Kari Tsukumo

Kari Tsukumo, known as Akari Tsukumo in the manga and Japanese versions, is a character in Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL. She is the older sister of Yuma Tsukumo and daughter of Kazuma Tsukumo and Mira Tsukumo.

She and her brother live with their grandmother Haru. Kari doesn't let Yuma Duel, according to the manga, Astral thinks it has something to do with the Emperor's Key. However, Haru seems to allow Yuma to Duel without Kari finding out. In Episode 16, she discovered that Yuma had been Dueling despite her opposition, but apparently does not mind and now permits him to Duel.

Personality
Kari can be a tad self-centered at times, occasionally sending others out to find her scoops to make reports on, even if it is dangerous or hazardous. She can also be a tad aggressive, showing to be willing to physically attack Yuma when she caught him dueling (though it is possible she was just trying to intimidate him).

Despite this, Kari genuinely cares for her little brother, and seems to be rather protective of him. She made a promise to her parents that she would do what she can to take care of Yuma, being told that he would rely on her for a long time. As a teenager, she seemed jealous that Yuma got more attention from their parents but has seemingly gotten over any animosity she may have had then. Also, Kari's car was a memento from her father, and she drives it with great care.

History
In the past, Kari and Yuma were very close and didn't like the fact that their parents went on so many trips. When her father injured himself during a snowstorm accident, she noticed the pendant in his hand as he was being taken to hospital.

In the past, Kari was also very jealous of the attention that Yuma received from their parents as he is the youngest. Her parents notice this and tell her that even though she thinks it, it isn't true and that they pay more attention to Yuma because he is frail, and that they will rely on Kari to look after Yuma while they go on trips.

It is also shown that while Kari was at high school, she developed a relationship with Charlie McCoy, a gambler who was known for being a daredevil. One night, he kissed Kari before driving away on a motorbike. It is assumed that he never returned after promising her he would. She kept his motorbike as a memento next to her garage and drives it sometimes when she finds out about a hot scoop which requires her to be swift. It should also be noted that she also uses her father's car while he lived with them for driving around.

Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL
Kari is first seen during the day when Reginald Kastle snaps her brother's pendant, which their father gave him. Yuma moans at her for not waking him up, but she pushes Yuma's comment back by saying that because he's in middle school, he should wake himself up, causing Yuma to pull a face. She then continues with her work and takes a drink from a cup, ignoring Yuma's annoyance.

The day after Yuma beat Reginald, a freak virus caused Heartland City to malfunction not only causing distress for the various civilians, but also caused Kari's computers to shut down, losing a precious scoop which she had been working on for days causing her to scream. Yuma hearing this ran to see what was wrong, but in turn Kari blamed Yuma for the accident causing him and his friends to run in fear. She then picked Yuma and Tori up from Heartland Middleschool and tells them that she managed to find the location of the person who uploaded the virus, that being in the schools library thus forcing Yuma and Kari to scope the location out for anyone suspicious.

She is later informed of a virus which was set to attack the city via her computer. Straight away she began to hack through the cities systems in order to locate the virus and stop it for a great scoop. She reveals here that she is a black-belt in karate and begins to attack the virus via her computer counterpart. Even though Kari manages to defeat the Bugman guarding the virus, it was too late. Although this is said, the virus turned out to merely cause a giant Crashbug to appear above the Crashbug Stadium and throw bombs which produced fireworks which bought happiness to the children within Heartland City.

After Yuma receives the fan-mail from Flip containing the Baby Tiragon card, Kari shows her annoyance by warning Yuma that he better not be Dueling. She then looks at Haru Tsukumo in annoyance which causes her grandma to pull a scared face and look away, pretending she didn't hear the conversation and carries on drinking her tea.

Always looking for a scoop, Kari notices on the news that there is a criminal keeping many people hostage at the Heartland Shopping Mall, she instantly rings Yuma on his Duel Gazer and asks him where he is, although he tried to deny being at the mall, Kari knew he was there thus screamed at him to get her some information on the occurrence. Before Yuma could get close to the scene, Kite Tenjo and Orbital 7 caused the time to freeze allowing them to capture the criminals Numbers without anyone interrupting. Yuma and Astral realized that they could move around in this frozen time, but several blockages cause Yuma to get there just before Kite turns the time back to normal, thus the police attack Yuma, messing up Kari's scoop as it was reported all over the news, thus would be old.

After Yuma visited the Duel Sanctuary and began his Duel with Kaze to defend the lodge, Kari and her grandma came to see where Yuma was and walked in just as the Duel had begun. Seeing Yuma Duel annoyed Kari and she was about to punish him for it, but was stopped by Roku who told her that Yuma could only grow through Dueling and that she must witness Yuma Duel. Ever since Yuma defeated Kaze, Kari has confidence that Yuma will be safe and believes in his "Kattobingu" spirit.

