Chapter Text
Catalina Rosario’s New Life Journal, Monday, October 8th, 2012
Dear Diary,
It’s been six months. Six months of this new English teaching job and living here and I’m already starting to lose my mind.
I did all the work to learn this place’s God-forsaken difficult language. Yet, even with that, no one wants to talk to me. No one even gives a shit.
Four years down the drain, just to hear a condescending “Oh wow! Your Japanese is so good!” whenever my fluency slipped even the slightest amount. They mean well, but it’s still annoying.
Outside of the lady who cuts my hair, I have no friends. I get left out at work, too. No one there takes me seriously.
The only thing keeping me here is the fact that I’m just too damn broke to move again.
My only escape is the run that I force myself to go on every night to blow off steam. It’s not enough… nothing here replaces the joy of my old life. Thanks for nothing, Japan.
God, if you’re real, please help. I need a miracle.
And maybe a cute boyfriend if it’s not too much.
Yours truly,
Cati
…
If anyone asked, Catalina had moved to Japan because she wanted to have an interesting life.
She had gotten tired of living in the US, tired of American culture, sick of seeing the same thing every day.
So, she moved. She already knew the language, so it wasn’t particularly difficult.
What she didn’t tell people was the little voice in her head nagging at her to go, the tightness in her heart and the overwhelming excitement she felt when she finally did.
She had to listen to the little voice in her head that told her to take the leap.
And as every other night went, at around 8pm, Ms. Catalina Rosario was out for a run.
On this night, she decided to go up the local trail in the hills to visit a shrine, a trail she hadn’t noticed it there before.
She had seen on the news that people were going missing in this area, but she didn’t really care. People usually kept their distance from her, and nothing interesting had happened to her in months.
On top of that, the great outdoors were calling her!
Even if something did happen, she could handle herself—she could probably beat up any man she came across. They needed to be more worried about her: proficient at martial arts, athletic, and nearly six feet tall.
…
It was getting chilly outside. Nothing terrible for a New Yorker like her, although she never really had much of a tolerance for it.
Her tropical roots shined through whenever the first hints of cold began to show up—she hated it.
It wasn’t quite so bad though, it was only October.
Near the top of the hill, she heard something rustle in the woods, to the left of the trail, about 20 feet ahead of her.
She thought it was a bear. Only a bear could cause that large of a disruption.
A tree branch snapped.
The crack seemed to reverberate around her body. As if lighting had suddenly struck.
The air temperature dropped at least 10 degrees.
What the hell?
She backed away; bears were not quite as docile here.
In fact, in Japan, they were known to actively stalk and hunt their victims for days.
Unlike the black bears of America—who only attacked humans in self-defense—these bears actively hunted humans. They actively enjoyed eating human flesh.
They even displayed enough intelligence to set traps, in some cases.
It moved towards the clearing.
She heard it before she could see it. The sound of flesh, squelching and ripping.
Bones cracking, joints pulling apart. Arms and legs, bent the wrong way.
She could smell it too—the putrid smell of a dead animal left out in the hot sun for hours.
And then she saw it—
A mass of broken off body parts—arms, legs, noses, eyes, ears, and mouths.
All belonging to different people.
Held together by… skin? Did it count as skin?
Stretched, taut, thin in some places and thick in others. Pale in some places, purple in others, and in others… red. Or the brown-red of dried blood.
It was at least three feet taller than her. And just as wide.
Body parts pulled out of it, reaching towards her.
Gaps appeared when the skin teared open, revealing teeth, tongues of various shapes—long, short, round, pointy, forked in the middle.
And from the mouths came a noise—voices. Strangled voices.
More similar to a vibration than a full voice.
“Help me,” it said. “Please, let me go home.”
A few of its eyes locked on Catalina, seizing up their next meal. They’d seen nothing like her before.
It was exciting to see people who looked different. The curse wondered what she would taste like.
“No. Please get away from me,” she responded.
It didn’t move forward any further.
But it didn’t go away, either. It just stared at her, slowly blinking though misplaced eyes.
Eyes that appeared to have belonged to other people. Gouged out of their sockets for this monster’s personal use.
“Please, leave me alone,” she commanded, again. Her voice wavered, ever so slightly.
Catalina didn’t notice, but her eyes were glowing faintly. It was imperceptible to her.
The monster, on the other hand, wanted to gouge them out, and wear them on their own body. They would be a nice addition.
She felt thankful for the adrenaline in her body—that was the reason she could see so well in the dark.
Her eyes pinned the monster in place, but it still didn’t go away. It kept regarding her, waiting patiently.
She took a few deep breaths. There wasn’t much she could do; if she turned her back, it would certainly chase her.
A small, light blue aura began to appear around her body—distorting the air around her.
It went without her notice. She was too focused on… surviving. Not dying at 21.
