Present day – Osaka, Japan
The sunlight shines in through the windows, casting a warm glow over the corner seat of Class 2-B. Seated there is Rei Ashbourne, a 17-year-old high schooler, now living alone in his late mother's homeland, Japan, apart from his father ever since the incident that marked his childhood.
Students chatter, half listening to the old voice of the homeroom teacher. The bell rings which marks the end of a boring homeroom lecture for the students as they see the teacher walking away from class.
Rei is asleep on his desk, chin resting on his folded arms. His breath is steady and face is calm – too calm infact. He slowly opened his blue eyes upon hearing a hard yet familiar voice
"Oi Rei sleeping again?"
He felt an arm on his shoulder shaking him up, not soft but hard enough to wake him up.
He slowly blinked and looked up, Toma his best friend – tall, broad shouldered with a handsome east Asian face always wearing his school blazer – was standing infront of him awkwardly grining.
"Seriously man you're gonna melt into your desk one of these days."
Rei didn't respond
"Anyway you free after school?" Toma grinned.
Rei raised a brow "why?"
"There's this girl. She passes the Shimizu shrine every Thursday around five. I've seen her, like, four weeks in a row. I think she goes to a cram school nearby." Toma's voice dropped. "Today, I'm gonna talk to her."
Rei blinked slowly. "You want me there for moral support."
"Exactly! And also in case I faint and die."
Rei sighed. "Fine. But if you faint, I'm leaving you."
Toma grinned wider.
Toma was the kind of guy everyone liked outgoing, always smiling, full of energy. He played football, made friends easily, and had a way of lighting up any room he entered.
Rei Ashbourne, on the other hand, was quiet but not cold. He had neat black hair that slightly curled at the ends, sharp blue eyes that noticed everything, and a calm, steady presence. He didn't talk much, didn't try to stand out and was a incredible at it.
They were opposites in many ways, but that never stopped Toma from calling Rei his best friend.
"So what you're saying is that you're stalking a lady for four weeks straight now."
A gentle voice came from in front of Rei's desk. A pretty girl with medium-dark straight hair turned toward them, one eyebrow raised, lips curled into a half-smile.
"Miyako…" Rei sighed, raising his head slightly from where it rested on his folded arms. His eyes, pale blue and half-lidded with sleep, met hers with the same calm disinterest he gave most things. "He prefers the term serendipitous observing."
Toma straightened up in his chair, mock-offended. "Excuse me, it's called making a move when the time is right. Big difference."
Miyako crossed her arms, her voice dry. "Right. And the time is apparently every Thursday at 4:30 PM near the Shimizu Shrine, conveniently when she visits."
Rei blinked slowly. "You memorized the schedule too?"
She looked at him. "I pay attention."
"You're both creeps," Rei mumbled, resting his chin back on his arms, though there was the faintest curve of a smirk on his lips.
Miyako glanced sideways at Rei, lowering her voice. "And yet you're going with him today, aren't you?"
Rei closed his eyes. "Against my better judgment."
Toma gave him a grin. "Because deep down, you love me."
"Deep down," Rei said without looking up, "I love silence more."
Miyako laughed quietly, Miyako yakamura was an extroverted and charismatic girl yet to Rei…it sometimes felt like she's hiding somthing from them.
Outside the window, clouds gathered slowly over the skyline, casting long shadows across the room.
The sun hung lower now, casting gold and amber tones across the narrow street leading to Shimizu Shrine. Rei walked with his hands in his pockets, his school jacket unbuttoned, tie loose. Toma led the way, bouncing a bottle of soda between his hands like a baseball. Miyako trailed just behind them, earbuds in but only one in her ear—half paying attention, half watching everything around her.
"I still don't get why you care so much," Rei said, lazily kicking a loose pebble as they walked. "You don't even know her name."
"I will," Toma said, grinning like he was already telling the story to his future kids. "One day she'll turn around and be like, 'Toma Fukuda, where have you been all my life?'"
Rei stared blankly at him. "In the bushes. With binoculars."
"Rei," Toma sighed, dramatically holding a hand over his chest. "You wound me. I'm a romantic, not a creep."
"You're loud," Rei replied.
"Loud is honest," Toma shot back.
Miyako rolled her eyes but smirked. "Honestly annoying."
Toma spun around, walking backward as he faced them. "And yet, here you both are. Accompanying me on my quest."
"I'm here because I have nothing better to do," Rei said.
Miyako shrugged. "I'm here because I don't trust you not to embarrass yourself."
"See?" Toma beamed. "The power of friendship."
A little further down a few shops away, a tall man stepped out of a cramped curiosity shop holding a small, antique hand mirror wrapped in cloth. In his other hand, a white candle, thick, with melted wax already dripping from it despite not being lit.
