Destined to Collide - Inumaki Toge

39. Tokyo-Kyoto Sister School Exchange Event (iii)

The event is about to start. Maguro trailed behind Inumaki, holding onto the lapels of his uniform like a puppy kicked from its bowl of milk.

"Now that I think about it, why can't I join? I'm a student too..." Maguro whined sadly. She wanted to stay next to Inumaki. Plus, she can heal them all if they're injured, ensuring their victory. "I'm the best person to have on the team too. I can prolong the competition-"

"And that's exactly why you aren't allowed to join," Gojo said from behind her and quickly lifted her up to his shoulder by wrapping one arm around the back of her knee and dropping her on his shoulder, completely ignoring her screams. "You'll keep the competition running too long. This is just a half day event. This is one of the criteria for the event. No healing. You being there would have defeated the purpose of this event, Maguro-chan."

"Go-Gojo-sensei!" Maguro screamed in surprise. Inumaki and the rest turned around in alarm at Maguro's initial scream, relaxing only when they realize it was Gojo-sensei. "Gojo-sensei! It's not time yet! Not yet! Let me down!"

"In the monitoring room~" Gojo pipped up cheerfully, bouncing her on his shoulder. "I came all this way to pick you up. Shoko has been waiting for you. Don't make her mad. Plus, don't you want to get them snacks? Yaga-Gakuchou and I prepared it for you."

"But its not time yet!" Maguro flailed on his shoulder, turning herself around forcefully to the other side of his shoulders to look at Inumaki, extending one hand to reach him. She completely ignored the word 'snacks' and only has eyes for her favourite person in the world.

Inumaki held up his hand for her to grab in hopes to calm her down, but she behaved as if he is her anchor to life and refused to let go afterwards. Inumaki smiled. He couldn't get over how cute she can be around him. Not clingy all the time but today, she's been very clingy.

He could even feel how worried she is from their silent connection. He had been telling her that it's just a small competition and it's not going to be dangerous enough to cause serious harm, but she frets still. "I want to watch them leave!"

Maki sighed, unable to watch this drama going on. "Let her, Gojo-sensei. You've already mess up the snack promise. This is your chance to make up to her."

"But I've prepared the snack bar up ahead already," Gojo whined to Maki sadly and bounced Maguro on his shoulder. "Don't you want to get the snacks? We've prepared it ahead for you."

"The event is about to start," Fushiguro said, walking back towards Gojo-sensei and Maguro on his shoulder. "Maguro-senpai has never been in these sorts of thing before. Plus, she is never going to be able to join such a competition because of the technique she has. The least we could do for her is to let her send us off with a bout of good luck wishes."

Gojo-sensei turned his head to look at Maguro. Her eyes are almost brimming in tears. Poor thing, it was just a joke! What makes her so agitated over a competition send off? "You promise you won't run?"

Maguro shakes her head quickly, "I'm not going to run. I just want to wish them luck and see them off."

Gojo sighed. When you have a whole class of kids watching you to drop their classmates down it is hard to say no. "Alright. 3 minutes. They need to head up towards the starting line in the forest already."

Maguro immediately shakes herself loose off her teacher and ran up to the rest at the entrance to the forest. There is an unexplainable worry simmering in the cockles of her heart, and she couldn't even shake it off no matter how much reassurance she gets from both her classmates side and her instructor's side. It made her heart pound uneasily and she doesn't like that feeling.

As if something bad is really going to happen.

But still, she doesn't want to jinx it up. So, she manages a smile at the rest of them to wish them the best blessing.

"I wish all of you the best of luck," Maguro said with a smile. "Best of the best of the best of the beeeeest luck in the whole wide world. If it gets too hard, it's okay to just come back. You don't have to win this competition. Just be safe."

Fushiguro laughed. "We'll be fine, Maguro-senpai," he said, walking off with the rest up ahead first. "See you later at dinner!"

We'll get back soon, Maguro, Inumaki thought out to her in mind, using the back of his finger to give her nose a quick slide touch and end it with plucking her nose. Don't worry so much. It's just a competition. We'll be alright.

Her heart pounded harder.

"I-I just-" Maguro wanted to say something, but Gojo-sensei places one big palm on top of her head and silenced her.

"Dinner on me later! Good luck kids!" Gojo-sensei waved them goodbye with a wide smile on his face.

Inumaki smiled at Maguro and waved at her before going off to join the rest of his team.

"Gojo-sensei," Maguro whispered and slowly lowered the hand waving back at Inumaki, watching worriedly at the backs of her friends as they went off to the competition's starting line. "I...I got a really bad feeling about this..."

Gojo watched her through his blindfold and saw an otherworldly aura gathering around her. It was like a slow building armour that not even she herself could see, a mix of black and silver, and occasionally gold. It's a messy colour, as if there are different entities pouring in their aura to surround her.

The perks of having the Rikugan. Gojo had to agree with Maguro. With the appearance of intelligent Curses capable of conversing with humans, it is highly possible something is out there plotting something dangerous within the grounds of the school.

And something dangerous is really going to happen soon with the appearance of that otherworldly aura. A danger that even the dead from the Otherworld comes back to guard their only heir to the dying Tsukigami clan.

"We'll settle that later," Gojo said to her reassuringly, patting her head and picking her up to throw her back on his shoulder. "For now, lets get back to the monitoring room. The snacks are ready."