Fables

Kuchisake-onna, the slit-mouthed woman from Japanese urban legends, appears in the Fairest story arc The Hidden Kingdom. Her real name is Mayumi. Before the Adversary's invasion, she was a member of the Heika's court in the Fable Homeland of the Hidden Kingdom. Unbeknown to her, the Seii Taishogun was secretly laying the way for the invasion and planned to become the new ruler of the Hidden Kingdom. He offered to make her Mayumi his Empress, but she rejected him and called him "a parasite on the court". He responded by slitting Mayumi's cheeks in anger. Unable to live with her face mutilated like that, she committed seppuku (a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment) - "or someone faked it". Her ghost began lurking in the washrooms and corridors of the Heika's palace, haunting mirrors. Eventually, she managed to take on a physical form and escaped the Homelands with a group of yokai who had been banished from the court. The group started a new life in a hidden Fable community in Tokyo. Centuries later, she has become the enforcer of Tomoko, a powerful female kitsune who is a Yakuza leader. Mayumi wears a surgical mask to hide the disfigurement. She enjoys scaring people by asking them, "Am I beautiful?", before removing the mask and asking "How about now?". Eventually, with the help of Rapunzel, the fugitives manage to find their way back to their homeland via a magical portal.