They made their way carefully across the makeshift bridge, only for the floor to collapse the second they made it across, dropping the heavy bookcase into the dark abyss below them.

“..That was close..” He’d caught Bartz by the arm at the last second, tugging him onto solid ground before he could fall. “Come on. It’s gotta be this way.” Trying to head for a possible way out. Or.. was he? The school was a labyrinth, and Kizami knew that, with its patchwork of spaces, all running on different timelines.. He kept these thoughts to himself, of course, but for a brief moment, he glanced at Bartz, frowning. He was too trusting.. Too naive.. And that would be his downfall. Except- Turning a corner, Kizami was forced to stumble back again, staring ahead of them.

Heavy footsteps, ahead of them now, and there he stood. Kizami’s worst enemy in this place... The man groaned as he advanced on them, his sledgehammer dragging behind him. Kizami glared at him, searching for an escape, but.. He found none.

“Shit..”

🔪

“Woah! Wait! Wait! I’m a friend! Not a foe! Please don’t stab me!!! I mean no harm I swear Sir!!” Bartz yelled out as he raised both hands into the air, staring at the sharp knife dangerous close to his throat as he gulped while locking eyes with the one holding it up to the frightened Wanderer.

@bloodstains-and-lies

“You’re.. a good person, you know that..?” He sighed, offering a small half-smile. “There aren’t a lot of people like you in the world.. Everyone just wears a mask to hide the truth, you know? Just.. Not you, I guess..” Coming to another gap in the floor, one too wide for them to simply cross.. Kizami hesitated a moment, looking around for something he could use as a bridge. And.. There! A bookcase. Another moment of hesitation, listening just in case they were followed.. Before he moved over to the bookcase and began to push it.

It was heavy, almost rooted in place, but with only a bit of effort, he managed to push it over, creating a makeshift bridge across the gap.

“Come on. I don’t know how long the floor will hold here, and we should get as far away from the kid as we..” He stopped, listening again. There were footsteps following behind them now.. But these weren’t the footsteps of any child.. Heavy, and slow. Kizami shook his head a bit, his brow furrowed. He knew those footsteps.. Too well, by now.. And he didn’t want to cross paths with the one behind those sounds again.

“All right, come on. We have to move now.”

🔪

“Woah! Wait! Wait! I’m a friend! Not a foe! Please don’t stab me!!! I mean no harm I swear Sir!!” Bartz yelled out as he raised both hands into the air, staring at the sharp knife dangerous close to his throat as he gulped while locking eyes with the one holding it up to the frightened Wanderer.

@bloodstains-and-lies

Send me have you ever’s. My muse has to answer every question truthfully.

for multi-muse blogs, specify which muse.

“Of course it’s too big.. There’s the kids, and then there’s him..” He shook his head, moving through the halls quickly, a hand tucked into his pocket for a moment to check to see, and.. Yes. He still had his knife.. Good. It didn’t do much against the ghosts, but it could at least do enough damage against a more physical opponent like the one roaming the halls now.

“I don’t know the full story, but.. I’m sure he used to be someone who worked at Heavenly Host before the kids were murdered.. And before the building was completely torn down.” He found a staircase, already making his way up. “He’s just as dangerous as the kids. Maybe more so.. I’ve run into him more than once already, and I’d rather not go at it with him again if I can help it..”

{🔥}—; The young dragon sighed, a wisp of smoke billowing from his nostrils hearing that Kizami’s classmates were all dead feeling a sense of sympathy for him. He didn’t need to know how but he just knew now that as far as either of them knew it was just the three of them here unless any newcomers arrive but there was no guarantee for that.

Once the sound of footsteps could be heard moving down another hall Spyro shifted in an instant in that direction, sounded like something big was coming this way. He thought about facing whatever was coming once it arrived.

