Ai Kuran

Ai Kuran (玖蘭 愛, Kuran Ai) is the only daughter of Kaname Kuran and Yuki Kuran who is the last Pureblood of the Kuran family.

She appears at the end of Chapter 93 with her younger half-sister to give Yuki's final message to Kaname when he wakes up from his 1000-year slumber.

Appearance
Ai has the traits that every member of the Kuran clan possesses, the ethereal beauty of the purebloods, who is very beautiful, like her mother Yuki Kuran and grandmother Juri Kuran. When Ai was a child, she had short, wild hair that was accessorized with a hair band. When she became a member of the Night Class, her hair had grown to her shoulders and she was described by her mother as soft and shiny like her father Kaname Kuran. Once reaching adulthood, Ai's hair had grown long and wavy with bangs that hung just above her eyebrows. In the extra chapters, Ai has been seen to wear her hair in a high ponytail when cooking. Ai has big eyes like her mother but with the reddish-brown color similar to her father.

It is noted by other characters that she resembles Kaname (Ai's father), having a calm face and a smile like Yuki (Ai's mother).

Personality
As a child, Ai was more mature for her age unlike Yuki Kuran. In the Extra "I Like You", she is shown to adore Zero Kiryu as her "Father", until the following 'Love's Desire' where she is shown to have romantic feelings for him. However, she keeps quiet for her mother's sake. Ai does, in fact, tell Ruka Souen her feelings. Ai was a very observant child and seemed more aware of things happening around her than the adults were aware of. Ai has a good sibling relationship with her sister Ren Kiryu as they are shown scolding one another. A young Ai was very much hyperactive in nature, a trait which has followed her into adulthood.

Between the years of letting go of her crush on Zero and Ren's birth, Ai showed a rather dark side in trying to manipulate her mother and foster father into producing a sibling for her. Primarily so, Ai could love her sibling and drink their blood as she rather dislikes the alternatives of transfusion bag blood and blood tablets. Once Ren was born, Ai gave up on the idea, instead focusing more on being a loving sister. Ai is shown to not tolerate anyone insulting her beloved sister simply due to her not being a Pureblood. When an old woman still loyal to the old vampire society voiced disgust at the Kuran bloodline having a "filthy blooded" child, Ai snapped and used her Pureblood powers to silence her and threatened the old woman to never speak of her sister so disrespectfully. It was only thanks to Seiya and Ren intervening that Ai calmed down.

Due to growing up in the lifestyle of a Pureblood, Ai is naïve of some lower class customs. For example, she did not know what a "job" was. Ai often became annoyed by letters from Pureblood families asking for her to marry a Pureblood lord. She ignored them constantly.

Story
Ai appears at Kaname Kuran's resting place along with her younger half-sister Ren Kiryu and her mother Yuki Kuran. Ai and Ren watch their mother give her life to Kaname to turn him human. She passed a message from her mother to her father "I want to give to you, whom I love, the world that I saw when I was a human". Ai and her sister watch over Kaname when he wakes up as a human.

She appears in the extra Life as a baby, born four years after Yuki left Cross Academy. In the last extra I Like You, Ai and her sister tell Kaname what happened in the last thousand years and about the efforts of Hanabusa Aido, Yuki and the others, but he appears not to be listening to them. Ai and her half-sister remember that Kaname had his memories sealed along with his vampire side, so the past does not matter to him. Ai tells her sister that she does not want Kaname to not know about what transpired during his thousand year sleep and appears upset. She and her sister are then hugged by Kaname who asks them to tell him more about what happened in the past one thousand years.

Powers and Abilities
Like all pureblood vampires, Ai has immortality and the ability to heal from anything excluding anti-vampire weapon wounds to the head or heart. Ai possess all the powers of a pureblood vampire. Such as putting herself to sleep for how long she wants, which was 1,000 years. Ai can control humans and vampires but chooses not to use this power. In the manga Ai was shown to manipulate fire and erase people's memories. Ai has also shown telekinesis, unintentionally strangling someone when she lost her temper.

