Yuki Kuran

Yuki Cross/Kuran (黒主 優姫/玖蘭 優姫 Kurosu Yuuki/Kuran Yuuki) is the main female protagonist of the series. She was initially portrayed as a human with no prior memories of her earlier life. Her growing curiosity to know the truth of her past makes it difficult for her to move forward. She is also curious about the mysterious connection between her and Kaname Kuran, her long time crush. Despite confronting him face to face, Kaname still does not plan to let her know as he believes she would be happier not knowing the unknown past. However his plans were disrupted and had to be brought forth when the main villain of the story made an unexpected appearance, which is Rido, Yuuki's uncle and the one who awakened Kuran the Ancestor from his eternal slumber. Having no other ways to save Yuki from a foreseen tragedy that has begun to corrupt her mind, the truth was finally revealed in a way that Yuki would have never imagined. She was all along the precious secret daughter of Juri and Haruka Kuran. Kaname Kuran is actually her fiancé, childhood lover and brother. Both of them are officially the last remaining living purebloods of the Kuran family and is part of the remaining seven royal pureblood clans. In the last chapter of the manga, when Kaname Kuran threw his heart into the furnace, after a thousand years and after Zero passed away, she sacrificed her life to awaken Kaname into a human and left her two children with him.

Appearance
Appearance as the human, Yuki Cross.

Yuki has a slender body with large brown eyes with a hidden red tint in them. She has shoulder length dark brown hair with light red/brown hue highlights. She wears the trademark black uniform of the Day Class with a white armband carrying the mark of a red rose, signifying her position as a member of the Disciplinary Committee. Additionally under her skirt, attached to her left thigh, Yuki carries an anti-vampire weapon: the Artemis Rod. She wears dark leather brown boots in the manga but wears ankle brown boots in the anime series.

Appearance as the pureblood, Yuki Kuran.

Upon her awakening as a Pureblood Princess, it is instantly noticeable that her appearance is strikingly beautiful like her mother Juri Kuran and she has also been praised to have the same "kind and tender eyes/gaze" as her father Haruka Kuran in Night 54, page 7 Compared to her human hair and appearances, as a vampire Yuki's hair has grown to be much longer, reaching down to the back of her waist. Her character development as a vampire is portrayed to be more feminine and definitely more toned down compared to her human side. Yuki's eyes glow red and less brown.

During the time that she had spent living in the Kuran mansion with Kaname Kuran and Hanabusa Aido, Yuki is seen from time to time to be wearing Pajamas or long sleeved dresses that reach above her knees. She was also drawn to wearing high heeled shoes or sometimes barefooted. Yuki adorns pretty head pieces and accessories such as hairbands, berets, pearl necklaces, and gloves with ribbons. During important Vampire or Hunter functions she is dressed in long elegant ballgowns. In Night 54 it is seen that Yuki gets her pedicure and manicure done by Kaname and Ruka personally. Whenever Yuki leaves the Kuran mansion to go to town in secret, She dresses more casually, but is still very neatly and fully dressed.

Yuki continues to use Artemis as her main weapon after it transforms into a scythe that vampires such as herself can wield in Night 41  But in Night 83, Yuki uses Artemis to cut off her long hair, reverting to her old hairstyle to show Kaname that she is upset with his unknown plans and is disappointed by his sudden change in character.

As a child, Yuki's hair was long, reaching the middle of her back.

Personality
Yuki is generally a cheerful and a rather comedic girl. She is considered a poor student because she dislikes studying and falls asleep in class due to the fact that she stays up all night monitoring the school grounds and protects the day class students from sneaking into the night class dorms. She exhibits a strong attachment to her close friends, especially Sayori and Zero. Her indecisive nature and reticence can be attributed to her insecurity regarding her missing past. As a human, she has been seen as standing sides with vampires but deep in her heart she feared all vampires (because of a vampire that attacked her when she was little) excluding 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. But Zero, having grown up with her for four years, is always able to tell when something is bothering her, making it hard for her to hide things from him and vice versa.

Following her reawakening as a Pureblood vampire, Yuki shed the fears she once retained. When a situation demands for it, she can put in an authoritative face as expected of a Pureblood Princess. As a result, she has grown more emotionally mature and thoughtful. Yuki's overwhelming fault is the tendency to burden herself with guilt over her ignorance when she learns of other people's sufferings that they have kept secret.

Yuki's favorite subject is Physical Education and her favorite food is ginger pork stir fry set, as well as parfaits.