Spyro usually wasn’t one to run from danger, he faced it and brought it down but at the same time he didn’t really know everything going on here.  Sparx took notice and dimmed his glow to avoid serving as a beacon for whoever was coming and gave a hushed warning to his friend, advising him from charging in after the enemy right now just as Kizami said they shouldn’t stay in the same place for too long. 

“Sure, whatever ya say, we better get movin’ then.” He trotted alongside him hearing the continued sounds of the heavy footsteps as he followed, but moved carefully and would follow with Kizami to go upstairs and with any luck there would be a portal that would take him back to the Dragon Realms, he could bring Kizami and help him get back to his home from there too. “Do y’know who that is comin’? Ya said somethin’ about some kids, but whoever that is sounds like it’s way too big to be a kid.”

“You won’t be seeing much of anyone, really.. At least.. Not anyone else living, that is.” He sighed, shaking his head. “You’d think we’d at least have had the common sense to get better research on the charm before we tried it, but.. Well, what happened.. happened, and unfortunately I’m the only one of my class left alive..” He wasn’t exactly going to go into detail on how his classmates died, but.. That was beside the point. He could hear slow, heavy footsteps from somewhere down another hall, and he flinched back a bit.. He knew what that sound meant.

“Look, I’d love to continue this conversation and get you up to date on the goings on around Heavenly Host, but it’s not smart to stay in one place too long here. You want to go upstairs, then that’s fine, but we’d better start moving quickly, or we’ll be joining the rest of my class sooner rather than later.”

{🔥}—; “Sure thing, I think we should try upstairs first cause I think if anything there might be a portal I might’ve ended up goin’ through and  I think we better take a look, if there’s nothin’ then we’ll have to find another way.” It sounded like this world was very different,  than any other world he’d gone to in the sense it was broken into different spaces like small broken realms that look the same but have some differences it was a very odd realm indeed.

The young dragon glanced up at Sparx and raised a claw to his chin and leaned back on his haunches, tail flicking back and forth as he listened to what Kizami had to say. “So you’re here with your classmates? Lemme tell ya, for next time when you’re outta here it probably ain’t the best idea to mess with dark magic like that but I get it, y’had no idea. Sorry ya got mixed up in this but I’ll lend ya a hand no problem and we’ll all get outta here.”

Even back home dark magic especially the darkest forms of it were forbidden cause even if one attempted to use it for good, it could easily become unstable or cause trouble and the elders decided they didn’t want that. “Before we get movin’, ya said you came with others and that some kids are the problem here. So, what happened to everyone else and what kids are ya talkin’ about? Haven’t seen anyone else yet besides you so far.”

“No idea how, huh? Well.. If that’s the case, least I can do is help you try to look for a way out. Won’t be easy though.” He shook his head, sighing. “See, as it was explained to me, Heavenly Host Elementary.. That’s this place, is like a patchwork of spaces, all working differently, but also the same. They’re connected, but they also aren’t.. Because of that, though.. It’s not easy to know where the way out is, not to mention the kids are a problem..” Realizing he’d been asked about how he’d gotten to Heavenly Host, he frowned.

“I’ve been here for a while now actually.. Too long if you ask me..” A quick glance around for any danger, and he continued. “See.. I ended up here, because some of the other people in my class thought it would be a good idea to try the Sachiko Ever After charm. You know, something we all thought was just a silly little occult thing that wouldn’t actually do anything, or mean anything.. And.. Well, we were dead wrong.”

{🔥}—; It wasn’t uncommon to catch someone by surprise by the fact he was able to speak, and that he was a dragon in general and there was no point to hiding it since he was already seen so he chose to speak up. 

“Yep, we’re real alright but we sorta stick ‘round our own world. An’ you’re tellin’ me, no idea where this is but it’s all dark an’ gloomy. But about how we got here, can’t tell ya how cause I don’t really remember.” Spyro hadn’t yet had an encounter with anything terrible yet such as the ghosts or even a corpse and had only seen and felt how unnatural this place was. It reminded him a bit of the Dark Passage and Haunted Towers, but more sinister and twisted in a way.