During the parents day at Yuma's middleschool, Kari attends a reporter party unknowning of the events occuring at Yuma's school as he didn't tell her or Haru about it. At the party, Kari meets up with Bronk's sister: Brianna Stone who is also a friend of Kari's, she questions Kari why she didn't go to the event which causes her to run out and go to the school as she promised her parents that she would protect and look after Yuma. She alerted Haru and both turned up to the event and scolded Yuma for not telling them and to later support him in his '20 stack challenge'.

World Duel Carnival
One night while Kari is preparing her work, a robbery in the Heartland Museum is reported on her computer. Suddenly her Duel Gazer lights up and it turns out that her old romance, Charlie McCoy is the one behind the robbery and wants Kari to help him. Before Kari can decline, Charlie hangs up. Annoyed at Charlie and how he left Kari in the past, she sends Yuma to do her work for her. After Yuma locates Charlie, he gets into a Duel and is surrounded by the Heartland police who try to subdue him, but by using the powers of "Number 7: Lucky Straight", he is able to escape and cause mass destruction, even managing to steal a large amount of cards from the people in the vicinity including Number 11: Big Eye. Kari then meets up with Yuma and Tori who tell her what happened, determined to find him, all 3 set off.

After Yuma and Tori trap Charlie on a subway train, Kari follows them and watches the Duel on her motorbike. After Yuma defeats Charlie, Kari stops the train by sliding her motorbike into the rails, forcing it to stop. She then begins to scold Charlie for what he has done, but learns of his true intentions as he wanted to obtain Numbers he stole so that he could give luck to his niece, Mayumi as she was undergoing an important operation. Later that night, Kari and Charlie walk through the streets of Heartland City and Charlie kisses Kari, but receives a slap across the face as she didn't want a repeat of last time. He then wanders off into the night, leaving Kari dazed.

After Kari was appointed with the task of finding Syuta, she was angered upon learning that he hurt people with his predictions. When Yuma Dueled him, she was seen trying to keep Tori calm (whom was on the plane Syuta predicted was going to crash), and also even trying to get the people in charge of the blimp to stop it. She was surprised when Kite came in her view, and recognized him. Later when she learned that Yuma was going to leave to go find his father Kazuma Tsukumo, she was not happy with his decision. Like the others though, she is happy when he decides not to leave.

After Yuma's victory over Vetrix, she drives to Heartland to check on what is going on, but gets the surprise that Yuma and Tori are still inside, causing her to worry.

Manga Biography
One day, when Yuma was late for school, he asked Akari why she didn't wake him up. She, said she was too busy in the morning with news delivery.

Later, while Yuma Dueled Shark, she localized a shock wave, caused by Shark's "Number", and found a distortion on the map near the train station, where they were Dueling.

During the night after Yuma received the "Baby Tiragon" card from Tokunosuke, Akari went up to the attic (which is Yuma's room), and asked him when he's planning to go to bed, as she was trying to write a news article and Yuma wouldn't be quiet. He apologized and said he'd go to bed then. Seeing the card in his hand, she asked if he's been playing Duel Monsters. He said that of course he hasn't, as Akari previously forbade him to do so. Their grandmother muses that Yuma is a poor kid to be picked on like that.

Akari believes that for Yuma, Dueling is more than just a game, and that it can't be helped. Astral is surprised to learn that Yuma isn't allowed to Duel and Yuma responds that his sister doesn't wish him to, as she believes something bad may happen. Astral thinks that perhaps Akari is aware of the relationship between Yuma and The Emperor's Key.

When Kaito Tenjo hunts the "Number" of a bandit, Akari was investigating about the incident and asked Yuma if he knew anything about a "Numbers Hunter". Surprised, Yuma asked why she knew about the "Numbers". Akari asked if he knew something, but Yuma awkwardly denied. She then explained that the bandit kept muttering "Numbers Hunter", but that she didn't know what that means, and that it seems to be related with Duel Monsters. Yuma then said that he couldn't know anything, since he is forbidden from Dueling. Akari noticed something wrong, but didn't say anything. Yuma then went to bed, while she kept working on the news.

After Yuma's lose to Kaito, to hid he was sad, Yuma told Akari and Haru he was going to his bed to finish his homework. Both Akari and Haru get in shock about Yuma doing his homework.

When Yuma begun a Speed Duel against Thunder Spark, he said that he could drive in that speed easily, because he was already used to that speed due to Akari carrying him in her motorcycle.