Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Yuuji woke abruptly in the middle of the night. His chest was heaving, and sweat drops covered his forehead. He groped for the lamp switch on his nightstand and turned on the light.

He looked toward the window as he tried to steady his breathing. A loud thunderclap echoed outside, and the young man stifled an exhale.

“No wonder I woke up with this storm,” he murmured, watching the heavy rain. The tree visible from his window was shaking violently due to the wind.

Yuuji lay back down and yawned. Tomorrow would be a busy day, and he couldn't afford to stay awake. However, just as he closed his eyes, he heard it: the doorbell had just rung.

He frowned and got up quickly. He went out into the hallway and noticed that Megumi and Nobara were already there. They were talking quietly while looking down at the front door from the upstairs railing.

Nobara was holding a baseball bat in her right hand, Yuuji noticed as he approached them. His two friends acknowledged his presence then, and Nobara rolled her eyes.

“About time you woke up, Yuuji,” she snapped, irritated. Nobara's hair was disheveled, and she seemed in a foul mood. Not that Megumi looked any better.

The doorbell rang again, and the three exchanged glances. “Any idea who it could be?” Yuuji asked, stifling a yawn.

“Umm... given that it’s four in the morning, it's probably a burglar,” suggested Nobara, though she didn't sound too convinced.

“And if it’s a burglar, why would they be ringing the doorbell?” Yuuji asked, touching his chin thoughtfully.

“To check if anyone’s home?” the young woman insisted.

“Maybe, yeah,” Yuuji admitted.

“What’s clear is that it’s none of our friends,” declared Megumi. “And I’d rule out Satoru too. I don’t think he’d dare go out in this storm; Suguru wouldn’t have let him.”

The doorbell rang one last time, and whoever was on the other side slipped a letter under the door. Seconds later, they heard a car starting and driving away into the night.

They exchanged confused looks, and when curiosity got the better of him, Yuuji went downstairs, closely followed by Nobara. Megumi stayed upstairs, keeping an eye on his two friends.

The pink-haired man picked up the envelope and examined it curiously. He turned it over and froze when he saw the sender’s name. He flipped the letter back and opened it hastily.

Noting her friend’s urgency, Nobara exchanged a quick glance with Megumi, and the dark-haired man quickly descended the stairs. But Yuuji paid no attention to any of that.

He had unfolded the letter and was frantically reading its contents.

“Dear Yuuji,

I’m sorry for not contacting you all these years. I had a reason, and I think it’s time you know everything. The truth about the Itadori family.

I don’t know if you remember what happened the day mom committed suicide. I would have liked to tell you everything before, but it wasn’t safe, and grandpa forbade me.

However, the time has come to tell everything. I can’t keep this secret anymore.

If you want me to tell you everything, head to the road towards Nara. My house is on a path to the right at kilometer 15. I’m sure you’ll have no trouble finding it.

I hope to see you soon. Don’t forget that I love you and that I did all this to protect you.

Your brother,

Choso.”

Yuuji looked up and observed his two friends. Nobara snatched the paper and read the letter silently. Megumi did the same, looking over the woman’s right shoulder.

“What are you going to do?” Nobara asked, lifting her gaze from the letter and looking at Yuuji, who remained strangely quiet. Megumi watched him seriously, waiting for his response.

“I don’t remember much about the day my mother…” Yuuji couldn’t continue speaking. He took a deep breath and forced himself to go on. “I always suspected there was more to it, but grandpa never wanted to talk about it. I’ll go, if it’s the only way to get answers, I have to do it.”

“Not to be a killjoy, but I don’t think you should,” Megumi intervened, crossing his arms. Yuuji looked at him and opened his mouth, ready to protest, but the dark-haired man cut him off immediately.

“Think about it, who delivered the letter, Yuuji?”

The pink-haired young man fell silent and ended up shrugging. Megumi took advantage of this to keep talking.

“The postal service doesn’t operate at this hour. Which means it had to be someone outside of it,” Megumi continued. “And we can rule out that it was your brother; if it had been him, it wouldn’t make sense to bother sending a letter. Also, if you hasn't talk with him for years, how did he know you live here?”

“...Seen that way, you’re right,” Yuuji conceded, reluctantly. “But I still intend to go, I want answers.”

“You’re not thinking of driving now, are you?” Nobara cut in, glaring at him, daring him to contradict her.

“Of course not!” Yuuji exclaimed. “With this storm, it would be crazy to drive.”

Nobara relaxed slightly upon hearing that. “I hope so. We’ll talk about it calmly tomorrow, okay?” the woman said, leaving the strange letter on the solid wood table in the foyer. She yawned and headed upstairs. “See you tomorrow!”

Yuuji and Megumi exchanged a glance, and the dark-haired man shook his head. “She’s right, you know?” he commented, heading for the stairs. “The best we can do is that. Tomorrow we’ll see everything more clearly.”

Yuuji cast one last glance at the letter and shook his head. “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” he conceded, following his two friends upstairs

The next morning, the three young friends were discussing how to proceed while having breakfast in the spacious kitchen. Yuuji remained as determined to go as he had been the previous night.

“You’re not going alone,” Nobara decided firmly, not accepting any objections. Megumi nodded, fully agreeing with her.

“Thank you,” Yuuji murmured in a faint voice. He blinked a bit and tried not to fall asleep. “The truth is, the last time I saw Choso, we were ten years old,” he said. “And I don’t know if…”

“Don’t worry. If it turns out he’s a jerk, we’ll beat him up, right, Megumi?” Nobara asked, trying to lighten the heavy atmosphere.

Megumi let out a sigh. “Don’t listen to her.”

“Shall we go now?” Yuuji suggested, looking towards the window. The sky was completely clear, without a single cloud in sight, and the sun was shining brightly that morning. It almost seemed as if the storm the night before had never happened.

“Getting to the address will take us a couple of hours,” Megumi said, rereading the letter and paying attention to the directions.

“Then it’s decided, right?” Yuuji asked, looking at his two friends. Nobara nodded immediately, and Megumi, though less enthusiastic, followed suit. “Thanks,” Yuuji said, smiling a little.

Chapter Text

Yuuji looked around, bewildered. He found himself in a corridor completely white from floor to ceiling. The boy shivered and hugged himself. For some reason, waves of cold ran through his body at that moment. The ceiling lights, barely illuminating, only contributed to the eerie atmosphere of the place.

"Hello!?" he shouted, trying to keep his nervousness at bay. "Is anyone there!?"

He received no response, so, seeing no other alternative, he began to walk through the eerie place. His steps were the only sound disturbing the prevailing silence. Yuuji hurried down the corridor, wishing to leave the place as soon as possible, as he felt his hair stand on end and began to feel watched.

However, when the young man turned the corner, a ghastly sight awaited him. There were bodies on the floor and blood stains everywhere. Yuuji swallowed hard and stopped abruptly. All the corpses were wearing gowns, as if they were doctors.

The young man approached the nearest one and squatted down to get a better look. The lifeless eyes of the deceased were fixed ahead without seeing. His hair, a dull blue tone, was stained with blood at the crown.

At that moment, Yuuji managed to see a plate on the man's gown. He moved a little to get a better look at it. Written in cursive and elegant lettering was a name. Mahito. Below this was written, in smaller letters, Dark Falls Asylum.

Yuuji frowned and quickly moved aside when he heard the sound of something being dragged across the floor. He looked up and saw that one of the doors to the right at the end of the room had opened and that something or someone had taken one of the corpses and was dragging it into that room.

He was completely paralyzed when his eyes met those of that creature, which almost seemed human. It had eyes as red as blood, and its wide, almost unhinged smile was firmly etched in Yuuji's retinas. The stranger wore a white nightgown that was covered in reddish stains. Undoubtedly, blood.

Suddenly and without warning, Yuuji felt a breath behind him, too close to his right ear. He swallowed hard and felt his body completely paralyzed with terror.

"I see you've finally deigned to visit me, Yuuji," said a deep, unmistakably masculine voice. Yuuji paled as he felt his body still not responding. The stranger's hands rested on his shoulders at that moment, and Yuuji shuddered. "I've missed you so much, you know?"

Yuuji's heart began to beat wildly at that moment, and he felt his lips completely dry. He closed his eyes tightly, frightened. "Please, go away," he thought, distressed.

Yuuji jolted awake, heart racing and breath quickened. Nobara, seated beside him, shot him an irritated look.

"You finally decide to wake up," the woman snapped, crossing her arms. "We're almost at your brother's darn house, right, Megumi?"

The man with black hair, seated in the driver's seat, nodded without taking his eyes off the road. Of the three, Megumi was the only one with a driver's license.

Yuuji sighed and rubbed his eyes. "I had a nightmare," he admitted, trying to push the memories away. "Honestly, I've been dreaming the same thing for several months now," he added, thoughtfully.

Nobara raised an eyebrow. "It's probably nothing," she said, dismissing it.

At that moment, Megumi took the indicated exit and parked the car in front of a gate. The three got out and frowned as they noticed how abandoned the entrance seemed.

"Are you sure this is the place?" Nobara asked skeptically.

Numerous vines grew between the bars, and the metal of the gate was rusted in some spots. Megumi, holding the letter in his hand, checked the paper again with a furrowed brow. "Yes, this is it."

"Well... I think it's clear no one lives here," Nobara concluded, rolling her eyes and grumbling. "Some joker must have played a heavy prank on us or something."

While his two friends spoke, Yuuji, who had spotted a metal mailbox near the gate, approached it. After struggling a bit with the rusted metal, he managed to open it. He reached into it and pulled out a stack of envelopes.

He turned the paper over and nervously checked the recipient's name. His eyes widened as he read his brother's name. "It's here!" he shouted, catching the attention of Nobara and Megumi, who approached quickly.

Yuuji, driven by curiosity, checked the sender's name. He froze and swallowed hard upon seeing "Dark Falls Asylum" written on it. Frantically, he opened the envelope without any care and, to the incredulous gaze of his friends, began to read the contents of the letter aloud.

"Dear Choso Itadori,

We received your letter requesting information about our patient Sukuna Itadori. Unfortunately, due to our center's policies, we cannot provide information.

However, if you come to our facilities, we will be happy to assist you.

We look forward to your visit.

Sincerely,

Kenjaku Kamo

Director of Dark Falls Asylum"

Yuuji finished reading aloud and looked at Megumi and Nobara. "We have to go in. I know the entrance seems abandoned, but since we've come this far, we have nothing to lose, right?"

Nobara glanced suspiciously at the gate, but it wasn't too high, so they shouldn't have too much trouble jumping it. She sighed. "I guess we can take a look, yes. But I bet we won't find anything, Yuuji."

They spent the next few minutes getting to the other side of the gate. Nobara required some help from Megumi and Yuuji, but she eventually managed to cross. The young woman wrinkled her nose at the sight of the plants growing unchecked. "Thank goodness I didn't decide to wear shorts," she said, grateful for having changed her original idea at the last moment, though she was wearing a short-sleeved red shirt, so she scratched both her arms on some branches.

When they finally made it through that small jungle, Nobara let out a sigh of relief. She went to move forward, only to bump into Megumi's back. The woman frowned and was about to protest, but seeing that both her friends' attention was fixed ahead, she wanted to see what had caught their attention.