Thinking about it though, he and Sparx had a few ideas as to how they got here, one of them being a portal malfunction and since there was so many holes in the ground he could see maybe he fell through one of them and ended up on a lower floor and the portal leading home was upstairs, couldn’t say for sure however. Either way, as of now the duo still felt confident they could get out of this situation as they have for so many others. “How ‘bout you? How’d you end up here?” 

Oh, boy.. Apologies, apologies.. It wasn’t really necessary to keep apologizing for being an idiot, and Kizami knew it. He kept those thoughts to himself, but..

“Look. I know what it seems like.. They’re kids. Kids who were horribly murdered, and that’s a sad story to hear. I probably seem like an ass for acting like I don’t care about them, or the pain I’m sure they went through..” Well, truth was that he actually didn’t care. He physically couldn’t get himself to find that emotional connection everyone else seemed to be able to make, but.. Again, these were thoughts he kept to himself, shaking his head.

“I’m also sorry I almost just.. left you behind.. I’ve been here a long time by now.. I’ve gotten used to only looking out for myself..” He shrugged, continuing to push forward and move on down the hall. “Feels like I’m becoming a monster just like them..”

🔪

“Woah! Wait! Wait! I’m a friend! Not a foe! Please don’t stab me!!! I mean no harm I swear Sir!!” Bartz yelled out as he raised both hands into the air, staring at the sharp knife dangerous close to his throat as he gulped while locking eyes with the one holding it up to the frightened Wanderer.

@bloodstains-and-lies

“...You can say that again.” The dragon talked.. Okay, add that to the list of things he hadn’t actually been expecting. “I didn’t think dragons really existed, but.. Here you are.” Kizami sighed, shaking his head. He glanced at the dragonfly a moment too, quirking an eyebrow at them.

“Speaking of.. How’d you two end up here? I’d hope it wasn’t intentional.. This place isn’t exactly a tourist attraction..” Be polite to the dragon, maybe he could somehow use this to his advantage. Dragons could breathe fire, right? It was possible that fire could perhaps keep the ghosts at bay, and help him survive longer in this hell.

@the-purple-hero

That’s.. That’s a dragon. He’s actually looking at a dragon. Not quite a large dragon.. But a dragon. How the..? How did a dragon end up in Heavenly Host? Also, how can he use this to his advantage..? Do dragons fight ghosts? Can they fight ghosts? Way too many questions around buzzing around his mind now..

“Never thought I’d see the day..” He murmured, just.. He couldn’t stop staring at it.

But as soon as the adventurer tried to send the boy to heaven.. The ghost began to scream and wail as loud as he possibly could, his voice echoing through the halls, more blood spilling from his mouth where his tongue had long since been cut out. He couldn’t pass on, it wasn’t that easy! He was still in pieces and refused to leave until he was whole! Or.. No, even then he still couldn’t. She would never let him!

Enraged by the attempt to free his spirit, the ghost child lunged toward Bartz, a sharp pair of scissors held tight in his hand. A deadly weapon ready to rip through clothes and flesh alike, to stab through even his bones, but- At the last second before the ghost could complete his violent attack, a hand reached out from another door behind Bartz. A hand that gripped the collar of the adventurer’s shirt, and yanked him through the door, a door that quickly slid shut behind him.

“Are you some kind of idiot?!” Kizami shook his head, his brow furrowed, but they couldn’t stay here. Again, he tugged Bartz along, leading him over a bookcase he’d pushed over to bridge a gap in the floor, and then through another door at the opposite side of the room. “If you feel bad for them, don’t. It doesn’t matter that they’re just kids, they’ll kill you as soon as look at you. You nearly learned that firsthand, so.. You’re lucky I came back to save your sorry hide.” A few doors rattled and shook as they made their way down the hall again, and Kizami moved quicker, sidestepping around various holes and gaps in the floorboards.