Yuki Kuran
Yuki was Ai's mother. In the last chapter, Ai stays by her mother's side before she sacrifices her life to turn Kaname Kuran (Ai's father) into a human. It is seen in Life, that the reason Yuki was able to survive her grief of Kaname's death was because of Ai's birth. As noted in later chapters when Ai is still a child, Yuki and Ai share a dear and lovely relationship. As an adult, Yuki begins to have Ai take the responsibility of a Pureblood Kuran saying that was what Ai wanted to do at first. After Ai denies Yuki's request apologizing (feeling irresponsible) Yuki tells Ai that she wasn't irresponsible and has helped her a lot (Ai gave her a reason to live after Kaname died). When Ai's blood lust came around, Yuki was shown to comfort her. When Ai becomes older, their relationship remains strong, even in spite of Ai's romantic feelings for Zero.

Kaname Kuran
Kaname is Ai's father. In the chapter. I Like You, after she and Ren Kiryu are there to greet him after Yuki has awakened him by giving her heart to him, he hugs both of them. Ai is shown to be happy with finally having reconnected with her father and though not much has been revealed with Vampire Knight Memories having only begun, the two have frequently been shown enjoying each other's company. Ai begins to tell Kaname the story of what happened 1,000 years ago when he was asleep and even gives him a photo album. Ai also really wants to Kaname to remember his past, as she doesn't want him to live his life without his memories.

Zero Kiryu
Whilst Ai as very young, Zero was her father figure as her real father, Kaname Kuran, was dead. In "Life" he meets Ai for the first time. He puts out his hand and teased her for making her mother attack him and she latches on to his finger. Before I Like You and after Life, Zero started taking care of Ai whenever her mother was busy with Vampire Society. In I Like You, Ai adores Zero and calls him her father to which he reminds her that Kaname is her actual "father", but she persists by saying that he is her "father" too. In her teenage years Ai admits that she is in love with Zero and Ruka stated that it was painful to watch the person she wants as her "prince" love another. This made Ai heartbroken and frustrated so she continues to ask Zero and Yuki for a little sister that she can have all to herself to feed from. Even in adulthood, it is shown that Ai still has romantic feelings for Zero, that she eventually lets go of.

Ren Kiryu
Ren is Ai's younger half-sister. The moment Ren was born, the two immediately became close. When the siblings had grown up they are shown to have a typical sibling relationship, scolding each other whenever one gets out of line. In Chapter 21, after Ren told her about how she's been carving to her drink blood and she's afraid that she don't like her anymore, but she doesn't care because she "wants to get to know her". In Chapter 22, Ai seems to be happy and overjoyed after Ren kissed her before she passes out due to Ren drink a lot of her blood.

When Ai gets depressed or annoyed that Kaname can't remember Yuki or Zero, Ren is able to calm her down. Ai also shows love to her sister such as resting her head on her shoulder and talking about their parents and the memories they had.

Taro
Taro is a boy that Ai starts building a connection with in order to alleviate tensions between the humans and vampires. There are implications in recent chapters that Ai may have been in a romantic relationship with his ancestor (former emperor) prior to the story of Vampire Knight: Memories. As of recent in ch. 41, it is revealed Ai had married Taro under political circumstances however, it seemed explicitly clear that he possess romantic feelings for her, and likely her towards him as well. They remained together until his death many years later.

Kaien Cross
Ai's adoptive grandfather. As a child, Ai was always amused by Kaien, who made her laugh.

Etymology

 * The name Ai means "love, affection" (愛).
 * In Japanese, Ai means an extremely strong form of unconditional love, unending love, affection and it is very rarely used in the Japanese language due to how strong it is.

Trivia

 * Mariya Ise voices Ai in the Drama CD which came with volume 4 of Vampire Knight Memories
 * Ai is a pureblood princess of the Kuran family as Kaname Kuran (Ai's father) is the pureblood king and Yuki Kuran (Ai's mother) is a pureblood princess.