Chizuru Kirishiki is a central figure in the Kirishiki family, introduced as the wife of Seishirou Kirishiki and the adoptive mother of Sunako Kirishiki. Despite her role as a maternal figure, there is a significant irony to this dynamic, as Sunako is far older in terms of existence as a shiki, making Chizuru more like a dependent child under Sunako's lenient care. Her human past is a source of melancholy; before becoming a shiki, she was married but had no children. Her first husband departed for war soon after their wedding and died on a battlefield in the south, leaving her without an heir. It was her second husband, Seishirou, who would become her companion in the undead life, though their relationship was complex. Chizuru demonstrated her ruthless nature by murdering Seishirou's abusive parents, an act that strangely brought him happiness and cemented his loyalty to the Kirishiki family, even though he remained human.

As a shiki, Chizuru is defined by her free-spirited, flirtatious, and impulsive personality. She harbors a strong preference for targeting younger men as her source of sustenance, a trait that directly shapes her role in the story. This predilection leads her to set her sights on Doctor Toshio Ozaki, the village's rational and increasingly desperate physician. She approaches him under the guise of a gourmet, attempting to seduce and manipulate him. However, her hypnotic abilities prove ineffective on Ozaki because he had already been bitten by another shiki, Natsuno, whose command for Ozaki to act of his own will took precedence. This failure sets the stage for her downfall.

Motivated by a desire to feed and perhaps a genuine, if predatory, infatuation with Ozaki, she agrees to meet him at the village's annual festival. Unbeknownst to her, this is a deliberate trap. Ozaki uses the public setting to expose her nature as a shiki. After being struck from behind, she was impaled with a stake driven through her chest by the blacksmith Shimizu, the grieving father of Megumi Shimizu, one of her earliest victims. Her dramatic and very public death serves as the immediate catalyst that ignites the all-out, brutal war between the terrified human villagers and the shiki hiding among them.

Regarding her abilities, as a shiki, Chizuru possesses the standard powers and weaknesses of her kind. She is functionally immortal for as long as she consumes blood and is undead, possessing superhuman physical characteristics, enhanced senses that allow her to see in total darkness, and a potent healing factor that can regenerate from wounds. She can levitate for short distances and has the power to manipulate the minds of humans she bites, a technique known as hypnotism. However, her vulnerability to sunlight, the requirement for an invitation to enter a home, and the fatal consequence of having her heart pierced by a wooden stake ultimately prove to be her undoing. Her carelessness and free-minded ways were noted even by her ally, Tatsumi, who predicted she would endanger the family, a prophecy that was ultimately fulfilled.