“So now they know you’re here, and after what you tried to do.. You’ve painted a pretty big target on your back now.” He sighed, checking around another corner before he continued onward. “There’s been all kinds of research on this place, found it when I explored here before. Mediums, exorcists, paranormal experts.. They’ve all tried to cleanse this place, but they all got trapped here, and they all lost their lives, or simply went insane. So, don’t try to exorcise these kids. It won’t work.” His mask was slipping just a bit, the harsher truth of his personality showing just a bit, but.. He fixed it back, sighing.

“Look, I get that you feel bad for these kids.. It’s understandable.. They were murdered here years ago, before the school was torn down and a new one was built. It’s a pretty sad story, but..” He glanced back at Bartz, frowning. “There’s nothing you can do for them, without just getting yourself killed trying.. I wasn’t always alone in this place, you know.. I’ve seen firsthand what happens to people here..”

🔪

“Woah! Wait! Wait! I’m a friend! Not a foe! Please don’t stab me!!! I mean no harm I swear Sir!!” Bartz yelled out as he raised both hands into the air, staring at the sharp knife dangerous close to his throat as he gulped while locking eyes with the one holding it up to the frightened Wanderer.

@bloodstains-and-lies

He knew they should turn around. Just.. Just don’t mess with this kid for now, ignore him and go another way, but.. The second Kizami took a step back, the ghostly child looked up from whatever he was playing with, which.. Now that Kizami could see it, turned out to be what was left of a human heart.

“Plllaayyyy wiifff meeee...” What should have been a sad child’s cry for attention and, well.. A request to just play.. The only effect it had, was to cause Kizami to pull out his knife again, backing away.

“I know your games, kid. I’m not playing this time. Not this time.”

“Plaaaayyyy wiiiiifff-”

“Not today!” And in that instant, Kizami made a break for it, vaulting past the ghost boy, leaving Bartz behind him now as he rounded the next corner, the ghost now turning his attention to the adventurer. But.. He was no longer peaceful, or sad. He was an upset little boy, and he’d found someone else to play with now.

🔪

“Woah! Wait! Wait! I’m a friend! Not a foe! Please don’t stab me!!! I mean no harm I swear Sir!!” Bartz yelled out as he raised both hands into the air, staring at the sharp knife dangerous close to his throat as he gulped while locking eyes with the one holding it up to the frightened Wanderer.

@bloodstains-and-lies

Kizami shook his head, taking a deep breath for a moment, before he finally slid open the door again, peering out into the hall. So far, so good. No sign of any ghostly children, at least..

“Looks like we’re still in the clear.. The kids haven’t found us yet, so we should be all right to get moving.” Another quick glance around, and he made a motion for Bartz to follow him as he moved through the halls. As they rounded another corner, however, he quickly stopped, putting his arm out to stop Bartz as well.

“..Shit..” At the end of the hall, crouched and seeming to be playing with something on the floor, was the ghost of a young boy, and one that Kizami had gotten to know pretty well by now. “Shit.. He hasn’t seen us yet, but if he does, we’re in trouble. Back up, we’ll go another way.”

🔪

“Woah! Wait! Wait! I’m a friend! Not a foe! Please don’t stab me!!! I mean no harm I swear Sir!!” Bartz yelled out as he raised both hands into the air, staring at the sharp knife dangerous close to his throat as he gulped while locking eyes with the one holding it up to the frightened Wanderer.

@bloodstains-and-lies

{Raise your hand if you've ever felt like a shitty rp partner.}

@the-purple-hero

That’s.. That’s a dragon. He’s actually looking at a dragon. Not quite a large dragon.. But a dragon. How the..? How did a dragon end up in Heavenly Host? Also, how can he use this to his advantage..? Do dragons fight ghosts? Can they fight ghosts? Way too many questions around buzzing around his mind now..

“Never thought I’d see the day..” He murmured, just.. He couldn’t stop staring at it.

