Yuki Kuran

Yuki Cross / Yuki Kuran (黒主 優姫 / 玖蘭 優姫 Kurosu Yūki / Kuran Yūki) is the protagonist of the series. She begins the series as a 15 year old first-year student at Cross Academy. Towards the climax of the first arc, Yuki is revealed to be a Pureblood Vampire, and also a member of the Kuran family and Kaname's younger sister, who is also his fianceé.

Character concept
Yuki was the first character designed and the first to have her personality defined, though with the intention of maturing later and being further defined. Matsuri Hino wanted to create a character different from her previous main character Airi from MeruPeri, she described Yuki as the character who possesses her justice side and that Yuki has the forgiving and nurturing nature that she wants. Amongst dark and gloomy characters, Yuki is meant to be the healing and soothing character.

Name

 * Yūki is a combination of yū, meaning "tender" or "kind", and ki, meaning "princess". Interestingly enough another meaning of yūki ( 勇気, yūki) is "courage", whereas Yuki can also mean (雪, yuki) "snow" as well.
 * Officially romanized as "Yuki" in Viz media publications and Chuang yi publications. Fan translations more accurately use "Yuuki" as the romanji.
 * Kurosu is the Japanese pronounciation of the English word "cross." However, the kanji has a different meaning, kuro meas "black" and su means "master": "black master."
 * The kanji of Kuran, is a combination of the old fashioned way of writing ku, meaning "nine," and ran, meaning "orchid": "nine orchids".
 * Kaien Cross knew 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 'tender princess.'

Appearance
Yuki has large brown eyes and as her years as a human, has short dark brown hair. After Yuki returns to being a pureblood vampire, her hair grows out to be more than twice as long as it previously was and she possesses a more mature look, resembling her mother. Her body also becomes more perfectly proportioned. Yuki has grown taller considerably over the year and stands well above Zero's shoulder now.

Personality
Yuki is generally a cheerful and comedic girl. She is considered a poor student because she dislikes studying and falls asleep in class, reason being she stays up all night monitoring the school grounds and night students. She exhibits a strong attachment to her close friends. Her indecisive nature and reticence can be attributed to her insecurity regarding her missing history. As a human, she feared all vampires (because of a vampire that attacked her when she was little) except for Kaname Kuran, because of this fear she rarely left the Cross Academy grounds on her own. Yuki doesn't like to reveal her fears and disguises it with a smile over her face.

Following her re-awakening as a pureblood vampire, Yuki shed the fears she once retained, 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.

Yuki's favorite subject is Physical Education and her favorite foods are the ginger pork stir fry set and parfaits.

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 level E vampire devouring her blood. Yuki grew up as a human in the care of Kaien Cross, who also adopted her. Despite no longer remembering him as her brother, Kaname remained a presence in Yuki's life, becoming Yuki beloved savior whose visits she looked forward to, eventually leading to the teenage Yuki developing feelings for him.

Despite having her memories sealed, as a child Yuki experienced constant nightmares, a problem which continued nightly until Zero Kiryu joined the Cross household and Yuki formed a strong attachment to the boy. Yuki found comfort in helping Zero with his own nightmares and unofficially appointed herself as his guardian, entering his room nightly to make sure he slept soundly, and constantly worrying about his well being. Shortly after the arrival of Zero, another change occurred as Yuki and Kaname lost the closeness they once shared after she witnessed Kaname feeding on a vampire classmate (Ruka), an act which both frightened Yuki and reminded her of the differences between vampire and human nature. Now keenly aware of the impossibility of her feelings, Yuki chose to distance herself from Kaname, though her admiration and longing for him remained. Though as she grows and matures and start to realize every secret of Pure bloods (including Kaname) and becomes more intelligent, though also she looks exactly like her mother even in a youth so young.

Kaname Kuran
Kaname is Yuki's admired savior, her pureblood brother, ancestor, lover and fiance. They have a long history and have a complex, if somewhat at times, mysterious relationship.

Zero Kiryu
Yuki and Zero were childhood friends, allies who became enemies and finally into an uncertain wary relationship as they both try to figure out where they stand. Although it is never said, Zero often shows signs of effection to Yuki throughout the series. At one point he even nearly kisses her. Yuki often worries about him and wants him to be safe but it is not said that if she loves him more than just a friend or loves him just as a close friend.

Sayori "Yori" Wakaba
Sayori Wakaba is Yuki's best friend and Yuki often calls her Yori. Yori often worries about Yuki and her duties, telling her she needs to rest and jokes about her being a vampire. Yori knows that Zero has feelings for Yuki and ask her about them, but Yuki most of the time has no idea what she's talking about. When Yuki is reawakened as a vampire and vanishes, Yori is worried and tells Yuki that no matter what they will always be best friends.

Hanabusa Aido
Aido is Yuki's antagonist elder classman who is jealous of her relationship with Kaname. After Yuki is revealed to be a Pureblood vampire, Aido ends up becoming her tutor and mentor.

Powers
Like all pureblood vampires, Yuki has immortality and the ability to heal from anything with the exception of anti-vampire weapons to her heart or cutting off her head. Yuki has demonstrated the following abilities, though most of her abilities are instinctual and uncontrolled:


 * Telekinesis, breaking windows on a few occasions when experiencing strong emotions.


 * Ability of flight using a pair of wings on her back made of blood that resemble butterfly wings.


 * Ability to interfere with memory blocking through touch and includes breaking memory spells on herself.


 * Ability to wield anti-vampire weapons both as a human and as a vampire and transforms the Artemis rod into its scythe form, like her mother did.

Manga

 * "I want to change things and that means I've got to do something." - 58th Night, Pg5 (Chuang Yi ed.)
 * (To Zero Kiryu) "I'll keep running away from you, Zero. so that you will have a reason to live, by still having enemies to go after." - 46th Night: enemies 

Anime

 * "It's my duty as a guardian to protect Cross Academy, Day and Night" - 2nd Episode "Memories of Blood"
 * "You can hate me along with the vampires, But I won't let you give up on everything Zero!" - Episode 6 "Their Choices"
 * "I was thinking, if I could become someone that Zero needs, then I could say goodbye to the me without a past." - Vampire Knight Guilty Episode 7 "The Thorny Kiss"
 * "I am a pureblood vampire, the one thing Zero despises, but I can't help that I still want to see him" - Vampire Knight Guilty Episode 8 "Spiralling Recollections"