One of several yōkai from the mountains of northern Japan, Yukime (ゆきめ/雪姫) is a 16-year old yuki-onna whose life was complicated due to her love for Nūbē. The connection was originally made five years prior, when Nube gets lost while skiing and saves her from a hunter determined to kill her before she grows up to harm his village.
Yukime promises that she will eventually find him so they could be together "in eternal love". The meaning of this was eventually made clear when she came down to Doumori, intent on taking him home frozen in ice "for eternity". She still has a warm heart, however, so she is convinced that he shouldn't be taken to the mountains thanks to the efforts of Nūbē's students; when she tried to attack them, Nūbē tells her to leave, but she returns to work as an ice skating coach at the local skating rink and tries to win his heart.
Yukime possesses several powers and weaknesses due to her connections with snow, ice and the cold. Yukime's main ability is the creation of snow or ice from her body, using it as a means to freeze any target she can see or point at. Her freezing power is useful in offensive attacks, the creation of roadblocks to stop larger targets, and even can be used to concentrate light like a magnifying glass. (not to mention its useful for making shaved ice, which according to Nūbē is the only good thing Yukime's power is for) Yukime also possesses a slight healing ability and, due to her cold connections, has a natural talent for figure skating.
Unfortunately, being a snow yōkai has its weaknesses: she can not stand intense heat. Furthermore, Yukime can not make hot foods nor can she wear certain black clothing for fear of melting certain parts of her body. But Yukime does have a cute remedy for temperature problems: when she becomes too hot, she wraps her entire body into a snowman to cool herself down, and can drive Nūbē crazy when she pops out of it... completely naked. While many of these heat problems were eventually remedied through a revival later in the series, Yukime does occasionally still have problems with hotter temperatures.
While Yukime becomes a valuable ally and nuisance in Doumori, it is her relationship with Nūbē that drives most of her character through the series. After her first appearance, she eventually has a love/hate relationship with the teacher, with several of her attempts to get Nūbē to fall for her leading to some acknowledegment, but further frustration for both of them. Making matters worse is beautiful and ultra-sensitive Ritsuko-sensei, whom Nūbē originally desires and whom eventually begins to return some of her feelings just as Yukime is starting to get through to him.
Yukime is tricked into capturing the teacher, believing that the sacrifice of Ritsuko is needed to make her human. However she cannot kill Ritsuko through pity; it is a test to see if she still possesses a cold yuki-onna's heart. Nūbē finally saves them both, apologizing to her and admitting his love for the latter. It is too late, however, as a severely injured Yukime uses the last of her powers to help destroy the youkai and turns into snowflakes in Nūbē's arms.
While Nūbē believes her to be dead, her snowflakes are carried away to her mountains, where the Mountain god uses them to create another yuki-onna in her place, with the exact same looks and the exact same name. This Yukime, however, has a cold heart and does not hesitate to kill. Nūbē finds her during a school trip, where she tricks him away from his class in order to kill him. He allows her to attack him, but not without invoking Yukime's memories. Confused, the "new" Yukime flees.
Yukime returned to Doumori later to find closure to her conflicting feelings, and realizing she did love Nūbē, decided to stay and reconcile the two halves of herself. Although she did not remember much of her life before, it was implied that Yukime eventually recovered all of her memories. Her personality was also changed from the aggressive yuki-onna youkai to a balance between her childish former self and assertive new identity.
The last chapter of the manga features Nūbē and Yukime's Wedding, while originally in a normal Japanese wedding company's location, Nūbē was delayed by a yōkai and cannot meet the time of the ceremony. They decided to hold the ceremony with Yukime creating a chapel of ice on the playground in the primary school Nūbē teaches and instead of a catholic priest, the recurring character buddist priest in the series held the position instead.
In the anime, there was an alternate world created in Kyouko's dreams and subconscious, created by a youkai that had possessed her in her sleep. In that alternate world, Yukime had grown into a full-fledged yuki-onna and still was at Doumori, but she wasn't with Nūbē anymore since he was in a catatonic state after being almost murdered by another youkai. (note: although the chapter existed in the manga, Yukime was not in the original chapter since she had yet to return to Dōmori at this time)
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