Chapter Text
Fire. Blue, raging fire that b u r n s everyone in its path, and reaches out towards her and she can feel her skin boil and she s c r e a m s-
A figure. A figure of a boy whose hair floats wildly around his head, and his eyes a milky white. Kageyama’s older brother jerks around as if pulled by marionette strings and the ground cracks below his feet and she can barely hear the screams of the dying over the maniacal laughter that e c h o e s through her ears and they b l e e d-
A black triangle, in a gray landscape. A single, white eye opens and stares through her very s o u l-
Rei jolts awake as the laughter fades into her subconscious. She breathes heavily, panting in the darkness of her room. The clock by her bedside reads 3:00 am, but she barely feels exhaustion tugging at her eyes. She sits there and breathes. Her room and the world outside are pitch dark, with only the streetlights casting shadows through her window.
She takes only a moment more to compose herself before throwing her sheets off and stumbling to her feet. Her phone rests on her desk and she gropes in the dark for it. The light of Rei’s screen nearly blinds her, and she squints at her contacts. Her finger finds Kageyama’s number and Rei’s already starting her message before she remembers.
Oh. He’s on vacation.
Now that the terror of her dream has faded and Rei can think more clearly, she looks away from her phone and stares out the window. She feels a bit silly, now. Here she was, about to ruin Kageyama’s vacation just because of a dream. He and his family took the week off they were given to try and escape the horror of what happened last week, and she was about to ruin it for him. Rei was probably being paranoid; she most likely hasn’t recovered from the devastation that swept through the city as a result of Claw’s delusions of grandeur- well. She wasn’t going to worry her friend with a vague dream that was likely spawned from her subconscious mind trying to cope with Claw’s attempt to conquer the world.
Her mind made up, she deletes her message and shuts off her phone before tucking herself back into bed.
Six thousand miles away, Ritsu Kageyama’s phone remains silent on the table beside his bed in the only worn motel in Gravity Falls, Oregon.
Ritsu wakes to a bird hitting the window.
Depressingly, that was not the oddest nor the most surprising thing to happen in his six days visiting the town of Gravity Falls. Yesterday morning, he was woken by creatures that looked suspiciously like garden gnomes jumping out of the previously-not-open window, and the day before Ritsu and his brother were accosted by robed figures after witnessing a giant tentacle rising out of the local lake and swiping a boat. The figures gave up after thirty minutes of pointlessly banging their fists against his barrier and yelling. Dimple had found the whole experience to be positively hilarious.
“Ritsu? Are you okay?”
Ritsu turns to find Shigeo standing by the door to the bathroom, tilting his head. Ritsu couldn’t help the warm smile that spread across his face even if he wanted to, a reaction that has been happening ever since he saw his brother get flung around like a ragdoll by a man whose red aura sent spikes of fear through his very being. Seeing his brother so close to being killed shook him to his core, and the heart stopping moment when the explosion ended, and he realized Shigeo wasn’t there and Reigen was running back towards the clearing dust-
“Ritsu?” Shigeo asks again, and Ritsu jumps slightly when Shigeo rests a hand on his shoulder.
“Ah- I’m fine, Shige. Just thought the little creatures came back.” Ritsu says, and Shigeo holds his gaze for a moment more before nodding and moving towards his own bed. Ritsu stretches and stands before heading towards the bathroom, swiping his phone off the nightstand on his way.
“Mom says we’re leaving around 2 o’clock, and Dimple agreed to meet us at 1 for lunch, so we have two hours to do anything we want.” Ritsu says, and squints at the town map in his hands. Shigeo is standing by his side, peering over his shoulder. They were standing on a corner across from a diner and as Ritsu watches, three tiny balls of light lift a pie cooling on the windowsill and float towards the woods with it. Shigeo looks up from scrutinizing the map and frowns at the heist unfolding across the empty street. Ritsu watches as his brother lifts a hand and his aura envelops it, and the balls of light give high-pitched squeaks of dismay as the pie is tugged from their greedy hands and floated back to the windowsill. When they go for it again, this time it’s Ritsu who raises his hand, and he slams the window shut with the pie safely inside.
