Interview Records: Regarding the urban legend known as "Mihagi-sama" in ██ City, ███ District, ██ Prefecture

Subjects: Residents of ██ City Date: August █, 20██

Interview Subject 1: High school student (Female/17 years old) "Mihagi-sama? Oh, it's been a while since I heard that name. I was terrified as a kid, of course. They used to tell us that if we were bad, Mihagi-sama would come for us. It's not scary at all now that I think about it (laughs for a few seconds)... I mean, it's just a made-up story, an urban legend, right? My classmates don't believe it, and neither do the little kids these days."

Interview Subject 2: Office worker at ■■ Co., Ltd. (Male/45 years old) "That legend has been around since I was a kid. And you know, my generation was right in the middle of the horror boom, so people made an even bigger fuss about it. They said if you saw him you'd be taken to another world, or that he only appeared at 2:00 AM, or that he was a man with long black hair... There were all sorts of theories about his true identity, like he was an evil god or a god who cured diseases... I wonder what he really was in the end."

Interview Subject 3: Apartment manager (Male/70 years old) "We were always told that too. If you did something bad, Mihagi-sama would come and take your ██ or your ██. They said his red eyes could see through any lie. It sounds pretty gruesome, but well, I guess we needed to be told that much to keep us in line. (A few seconds of silence) Oh, I remember now. There's a shrine deep in those mountains, and there were rumors he lived there. That's why the adults kept the kids away, and the kids never went. ...Actually, it was just dangerous because it was so deep in the woods."

Interview Subject 4: University professor specializing in folklore (Female/50 years old) "Regarding Mihagi-sama? To put it simply, it is a type of urban legend... but I don't believe it is entirely fabricated. There are mentions that seem relevant in the ██ City history and local records... (The subject opens a book and points to a specific page) Look at this. It's recorded here with different characters, not 'Mihagi.' The reading is slightly different too. It could be a matter of old dialect or orthography, so I can't definitively say they are the same, but..."

"The described characteristics and the content of the urban legend match strangely well. The shrine in the mountains, the red eyes, even the stories about him taking people away. ...However, whether it is mere folklore or something that actually existed, there isn't enough material yet to make a judgment."

【Note: As of ██/█/20██, all four interview subjects have disappeared without a trace. It is recommended that the investigation of ██ be terminated.】