Kiku Hoshimi

Kiku Hoshimi (キク) is among the oldest vampires in history, on a quest to discover how to revert back to being human that lasted for five centuries. Believing the theory that a vampire who sucked the blood of the human they loved would also become human, Kiku spent lifetimes attempting to fall in love with humans, but to no avail, as she kept accidentally making them into her underlings, to the point she had the most underlings among the vampire race.

Eventually, she crossed paths with Mahiru Seki and developed a relationship with him. On the verge of experiencing the emotion of romance, Kiku had the lovestruck Mahiru under her bidding, motivating him to disregard everything and everyone in his life and only center his mind on her. Her actions and influence captured the attention of Kou Yamori, who had become a hybrid between human and vampire, Nazuna Nanakusa and Kyouko Mejiro, so Kiku and Mahiru fled to Hokkaido. Now knowing the feeling of love, Kiku prepared for the night of her theoretical transformation, but after attempting to murder Kou, she was confronted by Anko Uguisu, who blamed her for her parents's deaths, though the two finally set aside their differences.

Appearance
Kiku is a young-looking woman with a slender build, a noticeably prominent forehead and a pretty appearance, featuring a narrow face, shoulder-length light brown hair, and eyes with a piercing and unsettling gaze. She prefers to wear coats, tops, skirts, stockings, and high heels.

Personality
Kiku had an unpredictable personality; on the outside, she seemed friendly and empathetic and thereby quickly became friends with Mahiru Seki, who met her often due to his part-time job as a flower courier. She was the vampire with the most underlings; according to Hatsuka Suzushiro, she had over 50 of them, although she mentioned that she didn't really want to have underlings and accidentally transformed them. She usually abandoned them after they turned into vampires.



She was exceptionally secretive and enigmatic, watching people from afar and almost always being ahead of others in situational awareness. With the exception of her late friend, Kiku rarely ever spent time with other vampires, though she had connections that she used to her advantage. Azami said that she would know if someone tailed her for too long. If she got directly confronted, she either made sure to silence her opponent or fled and used her environment to her advantage. Kiku was a highly twisted individual who enjoyed toying with people and was arrogant as she saw herself as superior compared to vampires like Nazuna, mockingly calling her out for risking the exposure of vampires to humans despite doing the same, not caring about the consequences of her actions. She was happy to use intimidation to scare off people who tried to get in her way, torture or murder them, and had a terrifying presence.

Like Haru Nanakusa, Kiku had the objective of becoming human again. Though she was bored with her life as an immortal vampire, it wasn't her main reason, unlike Haru's. Kiku believed that falling in love with a human would let her become human herself.

Due to her unsuccessful search for love, Kiku became mentally unstable. When she confronted Anko Uguisu, she had a breakdown, laughing maniacally and simultaneously boasting and despairing over nobody, not even herself, knowing "what is fucking wrong with her." She was incredibly insecure and believed that Mahiru had to sever all past connections he had for her sake, lest the love wasn't real in her eyes. When Mahiru still showed attachment to Kou, she attempted to drown the latter. Kiku didn't know what love felt like in the first place and based her expectations on romantic stories, such as those in movies.

Allies

 * Haru Nanakusa † - Friend
 * Mahiru Seki † - Boyfriend and Love Interest
 * Kou Yamori - Former Attempted Victim
 * Azami - Underling, Temporary Enemy and Ally
 * Kyouko Mejiro - Former Attempted Killer
 * Unnamed Female Driver

Enemies

 * Nazuna Nanakusa - Attempted Victim
 * Susuki
 * Haruka Nanakusa - Situational Enemy

Mahiru Seki
They met when Mahiru delivered flowers to her place, and she started to chat with him. Sometime after, they started going out together and got along well. Kiku complimented him and listened to Mahiru whenever he wanted to say something, always telling him what he wanted to hear. She later revealed to Mahiru that she was a vampire and said she had no intention of turning Mahiru into a servant. After Mahiru chose to stay with her regardless, she had a crazed expression on her face, thinking that Mahiru might be the one whom she would fall in love with. After that, they spent more time off-screen, and Kiku caused a drastic change in Mahiru's personality, manipulating him to abandon his friends and family, leaving her as the only person he had left, which was her plan from the beginning. She hasn't sucked his blood yet.