“I wonder what those are.” Ritsu muses before turning away and beginning to walk. Shigeo hurries to catch up. “Anyway, I was thinking that we could maybe take a visit to the abandoned convenience store across town. It says here that it’s rumored to be haunted, and if that’s true I can use it as practice to exorcising evil spirits-“ Ritsu gets cut off as a pink blur races past him, and suddenly Shigeo is being assaulted by a girl with long brown hair and a smile wide enough that it nearly stretches across her entire face. She’s speaking rapid English to Shigeo, and Ritsu can barely comprehend what she’s saying.
“-Ohmy gosh, your sweatshirt has a puppy on it! Where did you get it? Are you single? I love dogs too! In fact, my cat once tackled a Great Dane, and managed to climb on his back and ride around and around- “The girl was barely taking a breath, and Shigeo was staring helplessly at Ritsu with wide eyes. Ritsu can’t help but grin as Shigeo holds up his hands and begins to motion frantically for her to slow down.
Finally, Ritsu takes pity on his older brother and taps the girl’s shoulder. She turns her head to look at him, but her hands continue to squish Shigeo’s in a vice grip. “You have to speak slower. He doesn’t understand you,” Ritsu says, and the girl’s eyes widen in understanding and she turns back to Shigeo.
“Oh, I’m so sorry! My name is Mabel, and I like your sweatshirt!” The gi-Mabel beams at his brother, and Shigeo blinks as he works to translate and understand what she’s saying. While his brother thinks of a response, Ritsu takes the time to study the girl who’s practically bouncing in excitement. Her smile shows off metal bands in her teeth, and the pink sweater has the design of a shooting star knitted onto the front of it. Overall, she was very… Colorful. Ritsu feels as though he should be squinting in order to look at her.
“Thank you. My name is Mob, and this is my little brother Ritsu.” Shigeo hold out his hand, and Mabel squeals and shakes it with both of hers. She begins to babble excitedly about dogs, and… brothers? Ritsu can barely understand her, and his brother looks close to passing out. That’s when Ritsu notices another person jogging up from the direction Mabel came from, looking exasperated. The newcomer grabs Mabel by the sweater and pulls her away from Shigeo.
“Mabel, do you have to do this to every guy that lives in this town? Did you learn nothing from the other day?”
“These guys probably aren’t gnomes! Maybe. I haven’t checked,” Mabel turns towards Ritsu and bats her eyelashes at him, “this is my twin, Dipper. He wants to know if you guys are a bunch of gnomes in disguise.” The newly-introduced Dipper smacks his palm soundly against his forehead.
Ritsu raises his eyebrows at the question, but considering he saw what looked like gnomes jump out of the motel window the other day… “No, we’re not. And we don’t live in town, either-we’re on our last day of vacationing here. My brother and I are from Japan, specifically Spice City.” Ritsu explains, and Mabel gasps and claps her hands.
“Your last day? Have you visited the Mystery Shack yet? Our great uncle runs it; we can show you now-,” Mabel cuts herself off when she sees her brother start to shake his head, “or not. Sorry, I forgot we ditched work… and that Grunkle Stan is probably really mad at us for ruining his suit with glitter glue.” Ritsu doesn’t want to ask.
“That’s okay, we’ll check it out. It was nice meeting you.” Ritsu says, and Mabel flashes a blinding smile and finally abandons Shigeo’s hands… to grab Ritsu’s instead. He winces as she begins to shake them hard enough to hurt.
“Before you go, can we exchange numbers? I’ve always wanted a pen pal from another country! Or a texting pal? There aren’t any pens involved… unless we write each other letters too!” Mabel gushes, letting go of hands long enough to pull out a flip phone and shove it into Ritsu’s grip. Ritsu holds out for only a few seconds before sighing and entering his phone number, surprisingly weak under Mabel’s hopeful gaze. It might do some good for Shigeo to have a friend in the States to practice English with, after all.
He’s drawing the line at letters, however.
Ritsu finishes entering his number and hands the phone back to Mabel. She grabs it and begins to excitedly talk at him about the worrying number of messages she’s going to send, and Ritsu feels fear for his parent’s phone bill. Thankfully, her twin finally gives up on using words to convince her to leave and nabs her sweater sleeve, pulling her along with only a quiet “bye” in his wake.
