Shizuka Hio

Shizuka Hio (緋桜 閑, Hiō Shizuka) was the Pureblood vampire who bit Zero Kiryu. Even for a Pureblood, her fellow vampires felt uneasy around her and referred to her as the "Flowers-blooming-out-of-season princess" or "Kuruizaki-hime."

Shizuka Hio was the first antagonist to appear in Vampire Knight. Shizuka was the Pureblood vampire who bit Zero, as well as the vampire responsible for killing his parents and bringing Zero's brother Ichiru to her side. She is regarded as dangerously erratic and insane, garnering her the epiphet "Kuruizaki-Hime" (狂い咲き姫  "Flowers blooming out of season princess"). Shizuka shows up at Cross Academy in the guise of another vampire, Maria Kurenai, but is recognized by both Kaname and Zero. In order to save Zero, Yuki risked her life and humanity for Zero to be able to drink Shizuka's blood to prevent his fall to Level E, but Zero stops her by defying his master's orders. Yuki, in turn, prevents Zero from gaining his revenge on Shizuka, and Kaname kills Shizuka to save Yuki.

It is later revealed that Shizuka had been used by a number of vampires for their own purposes. Out of hatred for her fiancé, Rido Kuran, she had sought more power to kill him and refused to submit to him. When she began having a vampire who had once been human as her lover, Rido deliberately arranged for her lover to be listed amongst the Level E vampires to be eliminated, in spite of the fact that Shizuka's lover was in no danger of falling to that level. Shizuka's lover was killed by the Kiryu family, though she was not offered the chance for revenge until Kaname released her from her cage. When Zero learns that Kaname was responsible for releasing Shizuka from Sara Shirabuki, Kaname claims that he had done so for Shizuka to take revenge on the Kiryus, which would ensure that their twin sons would seek the elimination of all Pureblood vampires.

Name
Shizuka means calm​ and silent. As for Hio, the Hi means scarlet, and o for cherry blossoms. With her nickname Kuruizaki-hime, Kuruizaki means flowers blooming out of season, and hime means princess. Her name means making the most of the previous time we have with our loved ones.

Appearance
Shizuka is a very beautiful and very attractive woman. She is tall compared to most of the other female characters, with long, silver-white hair and eyes that were an unusual shade of pink, similar to the color of cherry blossoms. She bore a slight resemblance to her distant relative, Maria Kurenai. Shizuka is always shown in a pale, white-colored kimono. She also wore a thin ribbon around her waist with a bell attached to it (in the anime, Ichiru would later use the bell in his hair). She is noted to always walk around barefoot.

Personality
She usually appeared calm and composed, and smiled as if amused when taunting or talking to Zero. Her gentle movements gave her a striking presence. Cherry blossoms often accompany her presence, even if they should be out of season, like when she first met the Kiryu twins.

While possessing Maria Kurenai's body, Ichiru notes that her actions in Maria's body were different than her normal calm and composed demeanor, such as when she playfully toys around with Ichiru's feelings and when she interacts with the Night Class. This shows a bit of Shizuka's playful side, even though Ichiru seemed displeased with it. An example of this was when Shizuka (possessed in Maria's body) kissed Ichiru out of fun, which leads to Ichiru telling her not to do it again.

Background
Shizuka was locked in a cage and kept in isolation the moment after she was born. Everyone claimed it was to protect a rare, exotic, beautiful creature such as herself because the Hio family had a sad history of going berserk. She was also engaged to Rido Kuran, but she refused to submit to him. She was given human sacrifices daily as food. On one such occasion, the sacrifice glared at her and she considered him different to all the others. She decided to talk to him instead of devouring him and became strongly attached to him. She eventually turned him into a vampire but he did not forgive her for it until the very end.

At some point, Kaname Kuran visited her. Shizuka later commented that she pitied him as the next leader of the Kurans. Shizuka proposed the idea of an escape to her lover, who reluctantly followed her and stayed with her. She believed he did so because he had no other place to go.

Her lover was later put on the execution list as a dangerous Level E vampire, even though Shizuka had prevented his fall to Level E by giving him her blood as his master. His life was ended by Zero Kiryu's parents. Enraged and vengeful, she attacked the Kiryu family, killing both parents, biting Zero to curse him, and taking Zero's twin, Ichiru Kiryu, with her. After she regained her senses, she realized who the real enemy was.

Most people were unaware of the reason for the attack and believed Shizuka had gone berserk, like other Hio family members before her. She was declared insane and put on the hunter execution list. She then disappeared without a trace. Shizuka spent four years in hiding with Ichiru as her dutiful bodyguard, hidden in Maria Kurenai's body, a distant relative, whom she promised to give blood to heal her ailing body.

Plot
Shizuka had been searching for Zero Kiryu using Maria's powers of controlling birds and found him at Cross Academy.

Shizuka enrolls into Cross Academy as Maria Kurenai and meets Yuki Cross, who she notices is a very delicious and healthy looking person. Yuki shows Maria around the campus and Maria admits to her weakness and fears of the other vampires to Yuki's surprise. Maria's sweet persona disappears when she goes to class with the Night Class and immediately starts alienating the students so she excuses herself.

