Nazuna Nanakusa

"To that guy, his friends, at the very least, mean more to him than the lives of others. Well, there's nothing wrong with that, y'know, but I think it's in bad taste to say it to someone who's actually planning on killing in the future. That kinda guy was crying at the thought of losing you. No matter what, I wanted to do something about it. Because I'm his friend, too."

- Nazuna Nanakusa to Mahiru Seki

Nazuna Nanakusa (ナズナ) is a carefree vampire from birth who was raised by Kabura Honda before attending Kōgyō High School, where she met and befriended Kyouko Mejiro. By the time she chose to live a life by her own presence, Nazuna encountered Kou Yamori, a night roaming middle schooler in Komori whose blood tasted astonishingly delicious. In an exchange for spending time with Kou every night and drinking his blood, Kou intended to fall in love with Nazuna to become a vampire himself, a topic that discomforted Nazuna.

As time passed on, Nazuna's relationship with Kou grew slightly more intimate, with her wishing to protect his life. However, when the two best friends came into conflict with Nazuna's vengeful first friend, Kyouko, she chose to take responsibility and clash with her for the sake of the vampire race. In the climax of the fight, Nazuna refused to murder Kyouko, and after the latter's attempted suicide resulted in Kou's “half-vampire” self to emerge, the two finally reconciled. Whilst investigating Kou's new, strong and maniacal physiology with Kyouko's aid, Kou had a fallout with Mahiru Seki, so Nazuna, along with a large number of new friends, chose to support him and travel to Hokkaido to help Kou and Mahiru make amends.

Appearance
Nazuna is a reasonably short woman, standing just a head or so higher than a middle school boy. Her body is skinny and petite, with a small bust and spindly arms, the latter of which hide her immense vampiric strength very well.

Her hair is a very light purple, appearing almost grey. She keeps it long enough to reach the middle of her back; however, she keeps it in two long braids that she then curls up and pins to the rest of her hair, making two large rings. She has bangs that go down almost to her eyes, covering her eyebrows, and two medium-length tufts of hair that hang down from the middle of her head, framing her face and ending just at her mouth.

She has fierce blue eyes. Instead of standard irises and pupils, her eyes have an almost target-like appearance with black rings that intersperse sections of her irises, getting smaller as they get to the middle until they reach the pupil. This gives her a piercing gaze that varies between uncanny and uncomfortable depending on how she looks at someone. She wears light-red eye shadows.

Nazuna can most often be seen wearing a large piece of clothing resembling a cross between a cloak and a hooded jacket. This large piece of clothing covers nearly all of her body, going down to the middle of her calves and leaving only her hands exposed.

Underneath the large cloak, Nazuna's general attire is a pair of black denim shorts that go down to just past her upper thigh and a black leather cropped keyhole shirt with no sleeves. Unlike other keyhole tops, hers has a collar that goes up higher and covers a good portion of her neck. It also has a similar back hole showing her shoulder blades. Hers is also very cropped, short enough that it ends just beneath her breasts and leaves a large section of her stomach and back uncovered. She also wears a pair of thigh-high leather boots and occasionally leather gloves to complete her distinctive look.

Just like almost any other vampire that has appeared, she is described as pretty or cute.

Personality
Nazuna is a very laid-back individual. She is not overly friendly but has a very relaxed presence in most situations. She's willing to talk to just about anyone and prefers keeping on good terms with most people. However, there are exceptions like Nico Hirata and her clique, who she finds very annoying and isn't interested in being on good terms with until later. Nazuna is often fairly insensitive and often drops unintentionally mean comments or actual insults, though she regrets the former eventually. She isn't shy to threaten others with death or suggest killing someone but doesn't have it in her to kill people she is/was close with. If another vampire shows interest in her prey, Nazuna becomes highly agitated and possessive.

Nazuna gets along with people who enjoy the night and loves to show people new things in the town's nightlife. She can become very excited if something new and interesting presents itself, even if it's something like a walkie-talkie. Despite pretending to know everything about the night and having fun, Nazuna spends most of her time drinking alcohol and playing video games and lives a boring life.

She doesn't advertise that she's a vampire but is more open about it than expected. Sometimes this means telling them she's a vampire; other people are just into that sort of thing. She mostly gets blood by finding insomniacs, helping them fall asleep, and feeding on them, which also helps them relax afterward. Unlike other vampires, she initially has no interest in creating underlings, actively trying to remain unpopular. She cares a lot about not being a bad person and, at one point, wants to leave Kou because she feels guilty about having pretended to be someone she isn't.