History
Yuki was five years old when Rido Kuran attacked the Kuran Family household seeking to take her away. In order to protect her, Juri sacrifices herself to seal Yuki's vampire nature and erases Yuki's memory. Yuki's first memory is that of Kaname saving her from a Level E Vampire who tried to devour her while being alone on a snowy day. She grew up as a human in the care of Kaien Cross, who also adopted her. Despite no longer remembering Kaname and their past relationship, he remained an important figure in Yuki's life, becoming her much beloved savior whose visits she always looks forward to, eventually leading Yuki to develop romantic 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. As a result, Yuki formed a strong attachment to him. She found comfort in helping Zero with his personal 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 Zero's arrival, another change occurred between Yuki and Kaname's relationship. The closeness they once shared was lost after she witnessed Kaname feeding on a vampire classmate Ruka, an act which both frightened Yuki and reminded her of the difference between humans and vampires. Now keenly aware of the futility of her feelings, Yuki chose to distance herself from Kaname. Still, her longing and admiration for him remained. Furthermore as she grows and matures, Yuki had confronted the secrets of the Purebloods (including Kaname) and her existence. In the end of the manga, Kaname sacrificed his heart during the war between the vampires and vampire hunters in order for them to continue using vampire weapons against menacing vampires. He later dies and his last words were that Yuki and Zero should be together. Soon, Yuki went to where Kaname's body was kept and decided to awaken him as a human by sacrificing her life, so that Kaname could experience the happiness he had been longing for as a human.

Powers and Abilities
Like all Pureblood vampires, Yuki has immortality and the ability to heal from anything excluding anti-vampire weapon wounds to the heart or head.Yuki has demonstrated the following abilities, though most of her abilities are instinctual and uncontrolled:
 * Telekinesis, breaking windows on the few occasions when she experiences strong emotions.
 * Ability of flight using a pair of wings on her back made of blood that resemble butterfly wings . This also, as Kaname puts it, the embodiment of her power; it's just like Yuki to have her embodiment take the form of something that craves the sunlight.
 * 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 transform the Artemis rod into its scythe form, like her mother did.
 * Ability to have her blood cure people's hallucinations.
 * The ability to erase memories.
 * Yuki is able to explore, read the memories and hearts of those she sucks blood from.
 * The power to turn a pureblood vampire into a human.

Weapon
Yuki's weapon is Artemis throughout the entire story. Artemis is an anti-vampire weapon given to her by Kaien Cross after she assumes her role as the school's guardian. During the old days, Juri Kuran was also able to wield the artemis just like her daughter. Artemis appearance looks like a harmless plain metal rod that can extend longer when force is applied. However it can hurt any vampire just by a touch.

Yuki has used Artemis to stab Rido Kuran in battle. Other than that, she has never used Artemis to kill or harm other vampires.

She also offered her service to remaining purebloods to take their life if they ever thought of ending their lives in Night 57

Awakened Artemis

In Night 41, page 32   of the manga, it is seen that Artemis transformed, just like it's wielder. After Yuki is awakened as a Pureblood vampire, the appearance of Artemis completely changed. Artemis has features of a vampire and looks very much like a vampire itself. A blade resembling those of a Vampire's fang, tearing flesh on the fang (showing it's blood lust), a rod made out of bones and additional touch of bat wing designs on the back. All these features makes Artemis look like the most intimidating weapon out of all the other anti-vampire weapons. Even though Yuki is now a vampire herself, Artemis retains it's ability just like before. Making it her ultimate weapon against fellow blood-sucking beasts like her.

History of Artemis

Artemis was born from a pureblood hooded ancestor who sacrificed her heart to the furnace to give life to anti-vampire weapons for humanity to fend themselves off from vampires with bad intentions at the beginning of time 10,000 years ago. Artemis and Bloody Rose were originally Kaname Kuran's personal weapons before he gave them to Cross Kaien to be in-charge. Which was later passed onto Yuki Kuran and Zero Kiryuu respectively when they became the school guardians.

Kaname Kuran


Kaname is Yuki's admired savior, her Pureblood brother, fiancé and ancestor. Yuki has been in love with Kaname almost her entire life, since she was a young child to a teenager, even before and after losing her memories. Both of them are bonded emotionally and deeply rooted than what it appears on the surface. At times, their relationship for each other could be even viewed as very interesting or mysterious to both vampires and humans. Though Yuki loves both Kaname and Zero, Yuki departed with Kaname to the Kuran Mansion. Yuki promised to leave Cross Academy with him after she finishes her business, which includes the death of Rido Kuran, making sure that the school grounds were safe and ultimately tying lose ends with Zero Kiryuu which ends in a disaster. After Zero said things like the only blood he really desired was Yuki's and bit her for the last time, he claimed that he will kill her the next time they meet and verbally disregarded their past friendship. Even though she was very confident about knowing Zero before, she still expresses fears that Zero will treat her like a stranger or just a hunter going out to hunt her down, which has left her troubled for the past 2 years.

