April 22nd, 2022, 8:00 PM

Alright, let me update you on what I’ve tried to figure out about Minato’s parents. My parents say they barely talk to the Satos. Hotene says she’s rarely seen them. I’ve asked some neighbors and they say he’s home alone a lot. I don’t know, this isn’t really looking too good… I’m not really sure where to go from here. It upsets me to think about this anymore so I guess I’ll talk about the other thing that happened today.

Earlier as we were getting out of school we saw another Kuchisake-Onna. This one was definitely not one we’d seen before. She had a sorta formal look to her, wearing a one piece dress with tights and a jacket. She had a mask on her chin, you know, one of those you see many people in Japan wearing over their mouth. She also had scarf around her neck like some sort of extra protection. Her eyes stood out to me, something about them seemed more energetic. All of the other Kuchisake-Onnas I’ve seen have such dead and empty eyes. The one we encountered felt more human-like.

Minato and I stopped dead in our tracks. She was right in the middle of the street, headed straight in our direction.

“Do you have candy? It’d be a better distraction than just saying so-so.” Minato whispered in my ear.

I checked my bag and… nope! Thinking back now I’m just really annoyed I didn’t think of this before, but whatever!

“No, what do we do?” I asked.

“On the count of three, we’ll run to your house. One, two-”

Minato was cut off by the new Kuchisake-Onna. Instead of the usual we’d heard, she said, “Hello there!” all cheerfully.

Minato and I glanced at each other, then dashed inside. I slammed the door and locked it as fast as my shaking hands could manage, while Minato pulled down the curtains. We rushed up to my room and slammed open the door. As I slumped into my spinning chair, Minato flopped onto the floor beside me. For a moment, we remained silent, too stunned to speak.

“What just happened?” Minato broke the silence with a shout, the loudest I’ve ever heard him talk.

“I don’t know! Has that ever happened?”

“To us, obviously not. To someone else, I don’t know. Can you give me your book on yokai?”

“Sure.” I went up to my book shelf and pull it from the corner it was stuck in. I sit on the floor with Minato and place it. Together we flip through the table of contents and stop at seeing Kuchisake-Onna’s name, then flip to her page. I glanced at the various pictures of different Kuchisake-Onnas, each dressed in unique clothes. There was even a Kuchisake-Onna that looked very 80s, with the big hair. Immediately though, Minato and I read her entry together out loud.

“The only things a Kuchisake-Onna ever says is ‘Watashi kire?’ or ‘Kore demo?’...” Minato remarked.

“Never in any recorded history has she ever said ‘Hello there!” I finished.

“What’s the possibility of her not being a Kuchisake-Onna?” Minato asked.

“I don’t know… She looks the part but she doesn’t act the part. Do people dress up as her or something?”

“Yeah, for halloween, and maybe for conventions.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“So why did she talk to us?”

“No idea. Maybe Naoko might have an idea though…”

I look outside my window, it was as foggy as ever and she’s moved, but she’s begun walking down the street. Minato got up and joined me as we look outside.

“Yeah that’s not happening right now. Even if she is completely gone, there may be a chance Naoko isn’t in the forest. Plus, look at all this homework…” Minato pulled his folder from his bag and dumped out a bunch of papers to prove my point.

I thought back to when we first met Naoko. It was the 10th of April, so maybe she’ll be working again and I’ll be free that day?

“Maybe we should try this Sunday, I have a feeling tomorrow and Saturday we’ll have other stuff to do.”

“Sure, why don’t we get started on this mountain of homework already then?”

“Yeah.”

Annndddd now I don’t have anything left to talk about so I guess that’s it for today!

April 24th 2022, 8:00 PM

Here we go again. You know, I actually brought something to defend myself today. I took a knife from the kitchen very slowly while mom and papa were in the tv room. I haven’t talked about them in a thousand years huh? In case you (or, future me or whoever’s reading this) were wondering they’re doing good, nothing crazy with them lately. Anyway, moving on.

Minato and I met outside of our houses and walked to the forest and down the familiar route. When we arrived to the part of the forest with all the houses we saw… nothing. Of course she wasn’t even gonna be there.

“Now what? Where does a messenger of Inari go when she’s not in the yokai forest? Erm, former I mean, in Naokos case.” Minato paced.

“Do tenko eat?” I asked.

“Nope.”

So there was yet another bump in our plan. The road? Rip in our plan? I don’t know, you get the metaphor though. Probably.

But as we turned back down the path yet again, there she was. Naoko, in the flesh. Or the fur? Anyway, she was standing there with… bags of groceries? In the moment I thought, maybe she does eat. Or she got food for other yokai.

“What are you doing here?” Naoko put a hand on her hip as she shifted her grocery bag to her other hand.

“There was another Kuchisake-Onna sighting!” I said.

“Oh. You knew what to do, right?” Naoko asked.

“Yes.” I said.

“It was more than that though. She talked! She greeted us, ‘Hello there!’ all smiley and happy.” Minato pointed out.

“That’s unusual. Kuchisake-Onna never talk like that to humans. Are you sure it was a Kuchisake-Onna?”

“Yes!” Minato and I shouted together. Not in an angry way just in a please-believe-us way.

“She had the face scars and everything. I know We should’ve taken a picture at the time but unfortunately we didn’t think of it, so…” I trailed off.

“Hmm, talking to a Kuchisake-Onna that’s friendlier could be the key to stopping their appearances in town… Alright, I have an idea. Whenever you are free and it’s foggy, text me, I’ll give you my number and I’ll come as fast as I can. You see if you can draw her out, and if it’s the one, I’ll talk to her. Getting a specific Kuchisake-Onna is no easy process, they go wherever, but if we keep trying to draw them out we’ll have to encounter her again, eventually. You in?”

“Yes!” We cheered. We handed her our phones and she entered her number in them, and we made a group chat.

“Bye Naoko-San!” I waved off as Minato and I left.

“Bye.” Naoko smiled slightly before entering one of the weird forest houses.

I don’t know how long this will take but I think any normal diary entries will have to be on halt for a bit. I’ll be logging the same stuff for a bit, I hope you don’t mind. I don’t know why I keep saying you but it feels weird to be like “I hope I don’t mind.” Anyway, that’s it for today.