There, several meters ahead, was a man with pink hair, the same shade as Yuuji's, walking toward the abandoned house in front of them. Nobara swallowed hard and felt all the hairs on her body stand on end as she watched the stranger.

He disappeared as suddenly as he had appeared, but the three young people remained still, holding their breath. The first to regain composure was Yuuji, who noticed a wooden swing to his left.

There was a porcelain doll sitting there. Yuuji stopped in front of the swing and picked up the toy. He examined it in silence, tense. He jumped when he felt a hand on his left shoulder and turned abruptly.

Megumi watched him with concern. "I think we should leave, Yuuji. This place gives us the creeps. And what we just saw..."

But Yuuji shook his head and showed him the dirty doll. "My grandmother had a doll very similar to this one," he commented, looking at it with some nostalgia. "I'm convinced Choso is here, Megumi. I can't let this opportunity pass. If you want to go back to the car, go ahead, but I'm going in."

The man with black hair cast a worried glance toward the house. He sighed. "We aren't going to let you enter there alone, but if he's not here, we turn back and leave, okay?" Megumi said, though he didn't sound entirely convinced.

Yuuji smiled a little, relieved. "Thank you, Megumi," he said sincerely.

Nobara was waiting for them in front of the porch of the house. The woman was tense as she looked at several voodoo dolls hanging near the door. There were also several strange-looking symbols carved into the wood.

The door was ajar, allowing a glimpse of the hallway illuminated by artificial light.

"This is getting creepier and creepier," Nobara commented, shuddering. Megumi observed the different dolls, serious. "Any idea what those things are?" she asked, glancing sideways at Yuuji. "Don't tell me your brother is into occultism or stuff like that?"

Yuuji could only shrug, equally puzzled.

"Well, in some cultures, it was believed that these symbols and voodoo dolls could keep evil at bay, serving as protective amulets."

"For once, that history degree you got is useful," Nobara remarked, snorting a little, trying unsuccessfully to lift the mood.

Yuuji moved toward the door and the three small wooden steps of the porch creaked loudly under his weight, but none of them flinched too much. However, when Yuuji tried to enter, the door slammed shut with a loud bang, causing the nearby voodoo dolls to sway slightly.

The man with pink hair, although visibly confused, tried to open the door, but it didn't budge in the slightest. Yuuji frowned and tried again, but he couldn't.

Seeing no other option, he began to ram the door to the incredulous looks of his friends. Nobara watched him with a raised eyebrow, but neither of them commented on it.

The door didn't take long to give way after Yuuji's final push, falling to the ground in a crash. Yuuji, who hadn't expected it to collapse so quickly, also ended up on the ground.

The man with pink hair got up quickly and coughed a bit at the huge amount of dust that rose.

Nobara and Megumi also entered and looked around the place with suspicion. Several wooden planks on the floor were broken, and some were missing.

At the end of the hallway, there was a coat rack with several black coats looking ragged.

"Yuuji... I don't think anyone lives here," Nobara opined, serious. "If Yuuji's brother were here, it's impossible he wouldn't have heard all this commotion," the woman thought to herself, uneasy. Something about this place gave her a bad feeling, and she wasn't even sure about what they had seen earlier.

"Should we split up to explore thoroughly?" Yuuji proposed at that moment. Seeing the skeptical looks from Nobara and Megumi, he hurriedly added, "That way, we'll cover more ground and leave sooner."

Megumi rolled his eyes. "I guess, but if you find anything, shout out," he instructed.

Nobara and Yuuji nodded. The three left the hallway and surveyed their surroundings. To their right, there were stairs leading up to the first floor, while to their left, there was a narrow hallway illuminated by the light bulbs.

There was a partially open door at the end of that hallway, and an eerie light could be seen seeping through.

"I'll take care of the first floor," Megumi decided, while Nobara and Yuuji decided by drawing lots. Nobara ended up winning and flashed a satisfied smile.

Yuuji sighed. "I'll take that room," he indicated, pointing with his left thumb at the partially open door.

"Alright then, it's decided. See you here in, like, ten minutes?" Megumi suggested, checking the time on his watch. It was eleven in the morning, so if they hurried, they'd be back home by lunchtime.

Nobara and Yuuji nodded, and Megumi headed upstairs, while the woman went towards the hallway and the pink-haired man entered the room.

Chapter Text

Yuuji furrowed his brow as he entered the living room and saw that the old television atop a small cabinet was on. It was the only light illuminating the room, giving it a disturbing atmosphere.

But all that could be seen on the screen was static. Curiosity driving him, Yuuji approached the cabinet and knelt down. He began turning the two knobs that were at the right of the screen until he was able to finally achieve a clear picture.

What the young man saw on the screen left him frozen. It was playing an image of the living room. Yuuji saw himself on the screen, crouched in front of the TV. However, before he could turn around to check if there was a camera behind him, the same man they had seen at the entrance appeared walking toward him.

Yuuji's breath quickened as the stranger approached him. Every fiber of his being screamed at him to flee, that he was in danger, but the young man was completely paralyzed.

He felt the stranger's breath on his neck, and the hairs on his arms stood on end. Yuuji swallowed slowly, not daring to move a muscle. His eyes remained fixed on the screen.

It was at that moment, thanks to not having looked away, that he could see, for a few brief seconds, the man's face. It was almost identical to his own, with the only difference being his eyes, which were a crimson red, and the black tattoos all over his face.

Yuuji watched as this doppelganger-like figure reached out his right arm toward him, but just as the stranger was inches away from touching him, Yuuji closed his eyes and held his breath, aware that he was still paralyzed. However, as seconds passed without anything happening, Yuuji slowly opened his eyes.

That doppelganger-like figure had completely disappeared. Yuuji, to reassure himself, turned around and saw no one. He let out a sigh and scanned the room, trying to find the camera that must have been recording him, but found nothing.

The only things in that living room were an old wooden clock, a dilapidated sofa with completely faded color, which in its prime must have been a light color, and a small cabinet tightly shut.

"It must have been my imagination," he said to himself, attempting to calm down. Seeing nothing else of interest, he left the living room and began to walk through the house. Yuuji headed toward the hallway Nobara had gone down, lacking anything better to do.

He observed with curiosity a door that was blocked by four wooden planks and eight locks. As the young man passed by, he thought he saw, out of the corner of his eye, the doorknob moving, but Yuuji quickly shook his head. "Just your imagination," he scolded himself mentally and prepared to continue forward, but upon hearing a female voice, Yuuji abruptly stopped, noticing a small recorder on a table to the left of the door.

"You are connected to the reception of the Dark Falls Asylum psychiatric center," said the female voice, sounding warm and pleasant. However, that lasted only a moment, and the next voice that spoke, possibly belonging to a man, was menacing. "It's a shame you declined our invitation to come see us, Choso. I'm afraid that leaves us no choice but to come visit you instead."

After that, the recording abruptly cut off. Yuuji approached the table and pressed the rewind button to listen to it again, but no matter how hard he tried, the message did not replay.

"What the hell is going on here?" he wondered. It was as if the recording had erased itself. A shiver ran down his spine from head to toe as he thought about all the strange things that had happened since they had entered that place.

He let out a sigh and shook his head, trying to push those thoughts out of his mind. Dwelling on it wasn't what he needed to do at that moment. Choso had to be somewhere in the house.

Yuuji continued down the hallway until he reached the kitchen. Like the rest of the house, a thick layer of dust covered the floor and every single piece of furniture in the room. Yuuji passed by the refrigerator and abruptly stopped.

He turned and carefully examined the magnets stuck to the side, in an area that was difficult to see at first glance. Someone had arranged the names of his brother, his own, and the one that had appeared in the letter at the entrance, Sukuna.

Yuuji forced himself to keep moving, crossing the kitchen and reaching a room that had a freezer tucked into one corner and a narrow, quite thin closet. But what caught the man's attention was seeing Nobara crouched on the floor, looking at something.

"What have you found?" he asked. Nobara, who hadn't heard him approach, let out a scream and turned sharply. She frowned upon seeing it was him and wasted no time in berating him.

"How dare you sneak up on me like that and scare me, Yuuji!?" she yelled, crossing her arms, glaring at her friend.

"I'm sorry," he apologized, scratching his head. Nobara grunted something unintelligible, and Yuuji looked at her, curious. "Have you found anything?" he asked.

The woman moved slightly, revealing what she had been examining. There, on the yellowed tile floor, was a sizable fresh bloodstain. Yuuji furrowed his brow, believing he could distinguish something there. Swallowing and trying to suppress a shiver, he examined the stain closely. He took out a handkerchief and tried to pick up what he thought he had seen.

Nobara watched him silently. Yuuji straightened up and showed what he had managed to retrieve. Both of them paled upon realizing it was a human tooth.

Yuuji stepped back nervously, exchanging a look with Nobara. The woman grabbed her right elbow with her left hand and took a deep breath.

"I think I've had enough of examining this place," said the orange-haired woman. She was as pale as a corpse and trembled slightly.

Yuuji wrapped the tooth in his handkerchief and looked at Nobara. "We haven't finished searching the house yet," he reminded her.

"Yuuji, nobody had been living here for years! It's pretty obvious this place is abandoned!"

"But the blood is fresh," Yuuji pointed out, unwilling to concede an inch. Nobara sighed and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear with her left hand, visibly uneasy.

"This place gives me the creeps, doesn't it to you?" Nobara insisted, moving toward the door that led to the kitchen.

Yuuji shivered a bit and shrugged. It was then that he noticed a door at the back of the room, opposite to where they were both standing. "And where does that door lead?" he asked, curious, looking at Nobara.

The woman glanced in that direction and shrugged, so Yuuji didn't think twice, approached, and opened the door. He fumbled for the light switch and turned it on. Nobara huffed and walked toward her friend.

Both of them entered and went pale upon entering. In front of them, on the torn wall, knives were stuck, holding eight keys against the wall. Nobara swallowed hard and shivered. It was quite cold in that room, she also noticed, nervous.

"Look there," said Yuuji, pointing to the floor, serious.

Nobara obeyed and saw that there was a circle drawn inside of which was a five-pointed star. Five small circles had been drawn on the points, each containing various body parts painted within: a mouth, a hand, an eye, a head, and a heart.

"This is getting creepier by the minute," Nobara murmured without taking her eyes off that strange symbol. She shuddered and forced herself to look at Yuuji. "I think the best thing we can do is regroup with Megumi and leave, don't you think?"

Yuuji, although appearing hesitant, nodded. They both turned to leave the room, and before they stepped through the doorway, the sound of knives falling to the ground broke the silence.

They froze immediately. Nobara had paled considerably, her eyes wide open. Yuuji wasn't in a better condition, sweating coldly and his skin covered in goosebumps. A chill ran down his spine, and he swallowed nervously, uneasy. But after that, there was nothing more to be heard.

The pink-haired man turned slowly as curiosity overcame his fear, ignoring the reproachful look from his friend, he retraced his steps. Remembering the strange sealed door, he grabbed the keys without a second thought and returned to Nobara's side.

