July 9th 2022, 3:10 PM

I have good news! The website has been a success! While we haven’t been able to find the specific Kuchisake-Onna we’ve been looking for still, we’ve gotten a lot of submissions both on the tumblr and the website! Bringing on Hotene was actually a really good idea. She’s been very good with uploading submissions which means Minato and I have been able to focus most of our efforts on seeing if any of them give us what we want. Someone actually encountered Naoko in her tenko form and submitted her, which was funny. Naoko was not that amused. That one submission led to more submissions, and she’s all on the website and we can’t really do anything about it. Since she’s a familiar face to the ones that contribute she’s been dubbed kitsune-chan. Nobody else has been able to identify she’s a tenko but we’ve been plotting ways to make it seem like we found it out without us actually being friendly with Naoko.

We also made some posters. They were quite awful if I’m being honest, but I guess most people who saw them were more interested in the site than our art and graphic design skills.

We still have to play a very long waiting game. Since the entire thing doesn’t rest on us, we can basically just go about our lives more normally. We still spot Kuchisake-Onna and put her on the website, but it’s not so annoying anymore. Now we just have to hope someone manages to find the Kuchisake-Onna we’ve been looking for… If not I will actually combust. In case of the worst, this diary will go to Minato. I trust him.

Oh, I guess a general life update might be good. I’m slowly getting better at Japanese as a whole. My speaking has become much better and I’m much more confident. I can actually understand my homework… for the most part. I feel super close with all my friends. In fact, my friends from the United States, including Jia, are gonna come visit us when summer break hits, which is from July 20th to August 31st! We haven’t worked out all the little details but the plan right now is that we’ll all probably spend the first few weeks together. Some of them may leave after, some may stick around, until the 31st when the last person staying will leave. Maybe. I honestly don't know how many of them will spend that long in Japan. Would be nice though. It’ll be fun to see them all again plus my new friends in Japan. Life is going on an upwards trajectory in general. Nothing bad can happen now! I think Minato, Hotene and I are gonna go hang out now, later!

July 10th 2022, 3:10 PM

Wow, remind me to never be that hopeful again.

Before I write this, I must say that what I’m about to say is classified. This is for my eyes only. If you aren’t me, then you need to close this diary and stop reading. Did we get that out of the way? Good. Also, I’m sorry if my energy isn’t great today. I’m upset right now, and you’ll see why.

Recently, Naoko pitched an idea of having monthly meetings to talk about our progress, which I forgot to mention in earlier entries. This meeting was at around two so at one-thirty, I went over to start setting up.

We decided the front room would be our meeting room as it was best suited for the job.

“Should I make snacks for Naoko?” Minato asked from the kitchen.

“We still don’t know if she eats!” I pointed out as I cleared the table.

“Maybe we should be snack hoarders instead.” Minato said as I texted Naoko. Now as I write that I realize I may never hear him joke like that again…

Me

Important question.

Do you eat food.

2:12 PM

Naoko-San

Yes

2:12 AM

Me

FINALLY WE HAVE THE ANSWER TO THE AGE OLD QUESTION!

What do you like to eat

2:12 PM

Naoko-San

Fruits and candies

I’m vegetarian

2:12 AM

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

New Naoko lore then, I guess.

(Unrelated, but to hold on to old texts I’ve been printing them out. Way easier than transcribing them.)

So fast forward to when Naoko gets here. Minato opens the door and greets her and leads her to his couch. Naoko was in her human form when we opened the door. It was a very modern one, with a long black sleeve shirt and those baggy pants with the pockets. She also had on some piece of fabric off her back that mimicked her fox form’s tails. Immediately, she went back into her fox form after she stepped inside.

I was excited because I had actually felt like dressing up today. I put my hair into a braid, wore a black shirt with batwing sleeves and a poofy skirt. I thought it was businessy for whatever reason but thinking back it was not business at all. I actually wrote a little report too.

“Wow, you really… made a lot of stuff and brought so many snacks just for a meeting.” Naoko’s eyes widened.

“We bought too many snacks and I prepared too much. Will you help us eat everything? We got a bunch of fruit, and we also have pocky, konpeto and botan rice candy.” Minato smiled a bit.

“Maybe… Anyway, let’s start this meeting.”

“Alright, so overall sightings of yokai on the website for this month was three hundred seventy one. Of the yokai seen, two hundred and one were of Kuchisake-Onna. Of the Kuchisake-Onna sightings there has been yet to be a sighting of the one we’ve been looking for still.” I said, looking at a clipboard I brought to look smart, I guess.

