Reiko Kashima (カシマレイコ Kashima Reiko?), also known as the Slit-Mouthed Woman (口裂け女 Kuchisake-onna?), is a yokai that formerly resided in a ruined area in Kamigoe City. After being bested by Momo, Reiko Kashima harbored a grudge against the girl and vowed to get revenge on her the next time they met. However, after observing her relationship with Okarun, Reiko Kashima let go of her resentment and changed her mind in finding a suitable partner.
In Dandadan, she serves as one of the main antagonists during the Space Globalists Arc.
Appearance[]
Yokai[]
Reiko Kashima is a tall female yokai, easily towering over average size humans, with muscular arms and legs. Her most distinguishing feature, which is where her epithet comes from, is her extremely wide mouth with rows of multiple sharp teeth. When absent of her makeup, Reiko Kashima's appearance drastically changes. Her head is nicely shaped, and her facial features are revealed to be less prominent to where she looks more human; having normal eyes with long eyelashes and, most noticeably, a normal lipstick mouth. Overall, her face outside of her makeup has been noted to be remarkably beautiful by Momo and Jiji.
She wears a heavy amount of makeup; mascara that accent her round eyes and lipstick for her mouth. Her nails are also colored dark. She has very long, jet black hair, which is kept tied with a bow, and wears a crown on her head. She wears a collared dress with a bow tie and dress shoes.
While seeking revenge on Momo, Reiko Kashima's head of hair becomes unruly while retaining her long ponytail. Her eyes also become concentric circles. Her dress changes to one that has puffy sleeves with four lines running down to the waist and a different bow tie that is much larger and has a gem at the center. Her shoes also change to become black dress shoes.
After choosing to wear less makeup, Reiko Kashima's dress becomes slightly altered from when she spent her time searching for Momo, with the only change being the loss of her puffy sleeves. She also loses her crown.
Gallery[]
Human[]
During her lifetime, Reiko Kashima was a young girl with long black hair that was tied with a bow at the end (similar to how her current hairstyle is as a yokai) and wore a dress and a hat. During her final moments, her hair was short and messy, she wore tattered clothes, and was crippled with bandages covering the stump of her legs.
Personality[]
Reiko Kashima trapping Bamora in her mirror for the sole purpose of making her look good in comparison.
Reiko Kashima is a yokai who is vain and narcissistic, as she has an obsession with looking at her own reflection through her mirror and only favors things that are horrid since they only make her look good in comparison, which prompts her to trap them inside her mirror. The only grounds for her being willing to release her victims is if they block her reflection after taking up room and finds it even more dissatisfying when they "defile" her mirror by somehow acting cute. If someone were to offend her by calling her "ugly", and/or steal her mirror, Reiko Kashima loses her composure and breaks out into a highly agitated state at the offender. While she believes that she looks beautiful when she applies on her makeup, she seems to be rather oblivious of the fact that she is naturally beautiful when her true face is exposed.
She is also shown to have a modest side, as she tried keeping her panties from being shown after her attack on Bamora accidently blew her dress up.
Reiko Kashima despises the expulsion spell word "pomade" and immediately attacks anyone who would dare shout it in her presence. She is also extremely bitter and sadistic towards her enemies. After Momo temporarily expelled her from the living world with the word "pomade", Reiko Kashima relentlessly pursued her until she could exact her revenge, having plans to torture her forever within the confines of her mirror as her "plaything".
Stemming from her cause of death, Reiko Kashima hates the sight of aerial bombardment. After the main force of the Kur began their attack inside the Empty Space by dropping bombs, Reiko Kashima responded furiously by using her mirror ability to destroy their main ship and trapping every last one of the Kur inside her mirror where she proceeded to annihilate them in a fit of rage.
After observing Momo's growing relationship with Okarun, that she found frustrating due to the girl not being honest with herself, Reiko Kashima chose to commit herself to finding love as well.
Background[]
Not much is known about Reiko Kashima's past life when she was alive except that she had a loved one and that she died as a victim in an airplane bombing attack.
Synopsis[]
Space Globalists Arc[]
Reiko Kashima being sent out of the living world by Momo.
