...In List of Umi's Original Characters, Dandelion!verse

Aileen Noda

Aileen Noda
Aileen Noda, age 18
In-Universe Bio
Born	March 28
Occupation	Head of Public Relations at Kaiba Corporation
Education	The King's School, Canterbury Hanibi Academy, Domino Keio University, Tokyo
Spouse	Seto Kaiba
Child	Nao Kaiba
Parents	Takeshi Noda† Gabriella Ferrante
Additional Information
Initial Name	Ai-Lin Nao
First Appearance	Eine rein geschäftliche Angelegenheit (2003)
Main Timeline	Dandelion!verse (since 2004)
Latest Appeareance	Make It Wit Chu (2010)

Aileen Noda (野田 愛理印, Noda Aileen, born March 28) is a fictional character from several of humble and beloved author Umi's Yugioh fanfictions. Initially created for a German Seto Kaiba MarySue fanfiction on Animexx.de, she is now her creator's favorite child and a reoccuring character in her art.

Publication History

Aileen was first introduced in the 2003 post-canon hetero fanfiction Eine rein geschäftliche Angelegenheit (engl. Strictly A Business Matter), which was later rebooted as Dandelion (2005) - a much more bisexual take on the relationship between Aileen, her boyfriend Seto Kaiba and the guy he is a very normal amount of obsessed with. Both of these stories were posted on Animexx^[1][2]. Following the completion of Dandelion on Animexx, three exclusive bonus chapters were posted on Umi's website, with two of those exploring her relationship to Kaiba a little further.

Aileen would appear again as a background character in the Bakura-centric Sallow Night (2006), which was set in the same timeline as Dandelion and at the time was posted as a website exclusive.

Make It Wit Chu (2010) marked the first fanfiction-shaped acknowledgement of just how fucking much the author ships Aileen with Ryou Bakura's dead sister Amane. The oneshot was conceived as the result of a 120 minutes writing challenge and posted to the related livejournal community^[3]. It took place in an alternate timeline to the main Dandelion!verse.

Aileen would also very briefly show up as an unnamed background character in the Linkin Park RPF AU fanfiction Pavor Nocturnus (2010), hinting at family relations between her and Mike Shinoda^[4].

While she hasn't had another appearance in publicly shared written works since then, she is still regularly featured in Umi's artwork.

The exact thought process that lead to the creation of Aileen can't be reconstructed at this point. According to Umi it did involve hearing something about "black, almost violet hair and blue eyes" being something of a "beauty ideal in Japan or Japanese media"^{[citation needed]} in some kind of tv snippet about whothefuckknowswhat in 2003. The context of and supposed basis to any of this has been entirely lost to time.

Aileen was initially conceived with and appeared in all written work under the name Ai-Lin Nao^[5]. The only explanation that can be given for that is the author having been a white teenage girl allergic to research in a German online bubble in the very early 2000s. The name change from Ai-Lin Nao to Aileen Noda became official somewhere between October 2016 and March 2017^[6][7]. Due to restrictions in the way Animexx displays fanfiction that is being heavily altered after its initial upload, the versions of Dandelion and Eine rein geschäftliche Angelegenheit posted there still retain the old name in 2025. The issue has been mentioned in the author's notes though^[8][9]. There will supposedly be changes to the way late edits to already posted fics work in future Animexx updates^{[citation needed]} and there are plans for a complete name replacement as soon as that happens. The uploads on AO3 all feature her current name.

Character Biography

Aileen is a young Italian-Japanese woman between 18 and 30-something years old with long dark hair. She has blue eyes that are specifically described as being a similar hue as Kaiba's eyes. Her hair color exists on a scale from saturated purple to natural black, depending on the artist's mood while drawing. When worn open, her hair is usually depicted as wavy. As a teen, she often wears it in two high pigtails with red ribbons. In her mid-to-late 30s she will get it cut to shoulder-length. She's 1,65m (5'5''ish) tall and of anime-typical slender statue.

For more realistic drawings of her, Umi likes to use model Kiko Mizuhara as reference.

The one thing that all versions of Aileen have in common is that she doesn't take her boyfriend too seriously and is pretty goal-orientied - if she wants something, she will go after it. She's not a fan of serious responsibilities, but will take them on if she feels no one else could handle them to her standards. She likes playful banter but can also get very annoyed by it very quickly if it gets in the way of something she feels needs to be done or communicated. Where she draws the line between fun and frustration is not always obvious to the other party until it's too late.

The Aileen from the original Dandelion!verse in particular values a certain coolness in people, which probably contributes to her attraction to Seto Kaiba, whose emotional constipation and lack of clinginess towards her she initially (mis)interprets as composure. She comes across as very no-nonsense and confident despite, to some degree, being haunted by the fear of not living up to her full potential and a bit of imposter syndrome, especially in regards to the company she inherits. Her later career of fixing someone else's (= her husband's) mess comes a lot easier to her than managing her own, although neither makes her particularly happy.

In the modern Dandelion!verse her need for control and wish to reach some imaginary, theoretical potential manifests in somewhat disordered eating and a strict workout routine, prompted by an initial struggle with the smaller clothing sizes in Japan after moving back there from Europe.

