, violets mean "honesty;" although initially ironic, considering her living a false life as her sister, it can represent her choice to live the truth. Another meaning for violets is "faithfulness," which corresponds to the Arcana theme, representing how important the real Kasumi actually is to Sumire. Her codename "Violet" also refers to her name.

Trivia

 * Sumire is referred to as "Kasumi Yoshizawa" in all pre-release material, and no official information has disclosed her true identity as of yet.
 * While under the effect of Maruki's actualization, other people refer to her as "Sumire," although she herself hears it as "Kasumi."
 * Outside of the Third Semester, the only characters that ever refer to "Kasumi" by her first name are the protagonist, Morgana, and Futaba. Everyone else refers to her as "Yoshizawa" or Yoshizawa-san," which is one of the many hints that something is not right with Sumire.
 * During the Faith Rank 1 event with Kasumi (Sumire), if one pays attention to the handbook that the protagonist picked up, the photo of the student handbook seems to depict a girl with brown hair. The "Kasumi" the protagonist met has red hair.
 * As Sumire, her idle stance has her clasping her hands demurely in front of her. As Kasumi, she leaves her arms at her sides.
 * During her false awakening, when she tears off her mask, no blood gushes out, an early clue that she is still not technically being true to herself.
 * Sumire was "transformed" into Kasumi by Maruki on 25th of March, prior to the beginning of the protagonist's probation. This date also falls on her birthday.
 * "Kasumi's" birth date (March 25th) matches the day when Sumire's cognition was changed to make her believe she was Kasumi.
 * Sumire can flex her legs at around 150-160 degrees.
 * Sumire used to bring Kasumi to the shrine for good luck when she had any upcoming big events.
 * Sumire has collected numerous lucky charms.
 * Sumire doesn't like being cramped in Morgana's vehicle form.
 * Sumire's English voice is of a significantly lower pitch compared to her Japanese voice.
 * When Sumire was made to believe that she was Kasumi, she spoke in a cheerful, bright pitch. However, after she was revealed as Sumire, or in flashbacks, her vocal tone is extremely blunt and monotonous, most likely a result of her depression during both periods. When she regains her confidence (or when inside the Metaverse), her usual tone of voice becomes slightly sharper.
 * Sumire used to be terrified of going to aquariums, presumably because of the fish and the darkness. Kasumi however, always enjoyed visiting them.
 * In the ending where the protagonist accepts Maruki's reality, even if Sumire had freed herself from it beforehand, her name will revert back to "Kasumi Yoshizawa."
 * In a similar vein, when Maruki's actualization made her believe that she was Kasumi, her name becomes "Kasumi Yoshizawa," accompanied with a very obvious personality change.
 * Sumire's story mirrors that of Cinderella, with Takuto Maruki as the fairy godmother by enabling her to assume a false identity, and the protagonist as the prince for accepting her real identity and helping Sumire to accept her real identity. Her Persona Cendrillon and ultimate Persona Ella reflect this.
 * Sumire's name will automatically change from "Kasumi Yoshizawa" to "Sumire Yoshizawa" after the 2nd of January via a flag trigger.
 * Sumire's Catherine costume transforms her into Rin, a new character added to the rerelease of the original game, who is known for disguising their true identity in a similar fashion to Sumire.
 * Both Yoshizawa siblings are voiced by Sora Amamiya (in Japanese), who voiced Rika Ryuzouji from Shin Megami Tensei: Liberation Dx2.
 * Kasumi's phone is in extremely poor condition, as it constantly runs out of battery or suffers from poor connection. It is heavily implied that it was damaged in the car crash that resulted in Kasumi's death and Sumire was using her phone when she was led to think that she was Kasumi (When she stopped acting like Kasumi, her phone was perfectly functional).
 * Sumire's unfashionable outfit might be a reference to the outfit worn by the Chaos Heroine of the same name in NINE, which is also a leopard print outfit.
 * If Sumire is brought to Penguin Sniper in Kichijoji to play darts, she will play it very badly unlike other party members. (She would more often than not throw multiple darts in succession only to deduct very low scores, usually 1 from the 301 maximum score.) This replicates her klutziness while playing in the batting cages with the protagonist when she was still "Kasumi."
 * Sumire is the first party member whose Arcana is not of the Rider-Waite Tarot deck, though only when excluding main protagonists. The first party member to wield a non-Rider-Waite Arcana overall is Makoto Yuki of Persona 3, wielding the Universe Arcana of the Thoth deck.
 * Sumire has the highest number of outfits for her dialogue portrait out of any character from Persona 5 Royal, having a total of 19 different variants.
 * In the game's files, Sumire does not have a proper animation for running from a hazard in Futaba's Palace or cutting the Holy Grail's veins. Furthermore, if she is assigned to cut the Grail's veins, the game will freeze when she attempts to do so.
 * In certain file names, Sumire is labeled as "Uzuki," which is a double meaning of "April" as in the Lunar calendar (March in the Gregorian Calendar) and "Pain," foreshadowing her true nature. April, in the Gregorian month, is also the month when Persona 5 begins and when Sumire enters Shujin after assuming Kasumi's identity.
 * Sumire's codename was originally either "Crown" or "Clown" (クラウン).
 * Unused models for Sumire in her summer uniform, summer casual outfit and winter outfit, but with hair down and glasses can be found in the game's coding.
 * If the protagonist sends the calling card to Kunikazu Okumura on October 2nd, despite Kasumi's awakening being scheduled on the 3rd, they will still fight Okumura on the next day, with her awakening being delayed to the 4th.
 * Despite using the codename "Violet" in Sword Art Online: Integral Factor, the events in this collaboration take place during the Niijima's Palace arc—most likely after sending the calling card—as Sumire mentions trying to sneak into "a casino" to help the Thieves.
 * In the western version of Thieves Den, there is an error in her "ideal reality" picture (Long-Sought Honor) where her leotard is blue instead of pink.
 * Shinichi Yoshizawa used to bring Kasumi Yoshizawa to the batting cages when she was a child, in which she would play dauntlessly, while the other children were scared of the flying balls. Sumire Yoshizawa, however is not capable of hitting any balls at all, even if she was obviously concentrating, as shown during her Rank 5 Faith confidant scene.
 * Sumire will appear with her hair tied during the animated cutscene where the protagonist leaves Tokyo, regardless if he maxed her confidant or not. (If the protagonist did not max her confidant, she appears with her hair down with glasses during any other scene in the epilogue)
 * Sumire's cut-ins with hair down and glasses are only visible during a Tycoon game in Thieves Den. She does not use them in the main game.
 * Concept art for what was Sumire in-game has her with brown hair instead of red.
 * Coding in the game indicates that Sumire at one point used the protagonist's dagger and revolvers for her default configuration. She was also programmed to be able of handling any weapon without crashing the game.
 * Sumire is the only romanceable confidant that openly confesses their love for the protagonist before being romanced.