Personality: Natsuno grew up with a distinct resentment towards his parents. They were still in college when he was conceived, and didn't get married (and still haven't). They seem to have used their surnames interchangeably with Natsuno growing up; his mother's last name is the one on the family register (so he is officially Natsuno Koide), but for the most part, he prefers using Yuuki. (A more secure and well-adjusted person might have opted to use their first name to avoid confusion, but Natsuno dislikes his first name and generally leaves it up to other people which last name they use to refer to him.)
The name stuff was only the beginning of his problems with his parents. While not outright hippies, they do like to flaunt social norms and have a definite quirkiness about them. Natsuno's father (who has no first name and will henceforth be referred to as Yuuki) is self-employed as an atelier, and his mother Azusa acts mainly as a housewife. They don't care that they aren't married and make no secret of this fact, something that embarrasses Natsuno. The icing on the annoyance cake was when Yuuki decided to up and move the family to Sotoba for nothing but a change of scenery and some fresh air. Natsuno never even gave the village a chance; the mere fact that Yuuki had selected it as their new home made it terrible on principle. Thus, when he arrives in Sotoba, he is a surly teenager who has no intention of making friends or becoming any sort of presence in the village.
Natsuno is prickly and standoffish towards most people, stemming from his desire to not integrate into Sotoba. He doesn't go out of his way to be polite to people, and he doesn't seek out any friends. He gains a lovestruck stalker in Megumi Shimizu, who is enamored by the very detached behavior Natsuno uses to push people away. There is also Masao Murasako, a classmate a year older than him who intensely dislikes him. But where someone might ask Megumi to knock her shoujo protagonist bullshit off, or tell Masao to stop being horrible, Natsuno deals with their more personal attacks the same way he deals with everyone else: by completely ignoring them.
That doesn't stop a classmate, Tohru Mutou, from showing interest in Natsuno and sort of...forcibly interacting with him. His tenacity pays off and they eventually become friends, with Natsuno later acknowledging that Tohru was a good influence on him and made life in Sotoba more bearable. This is all despite Natsuno employing the same distancing tactics he uses on everyone else; Tohru is simply persistent enough to break through his barriers.
Natsuno does demonstrate a certain amount of loyalty towards those who put up with him and genuinely does value the few friendships he has, with Tohru being the most important case -- when Tohru rises as a shiki and is sent to attack him, Natsuno demonstrates zero survival instincts by leaving his house and following him. He ends up being bitten and continues to let Tohru feed on him for the next few nights, hoping that they will come up with a solution where they can leave Sotoba. The idea of Tohru continuing to live and be happy despite being a shiki is more important to Natsuno than his own survival.
It's also worth mentioning his relationship to Kaori and Akira, two local kids who also accidentally discover what's going on. Since they were born and raised in Sotoba, Natsuno has every reason to ignore or resent them just like he does everyone else, but he ends up caring about them a lot more than one would anticipate. When Natsuno is bitten, he tells Kaori and Akira to leave the village, since the fact that he was targeted means they're both in extreme danger as well. And despite his newfound jinrou status requiring him to stay on the downlow, he puts himself at risk by saving Akira from certain death.
All of this begs the question, why would Natsuno defend Sotoba, a village he doesn't even care about? Yes, he has people there he cares about, but why not simply smuggle them all out, and leave Sotoba to dwindle? Simple: because Natsuno fucking hates the shiki and wants them all to die. He hates them for disrupting his normal life, for turning him into one of them, and most importantly, for making it a certainty that he can never leave Sotoba.
And that desire for their destruction also extends to himself.
Teenagers.
Abilities/Powers: Normal shiki are pretty standard vampires. They sleep during the day and suck blood at night, they have a healing factor beyond that of normal humans (and are effectively immortal), and have no pulse or other vital signs if inspected closely. Some shiki have certain amplified abilities, like Nao, who is seen jumping up to a second-story window, and an unnamed elderly shiki with superhuman speed. This doesn't seem to be the norm, though.
All shiki also have the ability to perform hypnosis on their victims. This is primarily used to gain entrance into a home: shiki will bite their victims outside, then instruct the victims to let them inside whenever they come to feed. At first, it appears that only the first shiki to bite someone can use hypnosis on them, but later it's established that two shiki can imprint on the same victim. It's likely that the first shiki's hypnosis is more effective than any subsequent ones, though this is never stated.
Despite their healing factor, though, shiki can still be killed. If their circulatory system is disrupted in a catastrophic way, such as by decapitation or destruction of the heart, then their healing factor won't be enough to save them. Sunlight will also kill them by boiling their skin off, though this is a much slower, drawn-out death. They also suffer from certain aversions. They can't be near religious icons or symbols, and they can't enter a house (not even their own!) without an invitation from the owner. They also don't sleep of their own free will; their sleep is more like a coma that automatically comes upon them when the sun is about to rise. If they happen to be outside when this happens, they're as good as dead.
At this point in canon, Natsuno has died and risen as a jinrou, a specific kind of shiki. Jinrou are essentially the same as shiki but better -- they have pulses, sunlight doesn't affect them, and they can survive on normal food instead of sucking blood. They even have strength and reflexes beyond that of a regular shiki. They also don't fall asleep; in fact, they don't need to sleep at all. But for all intents and purposes, they appear to be normal humans.
