Kaoruko Himekoji

Kaoruko is vain, competitive and highly conscious of her public image. She expects admiration and approaches the popularity contest as something she deserves to win rather than a harmless school event.

Her elegance conceals a willingness to sabotage competitors. When Miho becomes a serious threat, Kaoruko abandons fair competition and damages her rival's dress to prevent her from progressing.

She is also overconfident. Kaoruko assumes she can outthink Yugi once their confrontation becomes a formal game, but her attention to appearances prevents her from recognizing how broadly the rules can be interpreted.

Kaoruko has no supernatural powers and no established Duel Monsters Deck. Her principal confrontation is instead a Shadow Game involving roses.

In the game, Kaoruko and Dark Yugi take turns removing between one and three roses. The person left with the final rose loses.

Kaoruko understands the numerical strategy behind the game and believes she has forced Yugi into defeat, but she fails to account for every rose on her person rather than only those in the bouquet.

Kaoruko participates in Domino High School's popularity contest with support from the student council chairman. Miho emerges as one of her principal competitors.

Kaoruko secretly tears Miho's dress so that she cannot advance normally, angering Yugi and prompting Dark Yugi to confront her.

During their rose Shadow Game, Kaoruko believes she has mathematically guaranteed victory. Dark Yugi instead removes the rose from her hair, leaving her with the final rose in the bouquet and causing her to lose.

Her punishment makes her perceive herself as an aged woman with snakes wrapping around her wrists. She subsequently withdraws from the popularity contest.

Miho Nosaka is Kaoruko's rival in the school popularity contest. Kaoruko sabotages Miho Nosaka's dress to prevent her from advancing.

Yugi Mutou becomes angry after discovering Kaoruko's treatment of Miho Nosaka. Dark Yugi challenges Kaoruko to a Shadow Game and defeats her by exploiting wording she had overlooked.

Anzu Mazaki, Katsuya Jonouchi and Hiroto Honda are among Yugi Mutou's school friends involved in the events surrounding the popularity contest.