I'm back and here is Knight's third origin chapter. Happy Birthday, Knight Yagami. I'm hoping this will be the last dark chapter of this arc.
It's an incident that happened when I was four...turning five I think. I was living with my foster parents, Mayu and Toma Kamiya. I remember the day leading up to the incident so well.
August 12th, 2018
Knight 'Kishi Kamiya' Yagami, Age: 4
"As of today, I am proud to be able to call you my son."
Kishi laughed and ran up to Toma and hugged him tightly, clinging around his neck.
Today was the day Kishi's adoption papers cleared through court and were in the hands of Mayu and Toma Kamiya. Without a doubt, he was now their adopted son and he was happy.
"Mommy, Daddy," Kishi giggled and laughed.
Toma picked Kishi up and hugged him tightly, Mayu coming around and hugging Kishi tightly from behind.
"Happiest day of my life," Kishi cheered.
"On behalf of Toma and myself, we'll second that." Mayu kissed the back of Kishi's head and ruffled his strawberry blonde hair. She backed away to grab a box of tissues and blew her nose. "I can't believe we have a child."
Toma grabbed his wife's hand and pulled her forward, allowing her to cry tears of joy in his shoulders.
I was adopted by my foster parents. I wasn't some child living in a foster home, I was a child living at home with his parents. Mayu, Toma, I miss them so much because that day of joy was the calm BEFORE the storm.
October 6th, 2018
Knight 'Kishi Kamiya' Yagami, Age: 5
Kishi stirred in his sleep and began tossing and turning. He was aware that he was sleeping at this moment but he could not find the strength to pry his eyes open. When he realized that he couldn't open his eyes, he lifted his arm up and grabbed his eyelids, and opened them.
When he was hit with the pitch black of his room, he felt his head start to spin and laid his head down on his pillow to help with his dizziness. When he sat up in bed, he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and looked over to the clock on his bedside table.
It was twelve-thirty o'clock in the morning and when he realized this...
"Today's my birthday," he spoke in a soft cheerful voice. He climbed out of bed and ran out into the hall. He didn't want to cause any unnecessary disturbances from his parents so he didn't bother to turn on the hallway lights and navigated to the kitchen based on memory.
He opened the fridge when he reached it and looked inside, squinting so his eyes could adjust to the light.
There, as clear as day, was a birthday cake that his parents had prepared for him. Chocolate cake with green frosting with the words 'Knight in Shining Armor' written in dark red across the top above his name. He couldn't resist. He took a finger full of frosting and licked it. He was tempted to get another sample but decided against it and closed the fridge. Since he had been looking into the light for too long, he had to wait for his eyes to adjust before walking back to his room.
I'm five, Kishi thought. I am five years old.
He was staring from the kitchen into the living room because there was some light out coming from the window but because tonight was a waning crescent, there wasn't much moonlight out tonight.
But he swore he could see something in the corner of his eyes. When he squinted his adjusting eyes, he could barely make out the shape. It looked to be the shape of a human sitting in the middle of the couch, holding something long enough to be held in both hands.
He squinted again and when his eyes were adjusted, he could see the glow of white eyes staring at him in the darkness.
A pair of white eyes stared at me from the living room couch. I remember every detail of these eyes: Eyes as white as the moon, a lack of veins, and hugely dilated pupils surrounded by brown rings of an iris but at the time and setting I was standing in, his eyes could've been black for all I knew. My first thought was that Mom or Dad had caught me sneaking frosting off my birthday cake and were waiting to scold me but then I remembered that both Mom and Dad were sound asleep. I checked on them prior to going out into the kitchen and I know from sleeping with them that they both snore and I could hear the snoring coming from their bedroom. As soon as I realized that this person sitting on my living room couch wasn't Mom or Dad, I remember my heart pounding in my chest, like drums trying to catch up to the beat of the music it had fallen dangerously behind.
Kishi's eyes widened and he stumbled back. He put a hand to his mouth and suppressed a scream he let out.