However, they have all the same drawbacks of shiki. They can still be killed by decapitation or destruction of the circulatory system. They can't enter a household unless invited, and although this is never shown on-screen, they presumably have the same aversion to religious icons and symbols that normal shiki do. And despite being able to eat human foods, they must still drink blood in order to maintain their superhuman strength and abilities. Natsuno has never fed, so by jinrou standards, he is severely weak.
no subject
The name stuff was only the beginning of his problems with his parents. While not outright hippies, they do like to flaunt social norms and have a definite quirkiness about them. Natsuno's father (who has no first name and will henceforth be referred to as Yuuki) is self-employed as an atelier, and his mother Azusa acts mainly as a housewife. They don't care that they aren't married and make no secret of this fact, something that embarrasses Natsuno. The icing on the annoyance cake was when Yuuki decided to up and move the family to Sotoba for nothing but a change of scenery and some fresh air. Natsuno never even gave the village a chance; the mere fact that Yuuki had selected it as their new home made it terrible on principle. Thus, when he arrives in Sotoba, he is a surly teenager who has no intention of making friends or becoming any sort of presence in the village.
Natsuno is prickly and standoffish towards most people, stemming from his desire to not integrate into Sotoba. He doesn't go out of his way to be polite to people, and he doesn't seek out any friends. He gains a lovestruck stalker in Megumi Shimizu, who is enamored by the very detached behavior Natsuno uses to push people away. There is also Masao Murasako, a classmate a year older than him who intensely dislikes him. But where someone might ask Megumi to knock her shoujo protagonist bullshit off, or tell Masao to stop being horrible, Natsuno deals with their more personal attacks the same way he deals with everyone else: by completely ignoring them.
That doesn't stop a classmate, Tohru Mutou, from showing interest in Natsuno and sort of...forcibly interacting with him. His tenacity pays off and they eventually become friends, with Natsuno later acknowledging that Tohru was a good influence on him and made life in Sotoba more bearable. This is all despite Natsuno employing the same distancing tactics he uses on everyone else; Tohru is simply persistent enough to break through his barriers.
Natsuno does demonstrate a certain amount of loyalty towards those who put up with him and genuinely does value the few friendships he has, with Tohru being the most important case -- when Tohru rises as a shiki and is sent to attack him, Natsuno demonstrates zero survival instincts by leaving his house and following him. He ends up being bitten and continues to let Tohru feed on him for the next few nights, hoping that they will come up with a solution where they can leave Sotoba. The idea of Tohru continuing to live and be happy despite being a shiki is more important to Natsuno than his own survival.
It's also worth mentioning his relationship to Kaori and Akira, two local kids who also accidentally discover what's going on. Since they were born and raised in Sotoba, Natsuno has every reason to ignore or resent them just like he does everyone else, but he ends up caring about them a lot more than one would anticipate. When Natsuno is bitten, he tells Kaori and Akira to leave the village, since the fact that he was targeted means they're both in extreme danger as well. And despite his newfound jinrou status requiring him to stay on the downlow, he puts himself at risk by saving Akira from certain death.
All of this begs the question, why would Natsuno defend Sotoba, a village he doesn't even care about? Yes, he has people there he cares about, but why not simply smuggle them all out, and leave Sotoba to dwindle? Simple: because Natsuno fucking hates the shiki and wants them all to die. He hates them for disrupting his normal life, for turning him into one of them, and most importantly, for making it a certainty that he can never leave Sotoba.
And that desire for their destruction also extends to himself.
Teenagers.
Abilities/Powers: Normal shiki are pretty standard vampires. They sleep during the day and suck blood at night, they have a healing factor beyond that of normal humans (and are effectively immortal), and have no pulse or other vital signs if inspected closely. Some shiki have certain amplified abilities, like Nao, who is seen jumping up to a second-story window, and an unnamed elderly shiki with superhuman speed. This doesn't seem to be the norm, though.
All shiki also have the ability to perform hypnosis on their victims. This is primarily used to gain entrance into a home: shiki will bite their victims outside, then instruct the victims to let them inside whenever they come to feed. At first, it appears that only the first shiki to bite someone can use hypnosis on them, but later it's established that two shiki can imprint on the same victim. It's likely that the first shiki's hypnosis is more effective than any subsequent ones, though this is never stated.
Despite their healing factor, though, shiki can still be killed. If their circulatory system is disrupted in a catastrophic way, such as by decapitation or destruction of the heart, then their healing factor won't be enough to save them. Sunlight will also kill them by boiling their skin off, though this is a much slower, drawn-out death. They also suffer from certain aversions. They can't be near religious icons or symbols, and they can't enter a house (not even their own!) without an invitation from the owner. They also don't sleep of their own free will; their sleep is more like a coma that automatically comes upon them when the sun is about to rise. If they happen to be outside when this happens, they're as good as dead.
At this point in canon, Natsuno has died and risen as a jinrou, a specific kind of shiki. Jinrou are essentially the same as shiki but better -- they have pulses, sunlight doesn't affect them, and they can survive on normal food instead of sucking blood. They even have strength and reflexes beyond that of a regular shiki. They also don't fall asleep; in fact, they don't need to sleep at all. But for all intents and purposes, they appear to be normal humans.
However, they have all the same drawbacks of shiki. They can still be killed by decapitation or destruction of the circulatory system. They can't enter a household unless invited, and although this is never shown on-screen, they presumably have the same aversion to religious icons and symbols that normal shiki do. And despite being able to eat human foods, they must still drink blood in order to maintain their superhuman strength and abilities. Natsuno has never fed, so by jinrou standards, he is severely weak.