Reiko Kashima is met by Momo and Bamora as they attempt to get to school through the ruined area and asks them if she looks pretty. She then attacks Momo in annoyance after hearing her shout out the word "pomade", as she attempted to have the yokai disappear. In response, Bamora uses her exosuit to attack Reiko Kashima with a volley of punches. This becomes ineffective as Reiko Kashima stands unfazed, all the while finding that her exosuit makes her look pretty in comparison, and performs a suplex against her. Hearing Momo attempting to say "pomade" ten times again, Reiko Kashima uses her mirror ability to stop her by hitting her with her fist that emerges from a piece of glass and proceeds to keep her from running away using the other shards on the ground. After being grabbed by Bamora, Reiko Kashima decides to trap her inside her mirror, as she wanted to continue having her look good, and warns Momo not to complete the "pomade" spell since it will end up having Bamora disappear along with her. Momo tells Reiko Kashima that she is not concerned with Bamora's well-being and calls her out as ugly as she prepares to fight her in refusal to lose to her. Reiko Kashima then reacts with rage upon hearing her rude comment and becomes even more furious with Momo after she managed to steal her mirror. Reiko Kashima chases after her as she tries to release Bamora and has her trapped inside as well. However, she soon releases both of them due to the two blocking her reflection and started acting cute. As a consequent to falling for their trickery, Reiko Kashima loses sight of them and disappears after Momo completes the "pomade" spell while using Bamora's exosuit to become invisible.
Reiko Kashima trying to lure Momo out of bed.
After returning back to the living world, Reiko Kashima seeks vengeance against Momo for her actions earlier. At the Ayase house, Reiko Kashima alters her voice to sound like Okarun to lair Momo out of her room but fails after the latter catches on to her act, having mistakenly addressed Jiji the wrong way. Though her trickery was ineffective, Reiko Kashima continued speaking in Okarun's voice for the remainder of the night.
The next day, Reiko Kashima tracks Momo down to a manga cafe and possesses a worker at the front desk to find her. Momo becomes cautious of the worker trying to enter her private room and hides behind the Serpo accompanying her. Reiko Kashima tries to unmask Momo as she talks to the Serpo but has her possession of the worker undone after Momo uses her bandages to cover his mirror.
Reiko Kashima eradicates the Kur's main force.
Reiko Kashima finally reunites with Momo at the same moment the main force of the Kur entered the Empty Space and commenced their attack. After she expresses her plans to imprison and torture her inside her mirror, Reiko Kashima sees Momo on her knees in despair between her situation with the yokai in front of her and the alien invasion and wishes to see Seiko again. This scene, along with the bombs being dropped by the Kur, triggers a tragic memory Reiko Kashima had when she was alive, which causes her to furiously destroy the Kur's main ship with her mirror ability for reenacting the same event. She then proceeds to trap every alien inside her mirror to annihilate them all. After being done with this, Reiko Kashima watches as both Okarun and Momo try to protect each other from the former, resulting in her flashbacking to a time in her past life where she was happy with a loved one. This prompts Reiko Kashima to spare Momo and leave the area without a word.
Reiko Kashima demanding to Momo to be honest with her feelings towards Okarun.
Later, Reiko Kashima is met by Momo and her friends as they head off to the market, with the latter being shocked to see the yokai with a different face due to her being without her makeup. Momo becomes confused with her appearance, as she thought that she had attained Nirvana from her mysterious disappearance earlier, and is clarified by Reiko Kashima that this was not possibly since she believes that there is no one who can extinguish her hatred. She also adds that she hates Momo's existence, having secretly observed her interactions with Okarun, during her time seeking vengeance against her, and became annoyed with her inability to be honest with her feelings towards him. On the other hand, she becomes inspired to find love herself and threatens Momo, threatening to take Okarun away from her if she continues to hide her feelings. Reiko Kashima then leaves off to start her search for a man.
