LADY AOKI || JUJUTSU KAISEN

十二

"My name is Mahito!" He chirped, playful as an excited puppy.

Anzu's tongue felt thick and heavy in her mouth, but she managed to squeeze out a muddled "hi."

They were alone save the guards stationed in the hall outside of her cell. Soft but continuous tremors could be felt from above like the low hum of a slumbering beast. Mahito glanced towards her broken body once more. "You're regenerating awfully slowly."

"No shit." Anzu winced as the stump of her arm dabbled in the rough sand, sending tiny pinpricks of pain throughout her body. "Whatever they inject into my neck every morning, it like drains the amount of cursed energy I have. It's like I'm constantly on the edge of dying."

"You mean this drug?" Mahito reached into his pant pocket and pulled out a small syringe filled with clear liquid. He turned it this way and that, admiring the soft metallic sheen.

Morphine, the label read in tiny handwriting.

To humans, the incredibly-addicting opioid is designed to alter how the body reacts and responds to pain by feeding into the bloodstream and eliciting a surge of dopamine. As cursed spirits are manifestations of negative energy, this euphoria-inducing drug is ten times as difficult to wean off of and twenty times as deadly. Given a strong enough dosage, it can completely destroy a lesser curse, but moderated amounts can keep a special grade leashed like a puppy.

Anzu's head was pounding, her vision swooned, and her breath came in short, faint gasps. She needed an injection every six hours, just a tiny bit, but the withdrawal symptoms alone were enough to send her plummeting in and out of unconsciousness. Morphine killed the curse inside of her slowly and painfully, yet the nicotine kept her hooked like a fish and she hated it.

"Do you need it?" Mahito wagged the needle in her pleading gaze. "Do you need it? You do, don't you? You know what I can do instead? I can do this!"

He poked her temple, and Anzu suddenly felt a wave of intense discomfort as a presence invaded her body, reaching all the way into her soul and moulding it as though it were soft as clay. Every nerve pulsated, hot and cold, unable to resist, it felt as though just from one poke, he was touching her all over. All over.

If it was possible for a cursed spirit to feel incredibly violated, Anzu was definitely feeling it.

Instinctively, she ripped through the seals, pushed herself up, and slapped him across the face.

"Woah." Anzu stared at her hands, her legs. Her strength dwindled still, but at least her body was whole once more. "What did you do?"

"Idle Transfiguration." Mahito wiggled his fingers, unfazed by her slap. "The soul is an interesting, flexible, little thing don't you think? Oh?"

Her shaking turned to convulsing as her newly refurbished body circulating her poisoned blood into her limbs. Without a second to waste, Anzu snatched up the needle and stabbed it into her arm, releasing a deep sigh when the drug entered her veins. 

They sat in the dimly-lit space, Mahito waiting patiently for her shaking to subside. Anzu flexed her fingers, once, twice, confirmed she had control of herself once more, and spoke.

"How come you're not like this?"

"Me?" Mahito chortled to himself. "Morphine doesn't work on me. Every time they inject me, I just transfigure that part of my neck so that the drug doesn't enter my bloodstream. I don't even know how they got me the first time, I must've been napping, but I was just on my way out right now!"

Fluid as water, he rose to his feet and stepped through the mesh, his body morphing to fit through the tiny chain links until he stood outside of the cage, a proud grin on his face.