"Can we leave now?" the woman asked impatiently.

Yuuji nodded. "You go find Megumi, I have something I want to check first."

Nobara, though looking unconvinced, nodded. "Don't do anything foolish, Yuuji, please."

"Don't worry," Yuuji said, giving a trembling smile.

The two returned to the hallway and stopped at the firmly closed door. Nobara cast a sideways glance and shifted uncomfortably as a chill ran down her spine. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Opening them, she looked at Yuuji. "Be careful, okay?" the woman asked, heading towards the stairs.

However, Yuuji, who was more focused on the task he had set himself, barely paid attention and nodded absentmindedly.

The pink-haired man tried the keys and quickly removed the four wooden planks. He left them aside, leaning against the wall, and opened the door. The first thing that hit him was a powerful smell of decay, forcing him to cover his nose and mouth. Yuuji swallowed nervously and observed the entrance. He couldn't see anything, so he had to use the light from his mobile phone as he descended.

He passed by a candle and jumped when he saw it suddenly light up. Despite feeling his heart pounding frantically, Yuuji forced himself to keep moving, ignoring the candles that lit up on their own.

He reached a rather large basement. The smell was even stronger there, and Yuuji shuddered noticeably, holding his breath. It was quite cold in that room, the pink-haired man noticed, as he guided himself with the flashlight from his phone and found the source of the putrefaction smell.

There, pressed against the wall, was what appeared to be a corpse. Yuuji approached slowly, feeling his ears ringing and a dizzy sensation washing over him.

Yuuji stopped a few meters away and noticed the notebook that had been thrown on the floor. Moved by an impulse, he picked it up and looked back at the body, noticing one more detail.

There, on the wall, a house and a small tree had been drawn with blood. A shiver ran through Yuuji, and he snapped back to reality upon hearing his friends' voices. Without thinking twice, and trying to escape from that oppressive place, he sprinted back up the stairs.

Megumi walked silently down the hallway. The first floor presented the same abandoned and dusty appearance as the lower level, he noted after running a finger along the wall and examining the layer of dust that stuck to his fingertip.

He rubbed his right arm and shook his head. The wooden planks creaked with every step, but Megumi didn't stop. He opened the nearest door on his right and peeked inside. Switching on the light, he observed the room in silence. It was nothing more than a room with a rocking chair near the window, a seemingly ordinary room. Nothing particularly caught Megumi's attention.

He sighed with relief and returned to the hallway. He completely ignored the closed doors and stopped at the end of the corridor when he saw several books stacked in a corner. Megumi picked one up and quickly flipped through it.

"More material related to the occult," Megumi thought, putting the volume back in its place and looking at the others. The green-eyed man immediately recognized the Ars Goetia and the Lesser Key of Solomon among the stacked books.

Frowning and shaking his head, he resumed inspecting the floor. "The sooner I finish, the sooner we can leave," he thought.

He tried to open the nearby door but only managed to move it a few inches. Something was blocking it from the other side, making it impossible to open. Megumi soon gave up and focused his attention on another door to his right.

He had no trouble opening it and stepped inside. It was a small bathroom. Megumi wrinkled his nose at the sight of mold stains on the wall. He also noticed some bloodstains on the floor.

The young man shivered as he felt a cold gust and hurried out of the room. He stopped in the middle of the hallway and, without a second thought, quickly made his way towards the stairs.

Nobara was coming up when the two met. The woman, upon seeing him, let out a sigh of relief.

"Tell me you're done exploring this floor," Nobara pleaded, stopping. Megumi nodded and approached her.

"Yes, there wasn't much," the man admitted. "And where's Yuuji?"

"He wanted to check one last thing," Nobara reluctantly admitted, turning around and heading down the stairs. Megumi followed her until they reached the partially open door in the middle of the hallway.

The faint light from candles illuminated a stretch of stairs descending. The two young adults shuddered as a cold gust reached them, followed by a powerful smell of decay.

Nobara covered her nose as she tried to suppress her gag reflex. Megumi stepped back several paces while also covering his nose. Tears began to well up in his eyes, and he tried to wipe them away with his free hand.

They heard hurried footsteps coming up, and just a few seconds later, Yuuji appeared, rushing up the stairs. His face was a mix of panic and confusion. The pink-haired man was covering his mouth and nose with his right hand while clutching a small, worn-out brown notebook with his other hand.

Without a word, Yuuji closed the door and looked at them. "We need to get out of here as soon as possible," he said hastily.

Chapter Text

Yuuji rubbed his tired eyes and looked ahead. In front of him, sitting on a chair, was a police officer, watching him expectantly.

"Could you tell me what you were doing with your friends in that house?" the man asked, adopting a more serious expression.

The young man with pink hair sighed. "We received a letter from my brother yesterday asking me to visit him. And since I don't have a driver's license or a car, Megumi offered to drive me."

"Could I see that letter?" the policeman asked. Yuuji nodded and pulled it out of his right pants pocket. It was a bit wrinkled but not torn. He unfolded it and handed it to the officer.

The man, wearing gloves, examined it carefully. "We'll analyze the handwriting to check certain things," he informed. Yuuji furrowed his brow slightly but reluctantly nodded.

"Can I ask you a question, officer?" the pink-haired man wanted to know. The policeman locked his blue eyes on him and nodded. Yuuji swallowed before speaking. "Is the body we found my fraternal twin?" he asked with a trembling voice.

The policeman let go of the letter and clasped his hands on the table. "It's too early to tell. The forensic examiner needs to examine the body first," he admitted.

"How long could that take?" Yuuji wanted to know, biting his lower lip.

The policeman shrugged. "When we know something, we'll contact you," was all he could assure.

Yuuji lowered his gaze and nodded. "Thank you very much," he murmured softly. "Is there anything else you want to know, officer?"

The officer shook his head. "We've already asked you all the necessary questions," he declared.

The young man with pink hair let out the breath he had been holding and stood up slowly. He cast one last glance at the law enforcement officer before leaving the interrogation room and stepping out into a wide hallway.

He blinked a bit, trying to adjust to the increased light, and when he had succeeded, he began to search the building for Nobara and Megumi.

As Yuuji walked, his mind kept replaying the events that had occurred in that house. Now, far from that eerie place, it seemed nothing more than a horrible nightmare. "I'm sure everything strange I saw was just my imagination," he told himself. It was the only thing that made sense.

He shook his head. And surely the corpse they had found wasn't Choso's. His fraternal twin brother would be waiting for him somewhere else. Alive and unharmed, Yuuji had no doubt about that. But, despite his conviction, he couldn't shake the feeling that he was wrong.

"Yuuji!" he heard Nobara calling him, and he looked up immediately. His friend was sitting on one of the benches at the entrance. Beside her was Megumi, who watched him with concern.

Yuuji hurried over to them and sat to Nobara's right. He looked at them without hiding his relief. "How are you guys?" he asked, getting straight to the point. "What did they ask you?"

Nobara sighed. "We'll recover," the woman assured, serious. But despite her attempts to appear fine, it was clear that she was exhausted. "And well, they asked us what we were doing there and such. They didn't ask us too many questions."

Megumi nodded, completely agreeing with his friend. "Satoru called me a while ago. He insisted on coming to pick us up," the man with black hair indicated. No matter how much Megumi told him that they could go back on their own, Satoru had refused.

"You should have heard how he reacted when Megumi said we were at the police station," Nobara said, trying to lighten the tense atmosphere, although she didn't get the expected result. The woman soon noticed this and contrary to her usual self, fell silent and looked at her two friends, serious.

"I don't think it'll take too long," Megumi added, looking at his two friends. Yuuji and Nobara nodded and looked ahead, staring at the clock hanging on the wall. It was two in the afternoon, but none of the three had the slightest appetite, and the last thing they were thinking about was eating.

Minutes passed without any of them making an attempt to speak; they simply waited for Satoru to come pick them up. Just when a quarter of an hour had passed, the man with white hair and blue eyes appeared. He approached them urgently and stopped in front of the three.

His hair was disheveled, and the man was out of breath, as if he had been running. They noticed his accelerated breathing too.

"Let's go to the car and talk calmly there," the man instructed, serious and decisive, something unusual for him. His tone also admitted no reply. The three young people obeyed immediately and followed him outside.

Parked in one of the free spots in the parking lot was Satoru's Mercedes Benz. The four headed there, and the man with white hair opened the vehicle. The three young people sat in the back seats while Satoru took the driver's seat.

"What happened?" Satoru asked, gripping the steering wheel tightly as he made the necessary maneuvers to leave the place. "Did you get into a fight with someone again or what?"

Megumi grunted a little at hearing that and began to recount everything that had happened in the last few hours. Satoru listened attentively as he drove in complete silence.

"I see," Satoru said, remaining serious. He looked at the three through the rearview mirror and let out a sigh. "I admit I got a good scare when you told me you were at the police station. Oh, by the way, don't tell Suguru anything, Megumi. You know how he takes these things. Let me handle it, okay?"

Megumi rolled his eyes, knowing perfectly well what he meant. "Thank you," the man with black hair said, letting out a sigh of relief as he leaned back in his seat.

"If you're not up for coming to dinner tonight at home, you can say you have accumulated work or something, whatever you can think of," Satoru said, thoughtfully. "The important thing is that you three get some rest."

"Thank you," Megumi repeated, looking out the window. Yuuji and Nobara had wasted no time in falling asleep in the vehicle, and the man with black hair grunted a little. Being in the middle, he had ended up being the pillow for his two friends.

Yuuji looked around at his surroundings. He was back in that asylum, he noticed immediately, feeling uneasy. He began walking down the hallway, trying to ignore the blood-stained walls.

He froze when he heard screams for help. He swallowed hard and paled as he heard the sound of something metallic being dragged across the floor. A woman dressed as a nurse appeared at the other end of the hallway.

Her face was contorted in an expression of sheer terror. The woman tried to run but, wearing high heels, she ended up tripping and falling to the ground. She tried to get up quickly, but then a man wearing a security guard uniform arrived. In his right hand, he held an axe with a blade completely stained with blood. The man's face was a mask of absolute indifference, Yuuji noticed, feeling his stomach churn.

He tried to move or shout to attract the newcomer's attention, but not a single sound came out of his mouth, and his body remained paralyzed. The only thing he could do was watch as the axe sank again and again into the woman's back while she screamed in pain and terror.

For some reason, Yuuji was unable to look away from the gruesome spectacle. He watched the killer, noticing that his vacant expression had not changed at any moment. He only stopped attacking the nurse when she completely stopped moving, her body becoming motionless. Blood stained the floor and the nearest wall. The security guard's face and clothes were also soaked with it, but the man didn't react at all.

He continued on his way calmly, passing by Yuuji without acknowledging the young man, almost as if he wasn't there. The pink-haired young man couldn't tear his gaze away from the nurse's empty eyes. The woman's face was frozen in a perpetual expression of absolute fear and pain.

He heard footsteps behind him. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He swallowed hard and noticed that someone was approaching. At that moment, Yuuji's heart began to pound fiercely.

"How long do you plan to keep me waiting, Yuuji?" the newcomer asked.

