Hienma (飛縁魔)

She is recorded in the Edo collection of strange tales known as the Ehon Hyaku Monogatari. Born first as a word of Buddhist warning, she eventually took on form. In appearance she is the very image of a compassionate bodhisattva, yet her true nature is that of a yaksha — and it is precisely this contradiction that makes her most terrible.

The meanings layered within her name are manifold. "Judge of the fire-and-brimstone hell." "A demonic bond that soars through the sky." "A flying, leaping flame of evil." Every interpretation converges on a single point: those who draw near will be consumed. Moxi, who brought low the tyrant Jie of Xia; Daji, who led the king Zhou of Shang into ruin; Baosi, who helped destroy the Zhou dynasty — the women who reduced ancient kingdoms to ash are whispered as her forerunners.

It is said that the old belief — that a woman born in the year of Hinoe-Uma will drive her husband to an early death — gave shape to this creature's outline. Some find it impossible to call mere coincidence that Yaoya Oshichi was born in such a year, and that her name is bound to the great fire that consumed Edo's night.

In records from the Showa era onward, an aspect resembling the vampire was added to her nature — she quietly draws out blood and vital essence, hollowing a man from the inside. Yet the original terror was something far more gradual. By the time one notices, the body, the home, the life — all of it is already gone.

Her rumor persists even now. Should you encounter a woman of surpassing beauty and uncommon kindness, and sense behind her the wavering of flames — that feeling, in all likelihood, means the bond has already been tied.