Aileen is bisexual but pretty passive and potentially even unaware of that fact, until she's undeniably getting flirted at by a cute girl.

Aileen and her parents moved to Domino when she was seven years old. She was enrolled in the same school and class Seto Kaiba went to¹ and took an immediate liking to him, despite the rest of their classmates considering him a rich snob. Given his freedom to attend normal school and how recent his and his brother's adoption was, he was still a relatively well adjusted kid at the time and they quickly became best friends. Over the next five years this friendship developed into a mutual crush, shared first kiss and all, until Aileen's parents separated and her father decided to leave Japan with her and move to the United States.

It would take eight years for Aileen - now 20 years old and heir to the KaibaCorporation's biggest industry rival - to come back to Domino and reach out to Kaiba again. She did this by hacking into his company's systems and stealing some sensitive data to blackmail him into a fancy dinner date. The fact that there wasn't much left of the sweet little boy with the cute smile that she remembered intrigued her. So she refused to hand over the stolen data until he opened up to her. He met this demand with a metaphorical middle finger, got up and left.

Over the following days their paths would cross a couple more times, never accidentally, and at some point they got closer again and he did tell her about some of the abuse he and Mokuba suffered through their adoptive father and how he more or less killed him in self-defense one day in a way that thankfully looked like suicide. Aileen on the other hand confessed that she was engaged to someone her father picked for her, threatening to disown her if she refused to go through with the marriage.

They spent a few blissful days together, ended up having sex, but by the next morning she was gone. In an epilogue, taking place another five years later, it was implied that she got pregnant from that encounter and had a son. It was left open to interpretation if Kaiba would do anything about this information.

¹ At the time of writing this story, the author's knowledge of Yugioh canon was limited to the German dub of the Yugioh DuelMonsters anime up until mid-to-late BattleCity arc.

For a more thorough summary see Dandelion!verse.

Aileen was born as the only child of an unnamed Italian woman and the CEO of the communication technology focused company Noda Corporation, Takeshi Noda. Her parents separated when Aileen was 8 years old. Aileen stayed with her father, whom she had the closer relationship with, but kept in monthly contact with her mother and occasionally visited her during school holidays.

At some point NodaCorp became a subdivision of Kaiba Corporation and the necessary business negotiations led to a series of meetings between Takeshi Noda and Gozaburo Kaiba. Aileen accompanied her father to his visits to the Kaiba estate and upon meeting Seto decided that they should be friends. Seto, not expecting this glimpse of what he still remembered as normalcy to last long, went along with it. He was proven right when Gozaburo moved the headquarters of NodaCorp to the United Kingdom to both widen his company's reach and get rid of that annoying distraction to Seto's studies called Aileen.

Takeshi Noda soon realized just how involved in ongoing conflicts/wars his company would be if he didn't distance himself from that mess, so NodaCorp split off from KC and became independant again.

When Aileen was 16, she, her father and her assistant Matt moved back to Japan and, once it was verified that Kaiba Corporation really had fully withdrawn from the weapons industry under its new CEO, business negotiations were revived.

Aileen and Seto would repeatedly meet under different circumstances and what started out as him merely tolerating her proximity slowly developed into some sort of friendship and finally relationship. At some point Aileen would admit to not caring for a future career as CEO and that she could see herself handing NodaCorp over to Seto for good after inheriting it.

Mokuba, who was first very supportive of his brother having a friend like a normal person and who also liked Aileen, quickly grew tired of his brother never sending her away when she showed up. So he soon began projecting his frustration over his low priority in Seto's life outside of emergency situations onto Aileen.

While Aileen, who just turned 17 a few months prior, was busy moving out of her father's home into her first own apartment, Seto was forced to attend a school class trip, during which he would share living/sleeping quarters with Yugi Muto. The other Yugi, referred to as Yami in this story, was intrigued by Seto apparently being able to keep a relationship with a girl and one night came onto him, which Seto just let happen. This very quickly evolved into a full-blown mutual affair. After a small argument with Aileen one night, he let Yami into his house and bed even.

Meanwhile Aileen went to her father's place to pack for a business trip the next morning, but while there, Takeshi Noda suffered a stroke and died in the hospital that same night. When she showed up at Seto's place the next morning, she caught him and Yami still in bed together. She resolved to keep NodaCorp herself after all, although mostly out of spite, and left Seto on the spot. They would not talk to each other again for several years after this.

Five to six years later they married and their wedding served as a backdrop for a scene in Sallow Night. It is never revealed how, when and why they got back together. According to Seto, at least part of his decision to go along with this relationship was motivated by being tired of waking up alone.

The marriage would last but cool off and at some point within the following 13 years become actively unhappy. Hollow Day alludes to those marital issues happening in the public eye, with the story's narrator, Ryou Bakura, assuming money as the only reason for why the Kaibas wouldn't divorce each other already.

The difference between the original Dandelon!verse timeline and the one Make It Wit Chu takes place in is Amane Bakura still being alive, so while this story technically doesn't belong to the Dandelion!verse it's still closely related to it and would theoretically take place somewhere between Sallow Night and Hollow Day. In it, Amane worked as an assistant at the Kaiba Corporation and she and Aileen had spontaneous sex on Seto's desk while he wasn't in his office.

