Kasumibio

Kasumi Goto

 

Role:

Kasumi (provided she survived) works for the Shadow Broker in ME3, acting as a spy, information broker, and infiltrator. She can hack several doors, security cameras, and consoles throughout ME3 – including the Vault of Athame after the “Forum of Matriarchs” mission – granting Shepard access to the Prothean AI “Vendetta”. Kasumi can save Thane Krios from Kai Leng during the latter's assassination attempt on a Citadel councilor. She also provides Liara and Shepard with valuable intel on numerous missions, with the most notable being “Enter the Graybox”, a mission which almost doubles the number of war ships that the Hegemony and Alliance are willing to put towards the final assault on the Reapers. This mission also stops the batarians from raiding Earth post-Reaper war.

 

Recruitment:

 

Kasumi is found on the Shadow Base, any time after the first war summit. Shepard can explore Liara's base, and enter a room filled with books, expensive portraits, stolen technology, computer monitors, etc. Kasumi de-cloaks, and greets Shepard cheerfully.

Since the suicide mission, Kasumi agreed to work with Liara (hacking security cameras, planting audio bugs in the Citadel, and stealing files) in exchange for a safe haven, and unlimited resources to work with. Liara, knowing that she cannot hide any information from Kasumi for long, makes her intentions, assignments, and projects clear and visible for the thief. Goto thinks this policy-of-honesty is extremely boring, and as a result finds no thrill in the concept of stealing from Liara.

Kasumi explains that she needs someone to take her back to the Citadel to continue her work there. From this point on, Shepard can agree to take her, and Kasumi will board the Normandy and be automatically flown to the Citadel.

 

Missions:

Kasumi is a temporary squad-mate in ME3. She is available for all missions on the Citadel, including “Investigate: Disturbance”, “Stop a Killer”, “Track a Killer”, “The Hidden Wards”, the entire “Shadow War” campaign, the assault on “Cronos Station” and finally, her own late-in-the-story mission “Enter the Greybox”. She is also available as a squad-mate for the final fight with the Reapers.

During the mission “Investigate: Disturbance”, after a bomb goes off in one of the Citadel's shops, Kasumi manages to deactivate several other of Cerberus's explosives located in other stores. She meets up with Shepard, and he can choose her as a squad-mate.

During the mission “Stop a Killer”, Kasumi is a recommended squad-mate (by Liara and Thane – if alive). She can help Shepard navigate the keeper tunnels, as they pursue Kai Leng and the other Cerberus assassins. Shepard is forced to split up his squad in order to track Leng after the assassin takes a fork in the road.

If Kasumi is loyal, she will get attacked by Cerberus agents, tell Shepard that she'll deal with them. Shepard and Goto are separated.

If Kasumi is not loyal, she will get attacked by Cerberus agents, tell Shepard that this isn't what she signed up for, and will flee, leaving Shepard to waste time fighting the mercenaries.

After Shepard exits the tunnel, he finds himself near one of the apartments of a council member (either Anderson/Udina – if Shepard has an all-human council, or the salarian councilor – if Shepard has a multiracial council), who is hosting a convention for the war effort. Leng attacks the council member, but is either halted by the efforts of Thane Krios (if alive), or succeeds in assassinating the politician (if Thane was killed in ME2).

 

[Assuming Thane is alive]

During his dual with Leng, Thane becomes overwhelmed with the side effects of Keplar syndrome. Coughing and splutter, the drell staggers, and Leng presses his advantage for a fatal attack:

 

 If Kasumi Goto held off Cerberus mercenaries in the keeper tunnels, she will appear on the roof above the balcony, just as Leng prepares to finish Thane. Kasumi throws a frag grenade at Leng, knocking him backwards, then leaps down onto the balcony, draws her sidearm, and starts pelting Leng's kinetic barrier with bullets. The Cerberus Nemesis takes aim at her, but Shepard finally gets his chance and shoots the sniper. Leng charges at the still firing Kasumi, but Thane recovers and blasts him off the balcony with a biotic attack.  Shepard rushed out to meet Kasumi and Thane, just as C-sec shows up at the scene. Kasumi quickly cloaks so that nobody can see her.

If Kasumi Goto fled from the Cerberus mercenaries in the keeper tunnels, she will appear on the roof above the balcony just as Leng prepares to finish Thane. Kasumi throws a frag grenade at Leng, knocking him backwards, but she stays on the roof-- too afraid to get closer to the assassins. The Cerberus Nemesis has a clear shot at Kasumi, and shoots her through the heart. Kasumi falls off the roof, mortally wounded. Shepard gets his clear shot at the Nemesis, and kills her. Thane recovers, and blasts Leng off the roof with a biotic attack. Thane and Shepard lean over Kasumi. C-sec officers and the salarian councilor come back onto the balcony, and Kasumi sensing their approach, simply splutters (through a mouthful of blood) “Don't let anyone see me”. She cloaks, and a moment later, the spot where she lays becomes dark with her pooling blood. Even in death, she remains anonymous.

