"(Y/n). I need you to concentrate... the quicker we find your heart, the less pain you need to go through." Akio says, lifting her chin up.

She presses her lips together, shaking her head. Her tears continued to stream down her cheeks as the past 6 hours have been in constant pain.

"I can't...I can't do it anymore." She replies.

Her wrists were burning from the rope burn and her head felt it was going to implode on itself. The strain of forcing memories into her head was unbearable.

Not only was it physical pain she felt, but mental too. In only a span of a day, her past memories of Sukuna and Akio were breaking through.

She truly loved Sukuna, and wanted nothing more then him being here with her. Although the memories came to her like an unfinished puzzle, it confused her with the different times they were set.

One moment she has a memory of Sukuna searching for stronger curses, then suddenly her next few memories are of him establishing an army of powerful curses. She couldn't keep up.

Akio begins to shake his head, watching her bloodied up face look at him hopelessly. He bites down on his jaw, sitting back in the chair across from her. He watched her as she hung her head, unable to keep it up.

"Listen. You're going to do this again or I'll stop healing you. Then you can really feel the pain." He says, glaring at her.

He leans forward, sinking his nails into her temple, her eyes turning pale white and her body shaking.

•••
The past

"So doctor... How is she?" Seiichi says, sitting beside (y/n) who was passed out on a Futon. The Yokai doctor looks up from (y/n), removing his glasses.

"After some analyses and swabs of her blood, we have finally diagnosed what the deep cut on Ms (y/n)'s neck is." He says.
"It seems...Akio has implanted thousands of microscopic curses inside her." He says, sitting on the opposite side of (y/n).

"What?" Seiichi replies, refusing to believe what he said.

"They are so tiny that they have ran their way through her blood stream; multiplying as we speak." The doctor continued to say.
"Though from our autopsy, they seem to have latched around her spinal cord."

Seiichi starred at the doctor in disbelief, unable to register the thought of microscopic curses invading (y/n)'s body.

"What? Wh-what does that mean? What will happen to (y/n)?" Seiichi asks. The doctor sighs, gazing at the sleeping girl.

"I am unsure. If I knew the reasoning behind this I would have already said it, but..." He goes quite.

"Well-what do we do? H-how do we rid these curses?" Seiichi says, hopeful to hear a cure, but after some silence of the doctor not replying, his eyes began to droop.

"I'm sorry, Seiichi." The doctor says, lifting his body off the floor.
"The best we can hope, is that (y/n)'s cells fight them off like any other virus." He huffs a sigh, disappointed in the answer he gave Seiichi.
"I've given her something to help them, but until then... There is nothing we can do."

Seiichi held the bridge of his nose, holding his tears back, but also frustrated at the hopeless situation (y/n) and he are in.

"Thank you doctor. You're excused." He says, waving the doctor to leave.

The doctor bows, before apologising once again. He leaves the room, passing Takibi standing guard outside the entrance of her room.

Seiichi looks down at (y/n), watching as the heat rise in her face. She was secreting a cold sweat, and her ears burnt red from the pain of the wound.

"Shit..." Seiichi whispers, knowing Akio was planning something.
"Shit, shit SHIT!" He yells, slamming his fist into the floor.

He couldn't slow his breath from the amount of anger that pulsed through his body. He knew Akio had her in his grasp already. It's only a matter of time that he comes for her.

"Seiichi?" Takibi says, standing at the front, his brows stitched in pain and his fingers fiddling with each other.

"Sorry Takibi... I didn't mean to worry you." Seiichi says, calming himself down.

"So (y/n), she's... she's not going to die is she?" Takibi says, stepping into the room.

Seiichi holds a finger up at him, but then clenches it into a fist. He wanted to yell at the absurd question he asked, but he knew Takibi was deeply worried about her, just as much as he was.

"N-no... she's not. Well... I don't know." He says through the frustration.
"Any word from Sukuna?" Seiichi says, distracting them both from the talk they were trailing towards.

Takibi silently shakes his head, as to say he hasn't returned to the mansion yet.

