LADY AOKI || JUJUTSU KAISEN

三十四

"I hate the deja vu I'm getting right now." Anzu whispered as she and Inumaki crept down the darkened school halls. Luckily for them, the building had been closed for a while now, the teachers and caretakers already having gone home, hopefully.

Night was approaching rapidly, dimming their surroundings until their only light was the blazing red of the setting sun. Anzu couldn't help but feel a stab of terrifying nostalgia as she stared down the narrow hall, remembering the night she crept out to see her mother's newborn with Touya's great white hound under her palm. 

"Mama~" Remembering the baby's eerie wail still terrified her, and suddenly she felt an urge to hide.

"Tuna tuna." Inumaki pointed towards the cafeteria. 

"How do you know it's there?"

"Bad vibes." He replied simply, unzipping his collar as he spoke.

Anzu hummed. She could sense it too, a distinct spike of cursed energy that gathered behind the double-doors. They advanced with caution, wary of a potential trap. Despite having made it deep into the  building, they still hadn't encountered any curse or curse-user, which meant they were probably walking into an ambush.

Sure enough, there was a curse waiting for them there, but he moved not a single muscle even as Inumaki and Anzu stepped into sight, ready to attack. The curtain's root lay just behind him, wrapped in seals and staked into the cracked tile floor. It glowed with a soft blue light.

His mere presence was incredibly unnerving to Anzu, and she stared at him intensely, trying to force the puzzle pieces to click. Inumaki's eyes darted rapidly between the two, sensing chemistry for reasons he couldn't explain.

The spirit raised his eyes. Though it was too dim to see his face, they could tell that he was a young man, no older than twenty it seemed, and he was dressed in clothes befitting a noble. He stood regally with both hands folded behind his back, a three-section staff tucked out of sight. 

"Little sister, you look well." 

Anzu screamed.

'Calm down, that is not him.' Lady said, trying to reign in her child's spiking heartbeat.

Fumihiro stepped into a ray of light, and they saw his face clearly: a narrow, sharp jaw, dead eyes that seemed to bore into their souls, and a permanent scowl etched into his mouth. Though he was smirking now, and his eyes never left the young girl who stood just out of striking distance.

Anzu's sword clattered out of her hands, and she screamed until her throat was raw and her knees gave out beneath her. Inumaki panicked, scrambling to try and do something to help but nothing seemed to soothe the sheer horror that surged through her veins.

"CALM DOWN!!" He resorted to using his cursed speech, afraid that she was going to have a heart attack, but even as her breathing steadied and her teeth stopped chattering, Anzu couldn't stem the chilling feeling that seemed to strike deep into her soul.

Fumihiro, he looked, frighteningly alive. 

The last time Anzu had seen her brother, he was lying in literal pieces on the cold stone floor of Kamo's lab, his blood soaking her clothes and his twitching hand resting just within reach of hers. Now he appeared to be in full health, standing strong as though he'd just come out of training. His eyes bore into her like daggers.

"How?" She choked out, staggering backwards and nearly colliding with Inumaki.

"He cursed me, just like how our wretched cousin cursed you. Akinori was a fool to believe you could possibly finish what he couldn't." Fumihiro took a steady step forward, extending both hands out to her as though he were seeking an embrace.