She couldn’t look away from it. It began to creep towards her, slowly, as if Catalina wouldn’t notice as long as it moved slowly enough.
She backed away.
Slowly at first… then she turned around and started running away at full speed.
She hurled down the trail, trying her best not to trip over a root or a rock. There were a lot more obstacles than she remembered.
Shit. Shit shit shit fuck nooooo please… Why me? Why now? I didn’t actually want to die that was just a joke don’t take my words so seriously please God why…
These silent prayers went through her head as if bargaining with God would get her out of her current predicament.
It would not.
It chased after her, at a speed that shouldn’t have been possible for its shape.
She thought she had memorized the path she took uphill, but was met with several forks in the trail.
Way too many forks. More than she remembered.
The same signs, statues, and even tree root patterns repeated themselves, as it continued to get colder outside.
She began to run out of breath, her lungs burning from fatigue.
Her calves on the verge of quitting on her as she continued to flee from her fate.
Eventually, after near constant stumbling, she tripped over a rock and could not recover from it.
She fell forward, hitting the ground before her legs could break the fall.
But she didn’t give up.
She turned around immediately, crouching on all fours but facing her tormentor.
It hesitated, ever-so-slightly, but it had already gained too much momentum to stop itself.
Catalina’s head was buzzing. She felt electric, alive.
Adrenaline is one hell of a drug.
The aura around her had grown, eyes growing even brighter.
She could see the forest clear as day.
And the monster, even more clearly. She could nearly see through it.
Without thinking, she reached out both hands to the encroaching form, just as it was about to grab her.
Just as it was about to devour her.
She grabbed it, first. And pushed, with everything she had.
Everything. It was as if every single muscle in her body snapped at once.
The light around her body went from blue to white—and it directed itself entirely at the creature.
White flashed—everywhere. Something in her body snapped.
Catalina was screaming bloody murder. From fear or from pain, she didn’t know.
Then—
The monster exploded into black smoke. Catalina blacked out from exertion.
When she came to, only the memory of being chased remained.
Images of the monster flashed through her mind, but it felt more like a dream than real life.
For some reason, her ears were ringing quite loudly.
She remembered running, she remembered suddenly feeling fatigue, and she remembered falling.
It was very confusing. How could she fall in such an odd position?
Perhaps she had become exceptionally clumsy.
What mattered more was getting home—it was starting to get late.
She needed to get home, take a shower, get to bed early, and wake up at 5:30am.
Her daily 90 minute commute awaited her the next morning. No rest for the wicked.
…
She had never seen anything even resembling the images of the monster flashing through her head.
It was worse than any of the sleep paralysis demons that had come to visit her at night, or any ghost she had seen in a bathroom mirror.
Or the ones that occasionally followed her father home.
She didn’t consider herself to be particularly religious—especially after a suffocating Catholic upbringing.
She had long since grown tired of all the rules, of feeling like she could never just enjoy her life.
However, there was no doubt in her mind that ghosts were real. Maybe even demons too.
She’d seen both of those—plenty of times.
She only knew one other person who had acknowledged them: her great-grandmother.
She remembered being there with her at her hospice bed, the old woman screaming in Spanish at the encroaching demons, begging them not to take her to Hell.
Begging them to stay away from her children when she passed.
They wouldn’t listen to her anymore.
The whole family thought it was her dementia and religious fanaticism, she always had something to say to the “demons” that followed her around.
She did everything she could to keep them away: fasted on Sundays, repented constantly, prayed to the Holy Trinity and to every saint in existence, and filled her house with candles of religious icons, which constantly remained lit.
She constantly crocheted blankets for her growing number of grand and great-grand children, promising to protect them in their youth.
It seemed to work, in spite of the ridiculousness of it all.
Catalina had never once seen a ghost in her great-grandma’s house, even after her death.
Not until her house was cleared out, at least.
At the hospice bed, Catalina held her great-grandmother’s hand and reassured the old woman that they were safe from the demons.
She looked up at them, and they seemed to back off, ever-so-slightly.
The pair were practically copies of each other: the same yellow-hazel eyes, the same unruly curly hair.
Old age had changed the woman, but old pictures could have been vintage-style photos of Catalina.
The teacher never forgot their last conversation.
“They’re afraid of you, mi preciosa,” she mused.
“Who?”
“You know who, Cati. No one else sees them but us.”
“But why?”
“No one knows. But please, never stop praying. In your eyes… God’s light shines through.”
“Then why does He keep scaring me? And why does it make mom and dad so mad?”
“You remind them of me, your crazy abuela. They fear what they don’t understand,” the old woman said, a strange clarity returning to her words as her death approached.
“I-please don’t go. I don’t wanna be alone,” Catalina said, hugging the woman, on the verge of tears. She was only 7 years old.
A light appeared in the old woman’s yellow eyes.
Catalina’s eyes widened, she knew what she was looking at.
