Hanako-san (Japan)

Hanako-san is a Japanese urban legend about the ghost of a young elementary school girl who died in a school toilet and now haunts the place as a vengeful spirit.

There are different versions of how Hanako-san died. In one, she was a young girl from the World War II era who was playing hide-and-seek in a school toilet when an air raid struck. In another version, she was murdered by her own parents or a stranger in the toilet. Yet another story suggests she took her own life after enduring bullying from her classmates. Regardless of how she died, she became an earthbound spirit that haunts school restrooms.

According to the tale, Hanako-san can be summoned by following a specific ritual. To initiate it, one must knock three times on the third stall of the restroom on the third floor of a school while repeating the phrase, “Hanako-san, are you there?” three times. If the ritual is successful, an eerie voice of a little girl will answer from inside the stall “Yes, I’m here…” Following this, the door will slowly creak open, revealing a young elementary girl with a bob haircut, wearing a red dress or a red skirt.

What happens next varies. Hanako-san may pull the person into the stall, dragging them all the way to hell, or she may murder them right on the spot. Alternatively, a three-headed lizard appears and devours the summoner for daring to disturb Hanako-san. Sometimes, Hanako-san herself turned into a three-headed lizard. In a less terrifying version, the lonely ghost just comes out to play with the summoner.