Even in the dark, Kishi could see the white dentures of this figure's mouth through the orifice in this person's face in the shape of a smile.
"Midnight snack?" the figure whispered softly. "I remember waking up in the middle of the night to eat candy while my parents were asleep."
Kishi tried to run but he was in the kitchen with no doors. There were windows but he wasn't tall enough to reach and the only set of exits could only be accessed by cutting through the living room and that was the last place Kishi wanted to go.
"I wouldn't try and run away, Kishi," the man hissed. "I saw your birthday cake; I know what your name is." The man lifted himself off the couch and held the object he was carrying in both hands over his shoulder and let out a loud sigh. "You know, you could just call for help if it makes you feel better. In fact, the more the merrier."
Kishi continued to hold in his cries but it was getting harder with the man advancing towards him.
When he heard the man's foot thump against the wooden floor, he cried out in terror.
"MOMMY! DADDY!"
"That's right," the man said before stopping ten feet from Kishi. "Call out to your parents. Let them know that there's a man in your house."
Kishi backed away and hit something. He realized he hit the table if his memory was correct and hid under it, hoping the man would just leave him alone.
"What's wrong, Kishi Kamiya? Afraid?"
"NO!'
"Yes!"
"No, please!"
"Yes, please!"
The sounds of door hinges creaking in the hallway shook the man. He looked in the direction of the hallway before turning back to Kishi and putting a finger to his lips in a shushing motion. He stepped to the side and out of sight.
The hallway light came to life and Mayu came racing into the kitchen.
"Kishi?!" she cried. "Kishi!"
"Mommy!" Kishi whimpered.
Mayu turned on the kitchen light and saw Kishi sitting under the table in a fetal position.
"Kishi," Mayu called, "what's wrong?"
"There's a monster here!"
"What?" she asked, baffled.
"There's a monster in the living room."
Mayu turned around and looked around the living room, no one there. She turned back to Kishi and approached him. Instead of pulling him out from under the table, she kneeled to his level and reached her hand out.
"It's okay, Kishi, there's no monster."
"No, I saw one," Kishi insisted. "There's a monster in the house!"
"Monsters aren't real, Kishi. It was just a nightmare."
"No, monsters are real. I saw a monster!" He hugged his legs tighter. "Please don't let him get me!"
"Kishi, there are no monsters around. You must've had a nightmare." Mayu pushed a chair away and crawled under the table and sat next to the cradling Kishi.
"Mommy, it was real. I swear, there was a monster sitting on the living room couch, smiling at me. He was carrying something over his shoulder. He wants to hurt me, Mommy."
Mayu sighed softly before ruffling her hand through Kishi's strawberry blonde hair.
I remember my mother tousling my hair back and forth. I liked it when she rubbed her fingers through my hair, felt like a massage. You know when you get so angry or upset and your parents know just what to do to calm you down? Whether it'd be tickling you or lifting you in the air like Superman, it was rubbing the top of my head for me. It felt good to have my mother tousling my hair to comfort me, I could never get sick and tired of it. Had I'd known that was going to be the last time my mother would've tousled my hair, I would've smiled to show her that I loved what she was doing.
"Poor Kishi," Mayu whispered, "today's your birthday and you wake up scared."
Mayu grabs Kishi's hand and pulls him from under the table.
"No," Kishi cried, tears running down his face. "Please..."
"I'm here with you, Kishi," she reassured. "I won't let anything happen to you."
"But, the monster..."
"I will sleep with you tonight if it makes you feel better."
"Please..."
Mayu picked him up and held him with one hand to her side, grunting as she adjusted so he wouldn't fall. "You're getting heavier and heavier for me to pick up every time."
She carried him into the living room, which made Kishi wraps his arms around his mother's shoulders and cry into them.
Mayu patted her son's back and was about to lead him back to his room when she stopped at the border from the kitchen to the living room. The hallway light was on, lighting just barely half the living room but it was enough for her to see the dent in the couch cushion the size of a large man.
