April 5th 2022, 7:10 PM
I didn’t think that having the first day of school on a Friday would mess me up, but it did. Earlier this morning I thought it was the weekend.
Alright, so weekend recap! Not super exciting. Mom and Papa set me up with a kanji tutor. They’re pretty cool, they’re fluent in English and Japanese. Mom and Papa asked for them for that reason, so I struggle with Japanese a little less. On saturday we just talked about some very basic kanji. They set me up with this app called Wanikani that helps me learn, and they told me I should spend an hour everyday on the app and we’ll meet on Saturdays to review.
Then on Sunday I was bored so I ended up spending the whole day on Wanikani to cram some kanji. Everyone was busy so I didn’t have anything better to do. It was definitely not the ideal but I felt like I’ve started to memorize and learn my kanji
I also completely put out of my mind the Kuchisake-Onna situation. So, we turned out fine, she kept trying to break in, but the door was barricaded. We put whatever we could in front of windows, Mom was freaking out about them being broken, but thankfully Kuchisake-Onna didn’t break in. Saturday I was really tired when I met with my tutor. Minato says this stuff has never happened in our specific part of town, even when it’s the right conditions for Kuchisake-Onna to appear.
I expected to ease into actually doing stuff in school very slowly, it’s still the first few days of school after all, but nope! Today we got a project dropped onto us already! For Home Economics we have to make an instructional video on something related to Home Ec. Oh, I keep saying we, guess who I was paired up with? Minato and Hotene! We got those two hours to draft and plan in class.
“Yay, we’re reunited to work on this project! And now Keiko-Chan is with us too! We should be the Project Trio.” Hotene cheered in Japanese. I’m Keiko-Chan already too? Nice.
“We just started school last Friday, is this normal?” I wondered. I mean I feel like I should’ve expected this from Japan but I didn’t.
“Projects used to be pretty sparse, and if we had one it’d be an end-of-the-year thing, not an almost-right-at-the-beginning-of-the-school-year kind of thing. Anyway, what should we do?” Minato asked.
“You seem like the type of dude to genuinely want to show us how to do taxes, should we do that?” Hotene joked. That’s what I thought too!
“Absolutely not, I don’t even know how to do taxes. Let’s not do anything we don’t already know how to do.” Minato said. Why are you booing her though I think if he learned he’d be a great… tax person? (What are those called?) He’d be a great tax whatever. Okay this has nothing to with what was happening. Anyway, sorry, moving on.
“That immediately takes gardening off the list, for me at least. And how to take care of a baby.” I said, crossing them of the literal list they gave us.
“I don’t get budgeting, nor do I know how I’d care for my sick loved ones. Maybe I should learn though…” Hotene said.
“So that leaves cooking and sewing.” Minato said.
“I don’t have any sewing supplies at my house. Do either of you have sewing stuff at home?”
They both shook their heads. So cooking it is!
Then we were doing project stuff. I’m more okay with holding off on recording but Minato really wanted to just get it done today, so I thought, why not. We debated awhile on who’s house to go to, Hotene really wanted to see my house, I really wanted to see hers, and Minato doesn’t want us at his because he says ‘It’ll feel like I’m showing off,’ even though we’ve both been to his at this point. Minato logic is very weird logic I gotta say.
Eventually, we narrowed it down to Hotene’s and ours. Hotene didn’t want me over because her grandma and great-grandma according to her are a lot, but are you kidding? Ainu grandparents and great-grandparents probably have a lot of cool stories to tell! I guess that convinced her so we decided to go to hers’ in the end.
We all went to our respective houses for an hour after school to relax a bit, yadda yadda. Hotene doesn’t go to cram schools or clubs, which surprised me. Cram schools she’s not interested in, but she seemed like she did a bunch of extracurriculars. Don’t ask where I got that idea from, it was literally just vibes. I asked after today and she said it’s so she can hang out with her other friends from school.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Since neither of my parents are home at this point and Minato’s are actually almost never at their house except that one day we moved in, Hotene was gonna pick us up.
An hour later I was ready, and I looked out the window to see a car. I text Hotene and ask if it’s her, and she’s all like, yes! Get in the car! I ran downstairs with my things and entered the car. Hotene was wearing her usual headband, and was in a dark blue shirt with short but flowy sleeves. Her shirt had patterning and lines like on her headband, all with matching flared leggings.
