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, Nanakusa encountered Kou Yamori, a night roaming middle schooler in Komori whose blood tasted astonishingly delicious. In an exchange for spending time with Yamori every night and drinking his blood, Yamori intended to fall in love with Nanakusa to become a vampire himself, a topic that unnerves Nanakusa.

As time passed on, Nanakusa's relationship with Yamori grew slightly more intimate, with her wishing to protect his life. However, when the two best friends came into conflict with Nanakusa's vengeful first friend, Mejiro, she chose to take responsibility and clash with her for the sake of the vampire race. In the climax of the fight, Nanakusa refused to murder Mejiro, and after the latter's attempted suicide resulted in Yamori's “half-vampire” self to emerge, the two finally reconciled. Whilst investigating Yamori's new, strong and maniacal physiology with Mejiro's aid, Yamori had a fallout with Mahiru Seki, so Nanakusa, along with a large number of new friends, chose to support him and travel to Hokkaido to help Yamori and Seki 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, with pretty spindly arms, 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 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 almost everyone. 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. She isn't shy to threaten others with death but doesn't have it in her to kill someone 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 feels very bored actually.

She doesn't advertise that she's a vampire; however, she's 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 has little to no interest in creating underlings, actively trying to remain unpopular. She cares a lot about not being a bad person and, at one point, wanted to leave Kou because she felt guilty about pretending 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.

As the story progresses, Nazuna undergoes noticeable change and growth, becoming more serious, mature, responsible, and more sociable.

Family

 * Haru Nanakusa - Mother

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 Boyfriend
 * Akira Asai
 * Azami - Temporary Enemy
 * Susuki - Temporary Enemy
 * Haruka Nanakusa
 * Michiko
 * Mahiru Seki - Former Enemy and Friend

Enemies

 * Mrs. Mejiro † - Situational Enemy
 * Kyouichi Meijiro † - Situational Enemy
 * 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 to know everything about fun, something she felt guilty over. The two would do various activities together, some initiated by Nazuna, and had fun. 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 very 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. 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, according to a theory/unspoken rule, a human will die if the vampire who sucks their blood is in love with them.

Anko Uguisu
Nazuna first met Anko (Kyouko Meijiro) when she entered her school's literature room. She would read books on Anko'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 Anko's family got destroyed, Nazuna tried to reach out to her, but Anko disappeared to become a vampire hunter. When Nazuna first heard of the vampire-hunting detective, she thought of Anko as a possibility but didn't want to accept it. She 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, especially since her senpai would never do something like that in the first place. 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 broke out in tears 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. Anko held Kou at gunpoint shortly after, and Nazuna regretted that she couldn't kill her despite her threatening Kou's life.

After Kou revealed that Anko was trying to bait Nazuna into killing her, Nazuna stopped and started to sob. 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

 * Immortality - As a vampire, Nazuna doesn't age like regular humans, and cannot die through only physical trauma. She can live indefinitely as long as she feeds on human blood and isn't exposed to her weakness (Her preserved umbilical cord).


 * Superhuman strength - Although the physiology of vampires and humans is no different outwardly, vampires are much stronger than normal humans. Nazuna's physical strength is enough to crack the floor when landing and sever another vampire's arm with a single strike. The speed of her attack movements is almost invisible to the human eye and it makes her ruthless and agressive in combat.


 * Levitation - a way for vampires to move quickly, not so much "flying" as jumping with full force. By bouncing high, Nazuna is able to travel long distances in a hovering state.


 * Regeneration - Vampires regenerate wounds much faster than humans, especially when consuming blood. Usually, significant injuries, such as a broken arm or spine, take some time to recover from, but this can be bypassed if a supply of blood is nearby; a single drop of blood is enough to heal a gaping hole in the chest almost instantly. Vampires cannot die through violence alone.


 * High Durability - The body of a vampire is far more durable than a human's. When Nazuna got shot in the eye at point-blank range with a revolver, it wasn't enough to penetrate her skull all the way through, only causing her eye to be bloodshot.


 * Lack of Needs - turning into a vampire eliminates the need for food and sleep, two of the three basic human needs. However, despite this, the constant lack of satisfaction of these needs leads to a lack of other, more complex and meaningful desires. Therefore, even if a vampire does not need regular food and sleep, they can safely eat (in Nazuna's case, without stopping to drink beer) and sleep like a normal human.


 * Intangibility - the freely activated ability of vampires to make their bodies intangible. In this state, they can pass through walls and pass material objects through themselves. Any object (or living being) in direct contact with the vampire also becomes intangible. At the same time, the very process of becoming intangible is very difficult, as it requires extreme concentration. As Nazuna demonstrated, if one terminates the ability while a body part is still phased with a solid thing (e.g. arm passing through a wall), the body part will be expelled by the object, thus be broken apart. If used wisely, a vampire can use its phased body part to dodge its opponent's attacks or trap the opponent's weapons in its body. Although intangible, a vampire can be touched by another vampire who is also intangible. As Susuki explained, the normal state is a "plus", while the phasing state is a "minus". The interaction between two minuses is the same as two pluses.


 * High Pain Threshold - vampires have the ability to endure very severe pain. Nazuna didn't flich when her arm got severed, though she felt pain when getting shot in the eye.


 * Hypnosis - Though Nazuna has never used this ability, vampires can make someone fall asleep just by looking them in the eye, but this is not very common, as only Haruka has ever been shown using this ability.


 * Supernatural Charm - Vampires are able to strongly influence a person's personality and thinking with their vampire charm, making them do the vampire's requests even if they normally would not.


 * Animal Control - Although this has only been shown in passing by a single vampire, vampires seem to be able to control animals, such as bunnies.

Trivia

 * After meeting Kou, she stopped working for a month to spend time with him.
 * 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.