As mentioned in my look at the Soichi collection, Rumors was a Sochi story by Junji Ito. It was featured in Souichi's Diary of Curses, which was published in 1997, but I have seen a date of original publication of 1995 also.
In the story Soichi discovers the power of rumours, spreading them to make himself popular and also, part way through the story, he sees an advert featuring Miss Fuchi from Fashion Model and spreads the rumour that she is in town (he actually seems rather impressed with her pictures in the magazine). The story of her being in town, within the rumour, takes on a form not dissimilar to the urban legend of Kuchisake-onna, the slit-mouthed woman (indeed a teacher references that urban legend). When we see her mouth in the telling of the story by the schoolkids she has side fangs rather than her actual maw of shark teeth.
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Her actual appearance in the comic is at the end of the story. Soichi has spread a rumour that the swamps nearby are good for beauty if one bathes in them, to get revenge on Midori, a girl who slighted him. However, Miss Fuchi is actually in the swamp and emerges from the waters. This story is worth mentioning as she is unusually tall in Fashion Model but in this story she is a giant and this would fit in with the vampire ability, noted in Dracula, “he can grow and become small”. As the story ends she notes that Soichi’s “flesh looks tender and tasty”...
In Hardback @ Amazon US
In Hardback @ Amazon UK
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