Tomari Kurusu

Tomari Kurusu (来栖 とまりKurusu Tomari? )  is a student at Kashima high school and is a classmate of Hazumu's in their second year.

Childhood
Tomari is Hazumu's childhood friend, they have been together since they were both toddlers. So the two are intimate friends, know a lot about each other, and have many memories from the past. They would do practically everything together. Hazumu would often get bullied as a child, given their feminine appearance and personality, and Tomari would have to come to the rescue, saying that she would protect 'forever'. Tomari was the bold, adventurous tomboy, and Hazumu was the mild, delicate one who would look up to her as her sidekick.

Appearance
Tomari is a tall girl, taller than Hazumu, and the tallest of the three friends. She has a thin, trim, athletic body size and shape, with a matching trim weight. She is also a bit muscular, given her athletic training and tomboy style. Tomari has a round face, with big 'anime girl' eyes and thick eyelashes. Her eye color is medium purple. Her hair color is a deep amber, with yellow and golden highlights. Her hairstyle is always thin twin tails, held in check close to her head. Given her athletic body, it is no surprise that she has a small bust. When she hears a saleslady tell Hazumu that she measures her as a '32 C', Tomari utters a mournful lamentation of, " She's bigger than me ! " Part of Tomari's tallness is her incredibility long legs. She is very nimble and can move through space in a flash.

Tomari wears the female school uniform that all the other girls wear, consisting of a dress blouse with a fluffy bow tie, a short-hemline jumper dress, and black knee-high socks. She is also seen many times in her athletic outfit, of a girl's polo shirt and baruma ( cheerleader panties ). For casual wear, her fashion style is tomboy ( read masculine ), mostly of a t-shirt and shorts or capri pants. However, she will occasionally wear a plain dress, or an emblem t-shirt and a mini-skirt. Tomari is not very fashion conscience, and obtains and wears her styles for comfort and freedom of movement as the top priority.

Personality
Tomari is a 'gender fluid' (*) teenager, in that she has a personality that is a mixture of what is traditionally perceived as feminine and masculine traits. She is also 'gender non-comforming' (*), because she does not fit the perceived social roles of a typical female teenager. Her personality changes back and forth between perception of feminine and masculine depending on the situation at hand, and her own conscience and free will. Tomari is probably not a transgender person, with one of the earmarks being that she does not express an interest in gender transitioning of any kind. However, she can possibly be under the broad transgender umbrella of terms, given her gender non-conforming personality.

(*) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genderqueer

Probably Tomari's most dominate personality trait is her outstanding leadership and advocacy skills. She has always had a 'take charge of the situation' attitude, ready to do what is necessary to address a problem first and foremost. Sometimes she has a 'shoot first and ask questions later' mentality. She acts on instinct, and usually that turns out to be the best course of action. She is quick to assess others motives, and is not afraid to offer discipline and correction when necessary. Tomari has strong mediator abilities, ready to step in between ones and help settle the conflict. This goes hand-in-hand with her protector abilities, willing to put herself in front of ones who are being bullied and oppressed. She is fearless in the presence of bigotry and social danger, willing to sacrifice herself on behalf of others. Tomari has a good balance between physical health and mental health. She is active in physical development, as well as being skilled in mental exercises and good at her studies at school.

Friendship and loyalty are very important to Tomari. Her friendship with Hazumu goes way back to when they were children, and has stayed steady and affirming ever since. She does not mind being held up as a role model by other students, but she becomes uncomfortable when others offer undue or unnecessary praise and adulation to her. Tomari's social role of 'knight in shining armor', and Hazumu's role of 'damsel in distress and in need of constant protection' seems to be a reversal of gender roles, but that social situation between them is fine with both of them, and has contributed to a firm, lasting friendship and companionship between them for many, many years.

Tomari gets along well with both boys and girls, but she is not all that skilled with somewhat intimate or mundane situations that can easily arise on a daily basis. Sometimes critical of others actions and motivations, she does not realize that many times such conduct from her can be seen or perceived as socially hurtful to or by the other parties. Tomari sets her own course of action in life, regardless if she is perceived as having a masculine frame of mind, or of having a feminine frame of mind. This may cause confusion in other people's minds, and they do not know just how to respond to her at any given moment. She, at times, is scornful towards Yasuna, and that can hurt an emotionally sensitive girl like Yasuna. She is also quite blunt and obtuse with Asuta, but he seems to take all of that in stride, and not attribute bad motives to Tomari. Tomari means no lasting harm, but she needs to learn how to respond to daily conflicts without giving unwarranted offense.

Tomari's Story
After Hazumu's initial transformation, Tomari does not know what to do. Ayuki observes that Tomari liked Hazumu more as a boy, due to the fact that she has had affections for Hazumu for some time. At first, she is very annoyed that everyone around Hazumu is trying to make her more feminine, but ultimately realizes that while Hazumu has changed physically, her personality is still the same, and therefore still the same person inside. Tomari tries to protect Hazumu from the emotional stress Yasuna caused her by rejecting Hazumu by trying to tell Yasuna to back off for the time being, but after Hazumu says she still wants to be Yasuna's friend, Tomari does not push any further. Tomari is very athletic and competitive, so in high school she joined the track and field club. In contrast to Hazumu and Yasuna who are not athletes and rather feminine, Tomari is a tomboy who does not often partake in traditionally feminine things such as clothing, shopping, or cosmetics. In her entire life, Tomari never wore a yukata during the annual summer festival, and has to borrow on old one from her mother when she finally does wear one during the summer festival shortly after Hazumu's transformation.  At least two of Tomari's female friends on the track team consider her very masculine, and like her cool character. One of these friends even says that if Tomari were a boy that she would have a huge crush on her, and would marry her in a heartbeat. Unlike Yasuna, Tomari has a lot of difficulty when it comes to her affection towards Hazumu.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;">Trivia

 * <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;">Tomari resembles Maka Albarn from Atsushi Ohkubo's Soul Eater
 * Both in manga and anime, Tomari is taller than female Hazumu, but has a smaller bust size than her.
 * Tomari holds a distance running track record at her high school.