Asami Sasaki

Asami Sasaki (佐々木朝美 Sasaki Asami) is a Slifer Red Student of Duel Academy and duels with a "Gem-Knight" Deck. She is the childhood best friend of Jaden Yuki.

Originally meant to come to Duel Academy the same time as Jaden, familial issues occurred causing Asami to not come until the Duel Academy vs North Academy School Duel. Despite being late and having to start in Slifer Red, Asami is fine with it, and prefers it.

Physical description
Asami is a Japanese teenager of average weight and height. She has a rather pale skin tone, light amber eyes, and black and red hair. Her hair is shoulder-length with slight curls, and frames her face. In her younger years, she had longer hair, but cut it, and keeps it short to this day.

As she came to Duel Academy late, Asami was placed in the lowest dorm, Slifer Red. She wears a modified version of the Slifer Red uniform: a Slifer Red vest, a black sleeveless shirt, dark gray pants, and red and black boots. Asami also has a black belt with a gold deck case attached to it and fingerless black gloves.

When not in uniform, Asami wears a black, short-sleeved, cropped jacket, a light purple elbow-length-sleeved shirt, and a pair of dark jeans with a white belt holding a dark purple deck case and brown boots.

Personality

 * Asami is known for being protective over the ones she loves and cares of, noted when she doesn't tolerate Chazz's talking of Jaden. She is not afraid to voice her thoughts over those she cares about.
 * She tends to keep her troubles to herself, noted when after her mother's passing, her father's abandonment, and her uncle taking her in, she refused to talk about the ordeal. Asami doesn't like to talk about them and feel they are her problems and shouldn't be brought up.
 * To keep her troubles to herself and not let anyone see it, Asami tends to put up a façade on how she is actually feeling, with only Jaden really knowing how she is.

Powers

 * Duel Spirit communication: Since she was small, Asami has always been able to see the spirits of Duel Monster cards. Her first Spirit partner was "Queen's Knight", whom she still has in her current deck. Much like Jaden, Asami is able to see and hear all Duel Spirits, but most of the time, sticks to her own partner, "Gem-Knight Lady Brilliant Diamond".

Skills

 * Dueling proficiency: Through various junior class dueling tournaments, Asami has become a very capable duelist, able to work with anything she has on hand, and able to change strategy at the drop of a hat. Even though her deck is Fusion Summoned supported, she is able to work around weaknesses, including excluding Fusion Summoning.
 * Gymnastics: As a child, Asami took gymnastics, giving her a slightly more athletic build and allowing her to move faster and more flexible than most. This allows her quickly dodge attacks on the duel field, even if it holograms.

Weaknesses

 * Protective over Jaden: It is noted that Asami is extremely protective of her best friend/brother-figure, Jaden. She doesn't care what most think of her, but if they mention Jaden, she will jump in to defend him, easily. Asami is one of the few people Jaden easily opens up with and is the only person who knows about his home life, and how tough it is.

Equipment

 * Duel Disk
 * Academy-issued: After settling in on Duel Academy, Asami was given the Academy-issued Duel Disk.
 * KaibaCorp: When she arrived on Duel Academy Island, Asami came with her KaibaCorp Duel Disk. Like Kylie, Asami keeps her in her dorm room.

Pre-series
Born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, Asami is the only child and daughter of Noriaki and Kazue Saito, a lawyer and accountant, respectively. Unfortunately, her parents would usually be too busy to the point she was dropped off with her maternal uncle, Arashi Sasaki, a graphic artist, and left with him for unknown periods of time. It was during one of the drop offs, she met her uncle's neighbor, Atsuko Yuki, and her nephew, Judai (whom she gave the nickname Jaden), who was living a very similar situation.

Parents
Asami never had a steady relationship with her parents, as they were always busy, sometimes too busy for her. She was usually left with her Uncle Arashi. Her relationship with her parents plummeted once again, following the sudden passing of her mother. Her father didn't want anything to do with her, leaving her in the care of her maternal Uncle, Arashi Sasaki, who filed for custody rights (which he won). The latest in her family drama was the reason Asami didn't go to Duel Academy at the same time as Jaden.

Arashi Sasaki
Asami is extremely close to her Uncle, who practically raised her, and goes to him for everything. She sees him as the father-figure she needs and wants in her life. Following the sudden passing of her mother and the abandonment of her father, Arashi stepped up and applied for custody rights over Asami, which he won.

Judai "Jaden" Yuki
Judai Yuki, or as she knows him, Jaden, is Asami's childhood best friend and brother-like figure. They met through Jaden's Aunt, Atsuko, and Asami's uncle, Arashi, who were neighbors in the same apartment complex, when they were visiting their relative. Upon realizing they had similar backgrounds with their parents being too busy and leaving them with their Aunt/Uncle to look after them. Asami is very protective over Jaden, and won't let anyone talkhim down or bad mouth him. She worries about him, especially with his own issues with his parents, which he usually hides away.

Atsuko Yuki
Asami sees Jaden's Aunt, Atsuko, as the motherly-figure in her life. With her always coming to Uncle's place, Atsuko would always be next door giving Arashi help and tips for taking care of a girl.

Kylie Reynolds
Through Jaden, Asami would meet Kylie Reynolds, an Obelisk friend of Jaden. At first, Asami was unsure about the Norwegian born, mostly due to what she'd heard and later seen about the Obelisks. It was after leanring from Jaden that Kylie was not only a friend but his tutor, did she put aside what she's seen and heard. The two formed a friendship that was definately Jaden related.

Deck
Asami runs a Gem-Knight Deck, which focuses on Fusion Summoning. Like Jaden, Asami utilizes her weaker monsters with "Gem-Knight Fusion" in order to form stronger, more powerful, ones.

Name Etymology
Her first name, Asami (朝美) means "beautiful morning". Her surname Sasaki is Japanese for "help, aid". The surname Saito, which was what she was born with, comes from the Japanese 斎 (sai) meaning "purification, worship" and 藤 (tō) meaning "wisteria".

Trivia

 * Asami's casual outfit is based off Mai Valentine's Duel of the Dragon's Arc outfit.