Notes:
Obligatory grammar warning.
CW: Allusion to cannibalism, very mild gore.
—oOo—
By the time he returns to the village, the sky is already dark even when they only went out for a few hours. Not enough time has passed since they met Kuroda in the forest an hour ago. They followed the river he had seen when he tried to search Kuroda and found that it passed through the mountain on the other side of the village. Something is wrong with the river. The water is way too saturated with cursed energy, unlike the normal one he found outside. Founding that they couldn't follow the stream anymore, he gave up and decided to return to the temporary house.
They come to the house and find the other five visitors to be in the living room. Two of them—the man with black hair, Takara, and the man with glasses, Matsui—are pacing around inside the room. One of them is biting his nail, an obvious sign of anxiety, while the other cross both hands in front and rubs his arm as if relieving his goosebumps.
Itachi also notices that the two women are rather quiet. Both of them are sitting on the chairs in the corner of the room.
Their entrance takes their attention away from something that bothers them. Looking uncomfortable, the man with black hair is the first one to speak. He opts to speak to him rather than Third Brother, unlike what he did last night. "Naoya-kun, you guys said you come from the outside…" Takara speaks in tentative and deliberate slowness. As if waiting for Itachi to reconfirm his words so he could just go straight into what he intends to say.
"Yes," Itachi nods, "what's the matter Takara-san?" While speaking, Itachi notes that the brown-haired man is not in the room. Well, where is he? He shouldn't have done something stupid with his Discipline restraining him.
"Could you take us out?" In a hurry, he blurts out the words he wants to say since yesterday. Itachi pauses his search around the room and stares at the man.
"Um?" Tilting his head in question, Itachi hums.
Unwilling to take back his words, the man elaborates on what he wants. "We've been here for days. We can't even find the village gate." His hands move in frantic motion, they move upward and muss up his hair. "Please, just shows us the exit."
… Oh well.
"Where's Kawashima-san?" He has yet to agree and switch the topic. The moment he said that, the man's face crumples in dejection. From the corner of his eyes, he notices the two women that only listening to their conversation stiffen. Oh, that's… interesting. It looks like they have already reconciled with each other.
"Oh, yeah…" As if only just realizing his friend's absence, he looks around, and in the end, the man turns his gaze towards his two females companion and asks. "Hikaru, Yuriko, where's Kawashima? He's with both of you before."
"He is lost." The one that speaks is the woman with long hair. She speaks in short words without offering any other explanation. Not a very good answer, considering that her words may spark another round of argument.
"What do you mean? He went with you two outside." The man eyes both of them with suspicion. "How could he just disappear?"
"Takara, what do you wanna say? If you want to accuse me, just say so in front of me!" The woman is very short-tempered, in front of her friend's accusing gaze, she blows up.
Looking at the escalating situation, the man in glasses inserts himself into the conversation. "Oh God. You guys calm down. And Yuriko… he hasn't even said anything yet. Why are you so defensive?" The man in glasses shares the same suspicion. They didn't accuse her of anything, but she already jumps into defense. If it's not a guilty conscience, he doesn't know what else.
"He may not have said anything yet, but why he's looking at me like that?" She huffs, "and you. Only know how to follow him like a dog on a leash." She is determined to offend everyone in her group, so she turns her head and looks at Isa's face with a frown. "You're no different either, as useless as ever."
They already forget his and Toji's presence inside this room, and only focus on each other. Itachi turns back and marks that Third Brother is unwilling to enter the house. His expression is unpleasant, like someone is forcing him to swallow bile.
What a strange situation they're in. The Discipline should have prevented her from making unnecessary actions that may jeopardize her safety. Completely opposite of what Isa did in the morning. Unless she never has an inkling that antagonizing people could potentially harm her. He has no other idea.
His Discipline may help, but a person's decision is still tied to their psyche and subconscious level of thought.
Not interested in the conflict, Itachi decides to interject, "okay, I'll show you the welcoming gate. You can walk down from there."
That draws their attention off from the incoming dispute, and Mano snorts in dissatisfaction.
—oOo—
Without saying anything, they agree to leave and don't even bother to look for Kawashima. At the gate, Mano quips. "Look, you spoke so righteously to me before. But hey… you also don't want to look for him either, right? Damn hypocrite." She scorns him and her face sneers in disgust.
"Can you just shut up for a second?!" If looks could kill, then Mano would have died twice over this second. She doesn't want to respond and just rolls her eyes. Besides her, Isa only tries to make herself look small and unnoticed.
Receiving no more response, the man turns back and looks at Itachi. "You guys not coming down with us?" He is hopeful, but it is unfortunate that Itachi must refuse.
