Himeko Tsuruta

Himeko Tsuruta (鶴田 姫子 Tsuruta Himeko) is a second-year student at Shindouji Girls' High School who has been together with Mairu Shirouzu since middle school.

Appearance
Himeko has short brown hair with clips on the bangs and blue eyes. During middle school she was rather short, but grew taller than Mairu Shirouzu some 1.5 years ago. She now wears the standard Shindouji' uniform but the sleeves go past her wrists.

Personality
Himeko is the shy type personality person and always cares for her team members especially Mairu Shirouzu, due to their strong bond in friendship. It is also implied that she's begun building a deeper friendship with Kirame Hanada as well.

Final Eight Arc
Himeko appears with the rest of her teammates entering the playing hall before the final eight competition begins. In the later parts of the vanguard match, she appears in a Kirame Hanada flashback. Here she is walking with Mairu Shirouzu, discussing why Kirame got the vanguard position during the tournament. After Mairu tells her that she is nothing more than a sacrifice, Himeko wonders why their fifth best player doing that instead. Mairu then says that Kirame doesn't go bust during a match no matter what. Himeko then says that if Kirame had heard this, she would be disappointed, not aware that she infact overheard their conversation. After Kirame's match she wishes Yoshiko good luck before the start of hers.

Before Mairu's match she wishes her good luck, to which Mairu responds that the binds must be extra strict with this point difference, and Himeko tells her that she trusts her judgement. When Mairu links with her, she feels it and trembles. Later when Mairu completes a hand, she gets a mangan key for the east second round first dealer repeat. Mairu then goes for a large bind and she impacted so much that her team members asks about it. Kirame then asks if she can use the extra han if Mairu has some left after her binding. Himeko tells her that she cannot. Later when Mairu tries to complete her seven han hand, Himeko shakes and says that she's being too reckless.

At the start of the captain's match, Himeko notices that Awai Oohoshi had made it difficult to complete a hand before winning. She then says it is lucky that it's her dealership and wins on a quick cheap hand so that she can get the dealer repeat for Mairu's mangan key. She then uses the key she was given to bypass Awai's ability and win on a mangan. In the east third hand, Himeko uses Mairu's baiman key. Although Awai tries to stop the baiman, Himeko quickly wins and Awai concedes that she probably cannot defeat their combination. Everyone is surprised when Ryuuka Shimizudani wins the next hand, as Mairu won that hand in the vice-captain's match; Himeko says she never got a key for that round and Mairu comments that she didn't think she'd win that hand in the vice-captain's match. She again uses Mairu's haneman key to win and give Shindouji first place. After Awai unleashes her true power, Himeko gets into tenpai but is ron'd off of by her. Shizuno Takakamo wins the next hand to end the first half of play.

At the start of the second half Awai again ron's Himeko and she finally notices her true power. When the next round starts Awai challenges Himeko even though she has her key. Himeko then proceeds to win the round and with the next she decides to do her best even though she has no key. As she advances her hand, she is won off of again by Awai. Later in the match Ryuuka wins off of her and Shizuno completes a cheap hand to advance to the round where Himeko can use the yakuman key. As she begins to use the key however, she notices that she feels less of Mairu than previously, as if something is blocking their connection, before winning the hand. She then notes that that has never happened before but doesn't think much else of it, as she won anyways. In the last hand Himeko is the dealer and claims that she doesn't have to finish the match in one go to get to the finals. However, despite Himeko's tenpai, Awai wins, gaining second place for Shiraitodai and Shindouji (along with Senriyama) is kicked out of the tournament.

She is later seen in the waiting room room crying into Mairu before Kirame offers her tacos that an underclassman gave to her.

National Championship Arc
She is watching television with Mairu before the meeting. HImeko later fetches Kirame for the meeting and asks the girl who she was talking to on the phone.

During the vanguard match, she gets excited to see that Kirame is doing well.

As Mairu takes the stage, HImeko is pleased to see that Mairu's starting hand lends itself nicely to be high scoring. After Mairu wins, Himeko is gleeful; however, in the following hand, Mairu binds so highly that Himeko is overwhelmed with feelings, and needs to be taken to the nap room in order to rest properly. Kirame and Tomokiyo take HImeko as she continues reacting to Mairu's bindings, but they are unable to use the nap room as Kirame fears giving Ryuuka, who is in the nap room with Toki, excess information about the binds that Mairu have placed.

After the Vice-Captain's match is finished, Kirame takes Himeko to the playing room. Himeko greets the other players and opens the captain's match with the baiman key that Mairu gave her, taking first place for Shindouji. In the next round, Himeko's dealership, Mairu did not win but had a binding, leading HImeko to believe that she should not win - but her starting hand contains 9 terminal tiles, allowing her to call for an abortive draw which in the new Interhigh rules, adds an additional bonus round, skipping over the lost binding from Mairu. This confuses her opponents, allowing her to widen her lead by winning again.

Playing Style/Abilities
Himeko's ability is to linked with Mairu Shirouzu. Mairu has the option to impose a Han restriction (eg. 2 Han or 3 Han) on herself the moment she opens her hand, if she wins with that hand then Himeko will win that same round with double that amount (eg. 4 Han or 6 Han, respectively). This Han restriction is not limited to Yaku, dora can also be used to elevate her Han values. If she doesn't win then Himeko will almost never win; though, in the rare event she does, it'll probably only be 1 Han; depending on the ruleset, this can also be an advantage for Himeko, as seen in the Match for 5th, an aborted draw that increases the amount of bonus rounds will allow HImeko to skip hands that Mairu limited herself but didn't win. If she doesn't link with Himeko then their hands will be unrelated. Also if Mairu has extra han left after her binding, Himeko cannot use them.

However, Himeko is also shown to have skills outside of Mairu's reservations as Teru Miyanaga acknowledges that both Himeko and Mairu individually have a lot of power. Also even though she "rarely" wins if Mairu places a bind but does not win, she quickly won in the Captain's 2nd East hand (while in the Vice-Captain's match Mairu lost this hand).

Etymology

 * The name Himeko means "princess" (姫) (hime) and "child" (子) (ko).
 * Himeko's surname Tsuruta means "crane, stork" (鶴) (tsuru) and "field, rice paddy" (田) (ta).

Trivia

 * Himeko shares a dorm room with Mairu Shirouzu.