Nazuna is often defined by her strong immaturity, being less mature than a middle schooler. She is very open about sexual topics, has no problems discussing them, and loves to make dirty jokes. However, she is very romance-averse and reacts strongly in embarrassment to the word "love" when used in the romantic sense.

Ten years before the story started, Nazuna was very different from the person Kou knew. She was gloomy, inexperienced, lacked common knowledge, and quickly accepted anything someone told her about the world, much like a child. Her first friend (and attempted underling), Anko Uguisu, served an essential role in shaping the personality she would develop later.

Nazuna undergoes noticeable change and growth as the story progresses, becoming more serious, mature, responsible, and sociable. When she feels gloomy or sad, Nazuna often has a melancholic look on her face and doesn't talk much.

Family

 * Haru Nanakusa - Mother †
 * Danna - Father †

Allies

 * Kabura Honda - Surrogate Mother
 * Nico Hirata - Former Teacher and Temporary Enemy
 * Kyouko Mejiro - Best Friend and Temporary Enemy
 * Midori Kohakobe
 * Hatsuka Suzushiro
 * Seri Kikiyou - Temporary Enemy
 * Kou Yamori - Best Friend, Savior and Romantic Interest
 * Akira Asai
 * Mahiru Seki - Temporary Enemy and Friend †
 * Azami - Temporary Enemy
 * Susuki - Temporary Enemy
 * Haruka Nanakusa - "Sibling"

Enemies

 * Kiku Hoshimi † - Attempted Killer

Kou Yamori
Initially, Nazuna was solely interested in Kou's body (his blood), thinking of it as extraordinarily delicious, and got embarrassed whenever Kou mentioned anything about romantic love. Their initial deal was that Nazuna would get to suck Kou's blood while Kou was welcome to fall in love if he wanted. Nazuna taught him how to have fun at night while pretending that her life was more exciting than it really was, something she felt guilty over. The two would do various activities together, some initiated by Nazuna, and enjoyed their time spent with each other. Their relationship is often more reminiscent of a friendship than a traditional romantic couple.

As time went on, she took their relationship more seriously, grew more attached to Kou, became more honest and intimate with him, and became protective of him, threatening to kill someone should they threaten Kou first, even willing to risk her own life for him. Nazuna's adventures with Kou, although awkward, were fun in the end and made her forget her monotone life. She decided to put effort into their relationship and take it seriously from that point on.

Despite not minding the thought of Kou being with human girls or even having sex with them, Nazuna becomes possessive when he seems to be getting intimate with a vampire and got very annoyed when he told her that Akkun sucked his blood, even if it was an emergency.

Nazuna came to trust Kou to the point where she screamed for his help when Kiku Hoshimi tortured her. She seems to be falling in love with him, which poses a problem because a vampire who is in love seems to turn become human and die shortly after.



After returning from Hokkaido, Nazuna left Kou alone while he mourned Mahiru's death, with her unsure whether he wanted to see her again. When Kou greeted her, Nazuna caught herself having feelings for him and therefore declined Kou's offer to drink his blood. She later admitted to Hatsuka that she was in love with him.

At first, Nazuna wanted to keep things with Kou as they were because of their friendship, though Hatsuka reminded her that she would have to tell Kou eventually. Aside from Hatsuka, Nazuna also told Anko but didn't want anyone else to know, only saying that she needed a new source of blood. Hanging out with him brought her joy, and she grew jealous when she saw Kou spending time with Saki, who had developed a crush on him. After spending the winter break together, Nazuna almost lost control of herself when Kou fell asleep, which made her realize that she had to cut ties with him, though she didn't explain why.

When Kou came to her, she told him she didn't want to talk, though Kou wouldn't budge and brought her a beer can to loosen her lips. Nazuna responded by taunting him, saying that a single beer can wasn't nearly enough for someone like her. After drinking a vending machine's worth of beer cans (and still being sober), Nazuna tried to argue that she and Kou were just platonic friends and that he wouldn't fall in love with her even if they stayed together, encouraging him to live a normal life since he was getting comfortable in school. Kou asked her why she refused to suck his blood and demanded she suck it in that instant, saying he could have fallen in love with her. Their argument got increasingly heated until Nazuna unintentionally confessed her feelings, and their neighborhood got hit by a power outage. After regaining her composure, Nazuna confessed on purpose, and they decided to wander the city. While their friendship didn't change for the most part, Nazuna and Kou could barely hold two fingers together when they casually held hands before.

