Yumiko Hotta
In January 1999, Takase, with a sports background in judo, passed an audition held by Hyper Visual Fighting Arsion and began training professional wrestling at the promotion's dojo. She made her debut under her real name on March 15, 2000, facing Ai Fujita in a losing effort. Takase started her career with a sixty match losing streak, before picking up her first win over Linda Starr on November 19, 2000. Through Arsion's working relationship with All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW), Takase also made appearances for the promotion, where she went on to win her first championship, when she defeated fellow Arsion worker Mika Nishio for the AJW Junior Championship on December 22, 2002. Takase would eventually go into history as the final AJW Junior Champion, holding the title until AJW folded in April 2005. In June 2003, Yumiko Hotta took over Arsion and renamed the promotion Major Girl's Fighting AtoZ. Takase, adopting the new ring name Leo-na, worked regularly for the promotion for the next two years, before quitting and becoming a freelancer in February 2005.