Destined to Collide - Inumaki Toge

20. Midnight

Inumaki woke up to darkness.

Reaching to his phone, he squinted against the bright screen when the phone's screen turns on. It was 12.02 a.m.

Midnight.

He felt thirsty all of a sudden and sat up on the futon. He could not ignore it and sleep. He had to get himself a drink. Getting himself to the small kitchen area, he downed a glass of water and padded across the room to his bedroom and check up on Maguro before going back to sleep himself.

Maguro's forehead appears to have a sheen of sweat to it. Her brows are furrowed, and she appeared to be panting as well. Worried that she is falling sick, Inumaki touched her forehead to brush off the hair that got stuck to her sweaty forehead.

And felt a flash pulling him into a dark void of dreams and memory.

A memory that was not his.

He stood in front of a majestic household entrance. The front entrance had a wooden tag that was carved with an elegant family name.

Tsukigami.

Closing his eyes, he tried to wake himself up. He knew where he is right now, and he knew this is not his place to intrude upon.

He opened his eyes again after a while and finds himself stuck in the same place, facing the entrance of the Tsukigami house. Next flash, the memory brings him to a lawn where there were dead bodies everywhere. Their faces show their last expression before they expired – of fear and anguish, of broken and twisted bodies and neck. The scene was gruesome and a nightmare to behold.

And he sees these all through the eyes of Maguro.

There was a scream, and a huge Curse looming over him. He did not know what happened next as it ended almost as soon as it started. Eyes wide opened, he looked around.

He is awake and back to his room.

He half wondered if what he saw was just a dream of sort, because the clock as he had last seen it did not seem to move at all.

As if he did not just see a flashback of Maguro's supposed memories.

He looked back at Maguro and saw her still with her furrowed brows and sweaty forehead.

It was then something snapped in him. A certain First Year college student's words when he first told them he acquired control over his Domain Expansion.

All jujutsu sorcerers get to dream some very vivid dreams occasionally in their lifetime. Some are a calling of their inner jutsu, while some are just curses plaguing their dreams.

Others – like Fushiguro Megumi once had – might just be a calling for a Domain Expansion, something akin to a living nightmare that they can and could learn to control in their waking world once mastered.

Maguro's nightmares might just be a nightmare. But in the end, there is no way to find out if the nightmare is indeed a calling for Domain Expansion, an inner Curse, or something else.

He watches as her brows furrowed further the longer she lays asleep in her nightmare. Her hands started to clench tightly, while her teeth are gnashing forcefully together by whatever fear that plagues her dreamworld.

Enough, Inumaki thought to himself. She needs to wake up now.

Shaking her shoulders, Inumaki patted her face to wake her up. She gave no response to physical stimuli, and that left him with no choice but to use his Cursed Speech on her.

"Wake up!" he commanded with two simple words. A godly ring sound out alongside his command and upon Maguro.

Her eyes snapped open at his command. Inumaki pulled her to sit up and held her shoulders, shaking her to elicit any sort of response to her.