It's Dangerous to Go Alone.

A Japanese Urban legend.

Sohara Kishimoto is walking down the a lonely foggy street in Kyoto. She has just left her middle school and is walking home. A small gust of wind causes her long black hair to flutter. She tightens her grip on her black leather book bag. Sohara hates how she has to walk home all by herself. The thick fog and empty streets creeps her out. She remembers when she was little her grandmother always told her to never go alone. If she did, Kuchisake Onna would find her. But Sohara never got to listen to that whole story because her mother always interrupted the grandmother. Sohara was never scared of urban legends. Myths are myths she would always tell herself. Through the fog, Sohara can see an outline of a person sitting down in the middle of the sidewalk straight of head of her. She can make out that the person was sitting down with their knees up against their chest. As Sohara walks closer to the unknown person, she can start to see that it is an young woman with long black hair. Once Sohara was about a meter away from the unknown woman, she can see that the woman is wearing a surgical face mask. The young woman turns towards Sohara. Sohara shivers when another gust of wind blows past her. She gets a bad feeling from this woman. Something doesn’t feel right about this woman.

The woman in the surgical mask stands up and starts to move towards Sohara. Sohara frantically starts to move back away from the woman. Sohara shrieks as she trips over a large crack in the sidewalk and falls down onto her butt.

“Dō shiro tte iu ndesu ka?” (What do you want from me?) Sohara asks the unknown woman.

“Watashi wa nanika o shitte iru hitsuyō ga arimasu ka?” (I need to know something?) the woman replies.

“Nan jigoku anata ga shiritaidesu ka?” (What the hell do you want to know?) Sohara asks her.

“Watashi wa kirei?” (Am I beautiful?)  the unknown woman asks.

‘Jigoku wa nani ga okotte imasu ka? Jigoku wa, kono josei ga machigatte imasu ka? Dōyō ni, watashi wa kanojo o torinozoku koto ga dekiru yō ni, kanojo wa utsukushī to kanojo o thell kanōsei ga arimasu.’ (What the hell is going on? What the hell is wrong with this woman? Might as well tell her that she is beautiful so I can get rid of her.) Sohara thinks to herself.

“ H-hai, anata wa utsukushīdesu.” (Y-yes you are beautiful.) Sohara responds.

“Watashi wa hontōni amu?” (Am I really?) the masked woman replies to Sohara’s response in a dark tone.

The masked woman then rips off her surgical mask. Sohara’s body turns ice cold from terror. The only warmth that she felt was the urine soaking up her school uniform skirt. The woman’s mouth was slit ear to ear. She gives Sohara a sickening smile that shows the woman’s jawbone. Then she pulls out a giant pair of scissors.

“Watashi wa ima utsukushī nodesu ka?” (Am I beautiful now?) the woman asks with her sickening smile.

Sohara just lays there in her puddle of urine. She doesn’t know what to do or what to say. This was Kuchisake Onna, the slit mouth woman. She wasn’t a myth or an urban legend after all. She was real. Her grandmother was right, it was dangerous to go alone.

“Watashi wa kirei?”(Am I beautiful?) Kuchisake Onna asks Sohara for the second time.

Sohara quickly gets up and starts to run through the thick fog. ‘Herupu o mitsukeru koto ga dekimashita.Herupu o mitsukeru koto ga dekimashita.’ (Got to find help.) Sohara thinks over and over again.

Sohara blinks and stops dead in her tracks. Kuchisake Onna is right in front of her. Sohara tries to turn around but Kuchisake Onna grabs her shoulder.

“Watashi wa kirei?” she asks Sohara again.

“Masaka! Īe, anata wa utsukushīde wa arimasen.” (No! No, you are not beautiful.) Sohara yells at Kuchisake Onna.

Kuchisake Onna laughs out loud then stabs Sohara in the mouth with her large pair of scissors. Sohara’s body jerks when the tip of the blood covered scissor blade exits the back of her head. Sohara’s eyes rolls back and she starts making gurgling noises has her mouth throat fills up with blood. Kuchisake Onna starts cutting Sohara’s head in half. The sound of flesh, blood, bone being cut by scissors fills up the foggy street.

So next time you are walking alone, remember this. It’s dangerous to go alone. Cause if you do, Kuchisake Onna will get you.

Author's Note

Hope you enjoy.

Reviews

[unspokenpain]

good beginning, middle, and end. If I were to critique I would switch the romanized letters into katakana. (not kanji as it's spoken and not in the format that makes kanji pop.) That's just more me than really a critique lol. I guess for an edit I would say that when writing in romaji to add desu ka to the end of every question. In japanese it doesn't make sense unless "desu ka" is there. anyways it was a good story and send me a review request for the next story you write. good luck and keep writing!