Her husband's physique was average and the dent left in the cushion could only be left by a man with a stocky build, which made her eyes widen with horror.
"Ki-"
Her speech was cut off when an ax connected to the side of her throat and tore flesh away from her throat. She screamed in agony and dropped Kishi before falling facefirst into the wooden floor.
"Another one bites the dust," the man laughed hysterically. "I do love it when they fall over like a ragdoll."
"MOMMY!" Kishi screamed.
The man laughed once more. "Goodbye, Mayu Nori-Kamiya." He stomps his foot on the back of Mayu's motionless head.
He looked at Kishi, whose jaw was covered in his mother's blood. "Now, if you could just scream one more time and get your father's attention, I would much appreciate it."
Toma charged into the man from behind like a truck and body-slammed him.
"Ow," the man droned. "That hurt." He uppercut Toma with the back of his fist as he picked himself up and punched him across the jaw with the same hand.
Toma stumbled back and tripped over Kishi. He jumped to his feet and assumed a fighting position, ready to prowl at any given moment.
Kishi looked up at the man with the ax.
I could make out every detail of the man. He was tall, a little over six feet, had a muscular build to his arms, and was carrying with a silver blade over his shoulder. His choice of clothing included a sleeveless sweater worn over a long-sleeve black shirt and red nylon pants. What stood out to me most was that his entire face was wrapped in bandages like he was hiding a burn wound with holes where his eyes and mouth go. And his voice, I can't describe it any other way than it sounded 'excited'.
"Stay away from my son you prick," Toma yelled, tears flowing from his eyes. "Stay away from him!"
The ax murderer held his weapon in front of his chest like a soldier holding a gun at port arms. "Today is his day to die... as is yours, Toma Kamiya."
Toma blindly grabs a candle holder and throws it at him. The ax murderer ducks and charges.
Kishi moved out of the way but turned just in time to see the ax murderer dig the blade into Toma's collarbone.
He ripped the blade out of his opponent's shoulder and kicked him to the floor. He swung the ax down and missed when Toma moved out the way. When Toma stands up, the ax murderer hits Toma in the jaw with the other end of the blade and knocks him to the ground. He raises the ax above his head and brings it down on Toma's leg.
Toma screamed and tried to crawl away but his attempts were thwarted then the ax murderer slammed the ax down into the back of his neck.
"God-damn," the ax murderer exclaimed excitedly. "What a mess!" He looks over the blood that painted his ax blade like a Jackson Pollock painting. "You think the art gallery would consider this to be art?"
Blood was draining from Toma's neck and onto the floor faster than he could comprehend. He grabs the ax murderer's leg and looks him in the eye.
"Kira... protect us..."
The ax murderer chops off Toma's arm in three hard swings. "Sorry, today's a day of death and not saving."
Toma's eyes roll to the back of his head, his pupils dilating.
"And just like that, his name disappears." He looks over at Kishi, who was trembling in the corner of his hallway. "One little mouse left."
He relishes the look of terror on Kishi's ghost-pale face and takes a big step towards him, making sure his footsteps echo throughout the hallway. He takes another step and repeats the process.
"No," Kishi cried. "Stay away from me!"
"But if I stay away from you, how will I ever kill you? Don't you want me to kill you?"
"No!"
"Too bad!"
"Stay away from him!"
The ax murderer didn't have time to register what he was hearing until he felt a sharp pain in the calf of his right leg. He screamed at the top of his lungs and yanked his foot away from whatever was causing his sharp pain but that only seemed to make the feeling worse. He looked at his calf and seeing Mayu Kamiya, still full of life, hands wrapped around his leg and teeth biting in the back of his leg through his nylon pants.
He jumped in pain when he felt something tear off his muscles and swung the ax down on Mayu's scalp with blind fury. He was hacking and slashing with all his might but his biter only a bit down hard and took an entire chunk off.