After arriving in Hokkaido and spending more time with Mahiru, Kiku realized she genuinely fell in love with him. At first, she felt incredibly euphoric and happy. However, that love turned into despair when she discovered that Mahiru hasn't fully let go of his past and still held Kou and Akira dear. Despite being in love, Kiku didn't understand him and took it as a sign that Mahiru didn't truly love her, asking herself if she wasn't good enough for him. She then decided to take action and attempted to murder Kou.



On Halloween, Kiku announced that she would most likely die soon and wanted Mahiru to be the one to kill her. To achieve that, she intended to suck the blood of a human she loves and turn back into a human herself. When Mahiru didn't come back for a while, she showed concern and searched for him despite it being daytime, causing her to pass out. Back in the hotel the two were staying at, Kiku told Mahiru that she wanted to get married and have children so that she could say she is happy in the end.



It turned out that Kiku encountered Mahiru when he was a young child, seeing him for the first time just after his older brother had died. In the following days, she repeatedly encountered Mahiru in the same spot and eventually decided to take him under her umbrella on a rainy day. Mahiru explained his situation to her and asked if dead people could still outshine living ones since his mother only talked about his late brother even though he was still there. After taking some time to think of an answer, Kiku told Mahiru that his mother was just grieving and wasn't actively trying to hurt him. She then asked him if he loved his mother, to which he replied he wasn't allowed to hate her. Kiku wanted to lift that burden off him and reassured him that he was allowed to hate others, even his parents, but said that constant hatred was tiring and advised him to just stop caring, sowing the seeds of Mahiru's future relationship with his parents. After getting asked for her name, Kiku asked Mahiru if he was hitting on her at such a young age and told him that they could date once he was older.

Azami
Kiku and Azami have known each other since Azami worked under a Yakuza boss who was in a relationship with Kiku. She stood up for him, scolding the boss for making jokes at Azami's expense. Because of Azami's shy and reserved nature at the time, Kiku didn't think he was interested in girls until an assassin shot everyone. Azami sacrificed himself to save her, for which Kiku drank his blood in commemoration and, to her surprise, turned him into a vampire. Unlike her other underlings, she met with Azami afterward and taught him several things about vampires. Even though they didn't see each other for the next 35 years, she remembered him and was aware of the work he did for her behind the scenes and expressed gratitude for it.

Haru Nanakusa
Atypical for her relationships with other vampires, Kiku was close to Haru and even had an affectionate nickname for her. They shared the same goal, to become human, and frequently argued over various topics surrounding that goal. These two women seemed like real friends to Haruka, who was present during those meetings and conversations.

However, Kiku's sympathy for Haru doesn't extend to Nazuna, whom Kiku was happy to torture despite her being Haru's daughter.

Abilities

 * Vampiric abilities: Like all vampires, Kiku had superhuman strength, could levitate, phase through solid objects, regenerate, was much more durable than a human, and was extremely fast. After falling in love with Mahiru, her powers started to get weaker. Her regeneration was much slower and she didn't have the strength to fly.


 * Control over animals: Kiku was seemingly able to control a hare.


 * Telepathy: Kiku seemed to have talked through said hare with her mind and pretended to be the hare in order to lure a prince to her, so she could suck his blood.


 * Vampiric charm: Kiku, like a typical vampire, had a supernatural charm that could strongly influence a human's thinking and convince that human to go along with everything she wanted, even if it was something they would usually oppose. Mahiru noticed that there was something weird, saying that he loses his ability to think when near Kiku and does whatever she wants.

Trivia

 * Kiku lived since Century XVI and was also searching for love outside of Japan; She was in California in 1970, on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean in 1998, and was found in a place that was reminiscent of a European fairy tale.

Quotes

 * (To Mahiru) "A middle-schooler, huh, ~ I couldn't tell since you looked so mature."
 * (To Kou) "Hey, Yamori-kun. 'Those who disturb someone's romance'... Do you know what happens to them? In this case...they get eaten by a demon... I suppose."