Canard: n., a false or baseless, usually derogatory story, report, or rumor.
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"Is it true the Hitokiri Battousai is in town?"
"The one who kills three hundred people every night?"
"And washes his hair in their blood?"
"No, I heard it was his whole body he bathes in blood."
"You're both wrong- he drinks it!"
"And his eyes glow like a demon's!"
"No, I thought he was blinded by hot coals for his sins!"
"He came from the very depths of hell, and will return there once the war is over!"
"And his blade is made of bone!"
"No, steel! It's silver!'
"I heard it was forged in blood!"
"The Hitokiri Battousai, you say? Ugh, my bones shiver at the thought of him! They say he's cold and inhuman!"
"How can he not be, killing so many for no reason?"
"Isn't he the son of some important person?"
"No one knows where he came from!"
"He's not real, you know, there are ten or twelve assassins all alike who kill each night."
"Ten or twelve? With hair and eyes like that? Impossible!"
"Are you four talking about the Hitokiri Battousai? I saw him once!"
"Really?"
"What did he look like?"
"What were you doing so close to him?"
"Oh, I ran into him in a bar one day. He's quite young, and short, with long red hair and eyes that burn. He seemed very calm and collected though, but he couldn't be more than fifteen."
"Yeah, right! The Hitokiri Battousai, some foreign-blooded child?"
"Who'd believe that?"
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