"No."
"Oh."
Itachi still has a mission he has yet to complete and has no time to play escort. He also doesn't want to send Toji with them either. If they have one more disagreement, Third Brother would most likely beat them up together so they have no more strength to argue.
The man then adds, "I don't know if it's useful, but we saw people go to the forest on the west side of the village. They look like they're carrying something." So that's why the village is deserted.
Itachi nods, "well, thank you. Have safe travel."
—oOo—
"Nii-san, can you smell them?" They stand on the edge of the forest. The heavy presence of cursed energy causes the forest to be shrouded in darkness, where no single light comes through its thick canopy, not even the moon.
"You use me as a sniffing dog." Toji sounds offended, but there is not much heat in his voice.
"Third Brother, if I can see or smell like you do. I won't ask you."
"Use your damn fancy eyes."
Itachi looks up and stares at Toji. "Nii-san, I don't know what misconception you have about my eyes, but they cannot see through this." He sighs and makes a gesture that points towards the forest. At times like this, Byakugan is a way better option to navigate in this pitch-black forest. Sure, Sharingan could help, but it is not their primary function, so it is rudimentary at best.
In silence, Toji acknowledges his answer. He doesn't reply and walks forward without any more words. "Don't get lost. I won't turn back." He pauses for a moment and chooses to offer his hand.
"C'mon."
Without much hesitation, Itachi takes his hand and follows behind him. Along the journey, he steps on dried leaves, creating a sonorous crisp sound in the middle of the night. Other than that, he also steps on an unknown squelching substance. He hopes that's just mud. It would be a pain to clean off if it's not.
Not that he would clean it himself.
A few minutes into their walk, Toji stops. "Nii-san, why are you stopping?" Itachi steps to the side and tries to look at what stops Third Brother from his track. The keyword is 'tries'. He couldn't see much, only a faint silhouette of bodies lumping together.
"Ho? Looks like your ability holds just fine this time." He couldn't see the condition of the bodies in front of him, so he couldn't infer what happened.
"Nii-san, what do you mean?" He slips his hand from Toji's hold and steps forward to approach the bodies. He bends down and his hands meet a cold and soft surface. That's strange, the body should have been only at the initial stage and should still be stiff. He pokes the flesh once again and the meat caves under his light pressure.
"…"
Itachi hears Third Brother's snort of morbid amusement. "Don't fucking touch me with your disgusting hand."
Well, it's dirty, but it's not that disgusting right?... Right?
Itachi stands up and stretches out his hand to grab Toji's clothes. Knowing that Toji would move aside and refuse, he tries to convince him by saying that this hand is not dirty.
His Sharingan is active the whole time since they entered this forest. But it's kind of useless. No night eyes for him then.
"Nii-san, what's the condition of the corpses?"
"Like a small animal has mauled them." That's vague description is not helpful in the slightest.
"Nii-san, the details." Itachi pushes for an answer. His voice is borderline a whine at this point.
Toji looks down to look at him and Itachi feels something complicated flash through Third Brother's mind. "Third Brother, what're you thinking about?"
"This is your first time seeing human corpses…" No, it's not.
"Third Brother, is it appropriate to regard this as seeing. I couldn't even properly look at what's in front of me." Itachi attempts to reassure Toji's understandable doubt. His doubt is not out of nowhere. He spends most of his time in the house, training. He only goes outside to go on a mission, and Third Brother always accompanies him every single time. So he knows for a fact that Itachi never leaves a single casualty. His always fight ends before the curses could even notice his presence. This time, it's different.
Toji doesn't pursue the topic and just says, "there're bite marks everywhere, human bite, from a child specifically. Looks like your ability also buffs his physical power, he shouldn't have been able to take down this many people–" Toji pauses, rethinking his choices of words, "this many corpses with the way he looks so tired when he left us before."
Of course, his Discipline forced Kuroda's body to undergo an overdrive. As the body last ditch effort into fulfilling his order. He knows the most that his technique is not the one that could solve all problems. Perhaps the boy would feel less terror and pain if he didn't put Discipline on him. Perhaps the boy would experience less dread if he died sooner. Perhaps Itachi would only prolong the boy's suffering by putting the order on him.
He knows, and he accepts. This is not a perfect solution.
The ability couldn't perform a miraculous feat of saving the boy's life. It could only drive the boy towards a possibility where he could save his own life amongst the infinite choices that he could have made.
"Nii-san, let's move forward." Itachi ignores the corpses and tugs Toji's hand while wiping his other hand, the one that touched the corpse, on the tree beside him.
