Hitoe Uemura (Stand Up, the LRIG!)

**Hitoe Uemura** *(植村一衣)* is one of the main characters of the first two seasons of the Wixoss franchise and one of the main characters in Stand Up, the LRIG!. A shy Selector who had fallen victim to the wish tainting aspects of the Selector System once before, she continues to assist her friends and allies with Yuzuki now as her LRIG after the latter had become one during the events of Selector infected Wixoss.

## Personality

*For more information on Hitoe's personality in actual canon, see this page.*

Much like before, Hitoe is still very much a shy girl and can at times be easily frightened by unexpected things. One example of this was when she had almost been scared off by Kai when they had first encountered each other due to the latter's serious appearance. Although she like her friends doesn't enter any Selector Battles unless all other options have been considered, at the beginning of the story, her lack of confidence has led to her losing two practice games to Kai and Ren respectively, causing her to doubt her abilities then.

It isn't until she first meets Aichi in the second arc that she finally decides to make an effort from growing out of her fears and phobias, eventually growing more confidence in both making conversations and her skills in Wixoss, regardless of whether she participates in Selector Battles or not. As a result of the time she's spent around him, she begins to grow a high admiration of him, having unintentionally mimicked his Avatar phrase, called him with honorifics and blushed around him at times.

## Stand Up, the LRIG! Bio

### Pre-Stand Up, the LRIG!

Prior to the events of *Selector Infected Wixoss*, Hitoe was previously in a middle school in Aomori. Due to her accent and slow speech, she had hardly been able to make any friends, save for one by the name of a girl in her class called Sakuya. Some time afterwards, she and her family moved to Tokyo and it was there that she had first picked up the Wixoss card game and became a Selector with Midoriko in her possession. When she eventually got a letter from Sakuya, asking her if she had made any new friends since she had moved, Hitoe resolved to have her wish to be to make new friends and had her first battle with Aoi Akira pre-arranged some time afterwards.

*(With the exception of one minor detail in her pre-infected backstory, all details surrounding Hitoe in Selector Infected Wixoss are otherwise unchanged)*

### Arc 1

Some time after Ruko had run away from her and Yuzuki, Hitoe attempted to pursue her only to lose her friend's trail after exiting from the incomplete Daikichi Apartments. At some point afterwards, she had gotten word across of Ruko's disappearance to Hatsu, Ayumu, Hanayo and her parents in the midst of her searching. One night later, Hitoe ran into Toshiki Kai by accident and hurried on her way after apologizing to him. When Kai calls out to her and reveals that he has Tama with him, she brings out Yuzuki and the two of them bring him up to speed on everything that they and Ruko had been through in the Selector Battles thus far. When he resolves to help them, he quickly shoves her forward to dodge a knife thrown at them by Akira.

Akira upon sensing that Hitoe had somehow became a Selector again and laughing at the amusement of Yuzuki becoming an LRIG steps forward to challenge her, but Kai intervenes and battles her and Piruluk instead. During the battle, Hitoe and Yuzuki watched on from the tower within the various buildings of the battlefield's background, amazed by his skill and intrigued by the units he summoned. After the battle concludes, Kai escorts her home to ease her nerves and the two of them along with the LRIGs they hold promise to meet again the day after.

When they do, Kai tells them about the origins of his units from the Planet Cray and some of its clans that he used in the game of Cardfight!! Vanguard, briefly mentioning that he had also used Link Joker at some point. Hitoe then takes him over the shop Card Luck to help him modify his deck for the many battles he may have to face ahead before being surprised by the arrival of Chiyori and Eldora, the former of which attempts to start a Selector Battle with him. Kai refuses, but agrees to a casual game to help gauge her strengths and weaknesses, emerging victorious with Vortex Dragon. The two then exchange numbers to keep in contact with one another.

The next day, Hitoe meets up with Kai at the library she always likes to visit, wanting to test her strength with Yuzuki as it was in a casual game with him. She comes close to defeating him, but is ultimately defeated by Dragonic Overlord in the end. Believing that she has potential with what she currently has, even briefly comparing her to Aichi in the potential for her growth and their similar backgrounds, Kai gives her several spare Kagero units that had been turned into SIGNI from the box he had opened yesterday, to which she kindly thanks him for. She and Yuzuki then continue to search for Ruko into the evening, contemplating that they would have to help Kai return back to his world somehow as well.

