Tooru Honda

A kind hearted orphaned high school student who, at the start of the story, begins living in a tent. She is then found by [Shigure](https://anilist.co/character/206) and [Yuki](https://anilist.co/character/208), who offer to take her in in exchange for housekeeping. She loves to cook and describes herself as an excellent housekeeper. She also has an after-school job as a janitor to pay her tuition fees to avoid being a burden on her grandfather. She is depicted as polite, optimistic, extremely kind, and selfless; several other characters, including [Kyo](https://anilist.co/character/209), [Rin](https://anilist.co/character/3892) and [Hanajima](https://anilist.co/character/376), tell her she needs to look out for her own interests and not shoulder everyone else's burdens.

Tohru habitually speaks formally, but not always correctly, a habit she picked up from her father, [Katsuya](https://anilist.co/character/9230), after he died when she was three, as a way of replacing him in her mother's eyes. Tohru's mother, [Kyoko](https://anilist.co/character/9754), raised her alone until she died in a car accident shortly after Tohru entered high school, a few months before the start of the story. Tohru repeatedly calls Kyoko the most important person in her life and treasures her photograph.