Yuuji bolted upright and rubbed his eyes, looking around. Seeing that he was in his bedroom helped some of the tension in his shoulders dissipate. However, his breathing was still rapid as he vividly recalled his nightmare.

He rubbed his eyes again and sat up. He looked at the time and sighed, seeing that it was only five in the afternoon. His eyes settled on the notebook resting on his desk.

He hadn't mentioned anything about it to the police. And he was immensely grateful that Megumi and Nobara hadn't talked to the authorities about it either. With hesitant steps, fearing what he might find in those pages, he walked to the desk and, with trembling hands, picked it up.

He opened it to the first page, and his eyes fixed on the name written there. Property of Choso Itadori. Yuuji swallowed and turned the page, feeling his stomach tighten.

"I don't know if it was a good idea to buy this journal, but I feel that if I don't write down what's happening to me, I'll end up going crazy. Strange things have been happening in this house for weeks.

At first, it was just things disappearing and then reappearing in another place. Then the radio and TV started turning on by themselves in the middle of the night. And this is the third morning that I've found a dead bird in front of my door."

Yuuji frowned as he read this last part and pulled back slightly from the notebook. He reread that fragment to make sure he had read it correctly.

"I decided not to give it too much importance, after all, there is a group of stray cats nearby, so I assumed it was their doing. But the incidents have escalated.

This morning I found a family photo. All the faces except my brother Yuuji's had been damaged. And as I was looking at the photo, I heard someone moving behind me. I saw him there, standing in a corner of the hallway, giving me a mocking look. He looks just like in the dreams I have about the Dark Falls asylum. I have no doubt it's him.

I have to hold on; I can't let him find Yuuji's whereabouts no matter what. I promised Grandma."

Yuuji rubbed his eyes, perplexed. Whatever had been tormenting his brother seemed intent on pushing him to the limit. He swallowed and remembered the drawing he had seen in the basement of the abandoned house.

Since the notebook belonged to Choso, it was quite likely that the body they found was his brother's. Yuuji felt a sense of dizziness envelop him completely, as if everything he was experiencing at that moment was a bad dream. He shook his head; it wasn't the time to be overwhelmed by all this. Besides, the police hadn't confirmed anything. There was still a chance the body wasn't Choso's.

"But why draw that? A house and a tree…" Yuuji tried to recall; for some reason, he felt he had seen it before. His eyes widened as he remembered. "Of course! The treehouse at our grandparents' place!" he recalled and felt slightly embarrassed. "How could I take so long to remember? Choso and I had so many good times there…"

Driven by an impulse, Yuuji took his laptop out of his bag and opened it on the desk. He turned it on and waited for it to boot up completely. When it finally did, he opened the browser and went to the bus station's website.

It took him several minutes to find a bus heading to the town where their grandparents had lived. Fortunately, there were still seats available for the next day's trip, so Yuuji wasted no time and booked a round-trip ticket.

Yuuji sent the ticket to his email to have a copy on hand and let out a sigh of relief when everything was settled. He would leave at five in the afternoon the next day, and if the website was accurate, he should arrive by eight in the evening. Having to spend the night in a motel in the town didn't pose too much of a problem for him. The bus would leave at ten in the morning the next day. Enough time to find something.

"I'll get to the bottom of this," he promised himself out loud.

Chapter Text

Yuuji shuddered as he stopped in front of what had been his grandparents' house. The windows were boarded up, and the grass was overgrown. The young man closed his eyes for a moment, gathering courage to enter the property.

His plans had been slightly derailed. He had arrived in the village the day before, but until he obtained permission from the real estate agency, he couldn't approach the house. In the more than ten years it had been in their hands, they hadn't been able to sell it.

Somewhat hesitant, Yuuji approached the main door and grumbled a bit upon seeing a wooden bench blocking access to the house. He let out a sigh and quickly left the porch.

However, as he passed by one of the windows, he saw a dark silhouette moving inside the house. Yuuji felt a chill run down his spine and he was frozen in place. He felt the fingertips of both hands suddenly grow cold. It was the same feeling he had experienced in the other abandoned house.

When he regained the mobility of his legs, the young man quickly headed to the left side of the house, searching for the door that should have been there. As expected, he found it tightly closed.

He rummaged in his pocket until he found the keys provided by the real estate agent. That had been another thing that caught his attention; none of the agency workers had offered to accompany him to the house and they had allowed him to go alone.

The man with pink hair shook his head and began to try the different keys until he found one that fit. The door opened with a loud creak, and Yuuji entered the house.

He felt his heart sink as he saw the worn tapestries on the walls. He continued to advance slowly. The wooden floor creaked beneath his feet. But that was the only sound disturbing the peace.

Yuuji paused for a moment at the foot of the stairs leading to the first floor and listened intently, feeling his heart pounding uncontrollably. "Was it all my imagination?" he wondered, remembering the shadow he had seen earlier.

He began to climb the stairs slowly, trying not to shudder too much with each creak of the wood. When he finally reached the first floor, he sadly observed the wear and tear on the floor.

"No wonder they couldn't sell this house," Yuuji commented mentally as he walked down the hallway. If he thought about it rationally, the fact that the real estate agency had not kept his grandparents' house in optimal condition for sale was unusual.

He stopped in front of the door of the room that had been his. Everything was just as he remembered it. The bunk bed he had shared with Choso was still against the wall with the sheets on.

Yuuji approached when he saw that there was a paper on the bottom bed, the one he had used as a child, and picked it up. In the center of the sheet was a black silhouette drawn with thick, irregular strokes, as if the author of that drawing had been a child.

The man with pink hair frowned and put the sheet back on the bed. His eyes stopped at the nutcracker doll at the other end of the room, leaning against the wall. It had been a gift for his ninth birthday from the Ladius family, their neighbors back then.

In fact, if memory served him right, it had been thanks to them that his grandparents could buy that house. Yuuji smiled somewhat nostalgically as he remembered the neighbors. They had always been very kind to them, inviting Choso and him to play with their children almost every day.

"I wonder what became of them," Yuuji murmured aloud. Wasuke, who had never hidden his dislike for the neighbors, never allowed him to keep in touch with them. And seeing how angry he could get at the mere mention of the Ladiuses, Yuuji had never dared to contradict him.

He shook his head. "It doesn't make sense to think about that now," he scolded himself. He left the bedroom and headed to the one further ahead. He stopped at the door and looked, perplexed, at the white wedding dress on a mannequin at one end of the room.

He swallowed nervously and didn't dare to enter. That room had been his mother's, but Yuuji didn't remember that garment at all. He approached, hesitantly, and examined it carefully. At first glance, it looked new, unlike the rest of the house; there wasn't a single sign of the passage of time on the dress.

"It can't be that someone put it here," he said aloud. The idea that a person had decided to leave such a garment there was absurd. But, foolish as it was, it made more sense than thinking it had been there for ten years.

At that moment, the sound of something tearing wood caught Yuuji's attention. He looked up and noticed the door to the right of the bed. A knife suspended in the air was carving something into the wood of the door.

The feeling of cold returned to Yuuji with force, and the man swallowed nervously as he watched completely motionless. The white weapon fell to the ground once it finished tracing all the letters.

Welcome home, Yuuji

The man stepped back several paces as he watched the door begin to open slowly. However, before he had the chance to leave, the door to the hallway slammed shut.

Yuuji, nevertheless, ran towards it and spent the next few minutes trying to open it. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't make it budge even a millimeter. He swallowed hard and looked at the only open door.

He had a bad feeling. He was aware he had no other choice. Slowly, he made his way to the door and peered inside. It led to a small hallway with three doors. Two wooden ones and a metal one. Only the one at the end of the hallway was open, Yuuji noticed.

Despite feeling all the hairs on his body stand on end, he continued forward until he entered the room. And he froze at what he found.

There were children's toys all over the room, from building blocks to action figures scattered across the surface. There was a toy train on tracks leading it through a large hole in the wall in front of Yuuji. But what really caught Yuuji's attention was the chain attached to the wall to the right of the man, near one of the windows. The shackle was small, as if it had been made to restrain a child.

Yuuji's head spun, trying to process what he was seeing. It felt like a nightmare. "There must be a reasonable explanation," he said to himself, desperate. Not only did he not know this part of the house at all, but all of this seemed to imply that a child had been kept captive.

He jumped when the toy train started moving on its own along the tracks, disappearing through the hole. Yuuji looked pale and his heart felt constricted. His hands trembled, and he was unable to move or flee from there.

Finally, the train returned. On one of the cars was a small cassette tape. The toy stopped near Yuuji, inviting him to take what it had brought. Mechanically, unsure if it was a good idea, the man bent down and picked it up.

He felt the cold metal in his hands, and Yuuji looked at the small notation on the cover. A one written in Roman numerals. Nothing that shed light on its contents.

Yuuji heard something crawling towards him from the hole, and he didn't think twice. He started to run, escaping from those eerie rooms towards the stairs and descended them two at a time.

He headed towards the exit and didn't stop running until he was back in the garden. He was out of breath and forced to stop. He panted and struggled to breathe. His chest rose and fell irregularly as Yuuji placed both hands on his knees.

The young man looked up feeling watched and locked eyes with one of the windows on the first floor. There, watching him intently, was the same man he had encountered in the other house.

Yuuji, ignoring his fatigue, stepped back several paces. The figure disappeared in a blink at that moment. The man held his breath, waiting anxiously, but the man didn't reappear.

The man with pink hair turned around and pocketed the tape. He felt the need to leave that place as soon as possible, but if he left now, he would miss the chance to get the answers he needed.

His eyes fixed on the shed at the back of the plot, and he headed there. He took out the keys and tried them until he found the right one. Yuuji opened the door and entered what had been his grandfather's study.

A small smile crossed his lips as he looked at all the paintings in that small room. Painting had been one of Wasuke's great passions, but, for some reason, he had refused to take those pieces with him.

He shook his head and continued examining the room. A blanket covered the rickety leather sofa, and Yuuji shuddered. After his mother's death, Wasuke had had a strong argument with Hikari and had refused to sleep in the house again. And shortly after that, after another big fight, they ended up divorcing.

Yuuji's eyes went to the sturdy wooden table and he noticed the two cassette tapes resting on its surface. He approached and picked them up. Both were marked with the number two and three in Roman numerals.

The man frowned slightly and put them in his pocket, along with the first one. He carefully examined the room, but saw nothing else that caught his attention. He let out a sigh and prepared to leave the shed when a considerable crash echoed throughout the place.

Yuuji jumped and opened his eyes wide. His heartbeats quickened, and it took the man several seconds to recover from the fright. He remained silent, alert, but minutes passed without another crash.

Yuuji left the shed and walked through the garden, trying to locate the source of the previous noise. It wasn't until he passed by the exterior door leading to the basement that he saw it was open.

He stopped in front of it and, driven by curiosity and the desire to get to the bottom of this, he descended into the basement. The first thing he saw was that the water tank his grandfather kept there had crashed into the wall, breaking it.

Yuuji walked up to the hole and peered inside. He paled immediately as he understood what he was seeing. A cemetery. He swallowed hard as he recognized the logo of the Ladius family company on a nearby beam.

