Slit-mouthed Woman: Careful What You Answer!

The slit-mouthed woman is a very common urban legend in Japan. It tells the story of a woman who kills people if they give her the wrong answer, or the right one, it doesn't really matter. At the end of 

the day, your fate is doomed. 

This urban legend tells the story of a woman, commonly named Kuchisake Onna. She is a very beautiful woman, however she wanders the streets and roads of Japan wearing a surgical mask. In most cases, that is not fearful at all, right? Wrong! because the trick comes right after she takes it off. Under that mask, you can see her face, slit from ear to ear like a huge wide smile, in a very creepy way, kind of like the Joker. According to the legend, this woman asks you if she is pretty while still wearing the mask, but before you get the chance to answer, she takes it off and asks "Am I pretty now?". That is when the real trick comes into play, if you answer "No", she will take out a pair of scissors, others say a knife, and cut your head off with it. Don't think if you say "Yes" you are saved either, because if you do, the same scissors are going to be used to draw you the same "smile" she has, from ear to ear. The best answer you can give is to say something that will puzzle her, like "average" or "maybe", but right after you say it, run for your life, literally, because if she catches you, you are as good as dead. 

The legend ends until here. The truth however is a different story. It is said that Kuchiaske Onna was actually the wife of a Samurai. She was so beautiful that she became vain. One version of the story says that she was cheating on her husband and when he found out, he tied her up and drew slit her face open. Others say that the husband got jealous of her, that is why he did it. It does not matter which version is true, at the end of the day the husband asked her right after slitting her mouth off "Who will think you’re beautiful now?”

They say the woman killed herself after that incident, in despair after not being able to live with herself like that. The story died after 1800s and no one ever mentioned it, until 1979. The story started appearing again of a woman wearing a surgical mask hunting little school kids and asking them the question, and the end is known of course. Nonetheless, those who survived kept telling that the best answer you give her is "average", enough for you to run.

Whether the story is true or not, or why it has disappeared for over a century then appeared again is unknown, but some stories only live because people still believe in them.