His dark overcoat swept around his legs as he walked, the buttons polished, the collar popped just enough to give him a look of practiced flair. Sleek dark hair, styled but slightly tousled. His eyes—narrow, intense, golden-brown with something unreadable in them—scanned the street like he was looking through it.
He stopped briefly to look up at the shrine gates before tucking the mirror and candle into the inside of his coat with gloved hands.
Ezio Valenti had a look about him that made people step aside without quite knowing why. He walked like he wasn't part of the same world.
"So," Toma said, slowing his pace, "she usually comes around this time. Always walks up the steps, stands near the prayer bell, then leaves in, like, five minutes."
"That's weird," Miyako said casually.
"Why?" Toma asked. "Some people just like shrines."
Miyako gave a small, curious glance. "You said she wears a mask, right?"
Toma nodded. "Yeah, like one of those old-fashioned ones. Kinda creepy, to be honest, but in a cute way."
Miyako stopped walking. "Wait. Every time?"
"Yeah," Toma said, still smiling. "White mask, long hair, never talks to anyone. I mean, mystery's hot, right?"
Rei's brow furrowed. "Toma… did she ever look directly at you?"
"Actually, yeah," Toma said, blinking. "Last week. She just stopped and stared at me. Like… not blinking. Just stood there."
Miyako's voice was quiet now. "Did she ask you anything?"
"No," Toma said, a little more unsure. "She just… watched."
Miyako's hand subtly moved to her bag, where she kept something tucked inside—a charm, a sigil, a ward. Just in case.
As they stepped past the lantern post near the base of the shrine steps, the three friends rounded a bend—
And collided.
Rei jolted back slightly as his shoulder bumped into someone. The impact was gentle, but the reaction wasn't.
The man turned.
A sharp profile. Golden-brown eyes that narrowed the moment they landed on Rei. His gaze didn't carry anger, but something else. Like recognition.
Ezio Valenti.
His gloved hand steadied Rei instinctively, but his eyes never left the boy's face. They lingered.
Just long enough to feel strange.
Rei froze. Something electric buzzed under his skin his heartbeat suddenly loud in his ears.
Ezio's smirk returned, slight and unreadable.
"…Curious," the man murmured under his breath in an accented voice.
Then he stepped past them like fog slipping through trees.
Miyako turned around so fast she nearly twisted her ankle.
"Wait—was that…? Who was that?!"
"No idea," Rei muttered, still a little dazed.
"Oh my god," she whispered, half to herself. "Did you see his face? That coat? That voice? He's not real. He's like some… cursed Gucci model."
Toma blinked. "Pretty sure he just walked out of a Dracula reboot."
Rei watched Ezio disappear into the ascending mist of the shrine path, the candle and mirror concealed in his coat.
But something in Rei's chest wouldn't stop tightening.
"That foreigner…" Rei murmured to himself still watching in that direction "wasn't he a bit"
"Oi guys!"...Toma interrupted "she's here."
Rei and Miyako turned.
At the top of the shrine steps stood a woman.
She was beautiful almost too beautiful. Her long black hair flowed softly in the breeze, and her pale skin seemed to glow in the fading light. She wore a soft purple kimono, and a white mask covered the lower half of her face.
She didn't move. Just stood there.
Toma smiled. "See? I told you. Like a ghost princess."
But Rei's eye… it started to itch.
No it felt burning
Something was wrong.
Toma started walking up the steps, waving. "Hey! Sorry if this is weird, but I just wanted to say—"
The woman tilted her head.
Toma's ears were now red. A gentle voice came from the women's mask "am I pretty?"
Toma started to blush as he thought she was flirting.
Rei's eye itching so much he fell on his knees but quietly. He dint want his freind to fumble that girl because of him but he know somthing was off.
He looked at Miyako, pale and as scared as she saw a ghost.
He looked at his bestfreind.
The woman lifts her hands and removes her mask slowly. That's when the horror struck.
Her mouth..
It was cut wide open, stretching from ear to ear. A bloody, broken smile. Too wide. Too sharp. Her lips were torn, red and raw, and her eyes were glowing faint red, empty like a doll's.
"Am I beautiful?" she asked.
Her voice didn't sound human.
Toma stopped. His smile faded.
Rei's right eye flared with pain.
He clutched his face and stumbled back.
Miyako screamed, "That's—Kuchisake-onna!" as she held a sigil in her hand screaming at the top of her tongue. Rei's and the women's eyes met.
And in that moment, everything changed.
Rei's vision went white....Rei had a secret he hadn't told anyone not even Toma.