When Hitoe is working on her new deck the following morning, she recieves a magazine from her mother and finds to her horror that not only did Akira return to the Selector Battles, seemingly without the lack of a scar, but that she's also used it as a way to organize a manhunt for Kai through Selectors that are bound to have read her message in there. Worried for his safety, she and Yuzuki hurry off to find him, just as he and Futase finish off the last of Akira's fan club that had ambushed him prior, with one of them having their wish tainted by him. As Futase brings new information about the current changes in the battles to light, Hitoe goes off on her own to try and find Ruko, only to meet back up with Kai immediately after recieving word from him that an encounter with Ulith had seemingly pointed the way to their missing friend.

Returning back to Daikichi Apartments, Kai steps out onto the roof to confront Ruko about the reason for her disappearance, to which she replies that Tama's 'betrayal' was the sole cause in her going about the way she was. When Ruko is about to open the field, Hitoe steps onto the roof to try and reason with her along with Yuzuki, but their friend refuses on the basis that they still trust Tama. At some point, Chiyori joins them in the field as the battle is still going. Later throughout the battle, they soon discover that Ruko is afflicted with reverse from gaining 'Iona' as her new LRIG and that she's been trying to end the battles either through convincing her opponent's to stop for their own good or by force if necessary. She becomes anxious when Kai is eventually overcome by a surge of Reverse affecting the Seed fragment within him and despite initial relief from seeing Tama break him out of that state, her anxiety only returns when Ruko and 'Iona' are about to deliver the final blow.

When the battlefield abruptly collapse from an overload of energy caused by the arrival of Aichi Sendou and several others into her world, Hitoe could only watch on as Ruko left them all on their own once more and as Kai yelled in agony for falling to the very curse he once accepted before.

### Arc 2

The next morning, Hitoe called up Kai to check on him and to also inform him that she had managed to acquire the novels that Futase had written in the hopes of finding any more clues to the Selector Battles through them. After going down to the library garden to wait for him there, she ran into Ren Suzugamori and upon learning that he came to this world with Aichi and some his other friends, she and Yuzuki quickly called up Kai to inform him, only to find that he had already found Aichi and Naoki with only Leon still unaccounted for. After telling him everything about the Selector Battles, Ren agrees to a practice game to learn more about WIXOSS, only to be briefly scolded by Yuzuki for almost opening the battlefield by accident to which Hitoe points out that her LRIG forgot to tell him about the method in the first place.

During the battle, they are eventually joined by Kai, Aichi and Naoki who watch the battle unfold between them. Recalling that Kai had briefly compared her to Aichi during their previous battle, Hitoe resolves to defeat Ren in the hope of impressing him, only to fall short due to an Ancient Surprise ARTS he had been holding on to. After Yuzuki points out to Aichi that the figure on the card was Umr, the same girl he had previously saw in a dream the night before, Ren defeats Hitoe, ultimately shattering her confidence and what little faith she already had in herself, causing her to retreat to her favourite spot in the library. Aichi and Yuzuki come to find her as she asks the latter if she's really useless.

When her LRIG tries to question her further on this, she cries stating that she couldn't do anything to save Midoriko in her first run of the Selector Battles leading to the tainting of her wish, nor can she do anything to help Ruko if she can't even be a match for anyone like Kai or Ren. She even points out that this wouldn't have even happened if she had just asked Midoriko about the consequences of a tainted wish before she had even accepted 'Iona's' battle. Aichi comforts her by mentioning that she didn't even know about what had happened and that blaming herself for what happened to her former LRIG and Ruko was not going to solve anything for anyone. He also accepts Yuzuki's offer to help Hitoe overcome her social anxiety, feeling that his experience in that subject can help her greatly in both that and her confidence overall.

Leon eventually finds the two of them and explains where it was that he had ended up in her world and the battle he had with Futase and Anne before he eventually found them with the 'wind' leading him to their presence. After the group is reunited and situation regarding the Seed after the events of *Legion-Mate* is disclosed, Kai leaves them on their own and they head on over to where his rented apartment is, surprised to find that it is also in the same building as where Ruko normally lives. They briefly encounter Ayumu and stay with Hatsu for a little while before finding the apartment that Kai had been staying in. Hitoe and Aichi then decide to look for Kai, worried about him after how much time had passed since they left the library. After being unsuccessful in attempting to call him, a panicked Chiyori exclaims to them that Kai had been injured, unaware at the time that Akira had previously attacked him.

