Tek Tek

Tek Tek is an urban legend from Japan about a student who is leaving his school when he looks back and sees a beautiful girl through a window. He wonders why she’s here, because it’s an all-boys school. When she sees him, she smiles and hugs herself so that she’s holding her elbows.

Suddenly, she leaps out of the window and the boy realizes that she is missing the lower half of her body. She comes towards him, running on her elbows making a tek-tek-tek-tek-tek or teke-teke sound.

Some say he tried to run, while other say he was frozen to the spot. When she caught up to the boy she took out a scythe and cut him in half making him into one of her own.

It’s also known as “bata-bata” (again, the sound of it running on its elbows) or “The Girl That Runs On Her Elbows.”

When kids tell this story, they warn each other about Tek-tek. They say she carries a sharp saw or a scythe, and if she catches you, she’ll cut you in half and you’ll become just like her. She is said to chase children who play at dusk.

It is also similar to the story of Kuchisake-Onna (the Slit-Mouth Woman) and the story of Kashima Reiko.