Summary
Originating from the northern Japanese mountains, Yukime is a sixteen-year-old yuki-onna whose existence is defined by her intense, albeit complicated, devotion to Nūbē. Their bond began five years earlier when Nūbē, then a college student and spiritualist, rescued her from a hunter who sought to eliminate her before she could grow powerful enough to endanger his village. Grateful for her life, Yukime vowed to find him for "eternal love," a promise that initially manifested as an intent to freeze him in ice and keep him with her forever in Doumori. However, her heart remained warm, and after her students intervened, Nūbē defrosted himself and asked her to leave. She eventually returned to Doumori, taking a job as an ice skating coach at the local rink while continuing her pursuit of his affection. As a yuki-onna, Yukime commands snow, ice, and cold. Her primary ability allows her to generate ice from her body to freeze targets she can see or point at, creating offensive attacks, roadblocks, or even focusing light like a magnifying glass, though Nūbē jokes that her power is only truly useful for making shaved ice. She also possesses minor healing abilities and a natural talent for figure skating. Conversely, she is vulnerable to intense heat, unable to withstand high temperatures or wear black clothing that might melt her body. To cope, she sometimes wraps herself in snow to cool down, a quirky habit that occasionally flusters Nūbē when she emerges from it. While later plot developments mitigated some of these thermal issues, she still struggles with extreme heat. Her role in Doumori oscillates between valuable ally and persistent nuisance, driven largely by her romantic rivalry with Ritsuko-sensei. Nūbē initially desired Ritsuko, who began returning his feelings just as Yukime’s advances started to gain traction. The situation escalated when a servant of the Mountain God manipulated Yukime into capturing Nūbē, convincing her that sacrificing Ritsuko would make her human and win Nūbē’s love. When Yukime failed to kill Ritsuko, the Mountain God revealed he was testing her humanity, intending to return her to the mountains if she retained her cold nature or kill her if she had sympathized with humans. Nūbē rescued both women, confessing his love for Yukime in the process. Severely injured, Yukime used her remaining power to defeat the Mountain God, turning into snowflakes in Nūbē’s arms. Although Miki, Hiroshi, and Kyouko mourned, Ritsuko suggested her snowflakes might allow for rebirth. True to Ritsuko’s words, Yukime was not truly dead. The Mountain God used her snowflakes to create a new yuki-onna with her exact appearance but a cold, murderous heart. This new entity encountered Nūbē during a school trip, attempting to kill him by luring him away from his class. However, fragments of the original Yukime’s memories and warmth surfaced, causing the new version to flee without harming them. Yukime later returned to Doumori to reconcile these conflicting identities, realizing her love for Nūbē and stabilizing her personality into a balance of her former childish self and her new assertive nature. It is implied she eventually recovered all her lost memories. In the anime, an alternate reality born from Kyouko’s subconscious featured a fully grown Yukime at Doumori, but without Nūbē, who was in a catatonic state after a near-fatal attack by another youkai.
