Destined to Collide - Inumaki Toge

15. Collapse

Gojo Satoru is impressed.

The girl was a natural. She knew what to do with the cursed energy and followed instructions to bring the barrier to form. The barrier was solid, and nothing from inside could escape.

Excellent job done well.

Maguro was the only student he ever had that could use different curses simultaneously. For her to Cast out her Nullifying curses while weaving the Curtain, he noticed that she had also created a different Curtain surrounding her classmates, as if to protect them from her Nullifying curses.

After the Curtain is completed, he had asked Inumaki if he could try to command Maki to move backward one step. And to the world strongest jujutsu sorcerer's delight, despite Maki being in the Curtain, Inumaki could still command her to move.

She really did only Nullify him.

Satoru thought that she could have just Nullify him alone and keep the rest out. But to Nullify him alone would probably require a great deal of control on the technique. He summed to himself that she probably wasn't able to do so yet, hence she had Nullified everything within the barrier, and created another barrier to surround her friends.

Despite all the lengthy process, she still managed to keep within the instructions given to her earlier – Nullify him, and keep the others out.

This is wonderful news!

Until...

Satoru concluded class is finished for that day. They were going up the stairs back to their classrooms to summarize everything they have learnt that day. It was a different experience for them, to have someone who could cast out Curtains and Nullify at the same time. This will help them a lot when confronting Curses.

With her at their sides, they could even easily take out Special Grade Curses easily.

As they trudged up the stairs, Inumaki looked behind him and noticed Maguro was walking up much slower than the rest of them.

"Tuna, Takana?" (Maguro, are you alright?)

Then he stopped. Inumaki wanted to slap himself sometimes. He called her Tuna. In English.

Maguro looked up at him with glassy eyes. She felt her world started to tilt and twist, and the sounds of her friends talking while going up the stairs sounded far away.

Something is not right, Maguro thought to herself as her vision started to blur out.

Hand reaching out to the Cursed Speech User, Maguro mumbled out his name again quietly.

"Inu...maki..."

Alarmed, Inumaki got back down the stairs towards her quickly, prompting the others to stop on their tracks and turned to look back at Maguro.

It was then Maguro started to stumble as she stood and wobbled in her steps. She almost slipped from the stairs before Inumaki caught her hand and pulled her into his arms just in time, wrapping his arms around her safely before turning her away from the stairs.

She gripped onto the front of his uniform tightly before losing the strength in her legs, knowing subconsciously that if she lets go, she'll fall.

"Tuna!" (Maguro!) Inumaki called, alarmed that she had just suddenly collapsed. What would happen if he didn't come back down for her? He shuddered to even think about it. She could have rolled down the stairs and hurt herself.

Maguro panted, beads of sweat slides down her temple, face flushing in bright red. Was this from the use of her powers just now? Inumaki thought to himself, brushing a stray hair from her sweaty forehead.

"Maguro!" Maki exclaimed; worry plastered across her usual stoic face, jumping down from the stairs to reach them faster.

"Inumaki-kun... I-Inumaki-k-kun...!" Maguro struggled to speak, but it only came out as a whisper and her vision are already blurring. Inumaki held her face up closer to his ear to hear her, but she had already sunk into a deep slumber.

"She..." Maki started, looking at Inumaki holding up her face.

Panda came down, interrupting Maki when he saw Maguro in Inumaki's arms. "She fell asleep."

"Pity, her stamina wasn't as great as yours, Inumaki-kun," Gojo Satoru said to the off white-haired boy as he came back down the stairs. Seeing Maguro lying in his arms lets him know of her limits in stamina. Seems like there is only so much she can handle right now, thought Satoru quietly.

"Well, we'll know what to train her next time. For now, Inumaki, she's yours. I'll let Shoko know about her in a while. Class is over so chop chop! There's no need to go back up to the classroom now. You guys can go ahead and get back to your dorms."

Maki brushed a stray hair from where it had fell from her usual neat updo, appearing to slumber away tiredly in Inumaki's arms. Maki had heard her backstory from Panda before she joined their class. Apparently, she wasn't born with these powers from the start.

Or rather, they should be counted as Awakened.

Tsukigami clan has no name in the Jujutsu world. Their powers and lineage have long died out 90 years back without any family members ever born with their powers. Until an accidental massacre happened in their family grounds and killed every single clan member, these powers then choose to manifest onto Maguro at the age of 16.

And when it manifested, all powers manifested at the same time.

Given so little time to master those powers, she couldn't build up enough stamina to use them.

Maki pitied the girl silently. Apart from Gojo-sensei's trainings with them, she had to have another class with Shoko Ieiri in order for her to learn how to use and control Curse Reversal Technique. She worked hard every single day till she collapsed all for the sake of mastering the Reverse Cursed Technique sooner.

She had heard from what Inumaki texted out on his phone about Ieiri's trainings with Maguro. They weren't exactly normal and involved a lot of pain on Maguro's side. Though she need not pay the price for using cursed techniques like Inumaki's throat condition due to some very grim reasons they all heard form Gojo-sensei, her body couldn't keep up with the use of so much power at once in such a short timeframe after she awakened the powers.

And every other day, if they didn't find her collapsed at random corridors, it will be right outside of the dorm. Inumaki had to carry her to her room whenever he heard her pass by his room.

And after a few reoccurrences, Inumaki had gotten used to it.

Maki shrugged internally.

Naturally, it will be Inumaki. He's her next-door neighbour after all.

He'd go to the infirmary a few minutes before the end of her class. Ieiri is a timely person, she wouldn't hold back Maguro for classes reasons.

And at 7p.m sharp, Maguro will slide the infirmary's door tiredly and trudged out, and at times, collapsed right then and there. And Inumaki will piggyback her back to their dorms, or at times, he'd just slung her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

Inumaki will be the best person to watch over her. Maki smiled grimly and watches as Inumaki lifted her up in his arms and continue down another path towards the dorm, followed by Panda and Maki.

"She'll be alright, ne?" Maki asked Panda, watching as Inumaki walked carefully with her in his arms.

Panda chuckled. "She'll be just fine with him, Maki. Toge has been watching over her ever since the first day after all."