Hone-Onna began her existence as Tsuyu, a geisha renowned for crafting delicate paper balloons, whose life unraveled when Shinsaburo—a lover who swore devotion—betrayed her, selling her to a brothel. There, she forged a fragile alliance with Kiyo, a fellow courtesan, and plotted escape with Tetsuya, a man whose affections proved genuine. But Kiyo’s envy shattered their plans, culminating in Tsuyu and Tetsuya’s deaths. Cast into a river, her spirit fused with others wronged by love, birthing the yōkai Hone-Onna, the Bone Woman.

Initially tormented by her skeletal visage, which she struggled to veil, she instilled terror until Ai Enma offered her kinship and a role as an investigator. Adopting modern guises like "Sone Anna," she infiltrated society, wielding powers to manipulate memories, reshape garments, and shed her obi to become a crimson straw doll. When intimidation served her purpose, she revealed fragments of her bleached bones—a haunting echo of her curse.

After Ai’s brief demise, Hone-Onna retreated to a bartender’s solitude until a spectral butterfly heralded her mistress’s return. She briefly taught in Saigawara City under Yuzuki Mikage’s reign as Hell Girl but distrusted the successor, seeking Tsugumi Shibata to unravel her intentions. Ultimately, she realigned with Ai once the latter reclaimed her mantle.

Polite yet capable of unexpected empathy toward humans—a contrast to her detached peers—she bristles at Kikuri’s jests of "old lady," though loyalty steadies her resolve. Her dual history as mortal and yōkai shades her view of vengeance, threading moral complexity into her duties orchestrating the Hell Correspondence.