Corpse Party

Heavenly Host Elementary School is the main location where the Corpse Party series takes place.

The school was a source of pride for the town, as no elementary school had stood within Tenjin’s borders at all prior to its construction in 1952. Primary school students had previously been commuting to neighboring towns for class, and consequently Heavenly Host Elementary School became the most desirable school to go into in that area.

It was finally torn down on November 18th, 1975 following a string of serial kidnappings and murders. Thanks to the power of Sachiko Shinozaki, however, it continues to exist on the spiritual plane as a nexus of multiple dimensions inhabited by vengeful spirits from which it is nearly impossible to escape, which later known as the Nirvana. The situation became even worse after Naho Saenoki wrote about the charm in her blog, allowing for large influx of students to be trapped in the school.

Sachiko was the master of the cursed Heavenly Host Elementary School, and was a former student there.

She is the daughter of Yoshie Shinozaki and Seiji Shinozaki, the younger twin sister of Sachi Shinozaki, the grandniece of Makina Shinozaki, and the second cousin once removed of Hinoe and Ayumi Shinozaki.

She is also known as the Girl in the Red Dress.

Sachiko is a young girl of normal stature, with long black hair and bangs that cover her face. She wears a tattered red dress and has grey skin, which bear painful rope burns on her neck. When she is appeased, her outfit and skin changes. Her hair becomes shorter, her bangs are kept back by a red hair pin which reveals her black eyes and more defined facial features.

Consequent to her death, Sachiko became the sinister and murderous tyrant of Heavenly Host and used her fatality to ensnare innocent victims to secure their demises. Customarily, especially in Corpse Party: Book of Shadows, Sachiko showed off that she doesn’t want to just kill her victims in the line of fire, but wants to play with the victims, pretending to be their friends or letting them free just to kill them later, like an ordinary child would with their toys. She is typically accompanied by Yoshikazu Yanagihori, who brings and traps the victims for her. She first started trapping children in the school so her mother wouldn’t be lonely, but eventually it became solely a source of amusement. In the end, Satoshi Mochida and the others proved to her that nothing she did made her mother happy, which consumed Sachiko with remorse and substantiated that her love for her mother is what mattered most to her at the end of the day, and earned her rights to enter the afterlife, fabricating her as the only spirit who was killed in the school that was able to achieve such.

Thereby, she conserved her loyalty to the Kisaragi survivors where she took up the role of a supporting character; giving protagonist, Ayumi Shinozaki, crucial information to help in her expedition regarding saving her friends and fighting the sadistic Misuto Kiriya. Near the end, Sachiko reveals to Ayumi the way to save her friends but at the cost of her spirit energy, which she sacrifices without hesitation to do what’s right, and redeems herself in Ayumi’s eyes.

The Nirvana is made from red, pulsating flesh with innards scattered on its walls and floors, with eyes and teeth visible in several spots. Some green tentacles will also attack people if they are not careful where they are heading and what they are stepping on.

When Sachiko Shinozaki became its master, it assumed the form of Heavenly Host Elementary School. It consists of a nexus of multiple dimensions inhabited by vengeful spirits. However, after Sachiko was appeased and left the Nirvana, it slowly returned to its original form and went out of control.

Within the Nirvana, there are six pillars called the Pillars of the Six Demons which serve as both it’s sealing and control mechanism. Each one is held by a guardian of some sort, and can apparently only be safely removed by a descendant of the Shinozaki family.

At the core of the Nirvana is Queen, who was the leader of the European witches who were killed during the witch hunts in the middle ages, and also the will of the Nirvana itself.

Anyone who dies within the walls of the Nirvana will have their existence erased from the real world, all knowledge and memories of them will be erased from everyone except for those who have entered and survived the Nirvana, and their souls will be trapped inside, forced to relive the pain and suffering of the moment of their deaths over and over for eternity.

There are three known methods to enter the Nirvana:

Performing the Sachiko Ever After charm incorrectly.

Performing the Holy Shroud’s Promise charm incorrectly.

Joining the two halves of the Everafter Stones along with saying the correct incantation.

The Nirvana was born from the Land of Corpses spell in the Book of Shadows. Yoshie Shinozaki attempted to save her husband, Seiji Shinozaki, who was on the verge of death due to the Shinozaki curse - all men married into the family will die due to strange illness. Fearing the loss of people she loved and devastated for being unable to save her husband, Yoshie resorted to black magic and casted the Land of Corpses to create a place where she could live together with her husband’s soul for eternity and left Sachiko in the real world.

However, the spiritual power that ran through Yoshie’s blood was strong enough to create something Yoshie did not intend - the Nirvana, a new dimension where all souls trapped inside will have their existence erased from the real world. However, since the Nirvana also has a mind of its own, Yoshie was unable to control it. Seiji’s soul was torn apart and scattered, and Yoshie experienced the blowback as the consequence of casting black magic.

