Nico Smiley

Nico Smiley (ニコ・スマイリー Niko Sumairī) is a character of Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V. He is the manager of Strong Ishijima.

Pre-Maiami Championship
Nico approached Shūzō Hīragi at the behest of the Leo Duel School, who wished to have the champion Strong Ishijima Duel You Show Duel School student Yūya Sakaki, as Strong Ishijima never got the oppurtunity to Duel the boy's father, who had no-showed at their championship match. Leo Duel School agreed to give You Show Duel School their new Solid Vision with mass system free of charge in exchange. Yūya eventually agreed. On the day of the Duel, Nico functioned as a commentator.

After Strong Ishijima lost to Yūya, he stepped down as champion and went overseas to train, leaving Smiley without a Duelist to manage. He eventually approached Yūya, offering a free entrance to the Junior Youth Championship if Yūya agreed to take him on as manager. Yūya refused, insisting that he wanted to enter the tournament through the usual means. He instead asked Nico to aid him in finding opponents to defeat, as he needed four more wins to qualify, to which Nico agreed.

Nico arranged Yūya to duel Four different opponents including his best friend Noboru Gongenzaka. Nico first arranged a Duel for Yūya against Michio Mokota. Nico was listening to Yūya's conversation with Michio and gave a disgusted look when Yūya's stomach growled. Nico eventually found Yūya passed out in an alley. When Yūya woke up, he exclaimed that a a Duelist used one of his monsters to defeat a trio of LDS top students and cause real damage. Nico reassured him that this was all a dream, since he found Yūya unconscious and assumed that he had a lack of sleep. Yūya agreed with Nico and left with him. Before Yūya's next Duel, Nico accompanied him in a bus on the way to Eita Kyuando's school. After talking for a while, Nico fell off a chair. Nico and the head of the academy announced the battle, then watched the Duel. Nico was impressed that Yūya won. He contacted Yūya on another day and noted the positive and negative things that happened during the Duels. Yūya wondered why Nico was upset. Some time after, Yūya met Nico disguised as a fortune teller at the entrance of Mieru Hōchun's Dueling school, though his disguise unnerved Yūya. Nico and Naruko Unno, the head of Unno Divination School, commenced the Duel. Nico was again happy that Yūya triumphed. Yūya's final opponent was Gongenzaka. He explained that he arranged Yūya's Duels so each one would train Yūya in a different way. Nico was pleased when Yūya won against Gongenzaka, which surpassed his expectations.

Maiami Championship
During the Maiami Championship inauguration ceremony, he requested Yūya to give a speech as part of his training.

Synchro Dimension Arc
Before Yūya left to the Synchro Dimension with the rest of the Lancers, Nico revealed he had very high hopes for Yūya and expected him to take over the pro dueling world, yet he said that he was still proud of him.