Yuki Kuran

Yuki Cross / Yuki Kuran (黒主 優姫 / 玖蘭 優姫 Kurosu Yuuki / Kuran Yuuki) 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 sister, to whom she promised as a child to marry.

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 ) 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 reddish-brown eyes and in her ten 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, although still petite in structure also becomes more perfectly proportioned. Yuki has grown taller considerably over the year.

Personality
Yuki is generally a cheerful and 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 night students. She exhibits a strong attachment to her close friends, especially Yori and Zero. 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. 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 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 of a pureblood princess. 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 foods are the ginger pork stir fry set and parfaits.

Story background
Yuki was 5 years old when Rido Kuran attacked the Kuran household seeking to take her away. To protect her, 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 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 as her brother, he remained an important person in Yuki's life, becoming her much beloved savior whose visits she always looks forward to, eventually leading for the teenage Yuki to develop intimate 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 admiration and longing for him remained. Furthermore as she grows and matures, Yuki has to confront the secrets of the Purebloods (including Kaname) and her existence. It is noticeable that she looks exactly like her mother but has been implied to have the tenderness of her father.

Kaname Kuran
Kaname is Yuki's admired savior, her pureblood brother, lover, fiance and ancestor. They have a long and complicated history. At times, it could be even viewed as mysterious which leads their relationship to be ambiguous.

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 romatic nature due to a pureblood's bloodlust only being quenched by a lover's blood.

Sayori "Yori" Wakaba
Sayori Wakaba is Yuki's best friend and Yuki affectionately calls her Yori. Yori often worries about Yuki and her prefect duties, telling her she needs to rest and jokes about her being a vampire due to Yuki's sleeping habits. 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. She has also told Yuki that she isn't scared of her despite Yuki telling her that she could bite her.

Hanabusa Aido
Aido is Yuki's antagonistic senior 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. This is further enhanced to the status of protector as the series progresses.

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.
 * She has an ability to have her blood cure people's hallucinations, illness and disaster.

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 
 * "The Yuki you knew... is gone... because... the vampire Yuki... devoured her."(To Zero Kiryu)

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"