Mikami-Sensei

"You can't kill your own classmate!"

- Ms. Mikami

Ms. Mikami (三上, Mikami) is the assistant homeroom teacher of 9th Grade Class 3 at Yomiyama North Middle School. She is also the art teacher at the school and presides over the art club; she later takes over as homeroom teacher of 9th Grade Class 3.

Appearance
In the anime, she has long brown hair that is slightly wavy and brown eyes. Mikami is usually shown wearing a black blouse with a white sweater, a white medium skirt and white shoes. In the manga, she has black hair, black eyes and wears spectacles. Also, her hair is shorter and it is tied up in a ponytail. Mikami wears the school standard uniform.

Personality
Ms. Mikami is shown to have a different personality when she's at school. She is described as a beautiful teacher and was dubbed the "killer type." Many students wanted her to be their homeroom teacher instead of Mr. Kubodera. Yuuya Mochizuki seemed to have a crush on her.

Plot
Mikami-sensei was the assistant homeroom teacher of class 3-3, alongside Shoji Kubodera. She was present from the beginning, introducing Kouichi to the class alongside her co-teacher. She was mostly a background character, although her warm nature endeared her to her students, many of whom would've preferred her as their homeroom teacher. As the curse began to gather steam, she, along with the rest of the class, ignored Mei Misaki, and later, Kouichi Sakakibara, as part of a vain attempt to stop the curse.

In "Sphere Joint", when looking through class 3-3's old records with Tatsuji Chibiki and Kouichi Sakakibara in the library, Mei Misaki notices that Mikami Sensei was homeroom teacher for class 3-3 in 1996.

When Mr. Kubodera committed suicide in front of the entire class ("Sphere Joint"), Chibiki told a horrified Ms. Mikami to call the police and an ambulance, instructions which she quickly complied with, rushing out of the room.

Following this intensely traumatic event, Mikami was promoted and became 3-3's homeroom teacher. As such, she assumed many of the associated duties, such as attending Junta's Nakao's funeral along with Chibiki in "Body Paint". She also chaperoned the class trip, alongside Chibiki, and was present for Naoya's group portrait.

Mikami was present when Daisuke had his asthma attack at dinner, and was visibly shaken by this turn of events. Later on, in her room, she heard Takako Sugiura's paranoia-induced broadcast of Matsunaga's tape, along with her instructions to kill Mei. Horrified, Mikami rushed to the defense of Mei and Kouichi, demanding to know what was happening and shouting at her students that they couldn't kill their classmates. Yukito Tsuji refused to listen and swung a mop at Mei, but Mikami intercepted the blow, which immediately knocked her out. An enraged Kouichi attacked Yukito in response, only to have Kenzuo protect the smaller boy. Outnumbered, Kouichi and Mei were forced to flee, leaving Mikami unconscious on the floor.

In "Stand By Oneself", Mikami regained consciousness. A determined look on her face, she plunged deep into the hellish inferno the inn had become, intent on rescuing any of her students she could. Meanwhile, Mei abandoned Kouichi alongside a mortally wounded Izumi Akazawa, telling him she knew who the dead person was, but that he couldn't follow her, as doing so would only cause him pain. Kouichi ignored Mei and followed her outside, where they found an injured and frightened Mikami, pinned underneath part of the collapsing inn.

Horrified, Kouichi stared down at his teacher, while a flashback revealed her secret: Mikami-sensei was also his aunt, Reiko. Mei accused Reiko of being deceased, but in a panic, Reiko insisted she was still alive and begged her nephew to free her. However, having figured out who the dead one was, Mei's memories began to reassert themselves, and she explained to Kouichi how, the previous year, she'd seen Reiko murdered before her eyes by a student, who stabbed her and threw her dying body in the river. Mei prepares to kill Reiko herself to end the curse, but Kouichi stops her and tells her that he'll carry out the task instead. Whispering goodbye, he takes Mei's pick and drives it through the head of the closest thing he'd had to a mother, before collapsing beside her body, his lung giving out under the strain.

Later, Mei and Kouichi looked at the picture Naoya Teshigawara had taken of the class, only to find Reiko was no longer present. They discussed this with Chibiki, who expressed sorrow that his former colleague had been brought back by the curse, but admitting he no longer remembered her, nor did anyone else who'd survived the inn. Only Kouichi and Mei, who'd been present at her second death, knew she'd come back.

Trivia

 * Although not immediately obvious, Ms. Mikami and Reiko are the same person. Kouichi behaves differently around her whether she is at school or at home to maintain professionalism. Yuuya is also aware of this, flirting furiously with Reiko while the group is at the beach.
 * Although in the manga (and live film), she has her hair down and doesn't wear glasses as Reiko, and ties her hair up and puts the glasses on while teaching as Ms. Mikami, in the animated version these were switched. So anime-Reiko has glasses and tied-up hair while anime Ms. Mikami has no glasses and her hair down.
 * Like her character Ms. Mikami, the voice actress Miyamaki Misayo is also "The Other." Cleverly, to throw off viewers, they created a fake voice actor name for Ms. Mikami and even a fake webpage. Miyamaki Misayo does not exist and if you rearrange the "ki" and "yo" in her name, it's "Yomiyama Misaki." The real voice actress is, of course, the same as Reiko, Naoko Sakakibara, which is revealed in the credits of Episode 12.
 * In the original novel, the revelation of Ms. Mikami and Reiko's connection occurs at the climax of the story. Ms. Mikami was not killed by a student, although her body was found in the river, thought to be an accidental drowning; Mei did not see her death. It's the same in the manga. It's changed to the above in the anime; the curse starts to burn itself out by process of elimination, Mei and Izumi's latent memories start to reassert themselves, and they start to recall things connected with her death.
 * There may be a possibility that it was Izumi Akazawa's elder cousin brother who killed Ms. Mikami. He was a psycho and mentally ill. This can be said as in Izumi Akazawa's dream/memory, she meets Kouichi and says someone she loved recently died as her brother committed suicide after killing Ms. Mikami.

Quotes
"Be serious. We can't have everyone in class drawing monster fruit!"

Gallery

 * Mikami-sensei's Gallery