Epi.15-1: Have You Ever Met Kuchisake-onna?

In the early afternoon, inside Misaki’s room.
As usual, Misaki was drinking sake, and as usual, the ghosts were playfully getting along.
And then, Yuka—wearing a rare, troubled expression.

Suddenly, as if something had come to mind, Yuka opened her mouth with a serious look.
“Sayuri-chan, do you know any supernatural beings from urban legends?”

“Urban legends… what’s that?”
Caught off guard by the sudden unfamiliar term, Sayuri blinked repeatedly in response.
Beside her, Shinobu also tilted her head curiously as she looked at Yuka.

“What?! You don’t know?”
Yuka raised her voice in surprise, but Misaki calmly replied, “Didn’t the term ‘urban legends’ come into use after they became ghosts?”

Yuka seemed convinced and posed another question.
“Then, do you know Kuchisake-onna-san? Have you ever met her?”

Sayuri hugged Shinobu’s head as if trying to recall something—
“Oh! She’s the one whose mouth is split all the way to her ears, right?”
“Yeah!”
Yuka raised her voice happily.

“The girl in a white dress!”
Carried along by Yuka’s momentum, Sayuri said the word she had pulled up from the depths of her memory.

“Huh? That doesn’t sound quite right…”
Yuka muttered in confusion, but Sayuri continued speaking without paying it any mind.

“And then it swallows them whole headfirst—yeah, that time was close.”
She nodded to herself as if convinced of something.

“Maybe… I don’t think that’s it.
I think she wasn’t wearing a white dress, and she’s not exactly what you’d call a girl.
Um, she’s wearing a mask and she asks, ‘Am I beautiful?’
And when you say ‘beautiful,’ she takes off the mask and reveals a mouth split all the way to her ears.
—Does that sound right?”
After hearing Yuka’s explanation, Sayuri exclaimed, “Ah!”

“Back then, I was told, ‘You’re cute.’”
As if recalling that time, she gave an embarrassed smile.

“Then I guess it’s something else.”
“Isn’t ‘Kuchisake-onna’ just a made-up story to begin with?”
Misaki asked Yuka, who looked disappointed.

“When we’re surrounded by this many supernatural beings, you’d think there might be urban-legend supernatural beings too.
…I see—even Sayuri-chan hasn’t met one.”
She let out a long sigh and asked another question.

“Then what about yōkai? Like kappa or Kitarō?”
“You know Kitarō doesn’t count.”
Misaki shot back immediately.

“Yeah, I’ve met yōkai before.”
Sayuri’s matter-of-fact answer prompted surprised exclamations.

“Huh? Who? Someone famous?”
Yuka looked at Sayuri with her eyes sparkling.

“Not exactly a person—it’s more like a species.
What was it again… the one where the neck goes, like, stre-eetch…”
She repeatedly gestured, stretching her neck as she tried desperately to remember.
But Yuka answered right away.
“Nobikubi!”

“…Rokurokubi, right?”
“That’s it! Rokurokubi!”
When Misaki said it with a slightly exasperated look, Sayuri looked satisfied, now that she’d remembered.

Amid the quiz-like atmosphere, Shinobu wore a puzzled expression—
“…The neck… gets longer…?”
she murmured, but no one heard her.