Yuki Kuran

Yuki Cross / Yuki Kuran (黒主 優姫 / 玖蘭 優姫 Kurosu Yūki / Kuran Yūki) 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 younger sister.

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 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, yūki) 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 use the accurately use "Yuuki" as the romanji.
 * Yuki's last name, Kurosu is the Japanese pronounciation of the English word "cross." However, kanji has a different meaning, kuro meas "black" and su means "master": "black master."
 * The kanji of her real surname 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 'gentle princess.'

Appearance
Yuki Cross has big brown eyes, and short dark brown hair. She has spent her life in human years. Later in Vampire Knight, Yuki's hair grows ten times longer, after Kaname awakened her into a pureblood vampire. Before she was a vampire, Yuki was about 5"2. After becoming a vampire, she grew to Zero's shoulders, and looked more mature, more looking like her mother, Juri.

Personality
Yuki is generally a cheerful and comedic girl. She is considered a poor student because she dislikes studying and falls asleep in class, reason being she stays up all night monitoring the school grounds and night students. She exhibits a strong attachment to her close friends. 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.

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 for a pureblood princess. Yuki's overwhelming fault is the tendency to burden herself with guilt over her ignorance when she learns the sufferings of other characters that they have kept secret. Yuki had never conciously chosen to drink blood from anyone's neck until the 73rd Night where she is shown to lean in to Zero's neck.

Yuki's favorite subject is Physical Education and her favorite foods are the ginger pork stir fry set and parfaits.

Story background
Yuki was approximately 5 years old when Rido Kuran attacked the Kuran family seeking to take Yuki. To protect her daughter, 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. Yuki grew up as a human in the care of Kaien Cross, who also adopted her. Despite no longer remembering him as her brother, Kaname remained a presence in Yuki's life, becoming Yuki beloved savior whose visits she looked forward to, eventually leading to the teenage Yuki developing 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 and Yuki formed a strong attachment to the boy. Yuki found comfort in helping Zero with his own 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 the arrival of Zero, another change occurred as Yuki and Kaname lost the closeness they once shared after she witnessed Kaname feeding on a vampire classmate (Ruka), an act which both frightened Yuki and reminded her of the differences between vampire and human nature. Now keenly aware of the impossibility of her feelings, Yuki chose to distance herself from Kaname, though her admiration and longing for him remained.

Zero Kiryu
Yuki and Zero became childhood friends after he went to live with Kaien after the massacre by Shizuka on his family. She has also been hiding romantic feelings for Zero.

Kaname Kuran
Kaname is Yuki's admired savior, her pureblood brother, her ancestor and her fiance.

Sayori "Yori" Wakaba
Sayori Wakaba is Yuki's best friend and Yuki often calls her Yori. Yori often worries about Yuki and her duties, telling her she needs to rest and jokes about her being a vampire. 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.

Hanabusa Aido
Aido is Yuki's antagonist elder 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 minder.

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.

Manga

 * "I want to change things and that means I've got to do something." - 58th Night, Pg5 (Chuang Yi ed.)
 * (To Zero Kiryu) "Then I'll keep running away from you if having an enemy gives you a reason to live." - 46th Night

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"