The evil Hachishakusama
Hachishakusama is the villainess of "The Japanese Slenderman", a short story released by Snarled on 29 August, 2017. The story began with the protagonist, an eight year old girl, explaining her regular visits to her grandparents, who lived in a small village in Japan.
During the current visit, the protagonist was playing alone in the garden when she heard a strange guttural sound emitting from an unknown area. Looking around, the girl noticed a straw hat at the top of the tall hedges that enclosed the garden, being worn by an entity behind the hedges, which was what was producing the sounds. The figure then moved to a gap in the hedge, revealing it to be an extremely tall woman, who leered at the protagonist before suddenly disappearing. When the protagonist told her grandparents about the encounter, her grandfather expressed great fear, running out into the hall to make a call before hurriedly leaving the house.
After he left, the grandmother revealed that the woman the girl had seen was in fact Hachishakusama, an evil demon who had already abducted several children in the area. Long ago, monks had managed to capture the villainess and confine her to a ruined building on the outskirts of the village, using religious idols to keep her locked in, only for Hachishakusama to escape through unknown means. The last time she appeared was fifteen years, with all who saw her dying within a few days. After that, the girl's grandfather returned, accompanied by a female village elder.
The girl was taken up to her room, where the windows were covered with newspaper inscribed with ancient runes. The elder then placed bowls of salt and a Buddha statue in the room, sternly informing the girl to stay in the room until seven the following morning, no matter what and not to open the door for anything. After falling asleep, the girl was awakened by the sound of Hachishakusama tapping on the window, with the demoness also appearing at the other side of the door, imitating the voice of her prospective victim's grandfather. Despite initially being fooled, the girl stopped herself before opening the door, noticing the salt in the bowls had all turned black.
Hachishakusama continued attempting to enter the room, with the girl praying to the Buddha statue until the sounds stopped. After realising she had successfully survived the night, the girl was taken to the airport by her grandparents, due to the only way to survive Hachishakusama being to never step foot in Japan again. This resulted in the girl never seeing her grandparents in person again, with her grandfather even putting it in his will that she could not attend his funeral. Now a young adult, the protagonist received a call from her now-widowed grandmother, who had been diagnosed with cancer. The grandmother reluctantly agreed to let her granddaughter visit her before she passed from the illness, only for the short to end with Hachishakusama's guttural sound being held in the phone call, indicating that she would continue hunting the protagonist when she returned to Japan.