Mitsuko Yamato

April 25, 2025

Species: Human
Birthplace: BonaparteMitsuko Yamato
Birthdate: 402 IE
Royal House: Yamato, grandniece of King Yanuhito

Lieutenant Mitsuko Yamato is a Navy Special Forces officer and a native of Bonaparte, where she received elite training with the planet’s Household Guards. Disciplined, highly skilled, and fiercely independent, Mitsuko was deployed to Hanar shortly after the human-Gelt alliance began rebuilding the colony. It was there she first encountered JT Austin, and the two quickly formed a bond. Mitsuko began training him in close-quarters combat, swordplay, and special forces tactics—skills he would rely on throughout the later stages of the occupation.

Though romantically involved with Giddeus Modesto, Mitsuko’s deep friendship with JT has at times provoked jealousy. She manages the emotional complexities with grace, firmly treating both JT and Connor Duffy as younger brothers. Her camaraderie with Suicide also develops rapidly, grounded in mutual respect and battlefield pragmatism.

Mitsuko plays a key role in the final battle against Lucius Kray, helping deliver the blow that ends his reign of terror. Though she is knocked out of the sky when Riverside is destroyed by a clean fusion blast, she survives the crash and returns to active duty, her role in the fight cementing her status as a hero of the Amargosa campaign.
Post-Liberation:

Following the Liberation of Amargosa in 430 IE, Lieutenant Mitsuko Yamato continued her service with the Compact Navy Special Forces. However, under pressure from Bonaparte’s royal court, she was temporarily reassigned to the Household Guards for special missions aligned with Court interests.

In 431 IE, Mitsuko led a Household Guard detachment during an operation to Kaku V, a primitive Class-E world where unauthorized human settlers had sparked conflict with a native sapient species of cephalopods (“cephs”). The mission required Mitsuko to:

  • Coordinate with Edward Windsor, heir to Bonaparte’s throne and fellow Special Forces officer.

  • Lead the rescue of both human colonists and native hostages without escalating into open warfare.

  • Uphold Compact law protecting indigenous sapients, even when settlers resisted evacuation.

  • Personally negotiate and ultimately force the rescue of Windsor, who had voluntarily offered himself as a hostage to the cephs.

Mitsuko’s handling of the Kaku V incident highlighted her growing political instincts and solidified her preference for principle over protocol. She refused to compromise Compact ideals in the name of Bonaparte’s royal prestige and made clear her loyalty first and foremost lay with ethical conduct, not aristocratic tradition.

During the mission, Edward Windsor proposed a political marriage to Mitsuko, seeing her as uniquely qualified to navigate both military and royal obligations at his side. Mitsuko agreed only to continue discussions under firm conditions, including retaining her military career and refusing the ceremonial role of a traditional queen.

The Kaku V mission marked a major turning point in Mitsuko’s post-liberation path:

  • She asserted her independence from House Yamato’s courtly expectations.

  • She maintained her deep bonds with the Amargosan resistance circle (especially JT Austin and Ellie Nardino), hinting that she might abandon royal life altogether if necessary.

  • She began actively questioning whether her future lay with Bonaparte’s monarchy—or with the free life she helped defend on Amargosa

Relationships:
Suicide: Suicide became a mentor and surrogate older sister to Mitsuko after the Liberation of Amargosa. Their bond, rooted in shared battlefield experience and blunt honesty, helped Mitsuko rebuild her life and strengthened her resolve to resist being confined by Bonaparte’s royal expectations. Suicide told Mitsuko she saw her as the “older sister” to the Children of Amargosa.

Giddeus Modesto: Giddeus Modesto was Mitsuko’s romantic partner during the Amargosa occupation and liberation. Their relationship was rooted in mutual trust and shared battlefield experience. Giddeus’s death during the final phase of the liberation devastated Mitsuko, leaving a lasting impact on her views about attachment, duty, and future commitments. Even as she rebuilt her life among the Amargosan resistance circle, his memory continued to shape her decisions.

JT Austin: Mitsuko and JT Austin share a deep, informal bond rooted in friendship, mutual respect, and shared survival during the Amargosa occupation. Though they sometimes bicker like siblings, Mitsuko views JT as part of her chosen family, valuing his loyalty and resilience. Their connection remains strong after the Liberation, with Mitsuko trusting JT more than most of her formal comrades or royal peers.

Connor Duffy: Mitsuko formed a strong but slightly more protective bond with Connor Duffy during and after the Amargosa occupation. She saw Duffy’s mechanical skills and sharp mind as vital assets, but also recognized his underlying vulnerability beneath the sarcasm. Like JT, Duffy became part of the surrogate family Mitsuko found among the resistance survivors, with Mitsuko often treating him like a younger brother she needed to look out for.

Ellie Nardino: Mitsuko quickly bonded with Ellie Nardino during the resistance, treating her as both a comrade and a mischievous younger sister. While Mitsuko admired Ellie’s sharp instincts and fierce loyalty, she also felt a protective responsibility toward her, knowing Ellie was still a teenager during much of their shared experience. Their friendship deepened after the Liberation, with Mitsuko becoming part of the close-knit surrogate family that  anchored Ellie’s path into adulthood.

Edward Windsor: Mitsuko and Edward Windsor share a complex bond of mutual respect, military camaraderie, and reluctant royal duty. During the Kaku V mission, Edward proposed marriage to Mitsuko, seeing her as the only partner who could understand both his military life and his future role as king. While Mitsuko cared for Edward as a trusted comrade and friend, she insisted on strict conditions before considering a future together, determined to retain her independence and resist becoming a ceremonial figure.

Author Notes:

Mitsuko was originally conceived as a way for author Jenn Nixon’s Tiva Boon and JT Austin to hook up. The idea was a joke, but creating Mitsuko as an in-universe analog to Tiva prompted the author to create an older, less disciplined version of JT, which opened a lot of story possibilities.

If Suicide was originally modeled after Michelle Yeoh, Mitsuko was patterned after Ming Na Wen.

The planet Bonaparte, the Compact’s only monarchy, was created to flesh out her character background.

Appearances: Flight Blade, Storming Amargosa, “The Cephalopods“