His brother watches them go with a wistful look in his eye, and Ritsu is just about to ask when he says, “they were nice. Ritsu, are you going to talk with her?” Ritsu hums in response and takes his brother’s arm, leading him towards the direction Mabel indicated the so-called “Mystery Shack” was. Ritsu doubts it’ll be any more mysterious than his life is normally.
The only mystery, Ritsu thinks as he squints at yet another overpriced bobblehead, is how this guy managed to outcon Reigen.
The tour that he and his brother paid an absurd amount of money for was a complete bust. Ritsu was left gaping as the other tourists ate up the lies the old man was feeding them about ridiculous creatures. Honestly, Ritsu could even see the runoff of glue from the joints on most of the “attractions.”
The only redeeming quality was that Dimple had joined them halfway through the tour, and spent the rest of it taking full advantage of the fact that no one could hear him to heckle the old man. Currently, the spirit was “helping” Shigeo pick out a souvenir. Ritsu doesn't doubt that the ugly bumper sticker Shigeo was holding was going to end up stuck somewhere either on Reigen’s person or his possessions.
Which was why Ritsu was even allowing him to convince Shigeo to buy it. Ritsu’s train of thought breaks off when his phone buzzes, and he pulls it out.
“Shigeo, we have to leave soon. Mom says she and Dad are finished packing; they're on their way to pick us up here.” Shigeo nods and moves towards the cashier with two bumper stickers in tow much to Dimple’s apparent delight. Ritsu waits by the door while Shigeo pays the redheaded cashier, who looks as though she'd rather be reading the magazine resting on the countertop besides her. Shigeo waves goodbye to the girl as Dimple ushers him towards the door.
“Finally. I thought I'd die again if I spent another second in that eyesore.” Dimple floats over to Ritsu and elbows his shoulder. “You think Reigen’ll be jealous that we met a conman sleazier than him?” Ritsu snorts and while Shigeo does look disapproving, Ritsu notes he doesn't try to defend his teacher. They sit in silence, and Ritsu takes the time to survey the woods that surround the property. The tour took them through some of the outskirts of the dense woods, but Ritsu noticed that the old tour guide was adamant they stay together and not stray from the path. Sitting on the steps outside the Shack, Ritsu could see-or rather, feel- why. There was something wild and dangerous about the forest, and Ritsu could feel that energy nipping at his own aura almost playfully. He glances at his brother, and wonders if he feels it too. Their rental car pulls up to the lot just then, and their mom waves from the driver’s side of the van. Shigeo goes in first, and Ritsu takes a final glance at the forest surrounding the shack before following.
As their mom pulls away and starts down the road, Dimple abandons his post by Shigeo’s shoulder to slip through the closed car door and fly ahead of them. Ritsu’s eyes follow him until he disappears among the foliage.
“Dimple is going to look at the barrier. He hasn't had the chance to since getting here.” Shigeo says suddenly. Ritsu frowns in confusion before remembering, and he nods to his brother before settling back into his seat to stare out the window.
The barrier was…. interesting. They only saw it around 30 meters before they hit the town of Gravity Falls, and it seemed to extend as far as they could see in all directions. It almost looked like a psychic barrier, but they passed through it without incident. Ritsu remembered that only Shigeo reacted oddly to passing through, and even then, it was only a small gasp. Their parents didn't even see it.
Ritsu leans to look out the front window as they approach the part of the road where the barrier rests. Ritsu notices how it seems to be a darker brown on the inside wall, and that it seems to be getting darker as they approach. He watches as a green blob detached from the side they were approaching from and flies towards them. Dimple slips seamlessly through the windshield, his eyes wide and frantic. Ritsu can barely understand him, and it takes precious seconds to decipher his shouts.
“-stop the car! Shigeo, stop the car!”
Shigeo’s eyes widen and his aura flashes. Ritsu feels it envelop the car, and it screeches to a stop only a meter from the barrier. Their parents are shouting, but Ritsu is already scrambling out of his seat and pushing the door open. He stumbles, and he can already see Shigeo moving the car to the side of the road and trying to talk to their frantic parents, but his eyes are on the shifting wall of brown only a few inches away. He raises his hand, and it shakes slightly as he presses it against the barrier.
The barrier, which was tangible only a week before.
The barrier, which he can feel, down to his very being, will not let them leave.