Machiko Noguchi

Machiko Noguchi^[1] (野口真千子) was a Chigusa Corporation employee and the administrator in charge of the Prosperity Wells colony on Ryushi. She was the daughter of Akira and Keiko Noguchi. After surviving the destruction of her colony at the hands of several Yautja and the Xenomorphs they were hunting, she joined a Yautja clan led by "Broken Tusk", becoming a Blooded hunter and integral member of the clan.

Biography

Early life

Machiko was born in Japan to a moderately wealthy businessman and a loving mother. She spent much of her childhood alone at home and was forced to cope with loneliness. Her ability to adapt would come in handy later in her life.

On a summer day, when she was at home, she decided to draw a picture for her parents. When she ventured around the house for a green crayon, she discovered that her father was home. She went to greet her father, when she realized that he was covered in blood. Upon hearing that he was fired from his job, her father (who felt dishonored) committed seppuku (ritual suicide). Seeing that his daughter was in the room, he told her with his dying breath to regain their family honor.

Machiko lived a bitter and cold childhood after that. Her mother remarried and became distant from her. They never hated each other, they just grew apart. This would only further alienate Machiko.

Regaining her honor

Later in life, and determined to abide by her fathers dying words, Machiko got a job at the Chigusa Corporation. She worked her way up the corporate ladder to a respectable position. One of her first major tasks would be to take the place of Hiroki Shimura as the administrator of the ranching colony of Ryushi. Stationed in Prosperity Wells, Noguchi spends three months in her customized office and did little to no effort to make friends among the colonists. Thanks to Hiroki's advice, she intervenes in favor of the ranchers and gain a rise in their payment by Chigusa Corp, changing some hearts. When Prosperity Wells and the colonists with whom she lived with became embroiled into the hunt of a group of Predators, who are on the planet to hunt the Xenomorphs in order to attain warriorhood, Machiko risks her life and start a plan to evacuate the settlement, effectively gaining the respect of the colonists.

After many conflicts, Noguchi gains a friendship with the Predator leader, Dachande. This relationship leads to Dachande giving Noguchi the Predator name Da'dtou-di (meaning "small knife") and Noguchi being accepted as a human Predator. Noguchi also managed to kill a Queen Alien and kept her head as a trophy after the hunt. When the colony was abandoned, she stays at Ryushi waiting for Dachande's people for two years, in the belief that they deserve some kind of explanation. At that point she owns Roth O'Neil's dalmatian dog and a rhynt called Milo.

Living with the Predators

Because she bore the mark of Dachande, Noguchi hunted alongside a clan of Predator hunters for several years with the nickname "Little Knife". Despite being very skilled and deadly to both Xenomorph and Yautja alike, she was often ridiculed by bigoted predators because she was Human. She had won the respect of the Predators enough, that she got her own armor and room inside the clan's ship. During this time, a clan member known as "Shorty", made a habit of picking fights with Noguchi, feeling that she was unworthy. During her time in the clan, Machiko took with her the queen's head and a leapwave receiver, with which she listened to pieces of conversations, her only remaining link with the humans.

She also partook in a hunt to capture a live Xenomorph Queen for the upcoming hunt with several clans. During the hunt for the queen, Noguchi inadvertently saved Shorty's life, shaming and denying him an honorable death. The hunt was successful, with the Queen taken back to the clan's ship.^[2]

Bunda hunting party

According to Top-Knot, the clan prepares one of the biggest hunts ever in a planet known as Bunda for the humans. She makes a mistake by disrespectively touching the USCM bandanna Light-Stepper uses as a bandage, and loses her place in the hunt after an unfair fight with Shorty, confined to the ship. After hearing through the leapwave transmitter that the yautja are attacking humans, she decides that her place is with her people and betrays the clan, joining forces with the Nemesis survivors Brian Ellis, Catherine Lara and Martin Jess. They escapes Bunda in a yautja shuttle.

Bellatrix 2

Machiko Noguchi AVP War — Machiko as seen in *Aliens versus Predator: War*.

Not long after, Noguchi begins to feel as if she doesn't belong with the hunters, and when the hunters embark on a human killing mission, Noguchi finally decides between a Predator or Human self-identity. She abandoned the Predators and settled down in a quiet spot on Bellatrix 2, off of Orion's left shoulder. After returning to her life of boredom and work, Noguchi began to crave the freedom of the hunt. When Noguchi later received an offer from a wealthy man named Livermore Evanston, to return to her hunting life by attending his private hunting planet, she was compelled to accept. At this point in her life, she ran her own business as a safari guide to take people hunting, with three assistants.

Hunting the killers

When a group of Killer predators attacked a mining colony, the United States Colonial Marine Corps sought out Machiko's help. When she spoke to them, she initially refused even to talk about whatever it was they wanted, but she was shown a video of the Predator attack on the mining colony, and her interest was piqued. She expressed the danger that the Killers represented to all life, and agreed to help. She then traveled with the marines to make contact with her Predator hunting party. After killing one of them in hand to hand combat they began negotiations. Throughout the conflict, Machiko is torn between her human identity and remaining with the Predators, but is successful in destroying the Killer headquarters. During the final moments of the mission, a lone predator removes Broken Tusk's mark with an acid-dipped sword prior to Machiko's extraction by Brian Ellis, who she had begun a romantic relationship with.

Personality & Traits

Despite a calm exterior, short stature and stern demeanor, Machiko Noguchi is an intelligent and strong woman in top physical condition, well-trained in firearms, personal defense and various martial arts. After the colony where she worked was destroyed, Machiko desired a life of hunting but could not emotionally connect with the Yautja as they were ruthless hunters who viewed her with contempt. When the Predators embarked on a human hunt, she turned against them as she could not bring herself to allow them to attack her fellow humans.

Noguchi lacks many social skills, as she is a loner and feels as an outsider wherever she goes.

Her best friend and first love interest was Hiroki Shimura. Her current love interest is Brian Ellis.

Equipment

In AVP: Prey, Noguchi used a 12.5mm Smith revolver as her primary weapon. In AVP: War, Noguchi uses Predator weapons and armor, such as a Plasma Caster and Wrist Blades, as her primary weapons, in addition to other weapons. She also uses a customized Bio Mask and Predator Armor made for her by the Predators once she was accepted into their clans.

Trivia

Machiko Noguchi, as her name implies, is an Asian/Japanese dark haired and black eyed athletic petit woman. The first AVP comics where the character appears show this fact accurately. However, more recent media like toy replicas, comic covers and other promotional art wrongly show her as a Caucasian/European person.
Machiko was the first known human marked by the Predators in the continuity, but the second chronologicly, the first being Lex Woods in the early 21st Century.
In Peter Briggs' unproduced Alien vs. Predator script, titled The Hunt: Alien vs. Predator, the lead character was named Hiroko Noguchi, a virtual amalgam of Machiko Noguchi and Hiroki Shimura from the comic book.