LADY AOKI || JUJUTSU KAISEN

三十六

Lady stood protectively over Anzu's far smaller frame. Her eyes burned with anger, and her entire body rippled with power to turn the city to ashes. This was her true form, not the silent mother-figure who'd shadowed Anzu's every step, but an entity who was unstable and god-like, a manifestation of pure cursed energy born from the suffering of a human woman.

While she carried no weapon, her fearsome gaze was enough to send a chill down anyone's spine. Sukuna ran his tongue across his teeth and gazed down at her with a sultry smirk.

"It still surprises me that you had enough power in you to come back as a special grade." He commented, tone full of condescending.

Lady let her arms fall to her side, and when she spoke, her voice was noticeably more projected, full of scorn and disgust. "You make it sound like I chose to become like this."

"Lady..." Anzu said weakly, raising a trembling hand to the curse.

Lady ignored her, she was focused on Sukuna.

"When you killed me, did you smile the way you are smiling now?" She spat, her cursed energy seemed to cocoon her slender figure, condensing and expanding at will.

"Of course," He leaned forward ever so slightly, taunting her patience. "You were such a delicious little eyesore, you still are. Your daughter was even more so, she had your eyes you know? Big, round, innocent eyes that probably cried rivers when you took a knife to her chest. How old was she again? Fourteen? Yeah, wasn't that the same age you were when you were sold just like her? What was her name again?"

Anzu's head pounded so hard, black spots swam in her vision, though whether it was from her own exhaustion or because of Lady's anger, she didn't know.

Sukuna flew headfirst into the ground so hard the concrete cracked under the impact. Lady stood calmly, but her expression alone was enough to convey the pure rage she was feeling. She could still hear her, the cries and pleads of her daughter as the little girl clutched at her skirts, her knuckles white from how desperately she struggled to remain in the safety of Lady's arms.

"You are not worthy of hearing her name." Lady spread her hands, and Sukuna's domain crumbled, forced into submission as she overwhelmed it with her own. A snarl edged her voice as she beat him up and down the street with every word she spoke, never so much as lifting a finger. "She. Was. A. Child. And you would've taken her from me. You would've taken her, and killed her, and you wouldn't have even allowed me to die with her."

Lady's pain was palpable alongside her rage, and as confused as she was, Anzu couldn't help but want to reach out and hold her. Though instead, a feeble plea escaped from her lips.

"Lady please, don't kill Yuji. Yuji didn't do anything wrong."

Sukuna guffawed uproariously, keeling over to clutch at his stomach. He wiped a fake tear from his eye and leered at the two of them. Lady had cracked his spine and shattered his skull, but the king of curses was already well into regenerating. If anything, he only felt more elated, it's been centuries since he encountered another cursed spirit who was on par with himself. 

Distantly, he acknowledged her strength, he was aware that she could kill him. Lady was like Gojo in that she knew how to make tactical sacrifices, if she had no other choice but to kill Yuji in order to defeat him, then she would do so without hesitation.

"But you won't kill me." Sukuna chuckled lowly.

Love, was the most terrible curse of all. Lady would do anything to protect Anzu, whether it was because of her contract with Akinori, or because Anzu would surely die without her, or because, in the tiniest of possibilities, Lady had actually grown to genuinely love and care for the girl.