It's peaceful at Spirits and Such. Too peaceful. Mob doesn't mind, but Reigen gets proactive: they head for a town where urban legends are on the rise in hopes of drumming up some exorcism work.
Banshoumaru Shinra accosts them on the sidewalk where they've set up and bids them leave; his psychic business is just down the street, and he doesn't want any interference. Reigen declines and the two squabble until a harried-looking woman approaches them for help. She's always been prone to being haunted by spirits, but all the new legends have been stealing her sleep. The woman tasks them with eliminating all the stories troubling her city.
This is ridiculous. Shinra agrees and refuses on principle, but Reigen takes her on and even manages to rope the psychic into assisting anyway, pro bono.
Mentor and student head to an internet cafe to learn more. When Mob asks why, Reigen notes that questioning people in person might get them in trouble. Cut to Shinra doing... exactly that: grilling a pair of girls for information and scaring them off. The Red Raincoat, a flasher and one of the 'urban legends' on Reigen's list, pelts right past after them. Shinra tackles him; but the Red Raincoat shakes him off. He lures the psychic to a nearby swamp for some electro-shock therapy.
Meanwhile, Mob and Reigen isolate another legend on their list: the Human-Faced Dog. It turns out to be... a perfectly normal dog some neighborhood brats have abused with a Sharpie. Reigen gets in some puppy love and cleans him up.
Shinra is being towed into the swamp by the Dragger, yet another urban legend. He'd awakened just in time to save the life of the flasher who cattle-prodded him to sleep, but the Red Raincoat's head is already underwater. Dimple possesses the psychic before he drowns and manages to evade her man-length claws long enough to signal Reigen for help. Quick he is, but the Dragger is faster. The only thing sparing the psychic from a nasty skewering is a blast of energy, courtesy of Mob. Neither Shinra's limited psychic abilities nor Reigen's charisma can put down the stringy-haired yōkai, but Mob succeeds, to everyone's surprise. The police apprehend the Red Raincoat and our heroes bid Shinra farewell.
One last legend to cross off the list before they head for home: the Dash Granny. Mob can't exorcise her despite his best efforts. Like the Red Raincoat, she's actually human—just a harmless old lady who likes to run at night like she's being chased by zombies. The experience brings him to tears.
The next day, Reigen happily shows off the website he designed for Spirits and Such to Dimple and Mob. The phony psychic is now publicly claiming credit for Mob's handiwork...
Tropes appearing in this episode include:
- Acrofatic: Deconstructed. Dimple is able to coax a fair amount of agility out of Shinra's body, but the man lacks stamina and his Achilles tendon snaps at one point during Dimple's possession of him.
- Becoming the Mask: Dimple worries about losing Mob's trust, and thereby any potential of taking over his body, if he lets Shinra succumb to the Dragger.
- Hammerspace: Where would the flasher—naked under his red raincoat—stash a cattle-prod?
- No Social Skills: Shinra. It never occurs to him that anyone would find a large overexcited man questioning children suspicious.
- Politeness Judo: Far less polite than most examples, but Reigen manages to judo Shinra into helping him out for free by offering him a cut of his take from this job. It's far, far less than Shinra would charge, so he agrees to help as a 'charity case'.
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: Mob is stated to be completely out of the loop when it comes to pop culture, as well as other trends like urban legends. This becomes a major advantage when he's facing the Kuchisake-Onna (in the manga)/Dragger, who gets her power from people's knowledge and fear of her. Because he isn't up to date on such things and doesn't know anything about her, he has no reason to be afraid of her and can exorcise her easily.
- Stealing the Credit: Reigen, claiming to have exorcised the Dragger himself on his garish nineties-throwback website. Mob's face is unreadable at this, but Dimple's distaste is palpable.
- Youkai: The Dragger herself, given life and strength by collective belief and fear.
- She is loosely based on the existing legend of the Kuchisake-onna (the Glasgow-smile Woman), who appears on rainy days to ask her victims if they think she's pretty. Lying to her will get you killed later and being truthful will merit her killing you on the spot; either way she slashes your face in imitation of her mutilated mouth.
- For bonus points, her question is a pun in Japanese: watashi kirei? (Am I pretty?) sounds similar to watashi kire (Let me cut you).