Realizing that her mother was in grave danger, Sachiko swallowed the Nirvana and sealed it within her body thanks to her immense spiritual power. While they were not able to prevent Seiji from dying, his existence was returned after Sachiko sealed the Nirvana. Yoshie, regretting her actions, swore to protect her beloved daughter who housed an entire dimension within her as the consequence of her action.

Wanting to watch over Sachiko closely from where she worked and protect her from danger outside, Yoshie performed a ritual using a paper doll proxy called Spirit in the Everafter. She used Sachiko as the offering (effectively making Sachiko in the Everafter) to make Heavenly Host Elementary School as the site of Sachiko’s future death.

On the day of Sachiko’s seventh birthday, Yoshie died after she fell down the stairs when Principal Takamine Yanagihori attempted to rape her. Sachiko, who witnessed the event, was killed by Takamine to seal her mouth about the incident. Since Sachiko was dead, the Nirvana sealed in her body was released into the world once more. Consumed with a grudge over the death of her daughter and herself, Yoshie cursed the Yanagihori family which made Takamine and his son, Yoshikazu Yanagihori, start to lose their sanity over time.

Sachiko, having an immense spiritual power, was reborn as a spirit in the Nirvana, and became it’s master which assumed the form of Heavenly Host Elementary School due to it being being the site of Sachiko’s death and the effect from the Sachiko in the Everafter ritual.

Fifty years later, Naho Saenoki, who went to investigate Yoshie Shinozaki’s estate, retrieved the paper doll. She then changed the ritual name to the Sachiko Ever After charm and posted the wrong instruction purposefully on her blog to help her mentor’s research, leading many people who performed Sachiko Ever After charm to be trapped and die within the walls of Heavenly Host Nirvana.

Tricked by Misuto Kiriya, Ayumi Shinozaki retrieved all the Pillars of the Six Demons in the Nirvana and turned them into Crystals of the Six Demons, which caused the seventh and the last pillar to appear, indicating the coming of the apocalypse as the Nirvana merged with the real world and turned it into the world of death.

After Ayumi managed to acquire the Book of Shadows and become it’s properly acknowledged master, she confronted and defeated Queen, then sealed her back into the tome after Ayumi willingly accepted to share Queen’s suffering with her.

Ayumi then decided to consume the already expanded Nirvana by consuming its flesh walls and sealing it within her body, following what Sachiko previously had done, which allowed all souls trapped within the Nirvana to restore their lost existence in the real world. However, since Ayumi does not possess great spiritual power like Sachiko had, her own existence was taken instead.

Later Ayumi was shown to be in a vegetative state, mumbling her last thoughts when she sealed the Nirvana in her.

In the year 2020, people still performed the Sachiko Ever After ritual, but since the Nirvana was sealed, people only saw Heavenly Host when they closed their eyes, only to be returned back to the real world when they opened them.

Yoshie Shinozaki is a nurse of Heavenly Host Elementary School.

She is the mother of Sachi and Sachiko Shinozaki, the wife of Seiji Shinozaki, the niece of Makina Shinozaki, and the first cousin twice removed of Hinoe and Ayumi Shinozaki.

Yoshie is an adult woman of below average height and weight. She has black hair tied in a bun and black eyes. She wears a white shirt, a black skirt and white shoes. As a spirit, her skin is gray and her clothes are ragged. Her neck is also snapped.

Whilst she was alive, Yoshie was a kind, caring school nurse who loved to be around children, especially her own child Sachiko Shinozaki who she called her own “pride and joy” and seemed to be on good terms with Takamine Yanagihori before her death. After her death by the hands of the Principal she had a desire for revenge and placed a curse on the Yanagihori family, she also gradually became jealous of the nurse that replaced her, as well as the living in general. After several years, she became lonely and whilst under the influence of the darkening, wished for company. Her daughter Sachiko fulfilled her wishes and killed numerous children, sending their spirits to Heavenly Host to keep her company.

Seiji Shinozaki is Sachiko Shinozaki’s father. He changed his surname to Shinozaki, taking on Yoshie Shinozaki’s.

Every male name from Shinozaki’s family is crossed out in the family tree but his. There is also a photo of him in his house, but his face is covered in scribbles. Due to an unconfirmed circumstance or strange occurrence, the Shinozaki family only produces female heirs. The Shinozaki Family adopts male heirs thus the heirs inheriting the Shinozaki surname, but this also comes with each and every male dying a few years after the birth of the child. Seiji’s fate was no different as referenced by a brief scene within the Shinozaki estate.

Sachi Shinozaki is the grand-niece of Makina Shinozaki, the daughter of school nurse Yoshie Shinozaki, the older twin sister of Sachiko Shinozaki, the second cousin once removed of sisters Hinoe and Ayumi Shinozaki.