Anko Uguisu


Nazuna first met Anko (Kyouko Mejiro at that time) when she entered her school's literature room. She would read books on Kyouko's recommendation, and they would share their love for the detective genre. They quickly became friends, and Nazuna became very emotionally and physically affectionate, hugging Kyouko when she cried because of her family and even offering to make Kyouko her first underling, even though she had never wanted to have underlings before.

After Kyouko's family was destroyed, Nazuna tried to reach out to her, but Kyouko disappeared to become a vampire hunter. When Nazuna first heard of the vampire-hunting detective, she thought of Kyouko, who now went by the alias of Anko Uguisu, as a possibility but didn't want to believe that her first friend devoted ten years of her life solely to hatred and killing and a part of her hoped that she somehow managed to find happiness.



When they met on Halloween, Nazuna tried to talk peacefully with Anko but had to defend herself from Anko's attacks. After Anko announced that she would kill Kou, Nazuna threatened to kill her but was still holding back and felt relief when she saw that Anko was unharmed after jumping from the third floor of their old school. Anko eventually pretended that she had invited Kou to her location so she could kill him. Nazuna noticed Anko's behavior was strange, deducting that she didn't actually want to kill him. However, Anko reassured Nazuna that she would kill Kou, which motivated Nazuna to become very aggressive in combat. Despite Anko being defenseless, Nazuna begged her to stop and started to cry as she didn't want to kill her first friend. When Kou came, Nazuna felt like she had no other option but to kill Anko who held Kou at gunpoint shortly after.

After Kou revealed that Anko was trying to bait Nazuna into killing her, Nazuna stopped and started to sob. Though the situation eventually got resolved without any casualties, Nazuna regretted that she wasn't emotionally capable of killing Anko despite her threatening Kou's life. They eventually reconciled, and, despite the awkwardness, Nazuna was very happy to be reunited with her old friend, insisting she drink beer with her. Nazuna also reassured Anko that, even though her family consisted of amoral people, her father genuinely loved her. Their friendship and banter reverted to their dynamic when they still went to school.

Kabura Honda
Nazuna is very annoyed by Kabura in a way that a daughter would be of her mother. She was raised by Kabura and was very clingy to her initially, according to Nico Hirata, but she can't remember those times because she didn't suck enough blood to form memories. Nazuna gets goosebumps and feels on edge when she sees Kabura and thinks of Kabura as arrogant. Her feelings for her are still more or less the same, and while she thinks of her as gross, Nazuna acknowledges that Kabura was genuinely trying to be her mother.



Abilities
Vampiric abilities: As a vampire, Nazuna can levitate, phase through objects, has superhuman strength, and can regenerate wounds much faster. Her body is also far more durable and she can't die through sheer violence, no matter how much someone tries.

Trivia

 * Like a few characters in Call of the Night, Nazuna resembles a character from Kotoyama's previous work, Dagashi Kashi. Specifically, she resembles Dagashi Kashi's heroine, Hotaru Shidare.
 * After meeting Kou, she stopped working for a month to spend time with him.
 * Nazuna found it tiring to work at Midori's maid cafe but changed her mind because of the salary and the beer she got to drink after work.
 * Nazuna has been the same size since she was an infant.
 * Nazuna's eye color is inconsistent in Kotoyama's art. Sometimes she is drawn with her typical blue eyes, sometimes with brownish grey eyes, and sometimes with yellow eyes.
 * Despite the superior health of vampires, Nazuna is anemic.
 * Nazuna is the only known vampire that is born as one.
 * Like many other Komori vampires, she is named after one of the seven herbs of spring, shepherd's purse or nazuna(ナズナ). Appropriately, her mother's name Haru Nanakusa is a reference haru no nanakusa(春の七草), the Japanese name for the seven herbs of spring.

Quotes
"Nazuna: There is this theory: "Hiding is sexier!" Kou: H-Huh? Nazuna: When you have a clear view of the boobs it doesn't stimulate the imagination nearly as much as when their outlines are visible through the clothes. Kou: I...Isn't that a matter of personal preference? Nazuna: Nah! Just imagine it. Kou: ... Nazuna: What's better? When a naked woman jumps on you... or when you can peel her out of her clothes yourself?"

- Nazuna Nanakusa to Kou Yamori