Yuki Kuran

Yuki Cross/Yuki Kuran (黒主 優姫/Kurosu Yūki 玖蘭 優姫/Kuran Yūki? ) is the adoptive daughter of the headmaster of Cross Academy. Yuki is a first year student at Cross Academy and is a member of the school's disciplinary committee, which is a Guardian for Cross Academy. In her capacity as a Guardian, she is responsible for the nightly duties of monitoring and protecting the Day Class. Yuki carries the anti-vampire weapon, Artemis.

Character outline
Yuki is generally a cheerful and comedic girl. She is considered a bit stupid and a poor student. She exhibits a strong attachment to her few close friends. Her indecisive nature and reticence can be attributed to her insecurity regarding her missing history. Prior to becoming a vampire, she had a fear of vampires which meant she rarely left the Cross Academy grounds on her own, because of the attack. She always maintained that Kaname was different to the other vampires until she witnessed his biting Ruka, but she refused to allow it to change her love for him. It did however, cause a distance between the two. Yuki doesn't like to reveal her fears and wears a smile over her face instead. She is intensely protective over Zero. Following her re-awakening as a pureblood, Yuki shed the fears she once retained, but her personality has not changed much and when a situation asks, she can put in an authoritative face as is expected for a pureblood princess. Yuki's overwhelming fault is the tendency to burden herself with guilt over her ignorance when she learns the sufferings of other characters that they have kept secret.

In appearance Yuki is mocked for being flat-chested and resembling a young boy. Following her transformation back into a pureblood vampire, her hair grew waist length and she appeared to have grown a little taller and more womanly with a much more defined waist. Yuki bears a striking resemblance to her deceased mother Juri, but retained Haruka's "soft" gaze. She was described by the Day Class boys as being small, but one who eats well and considered pretty cute by a few.

Hino Matsuri described Yuki as the character who possesses her justice side. She acknowledges that Yuki is the healing and soothing character in the story.

Background
Yuki was approximately 5 years old when Rido Kuran attacked the Kuran family seeking to take Yuki. To protect her daughter, Juri sacrificed herself to seal Yuki's vampire side and erased her daughter's memory. Yuki's first memory is that of Kaname saving her from a vampire. Yuki grew up as a human in the care of Kaien Cross, who also adopted her. Kaname stayed as a presence in Yuki's life whom she constantly looked forward to seeing and missed leaving, falling in with love him.

Yuki as a child had troubled nightmares nightly until Zero Kiryu joined their household and Yuki formed a strong attachment to the boy. Yuki's relationship with Kaname became distant after she witnessed his vampire nature as he fed on a vampire classmate and as a human, Yuki believed she had no chance with Kaname and began to distance herself from him, but her admiration and longing for him remained and chose to believe that his interest in her was the result of seeing her as a pet or similar.

Yuki's best friend is Sayori Wakaba whom Yuki calls "Yori-chan". Sayori is her roommate, too.

Plot Summary

 * Main Article: Plot Summary for Yuki Cross

Yuki discovers that Zero has awakened as a vampire and is struggling with his blood lust, so she allows him to secretly feed on her blood. Yuki promises to be his ally and that she will kill him if he becomes a level E vampire. When Shizuka Hio offers to save Zero at the price of Yuki's humanity, Yuki agrees, though is stopped by Zero.

When Yuki's memories begin to resurface, Kaname bites Yuki to reawaken her true nature and then gives her his blood to restore her complete memory. Before she was bitten by Kaname and turned into a vampire she had blood halutionations. It is revealed that Yuki is actually a pureblood vampire and the last child of Juri and Haruka Kuran. Following Rido Kuran's attack on the Kuran's, killing Haruka, Juri had sacrificed herself to seal Yuki's vampiric side and erase her daughter's memory. Upon returning to her vampire self, she begins to sense Rido's dangerous revival. Though Kaname attempts to remove her from danger, she refuses to leave Cross Academy. Resolving to fight Rido, Yuki's Artemis Rod then transforms into a scythe.

Yuki and Zero stay allies to defeat Rido. When Zero tells Yuki he intends to kill all purebloods including her, Yuki decides not to allow it. Unable to shoot her, Zero drinks Yuuki's blood and they kiss. Zero confirms he will still kill her, but Yuki counters that she will always run to keep him alive. Following her admission that she has a bond to Zero in her heart, Yuki requests to stay by Kaname's side regardless expecting rejection, Kaname agrees and counters that he would rather die than be without her. Following the murder of a vampire at the peace ball, Yuki decides she needs a purpose and she vows to kill any pureblood intending suicide, to prevent the sacrifice of others. Yuki has an accidental run-in with Zero, because she is injured, Zero takes her to a safehouse. During her semi-consciousness, she almost bites Zero. Flustered Yuki calls herself a scatterbrain and returns home with Kaname, where he finally reveals that he is not her brother, but the Kuran ancestor re-awakened.

Trivia

 * As Kaien knows Yuki's name beforehand, he says to Yuki that Kaname told him that all girls are princesses and thus will name her Yuki and she is Kaien's 'gentle princess.'
 * Officially published as "Yuki" in Viz media publications and Chuang yi publications. Fan translations usually use "Yuuki".
 * Yūki is a combination of yuu, meaning "tender" or "kind", and ki, meaning "princess". "yuuki" (勇気; ゆうき) can be translated as "courage" and "snow" as well.
 * Kurosu was probably used in the meaning of "black master." "Cross", the original English word means "Cross".
 * Kuran, is a combination of the old fashioned way of writing ku, meaning "nine" and ran meaning "orchid".