Sara Shirabuki

Sara Shirabuki (白蕗 更 Shirabuki Sara) was a Pureblood vampire and Head of the Shirabuki family, one of the remaining seven Pureblood families.

In 85th Night, the Shirabuki line ends when she is murdered by the Ancestress.

Appearance
Sara possessed the ethereal beauty of the Purebloods with wavy floor-length blonde hair that has soft bangs framing her beautiful face, light blue eyes and she appeared to be in her late teens, although she was actually slightly older than Kaname Kuran.

Sara is always seen wearing long and elegant dresses or her night class uniform.

Personality
Sara appeared to be a soft-spoken Pureblood among her fellow vampires who had a duplicitous nature, appearing refined in front of her peers while having secret goals of becoming the Queen of the vampires. Sara was very manipulative to the point of almost being sadistic, as shown with the schoolgirls she befriended. She referred to herself as impatient and was sadistic when she took pleasure in giving Takuma Ichijo pain .

She was determined not to fall prey to the Purebloods' habit of losing purpose, which was why she was making her bid to become Queen. She surrounded herself with servants and she seemed to enjoy their attention as they spoiled her.

History
Sara's malevolent and sadistic personality may not have always been prevalent. In recent chapters, Takuma Ichijo mentions Sara losing her parents to suicide at an extremely young age, causing her to 'want' Takuma. Considering her youth and exposure to the reality of Purebloods, the incident may have altered her mentality and mindset dramatically. If correct, this would have played a strong part in Sara's goal to never end up like Haruka Kuran and Juri Kuran or Shizuka Hio (whom she believes have all committed suicide from lack of purpose and will), and her determination to surround herself with a massive amount of servants. The memory was so traumatizing that Sara believes that becoming the Queen of the Vampires is the only sure way to preserve her purpose, and for this she goes to immoral and morbid heights for the sake of her future reign.

Plot
Sara first appears at a party held by the Aido family and greeted by the vampires present, surprising them all with her presence since it seems that she does not often attend parties. She is also an old acquaintance of Kaname Kuran as it seems they knew each other before Kaname started school, and as they greet each other, she tells him that they, Purebloods, should stick together.

Sara goes to the council building after Kaname's massacre and finds an unconscious Takuma Ichijo after his confrontation with Asato Ichijo (Takuma's grandfather). She states that she is happy to have one of Kaname's "soldiers", since she had planned to persuade Ichjo to give Takuma to her and she is planning to use Takuma to discover what Kaname's plans are. When Takuma refuses to betray Kaname, she violently tears at his already injured chest to draw blood and torment him. When both Takuma and Sara receive invitations from Kaname for the vampire ball, Sara realizes that Kaname is aware that Takuma is under Sara's care, and she wonders what Kaname is planning and who is more dangerous: Kaname or herself.

Sara shows up at Kaname and Yuki Kuran's party, where she meets Sayori Wakaba, lending her a hand, but Zero Kiryu intercedes harshly smelling blood on her. Yuki intervenes on Sara's behalf and after the humans leave, Sara comments that Yori looks tasty, Yuki asks Sara not to say such things about her friend and Sara quickly advises all the vampires present that Yori is not to be touched and says she would like to be great friends since there are only few Purebloods left. When she leaves to greet Kaname, they play word games revealing that Kaname is aware that Sara has killed her fiance at the party. Her motive was revealed to become Queen of the Vampires.

Sara enrolls at Dahlia Academy Girls School, masquerading as Takuma's little sister. During the guided visits, she meets three girls where she feigns a dizzy spell and asks that her 'brother' finishes the tour in her stead. Sara enters the music suite of a human named Yukari and convinces her to become a vampire. Zero finds her at the school aware of her recent actions but is unable to do anything against her because she has followed the rules. Aware of Zero's burning desire to kill her, she further taunts him telling him he reeks of the Kuran's blood and invites him to join her since they have thrown him away.

Over the next few days, Sara quickly begins turning numerous human girls at the school into her servants, creating a harem, much to Takuma's disgust. She pursues her goal further by visiting Asato Ichijo's factory that manufactures blood tablets and turning the company's president–against his will–into her servant. Takuma eventually discovers Sara has been forcefully turning humans and locking them up in her house. There, she expresses her intention to create an entire army of servants to her command, stating that it was all part of the 'game' the bored Purebloods play. Alone, Sara broke into Hanadagi's castle, and obtained his heart, the organ that has the most power.

When the new Head of the Kuran family establishes a new Night Class, Sara swiftly attracts the attention of a hunter and 'begs' for his protection against the mad Kaname. Her ploy works, and she guilt Yuki into allowing her to attend. There, she quickly woos all of its students to her side, and even feeds them new blood tablets fused with her blood, making them her servants. The students begin to cause numerous issues around the Academy and even attempt to attack humans from the Day Class. Sara reveals that she only gave the blood tablets to the Night Class to cause confusion and delay the Dorm Head, Yuki. The plan works to some degree, as Yuki's blood is the only way for the vampires to reclaim their free will.