"What the hell is all this?" Yuuji wondered aloud, horrified by the rows of graves throughout the place. He had goosebumps and his hair stood on end. He couldn't help but shudder; the cold there was unusual. Yuuji began to back away slowly, eager to leave as soon as possible.

He didn't look back at any moment as he left the plot, determined not to set foot in that place again.

Yuuji entered his bedroom and closed the door carefully. He had returned home with more questions than answers. He lightly bit his lower lip and looked at the three cassette tapes.

He left them on his desk and began rummaging through his drawers, searching for the cassette player he had inherited from his grandfather. After the macabre discovery of the cemetery, Yuuji had given up on further investigating that place. But that didn't mean he was going to throw in the towel. He intended to get to the bottom of it all, no matter the cost.

He let out a sigh and continued searching for his grandfather's cassette player until he found it at the bottom of the right drawer of his desk. He took it out and after dusting it off, he connected one of the earphones and pressed the button to open it. He inserted the first tape and pressed the play button. Yuuji recognized his mother's voice immediately and widened his eyes.

"I don't know why I'm recording this. I don't think the day will come when you hear it, Yuuji. But I want you to know that I'm so sorry. I lied to you. All these years, I'm afraid all I've told you were lies. Actually, Jin is not your father. And you have a twin brother. Sukuna, but..." At that moment, Kaori's voice was interrupted by sobs, although she quickly resumed speaking. "The tape is about to end... where did I put the next one?"

The cassette tape reached its end at that moment. Yuuji stared at the wall, repeating the words he had just heard in his mind. Frantically, he removed the cassette from the player and put in the second one, pressing the play button as soon as he closed the device.

His mother's voice sounded even more broken in that recording, and she seemed to be crying as she spoke.

"You must think I'm a coward for never telling you any of this, but we thought it was for the best. We felt compelled to hide Sukuna's presence for your own safety. I still remember how much he cried and begged me to let him be with you. He's been getting more violent, so when Charles Ladius offered to admit him to the psychiatric center he ran, I'm afraid I accepted immediately. My God... What kind of mother does that? Not a day goes by that I don't regret making that decision."

At that moment, just as Kaori finally broke down crying and her words became impossible to understand, the second tape reached its end. Yuuji's hands trembled as he barely managed to remove the tape and put in the third one.

"I don't even know how it's possible, but of you three, Choso is the only one who is Jin's son, yet he accepted Sukuna and you as his own children."

Yuuji pressed the pause button upon hearing that. That revelation hit him like a bucket of cold water, and he didn't know how he was supposed to react. It was as if the ground had disappeared beneath his feet and he was freefalling, with nothing to cushion his descent.

Despite feeling overwhelmed, perhaps in a completely masochistic impulse, he pressed the play button to listen to the recording to the end.

"Yuuji, I'll understand if you never want to forgive me for everything I've done. And if someday you want to find answers to everything, you must head to Dark Falls Asylum."

After that, Kaori repeated the last sentence over and over. Yuuji rubbed his face with both hands. He turned around and left his bedroom, closing the door harder than he intended.

At the very moment Yuuji was outside, a man identical to him, but with crimson red eyes and tattoos on his face, appeared and approached the cassette player, running his right hand over it. As soon as he did that, the message changed.

"You must never head to Dark Falls Asylum."

The lips of the stranger curled into a sinister smile as he advanced towards the door.

Chapter Text

Yuuji stopped in front of his bedroom door and frowned when he saw a folded piece of paper on his bed. He hesitated for a moment but finally approached the bed. Slowly, he unfolded the paper and found it was a sepia-toned photograph.

In it, his mother appeared lying on a bed, looking tired. Near her were three babies sleeping peacefully. Yuuji's frown deepened, and he turned the photo over.

"How did this get here?" he asked aloud, bewildered. He didn't have any photographs of his mother. And he seriously doubted that Megumi or Nobara had put it there. It made no sense. Yuuji began to mull over the matter, trying to find a logical explanation for the whole affair.

At that moment, he felt a hand on his shoulder and let out a surprised squeal, turning sharply and nearly bumping into Nobara, who was looking at him with some concern.

"Hey, are you okay?" Nobara asked, placing both hands on her hips and giving him a skeptical look when Yuuji nodded his head.

"Yes, it's just that I was going through a family photo album and got a little sad," the man lied, improvising a bit. "Did you need something?" he asked.

Nobara looked at him for a few seconds, silently, then sighed. "We're having dinner in a bit, and Megumi asked me to tell you. We're ordering pizza today, remember?" she said sternly, glaring at him. "You want the usual, right?"

"Oh, yes, that's right. Today is Saturday," Yuuji immediately recalled. "Yes, sure, the ham and cheese one."

Nobara rolled her eyes and clicked her tongue. "Someday you should try another one. The barbecue one is to die for," she said, licking her lips.

"Whatever you say," Yuuji replied, not wanting to argue with his friend. Nobara gave him another skeptical look but, to his relief, didn't insist. "I'll come down now and help you," he said, ending the discussion.

"Alright, but don't dawdle," she requested. "Since we went to that house, your head's been in the clouds. You know if there's something bothering you, you can tell us, right?"

Yuuji laughed a little, awkwardly, and nodded. "Don't worry, I'm perfectly fine, Nobara. But thank you anyway."

Nobara gave him a distrustful look but finally nodded and left the room. Only then did the man relax and look at the photograph again. He placed it on his desk and rubbed his eyes, tired. It had been almost a week since he returned from visiting his grandparents' house, and since then, he had the same nightmare every night.

He shuddered at the memory of the blood-stained hallways of that psychiatric hospital. "Maybe everything will end if I go there," Yuuji thought. Because of his nightmares, he couldn't sleep properly, and it was only a matter of time before it took a toll on him. The last thing he needed was to get into trouble at work due to lack of sleep.

Yuuji sighed a little and shook his head. The man turned around and quickly left the bedroom. He knew Nobara well enough to know that if he took too long, she would end up scolding him.

He stepped into the hallway and headed for the stairs. Yuuji felt his hair stand on end and goosebumps when he saw someone in a corner. Their eyes met, and Yuuji swallowed hard when he saw those red eyes. He took a step back and remained completely still, unable to move forward.

A grim smile adorned the stranger's lips, Yuuji noticed at that moment. He watched as the stranger detached from the wall and began to walk towards him. At that moment, Yuuji could clearly hear how fast his heart was beating. Scared, he closed his eyes tightly and held his breath.

"Are you planning to come down, Yuuji!?" Nobara's voice brought him back to reality, and Yuuji slowly opened his eyes, letting out a sigh of relief when he saw he was alone in the hallway. "We're waiting for you!" Nobara shouted again from the bottom of the stairs.

Yuuji didn't think twice, hurriedly crossing the hallway and quickly descending the stairs. He tried to flash his usual smile under Nobara's inquisitive gaze, who was looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Are you sure you're okay, Yuuji?" the woman asked, immediately noticing her friend's paleness. He also had dark circles under his eyes. Nobara frowned when the man nodded.

"Well, you look like crap, you know?"

Yuuji scratched his head. "It's true that I've had trouble sleeping lately, but it's nothing," he said, walking past his friend, heading to the kitchen, ignoring the worried look Nobara gave him.

"Are you still thinking about Choso?" the woman insisted. Yuuji abruptly stopped, and the forced smile froze on his lips.

"They should give us the autopsy results soon, right?" Yuuji tried to justify, clinging to the excuse his friend had just provided him.

Nobara looked at him, unconvinced, and nodded somewhat hesitantly. "I suppose, yes," the woman conceded.

"Sorry if I've been acting a bit strange these days," the man apologized. "I just haven't stopped thinking about it, but I didn't want to worry you."

Nobara snorted. "Don't be an idiot, Yuuji," she snapped, shaking her head and giving him a tired look. "You have nothing to apologize for, got it?"

"Of course." Yuuji flashed a more sincere smile at that moment. "Thank you very much, Nobara."

Yuuji woke up with a start at the sound of something breaking. He rubbed his eyes, still groggy, and fumbled to turn on the light. After yawning a bit, he got up, slipped on his house slippers, and went out into the hallway.

He frowned slightly as he peeked downstairs and saw the kitchen light was on. He hurried down the stairs and walked to the kitchen. He stopped at the door and saw one of the shelves was open. On the floor were the shards of what had been a cup.

Yuuji stood still, processing what he had just seen. There was no one in the kitchen, and he was completely alone that night. Nobara had returned to her hometown to visit her grandmother, who had suddenly fallen ill, and Megumi had stayed overnight at his parents' house, something he did when dinners ran late.

The man shook his head and, using the dustpan and broom, swept up the pieces of the cup and threw them in the trash. He put both objects back in their place and made sure to close the cupboard door. After that, he turned off the kitchen light and switched on the one that lit up the stairs.

As he did, he saw the man from before again. The man was watching him from the upstairs balustrade. His reddish eyes gleamed maliciously, Yuuji noticed, feeling a shiver run down his spine. He swallowed hard, uneasy, and quickly turned off the light only to switch it back on seconds later.

There was no trace of the man, but the fear that the pink-haired man felt did not disappear. He climbed the stairs slowly, and once he was on that floor, he walked down the hallway, inspecting all the rooms to make sure no one was there.

The last room he checked was his own, and Yuuji let out a sigh of relief when he saw nothing was out of place. He walked to the bed and got in after taking off his slippers.

He picked up his phone and started fiddling with it. Yuuji checked the conversations he had with Nobara and Megumi and felt tempted to send them a message, but seeing it was two in the morning, he decided against it and started browsing his social media instead.

The strange incident with the cup had managed to erase any desire to sleep. Moreover, he felt too agitated to close his eyes at that moment.

"Although I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation," Yuuji told himself. "Maybe I left the light on after dinner. It wouldn't be the first time that's happened," he thought, trying to rationalize what had happened.

The young man lay back on the bed and continued fiddling with his phone while stifling another yawn.

"You look terrible," commented Megumi, crossing his arms and casting a worried look at Yuuji. He had just returned from his parents' house and found his friend in the kitchen, having breakfast.

The pink-haired man yawned and rubbed his eyes. "I stayed up late fiddling with my phone," he admitted, embarrassed.

"Again?" Megumi asked, raising an eyebrow. Yuuji nodded as he took a small sip of his coffee with milk.

"I got caught up checking social media and then playing several apps," he admitted. "By the way, I might have accidentally broken one of Nobara's mugs last night," he added. Megumi frowned at that, and Yuuji hurried to explain. "I wanted to get one of mine and accidentally knocked it over."

Megumi sighed. "You know how Nobara'll react once she finds out," he pointed out. Yuuji nodded and scratched his neck.

"I hope if I offer to buy her a new one, she'll calm down a bit," Yuuji said, feeling regretful.

"Hopefully it will work. But with everything going on with her grandmother, she might not give it as much importance," opined the dark-haired man.

Yuuji let out a sigh. "I think I'll buy her a new one today anyway and tell her everything when she gets back."

Megumi nodded and approached to make himself a coffee. At that moment, the house phone began to ring, and Yuuji took the opportunity to finish his coffee with milk.

