Ayuko Yamamoto

Ayuko Yamamoto (山本 亜搖子 Yamamoto Ayuko) is a third year student at Yumachi Middle School and a member of the mahjong club.

Appearance
Ayuko is a relatively 153 cm relatively short girl with short fair hair and she is usually depicted with closed eyes.

She wears the Yumachi Middle School uniform with a short skirt.

Entering Middle School Arc
Ayuko is present along with the other club members during the clubs recruitment speech. She is yet to arrive when Shino Shiratsuki and her friends show up for a club visit. She and Mirin Katsube finally show up and the girls begin to play a few rounds of mahjong. Ayuko is paired with Shino, Shizuku Nozu and Hayari Mizuhara. She along with every senior is soundly beaten.

Suddenly the advisor Chisa Sakane appears and greets them. Shino asks her to play but Chisa says it's a waste of time and to not expect anything from her because she doesn't want to be their advisor. She then shoos them out of the club room. While Shizuku apologizes, Ayuko says that Chisa led them to the tournament last year but didn't do much coaching. After Shizuku yells at the new girls excitedly, Ayuko tells them that they'll have to get use to that. When Mirin declines Rio Takuwa's invitation to eat popcorn, Ayuko wonders if she is still on a diet.

City Tournament Arc
When it gets near the city tournament, Shizuku Nozu asks what she should do for the line up and Ayuko immediately tells her that she's fine with being a reserve player and doesn't really want to participate. Shizuku decides to let their play determine the line up and Ayuko ends up a reserve. She is later seen helping explain the rules to the first years.

At the tournament, she is shocked to see Kanna Ishitobi go bust.

While watching practice, Shino Shiratsuki makes her tea. She then tells Shino that she was a first year and took everything easy. She loved watching their best player play and then she lost. Ayuko says that that is when she gave up on the tournaments but this years freshman are way different than her.

Shimane Tournament Arc
Before finalizing the lineups, Ayuko told Chisa Sakane that while studying, she noticed Rio Takuwa win more often than not during the morning practice session that this conversation led Chisa to check in on it and decide Rio would play vanguard for the team.

Mixed Training Camp Arc
Ayuko was mentioned by Rena Mototsune saying that she constantly fawns over Hayari Mizuhara. Hayari thinks it's just that she needs help with her school work.

Playing Style/Abilities
Ayuko was eliminated early in the first round of the individual middle school prefecturals.

Etymology

 * The name Ayuko means "second, Asia" (亜) (a), "wag, swing, wave, shake, scull, palm" (搖) (yu) and "child" (子) (ko).
 * Ayuko's surname Yamamoto means "mountain, hill" (山) (yama) and "base, root, origin" (本) (moto).