Yuki Kuran

Yuki Cross (黒主 優姫, Kurosu Yūki) was born as Yuki Kuran (玖蘭 優姫, Kuran Yūki) on March 29th, and is the adoptive daughter of the headmaster of Cross Academy. Yuki was a first year student at Cross Academy and a Prefect/Guardian. Yuki carries the anti-vampire weapon, Artemis. Towards the climax of the second arc, Yuki is revealed to be a Pureblood Vampire, and a member of the Kuran family and Kaname's younger sister. Yuki is also known as the youngest of all Purebloods.

Character outline


She was described by the Day Class boys as being stupid; 152cm (4'11") but one who eats well and considered pretty by few. Including Hanabusa Aido, who took the time to ask her fellow boy classmates, which indicates that he agrees. Prior to her awakening, Yuki has the same calm and unnatural beauty of all Purebloods. When Yuki confronts her uncle, Rido Kuran directly recognises Juri Kuran in Yuki.

Personality
Yuki is generally a cheerful and comedic girl. She is considered as a poor student because she 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 few close friends. Her indecisive nature and reticence can be attributed to her insecurity regarding her missing history. Prior to becoming a vampire, she had a fear of vampires which meant she rarely left the Cross Academy grounds on her own, because of the attack. She always maintained that Kaname was different to the other vampires until she witnessed him biting Ruka, but she refused to allow it to change her love for him. It did however, cause a distance between the two and revive her old fear of vampires. Yuki doesn't like to reveal her fears and wears a smile over her face instead. She is intensely protective over Zero.

Following her re-awakening as a pureblood, Yuki shed the fears she once retained, but her personality has not changed much and 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.

Hino Matsuri described Yuki as the character who possesses her justice side. She acknowledges that Yuki is the healing and soothing character in the 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 vampire. Yuki grew up as a human in the care of Kaien Cross, who also adopted her. Kaname stayed as a presence in Yuki's life whom she constantly looked forward to seeing and missed leaving, falling in with love him.

Yuki, as a child, had troubled nightmares nightly until Zero Kiryu joined their household and Yuki formed a strong attachment to the boy. Yuki's relationship with Kaname became distant after she witnessed his vampire nature as he fed on a vampire classmate and also as a human, Yuki believed she had no chance with Kaname and began to distance herself from him, but her admiration and longing for him remained and chose to believe that his interest in her was the result of seeing her as a pet or similar.

Zero Kiryu

 * See Main Article: Yuki & Zero

Zero becomes Yuki's childhood friend when he goes to live with Kaien at age 11. After Yuki discovers he is a vampire and needs blood, she pledges to help him and keep him from running away. Zero cares about Yuki a lot and craves her blood. They part ways after Yuki is reawakened as a pureblood vampire and they defeat Rido together, but Zero declares they are enemies and vows to kill her the next time he sees her. A year later, he meets up with Yuki and saves her from another vampire, he vows that he will kill her if she breaks the rules.

Kaname Kuran

 * See Main Article: Yuki & Kaname

Kaname and Yuki have a complex relationship. To Yuki, Kaname was her brother, senpai and finally her ancestor. Kaname has meant so much to her. He saved her from a Level E when she was young. Kaname spends the ten year protectivly watching Yuki and ensuring her safety and innocence above all else, however Kaname is forced to change Yuki back into a vampire when Rido returns to the school. Yuki leaves the school with Kaname and lives with him as his lover at their family home.

Sayori Wakaba
Sayori Wakaba is Yuki's best friend and often times she call her Yori-chan. 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 for several days, Yori is worried and tells Yuki that no matter what they will always be best friends.

Plot Overview

 * Main Article: Plot Summary for Yuki Cross

Yuki discovers that Zero has awakened as a vampire and is struggling with his blood lust, so she allows him to secretly feed on her blood. Yuki promises to be his ally and that she will kill him if he becomes a level E vampire. When Shizuka Hio offers to save Zero at the price of Yuki's humanity, Yuki agrees, though is stopped by Zero.

When Yuki's memories begin to resurface, Kaname bites Yuki to reawaken her true nature and then gives her his blood to restore her complete memory. Before she was bitten by Kaname and turned into a vampire she had blood hallucinations. It is revealed that Yuki is actually a pureblood vampire and the last child of Juri and Haruka Kuran. Following Rido Kuran's attack on the Kuran's, killing Haruka, Juri had sacrificed herself to seal Yuki's vampiric side and erase her daughter's memory. Upon returning to her vampire self, she begins to sense Rido's dangerous revival. Though Kaname attempts to remove her from danger, she refuses to leave Cross Academy. Resolving to fight Rido, Yuki's Artemis Rod then transforms into a scythe. Yuki and Zero stay allies to defeat Rido, but Zero tells Yuki he intends to kill all purebloods including her and Yuki counters that she will always run to keep him alive.

Following her admission to Kaname that she has a bond to Zero in her heart, Yuki requests to stay by Kaname's side regardless expecting rejection, Kaname agrees and counters that he would rather die than be without her. Following the murder of a vampire at the peace ball, Yuki decides she needs a purpose and she vows to kill any pureblood intending suicide, to prevent the sacrifice of others. Yuki has an accidental run-in with Zero after she is injured by another pureblood, Touma and Zero takes her to a safehouse, but Yuki runs off as soon as she regains consciousness. Kaname finally reveals that he is not her brother, but the Kuran ancestor re-awakened.

After Yuki awakens from drinking Kaname's memories, she accepts that Kaname is not her brother and resolves to call him Kaname. After some personal thoughts and confusion, she asks Kaname if they can start over again and he agrees.

Trivia

 * 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". Yūki is a combination of yuu, meaning "tender" or "kind", and ki, meaning "princess". Interestingly enough another meaning of "yuuki" ( ゆうき, yūki) is "courage", where as yuki can also mean (勇気, yuki) "snow" as well.
 * Officially romanized as "Yuki" in Viz media publications and Chuang yi publications. Fan translations usually use "Yuuki".
 * Kaien knows 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.'