Ratri

Ratri is a major antagonist and character in the Home Sweet Home series. Haunting the school, she attacks anyone who gets in her way.

Overview
Ratri is beautiful young dancer who used to live with her sister and family. From a young age she was favored and praised by her grandmother who thought Ratri had the better future ahead of her because she was more beautiful than her sister, Tida. Ratri became very vain, arrogant and cruel as she grew up and went to the same dance school as her sister. She believes her beauty can get her everything she wants.

Personality
Ratri is very vain about her looks. Due to her grandmother spoiling and favoring her throughout her life, Ratri believes she is entitled because of her own beauty. When her desires are not immediately granted, Ratri will resort to manipulation. She had little power to be an extreme threat on her own, often getting others to do the work for her while taking all the credit for their actions as the 'brains' of the operation.

Ratri is an individual without remorse or morals. She only bears Ming's presence due to him praising her looks and showing devotion, despite this Ratri considers him unworthy of any affections. As for her sister, Tida, Ratri shows no sorrow or regret for her older sister's fate.

Childhood
Ratri was born the younger sister to Tida, and the two were mainly cared for by their paternal grandmother. Since a very young age, the girls' grandmother taught them both the art of dancing. Their grandmother believed Ratri's innate talent and beauty would earn her more fame as a dancer, and thus she chose Ratri as her favorite, openly belittling Tida. Over time, Ratri became a narcissist because of her grandmother's coddling.

One time, Ratri accidentally broke a doll their father had treasured for years. Tida tried to calm her sister's sobbing by saying they could fix it before anyone noticed. But their grandmother saw Ratri sobbing and the broken toy and berated Tida for the deed, hitting her and making her sleep in the shed. Ratri played on her grandmother's sympathies by continuing to sob despite the fact that Tida was punished for what she herself did.

Adulthood
Ratri did indeed grow up beautiful, and she and Tida were sent to their mother's own dance school. There, Ratri gained the admiration of a man named Ming. While everyone else saw him as her boyfriend, Ratri only kept him around as more of a minion. Ratri felt that her beauty and innate skills in dance were enough to gain her anything she wanted, thus she did not dedicate much time to practicing as her sister did.

When a big performance was coming up, Ratri desired the role of the heroine for herself to lord over everyone else, but it had gone to a famed actress named Bua. Rather than practice or bribe the teacher (as Ming suggested) she went to the forest shrine with Ming following her. Ratri's grandmother had told her that these spirits could grant her any wish in exchange for promise. She offered to do a naked dance if the spirit removed Bua as an obstacle.

Later on, Bua apparently ran off with her husband, leaving her role open to the next talented dancer. When Ming told Ratri this, she was delighted. She believed that she was obviously the next choice for the star, even Ming praised her by saying "my beautiful Ratri." To which Ratri scoffed, asking Ming if he really believed he was worthy of her.

To Ratri's shock, Tida was given Bua's part instead. Furious, she went to the teacher, demanding to know why, as she felt she was prettier and could dance better than Tida, calling him biased. He asked Ratri to calm down, saying he considered everything when making this choice and that it was without any bias, although Ratri did not believe him. Her teacher finally had enough; scolding Ratri, he told her to stop being vain and expecting her beauty alone to carry her through life. He told Ratri that if she could not get past her vanity, then she would never gain anything in life.

Ratri devised a malicious plan to remove her own sister: she had Ming steal a large collection of gold treasures amassed by the teacher's wife and hide a few of them in Tida's room. Ratri herself wrote an anonymous letter to the teacher's wife, telling her to look in Tida's room. This resulted in Tida's death at the hands of the furious woman and two men.

A short time later, Ratri was sleeping peacefully in her room, unaware that the forest spirit was lingering outside her window. Ming burst into the room, waking her and reminding Ratri of the promise she made him for framing Tida. Ratri denied the promise feeling she was not obligated to give Ming anything for simply carrying out the labor part of her plan, when she was the one who both devised and set events into motion with the letter. She felt no remorse for her sister's fate at all. The Spirit, upon hearing this, understood Ratri was a liar and would not honor the promise she made to him.

Death
Ratri's death was a result of a curse placed upon her for breaking her word, and killing her own sister. She was possessed by the vengeful forest spirit, her body forcibly twisted and convulsed in front of Ming who believed this was her acting at first. He then ran in horror as the curse took hold and Ratri's spirit left her destroyed body to be found later. Ratri haunts the dance school, unable to leave. Jane encounters her and futilely tries to stab her with the Novice Monk's Penta-metal knife, but easily subdues her.

Tim later encounters her in the dance school when he comes looking for Jane, and is forced to confront her in the auditorium and on stage. Ratri's ghost has the ability to possess mannequins, but only ones dressed in the garb of the heroine she desired so desperately to play. Only when Tim finds her real body and Ratri possesses it, and then stabs it, can Ratri be finally defeated. Even then, she has not passed on. The Shrine Spirit now makes her fulfill her promise by dancing for him, fully clothed, as the woman sobs.

Trivia

 * Her name means "Night".
 * Apparently, Ratri's parents were aware of her spoiled behavior, but were unable to make her understand the error of her ways.
 * For unknown reasons, her last name was withheld in the news report of her death.
 * Her being forced to do the dance fully clothed likely means she will be doing so for eternity, unable to ever fulfill her promise and be free of the bargain as punishment.