First person: I (soft, polite). Though she usually dresses and behaves as a man, she is actually a woman who was raised as a male from birth by the order of her biological mother, Ren. As this is the Sohma family's top secret, only a few among the Zodiac—Shigure, Hatori, Ayame, and Kureno—are aware of the truth. Her upbringing as a male was not due to Sohma tradition, but because Ren was intensely jealous of her daughter, Akito, fearing she would steal the affection of her beloved Akira. Ren went as far as to declare she would not give birth unless the child was raised as a boy; Akira eventually yielded to ensure the safety of the unborn Akito. From birth, her father Akira instilled in her the belief that she was a "God" loved by all. Because the older faction of the Sohma family needed Akito as a tool to oppose the newcomer Ren, she grew up conscious that she could only be loved in her capacity as God. Blindly believing her father's teaching that the Zodiac would always love her, she became pathologically possessive of and dependent on them. Her personality is extremely difficult; one moment she might smile kindly at the Zodiac, and the next she will fly into a tantrum, throwing things at them or easily resorting to physical violence.