God’s light, the 7-year-old thought to herself.
“Oh, mi preciosa. My blessing. I’ve waited for you for so long. Your blanket… never lose it. I love you in this world and the next. Never forget that. I’ll always be with you,” she held the child’s hands with a steady grip.
A strength that should have been impossible for a woman pushing 104.
With that, the light went out, and she fell back, her heart finally giving out.
Catalina never forgot her.
…
She finally reached the trail exit. Her quiet contemplation was interrupted by a male voice—
“Ma’am, is everything alright? You shouldn’t be out in the woods this late, there’ve been bear sightings.”
“I’m fine! Just on my way out,” she yelled back, hoping he didn’t notice her frazzled state.
“Just be careful next time, these bears aren’t skittish like the little ones in America,” he said in accented English.
He had surprising English fluency for a beat cop.
But why…
She realized her American accent had slipped through more than she’d intended.
Annoying.
But at the clearing, it wasn’t a police officer.
Instead she was met with a tall, handsome, blonde young man. With glasses and a nicely-tailored suit.
Hello, handsome.
“And what are you doing out here?” she asked him, with a voice a bit more playful than she expected.
He cleared his throat.
“I’m, uhh, investigating some reports of a b-bear,” he said.
The young man was quite bad at lying, especially to pretty women.
Especially when… they should be dead. There was no possible way to have come out of that encounter alive. Unless…she did it?
It was very unlikely. Nearly impossible, actually. They’d know about her by now.
“Well I hope you find what you’re looking for. Have a good night!” she said, not quite believing his cover story.
A bear? Sure…
Something was up there. Catalina decided it was best not to stick around long enough to find out. She’d had enough.
“You too, miss. Take care,” he said.
He also really did hope that he’d find what he was looking for.
He couldn’t sense the semi-grade 1 curse’s energy anymore.
He wondered where the scream could have come from. Perhaps another woman was there?
Case Report: Western Saitama Prefecture Curse Manifestation
Case No. 2012048-23
Date Published: 2012 October 8th, 22:00
Curse Status: Likely Exorcised
Exorcised By: Unconfirmed. Suspected to be the actions of Special Grade curse user Suguru Geto; Satoru Gojo maintains this was not Geto’s doing due to a mismatch in residual cursed energy signatures. No other suspects.
Maximum Detected Cursed Energy Output Level: Special Grade
Average Cursed Energy Output Level: Grade 2
Technique(s): Infinite Loop Barrier (confirmed), Optical Illusion (suspected)
Overall Grade: Semi-Grade 1
Associated Civilian Injuries: This curse was found at the site of a double-suicide by hanging by two school teachers on October 8th, 2011. On September 27th, 2012, 3 deceased girls were found, ages 8-11, appearing to have died of blood loss after sustaining significant damage to internal organs and dismemberment. Signs of struggle apparent.
Later forensic investigation presented blood splatter matching the DNA of a female of non-Japanese descent, not fitting the description of any subsequent clinic or hospital admissions. The woman spotted on scene had no apparent trauma that would cause this amount of blood loss. No additional missing persons reported in this area.
Response: Media outlets and the girls’ families were informed that this was a bear attack, with forensic investigation showing faint residual cursed energy on their injuries stemming from the same entity.
Due to a shortage of qualified sorcerers and the current surge in powerful cursed spirits as a result of the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake, this case could not receive dedicated combatants, until recent reports showed that the cursed-energy output increased significantly following the recovery of the girls’ bodies.
Three non-combatant agents were sent to monitor cursed energy levels; they were advised against attempting entry into the barrier. At 20:23, the barrier appeared to open for 2.25 seconds before rapidly closing.
Grade 1 combatant sorcerer Kento Nanami was called to the scene immediately; a scream from a female voice was heard followed by a massive momentary surge of cursed energy, surpassing Grade 1 levels for 0.15 seconds before dissipating entirely.
Nanami was informed of this when he arrived on scene at 20:45. He spoke with a civilian woman briefly before proceeding to investigate the scene of the exorcism.
More Details: A civilian woman of mixed African and European descent was found walking out of the scene with no visible injuries or apparent distress.
She spoke to Nanami in Japanese and American English, pointing to US origin. She appeared to be in her early to mid twenties, standing at around 175cm tall, with light-brown skin, hazel eyes, and long, dark brown curly hair.
No cursed spirit remnants and very little cursed energy remained on site after the likely exorcism. No currently recognized Special Grade or Grade 1 sorcerers were present at that time. This was clean, professional work by a powerful user of jujutsu.
The only known person who could have possibly performed such a feat is Suguru Geto. Headquarters recommends closer monitoring of his actions.
Conclusion: No further combat action needed. Jujutsu Headquarters’ agents will be sent to closely monitor the actions of Suguru Geto and his associated group of curse users.
