{THE ENCOUNTER} Itadori x Fem!Reader

𝐶ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑦

"Seriously? A camera? Who even has cameras anymore?" Itadori asks once you finish explaining what happened in the bathroom.

"Are you saying you don't believe us?" you grumble, your eyebrows narrowing at him.

"No, it's just... Why a camera?" he shrugs.

"Maybe because there's no damn service out here at all," Nobara chimes in.

"Yeah, but cameras still work on phones as long as they have battery, right?" Itadori continues. "And people usually bring chargers or something with them. They've got those solar-powered ones now, you know."

"Unless whoever did that lives out here and doesn't use a phone," Fushiguro interjects, causing chills to run down your back. "Maybe they've got a camera specifically for-"

"Okay, okay, we told you so you'd make us feel better, not freak us out even more!" Nobara groans as she takes a step closer to you.

"Look, we need to make sure we stay in groups of two or four the whole time we're here," Fushiguro tells the other just like he had begun to say this morning at breakfast. "Nobody goes off on their own, got it?"

"Hey, are there bears around here?" Nobara then asks. "Maybe that's what we've been hearing."

"Bears don't carry cameras on them," you explain to her.

"No shit," she grumbles as you attempt to shrug her off while she tries to wrap her hands around your arm. 

"I sure hope there are no bears..." Itadori gulps.

"Why do you ask?" Fushiguro then questions her.

Nobara grips your arm harder this time, preventing you from shoving her off. She then points behind the others where, to your surprise, a bear stands sniffing the grass nearby. 

"Don't run!" Fushiguro begins to explain to the three of you while Itadori stands in front of you, putting himself between you and the bear. Nobara looks at you a bit confused, not quite sure why Itadori's standing in front of you and not also her. 

Thankfully, the bear decides to walk off in the opposite direction and the four of you can finally let out a breath of relief. But before anyone can say anything, Nobara pulls you by the arm and yanks you behind your tent.

"What the hell was that?!" she whispers furiously.

"What was what?" you ask her.

"Oh please. I know something is going on with you and Itadori! Don't try to deny it, Y/N," she says harshly.

"I'm serious, it's nothing!"

"Really? Cause when Fushiguro and I got back from the store you were all comfortable in Itadori's hoodie, acting happier than normal," she begins to accuse, causing beads of sweat to form on your head.

"We were just hanging out and having fun, that's all," you shrug, trying to play cool.

"Fine," she sighs, still narrowing her eyes at you. "But-" she begins, before hearing a noise off in the distance. "That's it! Who the hell is out there!"

You take a few steps forward, trying to get a better look in the darkness, but Nobara grabs you by the arm and shakes her head. "Y/N, don't."

"Then come with me," you whisper before pulling her closer to you. Together, you take a few steps forward, but no more sounds are heard. Well, not including Nobara's quiet pleas for the both of you to return to the campsite. And finally, you give in and agree. 

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷

That night you find yourself enveloped in a dream where a faint, indiscernible sound like the slow unzipping of a tent's entrance. It's a sound so soft that it shouldn't be enough to wake you.

Yet, in an instant, something inside your body jolts you awake. Your eyes snap open and you find yourself sitting upright. A shiver runs down your spine as you look around, but it's all pitch black. The dark night is still encompassing everything around you.

Instinctively, you turn toward Nobara's side of the tent where she should be resting. There's a lump, a silhouette about the size of Nobara, which proves that she's still there.

"Hey, did you just get out of bed?!" you call out to her quietly, only to get no response.

Then, in a hushed whisper, you call out, "Itadori?!" Perhaps what you heard was one of the guys coming back from the bathroom and zipping up their tent. Or, it was just all in your head.

However, you can't shake the feeling that someone really did just zip up your tent. Unfortunately for your hypothesis, Itadori doesn't respond. Instead, an eerie silence lingers in the dark. Your heart quickens, the uneasiness from earlier begins to return.

You then rise from your mattress, trying not to wake up Nobara, and unzip the tent's entrance. As your feet touch the cool, damp ground, the quiet forest stretches out before you. Raindrops fall on the leaves around you as you take a few steps forward, your senses on high alert. Nobara's words from before echo in your head.

"Nobody goes off on their own, got it?"

You know it's a stupid move. The first one to go off on their own always dies in the movies. But who's to say it's not just all in your head? You'd rather take the chance to prove to yourself that you're not going insane than to lay in bed awake all night wondering "What if?".

Just as you begin to focus on your surroundings, an unexpected sensation steals your focus. There's a sudden, sharp whack against the back of your shins, and a searing pain surges through you. 

Panic courses through your veins as you struggle to stand up before being shoved face down into the mud below. You can feel restraints tightening around your wrists and ankles. The world becomes a muffled, disorienting blur as you're dragged deeper into the unforgiving wilderness.

Well, Itadori was definitely wrong. It's not a curse. Whatever asshole just snatched you is undoubtedly a human.