Summary
There is a legend about a woman who approaches people and asks if she is beautiful. If they say no then she kills them, but if they say yes she removes her mask to see if they run away, in which she also kills them. It was such a notorious story that for a long time students were too scared to leave home and did everything in groups.
Everyone listens to Miya as she tells her story, but she focuses on her crush, Endou, who she doesn't think would ever notice her. He's popular and a lot of girls in their class have crushes on him. Miya is startled while washing her hands, when she sees a strange woman in the mirror nearby. The woman apologizes and asks if she is at the right classroom, then she removes her mouth mask and introduces herself as Akamiya, their substitute teacher. She is very pretty, and her boy classmates quickly take to her, much to the girls frustration. Her mood is ruined when the boys unanimously decide she cannot tell spooky stories anymore, after hearing that Akamiya gets frightened easy.
The girls in the classroom remain irritated as break rolls along, observing Akamiya as many guys of all ages surround her. Miya dislikes seeing Endou seems to have fallen under her spell as well, expressing disgust as she returns to class. There, one of her friends suggest they nickname Akamiya the Slit-Mouthed Woman. She has allergies and they see her wearing a mask quite frequently.
What started as an inside joke soon spreads around school like a wildfire. Soon they became nasty rumors of her terrorizing children, and eventually they reach Akamiya herself.
One day, Miya and her friends are busy cleaning after class while discussing the fake rumors. Miya isn't convince they are fake though, and they head to the staff lockers to see if they can find anything suspicious. Besides some strong perfume and fashion magazines, Miya is startled upon pulling out a red coat and a small bladed tool; just like the ones the Slit-Mouthed Woman uses. The girls rush back to class to reveal what they saw to their skeptical boy classmates. There is plenty of evidence supporting the rumors now, and the boys begin to express doubt. Miya is delighted to see that even Endou seems concerned.
This was her plan after all. She planted that evidence, and she started those nasty rumors. Now she's sure Endou will stop being friends with their teacher and everything will be fine.
At least until the girls decide they need to do something before she hurts someone. Miya tries to convince them that this isn't necessary but they refuse, too riled up to listen. The boys are being manipulated by her, they are convinced. So they tell them to stay out of it. Miya remains on edge as she notices the tense atmosphere when class resumes. She tries to leave afterwards, only for Akamiya to ask that she join her in the staff room. Miya hesitantly agrees while the girls of her class start panicking.
Akamiya starts by apologizing for keeping Miya there, and she reveals the coat and tool she found planted in her things. Miya worries, but Akamiya offers her hand in friendship, much to her surprise. Akamiya sadly explains how common this is, which is why she moves around so much. No matter where she goes, she struggles to get along with other girls because of her looks and how men treat her. She loves children though, which is why she wanted to be a teacher.
Miya realizes in this moment that she made a horrible mistake. She was wrong about Akamiya, she's just a nice person with an affectionate personality. They exchange hands and Miya leaves, thinking about her poor behavior. But she is startled to see her friends wielding metal pipes and baseball bats as they walk through the corridor. She calls out to them but they don't hear her, and she freezes after realizing where they are going.
If she doesn't try to stop them and tell them the truth then Akamiya will get hurt...
But then everyone will be mad at her if she did. Endou will hate her.
Miya runs for home unable to bring herself to get involved.
After that day, Akamiya was hospitalized from their brutalization and needed emergency treatment. Miya was spoken to by the police and the girls who played a part in this have been attending counseling. It's been a month since then and now things are beginning to return to normal, although her classroom has become much quieter because there's only a few students remaining.
Meanwhile, the Hospital staff has been discussing what occurred with Akamiya and express remorse. They performed a decent amount of surgery but it won't be enough to fix the damage. It's then a doctor runs into the hallway to reveal Akamiya has gone missing!
They run to her room to find Pretty Face written all over the walls and express concern at the mess left behind. The nurses apologize profusely for not keeping a better eye on her as instructed.
With another school day done, Miya prepares for home when she stops to notice the forming storm clouds. She decides to hurry when she suddenly looks ahead to find a woman donning a red coat, carrying a sharp tool. She stares in shock as the woman faces her with empty eyes and bandaging covering her mouth.
- - - - -
Time passes, and a group of young girls are making their way home discussing the story of the Slit-Mouthed Woman. They find it amusing and share a laugh until one girl freezes in place. Noticing her sudden fright, they turn to find the woman nearby.
However, she keeps some distance from them and is hiding, apparently frightened of them like they are her. She peeks out to ask "Am I beautiful?"
Tropes:
- Beauty Is Bad: Miya and her female classmates think this about Akamiya. But from another perspective, its the beauty in the scenario who suffers from it.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Miya and her female classmates accuse their Teacher of this, saying she pretends to be innocent and cute to get the attention of boys.
- The protagonist ends up being a light example of this. As a young girl, Miya looks cute and innocent. But she maliciously planting fake evidence to make everyone turn against a teacher because she got along with her crush.
- Break the Cutie: Akamiya only wants to befriend others but her sweet personality and pretty appearance cause guys to give her a lot of attention and girls to turn against her. She's been forced to move around a lot because it happens so frequently, then when she begins to feel comfortable at this school, she gets attacked.
- Continuity Nod: Also counts as Leaning on the Fourth Wall. Someone brings up that Miya's last story was about The Girl Under The Bed and asks Endou if he heard the story. He replies "I think it was in a manga".
- Cold-Blooded Torture: The girls in Miya's class beat Akamiya up with baseball bats and metal pipes. To the point that she had to be taken to the hospital and was covered in bandages. A lot of surgery was performed but the staff said it won't fix very much.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Miya essentially ruined someone's life because they got along with her crush.
- Her classmates attack Akamiya under the misconception that she did something to Miya.
- Karmic Death: The chapter ends on an ambiguous note but one can assume Miya was killed.
- Kids Are Cruel
- Lack of Empathy: Miya didn't seem to care about the aftermath of what happened to Akamiya or her class. But she was disappointed by how quiet things became.
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Moral Event Horizon: Miya crosses this when she chooses to run away from the mob about to confront Akamiya. - Nightmare Fetishist: Miya loves telling scary stories to her classmates, but her friend playfully accuses her of only doing it because she gets attention from boys.
- Poor Communication Kills: Rather than face up to what she did in order to protect Akamiya, Miya chose to run away. Which not only resulted in their teacher being hospitalized, but caused her to finally snap from the abuse. The event also caused nearly everyone in class being taken in for counseling, and she became a target.
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Miya told the story of the slit-mouthed woman and then set up Akamiya to turn everyone against her. Then at the end of the story she gets confronted by her.
- Youkai: The first one in the series, the Slit-Mouthed Woman. But here she began as a normal, sweet woman who turned into her after being horribly beaten up.