—oOo—
They arrive in front of a natural cave. There is a barrier surrounding the entrance and the entire mountain, different from the one Toji felt in the village. Normally, any barrier would have ignored him due to his lack of cursed energy. They consider him a non-entity. But this one, it looks like it's been specially tailored for someone with no lick of cursed energy, like him. Suspicious.
A strange village where abnormal cursed spirits seem to take residence, the barrier surrounding the village, the villagers, and now, this. It reeks of an obvious setup.
From the information they have collected, the villagers would sacrifice their own children every three months for an unknown reason. Who knows what kind of cursed spirit is inside this cave?
It's been eighteen months since the first recorded anomaly, so this practice only started less than two years ago. To begin with, they also don't know what triggered this sacrificial ritual.
The brat looks indifferent toward the death he just saw, but it is unknown whether it's just a front he puts up or his genuine feeling. For someone with great emotional control like him, Toji wouldn't put it past Naoya to don a mask to obscure his actual responses.
The most logical action after encountering this barrier is to retreat and report to the clan. Heh, he could have imagined those lazy-fart faces when they know that someone is trying to kill their golden goose this way. He could also see some people celebrating this great occasion. That prissy bastard most of all.
"This is a setup." Toji chooses to outright state his opinion. Hand no longer holding the brat's, he crosses both his arms in front of his chest. "You can retreat or just continue. It's up to you." He doesn't care much. The brat would most likely retreat. He is not stupid, he must have realized that this is a trap the moment Toji couldn't simply pass through the barrier. Someone is trying to kill him while he is still in the cradle.
Someone, or a group of someone that doesn't like this new and unknown technique. A lot of people compare the kid's eyes with Six Eyes, on the ground that both of them are eye-based traits. But since none of them have ever witnessed these eyes used in a fight. They are still on the fence.
However, there are also those who would prefer to play safe and strangle this new ability when the user is young and inexperienced, combined with the fact that it is mostly unknown. They also assume that the kid also doesn't know much about his ability.
Though, with the ease with how Naoya uses his eyes, Toji doubts that the kid doesn't know anything about it.
"No, I'm going in." Naoya's voice brings Toji back to their current predicament. Why does the brat become stubborn all of the sudden… It's not his usual behavior.
"…"
Hah, never mind then.
"Nii-san, wait here." The brat enters the barrier after he said that. Not an ounce of hesitation shows on his face.
Toji looks up towards the sky, still hidden from view. It turns out to be a quiet and long night.
—oOo—
The inside of the cave is less dark than the forest. Walking along the only path, Itachi observes the surrounding wall. The stone-made wall is untouched by human hand while various stalactites and stalagmites protrude on its surface.
A dripping sound of water comes from above, they hit the stone under the cave ceiling as they accompany Itachi during the walk. While the path looks natural and not man-made, it's rather obvious that people from the village regularly walked on it, as indicated by the lack of slippery algae covering the whole surface of the wet cave floor.
After a few minutes of walking, he reaches the main chamber. There he sees an idol statue of some deity that is worshipped by this village. He doesn't know which deity it is, so the most probable answer is that it is some kind of local or regional deity. The face of the statue is smiling, but in this situation, he feels no compassion from it. Instead, that smile feels as if it is filled with malice. Moonlight falls past through the hole in the cave ceiling, bathing the statue in all of the moon's radiance. Sitting on an altar, the statue looks holy, a mockery of what it should be.
The altar… Its surface is caked with dried red liquid.
With all the strange happenings in this village, this statue must have been the source. Itachi takes his gaze off the statue and decides to observe his surrounding. The chamber is quite big, fifty people could fill this room and they wouldn't have to squeeze against each other. The ceiling of this chamber is also quite high.
Behind the statue, there is a pond. He walks close and without warning, an unpleasant smell invades his nose. The dimness of the chamber prevents him from evaluating the depth of the pond. The water is not still. The stream moves somewhere. He knows where the water from this pond would end.
There in the water, Itachi also finds the floating body of the boy he met earlier. It is rather close to the edge, so he fishes the body out of the water and examines the mark on his nape.
It's gone. His Discipline automatically dissipates at the moment of death.
Itachi puts the boy's body away from the statue and thinks about what he should do. There is nothing in here other than a pond that's filled with children's corpses. Well… and that stone statue.
He approaches the statue and thinks that a kick will do. Itachi needs to trigger something and decides that desecrating this idol should be sufficient enough offense for a fight to start.
