Moriko is a complicated girl. She’s a tomboy, but she likes wearing skirts and being called Mori-chan.She ran away from home when her mom wouldn't let her play Duel Monsters. She always obeyed her mom, but she still kept a deck and would sometimes play. When she played, she dressed differently, gave a different name and wore a wig to make sure word of her dueling didn’t get to her mom. All these precautious weren't enough to stop Maximillion Pegasus from sending her a letter to participate in Duelist Kingdom.
When she saw the letter, her mom was furious. Moriko locked herself in her room while her mom yelled and banged on the door. Mom eventually broke down the door to discover that Mori-chan packed and left out the window.
Moriko made her way to the docks and boarded the same boat as Yugi Muto. Once she saw him, she wanted to introduce herself, but everyone wanted to get cards from her. She waited until later to talk to him, which was a bad idea. She saw Weevil Underwood throw Yugi’s cards into the ocean and saw Joey go in after them. She ran after Weevil for cheating like that. Their conversation went a little like this:
"You real think you’ll win because of that trick you pulled?”
"What’s it matter to you?”
"It matter’s because you cheated and cheaters don’t win. I bet you’re going to lose your first duel.”
"You bet, huh? Well, I bet that I’ll win my first duel. In fact, I bet I can win against Yugi.”
"Then have a wager going, Underwood. You think you can win your first duel that’ll be against Yugi and I bet you’ll lose your first duel with anyone as your opponent. What do you want if you win?”
"How about a kiss from you, Mori-chan?”
"Fine by me,”*turns away* "By the way, you don’t have the right to call me that.”
She watched their duel from a distant tree and saw that Weevil still cheated. She took some pride in watching him hand over his stars and glove stating, "Only a fair duelist has the right to wear that glove,” before jumping down and finding her first opponent.
She ended up in a boat after three hours. On her way back to the main land, she found some cards in the water. They were the cards that Weevil threw away. Moriko collected the cards and planed on giving them back to Yugi when he got back. She found where he lived and tried returning the cards after Duelist Kingdom, but the cards were missing so she ran off.
A few days later, she started dreaming about a giant door with a demonic face telling her about two aliens who needed her help. She was later given a yellow gem which she left in her room when she went to find the aliens, Astral and Black Mist.
Production Note:
Moriko's name means "tree bell forest child" in the Japanese name order (Suzuki Moriko). This explains her deck and why she watched the first duel from a tree.
