Yukime

"The winner will be you, Mr.Shadow, and it will be I."

- Yukime, to Shadow

Yukime (ユキメ) is the ruler of the White Tower in the Lawless City, known as the Spirit Fox. Yukime also controls the pleasure district and the president of the Snow Fox Corporation. She was the fiancée of Gettan.

Appearance
As a Beastkin Fox, Yukime possesses the natural traits of her people, which are her long fox ears and nine tails. Yukime was recognized as a bewitching beauty, with a beautiful face with long snow-white hair, blue eyes, and a curvatuous figure. Yukime covered her horrendous scars behind her back by hiding it inside her kimono. After the end of the Trade Conflict, Shadow healed her properly and removed the scars.

She is dressed in her illustrious kimono colored snow-white as well, with fur on the shoulders, has gold accents on the cuffs, and blue lines accompanying them. The kimono is held together by her Obi, a sash around the belly, where she also keeps her two iron war fans for self-defense.

She has a Japanese style ornamentation: ribbon knots in her hair, bracelets in her hands, rings on her fingers, a pair of Geta sandals. a blue necklace accessory worn at her waist, and Japanese rings near the tips of her nine fox tails. These rings seem similar to Buddhist prayer beads, denoting some measure of spiritual or magical meaning.

Personality
"Verily, I wish for us to get close, Mr. Shadow."

- Yukime, to Shadow

As the leader of the White Tower, Yukime is an intelligent, cold and ruthless woman that will destroy anyone that gets in the way. Being a former prostitute, Yukime also has a seductive personality as she would often use her beautiful appearance and teasing personality to entice men to lower their guard, particularly towards Shadow who most likely attempts to persuade him to join her.

Although Yukime controls the pleasure district, she actually cares for her ladies to which when she meets Shadow for the first time in the Crimson Tower, the first thing Yukime does is to thank him for saving them from the ghouls. She's also a shrewd businesswoman who runs a legitimate company outside the Lawless City.

Long ago, Yukime was once a kind and loving girl but after her entire peaceful life was taken away from her, she dramatically changed, becoming a calculating and manipulative woman. She is even willing to use others to achieve her goal of revenge. Even so, Yukime seems reluctant when doing so because her kind heart still lingered as she's quite ashamed for deceiving those she genuinely respected as her equals and truly cared for her subordinates.

Despite this though, Yukime still has feelings for Gettan and after Shadow comes to save her, she is back to her old self.

Background
Yukime was born to the daughter of the Spirit Fox tribe's leader. One day when Yukime was age 14, a rival Beastkin tribe invaded the village, and she was about to be taken by them as a slave. That is until Gettan, the son of the Dire Wolves' Elder, rescued her and slaughtered the attackers. Yukime and Gettan fell in love ever since then. The Spirit Fox and Dire Wolf tribes chose to form an alliance to better defend themselves against the upcoming war by having Yukime and Gettan get married which is something both of them were happy to comply. However, Yukime had to reach the age of 15 before they could officially get married.

When the war had occurred, both tribes fell victim with only Yukime and Gettan the only survivors. While Yukime tried to comfort her fiancée, Gettan pushed Yukime away and revealed that he tried to save their tribes by gaining aid from a cult but Yukime's mother refused leading to Gettan murdering her. Yukime tried to flee but unfortunately, Gettan brutally attacked her and left slashed marks on her backs. Before Gettan could continue the assault, a mysterious figure intervened. Yukime was unconscious but she felt the figure's magic healing her. When she woke up, Yukime found that not only Gettan was gone but the invaders had been killed. Yukime found her mother's corpse, confirming what Gettan had done.

With her mother and tribe gone, Yukime only had revenge against her former fiancée. She became a battle prostitute and worked her way up till she finally became the leader of the White Tower, also owning countless brothels at the red-light district.