"I'll get it," he said, hurrying out of the kitchen. He approached the phone in the hallway and picked up the receiver. "Hello?"

"Is this Yuuji Itadori?" responded a deep male voice. "This is Officer Takemura from the Nara precinct."

"Is something wrong?" Yuuji wanted to know, interrupting the officer before he could finish explaining.

"The coroner has finished analyzing the body," the officer revealed. Yuuji felt his heart tighten, and suddenly it was hard to breathe. He turned a bit pale but forced himself to keep listening. "And it has been ruled out that it is your brother, Choso Itadori. However, we still do not know the identity of the deceased."

Yuuji exhaled the breath he had been holding. "And now what will you do?" he asked, his voice still trembling.

"We will continue investigating," the officer told him, trying to reassure him. "If we find any clues about your brother's whereabouts, we will notify you, don't worry."

"Thank you very much," Yuuji murmured in a weak voice.

"Have a good day, Itadori," the officer said. Yuuji replied quickly and ended the call. He put the phone back in its place and stared at the table, trying to process what he had just heard.

Although the news that the body wasn't Choso's was a huge relief, there were still things left unresolved.

"Where the hell are you now, Choso?" Yuuji wondered, biting his lower lip hard.

"Who was it?" Megumi asked, peeking out from the kitchen. Yuuji closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath.

"The police," Yuuji revealed, looking at him, suddenly feeling very tired. "They've finished the autopsy on the body." Megumi looked at him with interest and came closer. Yuuji continued speaking when his friend stopped near him. "It's not Choso, but they don't know who it is."

Yuuji hugged himself, gripping his elbows tightly with both hands, and looked desperately at Megumi, who awkwardly embraced him.

"I have to try to find him, Megumi," Yuuji said seriously.

"Yuuji, let the police handle it," his friend quickly contradicted him, grabbing his shoulders and forcing Yuuji to look at him. "Besides, how would you do it? You don't have any clues about where he could be, right?"

Yuuji sighed and stepped away. He looked away and took a moment to respond. "Yeah... you're right," he murmured reluctantly. "What I need to do is go to Dark Falls Asylum," he decided. It was the best option. Maybe he could even find Choso there.

The next thing he needed to do was research that asylum. He stepped away a bit and sighed. "I'm going to go out for a bit to get some fresh air. I think it will do me good," he said.

Megumi gave him a thoughtful look and nodded. "Yes, it will do you good to try and clear your head a bit. Do you want me to come with you?"

Yuuji shook his head vehemently. "I won't be long, so it's not necessary. But thanks, Megumi."

Chapter Text

Yuuji let out a long sigh as he rested his head on the wooden surface of his desk. In front of him, his computer was on. The young man had been searching for information about Dark Falls Asylum.

He had barely managed to find anything recent. The latest news was over five years old. According to the newspaper that covered the story, one of the security guards had killed all the staff and patients in a fit of madness.

He frowned and read the article again. The director of the facility had been a man named Kenjaku Kamo. But what was strange was that the killer had never been found, and Dark Falls Asylum had closed its doors after that.

And that was where it ended. Yuuji hadn't found any more information, not even about Kenjaku. He rubbed his eyes and lifted his head. Stretching a bit, he yawned. "Maybe I should drop it," he considered. The idea of moving on with his life was becoming more tempting.

He stood up when his stomach growled and checked the time. It was noon, Yuuji noted. He pushed his chair back into place and left the room. Hurrying down the stairs, he headed for the kitchen.

He grabbed a mug and poured some coffee and milk. He set the microwave to warm the coffee with milk and leaned against the counter as he waited.

"Choso was investigating this before that massacre," Yuuji thought, rubbing his chin. That was the only thing that made sense. But what he had just discovered implied something else. That Sukuna was dead. The news didn't mention any survivors at all.

The sound of the microwave snapped him out of his thoughts, and Yuuji took out the coffee and added a bit of sugar. He savored it carefully and sat down at the table. He looked up when he heard the front door open, and minutes later, Nobara entered the room, carrying several bags.

"I see you've finally decided to leave your room," the woman remarked, noticing him. She dropped the bags on the counter and glanced at him sideways. "Do you mind helping me put away the groceries, or are you just going to stare at me?"

"Sure, I'll do it now," Yuuji replied, placing the mug on the table and getting up. He approached the bags and took out the vegetables. He opened the fridge and wrinkled his nose when an unpleasant smell reached him.

He stored the vegetables in their respective drawer and began to search for the source of the odor. He noticed the eggs and, with a sinking feeling, picked one up and brought it to his nose.

He grimaced in disgust and left it on the counter. He continued inspecting the rest of the eggs. Nobara raised an eyebrow when she saw him take out a whole dozen.

"Is there something wrong with the eggs?" she asked, approaching.

"They smell rotten," Yuuji said, closing the fridge door. Nobara gave him a look of confusion and disbelief.

"That can't be; we bought them less than a week ago," she reminded him. Nevertheless, she picked one up and sniffed it. She made a face of distaste and quickly moved it away from her nose. "That's weird, it does smell bad."

"I told you," Yuuji said, putting the twelve eggs into a plastic bag and tying it shut.

"Well, looks like we'll have to buy eggs again tomorrow then," Nobara muttered irritably, letting out a huff.

"Don't you think it's strange they went bad so quickly?" Yuuji asked, tossing the sealed bag into the trash.

"They were probably close to their expiration date," the woman replied, downplaying what had happened.

At that moment, the landline phone in the house began to ring, and the two exchanged a brief glance. Yuuji had noticeably paled. "I'll get it," he said, moving towards the entryway without waiting for his friend's response.

The young man approached the phone and hesitated for a moment before picking it up. He swallowed and answered as he brought it to his right ear. "Hello?"

"Is this Yuuji Itadori?" asked a polite female voice.

"Yes, but who am I speaking to?" Yuuji wanted to know.

"Reception of Dark Falls Asylum," the woman replied promptly, maintaining her polite tone. Yuuji felt goosebumps rise on his skin. "If you continue to reject our invitation to visit us, I'm afraid we will have to pay you a visit ourselves," intervened a threatening male voice.

"If this is a joke, it's not funny at all," Yuuji said once he had recovered enough to speak. He noticed Nobara watching him from the kitchen door, but he paid her no mind.

"Remember our words. If you don't come to our facility in the next few days, you know what will happen," the person on the other end said, before hanging up. Yuuji slowly replaced the phone.

"Who was it?" Nobara asked. Yuuji shook his head immediately.

"They had the wrong number," he said tersely, trying to force his usual smile, but he didn't fool his friend.

"Are you sure, Yuuji?"

"Of course!" exclaimed the pink-haired man, trying to sound convincing. "I've got a few things I need to take care of," he added before Nobara could challenge him on that lie.

The young man hurried up the stairs and stopped on the upper floor. That male voice had sent chills down his spine. He had recognized it immediately; it was the same voice he had heard on the answering machine in Choso's abandoned house.

"I need to find that place as soon as possible," Yuuji told himself, walking towards his bedroom. However, when he saw the state of it, he stopped in astonishment. Books were out of place, some with pages torn out.

He entered the room, still not understanding what had happened, and gathered the books back onto his desk. Then, he knelt down and picked up all the loose sheets, placing them next to the books. He examined the papers and noticed something written on the edge of one of them.

He frowned as he realized it was an address. A shiver ran down his spine. Yuuji was more aware than ever that he would have to go there if he wanted to put an end to everything. Ignoring it and continuing with his life would risk putting Nobara and Megumi in danger.

Yuuji stepped out of the taxi and pulled out his credit card to pay. He swiped the card on the machine and entered his PIN when prompted. He flashed a small smile at the driver. The man was casting furtive glances at the facilities behind them and seemed uncomfortable.

The young man with pink hair reached for his wallet, intending to give a tip to the driver, but the man abruptly shook his head and backed away, then drove off as fast as he could.

Yuuji watched him go and let out a sigh. He had almost asked the man to wait there since he had no way to leave. The nearest town was over two hours away by car, so walking to it was out of the question. It was past six in the evening, he checked on his watch.

He observed the imposing complex and noticed that the gate leading to the psychiatric facility was closed. He shook his head and looked around to see where he could go.

Yuuji started walking towards what appeared to be a security booth. The door was wide open, so he had no trouble entering. The first thing that caught Yuuji's attention was the lever on the left wall. There was a small sign above it with the word "entrance," Yuuji observed, serious. With little hope that it would work, he decided to pull the lever. The light next to the lever lit up, and the sound of the door opening reached the ears of the young man with pink hair.

"How is this possible?" Yuuji wondered aloud as a shiver ran down his spine. There shouldn't be any electricity in a place that had been abandoned for years. He swallowed nervously. It hadn't been normal for there to be electricity in Choso's abandoned house either.

At that moment, before leaving the guard booth, Yuuji noticed a brochure on the cracked wooden table. He picked it up and examined it, driven by curiosity. It took him a couple of seconds to recognize the photograph of the young man and the name of the program on the paper.

Both Iguchi and Sasaki had told him about a YouTuber who specialized in visiting abandoned places and recording the experience. He had watched it more than once with his two friends and had ended up learning the YouTuber's name, Junpei Yoshino, and his show, "Echoes from Beyond."

"Come to think of it, hasn't it been two months since he disappeared?" Yuuji remembered as he left the brochure where he had found it.

He looked at the rest of the items on the table and saw nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, noticing the jacket in a nearby wardrobe, it seemed like someone was still working there.

"So this is where that man worked," Yuuji thought, recalling the news about the massacre at Dark Falls. He then noticed a photograph in a wooden frame. He examined it, focusing on the two men smiling ahead. One of them, with black hair, had a wide smile and had his arm around the other man's shoulders. Both men had a relaxed and friendly posture, Yuuji noticed.

"One of them must be the guard," he thought. The casual clothing they wore provided no clues. The young man shivered again as he remembered the news and the nightmares he had been having lately. He shook his head vigorously, but it didn't dispel the unease that was beginning to engulf him.

Despite the growing sense of unease, Yuuji was keenly aware that he couldn't turn back now. He glanced at the open door with a sigh.

He left the guard booth and walked slowly towards the entrance of the asylum.

As he approached, Yuuji began to perceive with increasing clarity an oppressive and suffocating atmosphere, but he didn't stop. He crossed the gate and headed towards a small square nearby.

The young man cautiously surveyed the area, noticing the streetlights illuminating the place. He stopped and examined a map nearby. The asylum consisted of three complexes for patients and one for staff. It also had a greenhouse, Yuuji noted, serious.

"I need to find out which complex Sukuna was interned in," Yuuji murmured aloud.

The sound of something heavy moving caught the young man's attention. He looked up, trying to find the source of the noise, and upon seeing that it was the gate closing, all color drained from his face.

He sprinted towards it as fast as he could, but he wasn't able to reach it in time. When he finally arrived, the gate had closed completely. Yuuji cursed and stared in disbelief at the blocked path.

"And what the hell do I do now?" he wondered aloud. He began searching his pocket and pulled out his mobile phone.

Yuuji turned it on and sighed in relief to see that it still had enough battery, though his happiness didn't last long. He didn't even have a bar of reception, he checked, feeling his heart sink.

