I was going through the pilot chapter today and noticed something I somehow never paid attention to before. The two girls spreading rumors at the beginning look quite similar to the former Hanako-san. 

I know it could just be Aida using a similar character design and there's nothing deeper to it, but wouldn't it be interesting if there actually was? It would also be really cool if the main story brought this idea back somehow. The idea of having a former Hanako-san is not impossible at all because in real life, the urban legend of Hanako-san was already circulating in Japan since 1950s (probably before Amane was even born). So who's to say there wasn't someone else taking on the role at that school before Amane?

Anyway, this got me thinking about a very random theory. I don't believe this 100% myself, but I think it's an interesting possibility to explore, so I'm just gonna throw it out here haha. 

Let's assume for a moment that the former Hanako-san really existed.

**So, what if Amane actually ate the former Hanako-san, and that's how he ended up taking over the role?**

We've already seen something pretty similar happen with Mitsuba. After Tsukasa "created" him, Mitsuba wasn't strong enough to take on a proper role by himself. He then ate No. 3's heart and was able to take over his position and power. So that got me wondering if Amane might have gone through something similar when he became Hanako.

Because both Amane and Mitsuba were originally human. When a human dies, they become a normal ghost, not a supernatural right away (this was explained in Chapter 91). We already know the process of how Mitsuba became a supernatural, but what about Amane? How exactly did he go from being a normal ghost to becoming a supernatural known as Hanako-san?

There's also the fact that Amane died at home, not at school. So there's no obvious reason for him to suddenly end up haunting the school toilet (let alone the GIRLS' toilet), and take over the identity of a supposedly female ghost.

That's why I suggest that Amane might have gone through a similar process to Mitsuba: **by eating another supernatural.**

This is not really a foreign concept in TBHK. Besides Mitsuba, we have Nene as another example. She became half-supernatural and gained the ability to turn into a fish because she swallowed the mermaid's scale. Teru himself also used this method by putting the oni's finger on the pizza, and he even verbally confirmed that consuming a supernatural can indeed cause a human to become like one as well.

So Amane should have gone through a similar process just like the other characters in the series. He needed to consume another supernatural to become one. So who else would make more sense for him to eat than the former Hanako-san? By consuming them, Amane could've easily inherited their role. And wouldn't that make a lot more sense for how Amane, a literal boy, ended up taking over the role of a supposedly female ghost?

Anyway, I know there's still a lot of holes in this theory. Like what is Kami-sama's role in all of this, and who actually brought Amane's soul to the school in the first place. There's also the question of whether the former Hanako-san from the pilot is even still relevant to the main story, and whether there are other ways for a human to become a supernatural that we just haven't seen yet.

But yeah, this is just a random theory after all. It was just an interesting possibility to think about. If you made it this far, thank you for reading all of this! Feel free to share your thoughts on it, I'd love to hear what you guys think <3

Are These Girls the Former Hanako-san?