[For more details on this mission, please see either “Stop a Killer”, or Thane's character bio]

 

For the mission “Track a Killer”, Kasumi is an available temporary squad-mate. She can spot Leng's hidden alarms, and show Shepard alternate routes around all of the Cerberus assassin's traps.

 

For the mission “The Hidden Wards”, Kasumi is an available temporary squad-mate. She can help Javik and Shepard navigate the long abandoned, passage ways.

 

For the “Shadow War”, and “Cronos Station”, Kasumi is an available squad-mate, and she will be located on the Shadow Base until the end of the game. She is an expert at hacking through Cerberus's defenses, doors, and data hubs.

 

In the Kasumi-centric mission “Enter the Greybox”, Shepard investigates the data contained within Kasumi's Greybox – provided he did not destroy it in ME2. This mission is only available after Shepard's trial with the Hegemony.

After the mission “Hegemony Trial”, Kasumi contacts Shepard from aboard the Shadow Base. She informs him that she was investigating the contents of the Greybox, when she discovered part of the information hidden there had to do with the Leviathan of Dis. The available content implicates both the Alliance and the Hegemony, but Kasumi needs another person to unlock the biggest piece of information – only able to be reached with two people.

Kasumi comments on how simple and ingenious the two-person safe guard is. Keiji, knowing that Kasumi could hack through any of his virtual defenses, made a system that wouldn't require any hacking attempts at all – merely someone Kasumi trusted enough to venture through her and Keiji's memories-- someone who would  look into their personal lives with fresh and unfamiliar eyes. Kasumi says that, had she never met Shepard, she would probably never have been able to fully unlock the Greybox.

 

Shepard and Kasumi activate their Greybox visors, and are submerged into Keiji's memories. The world around them is dark, with simple geometric shapes. Their footsteps leave luminous footprints on the hard, smooth, ground. Shepard is in underwear (the Greybox does not recognize him, so he has been simulated wearing the very basics of clothing), and Kasumi is no longer wearing her hood (because Keiji recognizes her without her disguise).

The geometric shapes form obstacles and platforms that Shepard and Kasumi must traverse. The black walls begin to form a startling contrast of colorful visuals, depicting Keiji's memories with Kasumi. Shepard and Kasumi must “act” out certain parts of Keiji's memories.

In one instance, Keiji remembers his first meeting with Kasumi during a heist – and visions of him running away from her flash across the walls. Shepard runs as fast as he can,  avoiding Kasumi. Eventually Goto catches up to Shepard and tackles him. This triggers a number of security files, audio recordings, and visual recordings to be projected onto the black walls; images of Dr. Kenson (Shepard recognizes her) discussing the location of the Leviathan research facility with Admiral Hackett.

In another section of the Greybox, Shepard and Kasumi must sneak past the “projected memories” of guards patrolling rooms fool of treasure. After succeeding in this, Shepard sees a security camera recording of the Hegemony discussing plans to invade the human planet Terra Nova, after they apparently made a deal with the Collectors in return for Prothean technology. The Collectors would abduct only 50% of Terra Nova's (human) population, then the batarians would move in on the colony while it was still without communications, and abduct the other 50% for a new slave caste on Kar'shan.

After a section where Shepard and Kasumi make their way across moving platforms – representing a memory Keiji had of Kasumi and himself traversing the roof tops of Nos Astra to escape Donavon Hock's men – Shepard learns about that the Alliance was preparing to bombard the capital of Kar'shan with non-traceable stealth nukes. They planned their strike for April 6th, 2186 – four days before the actual Reaper invasion occurred -- as a way to destroy the Hegemony and destabilize their government.

As Shepard sees and hears these visions, his omnitool begins to light up. Kasumi tells Shepard that the Greybox is uploading the information to his actual omnitool.

At last, Shepard and Kasumi reach the vault that Keiji set up. It is a simple, slightly translucent gray curtain draped over a window or screen. Behind the curtain, mysterious lights and images that seem just-out-of-sight tempt Shepard – who can now understand why Kasumi spent so much time immersed in this world. Shepard tries to brush the cloth aside, but his hands have no effect on the material.

The curtain pulls back, revealing a screen. The screen plays a recording of an Alliance recon scout presenting data to Alliance Parliament. The scout (we'll call him Huxley)  presents data regarding the legendary Leviathan of Dis, and explains that the findings actually support Shepard's claim that the Reapers existed, and wiped out all life every 50,000 years. When the Parliament inquires as to the age of Leviathan, they are told that it is an estimated 1.1 billion years old – the oldest technology ever discovered in the galaxy. Most of Alliance Parliament breaths an audible sigh of relief at this news. Huxley is confused – but Parliament says that the Reapers were probably died millions of years ago – and that Sovereign must have been the last of them, or more Reapers would have attacked the Citadel. Huxley protests, saying that Shepard claimed the Citadel was a mass relay leading to dark space where the rest of the Reapers slept, but he is scoffed at. Apparently Alliance Parliament found no evidence that the Citadel is a relay. They dismiss Huxley, and attempt to find a way to “hush up” the entire story by sending him to work with Dr. Kenson and her “artifact-crazed team”, as they investigate the Bahak system for possible Reaper technology. Parliament then decide to keep the data on Leviathan a secret (even from the Citadel Council), hoping that someday the Alliance might capture it and use its technology to boost humanity's place in the galaxy. The recording ends.

