Machi Kuragi

## Voices

**Machi Kuragi** (倉伎 真知, *Kuragi Machi*) is Kakeru Manabe's younger half-sister by their mutual father's wife.

Machi serves as the treasurer of the student council during Yuki Sohma’s presidency. She is depicted as a very quiet, nearly emotionless girl with an occasional destructive behavior due to hating anything that is considered too perfect. This stems from her past, as she was immensely pressured by her mother to become perfect in every single aspect, and then thrown away when she was no longer needed.

Unlike most girls at school, she does not see Yuki as a prince, but just as another boy, even seeing him as being lonely. Her different attitude and troubled behavior catch Yuki’s eye, and he makes multiple attempts at befriending her. When Yuki acknowledges her and helps her break out of her shell, Machi becomes his best friend.

## Appearance

Machi is a fair-skinned teenage girl of average build and height. She has a pair of inward-tilted brown eyes, and is often seen with an expressionless face. She has straight, light-grey hair that goes right down to the middle of her back and is tucked behind her ears, with two shoulder-length loose strands of her hair laid on her shoulders. Additionally, she occasionally ties two small sections of her hair back into a ponytail, secured with a hairpin or a ribbon. She also has long, slightly messy bangs that cover her entire forehead, and an additional cowlick sticking out from the left side of her head.

Machi is often depicted in the standard naval-styled school uniform, which consists of a white and blue top with a jacket, shin-length knee black socks, and a pair of brown loafers. She also wears a blue, knee-length skirt with pleats and ruffles at the hem. This is the outfit she is most commonly seen in, although she is known for wearing long skirts and simple blouses as well.

## Personality

Machi is initially depicted as a very quiet, standoffish, and emotionally detached girl. She rarely speaks up for her own wishes, is somewhat agreeable, and has great difficulty expressing herself and communicating with people in general, which sometimes results in her older half-brother Kakeru making decisions for her and fellow student-council member Kimi Toudou dragging her around. Machi is also considered to be a lone wolf who has little desire to put in any effort into meaningless disciplines or activities, and only does what she is required to do. At the same time, Machi is incredibly perceptive, as she picks up on things that no one else does, though she never expresses her thoughts. She is also secretive, as there are things about her that she doesn’t want people to learn, and she rarely ever explains her actions to others. This makes her come across as mysterious, stuck-up, strange, and frightening to others.

This behavior comes from constantly being pressured to be completely perfect for her mother’s sake, and then thrown aside by the very person she worked so hard for. As a result, Machi developed a hatred towards “perfection” and often ends up destroying things that are considered too tidy, such as wrecking the student council room, breaking a new box of chalk, and walking around in circles dozens of times in clean, unblemished snow. Her hatred of tidiness is also reflected by her apartment; she never bothers to throw out the trashbags in her room or fix the broken windows. Because Machi’s mother pressured her into dedicating all of her time to win an inheritance battle, Machi never got the chance to truly discover who she was, which contributed to the loss of her own sense of identity. During her introduction, Machi is unsure of what she likes or what she dislikes, becomes nervous when people try to get to know her, and even has trouble expressing her favorite color. She has incredibly low self-esteem and sees herself as an unnecessary existence and a void since she knows she has no particular interests or hobbies that make her interesting.

However, it is later revealed that Machi is very self-conscious about herself and tries her best to change. She is given a push thanks to Yuki’s influence and is eventually able to come into her own identity. She is later seen to have developed a stubborn personality with a “tsundere” streak. At times, she can be somewhat violent with Kakeru. Despite all such things, Machi grows to become a much more approachable, expressive, honest, and communicative person. She is also a deeply kind, tender, considerate, and soft girl, who tries to help out people despite her awkwardness and clumsiness in her attempts at doing so. This is especially evident by the fact that she bought a Tohru gift out of gratefulness despite never officially meeting her.