"Three cursed wombs and four cursed spirits, including myself have survived." Takibi says, reporting to Seiichi.
"That ambush from 3 days ago wiped out the last of us... unfortunately we don't have anything else to push them back with." Takibi drops his head, knowing they don't stand a chance against Akio and the Gojo's.

Eight long months of back to back fights with the sorcerers have slowly but surely dwindled their ranks. Only the strongest have survived and even now they tire from the battles.

"Seiichi?" Takibi says, waiting for an answer from him.

"Mm..." Seiichi mumbles, watching (y/n) struggle to sleep.

Their leader is missing, more then half of there remaining army has been wiped out from that ambush, and the only person who can order the curses and Seiichi back to their feet, is passed out and greatly injured.

Seiichi sighs, unsure of what to do. They were in a slump. It was only a matter of time the sorcerers and Akio find the rest of them, and claim (y/n).

Seiichi couldn't lead an army...He refused to. He wasn't a leader or much of a follower. His only purpose in life is to protect (y/n)... And that's all he cared about.

"Tell the others... to roam free. Their duties are over." Seiichi huffs a sigh, continuing to watch (y/n).

Takibi stares at Seiichi with wide eyes. He couldn't believe his ears. Hearing those words from Seiichi's lips was like telling him 'we lost the war.'

Takibi knew there was no hope in gaining the power they had eight to seven months ago, but hearing it from Seiichi was the endgame.

It was him waving that white flag with his tail between his legs, surrendering himself to the opposing team.

In a room full of silence, Takibi bows deeply at Seiichi. He deeply respected Seiichi, and his train of thought. With his help, their army got as far as it did. It was only right to respect his wishes.

He upholds his request with passion and notifies the remaining curses who sought refuge in the mansion.

Seiichi crosses his legs, and arm resting on his knee, holding his head up. He clenched his teeth, and narrowed his eyes.

"Dammit...why?" He whispers, a tear rolling down his pale cheek.

•••
Present Time

Akio pulls away, a soft sigh escaping his lips. He leans back, knowing it's going to be a painful couple of days trying to find the memory.

(Y/n)'s eyes drip with crystal clear tears as she remembers her best friends love for her.

"Se—iichi..." She barely whispers.

She couldn't believe she had forgotten the amount of love he had for her, and the feeling of his warm touch while she tried to get better.

"I'm so—rry." She whispers again.

"Hm? Did you say something?" Akio asks, looking back down at her; However, she didn't reply.
"Geez, I can't believe I'm so focused on finding that memory that you're practically coated with blood." He sighs, heading into an area of the house that was suppose to be a kitchen.

He grabs a large bucket, cleaning it under the sink; scrubbing away at the dirt that stuck to the bottom.

"Y'know this house was being built when you an I were reborn." He calls out to (y/n) in the open room behind him.

"This was where you could say, I was born as a cursed spirit. 18 years ago... wow, haha." He continues, looking around the half built house.
"This body I'm in, is the guy who was building this place. It's funny actually, he hung himself right where you're sitting." He laughs filling the bucket with clean water.
"How fortunate for me right. I was born into a body that disgusted me, and right there in front of me, a living person just gave up his body, Ahaha."

Akio walks back into the room, placing the bucket of water by her side. He rips the side of his shirt, breaking a piece off to act as a rag.

"I don't blame him of course. For killing himself that is..." he attempts to wipe the dry blood from her face, careful to not harm her anymore then he already has.
"Wife cheated on him with his best mate, mum and dad died, financial issues. You name it, he had it." He smiles
"And well yea, you know, me hovering around him everyday he came to work, ahaha." He chuckles.

He places his fist on the concrete floor, knocking it three times.

"Isn't that right buddy?" He says.

A grey deformed curse crawls from underneath the concrete, groaning inaudible sounds. When it walked around the room, it left black sludge in its tracks.

"I thank him everyday for this body, truely I do." Akio says, continuing to clean the blood.

"The...poor soul." (Y/n) whispers, gazing at the curse in the corner of her eyes.

