A frigid draft floats over the stall wall. Goosebumps rise on your arms. Your heart skips a beat as the lights above flicker and die.
An inhuman voice speaks. "Do you want a red cloak or blue cloak?"
Chills crawl all over your body at the disimbodied voice. You have to make a choice. Which one will you choose?
And that my friends is the basis of the urban legend from Japan called Aka Manto, which translates to Red Cloak. It has many names Red Mantle, Red Cape, Red Paper Blue Paper, and more. In Romanji they are: Aka Manto Ao Manto, Aka Hanten Ao Hanten, or Aka Kami Ao Kami.
And sitting alone and vulnerable, you contemplate them. Only, either choice is dismal.
With red, you end up being beheaded and your blood runs down your body in a grotesque mock cape, your flesh is ripped from your back (and some versions have the ghost tying it around your neck), skinned alive, or slits your throat (again mocking a red cape).
With blue, your blood is entirely drained, or you are suffocated by choking. Either of which will leave you a sick shade of blue.
If you think choosing another color will get freed. Sorry. Not happening. Any other color gets you sucked into a vortex to some netherworld. . .
Well, that is if you can believe the last version of the story.
If you say yellow . . . yellow may let you live.
Yellow gets you a swirlie in your own filth.
Lastly, you might get away if you chose no color at all.
This modern day urban legend has its roots starting around 1935. There are variations of who started it. There was a rumor that a to-die-for handsome man wore a white mask to cover his face and he hung out in shoe lockers. Another is a banker wanted to cause a panic. He didn't start hanging out in girl's bathrooms until the 1980s.
In any case, this urban legend may have even older roots. The Kamishibai (kah-mee-she-bye, 'paper theater'), a traditional storytelling method, has mention of a gentlman in a red cape said to be magical.
