It was a quiet night on the streets of Tokyo, Japan. In one residential neighborhood, you could hear the sharp clop-clop of wooden genta echoing through the short side street; a small boy who looked no more than 12 dressed in a middle school boy's blue uniform and black and yellow vest is scanning the street for something, all while looking slightly bored. Kitaro sighs as he thinks to himself that this was a big waste of time. He had gotten a letter in the mail that morning from a boy saying that a yokai called Kuchisake Onna was killing children coming from school. Kitaro asked his father who she was and he explained that this yokai was originally a vain human woman with a very jealous husband. One night her husband took a knife and slit her mouth from ear to ear; for the crime of unfaithfulness. Stricken by grief and horror, she took her own life and became a vengeful yokai, slashing and killing any humans that crossed her path. Now, Kitaro was staking out the neighborhood where she was last seen, but he left his father behind since Oyaji had caught a small head cold from bathing in his bath for too long. So he asked Neko Musume to watch him. Before he left, his father warned him that she was a cunning spirit. Kitaro was not too worried about this yokai, she did not sound particularly dangerous since all her attacks were done with a standard knife. Then Kitaro heard another sound beside his genta.
Click.
Click.
Click.
It was the sound of high heeled shoes.
Around the corner of the street before him, a tall woman in a long brown trench coat and red high heel shoes came out. Kitaro stared at the woman suspiciously, knowing that rumors of the yokai were keeping young women off the streets that night. As she got closer, Kitaro could see that the woman, who was wearing a white surgical mask, was very beautiful. She had long dark hair that cascaded down her face. Her eyes looked wise and life worn but still held a youthful and determined spark. Kitaro did not feel any yokai energy from this woman, so he relaxed and moved aside to let her pass. As she came up to his side, she cleared her throat.
"Excuse me."
Kitaro looked over to her.
̈ ̈Yes?
She stopped down to his height; her dark amber eyes glinting in the light.
̈ ̈Am I pretty?
Kitaro, wanting to be polite replied
Yes.
The woman chuckled at this.
"̈You liar. If you ́re really going to be dedicated to this rude joke of yours then let me ask you this...
She pulled off her mask and Kitaro looked on in horror at the ghastly jagged split stretching from each corner of her mouth, her needle like teeth glistened through gash.
̈ ̈Am i pretty now?
Kitaro immediately gets into his battle stance
̈ ̈Kuchisake Onna!
Kitaro scans his opponent for anything threatening, all the while backing up slowly. She did not seem to have anything. In fact, he could not sense any yokai energy from her at all. Which he found odd. In one quick motion, she whips out a long butcher knife from her coat and runs at him. Kitaro doges her swings with ease. Did she have any powers at all? Wanting to end this fight quickly, Kitaro shoots out his hair needles; hiting the hand with the knife. She yelled out in pain and drops her knife. Kitaro then grabs her arm and pins it behind her back.
"̈Kuchisake-onna. I won't harm you, if you stop killing the humans.
Then Kitaro sees something that he wasn't expecting. A smile.
̈ ̈Predictable boy.
In a flash, Kitaro is yanked away from her by an unseen force and nailed to the wall of the apartment behind him. Dazed and shocked he looks to see what has grabbed him. Purple-redish knives of yokai energy, pulsing with light, pin Kitaro ́s clothes to the wall, keeping him stuck there. The boy is confused. His yokai antenna should have caught her energy signature. How did she hide it? Was she somehow concealing her energy to get the jump on him? If so, then how did she know about his antenna? He struggles to get out, but it's no use. She walks up to him with a very annoyed and disappointed look on her face.
"̈Such a rude thing to say. You should know by now how sensitive I am about my looks.
̈ ̈What are you talking about?
Don't play dumb. We've done this so many times, I could even beat you in my heels. And you still haven't changed your moves. That sort of laziness in skills makes you a very dull and dead opponent.
̈ ̈What?! I don't know you.
Kuchisake gives him an inquisitive look. Then her face goes from confusion to realization as she claps her hands and says: ̈Oh, I must have been one of the memories he erased. Ahhh. That makes so much sense, now.
Kitaro is confused.
̈ ̈What are you saying? Why are you acting like you know me?
Oh, I know all about you, deary. You're GeGeGe No Kitaro, fighter for humans and yokais, lives with your father Medama Oyaji…..
Kitaro gives her an annoyed frown.
"̈Everyone knows that.
"̈Oh, then does everyone know about your hair needles, your spirit chanchanko,which is made from the hairs of your ancestors, that protects you, your flying genta, finger guns, and internal electricity powers? Because you'll notice that you can't use them. My knives have the ability to lock any yokai energy in. Has no one really thought about doing this?
Kitaro goes pale as he realizes that she is right. His powers weren't working. Even his chanchanko was not working. How could this be? Kitaro stares at the woman with a dread filled heart. How does she know about my attacks? About my chanchanko?̈ ̈ His unease increases when Kuchisake starts to go into detail about most of his personal life. Both the good and the bad.
I also know that when you were a young boy you lost your temper and massacred a whole….
̈ ̈ENOUGH!
Kitaro, shaking with anger and fear asks, ̈How do you know all this?
Kuchisake holds up two fingers and starts to count down.
"̈Firstly, I know your fighting style because I've fought you many times before. Secondly, you're mother told me the rest."
Kitaro ́s eyes grew wide.
My mother?
The slit mouthed woman sighs. This is just sad on so many levels. Well, I'll be off now. For the record, I only scared a couple of kids just to bring you here so I could see Iwako's son. I also might have attacked some wise mouthed teenagers, but you can't tell me they didn't deserve it. Oh,God I'm rambling, I better go. I need to watch my stories." She then jumps onto the nearest apartment roof and starts to leap away. Kitaro shouts out to her. "Wait! Why don't I remember you?"
In the distance, she calls back to him.
"Ask your father!"
When she disappears so do her knives and kitaro drops down to the ground, happy to be free. He stood there in the alleyway shaking like a leaf, his mind racing with many questions but only one sticks out to him.
"What just happened?"