He roughly put the device back in his pocket and looked again towards the asylum buildings. The place seemed much more ominous to him now.

Aware that he had no other choice, he decided to head towards the staff pavilion. Maybe he would find more information about this place there.

Chapter Text

Yuuji stopped at the entrance of the employee building and suppressed a shiver. The place exuded a terrifying and threatening air, not to mention that since he had set foot in Dark Falls Asylum, Yuuji felt like he was being watched.

He looked up and observed the portrait on the wall in front of him. A man with black hair and small dark eyes. He wore an elegant suit and smiled arrogantly.

Yuuji approached to get a better look at the small golden plaque on the frame. On it, written in elegant letters, was: Kenjaku Kamo (2000-2015). The young man stepped back and frowned. That was the same man who had written letters to his brother.

"So, he was the last director of this place," Yuuji murmured serious, turning and contemplating the shabby wooden desk in front of him.

On top of it were the monitor and keyboard of a desktop computer, while the tower was underneath the desk. A black printer was on the far right of the desk, Yuuji noted.

He clicked his tongue and, in an attempt to check if there was electricity, pressed the power button on the tower and the monitor. The screen lit up with a bluish hue, and the image of the operating system the computer used appeared.

He grunted a bit upon seeing that it asked for a username and password. "Well, at least it's clear that this place has electricity," Yuuji said to himself. He took out his phone again and sighed upon seeing that he still had no signal.

He looked to his right and noticed the slightly ajar metal door. To the left were stairs leading to the upper floor. Yuuji didn't think too much about it and slowly moved towards the door.

Yuuji peeked cautiously and frowned at what seemed to have been an office.

The room was a complete mess. The wooden desk was on the floor, almost as if it had been used as a shield. To his left was a broken table lamp.

There was blood on the black and white tiled floor and on the surface of the desk. Yuuji quickly averted his gaze and observed the books scattered on the floor. He picked one up and flipped through the pages with little interest.

There were patient reports from Dark Falls Asylum. Yuuji began flipping through the pages, hoping to find something related to Sukuna, but saw absolutely nothing. He let out a long sigh and put it back where he had found it.

Yuuji stood up and looked at the painting next to the shelf. Someone had completely scratched out the face of the person in the portrait, making them unrecognizable. But the golden plaque on the frame was intact.

"Manami Suda," Yuuji read aloud. Judging by the years listed after the name, 1996-2000, that woman must have been the penultimate director.

At that moment, the sound of the printer caught the boy's attention, and he hurried out of the room and moved towards the machine. Someone had loaded the tray with paper, Yuuji noted, suppressing a shiver.

The first paper finally emerged, and Yuuji, trembling, picked it up. There was a single sentence repeated over and over: "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." The next sheet had the same message, Yuuji noted.

He paled a bit upon hearing footsteps coming from the upper floor and held his breath. Against his instinct, which told him to run away, Yuuji headed towards the stairs and began to climb slowly.

He reached a dimly lit hallway and stopped when he saw a trail of blood leading to a room with an open door. Yuuji saw a shadow in the doorway and ran towards it, feeling his heart pound frantically.

However, when he stopped at the entrance, he saw no one. In front of him was an ordinary bedroom. The only thing that caught Yuuji's attention was a sizable hole in the right wall.

His hair stood on end and his skin prickled as he approached the wall. He crouched slightly and looked through the hole. He saw what appeared to be a normal room and let out a sigh of relief.

Suddenly, the man who was identical to him appeared on the other side, and Yuuji, startled, let out a cry of surprise and stepped back immediately, slipping and falling to the ground. Yuuji heard the other man look at him amused and begin to laugh loudly while Yuuji got up and quickly left the room.

Yuuji leaned against the wall. His ears were ringing, and the young man was panting, feeling his heart beating wildly. He slowly raised his head and looked at the door next to the room he had just been in.

He paled upon seeing multiple locks and chains tightly securing the metal door. The young man swallowed hard as he saw the knob turn slowly, but the locks held. Yuuji turned around and started running upon hearing the door being forcefully pounded.

Yuuji didn't look back at any moment and descended the stairs at full speed, tripping and rolling down the rest of the steps. He landed on the floor and grimaced in pain. His whole body ached, but he made the effort to get up and move away from the stairs.

The pink haired young man left the building and headed to one of the benches nearby. He sat down and lifted the right leg of his pants. He had a small wound from which some blood flowed, but it didn't seem serious.

Yuuji adjusted his pants and let out a sigh. The pain began to subside slowly, although his body still felt sore. He took his phone out of his left pants pocket and smiled a bit upon seeing he had signal. He dialed Nobara's number and put the phone to his left ear.

"Come on, answer," he said aloud while waiting. But he had no such luck. He let out a huff and hung up. He opened the chat and sent a quick message to his friend. He held his breath as he waited for the icon indicating it had been sent to appear. Only then did he put the phone back in his pocket.

"What now?" he wondered. Returning to the employee building was completely out of the question. "I could start by checking Pavilion A," Yuuji said to himself, bringing his right hand to his chin.

He shuddered at the memory of the encounter he had had minutes before. It was quite likely that it was Sukuna, after all, he was identical to him. But if that was the case, his presence in the abandoned asylum only served to increase his questions.

He looked back at the employee building and suppressed a shiver. "I'm not going back there," he thought seriously. He looked up at the sky, grateful that he still had a few hours of sunlight left.

He stood up and suppressed a grimace of pain. For now, while waiting for Nobara to read his message, the best he could do was continue investigating to pass the time.

With that in mind, he headed towards the first pavilion at a slow pace.

Megumi let out a growl and abruptly hung up the phone. Nobara, who was sitting on the couch across from him, gave him a worried look, and the black-haired young man shook his head.

"Nothing, it doesn't even ring," Megumi grunted. "Wherever Yuuji is, there must be no signal."

Nobara bit her lower lip and checked her phone, hoping to find a message or something. She even checked social media, looking for any recent updates from their friend, but saw nothing.

"Didn't he tell you where he was going when he left?"

The woman shook her head. "Maybe we're worrying too much," Nobara said, though she didn't sound convinced. "He said he had to sort out some things; I'm sure he'll come back."

Megumi didn't respond. He remained silent for several minutes and rubbed his eyes. "He's been acting strange since we went to that abandoned house," he reminded her seriously.

"Who could act normal after what we saw?" Nobara asked, absentmindedly scratching her left arm.

Megumi suddenly stood up. "Do you remember that our landline always records the last call?"

Nobara nodded and frowned. "Yes, but if you're thinking of listening to Yuuji's conversation, I'm not sure it's a good idea."

"We haven't heard from him for hours, Nobara," Megumi pointed out, heading towards the entrance.

Nobara stood up and followed him immediately. The black-haired young man had stopped in front of the landline phone and was pressing several buttons. When he finished, the recording of the last call began to play.

The two young people listened in silence, pale. Neither dared to speak until the beep announcing the end of the recording sounded. Without thinking twice, Megumi pressed the button to delete the conversation. Only then did Nobara and he exchange a worried look.

"We have to go there," Nobara said, and her tone brooked no argument. Megumi nodded immediately, serious.

"But first, we need to find out where that damned place is," Megumi muttered through clenched teeth. "Why didn't you tell us anything, Yuuji?" he thought with some bitterness.

Nobara was quickly typing on her phone and clicked her tongue, irritated. "I don't see anything on the internet," she commented, annoyed.

At that moment, someone knocked loudly on the door. Nobara didn't hesitate and strode towards it. Hoping it was Yuuji, she opened it abruptly and was about to give him a scolding for worrying them so much.

However, standing at the door was a man with black hair and of medium height. His dark eyes were deeply marked by dark circles, and he looked somewhat unkempt.

The white t-shirt he was wearing was dirty and quite torn; the jeans he had on weren't in better condition. Nobara noticed some brownish stains that looked like dried blood.

"Who are you?" Megumi asked, having approached the door as well and glaring at him.

"There's no time for introductions," the man said, trying to enter the house. Nobara stood firm, blocking the way. The newcomer gave her an irritated look and continued speaking. "I need to talk to Yuuji as soon as possible," he demanded. However, neither of the two young people budged, leaving him no choice but to relent. "I'm Choso Itadori," the man introduced himself urgently. "I need to talk to my brother as soon as possible, please!" he pleaded, resuming his efforts to enter.

"He's not here," Megumi said seriously. Choso looked at him urgently. "Besides, we don't know if you're really his brother," the young man informed him.

Nobara looked thoughtfully at the man. "Now that I think about it, Yuuji showed me a photo of his brother from when they were kids," she thought serious. And it was undeniable that there was a certain resemblance between the ten-year-old Choso Itadori and the man standing before them. "Let's assume you really are his brother, how did you get here? You've been out of contact with Yuuji for years, how did you know he lives here?"

"I made sure to keep track of my brother," Choso said seriously. "Now, is he here or not? I have something very important to talk to him about."

"He's not here." Nobara bit her lower lip. She still wasn't entirely convinced that this man was who he said he was, but they couldn't waste time. "We suspect he went to investigate Dark Falls Asylum."

Choso's eyes widened upon hearing this, and he noticeably paled. He took several steps back. "Are you kidding?" he asked, looking at both young people, but they shook their heads. Choso let out an expletive and was about to leave quickly. However, Megumi intervened before he could go.

"We're going there. You wouldn't happen to know how to get there, would you?" he asked urgently. Choso nodded immediately.

Chapter Text

Yuuji didn't know exactly what he had expected when entering the first pavilion, but nothing had prepared him for the scene he encountered. While the pink haired man hadn't found anything unusual on the ground floor, everything changed when he went up to the first floor.

The young man with pink hair stood frozen at the doorway, observing the room. To one side, there was a chair bolted to the floor and an old projector. On the wall in front of them, there was a torn piece of cloth. He took several steps forward and entered the room, suppressing a shiver.

Yuuji couldn't take his eyes off the leather straps on the chair's armrests. At that moment, the door burst open, and Yuuji saw several men dressed in white coats dragging a woman forcefully toward the chair. None of the newcomers seemed to notice Yuuji's presence at any point.

The woman struggled as best as she could, trying desperately to break free. Yuuji, still paralyzed, watched as the woman, who judging by her clothes was likely a patient of the psychiatric hospital, managed to bite one of the doctors on the arm. The man clicked his tongue in annoyance but didn't release her at all.

The young man with pink hair opened his mouth to say something, to protest the violent behavior of the doctors, but no sound came out, and he couldn't move; he realized this when he tried to take a step forward. His body wouldn't respond at all.

He watched as they finally managed to tie her to the chair. One of the doctors, the oldest of the four, turned on the projector, and an image appeared on the white screen, which for some reason looked brand new again.

Yuuji swallowed, uneasy. "What the hell?" he thought, distressed, noticing that not only the screen had changed. The entire room was now different. All signs of abandonment had disappeared, but he had been so focused on the men and the woman that he hadn't noticed until that moment.

The woman continued screaming as the doctors placed electrodes on her head, showing no reaction whatsoever to her struggles. The patient let out a scream of pain when the first electric shock hit her. Unable to keep watching, Yuuji squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block out the sound of that inhuman torture.