When they eventually find him, they help Amika Hashimoto carry him all the way to the nearest hospital and wait in a room until he eventually recovers. That is when they discover that Akira had taken Tama and had left a note to attract Aichi's attention to meet with her and 'a guest' at Ruko's school later that night. Although Kai refuses to let him go alone, Hitoe musters up the courage to go with him, stating that as long as she keeps out of Akira's range, she can keep an eye on Aichi to make sure nothing bad happens to him. As the two are walking down to the school, she asks Aichi on how she could improve in her self-confidence, to which he replies that the first step to doing she would be to believe in herself more.

When they eventually arrive at Ruko's school by nightfall, Akira approaches the two of them after throwing several small knives to the ground just inches from their feet. She challenges Aichi to a battle but offers an alternative to let him find Tama and Ulith for a 'free pass' by letting Hitoe take his place. He refuses at first, but after Akira taunts Hitoe furtherquestioning if Ruko would want a 'blubbering coward' of a friend, she intervenes and offers to take his place instead. Aichi initially is against this decision, but after pointing out that he would have more time to find Ulith and save Tama from her hands this way and noticing her resolve, he reluctantly allows her to.

As Akira opens the battlefield, Hitoe and Yuzuki are soon horrified to find that not only did she steal Tama for Ulith, but that she also took Kai's Kagero deck which she was now using. Hitoe fights on the best she can, but her composure almost falls apart when Dragonic Overlord eventually enters the battlefield, causing her right hand to tremble uncontrollably. When Overlord finishes its attack, it questions her on her resolve and her reason for fighting, to which she then replies that she's fighting to help and save her friends. Despite her nerves, Hitoe endures through the attacks of Dragonic Overlord the End and with a new form of Yuzuki granted to her by the Kagero units that Akira had stolen, she ultimately wins the battle, much to her own surprise.

When they exit the field, after finding that Naoki had helped bring Kai all the way over from his apartment, Akira attempts to flee with his deck, only to be promptly tripped over by Leon who takes it back from her before she leaves the school, vowing that this won't be the last time they'll encounter each other. As Kai and Naoki look for Ren, she and Leon find and enter the battlefield that Aichi and Ulith are already in. Like everyone else present, she is horrified behind the reasoning for Ulith's enjoyment of the Selector Battles and how much she enjoys breaking people down to the extent of them taking their own lives as she claims.

When Ulith eventually gets into Aichi's head through his PSY Qualia, she can only watch on in horror as he remains motionless until Umr briefly possesses him before manifesting herself onto the battlefield through a Spell that his opponent previously used. After the battle concludes and Umr disappears, Aichi falls unconscious as Hitoe hurries to help him up, just as Ulith remarks that she never forgets a face, recognizing the Selector from the battle that had tainted her wish. As Hitoe remains defensive in front of Aichi, not wanting Ulith to do any more mental damage to him, she smugly hands back Tama to Kai as she had promised from his victory before retreating. She then gets a call from her mother who asks if she was still looking around at Ruko's school for clues to her whereabouts, to which she replies yes before asking where her father was, knowing that there was no telling regarding Aichi's current condition.

When the group eventually exits the school building, Hitoe's father is then briefly introduced to the group with Kai remarking that he only wished that the circumstances was not as it seemed. Upon seeing the unconscious Aichi, he agrees to allow Hitoe to bring him to her house to help him recover. After confirmation from Kai that the group can find their way there from him escorting his daughter back once before, he, Hitoe and Aichi leave for the Selector's home in his car with her keeping on eye on him in the back seats.

