LADY AOKI || JUJUTSU KAISEN

十一, from past to present

"The curse of Aokighara is one of the few registered special grades from the Heian era still thriving in her original glory." A gruff male voice rambled on just out of reach as he fiddled with a stack of papers, the rustling sound filled the small room. "She's been hellishly difficult to locate because of the sheer amount of other curses dwelling in her domain, but we managed to bait her out into the open with Hiro and as expected, this one wasn't quite as violent as the rest. Without her speed or the element of surprise she would've been no more than a first grade who punches hard."

"Where is Hiro anyways?" Another male, his tone soft and curious. 

The other scoffed disdainfully and glared in Anzu's direction, their eyes meeting through the thick bars of her impossibly small cell. "She killed him, along with Ran and everyone else except for me and two others. This better be worth it or I swear to god I'll skin her and force her to kneel in her own carcass."

Footsteps neared her containment cell and two men came into view, one of them the bounty hunter who shot her, the other wearing a long white lab coat and light blue surgical gloves, his face concealed by a mask. Anzu struggled to lift her head, to put on a valiant face and reject her captors, but even blinking seemed near impossible with her current state.

They'd kept her balanced on the meticulous tightrope of life and death to ensure she was too weak to fight back but not so weak that she could die. Numerous wires pulled taught against her body prevented her from being able to thrash or move without excruciating pain. In a prison without windows, Anzu's internal clock quickly disintegrated, she could have spent years or mere days trapped within this cycle of never-ending torture. And yet it still wasn't as bad compared to the three years Kamo held her captive, because knife wounds healed quickly whereas damage inflicted by fear was permanent.

Anzu watched them carefully as the bounty hunter unlocked her cage and the two stepped inside. So far as she knew, she was isolated deep underground, having sensed multiple lesser curses imprisoned right above her head. It appeared that hunting and capturing curses was a norm for these people, an everyday task.

"Can you speak?" The man with the lab coat asked. 

Anzu pressed her lips into a thin line and played dead.

"We know you're awake, he asked you a question!" The hunter pulled her bonds harshly and the wires snuggled themselves deeper into her flesh, making her hiss angrily.

"This one's got heat." The doctor chuckled before facing her once more. "Do you have any recollection of your life before you turned into a cursed spirit?"

Silence.

"Assuming you were born around the same time, do you have any recollection or connection to Ryomen Sukuna?"

Do not yield. A soft voice murmured in the back of Anzu's head and her lips remained tightly sealed.

"Did you cut her tongue out? Is that why she doesn't speak?" The doctor glanced over to the hunter, who snorted and spat onto the floor. "It regenerated after the first couple times."

A thoughtful hum answered him. "Has anyone set a bid yet?" 

"A bid?" The hunter snorted. "Obviously, special grades are always in high demand. This one's going to an ex-sorcerer whose ability supposedly allows him to absorb and control cursed spirits, sounds like bullshit to me but he dished out a hefty three million just for her."

"You hear that?" He turned to Anzu with a dry smile. "How would it feel? Being forced into submission by a sorcerer and used for the rest of your life as shikigami, or bound and chained with your arms cut off and gated in like some wild boar to be hunted down by kiddos with cursed tools?"