Riko Yamamura

is a character that appeared in Ultraman Nexus. She is a girl who survived an attack by a Nosferu.
==History==
===Ultraman Nexus===
When she first appeared, Riko was living a happy family life with her parents and her brother, Kaoru. One day, the family visited an amusement park and happened to encounter Kazuki Komon. At that time, Komon was suffering from the loss of his girlfriend, Riko Saida, and the fact that Riko's name was the same as his late girlfriend's made her presence particularly memorable for him.
To further torment Komon, Riko and her family was targeted by Shinya Mizorogi. The space beast Nosferu, controlled by Mizorogi, killed her father, Hiroshi, and her mother, Ryoko, that night and transformed them into Beast Humans. Kaoru and Riko were kidnapped to a vacation house, where they witnessed their parents gnawing on wood and were forced to do the same.
Outside the vacation house, Jun Himeya faced off against Mizorogi. The NR received reports of a Space Beast appearance. Komon arrived at the house, but the Yamamura couple had escaped with Kaoru and Riko as hostages. Mizorogi transformed into Dark Mephisto in front of Nagi Saijyo, while Himeya became Ultraman Nexus, and the battle began. Dark Mephisto overpowered Nexus and summoned Nosferu. The Beast Humans captured Riko and absorbed her into Nosferu's forehead. Nexus, sensing this, tried to rescue her but was blocked by Dark Mephisto, leaving Riko helplessly crying inside Nosferu.
At this moment, the combat planes Chrome Chester α, β, and γ, piloted by Komon, assembled. To defeat Nosferu, they combined into the Mega Cannon Chester in ground combat mode. Dark Mephisto used telepathy to sync Komon's view with Kaoru's. Kaoru tried to shout at Komon to stop attacking Nosferu, but the message didn’t get through. Unaware that Riko was trapped inside Nosferu, Komon angrily fired the high-powered Mega Cannon Vanisher at Nosferu. Nosferu was destroyed. Although Riko miraculously survived, she was severely injured and rushed to the hospital. Kaoru blamed Komon and was subsequently taken to the Memory Police, responsible for erasing witnesses' memories. Komon was tormented by deep guilt for having harmed these two innocent children.
Afterwards, Riko became a protected individual in the Nosferu incident and became the first human to undergo memory erasure for spatial beasts by Mizuo Nonomiya after being assigned to the MP. Although she underwent the memory erasure procedure, issues arose due to the influence of Nosferu cells. This led to the memories that should have been erased—specifically, her parents' transformation into Beast Humans—not being removed, while she lost most of her memories from before the Nosferu attack.
Subsequently, Riko and Kaoru were informed that "their parents had died in an accident" and were placed in the care of a relative, living with their cousin Rimi. Riko's personality became extremely gloomy and depressed. She began to continuously create drawings of the incident and fell into a semi-dreamlike state, becoming unrecognizable to herself. Every day after school, she frequently went to the tunnel entrance, trying to hear her parents' voices. At night, she also heard the "Ghostly Voice" from Banpira.
Some time later, the NR received reports of incidents possibly triggered by spatial beasts. However, since the scene of each incident was shrouded in fog, beast vibrations could not be detected, and no conclusive evidence was obtained. In this situation, after a decisive battle with Himeya Jun, Mizorogi, who had also gone missing, was found in the mountainous area where the incidents occurred, but he managed to escape.
One day, Riko sensed something and went to the shrine grounds, where she found the memory-lost Mizorogi hiding. Although Riko did not know that Mizorogi was the source of her misfortune, she extended a helping hand and began to accompany him. Together, they headed towards the cries coming from the forest. Meanwhile, the Night Raiders also went to investigate the spatial beasts in the mountains. The fog was dense, and during this time, Banpira appeared. Riko nearly fell off a cliff during an earthquake but was saved by Mizorogi.
After Ultraman Nexus arrived on the scene to confront Banpira, Kogure joined forces with Captain Eisuke Wakura and boarded Chrome Chester to prepare for an attack. During this process, they encountered Mizorogi and Riko, which shocked Kogure. Seeing Komon, Riko was frightened and ran away due to memories of the past. Komon attempted to chase Mizorogi but failed due to Banpira’s interference. In the subsequent action, Komon met up with Mizuo on-site. Mizuo realized that Riko was also nearby and told Komon that, since they were unsure of how memory erasure would affect Riko’s body, he did not want Riko to witness the Space Beast again.
To evade the pursuit of TLT's White Sweeper, Riko and Mizorogi took refuge in an abandoned house, where they talked about their lost memories. Riko expressed her fear of Komon because he had once shot at her parents but also felt that Komon was actually trying to save her and her family. They then warmed themselves by the fire and fell asleep. 
The next morning, Riko heard Banpira's voice and left the abandoned house. When they separated, TLT successfully captured Mizorogi, and by the time Riko returned to the scene, she was alone. Komon, who had just arrived, protected her. However, Banpira reappeared. Komon handed Riko over to Mizuo and went off to fight, while Ren Senjyu transformed into Ultraman Nexus. The battle occurred near Mizuo and Riko, and Riko accidentally witnessed the moment Nexus fought Banpira. Nexus, having transformed from Anphans into Junis Blue, used the Meta Field and disappeared into the forest. Mizuo breathed a sigh of relief, but Riko seemed to still see the battle within the Meta Field.
Nexus began the battle against Banpira. With the support of Hyper Strike Chester driven by Komon, Nexus successfully defeated Banpira using Arrow Ray Sturm. At this moment, Riko, through the Meta Field, sensed Banpira’s disappearance and saw illusions of her parents deeply caring for her. After seeing these illusions, Riko regained her memories and returned to being the bright young girl she once was.
Afterwards, Mizorogi, having regained his memories, recalled his past actions involving Riko’s family and felt guilt for having hurt Riko. Riko became the person Mizorogi most wanted to apologize to before his death.
==Gallery==
===Ultraman Nexus===
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==Trivia==
*In the original episode 29, the main title was originally planned to be named directly after Riko.
*Due to the reduction in episode count, the scenes featuring Riko in the original episodes 29 and 30 were cut and shortened. These segments were later released in the director's cut version on DVD.
*Riko's actress, Ayame Koike, later played the young Marina Kazama in Ultraman Mebius.
Category:Ultra N Project
Category:Ultra N Project Characters
Category:Female Characters
Category:Human Characters
Category:Allies
Category:Civilians