Yamane Mitsuko

**Mitsuko Yamane** (山根光子, *Yamane Mitsuko*) is a student of Seidō High School and a pitcher of Seidō's softball team.

## Appearance

Mitsuko is a girl of short stature and small build. She has long blonde hair that she normally ties up into a ponytail, sometimes using ribbons to tie it up. It is slightly wavy and has a fluffy texture. Her eyes are round and a golden brown color, almost yellow. She has dark eyebrows that stand out from her light hair.

## Personality

Mitsuko is a very boisterous person, often yelling when speaking normally would do. While not the most friendly person, she has no problems talking to people, and she is quite talkative. She is temperamental and stubborn, which causes her to be quite nasty sometimes. She can be overconfident, and she refuses to listen to people who she doesn't respect (and it is no simple feat to earn her respect). While she seems like a bad person on the exterior, she is actually a cheerful and fun person once she feels more comfortable around someone. She never had many friends growing up, so she never knew how to act around friends.

She is very much a tomboy thanks to her four brothers. She acts like one of "the guys," roughhousing and getting down and dirty just like them. Because of this, she can sometimes have a foul mouth.

She is enthusiastic about what she does, and she can stay optimistic in most situations. She has nearly unshakable determination, but sometimes she doesn't know when to quit. Her competitiveness coupled with her stubbornness makes her a sore loser who refuses to admit that she has lost.

## History

Mitsuko was born into a family with four older brothers: Tarō, Tsuneo, Susumu, and Noboru. She was the only girl in the family besides her mother, but it wasn't originally meant to be that way. A year prior to her birth, her mother was pregnant with a daughter. They had planned to name that daughter Akemi. However, Akemi was a stillborn. The family was heartbroken. A year later, Mitsuko was born. After hearing of this situation, Mitsuko was always worried that she was just someone to fill the void that Akemi left.

Growing up around four brothers, Mitsuko came to develop a tomboyish personality. Instead of playing with dolls like other girls her age, she was out stomping around in the creek with her brothers. Her family was a baseball family; They all played baseball, and her father even owned a sports equipment store. Thusly, Mitsuko learned to play baseball at a young age. She looked up to her eldest brother, Tarō, who was a pitcher, so she decided to become a pitcher as well. She spent all of her free time practicing her pitching, so she developed incredible skills.

In junior high, she was known for not listening to her catchers. She would pitch whatever she felt like. This frustrated her teammates to no end. After her junior high championship game—where she led her team to victory—she was scouted by Seidō High School. After junior high, she attended that school like her brothers did before her. She already had a reputation because of her family, but she quickly built up her own reputation as the rookie pitcher with a killer breaking ball.

## Trivia

* Her favorite food is grilled salmon.
* She doesn't have a favorite subject in school, but she enjoys lunch.
* She is often underestimated and ridiculed because of her size.
* Yamane is the also the name of a Japanese dormouse. She is often teased about this.
* Most people on her team call her "Yamayan."
* She is roommates with Horiuchi Noriyo and Sazama Hiroyo.
* She admires Eguchi Mikako, another pitcher on her team.
* She has said that if she didn't play softball, she would be a wrestler called "Mitsuko the Destroyer."

### Name Etymology

* Yamane (山根) - Mountain root
* Mitsuko (光子) - Light child

## Quotes

* *"How does someone as short as you pitch? Doesn't the ball roll to the plate because it's pitched so low?"* (by Miyuki Kazuya)
* *"How dare you try to one-up me!"* (to Shiraki Nozomi)
* *"I’ll give you a low fastball if that’s what I want to pitch! And it isn’t!"* (to Kawano Azusa)
* *"I only listen to people who I respect."* (to Kawano Azusa)