Haruko is the foster mother and aunt of Misuzu. Haruko loves Misuzu as her own child, but tries to distance herself from Misuzu because she fears that one day Misuzu will be taken from her. However in the latter part of the series she becomse much closer and affectionate towards Misuzu and hopes she can save her life. She is very outgoing and enjoys a drink after work as well as riding her motorcycle, which she parks by crashing into the garage nightly.
In the movie Haruko has a much closer relationship with Misuzu and does not show the distancing behavior of her counterpart in the Dream arc in the game. She frequently takes Misuzu's temperature to Hijiri Kirishima, the family doctor, to monitor Misuzu's "disease". After learning that her foster daughter's condition has worsened, she calls Misuzu's father asking him to take her away, as the emotional stress has become too much for her.
On the day of the festival Haruko had promised to take Misuzu to, even after making a dinosaur printed yukata in preparation, her father shows up unexpectedly to take Misuzu away. In response to Misuzu's confusion, Haruko claims that watching Misuzu's health worsen has become too much for her to handle and watches the two drive away. When Misuzu disappears from her father's car, Haruko meets up with and begs an initially unwilling Yukito to help with the search, and carries Misuzu back home once she is found in the temple.
