Destined to Collide - Inumaki Toge

32. Netherworld Guardian

Hello everyone!

So...I'm Covid positive. The asymptomatic type, so I'll be alive to continue to write this. Yay.

The Delta Variant and the Delta Plus Variant is making its round around the world and amongst us. I never knew I caught the Covid virus until my colleague been on medical leave for 3 days on high fever before dropping the bomb news on us. Out of everyone in my office, I was the only other to get that virus.

So far, so good. I've been eating well and sleep well. Plenty of water is the key, and take the meds your doctor prescribe for you. It's something called Prophylaxis treatment - to suppress and treat the symptoms before it appears, and of course, to prevent the Covid virus from further replicating in your body and cause more harm. And at day 9 as of today with all my meds finished since 2 days ago, I remained in good health.

Take your vaccines, and take care. Stay away from crowded and ill people for a few weeks, or a month if you will, after you've taken your vaccine. We are, after all, only human, and we're not immediately immune against the Covid Virus right after we took our vaccines.

Please, stay safe. Dettol spray your car, your PEN GODS YOUR PEN DO NOT BORROW PEOPLE YOUR PEN! And beware of pantries if you are sharing it with your colleagues openly. Bring your own utensils, your bowls your plates and your washing sponge to office if you are working there. Hell, bring a pail to keep everything in if that's what makes you comfortable. The year 2020 and 2021 is not the year to share. Sharing is no longer caring. Staying away is.

So that's about it. Stay safe everyone.

Hope this fic will bring you happiness just like how it brought me mine when I write it :)

Happy Reading~

To Inumaki, the lovely boy with gorgeous amethyst eyes.

None of them could care less on what the beast was talking about. This was too much. Too much for them to handle.

And too heavy a casualty to bear should they engage the beast in a fight.

All three of them felt it. The beast carries an immense aura and Cursed Energy far beyond what they could handle. Was it a cursed object from a folklore? A legend? Or something that existed thousands of years back for it to gain this much energy? How did it hide from the Jujustu Sect then? They've studied various S Class Curses, and none of it showed this beast.

The fire emblem, the silvery white coat, the golden gaze. It all points only to one direction.

Amaterasu, the glorious Goddess of the Sun.

The beast somehow had the audacity to shake its head at them, appearing disappointed with their lack of response towards its presence. Shaking its tail, all three First and Second Year students of the Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical College's eyes widen in complete astonishment when the beast unravelled Maguro wrapped safely behind the back of the beast, unharmed and well.

Inumaki immediately pieces everything together. The beast mentions 'grandaughter' earlier, and its appearance resembles a white Fire Wolf, something that exist only in the Netherworld as a Medium between the Living and the Afterlife. This information reminds him of what Maguro's family could do once upon a long time ago.

Messenger for the Living and the Afterlife.

Could she have awakened this latent ability? What triggered it?

"I would appreciate it if my granddaughter is well taken care of instead of being left behind, young ones."

Inumaki's eyes widened.

Her life was threatened.

"Toge-kun!" she exclaimed happily, leaping out of the kitsune's tail and right into his open arms.

"Maguro!" Inumaki called her in his mind, pulling her out of his embrace and looked at her all over, checking for any form of injury or harm that he is sure to have almost befell her. There were none, and he heaved a sigh of relief and pulled her close to him by her waist.

"Oh, Toge-kun," Maguro rubbed her face in his warm embrace. Hearing his heartbeat calms her down immensely. "I couldn't believe I almost died just now. This beast came out of my shadow and saved me."

Flashback

In the moment of near-death experience for a Tsukigami, a beast from the Netherworld will appear. Their sole duty is to protect the head of the family from death should there be no immediate next heir available in that generation to the Tsukigami family. Not many people are blessed with these sort of abilities to be able to see, hear and speak to the Afterlife. And if there is, they are usually watched over from somewhere – or in this case, another realm – by the Otherworldliness.

In a way, you could call it a Borrowed Guardian.

All these information came gushing into her mind as she is carried to safety.

"So you are Maguro here, aren't you?" the beast asked her as she is settled safely on the platform. "But nonetheless, you are still a Tsukigami. You may hide behind this name, but you won't be able to hide behind it forever."

"Do I...know you?" Maguro probed, stepping closer to the beast. "Because you seem very familiar, but I couldn't quite remember. Pray tell, who and what are you?"

"I may be a painting in your family's altar room, and I may be a statue hidden behind one of the trees you have played around in the Tsukigami family grounds. But I am a guardian nonetheless, the dormant type. You could count me as a sort of ancestor for the Tsukigami family. Until at least, when you are in peril, and I shall appear."

She remembered then. The painting of a white wolf with fire around its paws and body. The wolf statue littered everywhere around the compounds of the Tsukigami family grounds. Guardian, her grandparents had told her. They are the Tsukigami family's guardian from the Netherworld.

And she remembered Inumaki Toge. Of how she had almost called him, and how she had nearly dragged him along with her.

But she is now alive and well. It is here that she finds the resolve to master really, truly all that is left of the Tsukigami's abilities and powers, and to avoid having nearly cause others harm when she is at death's door.

"You'll have a long life ahead, last of the Tsukigami," the beast told her, enveloping her with its furry long white tail. "We from the Netherworlds will stop at nothing to keep your bloodline alive. Now, I believe one of your friend require your attention."

End of Flashback

Fushiguro stared at the massive beast that stood in front of them, swishing its long white tail around it as its golden eyes gazing at both himself and Inumaki, seemingly watching and learning their every move.

"We will be watching over her from the Netherworlds, children. If ever she is threatened or harmed, we will return," The beast then watches Maguro intently before disappearing into dark tendrils of smoke.

"Are you alright, Maguro senpai?" Fushiguro asked, rushing towards her and watches as his other senpai fusses over her and dusted off dirt from her jersey.

Maguro looked up at the taller Fushiguro and nodded her head with a smile. "I'm alright. It gave me a fright, slipping off the stone post off the railings like that. But I guess that triggered Byakuro out."

Fushiguro frowned. A grand beast from the Netherworld like that with a simple name? "Byakuro?"

Maguro sweatdropped. "I...didn't ask for its name. But I guess Byakuro settles for now."

Inumaki, on the other hand, stopped listening after one particular part of her explanation.

Maguro literally shrank from Inumaki when he next exclaimed loudly, "Okaka!" (You slipped off the what?!)

*Byakuro literally means White Wolf