When they eventually arrive, they meet up with Hitoe's mother who after seeing that Aichi seems to have been picking up a small fever in his current state, prepares a wet cloth to help him recover a little faster. Upon seeing that it is working, Hitoe calls up Kai to inform him and the others before then looking over to her deck, noticing the changes to Yuzuki's forms through the power of his Kagero units. When they eventually arrive and introduce themselves to Hitoe's parents, omitting any details of the world they came from and their involvement in the Selector Battles, Aichi eventually recovers much to everyone's relief. When the two of them agree to a practice game to show their newfound bond in front of her family, Hitoe initially fumbles in trying to mimic Aichi's avatar phrasing and is quick to apologize later on for it, with Aichi reassuring her that she can call out her allies however she feels like it.

The next day, after reuniting with Kai and the others, Hitoe set off with them to confront Ruko and Kuro at the top of the site for Daikichi Apartments. When they arrived, she grew worried when she saw that Ruko's self-control over the Reverse aura imposed by the girl of black and could only watch on as the Selector decided to challenge Kai and Aichi in a 2 on 1 battle. At certain points, she grew worried for Aichi and Ruko and even shared shock upon learning that the LRIG that they had thought to have been the real Iona was really td he girl of black described in the novels, with the real Iona having been stranded on Planet Cray at this time. When Mayu decided to possess Ruko as a vessel to win the battle and begin setting up her conquest of the outside world personally, Hitoe was repulsed at the sight of Kuro's mutation into Berserk Draconis and panicked for Aichi's safety when the intensified attacks dealt damage to him as well. When Tama defeated Kuro and exorcised Mayu from Ruko's body, she was relieved for her friend's safety and joined the group in returning her safely back to Ayumu and Hatsu.

Upon returning to the Kominato's apartment, Hitoe did her best to withhold information about the involvement of the Selector Battles and Reverse from extensive questioning by Ayumu. After welcoming Ruko back home with everyone else and expressing her happiness that she was safe, she decided to thank Aichi for his part in saving the Selector and Yuzuki for helping her through the previous night, having not had a chance to express her gratitude in the midst of the dilemma from Urith's torment. After asking him if it was alright for her to call him "Aichi-kun" following her uttering of the phrase in the heat of the moment in her last battle with Akira, Aichi kindly reassures her that honorifics are something he always uses when addressing anyone he cares about. Happy about this and relieved to tell her family the good news about Ruko's recovery, she heads off for home.

## Relationships

### **Aichi Sendou**

Out of all the other cardfighters that came to her world other than Kai who had been with her since the start of the story, Aichi is the one that she feels the closest to. Until Kai had told her and Yuzuki about his previous adventures back in his own world, she had never even heard of Aichi, even being somewhat confused later when he made his brief comparison between how he used to be and her current state during their battle. Some time after the two meet for the first time, when her friendly battle with Ren Suzugamori concludes, she hurries off to the library corner she usually finds herself in, breaking into tears about how 'useless' she is in trying to help anyone in that she couldn't save Ruko or even be a good Selector for Midoriko.

Aichi helps her to calm down, telling her that blaming herself at this moment wasn't going to do anyone, not even herself, any good and that he would do everything he could to try and help her out. He even accepts Yuzuki's request to help Hitoe overcome her social anxiety so she can interact with the people around her a little better. All of the times they've been around each other, whether it would be searching for clues to ending the Selector Battles or just helping her get over her nervousness one step at a time, Hitoe always seems to hold a deep admiration of Aichi and finds him the easiest of the cardfighters in the group to talk to, even calling him 'Aichi-kun' out of respect for his kind nature and blushing around him on occasion. It has been implied that Hitoe has a crush on Aichi (with Yuzuki appearing to have her suspicions in regards to the topic), with a tie-in mini trilogy of one-shots Treasuring the Moment, The Looming Omen and Intertwined Hearts that have delved further into their bond without breaking the pace of the main story with third entry confirming outright to the reader that Hitoe is in love with Aichi, both from kissing his cheek and her mental thoughts afterwards.

On the occasions where the two are confronted with dangerous obstacles, Hitoe is always the first to try and resolve the issue with her own conviction before him. Although Aichi has been hesitant to let her do this at first, on both occasions where they confront Akira (with neither of them knowing she has Kai's deck at the time) and a reversed Sakuya and Midoriko, he ultimately allows her to do so. He was reluctant to do so on the first occasion when he recalled the various knives thrown at them by Akira, but allowed Hitoe with less reservation to challenge her reversed companions, knowing that this was a battle that she had to fight to show her growth.