Saki Yamaguchi

Saki Yamaguchi is the main protagonist of Yu-Gi-Oh! RED. She is a student of Duel Academia in the Osiris Red Dorm. She is a spirit seer with a special connection to Buster Whelp of the Destruction Swordsman, and an alchemist skilled in ethereal alchemy. She is one of Duel Academia's ace students, scoring the highest marks in her class during her first year.

Appearance
Saki is a young teenage girl with brown eyes and long, straight black hair. She has fair skin, and is fairly slender. She normally wears her Duel Academia uniform, which consists of a red jacket that she leaves open, and gray pants, as well as white sneakers and a black t-shirt. As a third year, Saki wears the third-year Duel Academia uniform, a red jacket with long tails. Her black t-shirt is replaced with a black turtleneck, and she wears white slacks and brown boots.

Personality
Studious and nervous, Saki is a bit of a perfectionist who is always trying to measure up to impossible expectations that she puts on herself. She is a little bit shy, but forces herself to be friendly with others in order to put on an act of being open and helpful, so that others will look kindly on her. She tends to avoid, or at least try to avoid, rule-breaking due to anxieties about getting into trouble, earning her the title of "goody-two-shoes" by many others. Despite this, Saki is extremely determined, and doesn't easily back down from a challenge when she thinks that others need her help. Her single-minded tendency to pursue her goals becomes an asset when she's turned onto an important task, though she can become easily overwhelmed when she's confronted with many options.

Saki is an extremely loyal friend and despite her anxieties, has no qualms about jumping into danger for others. She believes in putting trust into others despite having been burned before, especially trusting her monsters and her teachers.

Though initially a very nervous and anxious person, throughout her time at Duel Academia she gains much more self confidence, and begins to believe in herself as much as she believes in her friends and monsters.

Abilities
Saki is a spirit seer, meaning that she has the ability to see, hear, and sense the presence of Shadow People when they manifest in spiritual forms in the Physical Realm.

Saki has a special connection to Buster Whelp of the Destruction Swordsman, also known as Angel. She is able to see and speak to him while he is nearby even when others can't see him, though she does not speak his language and can't touch him physically. This connection extends to Angel's other forms, including Buster Dragon and World Dragon, The Beginning of Swords, who will sometimes manifest to protect her in times of extreme peril.

She is also an alchemist, an ability that manifested during her second year. Saki's particular alchemical skills are in ethereal alchemy, or the ability to borrow and then combine the energies of living souls to craft magic items. Saki must absorb the energies of other, willing people or spirits within herself, causing her a brief stabbing pain before the object is produced from her heart. Saki normally crafts swords from her power, but she has also produced protective medallions.

Due to her connection to World Dragon, Saki also has the ability to cut through worlds using her alchemical swords. This allows her to open up holes in reality to pass from one world to another, or to destroy bubble dimensions in order to escape them.

Etymology
Saki's name is written 幸希, from 幸 (happiness) and 希 (hope, pray). Her surname is written 山口 from 山 (mountain) and 口 (mouth).

History
As a child, Saki grew up in a strict household in Sapporo, Hokkaido. Her parents were both high achievers, and had high expectations for Saki. Her father would strike her on occasion when frustrated with her, while her mother was often scolding her to do better even when losing only a handful of points on an assignment. She met her childhood friend Kaede - and at that point, her only friend - in elementary school.

Saki drove herself to anxious lengths in order to both please her parents and hide her powers, leading to her feeling extremely repressed by the time she came to Duel Academia.

The Secret of Red
In this non-canon pilot, Saki is enrolled at the Osiris Red Dorm much to her chagrin. After enduring teasing from her childhood friend Kaede, who was placed into Ra Yellow, Saki heard rumors of a monster stalking the Osiris Red Dorm. She met her roommate, Miu Ueno, and then discovered that the "monster" was actually Judai Yuki, the special Osiris teacher who revealed to her and the rest of the students that the Osiris Red Dorm was actually for kids with powers.

Red Days
Saki was enrolled in the Osiris Red dorm at Duel Academia for her first year. Although initially upset by her placement, she soon realized that it was due to her ability to see duel spirits. Saki was initially overwhelmed by and a little anxious about her placement and her new world, but she was quickly won over by the other members of the dorm. She quickly became friends with Miu, Taro, Minato, and Nina, as well as her upperclassman, Saya. Unfortunately, her new placement and friend group caused a rift between her and her childhood friend Kaede.

When Saki learned the truth about Saya's missing sister Hinata, she and the rest of Osiris Dorm decided to find a way to find her and bring her home using their powers. However, their snooping drew the attention of Armityle, who pulled Saki and a few others into another dimension, where they were briefly trapped inside nightmare spells. When Saki refused to give in to Armityle's machinations, she released herself using the power of World Dragon's swords. Impressed, Armityle gave Saki the information needed to find and release Hinata from where Armityle had been keeping her all those years.

Saki became the first year representative for the graduation duel, in which she faced off against Saya. During the duel, Saki used the power of World Dragon once again to release Hinata and reunite the sisters.

Osiris Blues
Returning to Duel Academia for their second year, Saki was determined to be the best upperclassman that she can be. Although given the opportunity to transfer to another dorm, Saki decided to stay in Osiris to stay with her friends. She became involved with Saya and Hinata once again when she learned that they were temporarily living on campus while Hinata recovered. She visited them often on campus, and found that Hinata was still under the influence of whatever dark magic had kept her prisoner.

