District nine wasn't the birthplace of the ghoul known as 'Neko' today,but it is the place where known history about her begins. However, as of now the CCG has no reason to connect 'Neko' in district eight with the intel about 'Clown' from district nine.

Yomi arrived in district nine the same way she later traversed over to eight, without an alias or reputation. It is unknown which district she originally came from, and her clown-like mask too was made in the ninth. It didn't take long for her to make an impression among the other ghouls there, as she was incredibly eager to take anything she wanted by force. While normally a somewhat calm personality back then, it was rather easy to agitate the young girl, and doing so often had fatal consequences. However, her escapades of violence mostly went under the radar of the CCG and against other ghouls. The first big move the Clown did was quietly taking out an S-rank ghoul called the 'Puppeteer' and replacing him as the leader of an influential gang of ghouls called 'Puppets', leaving most of his subordinates in the dark about this change in management. The Puppeteer already kept himself secret and only acted through middlemen before his untimely end, making it easy enough for her to assume his role in secret. Her violent reign from the shadows began, and kept her relatively safe as ghouls and CCG were looking for the long dead Puppeteer, assuming the Clown was just the executive power. At this point of her life, Yomi considered humans lower than lifestock - they were toys for her. Edible toys, unable to defend or even see their demise coming. Other ghouls were mostly just rivals for her, though she had the tendency to emotionally connect to the most brutal thugs, such as a monster of unparalleled uglyness called 'Ogre'. Thoroughly enjoying the sight of that specific ghoul murdering whatever dared drawing breath, she began organizing fight clubs, against other ghouls at first. Where Ogre was a whirlwind of carnage, Clown was the serene antipole. She bathed in his limitless, groundless anger and provided soothing for them both after a day's work of slaughter to maintain her own emotional balance.

Since Ogre dominated with brutal, merciless fury, she ran out of competitors for her champion soon. Due to the lack of opponents, containing Ogres aggression was bound to become a problem, so Clown did the only 'ghoul' thing there was - pitting him against humans. They were no match for the hulk, but satisfied his desire for bloodshed. Eventually, Yomi grew bored of watching her pet murder helpless civilians and began laying traps for CCG personnel, so she could catch them and pit them against Ogre. While most of them were no match for the monstrous ghoul, they provided more entertainment than helpless civilians. Using the name Puppeteer as bait, the cat-and-mouse esque process of fooling CCG became as enjoyable to her as the following fights, and she put herself into exceedingly more dangerous situations in that process. At this point, her mask had become part of a self-fulfilling prophecy - its eternal smile an ironic contrast to Yomi's gruesome and uncaring spirit, marking herself as entertainer, director and part of the stage cast. Sometimes, she would replace the mask with simple face-paint mirroring its image, usually when playing a victim in one of her enactments.

To put it blandly, Yomi was bored. Bored of life. Life, hers or others, held no value for her. She had grown decadent in years of watching life being taken away from ghouls and humans alike in the blink of an eye.

A change came when she caught the investigator that would later be known as Misery. Her mentor, while a formidable foe, was obliterated by Ogre as expected, but his student turned out to be different. Yomi discovered something in the fighting spirit of the human woman that impressed her, sowing the seeds for a change in her perception of the entire human race. Though Morizumi eventually killed Clowns champion, she also taught her something Yomi had forgotten over years of indiscriminate slaughter - that humans live, rather than just existing. The woman displayed all sorts of emotions Yomi only knew from ghouls and never expected to be present that strong in their 'lifestock'. Anger, sadness, grief, desperation and the burning desire for vengeance, all of these things she had lost herself somewhere along the way. Emotions she forgot how to cherish gave this human woman the power to best her champion. Insight that took her a while to stomach, and after she took Morizumis eye as a reminder of this day, Clown had to escape from the charging CCG strike teams. Even then, the woman didn't give up on chasing her, inflicting a blow that left next to no physical damage, but reminded Yomi of her own mortality, something she had stopped caring about long ago. After getting away, she had to lay low since the CCG now had seen her mask and Morizumi probably realized that she was more than just a thug.
Clown forged a ploy to detract attention from herself and shoved the apparent responsibility for Puppeteers organization at another S-rank ghoul named 'Kindred'. The CCG - more precisely Shina Morizumi herself - eventually got ahold of Kindred and took him down, ultimately dissolving the Puppets. Everything went just as Clown had planned, but a sour aftertaste remained. For one, there was one investigator still looking for her, rightfully convinced that the Clown was still at large. But more importantly, she felt guilty for all the ghouls she had led into their demise. Even for the humans that died to Ogres Kagune.
A few months after covering up her tracks, misleading the investigation and making sure to leave no solid lead behind, Clown was ready to move on once more. On to the next district, to a fresh start free of sin and guilt. Her departure unknown to both CCG and ghoul society, so Morizumis transfer into the area was actually sheer coincidence.