The screams suddenly stopped, and when Yuuji, fearful, began to open his eyes slowly, he found himself once again in an abandoned-looking room. There was no trace of the doctors or the patient.

The young man with pink hair took several steps back and bolted from the room. The door slammed shut behind him, but Yuuji didn't stop. He reached the stairs and began to descend as fast as he could, only to trip, lose his balance, and tumble down.

The sound of his fall echoed through the building, momentarily breaking the perpetual silence that reigned in the pavilion. He lay on the floor, breathing with some difficulty.

Yuuji grimaced in pain and placed his right hand on his right side. He had hit that area several times during the fall. He noticed he had scraped his hands and knees when he saw his pants had torn slightly. They were bleeding a little but didn't seem to be serious wounds.

The young man with pink hair got up slowly, stifling a groan of pain. His side burned a bit, and his back ached. He stood up fully and rubbed his sore spots.

"At least it doesn't seem like anything's broken," Yuuji muttered tensely. He carefully brushed off some of the dust and dirt clinging to his clothes and looked at himself. "I wish there were somewhere to clean these wounds," he said out loud.

He looked up at the floor above and shuddered at the memory of what he had just experienced. "It must have been a hallucination," he told himself, trying to rationalize it. But whatever it was, it had been too realistic to come from his imagination. "I need to get out of here," he thought, nervous. Coming here had been a bad idea.

Yuuji turned around to head for the door, but stopped abruptly when he saw an iron gate blocking the only exit. He limped slightly as he approached it and placed both hands on the metal bars. No matter how hard he pushed, the gate wouldn't budge an inch.

"There has to be another way out," he muttered, trying to keep the panic at bay. "And if worst comes to worst, I can try breaking a window and escaping that way," he told himself, trying to stay optimistic. With that in mind, he began to search the area.

He checked his phone and clicked his tongue in frustration when he saw he still had no signal. The pink haired man raised his head and felt a chill run down his spine as he heard laughter coming from the end of the hallway to his right. Against what his instincts were screaming at him, Yuuji cleared his throat. "Hello?! Is anyone there?!" he shouted as loud as his lungs allowed.

His voice echoed throughout the building, but there was no response. Yuuji took a deep breath and closed his eyes, trying to calm himself. When he opened them, he fixed his gaze on the hallway where the laughter had come from and started walking toward it.

Choso kept his eyes fixed on the road. Night had fallen some time ago, but fortunately, there was hardly any traffic on that road. The adult let out a grunt and glanced at the back seat; Nobara was sleeping soundly, while Megumi stared out the window, distracted.

Choso turned back to the road, slightly turning the wheel to take the curve while easing up on the gas.

At that moment, just before the vehicle fully rounded the bend, a figure appeared in the middle of the road, forcing Choso to make a violent swerve that sent the car off the road, crashing into a nearby tree.

The front of the car crumpled, and a faint white smoke began to rise. The front airbags deployed instantly, effectively protecting Choso. Megumi and Nobara, however, weren't as fortunate. Both were thrown forward, hitting their heads hard against the backs of the front seats.

Nobara, who had woken up abruptly, looked around, still groggy. She rubbed the spot on her head where she had hit and touched her shoulder. She pulled the seatbelt slightly away and noticed that the skin in that area was an unpleasant reddish color.

"Are you all okay?!" Choso asked, alarmed, unbuckling his seatbelt and turning to look at the two young people.

"More or less, but we'll be fine," muttered Nobara, removing her seatbelt and rubbing her neck, sore. "What the hell happened?" she demanded to know.

Choso sighed and bit his lower lip hard before responding. "I think he already knows we're getting close to the asylum," he hypothesized.

"How much longer until we get there?" Megumi asked, speaking up before Nobara could.

"Half an hour at most," Choso answered immediately, opening the driver's door and stepping out of the vehicle. Megumi and Nobara quickly followed.

They walked up to the hood, and Choso examined it with a critical eye. The dent was quite large, and the car didn't look like it would run again. Nobara, who occasionally rubbed her shoulder with a pained expression, cast a doubtful glance at her two travel companions.

"What do we do now?" she muttered, pulling out her phone to make sure it was working. Nobara clicked her tongue, annoyed, upon realizing that while her phone wasn't broken, she didn't have any signal.

"Well... I suppose we should report the accident," Megumi admitted, serious. Despite his heart racing and feeling somewhat dizzy, he tried to stay calm.

"I don't have a signal," Nobara pointed out immediately, while Choso shook his head.

"I don't have a phone," he excused himself. Megumi let out a growl and rummaged through his right pocket until he found his own. The black haired young man pulled it out and frowned when, upon turning on the screen, he saw he had no signal either.

"So, what do we do now?" Nobara asked, crossing her arms. "We're in the middle of nowhere, without communication."

"We keep going," Choso said seriously. "There's nothing else we can do."

"Before that, when you said he knows we're here, who exactly did you mean?" Megumi asked, casting a sidelong glance at the man.

"Sukuna Itadori; or he was at some point," Choso replied, adopting a grave expression. "Now, I'm not sure what he really is."

Megumi and Nobara exchanged a look full of confusion, but before they could continue with questions, Choso started walking forward, forcing the two young people to follow him.

"Tell us everything," Megumi requested when they caught up with him. Choso glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, hesitated for a few seconds, but finally nodded and began to recount everything.

Megumi and Nobara listened with growing unease to the story about Yuuji's family. The woman swallowed and nervously rubbed her hands together.

"And what does that thing want with Yuuji?" she asked in a faint voice.

"A body to move freely through the world," he revealed seriously. "I'm afraid Yuuji is the only one who's one hundred percent compatible with him."

"And how can we stop it?" Megumi insisted, urgency evident in his voice.

"I'm not sure, but the main thing is to reach Dark Falls Asylum and get Yuuji out of there as soon as possible," Choso replied.

Chapter Text

Yuuji had kept walking down the hallway until he came across an open door. Without a second thought, he stepped into the room, and what he found made his blood run cold.

In front of him, sitting in a chair at a desk, was a completely frozen corpse. The window of the room was open, and the cold cut straight to the bone, yet Yuuji hardly paid any attention to it.

The stench of rot that filled the room was nauseating, and the young man had no choice but to cover his nose with his right hand in a vain attempt to block out the foul odor.

Even so, Yuuji couldn't tear his eyes away from the dead man. The face of that man was frozen in a perpetual expression of sheer terror. He held a pencil tightly in his right hand, and on the desk lay an open notebook.

Yuuji swallowed hard as he gathered the courage to step forward and take the notebook in his hands. He held his breath the moment he pulled his hand away from his nose, trying to avoid breathing in the stench for as long as possible.

The chill that shot through his fingertips the instant he touched it nearly made him drop it on the spot.

"I don't know if anyone will ever find this notebook. I am aware that this place will be my tomb, because HE has willed it so.

I can still hear his laughter on the other side of the door. He will not allow any of us to leave this place alive. This is nothing but a macabre game to HIM.

I curse the day I let myself be persuaded by Kenjaku Kamo and began working in this den.

I…"

The text broke off abruptly at that point, and Yuuji, realizing why, couldn't stop a shiver from running through his whole body as the hairs on the back of his neck bristled and his skin prickled with goosebumps when he heard approaching footsteps.

He didn't have the courage to turn around and see who it was. The atmosphere in the room had grown even more oppressive, and Yuuji was starting to struggle to breathe.

The newcomer walked forward until he stood right in front of him, and Yuuji swallowed hard when he found himself face-to-face with a man identical to him. The mocking smile that curled the stranger's lips was deeply unsettling, and every cell in Yuuji's body screamed at him to run—that he was in danger.

Breathing was becoming harder and harder for Yuuji, and he found himself unable to move, forced to watch as the other slowly drew closer, as if savoring the moment. Then, Yuuji felt a sharp pain in his stomach and instinctively placed his right hand there. He felt something sticky, and when he lowered his gaze to see what it was, he realized his palm was full of blood. His eyes went wide, and he looked down at his stomach, noticing his shirt was soaked with red.

The pain worsened as the bloodstain spread, and Yuuji's legs began to tremble. His vision was blurring at an alarming rate, and before he could say a word, his legs gave way and his body collapsed to the floor like lead.

Megumi shivered when they finally reached the asylum. They had been walking for over an hour along the edge of the road, using their phone flashlights as their only source of light.

"What a creepy place," Nobara muttered, shuddering. The temperature had dropped sharply the moment they arrived.

"Let's get inside. We can't waste any more time," Choso said, frowning as he saw the gate to the complex was locked. He glanced at the guard post on the right and, without another word, headed toward it, forcing the two younger ones to follow.

Choso stopped in front of a rusty lever and did his best to pull it down. Megumi noticed a small sign above it with the word door written on it and quickly rushed over. Between the two of them, they managed to force it down.

The machinery groaned loudly, and Nobara let out a sigh of relief when she saw the heavy metal gate begin to move.

"So, what's the plan then?" Megumi asked once the three of them had entered the inner courtyard.

"Besides the administration building, there are two other complexes for the patients," Choso explained, stroking his chin. "Although, the easiest thing would be to split up to look for Yuuji…"

"No splitting up," Megumi and Nobara protested in unison, and Choso let out a long sigh.

"Our priority is to find my brother as soon as possible," he reminded them. "Although, knowing Sukuna, splitting up would be a bad idea."

"So which building do we start with, then?" Nobara asked sharply. The other two shrugged. There was no way to know which one Yuuji might be in.

"Sukuna was kept in Block A until it burned down; after that, they transferred him to Block B," Choso said. "We could start there, if that's alright with you."

"We have to start somewhere," Megumi replied.

They walked on until they came to a broken fountain, where the three of them noticed a sign nearby. They stopped in front of it and read what it said.

"So Block B is to the left," Nobara murmured, glancing in that direction.

"Let's go," Choso said, immediately heading that way.

Sukuna finished fastening Yuuji's restraints and stepped back a little, admiring his work. He had made sure not to tighten the straps too much—just enough to restrict his twin's movements as much as possible.

The man extended his right hand, a smile filled with affection curving his lips as he stroked Yuuji's face.

"I'm sorry for being so rough earlier," Sukuna apologized, even though he knew Yuuji couldn't hear him. His gaze shifted to his twin's stomach; there wasn't the slightest trace of blood on the clothes. Creating that illusion, and making it realistic enough, had been an easy task. Sukuna let out a sigh. "Since our dear brother has decided to interfere even further, I have no other choice."

Sukuna then stepped away and approached a metal table to his right. He picked up a vial containing a brownish liquid and shook it slightly. Uncapping it as he walked back to Yuuji, he carefully pried his brother's mouth open.

Pressing the neck of the vial against his twin's lips, he gently coaxed him into swallowing the concoction. Sukuna smiled in satisfaction once the vial was completely empty, tossing it carelessly to the ground and shattering it instantly.

Turning around, Sukuna faced the metal door. Now he had a bit of time while the mixture took effect.

"This time, I'll make sure I don't fail", Sukuna promised himself, a cruel smile spreading across his face. He vanished from the room as if he had never been there at all.