Saki then found herself at the forefront of a hazing battle with Obelisk and in particular, a rivalry with Obelisk Blue Kylie Harbison, while she also clashed with a new Osiris student, Haruka, who hated Saki's reliance on the duel monsters. When Hinata had a particularly bad attack, Saki awakened into new powers of alchemy, which she used to forge a medallion to help Hinata's recovery. She also made friends with an Obelisk Blue boy named Kakon Ashikaga, whom she met often in the library.

Saki went through a disastrous mid-term tag duel with Haruka, after which she and Haruka's rivalry hit a high point in the midst of the worst parts of the Obelisk/Osiris war. It was Saki who suggested making allies among the other dorms to mitigate the hazing. After the war was mostly dealt with, Saki tried to focus on her schoolwork, when Kaede suddenly went missing. Saki and the others raced to learn what was happening to the students who were going missing, after which Saki was sealed into a bubble dimension with Haruka. After having an honest conversation with Haruka, Saki managed to use her alchemical powers to cut through the bubble dimension and release everyone kidnapped by Armityle.

At the end of the school year, Saki found that her friend Kakon was in fact Armityle himself, and began to worry about why it had gotten so close to her in the first place.

Miu Ueno
Miu is Saki's roommate at Duel Academia. Saki considers Miu to be her best friend, though she's often a bit exasperated at Miu's constant sleepiness and lack of urgency about schoolwork. They made their first connection through their classification as spirit seers, relating to each other in being able to see and interact with their spirit partners.

Taro Inugawa
Taro is one of Saki's friends and classmates. Though not quite as close to him as the others in her friend group, Saki thinks of Taro as a loyal and sweet friend whom she would always go out of her way for to help.

Nina Orlando
Nina is one of Saki's friends and classmates. Saki is sometimes overwhelmed by Nina's exuberance and always trying to reign her in, but tends to get dragged along for the adventure anyway. She thinks of Nina as someone who's a little over the top, but extremely genuine, and trusts Nina to have her back as well as promising to always have hers.

Minato Fujita
Minato is one of Saki's best friends and classmates. They had a rocky start at their first meeting, with Saki thinking Minato was unnecessarily mean and snappish, and Minato believing that Saki was trying too hard to fake niceness. After an honest conversation, however, they both realized they had a lot in common, and became extremely close friends. Saki thinks of Minato as a stalwart friend who is always there for her, and tends to go to them first when she has something that worries her.

Saya Nishimura
Saya is Saki's senpai. Saki really looks up to Saya and is often inspired by her, and wants to be able to live up to her example. She finds Saya to be one of the strongest people she knows and considers her a goal to aspire to, while Saya seems to view her as a friendly rival and a good friend.

Hinata Nishimura
Hinata, Saya's big sister, was rescued by Saki when she used her power of cutting through worlds to free her from a bubble dimension. Saki feels as though she needs to do her best for Hinata, as she's still going through a rough time after her long imprisonment, and wants to help her in order to support Saya.

Kaede Hisakawa
Kaede is Saki's childhood friend. They had somewhat of a rocky relationship as kids, with Kaede taking out some of her feelings of inadequacy out against Saki through teasing that often hurt Saki's feelings, though Saki never admitted that it did. After a major confrontation in which Saki finally spoke up about how she felt, she and Kaede had a falling out. Later, Kaede apologized for her actions, and Saki became friends with her again. Saki still considers Kaede to be one of her best friends, and is a bit overprotective of her due to her not having any powers and her own determination to make sure she holds onto this friendship from now on.

Judai Yuki
Judai is Saki's teacher in Osiris Red. Though she is in Johan's teaching unit, Saki has always felt closer to Judai, appreciating his willingness to tell her the truth about things without sugarcoating it, and treating her and the other students as equals who just need a little bit of support. She considers Judai to be a goal to aspire to and an inspiration to do her best. She trusts that Judai will take care of the school, and always believes that he'll come to the student's rescue without giving up.

Angel
Angel is Saki's spirit partner and her ka spirit. Also known as Buster Whelp of the Destruction Swordsman, Angel is a prim and proud dragon who is very protective of Saki. Saki thinks of him as her closest friend whom she's known since she was a child, and takes a lot of comfort in his presence. She believes that Angel will always be at her side.

Haruka Matsushita
Haruka is one of Saki's underclassman. They had an initially rocky start to their relationship, as Haruka hated the spirits and hated Saki's blind trust in them, and Saki hated the way that Haruka was so mistrusting of the spirits and so combative about it. They got into several fights, including a duel, over their distrust of the other's view of the spirits. After the two of them were locked together in a bubble dimension, however, Saki learned the truth about Haruka's mistrust of monsters, and encouraged her to work through it. While they're not the best of friends, they do have respect for each other now.

Kylie Harbison
Kylie is an Obelisk Blue who clashed with Saki on several occasions. Saki thinks of Kylie as a mean ringleader who organized a series of hazing and bullying attempts against Osiris, and is very wary of her.

Armityle
Armityle is an aberration who became friends with Saki under the guise of a false form going by the name of Kakon Ashikaga. Saki first met Armityle when she and her friends were kidnapped into another dimension by it, where it attempted to turn her against Judai. Upon rejecting him, Armityle became impressed with her strength of will, and took on the false guise of Kakon Ashikaga in order to become close to her. As Kakon, Saki thought of him as a kind and goofy senpai who encouraged her into seeking ways of befriending the other dorms to mitigate the effects of the organized hazing. She considered him to be a good friend and senpai who gave her the confidence and strength she needed to grow. Once she learned that he was truly Armityle, she has become afraid of him, wondering what exactly it was that he was trying to get from her.

Deck
Saki uses a Buster Blader themed deck that focuses on the Destruction Sword dragon-type monsters. Her normal strategy is to rely on Buster Whelp of the Destruction Swordsman in order to quickly retrieve a powerful monster from her Extra Deck.