Yukiko Maya

Yukiko Maya (真屋 由暉子, Maya Yukiko) is a first year student at Usuzan High School.

Appearance
Yukiko is noticeably shorter than all of her teammates but has the largest breasts as well. She has long dark hair and wears the standard Usuzan uniform with thigh-high socks. Yuan Iwadate has sewn her a special outift for her to wear during her semi-finals match.

Personality
According to Yuan Iwadate, Yukiko has an unreserved nature and does what she wants. Others have called her pure and studious. However, because of this, she also had a need to feel wanted and ends up doing whatever others ask of her. She would end up doing a lot of work that was never assigned to her, but assigned to her classmates instead, because they asked her to do it.

Final Eight Arc
When Sawaya Shishihara and Chikako Himori try to cheer up Naruka Motouchi after being defeated, Yukiko corrects Sawaya's use of scripture and notes that this situation is different. She then tells Chikako to do her best before the girl departs. She is then shown her new outfit made by Yuan and wonders if its okay to actually wear it. Naruka then says that with the skirt having a slit in it that it was a bit scary. However Yukiko tells he that it actually seems fun. Later Sawaya was using potty humor but was soon stopped by Yukiko before she could finish.

After Yuan Iwadate returns from her match, she asks Yuan to help her change. While doing this, she says to herself that she can go riichi seven more times and that she must give it everything she's got. She then has a flashback to when she first joined the club. Here she is asked by two girls to throw some papers away and she agrees with no questions. While on her way she notices the mahjong club and trips. After they help her out, she gets invited to the club and she agrees to go. In the club she is playing cards with the rest and asks about mahjong and if they had any tiles. She is then informed that they were sold by the seniors. Yukiko then says that she has a broken table at her house that the club could have and that it might be able to work again. Later the club is shown playing a game when Yukiko says that she doesn't have anything going for her and is then handed a mahjong magazine with Ichigo Sasano and Teru Miyanaga in it. The club decides that Yukiko should become the next mahjong idol and give her a make over. Later while walking with Naruka and Yuan, Yukiko wonders if she is getting in the way as a newcomer. They then explain to her that it isn't much to worry about and then give her some advice.

Before leaving for her match, Sawaya recites a bible verse to Yukiko. When she's ready to sit, she accidently run into Nodoka Haramura, which sends her stuffed Etopen flying into the air. When the match starts, Yukiko remains quiet but able to get into tenpai in the first round. In the bonus round, Yukiko keeps her tenpai and has a duel with Megan Davin and was able to dodge her hits but she was unable to win. Yukiko was unable to win through the first few rounds and the game reached halftime. Along with Nodoka, she remained seated. Yukiko then begins to talk with Nodoka about Etopen saying that when she was young she supported the penguins in the story but now supports the tufted puffins. The reason for this is in part because the puffins live where she does and also because of the penguins ego. When the second half begins and after Nodoka's quick win, Yukiko finally manages to win a small tsumo hand. Megan then wins the next two hands causing Yukiko to reflect and say that even in a hopeless situation she must win as many points as possible. During her dealership, she felt it important that she reduce the number of tiles to get tenpai so that maybe she could gain more. Yukiko then asks everyone if it's okay to use her left hand and everyone agreed. She then declares riichi and gets into a duel with Megan. Yukiko then hits everyone with a massive tsumo for 8,000 all. She then states out loud that she is switching back to her right hand and to herself that she should try to win more within her limits. On the next hand, Yukiko decides to go for quick points and calls a pon then a chii and finally managing to win with a tsumo worth 4,000 all. With the next hand having good waits, she declares riichi but is pursued by Nodoka and defeated by her with a ron of 8,300. After a Kinue win, Yukiko notices Megan acting funny and notes that she didn't do this in the round before. With Megan winning the last two rounds, the match is over.

National Championship Arc
That night she models Yuan's new clothes that she made for her. The next day she very nervously enters the arena with the rest of her team, greeting the other players and wishing them all good luck. She is seen throughout the Match for 5th, cheering on her teammates as they play. Just before the start of the vice-captain's match, Yukiko takes a moment to re-evaluate her opponent Mairu Shirouzu, Shindouji's ace. She remembers Sawaya informing her that Mairu and Himeko's combination is directly tied to Mairu's wins, and that the key to defeating them is stopping Mairu from winning. However, Mairu starts off the hanchan with a direct hit off of Hiroko Funakubo, distancing her from Yukiko and closing the gap to first.

Yukiko and Yuan are walking and run into Nodoka Haramura. They ask for her autograph but were interrupted by Mihoko Fukuji searching for Hisa Takei. They all decide to look around but are stopped by a guard. Since Yukiko and Yuan played earlier in the day they could pass into the playing area.

Playing Style/Abilities
Everyday, for one hand, Yukiko can go "all out" where she asks if it's alright to switch to her left hand, and often wins with more than a mangan. In the semifinals when Yukiko goes all out, Megan Davin was confused when she didn't get win immediately, wondering if it was due to Megan changing the flow. When she goes all out, markings on her left hand will appear until she wins, it is unknown if other players can see this.

She is a very conscientious player, taking into account multiple paths to tenpai, the current tiles discarded, as well as her current amount of points. However, she is capable of discarding this and going for larger hands as need be, as seen when she chooses to go for a koukushi when she only had 10 tiles for it (normally, players won't even consider a koukushi unless they have 11 or 12 tiles).

Etymology

 * The name Yukiko means "reason, case, cause" (由) (yu), "shine, light" (暉) (ki), and "child" (子) (ko).
 * Yukiko's surname Maya means "real, genuine" (真) (ma) and "house, roof" (屋) (ya).