Abilities and Powers[]
Yokai Abilities[]
| Mirror Power | ||
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Reiko Kashima has the power to control the mirror she carries around with her, allowing her to perform various abilities. | ||
| Remote Attacking | ||
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| Strengths and Weaknesses | ||
  Reiko Kashima destroying the Kur's main battleship. The main strength of Reiko Kashima's remote attacking ability with her mirror is that it allows to fight at a distance and to launch surprise attacks at her opponents by sending her hand through it and remotely striking them from anywhere glass is around. She can also prevent them from escaping from her by grabbing their legs from a piece of glass on the ground. As long as her hand remains inside her mirror, Reiko Kashima can manifest multiple hands from many glasses to overwhelm her opponent. The range of her connection to glass is shown to extend at least a city-wide radius, as Reiko Kashima was capable of manifesting a giant fist to destroy the Kur's main battleship from the multiple shards of glass scattered from the Empty Space Tokyo. Since Reiko Kashima needs her mirror to perform her abilities, her enemy can steal it from her, if presented with the right opportunity, to prevent her from doing so. | ||
| Usage | ||
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Reiko Kashima uses her remote attacking ability against anyone who provokes her, such as saying the word "pomade" in an attempt to have her vanish from the living world. | ||
| Imprisonment | ||
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| Strengths and Weaknesses | ||
  Reiko Kashima trapping an entire army inside her mirror. The main strength of Reiko Kashima's mirror imprisonment ability is that there is no possible way for anyone on the outside to free a trapped victim from the confines of her mirror, as only Reiko Kashima has the authority to release her targets. Trying will also put the person at risk of being trapped as well if their reflection is shown and Reiko Kashima is nearby to activate her ability. Once inside, Reiko Kashima can do whatever she pleases to her prisoners. This ability is also capable of trapping an entire army. To perform this, Reiko Kashima only needs to have her mirror reflect a partial view of the army, as anything or anyone affiliated with the large group will be instantly sent to the alternate dimension. This gives indication that the alternate dimension is infinite and there is no limit as to how many things Reiko Kashima can store inside her mirror. Those trapped within the mirror are also proportionally small compared to Reiko Kashima if she chooses to send a body part to the dimension. Since Reiko Kashima needs her mirror to perform her abilities, her enemy can steal it from her, if presented with the right opportunity, to prevent her from doing so. Although it is impossible for her captives to escape from her mirror, they can be cunning enough to exploit her narcissistic personality to force her into releasing them by blocking her reflection and acting cute. | ||
| Usage | ||
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Using her mirror imprisonment ability, Reiko Kashima traps those who have a horrid appearance to better appreciate how beautiful she views herself compared to them. After trapping those who have annoyed her, she either becomes playful by drawing on their face with her lipstick, torturous where she sees her prisoner as her "plaything", or simply outright kills them by sending her fist inside that is gigantic compared to her enemy. | ||
| Possession | ||
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| Strengths and Weaknesses | ||
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With her ability to possess people through their own reflection, Reiko Kashima can get close to her intended target as a form of deception. After possessing someone of her choosing, Reiko Kashima is required to have the mirror that allowed her to take possession of said target on their person at all times to maintain the connection and not have it covered up by something since it will cancel out the possession. Her possession to get close to her targets in secret may prove to be ineffective if her enemy is wary of her attempting to make contact. | ||
| Heart Reading | ||
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Reiko Kashima's mirror connection also allows her to see into her target's hearts to read their emotions. | ||
| Usage | ||
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By combining her mirror power to read people's heart and her yokai ability to perfectly mimic a person's voice, Reiko Kashima can deceive her enemies into thinking that they are talking to an ally. After peeking into Momo's heart, Reiko Kashima discovered that she had feelings for Okarun and exploited this in an attempt to have her come out of her bedroom by perfectly mimicking his voice, which had almost worked in her favor if not for her incorrectly addressing Jiji's name the wrong way. | ||
| Surveillance | ||
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| Vocal Replication | ||
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As a yokai, Reiko Kashima is able to perfectly mimic a person's voice to deceive her enemies. This becomes even more effective when combined with her mirror ability to sense people's emotions, as she can voice a person who her enemy has feelings for. However, this can only work if she is communicating to her enemy away from their line of sight. Also, in order for her act to be flawless, she must speak in the same way as the person she is imitating. | ||
Trivia[]
- Reiko Kashima seems to combine features of multiple yokai and urban legends, perhaps alluding to her phenomenal power. These legends include -:
- The Kuchisake-onna is a relatively modern yokai that features a beautiful woman with a scarred face split ear-to-ear that prompts her victim to remark on her beauty. If not answered correctly, she either kills them, or scars them to resemble herself.
- Reiko Kashima, is the subject of a particular version of the Teke Teke legend, which features the vengeful spirit of a young woman who lost her legs.
- Hachishakusama is a famous internet urban legend of an eight feet tall woman in a white dress that once adressed stalks her victims (usually young boys and men) relentlessly. Some versions of the story feature the main character having to survive the night with closed doors and covered windows, despite Hachishakusama mimicking the voices of family members of the victim to trick them into letting her in.
- Bloody Mary, the famous western urban legend, may be the origin of Reiko's mirror based abilities, featuring a malevolent spirit that appears in the mirror when her name is repeated.
