Kiyomi Sake

Kiyomi Sake is the eternally sixteen year old daughter of the Kuchisake-onna, the slit mouthed woman of Japanese mythology.

Personality
Kiyomi, despite her heritage, is actually a gentle, compassionate and refined soul. She tries to help anyone in need, as she is a kind person at heart, but  sometimes her extreme shyness gets in the way. Kiyomi is social awkward, not wanting to show her face in public. She's fairly smart and tends to get straight A's in school. She is often painfully polite and has a habit of adding honorifics (e.g. '-san' '-sama') to the ends of people's names to show respect. She tends to be reserved and is hard to get to know. She is very introverted, preferring to spend time alone, drawing or doing other crafts, than going out to parties. Although sometimes, Kiyomi will abandon the friendly act and occasionally have violent fits. She despises this quirk of hers and tries not to be near anything that will cause her to become chaotic.

Above all, Kiyomi is rather obsessed with her appearance. Her monsterous deformities are the root of her problems and she thinks that because of them no one will like her. She is a slave to fashion magazines and buys as many brands of skin cream, hair gel and perfume as she can carry. She thinks that if she just follows the latest styles to the letter, she'll be beautiful. A little bit obsessive compulsive, Kiyomi, who rarely talks to people, will often go up and ask strangers whether they think she is good looking.

Apart from the above, Kiyomi tries to steer away from all else that links her to her mother's legend. Being a bit of a scaredy cat, she despises gore in all its forms. Her least favourite subject is Mad Science, because dissection often arouses memories of the people that her mother mutilated. It also brings out the chaotic part of her personality, mentioned above.

Appearance
Kiyomi, with her mask on, could easily pass for a Japanese normie. She has large, light blue eyes and a pale golden complexion. Her hair is straight, black and always slightly disheveled looking. It is about elbow length. She is fairly tall and rather thin, making her a bit of a shrinking sunflower, as opposed to a shrinking violet.

If Kiyomi were to take off her surgical mask, you'd see what made her monsterous. Her mouth, like her mother's, has been split into a Glasglow smile, a gash that stretches from ear to ear.

She usually wears the current 'latest trend', or the patchwork dress that she made herself, with her very own scissors.

Origin of Species
The kuchisake-onna, literally 'the split mouthed woman' in Japanese, is an Asian urban legend, popularized in Elementary and High Schools.

The kuchisake-onna is usually described as the ghost of a woman who's abusive husband brutally murdered her, cutting her mouth in a most painfully fashion. The woman will come back from the dead as a malicious spirit to get revenge of the living.

The story goes that if a young girl is walking home alone, she comes across a woman wearing a surgical mask. This is not an uncommon sight in Japan, as many people wear masks to protect them from germs.

The woman walks up to the girl asks her whether the child thinks she is beautiful. If the child answers no, the woman will pull out a pair of scissors and stab her to death. If the girl says yes, the woman will remove mask to reveal a horrific cut across her mouth.

The woman will then ask, "Am I still pretty?" after the mask is removed. If the child says no, the same fate from before befalls them. If they say yes, the woman with mutilate the girl's mouth, so that it looks just like hers.

The girl cannot run from the kuchisake-onna, as she has the power to teleport and will reappear right in front of her once again.

The only way to escape the monster is to tell her that she is average, neither pretty nor ugly. This will confuse the monster, letting the girl walk away to live another day. Some versions of the legend say that she can be distracted by fruits or candies being thrown at her.

Family
Kiyomi lives with her mother. The two recently moved from Japan. She and her mother have a somewhat rocky relationship, as she believes that Kiyomi is 'far too soft' for a monster. It is currently unknown as to who or what Kiyomi's father is, only that he is constantly away on business trips and rarely comes home. He is her mother's second husband, as her first was the reason for her death.

Friends
Kiyomi is a bit of a loner, since she doesn't have many friends. She is usually too shy to strike up a proper conversation (meaning one not related to whether or not she is beautiful.) Currently, she is trying to develop proper social skills and how to make friends.

Pet
Kiyomi owns a pet nine-tailed fox named Aka. Nine-tailed foxes are immortal, just like Kiyomi, so they are a match made in heaven. Nine-tailed foxes gain their tails as they mature. Aka only has three tails so far. Aka is the closest thing to a friend that Kiyomi has.

Romance
As Kiyomi can barely talk to other girls, she hasn't even had time to think about boys.

Trivia

 * Kiyomi, in Japanese, means 'Pure Beauty', relating to Kiyomi's obsession with being pretty.


 * Kiyomi is Missy's first original character