She loves Kaname whom she considers the start of her whole world because of his saving of her as her first memory as a human.

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.

Even though it was only stated once, Yuki does admit to Kaname that part of her belongs to Zero. Whether this is romantic-wise or not, has yet to be proven although some fans believe that it is of a romantic nature due to a Pureblood's blood-lust only being quenched by a lover's blood. Yuki is shown sated by Zero's blood, she mentions he is the one she never thought she would attain blood from. During the masquerade ball, while Zero danced with her, Yuki finally admitted that she does love Zero and that he was the boy she wanted to cherish (this is also the chapter where they kissed for the 2nd time). Afterwards, Yuki erased Zero's memories of her the next day so that Zero won't be in despair when she's gone because she decided to sacrifice herself to turn Kaname into a human in order to hinder his plan. However, Zero eventually regains his memories back by biting and sucking blood from Yuki and finally decides to face his true feelings for her as he remembered his twin brother's (Ichiru) dying words. The weight in Zero's heart was lifted and his hatred for Purebloods faded away. In the last chapter of the manga, Zero and Yuki finally ended up together. Zero eventually turned to dust because he's not a pureblood, and when Yuki went to his family's grave with the fragments of Bloody Rose with her, she left it with his family's grave while reminiscing her memories of Zero and said that though they had a lot of quarrels, Zero made her really happy.

Sayori Wakaba
Sayori Wakaba is Yuki's best friend and roommate. Yuki affectionately calls her Yori. Sayori often worries about Yuki and her guardian duties, telling her she needs to rest and jokes about her being a vampire due to Yuki's sleeping habits. Sayori knows that Zero has feelings for Yuki and asks him about them, but Yuki most of the time has no idea what she's talking about. When Yuki was reawakened as a vampire and vanishes, Sayori is worried and tells Yuki that no matter what they will always be best friends. She has also told Yuki that she isn't scared of her despite Yuki telling her that she could have bit her. In the last chapter of the manga, she is seen narrating the story of vampires and humans to her grandchildren.

Hanabusa Aido
Aido was Yuki's antagonistic senior classman who was jealous of her relationship with Kaname. After Yuki was revealed to be a Pureblood Princess of the Kuran family, Aido ends up becoming her tutor and mentor. This is further enhanced to the status of protector as the series progresses. Though their new relationship is on a new, professional level, the two have demonstrated a better and closer friendship.

Manga

 * "...It's cold... White snow... What is "white"? What is "snow"? It is something that is not red. Something that is "red"... is what?"
 * "I'm not the "Yuki"... that Zero knows anymore. Because... the vampire Yuki completely devoured her."
 * "have you ever wanted to end your life...?"
 * "I want it ... I only want this man's blood."
 * "If you don't devour what you desire, you'll be driven insane."
 * "When I think of him I feel so much love and sadness ... is it a bad thing that the same feeling makes me want to latch onto his throat and devour his blood and even his life to taste his feelings in it?"
 * "His neck ... his beautiful pale neck ... when I think of it, I want to tear into it with my fangs ... I want to bask deeply in the taste of his blood in that flowing crimson filled with his feelings melted into it ..."

Anime

 * "It's my duty as a guardian to protect Cross Academy, Day and Night."
 * "You can hate me along with the vampires, But I won't let you give up on everything Zero!"
 * "I was thinking, if I could become someone that Zero needs, then I could say goodbye to the me."
 * "I am a P​ureblood vampire, the one thing Zero despises, but I can't help that I still want to see him."
 * "...It's cold... White snow... What is "white"? What is "snow"? It is something that is not red. Something that is "red"... is what?"[5]
 * "I'm not the "Yuki"... that Zero knows anymore. Because... the vampire Yuki completely devoured her."
 * "have you ever wanted to end your life...?"
 * "I want it ... I only want this man's blood."
 * "If you don't devour what you desire, you'll be driven insane."
 * "When I think of him I feel so much love and sadness ... is it a bad thing that the same feeling makes me want to latch onto his throat and devour his blood and even his life to taste his feelings in it?"
 * "His neck ... his beautiful pale neck ... when I think of it, I want to tear into it with my fangs ... I want to bask deeply in the taste of his blood in that flowing crimson filled with his feelings melted into it ..."

Trivia

 * Yuki japanese voice actress,Yui Horie is notable best voiced Hitomi from Dead or Alive series ,a fighting game series develop by Team Ninja.
 * Horie also voiced Anna Kushina in K Project Series.
 * Yuki,Zero,and Aido are the only character who their seiyuu voiced in Anime K Project series.