"You can't expect much from a soul that takes its own life." Akio frowns, angered at the thought of suicide.
"Unlike us who planned to be reincarnated, he just completely shoved his living mortal soul down the drain like it's a chocolate wrapper." He huffs.
"Nauseating..." He whispers.

After cleaning the blood from her nose and temples he begins to heal the rope burns around her wrists and ankles.

"Still feel out of it?" He says, looking up at her from her ankles.

She silently watched him, her head still fuzzy in this present time. Her eyes couldn't focus properly and it was hard for her to breath.

There was no throbbing pain in her head, so it's mellowed out since her last memory, but it still felt like it was trying to catch up to this present time.

"Do you... Hate humans?" She whispers, her jaw hurting while she spoke.

"Hm? Do I hate them? No, why?" He says, with a muddled look on his face.

"Why? Why do you...go through so much effort, Akio?" She whispers as her breath struggled to say the long sentence.

Akio pauses for a moment while adjusting her restraints. He remembers that memory of hers where she asked the same thing. He never really answered her.

"That's simple... I have ambition." He replies in a simple tone, rubbing away the remaining drops of blood on her arms and legs.

"Ambition?" She silently says, practically whispering into his ear at the angle he bent down at.

"...Sukuna had it as well. If anything, his ambition was much larger then my own." He says.
"The only difference is, he had you to help him towards that."

Her eyes slightly widen at his comment. An aching feeling grabbing at her heart.

He had...Me?

"He didn't become the 'King of Curses' because he put little effort into the things he wanted." Akio scoffs, noticing (y/n)'s reaction.
"Originally he was a great sorcerer... Surpassed me, his teacher and even the Zenin clan." He gazes at her, thinking back to the days Sukuna was human.
"But he got greedy with power... took it to the extreme..." Akio went silent and pressed his body against the wall beside them.

He looks down at his palms, deep in thought. His eyes wavered for a moment, before they frowned.

"The greed got him killed, turning himself into a vengeful spirit... That idiot." He says through clenched teeth.

"B-but you...made him to be that..." (y/n) whispers in pain, looking at the man in the corner of her eyes.

Akio looks up from his palms surprised at her comment. Although after a few seconds he laughs off his silence.

"You could say that. You could say it was my own greed that led him on that path..." He smiles.
"Either or, it doesn't change the fact he accomplished amazing things on his own...That— I can truly admire about him." Akio finishes, lifting himself off the floor.

He heaves a loud sigh while walking back up to (y/n). He tilts her chin up and grins.

"I would have never expected him to fall in love with a human girl." He frowns, while thinking.
"I honestly do not see what he sees in you, beside the power." He grips her jaw squeezing it with frustration.
"You're just a weapon in the eyes of any being that possesses cursed energy!" He yells, his grip getting tighter.

After he realised how much force he was putting into squeezing her face, he instantly lets go.

"How annoying. You make me so confused, woman." He sighs.
"How can one single human woman make me so angry yet, feel so compassionate at the same time?" He heaves his weight down in the chair opposite of her and folds his arms.
"Hmph, don't get me wrong. I feel no romantic feelings towards you, yet I can't bring to harm you in the ways I want." He frowns.

(Y/n)'s brows stitch in confusion. She's known for a while that Akio has always longed for her. She remembers briefly at a time; Akio longed for her, but was it really in a way that's not romantic?

"You told me once...I would grow to worship you one day." (Y/n) says, grabbing Akio's attention.

With all her strength, she lifts her head up to level his, and frowns in a way that amused him.

"I will never worship you!" She yells.

Akio laughs at his realisation to the feelings he felt for her. He didn't want her to love him or show the same affection she does towards Sukuna, but he wanted the sheer thrill of this woman to worship him.

"Oh-ahaha, my dear. You already have." He looks up through his brows, a grin going from ear to ear.

Her voice is caught in her throat as she watches him shuffle closer to her. Knowing exactly what he was about to do, she begins to struggle in her restraints.

"N-no! Not again! D-don't! Dont! Aghhh!!" She screams, as Akio penetrates his nails into her temple.

Her vision is blinded and she's sent back to the past of memories.