The slow whirl of the fan at a hospital ward was the first thing Rei saw after waking up. He felt a drip connected to his arm.
He sat up right infront of him he could see himself in the narrow window on the wall near him. One eye ocean blue and another bloodshot .
He felt a bit of itch and then his red pupils fadded to blue again.
"You're up?" A familiar voice whisper as he saw Miyako was seated near him. Her face had a look of relief and guilt...her clothes stained with dirt.
"What happened to Toma?" He scanned the room with effort, muscles still heavy.
In the next bed, partially curtained off, Toma lay asleep, light bandages wrapped around his chest. His face was pale, but calm..
breathing slow and steady. He was asleep.
Before Rei could ask anything more, his gaze drifted toward the open door.
Ezio Valenti stood just outside the room, his posture casual as he spoke with two adults ... Toma's parents, worried expressions. Ezio's hands moved animatedly as he explained something, his tone calm but commanding. The father kept nodding; the mother wiped at her eyes.
Rei turned back to Miyako.
"How do you know that guy? You said his name back then like you knew him."
She hesitated.
Then let out a long breath.
"Because I do."
Rei raised an eyebrow, surprised.
Miyako looked down at her lap, then back at him.
"Rei… there's something else you need to understand," she said softly. "About urban legends."
"They're real. All of them. The stories you hear.. Kuchisake-onna, the charlie game the Slit-Faced Man, the Elevator Ritual...they're not just stories. They're... urban legends."
"Urban legends?" He looked at her as he saw Ezio finishing up his talk with Toma's parents.
"They're born from people. From death."
Her voice dropped, quiet but firm.
"When someone dies with overwhelming regret, pain, or obsession, and that feeling is fed by fear in the living... it can twist. It becomes something else."
She looked at Toma's sleeping.
"The more people fear the story, the stronger it becomes. That's how Kuchisake-onna came back. Too many people made stories about her. Remembered her. Feared her."
Rei felt a chill crawl down his spine. He knew what he saw through his eyes was real
"Maybe. But not anymore. She's something else now ... shaped by fear, surviving by it. That's why she kills. It's not just malice. It's hunger."
There was a long silence.
Then she added quietly:
"And you… you were able to see her death, weren't you?"
Rei looked down at his hands. The memory of the screaming, the flickering red vision from his right eye...it all came flooding back.
"You're not the only one with secrets Miako..." Rei sighed as he told her all about his eye.
"Thats weird Rei..." before she could continue A man entred the ward pushing the curtains back.
" The cursed eye of trauma...how interesting." Ezio said as he came closer to Rei staring him in the eye with a smirk.
"You know, most kids your age worry about grades or crushes. You, my friend, looked an urban legend in the eye and witnessed her demise... and lived to tell the tale."
He leaned casually against the wall, arms crossed.
"Not bad. But if you're still breathing, that means your story's just getting started."
"What do you know about my eye?" Rei now demanding answers from Ezio and Miyako as she finally started revealing...
"My family... we've been paranormal investigators for generations. We're a small branch in Osaka. I was supposed to stay out of it...just research, nothing active." She looked away for a second.
Rei was in disbelief but since his childhood memories and everything he witnessed now made sense he found all of it easy to believe.
"Kid your eye...perhaps have you encountered a grinner ?" Ezio staring at him while drinking something from a plastic bottle which looked like ors.
"He wouldn't know what that is ezio..." miyako gave him a side-eye.
"Ah yes...its an urban legend...whitish and a creepy smile."
Although Ezio described him breifly but there was no way Rei wouldn't recognize it...
" yeah thats how it all started!" He said.
May i know your name? Ezio througing away his bottle and picking up an apple near Rei's bench which was supposed to be for the patient.
"Im Rei...Rei Ashbourne. " he said.
"Well thats not a local Japanese surname" Ezio thought. " Ashbourne...as Alaris and Aiko Ashbourne? Ezio asked in confusion.
Rei was shocked, his eyes wide open staring at him. There's no way he should've known about his late mother and my mysterious father who went missing in England 6 years ago.
"Yeah... those were my parents," Rei said cautiously.
Ezio's gaze shifted to the moonlight spilling through the hospital window. A slow, amused smile tugged at his lips.
"Let me get this straight" he said, voice rich with irony. "I seal Kuchisake-onna, stumble into a kid with a cursed eye, and he just so happens to be the son of Alaris Ashbourne...who was a Special grade paranormal investigator no less?"
He gave a soft laugh, shaking his head.
"Even for me... that's one hell of a tiring day."
As he took out something from his overcoat.
"Here's the adress of the hotel im staying at." As he handed it over to the boy who's eyes were now clearly desiring amswers. Ezio noticed it.
"Come on! Dont look at me like that..you need to rest up right now." spoke the man as he started to leave the ward and gave Rei one final look.
Ezio gave Rei one last glance, "Tomorrow. 5 PM. Room 708. Don't be late, kid," he said, voice low but firm. With that, he turned and walked out, the curtains fell behind him.
For a moment, the room was quiet, the hum of machines the only sound.
Miyako stepped forward, fiddling with the sleeve of her school uniform. "I'm… sorry," she said, her voice barely above a whisper " you should've known all this sooner".
Rei looked over at her, then at Toma, who lay unconscious but peaceful. He gave a tired smile, eyes soft. "Hey, don't beat yourself up. Toma's stubborn. He probably would've followed that thing even if you warned him."
He glanced at Toma again, a spark of mischief returning. "Though honestly… if he wakes up and hears you were worried, he might finally grow a spine and ask you out."
Miyako blinked. "H-Huh?"
Rei chuckled, the sound dry but warm. "What? I'm injured, not blind."
He leaned back, letting silence settle again. His gaze drifted to the ceiling, thoughts swirling—of curses, blood, fear… and tomorrow. Room 708.
He exhaled slowly.
What the hell had his life just become?
The next day, right at 5:00 PM, Rei and Miyako stood outside room 708. Rei rolled his shoulders, trying to shake off the mild tension settling in. Miyako glanced at her phone, then at the door, her expression steady but alert.
"This is the place," Rei said, giving the door a once-over.
Miyako nodded. "Ezio wouldn't call us without a reason."
Rei lifted his hand and knocked twice.
A moment passed. Then, from inside, a woman's voice..cool, poised, and tinged with a distinct Russian accent...called out:
"Come in."
Rei blinked. "Okay... direct."
He glanced at Miyako, who gave a slight shrug. Without another word, Rei pushed open the door and stepped inside, Miyako following just behind.
As Rei and Miyako stepped inside, they were met by a sight that made them both instinctively pause.
A woman sat on the couch with her one leg on another. Next to her was wooden table with an old bottle of whiskey. She was sipping the drink from her glass with her one hand resting on the arm rest of the couch.
She wore wore a comfortable pink bathrobe she carried herself with an effortless grace.
Her long, golden hair cascaded down her back, catching the warm light like spun gold. Her skin seemed to glow, smooth and pale, and her piercing blue eyes locked onto theirs with quiet curiosity.
"Oh… I'm sorry," she said softly, a faint Russian accent curling through her words. "Where's Ezio?"