Title: Kuchisake-Shonen: The Slit-Mouth Boy
Genre: horror, romance, hurt/comfort, drama, supernatural
Rating: T+ for language and strong violence
Pairings: JohanXJudai
Summary: Legend holds that several years ago, a suburban town was terrorized by a man whose beautiful face had been grotesquely disfigured with a Glasgow smile, also known as a Chelsea grin. Roaming the streets wearing a long red ski parka and carrying large scissors, the man would approach his young victims and, while removing the mask, ask if he was pretty. The victim's response, if it were the wrong one, would almost always lead to their violent death. Now, one by one, teenagers and young adults are disappearing again. As teachers and officials desperately begin to investigate, a panic begins to build as the man returns for some unfinished business and the town's dark secrets are exposed. But, the man's dark reign of terror might be over just as soon as it begins when he meets a young man who completely captivates his heart.
Me: Hello, everyone!
Lucy: I know we said we would update this as soon as we finished CoDT, but we just couldn't leave this chapter and not add it! The rest will be updated as soon as we finish CoDT, so we'll stick to our word on that!
Me: We hope you enjoy this rather short chapter.
Lucy: Please enjoy!
Preface
Legend holds that thirty years ago, before we were even born, a suburban town was terrorized by the spirit of a woman whose horrid face had been grotesquely disfigured.
Roaming the streets wearing a long coat and carrying large scissors, the spirit would approach her young victims and, while removing the mask, ask if she was pretty. The victim's response would almost always lead to their violent death.
There was no way to escape her, and no one knows what became of her victims.
"Or something like that..."
"Oh, stop it, Ichi!" laughed Kio, smacking her boyfriend Ichi lightly on the arm. "You're so bad! That's just a creepy old legend!"
Ichi threw his head back and laughed. "Oh, come on, Kio. It could be the truth," he said.
Kio giggled and walked alongside her boyfriend for over six months. She never knew she could love someone as much as she loved Ichi. At first, she never knew someone like Ichi would be the one for her. But after giving him a chance, Kio found that she could never love anyone as much as she loved Ichi.
Ichi lurched over and hacked.
The sudden noise caused Kio to jump.
She whirled around and stared at her boyfriend. "Oh, Ichi!" She laid her hands on his back. "Ichi, are you all right?"
Ichi waved his hand slightly, still coughing. "I—cough!—am fine—cough! Just—cough—give me a minute." He covered his mouth and continued to cough violently into his hand.
Kio nodded softly and turned away from her boyfriend, hearing him cough violently behind her.
She glanced up as the wind blew, scattering fall leaves through the dusk skies. Her hair brushed around her, black tangles dancing in the air. Her eyes batted softly against her cheeks; her hands wrung themselves together. Ichi's coughs died down gradually behind her, and she felt her heart soar. Good, he's getting better.
She wanted to wait until Ichi stopped coughing totally before she turned around. Ichi stopped coughing, but Kio did not turn around. She was too focused on the sky, on the dancing leaves.
She reached up to catch a leaf, but she couldn't touch one.
The wind seemed to be whispering something. Something soft behind her. A voice, calling from the darkness. A chuckle, dark and vicious. A heart as cold as ice beat behind her.
Kio, feeling the sudden rush of cold from behind her, turned.
Her heart skipped when she didn't see Ichi standing behind her. Instead, she spotted a young man, a few years older than she was, wearing a surgical mask and a red ski parka towering over her with frightening brown eyes.
She squeaked and took a step back.
Her system filled with adrenaline, but it only lasted a few seconds. Once she realized she wasn't in any danger, Kio smiled.
"Oh, you scared me!" she laughed.
The brown-haired young man raised a fine brown eyebrow, but said nothing. Kio glanced around and tried to spot Ichi somewhere nearby. The trees were silent, and the only person within miles was the strange brunette in the parka.
"Um, excuse me," Kio asked the boy. "Have you seen a young man with black hair around here?"
The brunette said nothing, but his hand slowly lifted and pointed toward one of the bushes. Kio gave him her cutest smile, thanked him silently, and, figuring that Ichi was just trying to scare her, snuck toward the bushes. She didn't look back to see if the brown-haired man had gone, but she couldn't hear him anymore. Her mind drifted to Ichi. He must've been trying to scare her, and that brown-haired man just wanted to let her know where he was hiding.
"Oh," she said with mock concern. "Wherever could Ichi be?"
As she approached the bushes of the park they'd been walking through, she saw Ichi's arm poking out from a bush.
She smiled. Caught him.
Pulling apart the thick green bushes and smiling down at her boyfriend, she started to say, "I found you, Ichi!", but her words stopped short in her throat.
Ichi was smiling, at least, that's what it looked like.
His mouth was cut to his ears in a sloppy grin, and his dull eyes stared at Kio and beyond, full of terror. His stiff body was white as a sheet, his smiling mouth opened as if to scream for help.
Kio was too shocked to scream. She backed up, hands clapped over her mouth, and bumped into someone.
Fear surged through her.
I should have known...
"Boku wa kirei?"
Kio turned and saw the brown-haired man standing behind her, holding a pair of silver scissors in his hand. The silver blades were stained with blood, Ichi's blood. His other hand was on the top of the mask, ready to rip it down and reveal the face underneath that Kio knew would be the cause of her death.
Her lips trembled; the boy seemed to grin.
"Careful careful now," he said, his velvety, inviting voice full of amusement. "You don't want to end up like him." He jolted his head toward the dead body of Kio's boyfriend.
"W-why...?" Kio whispered.
The boy with the surgical mask smirked—Kio could tell by the way his eyes crinkled—and reached up, hooking his pale fingers over the top of the mask. He started to draw it down, and Kio could see the tops of the scars leading to his ears appear. She shivered. They were even more horrid than she could have ever imagined. His brown eyes were sparkling with sick pleasure, his whole body giving off the cold scent of demons, his whole being turning the sky to cold. He raised the scissors into the sky and aimed them down toward Kio.
"He answered wrong."
When the sun rose the next morning, two bodies would be found; both sporting Glasgow smiles tearing from the corners of their mouth to their ears.
Both would be reaching for salvation, looking beyond their killer, who was now long gone, back to wherever it was demons went when they were finished with a good kill.
Two more victims would be added to the Kuchisake family.
Me: Well, we got a short idea of what Judai looks like now and what he does! But do not feel too bad for Kio and Ichi—you will learn much more on them later on in the story, and you will not feel bad for them!
Lucy: And Johan will appear in the next chapter!
Me: So, for all of you wondering when he will show up, next chapter! He'll be here! So you can all look forward to that as soon as we update this little fic of ours!
Lucy: Please review!