Riku Sohma

is one of the recurring characters of the Fruits Basket Another series. He is the son of Isuzu and Hatsuharu Sohma, and the younger twin brother of Sora Sohma.

Riku attends Kaibara Municipal High School as a first-year student along with his sister. He is also classmates with Sawa Mitoma, both being in Class 1-A.

Appearance
Riku is a tall and slender young man who takes after his father. He has sharp, brown-colored, intimidating eyes and short, messy white hair framing his forehead. However, unlike Haru, he has noticeably straighter hair, which he inherited from Rin. His facial expressions also take more after Rin. He is considered to be very attractive in spite of his intimidating face, and is admired by both girls and boys.

He is often depicted in his school uniform which is unbuttoned. He also wears a necklace, the same his father used to wear in his youth.

Personality
In contrast to his energetic sister and similar to his mother, Riku is very serious, quiet and blunt. He comes off as unkind and "scary" (according to Sawa) due to his facial expressions, but he actually has good intentions behind his actions. He just has trouble expressing his own feelings and saying what he thinks. Additionally, he is sometimes dishonest with his feelings, such as giving compliments to Sawa in the most unnoticeable way possible. However, Riku is very gentle, caring of others, has a good head on his shoulders and stands up for people when they are in distress. He also apologizes properly when he senses that he needs to and when he has done something wrong. Sora describes him as “neurotic”, “just too serious and blunt” and “a real blockhead”. He is also noted to be very smart in contrast to his sister, and as Mutsuki describes it as: "Riku does everything flawlessly. That scary aura doesn't do him justice." Despite not being as intimidating as he looks, he has no problems using his scary face to advantage in order to protect or help his friends and family.

Story Overview
Riku makes a small, cameo appearance as Sawa has an inner monologue, where he is shown taking a nap in the classroom.

When he officially talks to Sawa for the first time, she is seen having lunch with Ruriko Kageyama and a few other classmates. This annoys Riku greatly and he walks away, leaving Sawa in confusion. Sawa, thinking that she had done something to anger Riku, attempts to apologize to him. However, Riku reveals that the reason behind his annoyance it that although there was another classmate- Amane- who had always wanted to eat lunch with Sawa, Sawa always ran away right after lunch break began. So when Riku saw Sawa so easily having lunch with Ruriko and the others, it struck a nerve. Sora points out that he actually has no reason in being angry, to which Riku apologizes to Sawa for being so blunt. However, thanks to Riku's confrontation, Sawa resolves to pay more attention to her surroundings.

Sawa Mitoma
Riku and Sawa are classmates. Despite Riku's initial annoyance towards Sawa due to a certain incident, they become friends. Riku cares about Sawa and is always looking out for her. For example, he tagged along to Ayame Sohma's shop with Sawa when she was going to temporarily work there, worrying that Chizuru and Hibika would "make her cry". Despite being awkward with his words sometimes, it is mentioned by Amane that Riku acknowledges Sawa's growth and once complimented her hard work in the student council. Being in the same class and with Sawa spending more time with the Sohmas, they have grown increasingly closer. Additionally, Riku views Sawa as the one of the few people who can "deal" with Sora.

Sora Sohma
Sora is the older twin sister of Riku. They are polar opposites yet have a typical sibling-relationship; as although they sometimes complain about one another (mostly from Sora's side), disagree on certain things, and Sora sometimes scolding Riku for his shortcomings, they are very close and are almost always by one another's side.

Amane
Riku and Amane are classmates. It was implied by Sora that Amane is the type of girl that Riku likes, a hypothesis that Riku did not deny. Indeed, Riku did pay attention to when Amane was troubled over the fact that she could never get the chance to invite Sawa to lunch, in which Riku directly confronted Sawa about said matter.

It is later seen that the two have developed a friendship. Riku often approaches Amane, Mito, and Sawa in class to talk.

During the school's cultural festival, Riku protects Amane from three seniors who were hitting on her and scares them off. Mito later remarks on how Riku is always extra nice towards Amane, which may imply an interest from Riku's side.

Trivia

 * His name, Riku (陸), is the Japanese word for "land". Similarly, his sister's name is the Japanese word for "sky".
 * Riku and Sora are shown to have a matching leopard-print school backpack.
 * He tends to nap before his classes start.
 * Like his father, Riku has the tendency to put people over their shoulders.

Riku Soma