Red Moon Incident
Yukime took part in fending off the vampire and ghoul forces during the Red Moon, skirmishing with a battle crazed Juggernaut before Shadow arrived and the three agreed to work together in stopping Elizabeth's revival and the resurgence of vampires. After the crisis was averted, Yukime secretly invited Shadow for a proposition, aiming for an alliance between the two of them whilst Mitsugoshi Company and the Great Commerce Alliance engage in a covert trade war.

Great Trading Company Conflict
As the two corporations battle for power, Yukime and Shadow, now taking the identity of John Smith devise ways to usurp both factions. As time passes, Yukime decides to reveal to Shadow the reason for requesting his aid is to kill Gettan who is a member of the Great Commerce Alliance.

After their victory is assured, Yukime confronts Gettan and the two former lovers' battle. Despite being in her most powerful state, Yukime lost the fight. Thankfully, Shadow arrives to turn the tide and declaring to Gettan that Yukime was special to him. This touches Yukime, believing that Shadow came to her aid out of love for her. After Gettan was defeated and Shadow healing her past wounds, Yukime then learns that the Cult of Diablos were responsible for Gettan's actions from Alpha and chooses to form an alliance between her faction and Shadow Garden, both organization desiring to end the cult.

Powers & Abilities
Being the ruler of the White Tower of the Lawless City, Yukime is considerably powerful because her strength is based on the sum of her 9 tails, making her even more powerful than other Spirit Foxes. Yukime is arguably on-par with high-ranking members of Shadow Garden, with only Juggernaut standing as her equal within the city. Still, she is far inferior to being like the Shadow and Elisabeth, the latter of whom she could barely keep up with even though she had backup.

Standard Equipment
Yukime fights with a pair of metal-ribbed fans, as she is mastering a dance-like fighting style.

Art of Seduction
Yukime has learned this technique as she is a former prostitute in the red-light district before she become a White Tower's ruler, with her beauty and charm she could seduce almost any man. She tries to tempt Shadow by using herself and her subordinates to seduce Shadow in order to have him tied to her organization, but it doesn't work.

Shadow / John Smith
Yukime acted teasingly and unashamedly flirted with Shadow after he protected her prostitutes from the vampires. Upon witnessing his incredible strength, Yukime desired to gain his aid in order to bring down Gettan and the Great Commerce Alliance. She tried seducing him, but Shadow could tell what her motives were and dismissed the attempts. She finally got Shadow's aid with the promise of riches by collapsing both the Great Commerce Alliance and Mitsugoshi Company.

When the two worked together, Yukime was quite fearful of her partner as she learnt that not only did Shadow (now under the guise, John Smith) possessed power but also seemingly supernatural intelligence which kept her on her toes. Still, Yukime developed respect for John that by the time their plans were complete, she apologized to him for using him for her revenge.

Unbeknownst to her and John, the two had actually met years ago. When Gettan attacked Yukime for refusing to join the Cult of Diabolos, John came to her rescue and used his magic to heal her. Upon being rescued once more and healed of her scars completely by John in the present day, Yukime realized that John and her past savior were one and the same. Combined with the belief he rescued her out of care, Yukime fell in love with John.

When informed by Alpha that John had in fact used her to bring down the Great Commerce Alliance and protected Mitsugoshi Company (a Shadow Garden front), Yukime does not hold ill will towards him.

Gettan
Gettan was Yukime's hated enemy and her former fiancée. The two were romantically in love until Gettan betrayed her by not only attacking her for refusing to join the Cult of Diabolos with him but also murdering her beloved mother. Since then, Yukime solely wanted vengeance against her former fiancée, and she did it by destroying the Great Commerce Alliance which Gettan lead. When the two former lovers confronted each other years later, even though Yukime had Gettan beaten and was about to deliver the killing below, Yukime stopped herself.

Alpha
Yukime had a respectful working relationship with Alpha after the former become an ally to Shadow Garden. Although, Yukime admitted she was envious that Alpha was one of the people Shadow held dear.

Trivia

 * In the Light Novel, Yukime's age was unknown. However, considering that she was 14 years old when a young Cid Kagenō saved her, it can be presumed she might be around her 20s.