Sachi is a short, thin girl. She has short dark blue hair, with a part of the front bangs growing long past her face. She has large black, alien-like eyes and a wide, scarecrow-like mouth. She wears a navy blue dress, and can be seen carrying a hatchet around.

Sachi is a completely malicious spirit. She envies Sachiko for being born and wreaks havoc just for her own amusement, much like her sister used to. Having no sense of right and wrong, she can’t be reasoned with unlike with Sachiko, and she only acts according to her whim and emotions. She also speaks incoherently, at best being able to string together loosely related words, but mostly just speaking in growls and noises.

Sachi is the unborn older twin sister of Sachiko Shinozaki, a phenomenon called the vanishing twin, in which she died in utero of her mother and then completely reabsorbed by the other twin. However, when Sachiko absorbed Sachi, she tried to fight back by biting her, resulting in her two teeth getting lodged near her heart and Sachiko had to undergo a surgery to remove them.

Sachi’s spiritual energy grows after Ayumi Shinozaki accidentally brought her teeth along with her when she returns to Nirvana.

Takamine Yanagihori (1917 - 1975) is the principal of Heavenly Host Elementary School.

He is the father of school teacher Yoshikazu Yanagihori. He’s the overarching antagonist who’s responsible for Sachiko Shinozaki and Yoshie Shinoazki’s deaths which begins the curse and the events of the Heavenly Host saga in the Corpse Party series.

Takamine is a middle-aged man of below average height and above average weight. He has slicked-back black hair and a black mustache. He wears round-lens glasses with a golden frame, a white shirt, a black tie, and a bole-colored suit.

As a principal of Heavenly Host Elementary, Takamine seemed to be quite popular among the townsfolk in Tenjin for his charismatic personality, his work ethic, and his firm but fair school policies. Due to his dedication, Heavenly Host became a cornerstone of life within the humble town of Tenjin. He was respected by the teachers, students, and the townsfolk.

Not with standing all of the above, there’s more to Takamine than how he appears on the surface. He committed a dehumanizing and violating rape attempts to one of his own colleagues and close friends with unexplored motives. He killed her by inadvertently tripping her down the steps after she sidestepped his attempt and ran off, only to garrote her daughter to death for witnessing the display. In the end, Takamine gets his retribution after the Shinozaki curse forces him to reiterate his death for all eternity as punishment for his heinous crimes against Yoshie and Sachiko.

Takamine is responsible for the deaths of Yoshie Shinozaki and Sachiko Shinozaki. After his attempt to rape Yoshie, he accidentally pushes her down the stairs while in a rage, killing her. Sachiko witnesses the scene, and to keep her quiet about it, he strangles her to death. He told the authorities that Yoshie had simply slipped, and he hid Sachiko’s body in the basement of the school.

After the killings, Sachiko began getting into his mind, driving him mad. His delusions made him believe that she may still be able to tell someone about what he did. To stop her from doing so, he cut out her tongue. This, however, did not help, and his mental state grew progressively worse.

He ended his life by jumping from the roof of the school before it was demolished and is now forced to repeat that action for the rest of time.

Yoshikazu Yanagihori (1941 - 1974) was a teacher of Heavenly Host Elementary School. He is the son of principal Takamine Yanagihori.

Yoshikazu’s design is very much like that of a zombie even though he is not one. He wears a brown jacket and a torn-up dark green shirt, both of which are stained with blood. He has black hair and red eyes. He usually speaks in long moans and groans. The Cursed Doll can be seen hanging from his jacket pocket.

In life, Yoshikazu was a sympathetic man who was an employee at Heavenly Host Elementary School. He was well acquainted with a fellow student named Yuki Kanno and was willing to hear out her problems with her mother.

After Yoshie Shinozaki cursed his entire bloodline, chipping away his mental stability and free will, he was forced to takes orders from her daughter, who made him kill those who enter the building of Heavenly Host Elementry School, through the Sachiko Ever After charm.

Even in death, Yoshikazu still serves Sachiko and as such can be found roaming the halls of Heavenly Host looking for people to kill. A number of the corpses found inside the school were killed by his weapon of choice, a large sledgehammer. Another method used by him to murder is knocking the victims unconscious with the sledgehammer and bringing them to the school basement, where he proceeds to drain the blood from the body. He is also known to take his victims dead, or possibly alive, to the dissection room in the school’s basement and dissect them piece by piece putting their remains into buckets.

Only once did he disobey Sachiko’s order to kill, but he followed through with it later after Sachiko threatened his safety.

One day, while under Sachiko’s influence, he abducted Ryou Yoshizawa, Tokiko Tsuji, and Yuki Kanno and took them to Heavenly Host’s basement and proceeded to tie them up and blindfold them from there Sachiko gave him a reward before she proceeded to kill them in different ways while Yoshikazu sat in terror in the corner of the room.