Fed up with the pain in his leg, he hit Mayu in her face, aiming for the other side of her throat and gave a quick slash. She was losing blood from both sides like a fountain and her grip on his calf softened but she refused to stop biting him.
The ax murderer had to wait until Mayu took her last breath before prying her off his calf, wincing at every movement he made.
"Wow wow wow," the ax murderer whispered-winced, "now that is what I call determination to protect your son. Sadly it was all futile."
He turned back to Kishi, who was bawling his eyes out.
"Mommy..." he whimpered in a broken voice, "Daddy..."
"Don't worry, your mother and father are with you." He held up his ax and pointed at the blood. He pointed to a splotch of blood at the tip of the blade. "This is your mother." He pointed to a smear of blood beneath it. "And this is your father. Pretty soon, you'll be joining them on this blade, Little Kishi."
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why did you kill them?!"
The ax murderer looked at him with a serious look. He removed the bandages that concealed his identity and let out a sigh as he felt the cool breeze of the A/C hit him. "Because I'm alive, that's why." He stayed where he was and kneeled to meet the boy's eye level.
"I don't expect you to get this but killing people is something I enjoy doing. It's not so much the act of killing people as much as the concept of cruelty that I'm attracted to. When I was growing up, everybody painted the world as a place of sunshine and rainbows and it bothered me. My family and friends were not sunshine and rainbows and when I stopped trying to picture this world as a happy-go-lucky magical place, the more I began to see what I'm capable of. The world is a cruel place and the only people who are truly alive in this world are those who embrace the cruelness of this world."
Kishi stares at the ax.
"Your mother and father believed in justice and that good overcomes evil every time but they were blind to the cruelties. I am not blind; I embrace these cruelties and I live life as this world is: Ruthless and murderous."
The ax murderer looked at the space above Kishi's head.
"By the way, the cake said your name is Kishi but your real name is 'Knight Yagami'."
Kishi's eyes went wide.
"'Knight' is written as 'Kishi' in Japanese, spelled with the Kanji characters for 'equestrian' and 'gentlemen' while 'Yagami' is spelled with the kanji characters for 'night' and 'god'. I thought you should know your real name in addition to the day you're destined to die." He stands up and holds the ax over his shoulder.
Kishi tried to crawl away but he was backed into a corner with nowhere to go.
"Happy birthday to you." The ax murderer paces towards Kishi. "Happy birthday to you." The ax murderer stands above Kishi. "Happy birthday dear Knight Yagami." He holds the ax with both hands. "Happy birthday to you." He raises the ax above his head an-
THUN-THUMP!
The man drops the ax and clutches his chest in pain. He falls to his side and convulsed, spasming like he was experiencing a seizure.
"Kira..." the man choked before seizing up and letting out a long drawn-out sigh with his eyes slowly closing.
Kishi backed into the corner, an impossible task as that would require him pushing the wall back, and stared at the three dead bodies before him. He cried his eyes out and crawled over to where his parents lay, sitting on his knees in their blood to hug them.
"Mom..." he sobbed. "Dad..."
He fell on his side and let the dam that had been holding all tears building up within him collapse and cried for hours.
There was all but a single thought lingering in the back of his mind: Kira.
It was the worst birthday I ever had. I was finally adopted by two parents and barely two months later, they're stolen from me, murdered right in front of my eyes and all I could do while waiting for the police was eat the cake they prepared for me. The man who murdered my parents was identified by the police as the Midnight Slaughterer and slaughtering families roundabout midnight was his M.O.. He was a man who saw the world as evil and he embraced the evil of this world. I am so grateful that I am alive and I will stop at nothing to make sure that the KIA Killer gets what he deserves. KIA Killer, I'm going to kill you with my bare hands.
AN: So, I was finally able to work on my other projects and gain more ideas on how to end this arc. As far as I know, I will be working on two projects simultaneously but the postings will most likely be erratic. Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter because we're about to enter the final showdown of the Kindred Spirits Arc.