Ruriko Kageyama

Ruriko is a teenager of ordinary height and build with pale skin. The likeness to her mother is unmistakable, since the two share the identical navy-blue coloring in both hair and eyes. Her straight locks stop a little past the shoulders, and blunt, evenly cut bangs sit across her forehead beneath a headband. She appears most often in the standard Kaibara High uniform.

Loud, theatrical, and bursting with enthusiasm, Ruriko adores the whole Sohma family without playing favorites, a pointed contrast to her mother's fixation on Yuki alone. She bristles at favoritism and cannot abide people who fail to grasp what she considers obvious, though she often chooses to educate them rather than scold. She can turn genuinely rude toward those she dislikes, above all her teacher Makoto Takei, yet she also shows flashes of kindness, responsibility, and composure. Hajime describes her as possessing a bottomless optimism that doubles as both her strength and her weakness.

Ruriko takes it upon herself to coach Sawa Mitoma on Sohma trivia and on the duties of a class representative and student council member; Sawa finds her overwhelming but values the guidance, even as Ruriko turns sharp with her for monopolizing the family's time. The two nonetheless warm into a real friendship. Her feelings toward Hajime Sohma mix affection with teasing, which he tolerates despite disliking the club's spotlight, while she gets on smoothly with Mutsuki Sohma, a long-time favorite of hers who sometimes uses her attention to needle Hajime. With Takei she keeps up a heated feud, since he wants the club devoted to Mutsuki only; the two trade insults freely, and Ruriko, backed by fellow students, usually lands the harder blows.