Chapter Text
This mission was supposed to be easy... That alone should’ve been his first warning. Yuuji Itadori stood at the edge of a narrow forest trail, hands stuffed into his hoodie's front pocket, staring at the thin strip of dirt that cut between the trees. A simple worn path. The ground was compact, clean of debris, as if something had been dragged along it over and over again.
Behind him, the world still felt normal. There was a road about half a mile back, cracked asphalt and the occasional passing car, his phone still had signal, the air had smelled like rain and wet leaves...
Before him, however.. was notably different. Yuuji shifts slightly, his sneakers stirring up some of the packed earth. The air here felt… wrong. Not colder, not warmer, just.. thicker. Like he was breathing underwater.
"Low-grade curse energy, my ass." he mutters. That’s what the report had said, anyway. Just a minor disturbance, probably a lingering curse formed from fear of the woods, or a shrine long neglected. Simple. Something he could easily do alone. Still, the skin on the back of his neck prickles. Something felt off. Nothing particularly strong, just unpleasant.
"Great." Yuuji sighs. "This is exactly the vibe I was hoping for." He mumbles sarcastically to himself as he rolls his shoulders, attempting to shake off the tension. He’d dealt with worse. Way worse. A weird forest trail wasn’t going to psych him out.
But still.
He glances back at the direction they road was in one more time, before looking forward again and stepping onto the path.
The deeper he went, the quieter it got. At first, Yuuji didn’t notice. It happened gradually, the way the sound of insects faded to silence. No birds, no rustling leaves, even the wind seemed to stop at the edge of the trail, as if unwilling to follow. Yuuji takes a deep breath in, and exhales slowly.
"Okay... That’s creepy."
The trees pressed in closer to the path the deeper he walked, their trunks were tall and thin, bark darkened from age and damp weather. Their roots coiled along the ground like veins, some breaking through the dirt of the path, forcing him to step carefully to avoid tripping.
Then he saw it. A wooden sign, half-rotted and leaning sideways. It was stuck into the earth beside the trail, the lettering crude and uneven, carved rather than painted, reading 'PET SEMATARY'.
Yuji blinks. "…Sematary?" He reads as he steps closer, crouching slightly to get a better look. The wood was splintered, and the letters were jagged like they had been carved with a dull knife.
"Someone can’t spell..." He mumbles. He straightens, glancing past the sign. The path continued, winding deeper into the trees, and there- just barely visible through the branches- were shapes. Small ones, low to the ground Graves.
Yuji hesitates. He had read the sign, of course there would be a cemetery. But still.. this wasn’t in the report. No mention of a cemetery. No mention of anything like this, really.
"Maybe it’s unrelated." He mutters , attempting to convince himself. "Just.. some local pet burial thing." Though, even as he said it, he didn’t believe it. Still, a mission was a mission.
He continues. The 'sematary' wasn’t like anything Yuji had seen before. There was no neat rows or symmetry. The graves were scattered unevenly, some clustered together, others isolated. The markers ranged from small stones, to crude wooden crosses, to things that barely counted as markers at all- twigs tied together, scraps of cloth, a rusted collar nailed to a plank. No names.
Yuji swallows a hard lump in his throat. There was something a little sad about it. Not just the fact that these were pets that had been loved enough to be buried, but the way the graves had been made. They were messy, desperate, like the people who made them hadn’t known what they were doing. Or perhaps hadn’t had time to make them properly.
"…Okay." Yuuji says softly. "There is definitely a curse here."
He could feel it now, stronger than before. It wasn't overwhelming, but persistent, like a low hum under his skin. The energy wasn’t concentrated in one spot, either. It felt like it was everywhere. Like rot.
"Cool. Love that." He grumbles sarcastically.
Yuuji steps carefully between the graves, being respectful by not stepping on them, his eyes scanning the area. He was looking for the source- something more concentrated. A curse he could exorcise and be done with. But the energy didn’t seem to spike anywhere. It just… lingered.
And then- a crunch. Yuji froze. That sound hadn’t been him. The sound had come from somewhere behind him. A dry, brittle snap- like something stepping on a twig. Slowly, he turns towards the sound.
"Hello..?"
There was no answer. The trees still stood still, but the shadows between them seemed darker than they should be, pooling unnaturally on the earth below. Yuuji narrows his eyes.
"... I know someone’s there."
Silence. But then- another crunch. Closer this time.
Yuuji’s body tenses, his cursed energy flickering instinctively through his finger tips.
"Okay..." he says, trying to keep his voice steady. "If you’re a curse, you might as well come out already."
For another moment, nothing happens. Then something moved between the trees. It wasn't clearly visible, just a shift in the shadows between two trees- a shape where there hadn’t been one before. Something low to the ground. Something small. Yuuji blinks.
"… A dog?"
The dog stepps forward slowly. It looked.. off. Its body was thin, too thin, the poor thing's ribs visible beneath its patchy fur. Its legs moved stiffly and unevenly, as if the joints didn’t work quite right, as if this was it's first time walking. Its head hung at an odd angle, one ear torn, the other barely attached. And its eyes- Yuuji’s breath hitches at the sight. Its eyes were wrong. Too dull, too flat. Like they were made of glass. Like for some reason those eyes weren't really seeing anything.
"Hey..." Yuuji starts, relaxing his stance slightly. "You’re... a curse, right?" The dog doesn't respond, just stares at him. It was probably a fairly weak curse, those couldn't usually speak anyway. The dog then.. twitches oddly. Slowly, it takes another step forward. Yuuji could feel it then. The cursed energy. But it wasn't from the dog, it was from the ground beneath it, seeping into it, filling it.