Itachi kicks the statue off its altar and quietly watches as it falls into the pond. The weight creates a huge splash that sweeps various human remains from the bottom of the pond onto the chamber floor. Mostly bones and a few bits of flesh that are so fragile a mere wave of water could tear them apart.
The stench once again pervades his sense. Almost a second after he kicked the statue off, Itachi hears a screeching wail originating from the one in front of him. As if beckoning for something to come.
A beat. There is nothing.
A second later. Itachi feels a surge of cursed energy coming from above and sees an amazing picture, countless cursed spirits squeezing and forcing themselves into the chamber through the hole he saw earlier. Among them, Itachi notices the red lady and the shadow-like cursed spirit he saw when he hikes up towards this village.
Well, isn't this interesting?
Not long after, cursed spirits of various grades fill the chamber. They don't attack him, instead; they shed off their husk and rush toward the drowning statue inside the pond.
Though not all. Most of them are in the illusion he cast the moment he realized what they wanted to do. Believing themselves to be with the main body while they're trapped in his false reality. Ignorant of their predicament. Ah, and… they behave like a hive mind, with the idol as their literal queen.
That wouldn't do.
Twisting and squirming, the cursed spirits move even when they are already inside the illusion. It is possible that the main body gives off a signal that causes them to behave like that, even when their senses tell them that there is nothing wrong.
Itachi cuts off that connection between them apart and the cursed spirits once again behave normally. He looks for their origin and realizes that the fear and dread that those children feel created them. There he sees a disjointed memory.
Bloodletting, who believes in that nonsense nowadays?
Betrayal, sadness, hatred. An ultimate recipe for a cursed spirit to grow truly.
Itachi shifts through all of them and discovers that most of them do not originate from this village. They are from nearby sites. Something is attracting them to swarm this mountain.
—oOo—
Cursed spirits wouldn't exist without a source. Without a root to tether them to this reality. Like a tree that falls against the mighty wind, they would drift together with the energy that circles through the earth. Harmless.
So, erase that origin from their consciousness.
Erase like it never exists since the beginning of the earth.
Erase like the concept of it never been known to man.
Make these writhing curses serve no purpose other than as disjointed emotions of those humans.
With no origin, there are no curses.
Confused by the sudden change, their cursed energy begins to eat themselves. Salvaging their caricature of individuality.
Useless.
And by that, he exorcises them.
Not long after, the idol rises from the pond, water dripping from its stone-hard surface, a crack is seen on its face, splitting the smiling face into two parts, right down the middle.
Compares to the ones he has met before, this one looks somewhat mild and incomplete. Probably because Itachi exorcized most of its food just now.
Not wanting to know what it's going to do and potentially destroying the chamber thus trapping himself. Itachi decides to burn the idol with the heaven-blessed flame, Amaterasu, erasing the idol from his sight. Together with that, he hears a cacophony of noises, wails, shrieks, and other indescribable howls coming from that stone vessel.
Not even ashes remain.
The black fire that burns everything.
Oh well, not everything, since there is still something in the place of that statue. He waits and waits. After a few minutes of observation, he finds no reaction between the black flame and the remain. Not wanting to start a forest fire that couldn't be put out, Itachi seals the fire back into his eyes and approaches the remain.
A mummified finger.
—oOo—
Toji senses the tremor before he feels the shattering of the barrier in front of him and the one that envelopes the village and its nearby area. He senses a large dip of cursed energy from the environment around him, immediately after the barrier was gone. Like a dam that burst open, the concentration of cursed energy in the vicinity return to equilibrium.
A few seconds after the tremor, Toji hears faint footsteps coming from the cave. There he sees a silhouette of his younger cousin come into the light. The brat is looking the same as when he enters the cave. He spots no visible injury, at least as far as his eyes could see. The only difference is his hair. It's a little bit out of place, but it's nothing in the grand scheme of things.
When the brat reaches the cave entrance. He finally notices another thing that is out of place on Naoya's face. It is subtle, but there are slight creases on his forehead and a faint curl on his lips. An expression that he has yet seen grace his younger cousin's face. At least until now.
What did he see inside? Toji couldn't help but wonder because that expression of disgust is jarring against that eternal placid and calm front.
"Let's go back."
Oh, the brat is in a bad mood. Naoya doesn't even bother to linger in this place any longer than necessary. Toji thought that he would insist on searching for the missing man from the previous group before heading back.
He couldn't be blamed for thinking this, because the brat has a track record of being a bleeding heart. From the various missions before, Naoya was rather helpful and considerate towards non-sorcerers who got involved in the issues. Perhaps out of duty or politeness. But the point still stands. The brat is nice. This is the first time his mission to not go so smoothly and took the lives of innocent people.
