Shizuka Hio

"The Kuruizaki-hime who met a tragic fate."

Shizuka Hio (緋桜 閑, Hiō Shizuka) was the pureblood vampire who bit Zero Kiryu; even her fellow vampires felt uneasy around her and refer to her as the "Flowers-blooming-out-of-season princess" or "Kuruizaki-hime."

Appearance
Shizuka Hio possessed unnatural beauty like all the other purebloods. She appeared to be in her late twenties. In the anime, she had straight, long silvery-white hair and eyes that were an unusually beautiful shade of pink that resembled cherry blossoms. She was always shown clad in traditional Japanese clothing, such as a kimono. In her hair, she wore a thin ribbon with a small bell, that Ichiru later uses in his hair after her death. She is noted to always walk around in barefoot.

Personality
She usually appeared calm and composed, and smiled as if amused when taunting or talking to Zero. Her gentle movements gave her a striking presence. Cherry blossoms often accompany her presence, even if they should be out of season, like when she first met the Kiryuu twins.

While possessing Maria Kurenai's body, Ichiru notes that her actions in Maria's body were different than her normal calm and composed demeanor, such as when she playfully toys around with Ichiru's feelings and when she interacts with the Night Class. This shows a bit of Shizuka's playful side, even though Ichiru seemed displeased with it.

Background
As the Hio family was known to have its family members going insane at a point of time, Shizuka - being a member of the Hio family - was locked in a cage like all other members and given human sacrifices daily as food. Once, she was given a man, whom she instantly thought was "not food but someone to talk with". She proceeded to turn him into a vampire and her manservant. She fell in love with him.

Tragically, the manservant was falsely classified by the Hunter's Association as a Level E and was assigned to be killed by the Kiryu vampire hunters. Enraged and vengeful, she attacked the Kiryu family, killing both parents, biting Zero (which subsequently turned him into a vampire), and taking Zero's twin, Ichiru, as a devoted servant. She was originally Rido Kuran's fiancée but held strong feelings of hatred for him, and it was revealed that she wanted more power to kill him herself. Later in the manga, when Rido spoke of her death, he mentioned that it was a relief, and that when alive, she had refused to "submit to" him. They never married due to Rido's disappearance and finally her death. It was later found out that some of her hate was targeted at him as he was the mastermind who deliberately organised for her "lover"'s name to be put on the list of Level E vampires to be killed, even though he hadn't fallen into that state yet. Maria Kurenai was one of her very distant relatives.

Plot Summary
Because Shizuka's blood can prevent Zero from falling to Level E, Yuki had once risked her life and humanity for Zero to be able to drink Shizuka's blood (This was because Shizuka gave her a deal to either let her drink her blood or bring Kaname's corpse to her. Seeing as she didn't want to harm Kaname, whom she cared about, Yuki chose the other path). However, to protect Yuki, Kaname kills Shizuka and drinks her blood, leaving only a small amount for Zero to drink. Unfortunately, the blood is drunk by Ichiru, who arrived to find Shizuka first. Before dying, Shizuka warns Kaname that he will live in darkness and has summoned a sinister future for himself by drinking the blood of another Pureblood. In additon, she tells Ichiru to devour her so that she will always be a part of him as she slowly disperses into glittering-substances (a difference in the Anime from the Manga) and proceeds to shatter. It is revealed that she deeply respected him and was quite fond of him, thus reluctant to bite him, as she refuses to let someone she cares be cursed like that.

Powers
Aside from immortality and healing from all wounds except anti-vampire weapon wounds to the heart and the head, Shizuka has the ability to manipulate plants which explains why cherry blossoms fall when Shizuka appears.

Name
Shizuka means "calm and quiet." In Shizuka's family name, hi is "scarlet," and ou is "cherry blossoms." Shizuka Hio is also refered to as the "Kuruizaku-hime." Kuruizaku means "flower blooming out of season," and hime means "princess."