;; Honestly, most people that encounter this asshole.. They’re gonna get stabbed. Maybe not immediately upon meeting him, but it’s just an inevitable fact you come to learn if you hang out with him.

He listened to the explanation carefully, and all seemed fine at first, but as he saw the stranger’s chest beginning to glow, something in Kizami’s gaze darkened. Like a switch had been flicked in his brain. What the hell kind of sorcery was this? People just.. just didn’t have abilities like this. Human beings didn’t glow, without some sort of trickery. Quickly, before it could be noticed, that dark intent was wiped from his features, and Kizami heaved a heavy sigh.

“So, let me get this straight.. You’re some kind of Elemental Warrior from another world, you fought some sort of.. evil tree creature, gained special powers..” It was as if something suddenly clicked in Kizami’s mind, and he smiled, patting a hand on Bartz’s shoulder. “You know, you might actually be able to do something against them. More than I can even do with just this old knife. With your help, we might actually be able to find some way out of here.”

🔪

“Woah! Wait! Wait! I’m a friend! Not a foe! Please don’t stab me!!! I mean no harm I swear Sir!!” Bartz yelled out as he raised both hands into the air, staring at the sharp knife dangerous close to his throat as he gulped while locking eyes with the one holding it up to the frightened Wanderer.

@bloodstains-and-lies

;; I forget sometimes just how much I love this muse. Like, yeah, he’s a stabby, murdery, sociopathic jerk, but that’s what makes him so fun to play!

It’s mostly the sociopathic part of his personality that’s a really fun aspect to play with, and pick apart and study. He’s gotten good at wearing a mask to hide, and play the innocent, harmless act. He actually gets some level of enjoyment out of doing that, too, I think. He tricks people, lures them in by making them think he’s harmless, by making them believe he’s their friend and that he genuinely wants to help.

But then, the truth of the matter is, he’s often just using people to advance further in life, and in the case of Heavenly Host, he’s using people so he gets to survive longer. He knows he’s going to die here, but if he gets to live longer by killing others first, then so be it. No problem to him. There’s no consequences for murder here anyway. But not only that, we all know that the patchwork of spaces that is Heavenly Host has an effect on everyone’s psyche, especially when they’re exposed to it for extended periods of time. Heavenly Host Elementary can draw on the worst parts of someone’s mind, and amplify them. It can turn even the nicest people into assholes, or make them a sobbing mess that would rather die than keep going in this place.

Kizami is already a sociopath, he always has been and that’s evident in flashbacks of him as a kid wanting to mutilate animals, but at school, in his normal day to day life, he mostly hid that from people and went on about his day like nothing was wrong. He pretended to be normal, and harmless. Only those who truly knew Kizami for a long time really knew about his more violent tendencies. To everyone else, he was likely just that classmate that kept to himself and didn’t really bother anybody, and when talked to, he was a pretty decent guy and his classmates probably actually didn’t mind him much.

He maybe was a little intimidating sometimes if he got quiet and seemed like he was deep in thought, but his classmates likely brushed it off, because Kizami, like any other student, did his part and helped out with classroom chores and whatnot, and sometimes his classmates might’ve done favors for him because why not? He’s a good guy, he’ll pay it forward if you do him a favor, right?

He looked out for his classmates, too, behaving like a somewhat protective, well-mannered and okay guy to hang around. Maybe a little apathetic and standoff-ish, somewhat of a loner type and even occasionally blunt from time to time, but he was okay and didn’t do much to anyone else in any sort of negative way. Why would he? That draws negative attention, which he wouldn’t necessarily want if he’s secretly using the people around him.

And he probably did okay in school, too. Not outstanding, but he got by, and his teachers didn’t mind him too much either. Sure, sometimes they got a little concerned when he was having a bad day and would occasionally get into trouble, but most of the time, he behaved himself.

