Summary
Marin loves to go shopping, and she dreams of becoming a model. She's very confident and is considered a fashion expert, but she wishes her friends weren't so plain.
One day Marin arrives to school donning a new outfit. She receives many compliments and is glad she convinced her mom to buy it for her, but she wishes that she could have wore it with a better pair of shoes. She had gym class today though, and didn't want them to get dirty. Marin is appalled when she overhears some girls gushing over the pair of shoes worn by her classmate, Ochiai. She recognizes the shoes because she saw them recently and liked them. Ochiai explains that she's been wanting them for some time and her dad bought them for her, then she notices Marin and compliments her own shoes. But Marin isn't thrilled.
Having attention stolen from her makes Marin grumpy as the school day begins. She tries to convince herself its not worth it, Ochiai is just being full of herself. They will just get dirty during gym class anyway. She becomes distracted when some girls begin to discuss "that" appeared again. They notice she is confused and recalling that she lacks an older-sister, they tell her about "The Red Heeled Woman". A mysterious woman wearing white searching for her missing red shoes; if she sees someone wearing red shoes, she takes out a large pair of scissors and cuts their feet off.
Hearing this story makes everyone feel anxious, but Marin is disappointed because of the misleading name- she was hoping it was about a model. However, hearing Ochiai become frightened by the story inspires her, and when she gets a chance to find her brand new shoes in the locker, she uses a red marker to scribble all over them. As she sees it, Ochiai deserves to be sad for trying to stand out.
Upon discovering her ruined shoes, Ochiai is very distressed as she makes her way home. Her mom won't be happy to find out what happened. Just then, she hears an unfamiliar sound and turns around to see...
The following day, the class is informed that Ochiai won't be here today. She was stalked by the white-clothed woman on her way home. She got away because she was able to outrun her and get help, but she's been in shock since and needs time to recover. All eyes turn on Marin noticing her dismissive attitude and a boy calls her out on this, followed by a few other classmates who tell her off for being so mean. Just because she is fashionable she has no right to bully others. Marin is shaken by this harshness as nobody has spoken to her like this before. Her friends try to calm her down but she angrily berates everyone for believing a story like this, and out of spite she paints the shoes of the boy -Sakai- red. He yells at her after finding them but Marin refuses to acknowledge him: someone so unfashionable has no right to speak down to her. Her friends seem to be concerned.
The next day Marin arrives to find out Sakai was also chased. His legs were cut but he'll be fine, although he has been hospitalized. Marin begins to worry that the story may be true after all. Over the next few days, more and more students are either targeted by the woman or injured. Even an office lady was attacked, and she barely managed to escape.
Knowing the woman is getting closer to them is raising the anxiety levels of everyone. Even Marin feels paranoid, and on her way home she jumps at every little sound. She assures herself she'll be fine because she doesn't have red shoes, but she recalls being the cause of why Ochiai and Sakai were attacked. She refuses to take the blame however, she didn't know the rumors were true.
The following day, Marin opens the shoe locker to discover someone has colored her shoes red. Her friends are concerned and they assume the boys did it as payback. Marin scoffs and decides to wear her school shoes home, but seeing her remain uneasy, her friends offer to walk home with her. The odds would be against the women if she showed up, and they have protection against bad people. Marin is touched by their courageousness and hesitantly puts on her stained shoes.
The trio make their way for home when Marin finds an alarming sight, the woman in white with a pair of scissors. She falls back in fright and her friends burst out laughing, along with their classmates and the woman, revealed to be Sakai. Marin's friends tell her off for having such a bad attitude. They were tired of being looked down on by her; her fashion sense isn't even that great. They continue picking on her as what happened begins to sink in for Marin, but one girl notices that coming down the path is a suspicious-looking woman. She pulls out some scissors and the children freak out as she announces that she has found her red shoes. She approaches Marin and everyone runs away in fright, leaving Marine alone to fend for herself.
She forces herself up, dismayed over the prank the others pulled on her. But she realizes Ochiai wasn't there, which means she really was attacked and the red-heeled woman is real. Marin makes a run for it but the woman ends up nearby, waiting for her. She asks for Marin's shoes, she would really like them. She was saving up money for a long time, and she could finally afford them; but on her way to buy them a car ran over her legs. Marin is horrified as the woman lifts her long skirt to reveal tattered skin and the bloodied, visible bone of what remains of her legs and a lacking of feet. She throws off her shoes and continues to run away, she should be fine now. But when she turns to check and see if the woman is following her, she fails to see a car coming in her direction.
Marin's battered body lays in a pool of blood on the ground, and she begins to cry as the woman approaches her. She admires her blood-soaked feet, delighted to finally have her beautiful red shoes...
- - - -
Time passes, and a young girl notices the woman walk by and admires her shoes. She wants red shoes just like her. As the woman in white walks away from them, a blood trail is visible from beneath her gown.
Tropes:
- Asshole Victim: Marin wasn't exactly a good person.
- Cruel Twist Ending: Marin finds out that her classmates played a prank on her and she wasn't in any danger... and then the real red-heeled woman showed up. Just when Marin realizes she can ditch her shoes, she gets hit by a car and most-likely died from her injuries or going into shock from blood loss.
- Dead Person Conversation: The red-heeled woman tells Marin what happened to her. Marin was too shocked to really contribute though.
- Deadly Prank: Like with The Devils Game, a revenge prank played on the Protagonist indirectly resulted in her death.
- Gory Discretion Shot: As usual for this series, but we get some "lovely" leg shots to make up for it.
- Never My Fault: Because she didn't know the rumors of the red-heeled woman were true, Marin insists she can't be blamed for the attacks.