[Tsubaki Kuro]

thanks a lot for reading my piece. I will be updating this story in a few weeks. My next story will come in a few weeks too.

[unspokenpain]

cool beans!

[Emily]

Love this story!
Keep on writing!!

[Tsubaki Kuro]

Thanks Emily. :)

[Hikaru]

You officially scared the living hell out of me. But to be true it was a very good horror story!!

[Tsubaki Kuro]

thanks a lot Alyssa Midnight. I am glad that I scared you. :)

[Krizito]

Thanks a lot for officially creeping me out. The story is cool. I have a not-so-loving relationship with horror, but this one I tend to like...especially with he myth.
Poor Sohara, nice gruesome story ;)

[Tsubaki Kuro]

Well, I am glad that I got you to like a horror story. I feel the same way about Sohara.

[Sir Drift & Mr. Pulse]

I need me a pair of scissors like that. lol. gruesome, deadly and just ugly. idk what to think XD but ill give you full marks

[Tsubaki Kuro]

Thanks a bunch Sir Drift & Mr. Pulse. You should read the lore on her. It will give you nightmaresread moreThanks a bunch Sir Drift & Mr. Pulse. You should read the lore on her. It will give you nightmares

[Ember Smyth]

I enjoyed this story, though the dialogue (I think, anyways) would have been better through the use of the characters. :)

[Tsubaki Kuro]

You're the second person to say that. LOL

[Ember Smyth]

I actually read E G TEN's review first and thought "Yeah, that would make it better!" :) XD lol

[Tsubaki Kuro]

I will do that for my next piece.

[Aventicus]

Well, that was interesting. Quite disturbing, actually. Not bad, though, but I felt you could have given the conflict of the plot a little more meat. Your story kind of fell along the lines of the general horror story: Main character is warned of danger, main character ignores warning, main character meets danger some time in future (usually at night), main character is wary, but doesn't know that what he/she meets is danger, main character engages danger, main character senses danger, main character runs away or is killed by danger. The end. The story can turn out really stale if that is the only thing you use. Nonetheless, there still is the potential of a more interesting story here. You are not a bad writer, just ensure to vary your sentence structure and flesh out your plot.

[Tsubaki Kuro]

Thank you. I felt the same way when I read it over. I will be editing this piece and making it better.

[Aventicus]

I'm happy to help and I'm excited to see what you do with it.

[RedInk524]

I love this legend. The movie Carved captures it perfect. Although the actress that played kuchisake was still pretty despite the special effects, lol. So it makes the decision you give it kinda hard. The only way to escape kuchisake is to say that she looks "average", it will puzzle her for a moment and you can use that to run.

[Tsubaki Kuro]

Yassss, I am glad that you know this urban legend. There are two other ways to be safe. You have to ask her, "Am I beautiful?" which will confuse her or find someone else so that she will "attack" that person. Thank you for reading my piece. My next urban legend piece will be about Tomino's Hell. :)

[RedInk524]

Interesting, so in short just confuse her and run. Hell with that in mind I'd do the most random s**t like toss her a Furbie and wish her luck. Damn Furbies were hellions.

[Takeshi Yamada]

Yikes Tsubaki, you like to write them graphic, huh? :) Poor Sohara...

My wife's younger sister told me the name "Sohara Kishimoto" sounds good.

One typo at the beginning.
"walking down A lonely foggy street in Kyoto."

Nice scary story. I also liked how you tied in what Sohara's grandmother said at the beginning to what Sohara realizes at the end, that her grandmother was right. I also liked the choice to write this in third person present. It made it much more immediate and scary.

[Tsubaki Kuro]

Thanks Takeshi, I will fix that typo when I have time. I do admit that Sohara Kishimoto was my second favorite name I have created. And yeah, I did feel bad that Sohara died a tragic death, but she answered the question wrong after all.

[E G TEN]

Hello Kuro, this is beautiful, reminds me of one of Akira Kurosawa's criterion classics
( big fan here :) I also admire how you write Japanese language in the mix. Although if
You had written them in characters, ( those dialogues) I believe it would made more
Of an impact since you are translating them anyhow, anyways I hope that made any
Sense. This is a lovely Myth that is full of nostalgic suspense and mystery. Very cool.
Thanks EG

[Tsubaki Kuro]

Thanks a lot E G Ten. Originally I was going to write them in characters but I didn't want of confuse the audience. I might do characters in my next piece.

[Locke Harvest]

Ah, I remember this myth. Good work chap~

[Tsubaki Kuro]

I am glad that you knew this myth. :)