Is this it? The reason why he is upset… Toji is not quite sure. Sometimes the kid could be somewhat callous and cold. He wouldn't say he is an expert on this matter, but he is positive that the kid is insensitive to other people's plights, the unvoiced one. Well, could he expect something different from someone who doesn't even put his older siblings in his eyes? The way the kid looks at them as if he is born knowing to be the superior one amongst all of them combined.
He may not pick a fight, but his silence infuriates them all the same.
The silent arrogance that etches itself onto his skin.
—oOo—
"What's in your hand?" A question Toji wants to ask since they leave the cave. Naoya is holding onto something that looks like a gnarly stick.
Naoya opens his palm and shows the content for him, "a finger." He speaks like the finger is something he could encounter everyday.
The corner of his mouth twitches in an aborted motion of grimace. "Do you know what it is?" The kid should know.
"I know." Right…
He wants to facepalm, but that reaction would be over the top. "Then why are you holding it like it's a piece of candy or something?"
Naoya's face turns red. "Oh…" He is reluctant to answer. "I can't draw a talisman." He murmurs his final words.
Toji snorts. Unkind.
They walk through the previous track towards the village. This time, Naoya has no need to hold Toji's hand, because of the moonlight showering above them, even when they are deep inside the forest.
Before even reaching the village, Toji's guess regarding the villagers' condition is proven to be correct. An overwhelming and unpleasant stench assaults his nostrils halfway through the way.
"Let's leave this to the windows supervising this area."
With that sentence, Naoya walks away from the dilapidated village and doesn't look back.
—oOo—
Not yet ten minutes after they stepped out of the village gate, they meet a woman from before, the short-haired one. She is kneeling in front of them, her feet gave up from supporting her body, and they quiver. The woman looks dirty and messy, a stark contrast from when they separate less than two hours ago.
She looks up and her eyes are blown wide. As if they are trying their hardest to register everything around them.
"Ah you… You. Help me, you must help me!" A desperate plea comes out of her mouth. Unclear whether she is pleading to the kid or him. "It's not my fault. If they don't leave me. If only they don't leave me!" Incoherent babble and sobs cause her whole body to slump to the ground once again.
Toji looks at the brat's expression. Frigid.
Oh, looks like his foresight is working once more, and he already knew the gist of what the woman is talking about.
"Yes?" A half-hearted reply from the brat is the last trigger that sets the woman off.
She talked about how she got an injury on her leg and slow them down. Saying that they had already circled around the area for about four days and were hungry. The woman said that her friends were planning to abandon her, alone in the mountain, because she would only slow them down. Desperate, she killed the two men in her group. If she had to stay in this godforsaken place, they would also have to accompany her. It's not hard to imagine how, especially when he just discovered one of the Discipline's side effects a while ago. The confusing thing is why their Discipline doesn't react to the woman who harbors secret malice towards them. Or… they simply trusted her, so their senses never consider her as a threat.
The brat's ability may influence people, but it won't change the people of who they actually are, and their nature. A bad person won't turn good just because Naoya says so, and a good person won't turn bad just because Naoya says so. At most, it could restrain their actions, but it won't change them. Their cognitive ability is still very much intact, even if they are helpless against that order.
Unwilling to hear more of her words, Naoya stops her and speaks for the first time since the woman spoke of her tale. "Please come closer."
Even with her lack of mobility, that doesn't stop the woman from abiding by his order. She would come closer even if she has to use both of her hands to move. Upon intruding into the brat's space, Naoya reaches out his hand and places it on top of the woman's head.
Only a few seconds… It's enough for Naoya to rip off information from the woman's head and decides what's he gonna do.
His hand leaves her head and stays on his beside. At the same time, the woman falls unconscious.
"What?" Toji looks at the fainted woman and then at the brat.
"She won't remember much."
Refusing to elaborate further, Naoya continues his journey to trek down the mountain. Well, the brat is just going to leave that woman in the middle of nowhere.
Without any prompt, Naoya suddenly speaks, voice solemn in this quiet night. "Human's desire truly…" He then stops himself from continuing.
Truly what? Speak properly, don't stop mid-sentence…
—oOo—
Notes:
Those who play Elysian Realm probably understand how one's desire is intertwined with Discipline. What do you guys think her heart desire is? For it to twist the Discipline that Itachi/Naoya put on her.
The illusion in this chapter is from Ignorance, the third branch of his technique. Anything that messes with one's perception of senses or mind is from that. While Discipline may mess with one's action, it leaves the brain and senses untouched.