Hotene’s mom was in the front seat and she looked a lot like Hotene, similar straight hair, similar clothes but more colorful. She also had a triangle shaped black tattoo that covered her mouth.
“Hi, Anchikar-san. I like your tattoo.” I greeted.
“Thank you, it’s a traditional Ainu tattoo. You can just call me Kimyo. Hotene has been talking about you a lot.” Kimyo smiled at me and looked at Hotene.
“I thought wearing tattoos in Japan makes you, like unhireable or something?” I asked
“I own my own business, so hireability isn’t a concern to me really. All the girls I work with are Ainu and have tattoos like me, I’m really accepting of anything as long as you can do the work.”
Just then, Minato opened the car door and entered. He was wearing a hoodie and sweatpants, sorta unusual for him but whatever.
“And hello again Minato! Hotene hasn’t seen you over the summer, you look like you’ve grown so much.” Kimyo said.
“Hi Anchikar-San, and yes, I did grow, but it really wasn’t all that much. Doctor said I’m basically done growing.” Minato played with his hair while averting eye contact.
Kimyo started driving us down the road, while we all discussed the project. Finally, we arrived at the house, which was a very brown and tall building.
“Alright, before you get started, Keiko’s never been here before so here’s the rules. Don’t bother grandma or great-grandma, don’t go into their rooms or my room. I’m happy to let you stay awhile, but if you want to stay after ten you have to let me know ahead of time.” Kimyo said as we all exited. I nodded and we all went to the kitchen, putting our stuff on the dining room table. The table was long, with a woody dark brown coloring to it. There were matching wooden chairs, all looking handmade. To the left side of the table was a blue curtain. The right had an entrance to the kitchen.
The kitchen had dark red linoleum floors, dark brown cabinets at the higher parts of the wall and below the stove and oven. To the left was a kitchen counter, freezing for some reason, and a dishwasher next to it.
Then we went to work doing the project, it was pretty fun! Minato was responsible for showing kitchen safety, Hotene taught a recipe and I showed cleaning dishes. Okay, do we really need a tutorial on that? Technically, no but I have tips on washing dishes stocked away that I learned from my dad. The video turned out pretty nice though, nothing special enough for me to describe to you though if I’m gonna be honest. We ended staying for dinner, since it was already five by the time we ended.
When it was time, we took a seat at the side of the table facing the curtains. This side of the table is for guests, and the one away from the window was for the Anchikar family. Kimyo was seated at the right head of the table, and I was right by her, Minato to my left. Across from me was Mr. Anchikar, who came home right as dinner was finished. Hotene was to his left, then Hotene’s grandma, then to the left Hotene’s great-grandma.
I really wanted to ask them about something, I don’t even know, but I literally blanked out. But then I thought, I have the opportunity to ask them about yokai!
“I have a question. Has yokai ever made their way to this part of town?” I asked out of nowhere. This was the first thing I brought up during dinner, actually, more like the first thing I said during dinner.
“Never, actually. Might have something to do with the fact that yokai aren’t really part of traditional religion…” Kimyo said.
“They always show up to my work though.” Hotene’s dad said.
“What yokai particularly?” I asked
“A lot of kuchisake-onnas, actually. A few of my co-workers died to them. They’ve never targeted me, though, but they’ve been ramping up so much I’ve started carrying candy.” He said.
“There’s more than one?” I said.
“I guess, the ones that’ve survived seem to say she looked different each time.”
You know, I didn’t think of this before, but I’m wondering if we should try to investigate Kuchisake-Onna. Or the Kuchisake-Onnas? Whatever. I know it’s said she’s dangerous but I’m wondering if there’s a way we can get just one to properly lay to rest. Let me ask Minato!
Just texted him, but that’s a hard no from him. But I know how to protect myself from Kuchisake-Onna, so maybe I can find a way to do it on my own… And I know the first places to try to talk to her! I think I’m gonna wrap this one up, I’ve got some weekend plans!
P.S Nothing else of note really happened today, we just had average conversations if you were wondering. Or me? I don’t know, I’m gonna stop myself before I question everything because of this diary.