Then, he ended up in Heavenly Host, and there’s where it all went downhill fast, tumbling straight into the pits of hell for everyone else around him. The truth came out in Heavenly Host, well-mannered Yuuya Kizami was a sociopathic bastard. No concern or regard at all for his classmates, or even those who should’ve been considered his friends. No sympathy whatsoever. I mean, at first he probably still didn’t really show his true nature. He still pretended at first, still tried to be helpful, still guarded his classmates and was generally a pretty strong ally to have around in a place like this.

But he turned on them. He turned on his classmates after already witnessing several of them losing their minds or getting killed. The school brought out the violent behaviors that were already an underlying part of his personality, as well as drawing forward the true Kizami. An arrogant bastard that honestly only ever saw the worst in society, who believed everyone always had their own facade and hid their own true selves away, so he could never see it. This was a core part of his personality deep down. He truly believed everyone was always lying, and that no one was ever truly honest. That, and he actually does want attention, because of his own shitty home life. But again, Heavenly Host brought all this negativity to the surface in Kizami, and not only that, it amplified his sociopathic, violent behaviors.

Before Heavenly Host, Kizami was not a murderer. He never actually killed anyone, though he may have tried as a kid, partly due to a lack of ability to emotionally connect to anyone and due to other mental instability already present in him from a young age, but he never actually killed a person (maybe a few animals) until he ended up in Heavenly Host. If I’m even remembering the game right, there was even mention of Kizami’s betrayal from the lingering voices of his classmates, and it didn’t seem like any of them really expected him to turn on them the way he did. But because of the Darkening that Heavenly Host causes, he was warped and twisted into a monster of a person.

Sure, he still had the sense of himself to still hide this behavior behind his mask if he met someone new, but all in all, Heavenly Host brought forth his dark personality and made it worse. Driving him to murder, and even allowing him to delight in such violence. This is why Kizami is such an interesting character, because sociopaths are not often displayed this way in fiction. But I really do love his character, I love the changes that were brought about in him, and I love to examine his psyche and pick his characterization apart. He’s honestly incredibly fascinating.

I almost feel bad that he actually died in canon. Would’ve been interesting to see, what if he had gotten out? Would he be able to cope with society anymore after Heavenly Host? Or would he have been warped too much, gotten too twisted and monstrous. Like a malignant tumor that’s growing too fast and killing everything around it..

Anyway, sorry for rambling, guys. But I just think Kizami is a very fascinating and intriguing individual and I love to explore his character. Thank you for your time.

“You really didn’t know.. Well, that’s unfortunate..” He sighed, shaking his head before finally leaning his back against the nearest wall, a hand briefly returning to his pocket. Good, he still had his knife.. Not that it did too much against ghosts, really, but.. It was enough. And it was certainly effective against more solid things. Like living people.

“So, you took a nap by a tree.. and you wound up here..” Just checking that he got the story right. “Sounds like someone else opened a gateway to this place and dumped you in. I’m not usually much of a believer in the occult myself, but.. After being here, everything else becomes more plausible.. You got any enemies where you come from that’d try something like that to get rid of you?” He wasn’t exactly sure what the other was talking about by mentioning his ‘world’, but those were thoughts better kept to himself.

They all came from somewhere different before ending up in Heavenly Host, after all. Different schools, different backgrounds.. Kizami himself was a student at Byakudan Senior High School before he’d ended up here, with some of his other classmates, too.. But they all ended up dead just the same.. Where they came from didn’t matter.

“I am sorry for attacking you right off the bat, by the way.. I.. Well, when you spend enough time surrounded by killer ghosts, you.. you get a little paranoid, you know?”

🔪

“Woah! Wait! Wait! I’m a friend! Not a foe! Please don’t stab me!!! I mean no harm I swear Sir!!” Bartz yelled out as he raised both hands into the air, staring at the sharp knife dangerous close to his throat as he gulped while locking eyes with the one holding it up to the frightened Wanderer.

@bloodstains-and-lies