"...Oh." Yuji murmurs as vauge understanding clicks into place, cold and heavy. "It's this place..." It’s not the creature that’s cursed, it’s the land. The dog takes another step towards him. And then another. Its movements were jerky and unnatural, like a puppet being pulled by invisible strings. Yuuji’s hands curl into fists.
"I’m.. I'm sorry." He says quietly, as he moves. It took less than a second. Yuji surges forward, closing the distance in a blur. His knuckles connect cleanly to the dogs side, as his Divergent Fist technique flares with the strike. The dog didn’t even yelp, it simply seemed to.. break. The dog's body collapsed inward, dissolving into something dark and formless before dissipating entirely, completely gone. Yuji stands there for a moment, attempting to steady his breathing.
"... That felt wrong." He says. Yuuji frowns, exhaling sharply as he runs a hand through his hair. "Whatever. One curse down, I guess." Even as he said that, he knew- this wasn’t over. The energy in the air hadn’t changed. The pressure was still there. If anything... It felt heavier.
Yuji turns slowly, scanning the cemetery again.
"Okay..." He starts. ".. where are the rest of you?"
For a long moment, nothing happens. Then, another crunch. And another. And another. Yuuji’s stomach drops. The sounds weren’t coming from just one direction, they were coming from everywhere. From behind the graves, from the trees, from the shadows. Shapes began to emerge. All of them relatively small, and low to the ground. One. Two. Five. Ten. Yuji exhales slowly.
"... You’ve got to be kidding me."
Cats, dogs, something that looked like it may have once been a rabbit. All of them were wrong, all of them moving toward him, and all of them shuffle with that same dull, hollow, lifeless movement. Yuuji clenched his fists, his cursed energy rising once again.
"Alright..." He says under his breath. "I guess we’re doing this the hard way."
But just as he prepared to fight- something about the battle felt.. empty. Or missing. Was he missing something? Yuuji’s brow furrows in thought. This still didn't feel like the source.
And then- he felt it. A shift. It was subtle, but unmistakable. The cursed energy in the air seemed to.. move. It wasn't stronger, but deeper. Like something had just noticed him.
Yuuji goes still for a moment.
"... There’s something beyond this place, isn't there?" He swallows. Yuuji glances past the encroaching animals for a moment. There it was- at the far edge of the cemetery- another trail. This one narrower, impossibly darker, hidden behind a line of broken stones. Though the animals were still coming, inching closer and closer, as if stalking prey.
Yuuji clenches his jaw. "... Of course there is." He shifts his stance into one more calculated.
If he broke through- If he moved fast- he could make it. Probably.
"... Fine." Fe mutters. Then, louder: "Sorry guys..!" And then he ran. The creatures lunge at him, but Yuuji moves faster. He ducks under snapping jaws, twisting past claws that attempt to grasp, his movements precise and controlled. He didn’t waste his energy attacking- instead using just enough force to push them aside, breaking through the swarm without getting bogged down. One catches his sleeve. He rips free. Another leaps for his leg- He kicks it aside mid-stride.
The path was right there, just ahead. Yuuji surges forward, his heart pounding.
The moment he crossed the threshold- everything changed. The air grew colder, not just physically, but existentially. It was the kind of cold that settled into your bones and nipped at your soul.
Yuuji stumbles slightly, catching himself as the ground shifts beneath his feet. The dirt here was darker, almost black, and softer- like it had been turned over recently. Or often. Behind him, the sounds of the creatures stopped... Not faded, stopped. Like they didn't care to follow. Yuuji pauses and glances back over his shoulder. The cemetery was still there, but the animals were gone. Completely gone. As if they’d never existed in the first place.
"... Yep." Yuji says hoarsely. "That’s definitely not good."
He turns forward again. The path stretched ahead, winding up a gentle hill now, leading him deeper into the woods. But the woods almost.. felt like something else. The trees here were different, older and twisted. The branches seemed to claw at the sky, with sparse, brittle leaves. And the cursed energy.. it wasn’t just coming from the ground anymore, it felt like it was everywhere. Felt like something thick and suffocating that oozed from the earth below and fumed into the sky. Yuuji takes in a sharp breath. It felt sharp and cold in his lungs.
"... This is it. This is the source."
He starts walking once more, slowly and carefully ascending the gentle hill, his every step deliberate. The path led him upward for what felt like too long, compared to how small the hill looked. The forest grew denser, resulting in dimmer light. Time itself seemed to stretch, each second dragging just a little longer than it should.
He reaches the top, and Yuuji stops. Ahead of him was a small clearing. At its center, a ring of stones. Tall, rough, ancient looking monoliths of rock. They stood in a loose circle. Some leaned, others looked half-sunken into the earth. The ground within the circle was bare, lacking any wildflowers, grass, or leaves. Just dirt. Dark, soft, rich and fertile looking soil. It felt like it was waiting for someone. Yuuji’s breathing slows, like the air itself was forcing his heartbeat to calm.
"This.. this is it. It has to be..."
He stepped forward towards the ground. The moment his foot crosses the line into the circle, the world seemed shift. Not physically moving, but something deeper, like his body was swaying without him. The air around him tightens, the ground beneath him pulses faintly, and the cursed energy... It surges.
Yuji staggered slightly, catching himself.
"... What the hell-"
This place... It’s wasn't a curse. At least, not in the way he was used to understanding them. Yuuji’s gaze drops to the ground.. to the dark, waiting earth below his feet.
"What are you..?"
For a long moment, there was no answer. Only silence. Heavy, heavy crushing silence. Then, the ground beneath his feet shifts slightly, like some beast just beneath the soil had moved.
For the first time since he’d stepped onto the trail.. Yuuji Itadori felt something dangerously close to real fear.