Civilians will be warned of increased bear sightings. Satoru Gojo has strongly voiced his support for opening an investigation into the American woman.
Due to the rarity of non-Japanese sorcerers, Jujutsu Headquarters had decided at this time not to investigate her as a potential curse user, as it would be a misallocation of limited resources.
This report was submitted by Assistant Director Kiyotaka Ijichi of the Tokyo Jujutsu High School.
Suguru Geto was both amused and flattered that they thought this was done by him.
His mole in Jujutsu High had finally delivered something useful to him in the form of this paper.
Satoru seemed to be the only person working there with a fully-functional brain.
Reading the report caused him to feel another wave of gratitude for leaving that stifling, oppressive school.
It was time to open his own investigation.
Him and the girls would need to move to Saitama, soon.
…
Catalina Rosario woke up the next morning wondering how the humiliation ritual of a 90 minute commute was going to go that day.
She got stared at on the train every day, without fail.
Today, it was 3 older ladies with bitter looks staring at her across a glass reflection and a random high school student pulling down a strand of her hair.
The subway was cramped. The little boy was giggling to himself as she gave him a deadly side-eye.
Not too bad, honestly. She’s dealt with much worse.
She nearly risked going to jail one time when a man groped her on a train, fighting the urge to beat the ever-loving crap out of the man.
Unfortunately, acting in self-defense would have resulted in serious criminal charges that she could not afford.
Her head hurt, all noises seemed louder and the normally gloomy landscape was unbearably bright.
…
Work went as normal, the kids being an adorable pain in the butt.
As hard as she tried, some of them could barely read the Latin alphabet, while others were nearly fluent in English from private tutoring sessions with higher-paid teachers.
She wished she could get a similar gig, since this job paid poverty wages.
A select few kids were progressing a lot in the class.
She kept a hand-written thank-you note in her drawer from a particularly good student, Tsumiki Fushiguro, in her font-like handwriting:
Dear Ms. Rosario,
Thank you for being such a kind teacher and helping my brother and I every day. Megumi told me he thinks you’re one of the nicest teachers at school and I agree. I love playing games in class and I love the English songs you play for us. Thank you for everything!
Sincerely,
Tsumiki Fushiguro 「伏黒津美紀」
She pulls that one out and reads it after particularly bad days—she’s been having a lot of those lately.
Before and after work came long, pointless meetings where she’s once again reminded not to let it slip to her students that she speaks Japanese to keep up with the “language immersion” experience.
She’s not the best actress. She could hear the things they said behind her back.
“That girl is just a child.”
“Oh please, what does she know?”
“So rude, so blunt. I’m not surprised.”
None of the other teachers there really liked her. She was there for the kids alone.
It was all rinse and repeat for the commute back, rushed subway transfers, human bodies crushed together, the stifling quiet on the trains both peaceful and depressing.
Everyone was clearly overworked, kept in pointless meetings all day and still expected to be productive.
She just wanted her frozen meal—cooking was a pain in the ass in Japan—and to go on her nightly run again.
She put in her headphones and listened to J-POP on her iPod touch as the darkness outside the subway transitioned into a dark landscape of office windows and streetlights.
Only 45 minutes left until she got home.
Upon her return, she was in complete autopilot, ready to eat dinner, get changed, and force herself out on her nightly run to get some sort of rush in her life.
Her apartment was small and sparsely decorated, as she couldn’t bring too much stuff from New York besides the basics.
She missed having a well-decorated space, but didn’t have the time or the money she once enjoyed.
Catalina didn’t notice the glowing creature in the corner of her living room.
As she walked back out of her room, it was right in front of her, jumping up and down in excitement.
Her heart skipped a beat upon seeing the intruder.
The intruder in question was a 6-legged, long-eared glowing ball of fluff.
It had a long snout, and almost looked like a fluffy Dachshund/Corgie hybrid on its hind legs. It was cute, but nothing about it was natural.
She wanted to call for help but the neighbors would probably complain.
She’d rather just deal with this thing alone. Whatever the hell it was.
It ran up to her and rubbed itself against her calves like an overly affectionate cat.
It was… a new house pet?
It was cute, but pets aren’t allowed and she didn’t really want one either.
But what the hell was it?
She pulled out her digital camera to try to take a picture, but it didn’t show up in the photo.
“Interesting,” she muttered to herself.
Why isn’t it there?
And then, in plain old English, it chirped “You’re home!”
What… the … FUCK!!!! It fucking spoke!! What are you doing in my house?
A talking dog.
A talking dog is in her house.
It wasn’t a dog though.
It looked like a dog, acted like a cat, and spoke like a… child?
Maybe she was just finally losing her marbles.
The crazy allegations couldn’t be beat this time.
Reality was too much, so now her mind was filling it in with funny hallucinations like the creature before her.
At least it was cute… not only terrifying.