Maria finds Zero and Yuki, Zero sensing something not right, pulls out his Bloody Rose and points it at Maria, Yuki stands in front of Maria and demands to know whats going on, Zero backs down in confusion. Yuki apologizes to Maria who thanks her and hopes they can be friends.

Maria again causes trouble by running around during the day and having Takuma chase her down. Zero takes Yuki aside and insist she stay away from the new student. Maria begins secretly watching Zero, allowed him to see her. Kaname talks to Maria and lets her know that he is aware of who she is and wants to know what her intentions are, Maria leaves Kaname only to be grabbed by Zero who pulls his gun on her again.

Zero has figured out that she must be Shizuka. Maria taunts Zero to pull the trigger, but he discovers he is unable to due to the bond between them. Maria is happy that Zero does not give up when he learns this. Her bodyguard tosses her a sword and she fights with Zero. They wound each other and Maria suggests they stop until their wounds are healed.

Maria finds Yuki the next day, Yuki confronts Maria over her actions and being Shizuka. Maria tells Yuki she knows how to save Zero from becoming a Level E and asks if she wants to make a deal. She then gives Yuki two choices: kill Kaname Kuran or get turned into a vampire. Yuki returns to Maria during the ball and agrees to give herself to Shizuka in exchange for her help. Maria is pleased, assuming this would be Yuki's choice. Shizuka returns to her own body and tells Yuki that Zero only needs to drink his master's blood. Before Shizuka can drink her blood, Zero arrives and threatens Shizuka. Yuki defends Shizuka and Zero tells her to get out of the way. Yuki refuses telling him its the only way to save him. Zero is disbelieving, but decides that he can drink her blood after he kills her and he moves Yuki away. Yuki tries to stop him with his bracelet at which Shizuka expresses annoyance that he is tamed by Yuki. Zero is frozen by his master's voice and begins to obey her commands to hold Yuki. Shizuka then drinks from Zero again as punishment. As she goes to drink from Yuki, Zero stops her, grabbing Shizuka's throat, he shoots himself in the leg to break free of her control and refuses to let Shizuka take any more from him and manages to shoot Shizuka. Shizuka laughs as Yuki tries to hold Zero back. Zero moves to attack her again and is stopped by her bodyguard, whom Zero realizes is his twin Ichiru. Shizuka leaves during the distraction to recover from her wounds.

Shizuka is annoyed to find Kaname in her room. Kaname, who notes the bullets have slowed her ability to heal. Shizuka wants to know why he is at the school, Kaname admits he's gathering his pieces and that he would have done the same as Shizuka as he plunges his hand through her chest causing a wound she cannot heal from. Shizuka admits she was thinking of using Yuki to kill Kaname and Kaname agrees that would have been wise, she admits that Yuki would have died and it was either Shizuka or Yuki and Kaname takes her life and blood in order to protect Yuki. He leaves a small amount for Zero to drink, but the blood is drunk by Ichiru instead, who arrived to find Shizuka first. Before dying, Shizuka warns Kaname that he will live in darkness and has summoned a sinister future for himself by drinking the blood of another Pureblood. In the anime, she tells Ichiru to devour her so that she will always be a part of him, then she slowly disperses into glittering-substances and proceeds to shatter. It is revealed that she deeply respected him and was quite fond of him, thus reluctant to bite him, as she refuses to let someone she cares be cursed like that.

Zero learns from Sara Shirabuki that Kaname was the one who freed Shizuka from her cage and demands to know Kaname's reasons, who claimed it was to have Shizuka take her revenge, specifically to kill a certain pair of hunters to ensure their twin children would seek the elimination of all Pureblood vampires.

Powers and Abilities
Aside from immortality and healing from all wounds except anti-vampire weapon wounds to the heart and the head, Shizuka has the ability to manipulate plants which explains why cherry blossoms fall when Shizuka appears. She could also possess the bodies of other vampires like Rido Kuran, resulting in obtaining their powers, such as using Maria's body to see through the eyes of birds. She was also a very capable fighter as she was able to kill Zero's parents, who were known to be the world greatest hunters of all time.

Rido Kuran
She was originally Rido Kuran's fiancée but held strong feelings of hatred for him, and it was later revealed that she wanted more power to kill him herself. Later in the manga, when Rido spoke of her death, he mentioned that it was a relief, and that when alive, she had refused to "submit to" him. They never married due to Rido's disappearance and finally her death. It was later found out that some of her hate was targeted at him as he was the mastermind who deliberately organised for her "lover's" name to be put on the list of Level E vampires to be killed despite the fact that he hadn't fallen into that state yet.

Ichiru Kiryu
Ichiru went with Shizuka after she killed his parents. He fell in love with her and begged her to turn him into a vampire, but she refused as she did not want him to become a docile servant. She gave him her blood instead to make him stronger, and this was her expression of love for him. After her death, Ichiru wears Shizuka's bell to tie up his hair.

Zero Kiryu
Shizuka revels in Zero's feelings of hate for her. She felt good about having someone with such strong feelings for her. She bit him was because there was something about him that reminded her of her former lover.