Zero Kiryu

Zero Kiryu (錐生 零, Kiryū Zero?) is one of the main characters of Vampire Knight. Zero is Yuki's childhood friend and the only other Cross Academy Guardian. Zero carries an anti-vampire gun named "Bloody Rose" given to him by Kaien Cross.

Personality
As a child, Zero was a quiet and gentle boy, his twin, Ichiru questioned whether he was even capable of being a hunter. His gentleness even caused Yagari to lose an eye protecting him because he trusted an ex-human vampire. However after Shizuka's attack, Zero developed a deep hatred and distrust of vampires, he became withdrawn and sullen suffering from avoidant personality disorder. Zero is a tsundere character, he sports a scary aura that makes most of the day class students wary of him. However his innate nature is to protect people (humans), his cold attitude towards those he loves is likely to push them away and keep everyone at a distance.

Following his full awakening into a vampire, Zero harbours a great disgust towards himself because of inability to control his hunger and reliance on Yuki. His dismal outlook on his future and fear of what he might do causes him to give up and he almost kills himself. He fights to ignore his hunger to the point of starvation rather than go to Yuki. He tries to help Yuki resolve her own problems and the impresses upon her that its ok for her to burden and use him because he owes her.

He is even more agressive and rude towards vampires, however early on he shows hesitation toward destroying Level E vampires because they remind him of himself. Zero harbours a great deal of anger particularly toward purebloods because of their mechanisms in his life in particular, he extends this hostility toward Yuki as well after she turns.

Zero is shown to have a soft spot for Yuuki and is also very protective of her, extremely afraid of hurting her.

Following the timeskip Zero still fights severe hunger and controls it by hunting vampires at night, however his fear of falling to Level E is abated thanks to Shizuka's blood. He retains the opinion that a normal vampire is always in danger of spiralling out of control. His desire to protect humans exceeds his desire to kill purebloods as he allows Kaname his peace negotiations, but expresses his doubt over Kaname's true motives.

Appearance
His height is 181 cm (5' 11.3"). He has short silver hair with long bangs and light lavender eyes. He has very pale skin, even paler than the Night Class students. He bears a tattoo on the left side of his neck. He is usually shown in his black 'day' class uniform which he wears incorrectly with the vest and red tie exposed from under his black jacket.

Background
Zero is descended from Vampire Hunters and was trained as a Vampire Hunter by Toga Yagari. Four years ago, Zero was taken in by Kaien Cross as the sole survivor of a murderous attack on his family by Shizuka Hiou. Zero was bitten during the attack and has spent the last four years resisting turning into a vampire. Zero was tattooed with a symbol on his neck that helped suppress the vampire awakening.

Story Recap

 * Main Article: Plot Summary for Zero Kiryu

Zero fights to keep his secret from Yuki until he accidently bites her. Following his horror and depressed state, he makes an attempt to run away and kill himself, but is stopped by Yuki. Though Yuki attempts to save him from falling to level E by offering herself to Shizuka, Zero prevents it refusing to allow her to become a vampire. Zero attempts to kill Shizuka, but as she escapes when he discovers his twin brother still alive and serving Shizuka and causes Zero to lose his chance to drink her blood before she is killed.

Zero comes very near to falling to a Level E state when Kaname convinces Zero to drink his blood. Zero supports Yuki in her attempts to uncover hidden past, but the discovery and awakening of Yuki as a pureblood partner causes Zero to sever their friendship. Zero is locked up by the Hunters Association when they decided they cannot control him when Ichiru comes to him, barely alive following a futile attack on Rido Kuran, Ichiru convinces Zero to "eat" him to complete the fragment. Though enemies, Zero assist Yuki in killing Rido and shortly after he declares that he will kill all pureblood vampires including Yuki. He fails to kill Yuki, instead he reveals his feelings for her and they part ways.

Currently Zero has been hunting vampires and now finds himself presented as the future president of the Hunters Association. In this capacity, he is forced to attend the peace meeting between the hunters and vampires and later to patrol at the party. Zero investigates the death of a hunter and rebukes Yuki for trying to get involved.