LADY AOKI || JUJUTSU KAISEN

十五

"Domain expansion is an advanced barrier technique that allows a sorcerer, or curse, to manifest a section of their innate domain and bring it forth through cursed energy. A person's domain is relevant to their innate ability and unique to themselves, your domain may act the same but it will look different from Gin's or Akinori's even if you have the same technique."

Anzu nodded solemnly at her uncle's words. They were trained to be able to cast a powerful domain earlier than other students, because their technique, Curse Possession, relied on the sorcerer's barrier in order to function successfully.

Curse Possession is quite self explanatory. A sorcerer capable of wielding such a technique would challenge a cursed spirit and drag it into their domain, where, upon the curse's (near) death, the sorcerer would tie their souls together and force the curse into their body, thereby adopting its cursed energy and innate technique if it has one. It could be seen as a crude, unrefined version of Geto Suguru's Curse Manipulation.This symbiotic bond lasts until either the curse or sorcerer is killed.

Depending on the sorcerer's capability, they can only posses one at a time because the curse can and will fight them even after being forced into submission. In dire life-or-death situations, the sorcerer can retract their will and allow the curse to take over them and their body, which is what Akinori did, and he died as a result.

There is one large flaw in this technique, one that could bring the user to an early grave, and it was through the method of domain expansion, the only place where sorcerer and curse could be forcefully separated.

"Gojo Satoru. How nice of you to save us from being disemboweled once more."

Gojo's domain, Infinite Void, was arguably the most powerful domain Lady Aoki had ever felt, next to her own of course. She eyed him in distaste. The man smiled pleasantly, with the face of a handsome but slightly unhinged sociopath. He was older now, their first meeting having been when he was a mere first year student at Jujutsu High, a brash, impulsive, yet powerful boy with a shock of white hair and a shit-eating grin.

"Ironic isn't it?" He chided, his startling blue eyes glared at her mischievously. "Last time, I was the one in your domain. Now it's the other way around, how the turns have tabled."

The cursed girl didn't speak, for even with her strength she couldn't match up to this...ridiculously powerful godsend of a human sorcerer. She scoffed inwardly. In her time, humans who held this much power were killed as children, to lessen the threat of another mass murderer like Ryomen Sukuna.

"How did you end up all the way in the city?" Gojo questioned. "Don't tell me those bounty hunters defeated you did they? That's kind of embarrassing, even I thought you were pretty strong. Oh?"

Her figure rippled, and a loud gurgling sound enunciated the curse's sudden shift in appearance. Her body became slightly more humanoid, the branches in her skull retracting to allow for an eye, nose, lips, and a flow of light hair, skin swept over and replaced parts of her skeleton, and a bloom of tiny pink blossoms blanketed places where flesh didn't reach.

Anzu inhaled loudly, exhaled, and frowned. Gojo Satoru was someone she had briefly fought when the first year and his partner in crime, Geto Suguru, ventured into the forests of Aokigahara as a means of sport and play. Her domain, with enough range to blanket the entirety of the forest, meant that it was easy to enter, especially for those two. Had it just been Geto, he never would've found her, but Gojo's Six Eyes were troublesome as they were breathtaking.

"I sense something disturbing your flow of cursed energy." He declared. "I'm just going to warn you now, I googled it before coming, morphine withdrawal is pretty nasty."

I'm still wondering why you didn't kill me then, or now. Anzu wanted to ask, but her body wouldn't move, her eyes stared straight forward, paralyzed as her brain spiralled from the effect of his domain, she was completely defenceless in his grasp.

"I could totally kill you." Gojo flaunted, a confident air in his smirk as he leaned forward into her line of sight. "You aren't as powerful as her, and that's honestly a little disappointing. One hundred and fifty years of hiding with that cursed spirit of yours and you never learned to handle her properly."

"What do you want with me?" He spoke for her, the look of contempt in her eyes having said enough. "I think it'll be pretty funny to rub a captured special grade in the higher-ups' faces, but it's mostly because I have some questions for you and I can't ask them if Yuta's lopped your heads off. But, you killed people, sorcerers, and I can't let you get away with that unpunished can I?"

Gojo's cold smile was the last thing Anzu saw as he reached out towards her, and with a mere twitch of his fingers a stabbing pain rippled through her body. It was worse than anything she had ever felt while imprisoned with the bounty hunters. Anzu screamed and cried until her throat bled, unable to move on her own or escape his domain as he tore her limb from limb, starting with her fingers and toes, her calves and forearms, and finally her upper arms and legs until she was nothing more than an emaciated torso with a broken spine, forced into a state of unconsciousness out of shock from the brief but excruciating period of torture.

Gojo scooped her body up and tossed her over his shoulder like a sack of rice, his blindfold up and his domain crumbling away as he faced his students with a warm smile that masked the manic cruelness of his nature.

"Let's head back to school shall we?"

If you've read Gojo's backstory arc, he's a lot more than a powerful sorcerer, a protective teacher, and a playful goof, he's actually lowkey unhinged. I'm just going to throw it out there and acknowledge that he's got a dark side.

Words: 1161

Next update: Sunday May 2, 2021.