“Maybe a sorting system would be good to implement…” Naoko suggested.

“I wanna do that, we have to figure out how we’d do it on the website first though. The system would be much smoother on Tumblr.” Minato said.

Then, in the middle of our website discussion, we heard the turn of a doorknob. We looked at Minato, all of us with widened eyes.

The door opened to Minato’s parents. They weren’t supposed to be here, Minato said they’d be busy with something related to their business and they weren’t going to be back as usual. We all began to collectively panic, I could see it in their eyes, but we tried to keep calm expressions.

“Hi Keiko! Sorry, we forgot something, just give us a second.” Mrs. Sato cheerfully greeted me.

Not her son.

Not the dang fox that’s just sitting on her couch like a cat would.

Me.

We sat in silence as we waited for them to grab their things. And as they left, once again, they said goodbye to me. They didn’t even address Minato at all, much less mention the fox in their house.

When the door closed, Minato’s shock turned to anger. He aggressively tugged on his hair and he was almost growling.

“What? They don’t even talk about Naoko? Did they notice her?” I said.

“I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s a miracle they notice you. They barely even notice me. I’m lucky to be getting dinner, the nights they actually make it home.” Minato mumbles.

“Wait, what?” Naoko and I asked.

“Ever since I was five, I guess I wasn’t a cute enough child, or something. I don’t really even know their reasoning. They’ve gotten more neglectful over the years. When I was really young they took care of me like they would for any other child, but after my fifth birthday? They’d forget to feed me. I’d have to remind them. I chalked it up to forgetfulness. As I got older they’d forget to feed me more, and they started leaving me home alone. Once when I was eight I was home alone for a week, and when they got back they acted like it was nothing. By ten they’d make me meals maybe once every few months. I had to learn how to cook, I couldn’t survive on the lessening number of snacks we had laying around. I felt like the only time they’d pay attention to me then was the burns and cuts I’d give myself by accident. I became addicted to purposely getting myself hurt. But again, once I was twelve, that didn’t work anymore. Nothing I do works. They’ll only acknowledge me on random days when they’re home. If they’re even home. I still don’t even know what they’re doing half the time. Being overworked? Vacationing all the time? I just don’t know what to do at this point.” Minato explained his life story.

Everything made more sense now.

“Have you tried telling your teachers or the police?” I asked.

“I’ve told the police, but they’re pathetic, they don’t do anything. You know what, maybe you guys should just go now.” Minato rose from the couch. His face was cold, neutral, with no emotions present.

Naoko and I glanced at each other, then got up.

“Um, do you still wanna come over for dinner again?” I asked.

“We’ll see. Just leave me be. Please” Minato mumbled, sniffling.

I opened the door and Naoko and I left Minato’s house in silence. She transformed into her human form again on the way out.

“If I ever see the Satos I’m gonna give them a piece of my mind.” Naoko growled.

“I don’t think that would help anyone. Maybe what Minato needs is to be made aware of how much people care for him.”

“Good point, Keiko. I may have a new goal worthy of accomplishing now. I’ll see you later.” Naoko nodded, then turned to go home

I was still upset over everything. The thought of Minato’s mistreatment and his loneliness made me want to cry, but I was still standing in front of his house. I immediately ran across the street, into my house.

My parents, who were sitting on the couch, looked over at me.

“Kei? What’s up?” Papa asked me.

The events of just a few minutes earlier spilled out of my mouth, all at once. I don’t even know if that was a smart idea, like is that gonna make things worse for Minato? Am I even gonna get him the help he deserves?

Mom and Papa’s eyes widened, as they looked at each other.

“Does he still want to come over?” Mom asked.

“I think so.” I said.

“Ugh, and to think we befriended those people! If I see them I might say something.” Papa put a hand to his forehead.

“You should ask Minato if he wants that. I don’t think this was easy for him, and if they ignore him so much I wonder if they’ll just ignore you as well.”

“True…”

Our conversation awkwardly stopped from there. I went upstairs to think, and my parents went back to watching tv.

The rest of the night wasn’t anything too eventful I’d say. Surprisingly, Minato did come for dinner. He silently frowned throughout dinner. At least he enjoyed the chicken katsu.

My parents did try to ask him about his parents more after dinner, but I don’t think he was willing to talk much more about it, so they just let him head straight home after dinner.

Sorry for rushing through the last part. I think I need to stop thinking about this for a little while as well. I hope the next entry ends up much happier.