Destined to Collide - Inumaki Toge

42. Tokyo-Kyoto Sister School Exchange Event (v)

I loooove that art. Someone please comment who the artist is so I can credit them properly. It's so lovely!!!! Don't you think?

Maki appears to be an extremely accomplished weapon wielder. Her techniques are brutal, quick, and almost mind blowing. Particularly when she snapped her weapon in half without hesitating and applies distraction technique towards Miwa.

As expected, Maki defeated Miwa almost too easily.

Maki left with Miwa's weapon, and Miwa stood there quietly, knowing she has been defeated fair and square, and quick at that. She then had appeared to pick up a call and quickly fell to the ground fast asleep shortly afterwards.

Maguro smiled. Must be Toge's cursed speech in the works there. Nice.

Miwa Kasumi – Retired.

Toge, on the other hand, is very good at hiding himself away from the battleground. Maguro had tried to locate him on the screens, but even after so long, the only sign showing he is working quietly from the background is Miwa collapsing after a phone call.

No one can do that except a Cursed Speech User.

But still, not Toge in sight. Probably working on long distance. Maguro slumped a little with a half-eaten donut in her hand. He would have loved to try all these.

She misses him already.

"I miss you too," replied Toge from their connection.

With a jolt, Maguro squeaked into her donut like a large mouse in shock.

"Hi there, I'm back," Toge added. She could literally feel his smile in his words. He must have felt how surprised she was.

"T-Toge-kun!" Maguro called him out in her thoughts, the stutter there despite it being a thought communication. "Oh, you scared me! Is everything alright? Are you okay? Oh, I'm so worried."

"Is everything alright? Did you choke again, Maguro?" Mei Mei asked with concern, looking at her up and down when Maguro raised her hand to waive in reply. She wasn't choking. She just squeaked into her food.

Maguro quickly swallowed and smiled apologetically at everyone looking at her. "I-I'm good. Sorry about that. The donut is just too good."

"Gosh, eat slower, will you?" Gojo chided her while shaking his head. "Nobody else would eat the snacks behind there. Don't scarf down your food like that."

"I will, I will," she said, then continue to nibble on the donut while going back to the conversation with Toge.

Her boyfriend.

Oh, she felt another happy squeak coming right up.

From where he was at his hiding spot, Toge smiled. He was reminded of how anxious she seemed when they were leaving for the competition starting ground and thought of checking up on her to see if she is okay.

"I just settled Miwa Kasumi on the phone," Toge replied to her cheerfully. "Next up, I'll be trying to locate any of the rest and join up team with them. It's less than 3 hours until the competition ends, so we'll need to hurry up and locate some cursed spirits."

"Oh yes, I saw that one!" Maguro replied to him excitedly. "I knew it was you when she fell asleep for no reason. She was right in front of the camera when it happened."

When she realizes Ieiri is watching her, she realizes that she had just looked abnormally excited at the half-eaten donut in her hand. Maguro smiled at her awkwardly and pointed to her donut. "A-ah. Haha! This d-donut is so good, Ieiri-sensei. Would you like one? I can get it for you."

The lady doctor simply smiled at her student and shakes her head. "I'm good. It's okay, Maguro-chan. You seem to enjoy them much more than me."

Maguro smiled timidly and looked down onto her piled up plate of titbits. She even has the audacity to feel ashamed of the number of donuts she has scarfed down from the start of the competition. "I just feel a little hungry."

Ieiri Shoko raised her eyebrows. "A little?" she repeated, looking at the piled up empty plates she has on her table.

"W-well," Maguro stuttered with Ieiri staring at her. Gojo seemed to be listening as well, with the way his head is angled a little to the right. Eavesdropping openly, that's what should be called. "I would feel sleepy if there's nothing sweet. I think it's just some form of low blood sugar thing my family probably has."

He remembered when Maguro first joined them in the new semester, she was eating normally. Not particularly soughing out sweet things and snacks to eat all the time. Now that Ieiri brings up this topic, he does notice the new pattern in Maguro's diet.

Gojo started to trace back to when all this started in his mind. All the sweet things, snacking all the time, hell, even her rice capacity has increased to Toge and Panda's maximum daily bulk at three bowls per meal. Whenever she's sleepy in class, she would always dig in Toge's pocket for lollipops she knew he would bring around.

Gojo froze. Is she pregnant?

He looked at Ieiri. Ieiri looked back at him with a look in her eyes that brings an uneasy feeling into the bottom pit of his stomach.

No. It's worse than getting pregnant.

Something else is wrong.

Gojo turned around and asked curiously with one raised eyebrow, "Have you always been like this, Maguro?"

Maguro got herself starting on another Dorayaki. "Hmm, just recently," she said while eating with gusto, her eyes never leaving the Dorayaki in her hand. "Never was like this before when they are still alive."

They. Maguro's family.

Everyone got the hint. They're going into the sensitive topic for the young girl.

Gojo always had a suspicion that the Tsukigami family's massacre had another hand behind the Cursed Spirit that Gojo eradicated afterwards. It was odd to have this happened to a family that no longer practices Jujutsushiki. It wasn't right as well to only have one Cursed Spirit eradicating all 144 members of the Tsukigami family members. There should be another, or more. But there were no traces of any other Spirits there.

And he absolutely refused to believe that a human practicing Jujutsushiki could be cruel enough to destroy all 144 lives for God knows what kind of sick reason is out there. The thought remained with him, and he will keep it with him until there is proof that someone else orchestrated the massacre.

Utahime then stood up, proving a sort of distraction from that topic, saying she's going to pick up Miwa or something. But that wasn't what caught Maguro's attention.

It was the Kyoto branch's Principal behaviour that caught her attention.