In 83rd Night, Kaname finally makes his trip to Cross Academy, his intended target Sara. He very nearly succeeds killing her, but is stopped by Takuma and flees due to Zero's presence. From this revelation, she asks for shelter from Kaname in the headquarters of the Hunter's Association. In return, she offers her own blood to Zero to give him the strength to kill Kaname. He accepts, and takes her to the Association. There, he drinks her blood and battles Kaname with Yuki at his side. As the battle progresses, Sara attempts to manipulate Zero's actions through the blood in his body, but fails when she calls him her puppet.

Later on, she appears during the battle with Takuma, who insists Sara leaves to avoid being killed by Kaname. She initially obeys, but returns with a sharp piece of rubble, her intention to kill Kaname and become the Queen of Vampires. Just before she can achieve this feat, the Ancestress' metal awakens, and pierces her through the heart. Takuma attempts to rescue her, but fails as the metal is of Hunter nature. She is eventually released from the metal and is carried away by the latter. In his arms, the two speak of their relationship and Takuma's feelings for her. She smiles and asks he bear witness to the destructive nature of the Purebloods, and kisses Takuma before shattering into pieces.

Powers & Abilities
Like all Purebloods, Sara is immortal and can heal from any wound except an anti-vampire weapon to the head or heart. Her unique powers are currently unknown but it is seen that when she got angry in the manga, she melted the window. She has been known to create familiars in the shape of spiders in order to spy on her enemies. In 67th Night she was able to destroy Hanadagi's Castle defenses, a feat that hadn't been achieved before. She remarks that the power to be able to crush his defenses came from Ori-sama, her fiance, who she killed at the soiree. Looking at the manga, Hanadagi-sama's defenses were giant mountains that surrounded his castle, which she destroyed in order to capture his heart.

Takuma Ichijo
Sara has shown interest in Takuma, since she had planned to persuade Asato Ichijo to give Takuma to her before she found him. Takuma describes Sara as a capricious and short-tempered pureblood, but having her cute sides too. However recently, she used her command powers on him showing that he is most definitely her subordinate. She has no issues with revealing all her dark plans to him. Later, as she was dying, Sara kissed Takuma to see if their relationship was real.

Zero Kiryu
Zero and Sara had a complicated relationship. Zero finds her at the school aware of her recent actions but is unable to do anything against her because she has followed the rules. Noticing Zero's burning, Sara further taunts Zero by telling the latter he reeks of the Kuran's blood and invite him to join her since they have thrown him away

Kaname late make a trip to the Cross Academy and attempt to kill Sara, but Takuma intervene and Zero's presence eventually cause Kaname to flees. Sara then ask for shelter in the headquarters of the Hunter's Association, and offer her blood to Zero to give him strength to kill Kaname, which he accepts and battles Kaname with Yuki at his side. During the battle, Sara attempts to manipulate Zero's actions though the blood in his body, but failed when she called him a puppet

Ori (Lord)
Ori was Sara's fiancé who was much older than her. He rarely paid attention to Sara as he still saw her as a little girl. She eventually kills him for her own ambitions, though he was willing to die.

Asato Ichijo
In Vampire Knight: Fleeting Dreams, Sara, as a little girl, appears to be crying, for she'd lost her favorite rose barrette. Upon seeing her cry, Ichio, a young man at the time, comes to her and gives her a rose that lost its petals. She'd wonder what his powers were. After he placed the rose in her hair, they leave each other, she learns his name. During her scheduled hibernation with her parents, she, still in the form of a girl, dreams of being in love. When she wakes, she attends another soirée, she sees a man, who looks familiar. She then asks Ouri who the man was. She is dismayed to learn it was Ichio, as an older dignified man, who pays her no attention. She thinks that the flow of time is cruel. But Ichio introduces a young Takuma to her, who so much reminded her of Ichio's smile, when Takuma smiled. She thinks, Don't sully my beautiful memories! and goes to the balcony, where she throws away her barrette. She turns around to see Takuma holding her clip. She takes it and throws it away once again. Then he once again goes to retrieve it, without knowing she wanted to throw it away. It is unbeknownst that if this happens over again.

Quotes

 * "Everyone, bow to me!"
 * "As I thought, there is no such thing as a normal love here."

Trivia

 * Sara's age: A little older than Kaname Kuran.
 * Sara Taste In Men: Kaname Kuran.
 * Sara's Respects: The Progenitor.
 * Sara's Hobbies: Shopping & Attending Parties.
 * Good at: Manipulating others.
 * Academic Grades: Prodigiously good.

Etymology

 * The name Sara means "change" (更).
 * Sara's surname Shirabuki means "white" (白) (shira) and "butterbur" (蕗) (buki), a plant with white flowers.
 * Butterbur is a shrub that grows in Europe and parts of Asia and North America, typically in wet, marshy ground. The name, butterbur, is attributed to the traditional use of its large leaves to wrap butter in warm weather.

Trivia

 * While Sara does not properly appear in the anime, she was visible at the soiree but she never has been mentioned or has a speaking role in the anime.