This article is about a current and not yet final headcanon where information can change quickly or be unreliable. The latest page updates may not reflect the most up-to-date information. Please refer to your local Umi for the latest canon information pertaining to this character.

The modern Dandelion!verse in this context refers to a potential rewrite of Dandelion. As of late 2025, only unpublished snippets of it exist.

One of the changes to the original fanfiction includes Aileen being half a year older instead of younger than Seto. As a result, she has a driver's license and drives a cherry red 2004 Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet that she was gifted on her 18th birthday. She drives well enough to not get into accidents but not well enough that sitting next to her is enjoyable for passengers who value speed limits or feeling safe in general.

Her father's company is a software company with many branches and she grew up moving around a lot. The five years she went to school in Canterbury, UK, was the longest time in her life she ever stayed in one place so far.

The biggest change to the original story is probably her dad dying very shortly after they move back to Japan when she is 17, which probably contributes to her feeling most comfortable with Seto of all people, who, by being a childhood friend, is not just the only person she already knows in Domino, but also someone who can potentially relate to losing close family members like that.

They will still break up when she finds out about his affair with the other Yugi and probably also still marry later in life anyway. As in the original Dandelion!verse, although it was never mentioned in any of the related published work, she will fall in love with Seto's assistant Isono as her marriage deteriorates and those feeling will be mutual. In this new timeline, they will allow themselves one single night together though, and that night will result in a child. It will be an open secret (within the family) that the child, a daughter named Nao^[10], could not be Seto's, but no one will ever openly acknowledge that fact. Officially and to her own knowledge she is the child of Seto and Aileen Kaiba, although her care will mostly fall to Isono anyway.

Around 2006, attempts were made at a fanfiction featuring Aileen that takes place not in the Yugioh DuelMonsters anime verse, but in the timeline of the 1998 anime adaption by Toei Animation, sometimes referred to as Yugioh season 0. The plot of that story included Aileen making a bet with a very disinterested in her Kaiba: Should she manage to defeat the other Yugi in a game of her choice, Kaiba would finally agree to marry her. Should she fail, she would leave him alone for good. The story was supposed to end with her failing and suffering a Batsugame/Penalty Game by the other Yugi.

She was the maternal granddaughter of Ridley Sheldon, one of Kaiba's game masters, and lost her mother, Fiona, when she was still very young.

The original changes to her character design to fit the color scheme of season 0 included neon green eyes and pitch black hair with neon pink light reflections. Showing her much flirtier personality in this story, her standard outfit was a modified school uniform consisting of a white blouse with short sleeves, that she would either wear with a black tie or with the top buttons opened for more cleavage, and a short pleated skirt in either a bright neon blue or plaid neon pink. The ribbons in her hair would also be a bright neon blue. She would wear high silk stockings held up by garter belts and black high heel shoes.

Modern redesigns of her season 0 appearance have her wear the school uniform of the canon rich girl school Black Rose Girl's Academy^[11]. She still has the neon green eyes, but her hair is now a very wavy neon pink. She is still trying to get Kaiba to marry her, but her advances are now of a much less sexual flavor.

Since the name Aileen is already taken by another character in season 0, her name in this iteration would be Ellen Sheldon instead.

References

1. ^ "Eine rein geschäftliche Angelegenheit". Archived 2025-11-15 via screenshot. Umi, Animexx.de, January 22 2004
2. ^ "Dandelion". Archived 2025-11-17 via screenshot. Umi, Animexx.de, October 16 2005
3. ^ "Make It Wit Chu". Archived 2025-11-17 via screenshot. Umi, 120-minuten.livejournal.com, November 12 2010
4. ^ "Pavor Nocturnus" chapter 14. Archived 2025-11-21 via screenshot. Umi, fanfiktion.de, April 18 2010
5. ^ "Ai-Lin x2". Umi, Animexx.de, November 5 2005
6. ^ Inktober 2016, Day 10. Umi, umis-sketchbook.tumblr.com, October 10 2016, reblogged to ssjumi.tumblr.com on August 7 2019
7. ^ New Dandelion character profile pictures. Umi, umis-sketchbook.tumblr.com, March 26 2017, reblogged to ssjumi.tumblr.com on August 7 2019
8. ^ "Eine rein geschäftliche Angelegenheit" character profiles. Archived 2025-11-15 via screenshot. Umi, Animexx.de, some time after 2017
9. ^ "Dandelion" character profiles. Archived 2025-11-17 via screenshot. Umi, Animexx.de, some time after 2017
10. ^ "Nao Kaiba". Umi, ssjumi-art.dreamwidth.org, originally posted to ssjumi.tumblr.com, January 29 2022
11. ^ Yugioh season 0, episode 15. Toei Animation, 1998. Uploaded by Diabaungo on youtube.com, September 25 2025. Archived 2025-11-29 via screenshot.

External Links

• Aileen's tag on Umi's gallery at https://ssjumi-art.dreamwidth.org