Mayumi

Mayumi
Biographical information
Real name	Mayumi
Status	Decased (ghost)
Species	Human (Fable)
Gender	Female
Occupation	Courtesan (formerly) Tomoko's enforcer
Homeland	The Hidden Kingdom
Appearances
First issue	Fairest #8 — "The Hidden Kingdom Chapter One: Big in Japan"
Last issue	Fairest #13 — "The Hidden Kingdom Chapter Six: The Hundred Demons Night Parade"
Original source	Slit-Mouthed Woman from Japanese urban legends and folklore

“	Do you think I'm pretty? [removes mask] How about now?	„
	~ Tomoko startling Rapunzel in Fairest #8 — "The Hidden Kingdom Chapter One: Big in Japan"

Mayumi is a human Fable who lives in a hidden Fable community in Tokyo, Japan, and debuts in Fairest #8 — "The Hidden Kingdom Chapter One: Big in Japan." She was originally a courtesan at the Emperor's court in the Hidden Kingdom, the Homelands version of Japan. After her face was disfigured by Ryogan, she committed ritualistic suicide, only to came back as a ghost. She went on to become the enforcer of the powerful Yakuza leader Tomoko.

History

Homelands

Mayumi rejects Ryogan

In the Hidden Kingdom hundreds of years ago, Mayumi was a courtesan at the Emperor's court. One day, Tomoko and her fellow yokai were banished from the Emperor's palace by the Seii taishōgun Ryogan, a move meant to pave the way for the Adversary's invasion and taking control of the throne. Ryogan then takes an interest in the young and beautiful Mayumi, and offers to make her his Empress, When she refuses him and calls him a parasite on the court, he slices open her cheeks with his sword, so that no one will call her pretty again. Rapunzel, another member of the court, attempts to care for Mayumi's injuries, but the wounds are beyond help and infected. Mayumi states that she cannot live like this.

Tomoko tasks Rapunzel with finding her foxfire, her soul (which Ryogan confiscated), which is kept in Ryogan's safe, protected by a puzzle lock. The plan had hinged on using Mayumi to get close to Ryogan and get the foxfire herself, but overcome by depression at her disfigurement, she commits seppuku, a ritualistic suicide; or someone faked it. Her ghost is said to haunt people, and those who see it are said to die horribly. Rapunzel suspects that those deaths are really poisonings by Ryogan.

Rapunzel's tending to Mayumi's wounds

As an alteration to the plan, Rapunzel invites Ryogan for tea in order to drug him and break into the safe. Tomoko spies them together, leading her to think Rapunzel has betrayed them. Unfortunately, Ryogan wakes up and finds Rapunzel, beating her into submission and then throwing her battered body into a nearby well. However, Rapunzel is able to climb back up by eating her hair and coughing it up as bezoars.

Meanwhile, the ghost of Mayumi searches out Tomoko and the other yokai, bringing her the foxfire that she stole from the traitorous general Ryogan's safe. The Celestial Palace has been destroyed by the Adversary's forces, who were secretly in league with Ryogan. Mayumi claims that it had been Tomoko's lover Rapunzel who caused most of the destruction; that she had betrayed them.

The mundy world

Tomoko eventually leads her people to a gateway to the mundane world, where they emerge in modern-day Japan in the middle of World War II. The group eventually form a hidden Fable community in Tokyo. Decades later, Rapunzel, now living in Fabletown in the mundane word, receives a mysterious message from the Katagiri, prompting her to travel to Japan with Jack Horner and Joel Crow. However, when they are about to meet up with him in crowded Tokyo, Mayumi shows up wearing a mask and holding a gun, wondering if Rapunzel remembers her. She then removes her mask to reveal a horrifying, toothy grin. She shoots Katagiri through the head, causing the water from the Kappa's head to spray everywhere.

While Rapunzel is reunited with Tomoko, a couple of sumo wrestlers secretly bring Katagiri back to life by returning the water to his head. He states that only with Rapunzel's can they get back to the Homelands: However, Tomoko will not allow that, because it would jeopardize her Yakuza empire, and this is why she sent Mayumi. However, his plans are foiled once again when he is decapitated by Mayumi — his second death since Rapunzel arrived. She returns to Tomoko with the head, but when news comes of Rapunzel's escape, Tomoko sends Mayumi to prevent her from getting to the gate to the Homelands.

Mayumi fighting off Rapunzel's bezoars

Mayumi finds Rapunzel and corners her, accusing her of being a traitor. Given how she suffered to save people like Mayumi, this enrages Rapunzel, and her rage brings the bezoars under her control again, after she previously lost control of them after escaping the well. Angrily, Rapunzel sets her bezoars on Mayumi, who escapes into a mirror that Tomoko left for her to watch over the gateway between the mundy world and the Homelands. Meanwhile, Neko steals back Katagiri's head and the Kappa revives once more when his head is returned to his body.

Mayumi emerges from the mirror to inform Tomoko that Rapunzel is coming with her bezoars, which fills Tomoko with dread; fearing that the bezoars might cause destruction to Tokyo. When an all-out war ensues between Tomoko's group and Katagiri's group, Mayumi stands by Tomoko's side. In the middle of the battle, Rapunzel steps out and reveals to her former that it was Ryogan, not her, who betrayed Tomoko in the Hidden Kingdom. He had killed the residents of the castle and opened the gate for the Adversary's army. She had been dumped down a well and buried under the corpses of those slaughtered, and the experience drove her mad, and spawned the bezoars that now surround her — but she has them under control now. They could all still go back.

Hearing this, Tomoko's army attempts to give up, but Tomoko uses her foxfire to force them to fight. Rapunzel readies her bezoars for attack, but Tomoko reveals she knows her secret. From the top of a tall building, Mayumi pours a vat of bleach down on Rapunzel, blinding her and neutralizing her bezoars. Bigby Wolf attempts to take Tomoko down, but Mayumi saves her by pulling her through the mirror. After the brief war comes to a sudden end, Mayumi and all the Japanese Fables go back to the Hidden Kingdom, intending to close the gate behind them forever. Rapunzel returns with Tomoko's foxfire, which was lost during the battle, and is dragged through a mirror by Mayumi to Tomoko's side. The latter politely asks Mayumi to leave the room, as she wishes to talk to Rapunzel alone.

Physical appearance

“	The crazy hot girl with all the teeth?	„
	~ Joel Crow to Rapunzel, Fairest #10 — "The Hidden Kingdom Chapter Three: Lost in Translation"

Prior to her disfigurement, Mayumi was a beautiful Japanese woman with long blue hair that she wore in two buns on the top of her head. Ryogan marred her appearance, drawing a deep slash from the edges of her lips to close to her ears, disfiguring her once lovely face. When she returned as a ghost, her face had morphed into something grotesque with a wide, toothy grin and numerous sharp fangs lining her huge lipless mouth. The skin around her mouth was missing entirely, revealing the raw flesh underneath. In modern-day Japan, she hides her disfigurement by wearing a face mask.

Appearances

• Fairest #8 (first appearance)
• Fairest #9
• Fairest #10
• Fairest #11 (flashback)
• Fairest #12
• Fairest #13

Original source

Mayumi is based on the Kuchisake-onna (口裂け女, "Slit-Mouthed Woman"), a malevolent yōkai from Japanese urban legends and folklore. The name Mayumi was invented for the comic; in the stories, the figure is unnamed.