Tsumugi Yamagata

Well into her eighties, she is stooped with age and draws plenty of uncharitable remarks about her looks. She insists she was a beauty in her youth, though whether that boast holds any truth or is simply her humor is anyone's guess.

Age has left her largely indifferent to the fuss of the world. That a customer happens to be a ghoul means nothing to her; she treats Uta and Asa exactly as she would any human with a distinct character. She even jokes that a hungry ghoul would hardly bother with someone as shriveled as she is. Her craft is another matter entirely, and even Uta marvels at her skill with a needle.

The tale begins when Asa, handed a photograph of a ghoul mask, turns to her idol Uta for answers and is guided to Yamagata's home. The old woman admits the mask is her handiwork but shoos the pair away; they linger anyway, one to study her embroidery, the other simply to trail after Uta. Yamagata bluntly tears into the crude mask Asa has made, and though the girl bristles, the criticisms land true.

Under the pretense of drilling her through tedious practice, Yamagata sets Asa to work on the fundamentals of sewing over several weeks. Quietly learning that the girl has been orphaned and without a home for ages, she decides to let her stay. What starts as friction between a human and a resentful young ghoul softens into genuine affection, and before long the two shop for meals together like family. When a neighbor sneers at Yamagata as a lonely old woman cast off by a wealthy former lover, Asa chases the gossip away by playing the part of her sweetheart, and the two dissolve into laughter.

Their routine breaks when Renji Yomo arrives with word that Yamagata's old flame lies hospitalized. Hurrying there with Uta and Asa, she reveals she once sewed masks for the man's adopted ghouls, who gathered human flesh to feed his taste for cannibalism. As they depart, Uta senses one of those ghouls shadowing them, but Yamagata waves off his concern. Soon after they part, a ghoul named Noyama sets upon her and Asa; Yamagata is fatally wounded and Uta drives the attacker off before Asa can share her fate. She slips away as Asa sobs and pleads for her to hold on, having grown to love the woman despite their differing species. Uta later tells the grieving girl that Yamagata willed everything to her, giving her the means to reopen the shop and one day sell masks of her own.