Shepard and Kasumi are shocked. The Alliance and Hegemony knew of the Reaper threat, but didn't warn the rest of the galaxy. The temptations of political power were greater than the idea of protecting the galaxy.

Keiji's phantom apologizes over and over, while the  data is uploaded to their omnitools (apparently he managed to secure this footage while raiding one of the Alliance's bases). The Greybox simulation ends.

Shepard and Kasumi (cloaked), can take this information to the Hegemony or/and Alliance headquarters on the Citadel.

The Hegemony is shocked and humiliated by the data. Not wishing to risk being associated with either interspecies-slave trade, Collectors, or knowledge of the Reapers, they will offer Shepard double their fleet support for Earth – and a promise that they will never attack Earth or its colonies.

The Alliance Parliament is overtly offended and defensive when presented witthe data. One of the members tries to defend his reasoning by saying that no one could have believed in this information at the time – but Kasumi, infuriated, will (uncharacteristically) de-cloak and slam the man against the wall, snarling at him that “millions good people are dead because of bullshit politics”. With the threat of having a preemptive strike against Kar'shan, and knowledge of the Reapers made public, Parliament hastily agrees to give the Hegemony rights to prospective planets once intentioned for human habitation.  This improves the tension between the Alliance and Hegemony, and makes their coordination during the final fight with the Reapers very smooth.

[Note: Ironically, neither organization finds out about the damning evidence applicable to the other (aka: the Hegemony never finds out that the Alliance planned to launch stealth nukes onto Kar'shan, and the Alliance never finds out that the Hegemony planned on abducting and enslaving half of Tera Nova).]

 

After this mission, Kasumi finally comes to terms with Keiji's death, and melts the Greybox. She also has a deeper relationship with Shepard, now that he knows her real name, and has seen her face. Shepard cannot tell anyone Kasumi's true identity.

If Shepard tells Kaidan/Ashley and James about the data inside the Greybox, they will be disturbed to find out that the Alliance isn't a (mostly) incorruptable pedestal of humanity.

If Shepard tells Talon about the data inside the Greybox, she won't be surprised, claiming that Kar'shan went into a massive economic depression after Shepard destroyed the Collectors – because the batarians had built vast amounts of slave houses for human slaves that never arrived.

 

Notable character interactions:

Kasumi is only romantically interested in Jacob Taylor, provided he survived ME2. She leaves haikus about her affections for him in “convenient” places on the Shadow Base where Jacob happens to work. Jacob doesn't find most of them, or believes that they are for someone else (Kasumi never states his or her name on the poetry). His ignorance of Kasumi's crush makes her want him even more. Shepard can convince her to seek a romantic relationship with Jacob at the end of the game – provided Jacob/Shepard is not romancing Miranda.

Kasumi is fiercely accused of stealing “Jessie” by Zaeed in between missions during the Shadow War. Zaeed apparently finished taking a shower (on the Shadow Base), but couldn't find his rifle when he finished. Kasumi denies that she stole his “shitty old rifle”, and Shepard has to break up the conflict before it elevates into a fight. Zaeed then remembers that he left his rifle on a weapons bench where he was cleaning it earlier. He shuffles off to inspect the gun without apologizing. Kasumi is disturbed with the idea that Massani regularly showers with Jessie – calling his relationship to the weapon “unhealthy”.

Kasumi becomes good friends with Ashley Williams and James Vega.

Kasumi has a sisterly relationship with Tali, and promises to help the quarian out if Tali was exiled in ME2.

 

Ironing out variables:

 

If Kasumi died in ME2, Thane is mortally wounded by Kai Leng.

If Kasumi died in ME2, Shepard cannot unlock her Greybox data.

If Kasumi died and was loyal in ME3, Shepard can hack her Greybox open, and enter the dream scape with another loyal squad-mate. Kasumi and Keiji will appear as phantoms, and Kasumi's ghost will tell Shepard her name when he reaches the vault. If Shepard has no loyal squad-mates, then the mission is unavailable, and not even EDI can unlock its content.

If Kasumi destroyed the Greybox, then the mission “Enter the Greybox” is not available. Kasumi will still save Thane however, and be available for other missions.

If Shepard did not complete Kasumi's mission in ME2, she will not trust him enough to enter the Greybox with her, and the mission “Enter the Greybox” is not available.

If Shepard tells Kasumi not to pursue Jacob as a love interest, she will be a bit sad, but will say “I can steal almost anything, but I can't steal his [Jacob's] heart”.

If Jacob is romancing Miranda in ME3, Kasumi will be jealous, and will imply that she watches them have sex (no, I'm not kidding).