Mighty Yukiko

Chigusa Yuki;

Megumi Muto

## Story

One day, Yukiko, a young girl trying to find her way in life, gets caught up in a street fight in which she quickly finds herself outnumbered by knife-armed hoodlums. Just as she believes she is doomed, a stranger appears and beats up the hoodlums with ease, saving her. The stranger introduces herself as Dragon Fujiko of New Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling, and invites Yukiko to New Japan's upcoming rookie tryouts. Yukiko, profoundly impressed by Fujiko's skills and personality, makes it her dream to face Fujiko in the ring some day, and thus takes up the offer.

Yukiko passes the rookie selection process smoothly and joins New Japan with fellow rookies Bomber Kishima (with whom Yukiko quickly becomes best friends), Haruka Yamada, Kayo Ozawa and Yoshimi Takagi. Also joining New Japan during roughly the same period are Toshimi Minami and Beauty Ichigaya, the latter whom Yukiko describes as one who "pollutes everything she touches".

Fujiko is glad to see that Yukiko has joined, and encourages her training. Panther Risako and Blade Uehara, who rank immediately below Fujiko in the New Japan hierarchy, also see potential in Yukiko, the latter in particular looking forward to watch Yukiko take Ichigaya down a notch.

In the rookie tournament "Angel Crown", Yukiko - as predicted by Uehara - defeats Ichigaya in the final and wins the privilege of overseas deployment to AAC representing New Japan, but incurs Ichigaya's declared hostility.

During her deployment in Mexico, Yukiko meets fellow Japanese rookie Chelsea Hada of World Women's Pro-Wrestling who has been similarly deployed overseas by her own promotion, and Mexican rookies Despina Libre and Lita Morena of AAC, the former with whom she forms a strong friendship, and the latter whom she defeats to become IWWF Junior Champion.

Returning to Japan, Yukiko is greeted by shocking news: Risako has defeated Fujiko to become new IWWF Asia Heavyweight Champion, and Fujiko can never wrestle again as a consequence of injury. During Fujiko's farewell speech, Yukiko tells her that she will make it her aim to instead face Risako in the ring.

After Risako's string of successful title defences against Uehara, Mimi Yoshihara and Dread Miyagi, Yukiko announces her own Revolutionary Army, with members including Kishima, Minami and newcomer Riyu Kikuchi. They first target the IWWF Asia Tag Team Champions title which was vacated when Risako and Uehara split up. The Regular Army deploys Teddy Cat Hori and Hikaru Ijuin as contenders, but they are defeated by Yukiko and Kishima who win the title for the Revolutionary Army. Following this, Yukiko challenges Risako herself for the IWWF Asia Heavyweight Champion title and wins, to her own surprise. Risako congratulates Yukiko and encourages her to pursue the IWWF World Heavyweight Champion title.

Now New Japan's ace, Yukiko and her team travel to Mexico a second time with the aim of acquiring the AAC Heavyweight Champion title currently held by a mysterious masked newcomer known as Em Sande. After defeating her, Em Sande is revealed to actually be Uehara, who remarks that Yukiko has indeed become as strong as she had predicted she could be.

From here, Yukiko and her team travel directly to America, only to find that Ichigaya arrived before her and has already become IWWF World Heavyweight Champion. Ichigaya taunts Yukiko to try to take the title from her. But before Yukiko has a chance to do so, the title is taken by the masked Dark Star Chaos of WWCA who crushes Ichigaya with ease.

Risako warns that Chaos' defeat of Ichigaya implies not the latter's weakness (since Ichigaya was able to defeat Remy Dadarne of GWA) but rather the former's strength. Nevertheless, Yukiko proves able to defeat Chaos and brings home the IWWF World Heavyweight Champion title to the acclaim of her colleagues and fans alike. Thus a new legend of wrestling is born. (Ichigaya ludicrously spins this as Yukiko finding a way to avoid directly challenging herself for the title......)

During the JWI fiasco, Yukiko does her best to maintain the morale of those who chose to stay in New Japan to prevent further defections to JWI, including by defending New Japan from the crash challenge by Thunder Ryuko and Anny Beach, as well as successfully defending her IWWF World Heavyweight Champion title from Ichigaya (who responds by accusing Yukiko of giving sexual favors to the referee before the match started.....).

On the other hand, Yukiko and Kishima lose the IWWF Tag Team Champions title to the Sniper Sisters, leading to Kishima being replaced by rising star (and fellow Ichigaya-hater) Megumi Muto as Yukiko's tag partner. Yukiko and Muto succeed in taking back the title from the Sniper Sisters in a return match, but then unexpectedly lose it to the lower-rated tag team of Yamada and Ozawa, who in turn lose it to the Sniper Sisters again.

Ichigaya and her new tag partner Jena Megalight, having defeated the Sniper Sisters and acquired the title, offer Yukiko and Muto a tag match, but attack Yukiko outside the ring prior to the match. Yukiko suffers a broken leg as a result, and is not only unable to participate in the scheduled match, but is unable to do any wrestling at all for the next 18 months while healing, though she is soon back at the New Japan headquarters on crutches to help Risako with behind-the-scenes work.

## Personality

Yukiko is known for eating a lot. Her favorite food is curry rice. She easily eats more than a dozen portions in one sitting, and claims to be able to eat it with no upper bound in quantity at all.

Yukiko is widely regarded as the best wrestler of her generation in Japan, with only Ichigaya and Ryuko rivaling her. Primarily an aerial specialist with a secondary focus in throwing, Yukiko has neither Uehara's speed nor Risako's technical perfection, and certainly not Ichiygaya's brute strength nor Ryuko's endurance. But Yukiko has time and again beaten opponents whom in theory she should lose to, because her indomitable fighting spirit enables her to exceed all ordinary limits, as she describes in her own words: "You will regret setting alight my inner flame!" Each time it appears that her defeat is a foregone conclusion, each time she suddenly starts pulling out one amazing move after another beyond her opponents' wildest expectations to turn the match around towards victory.