Destined to Collide - Inumaki Toge

24. Task

Things settled down when Maguro slowly explained. Air cond down, Inumaki saved her, then picked her up to his room so she won't suffer the hot summer heat at night.

Though Maki and Panda wanted to prod for more juicy news, Inumaki lifted his hand up to his zipper and fiddled with it whilst looking at them.

They both piped down immediately.

"Since Yuuta is not around, we'll need to join this competition on our own," Panda said, scratching his chin lazily as it pondered. "We won last year, so this year the competition will be held here in Tokyo instead of at Kyoto."

"We fight?!" Nobara exclaimed in surprise. "Against other jujutsu sorcerers?"

Maki smiled wickedly. "Yeah, it's just a jujutsu battle where anything but killing goes."

"We'll train you up well, so you won't get killed," said Panda, looking down at the two First Years fondly. They looked like they can withstand harsh trainings. He nodded his head, knowing already what to do with them and planned the training schedule in his head.

"Wait, do you have time for that?" Nobara piped up. "I thought we were short on jujustsu sorcerers?"

Panda nodded. "That's a good question. For now, we are. Glum emotions in the winter causes an outburst of curses in the early summers, so that's our busy season."

Maki joined in. "Sometimes we're busy all year long, but things should be settling down soon. So, you'll do it right? You just had a partner die on you, after all."

That baited them up well. They immediately agreed to it and set to start the training today.

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"I'll be heading up towards the Infirmary first then," Maguro started, standing up from the grass and pat her bum from dirt. "Ieiri-sensei left a task for me at the Infirmary to complete."

"Ikura, Tuna," (I'll pick you up as usual then, Maguro,) Inumaki said, waving her goodbye. Maguro waved to him with a smile and the rest before going up the stairs.

For the event itself, Panda, Maki and Inumaki had prepared her well. But as far as they know, Gojo-sensei and Ieiri had explicitly forbidden her from joining into the event, as she is deemed far too important an asset to face possibilities of death. But still, in the event something happens, she will need to be able to defend herself well.

Inumaki particularly, had trained her the hardest. As Panda trains her in landing, Inumaki trains her in speed and stamina. There's even a time he forced her to run 10 laps around the field, and gradually increases it as the days gone by. It was hard for her, but nobody says control of power ever comes easily.

And in this case, in order to master all control on her family techniques she inherited, she'll need to buck up and increases her stamina. Soon.

She couldn't allow herself to collapse like last time on every occasion she uses her family techniques.

Her friends will die if she were to collapse after using one technique.

Arriving at the Infirmary, Ieiri-sensei smiled at her and waved her over.

"Maguro-chan. On time as usual," Ieiri-sensei praised. Maguro smiled timidly.

"Thank you, sensei. I don't want to be late to my favourite class," Maguro answered. Truly, this is indeed her favourite class. She gets to learn how to heal in all different sort of way, and the different amount of positive energy she needed to pour in to make it quick. Ieiri proves to be an accomplished Reverse Cursed Technique instructor. Because of that, she learnt everything quickly.

Well, not to say that her dreadful way of teaching didn't help make it quick. Plus, she gets to help her friends whenever they're injured.

Ieiri gestured towards the bottles on the table and nodded her head towards the empty shelves.

"I've taken everything out of the shelves to clean them up. So now, its up to you to arrange it in an orderly manner. Pain killers on one shelf, from slowest onset effect to strongest effects, and cough syrups, same manner. The rest follows suits according to this list, ne?" Ieiri-sensei instructed her, handing her a piece of paper with the names of the itemised meds.

Maguro nodded her head in acknowledgement. Ieiri smiled. "They are just over the counter drugs, something that an Infirmary must have. I expect it'll be easy for you after our last class last Wednesday."

Again, Maguro nodded. "Hai, Ieiri-sensei. I can do these easily."

Ieiri nodded. "Good girl. After you're done, you can dismiss yourself. Shouldn't take you more than 3 hours. And since there is an event coming up, your classes with me will be temporarily on hold first until Gojo-sensei gives the thumbs up. Best to join them on their practice. You'll be able to learn a lot."

"Alright, Ieiri-sensei. I'll do my best," Maguro answered, advancing towards the table full of clear glass bottles labelled with their right medicine names. Easy task, Maguro thought to herself.

Ieiri turned around with a wave of her hand and bid her goodbye. Maguro bowed her head respectfully and went back to her task on hand.

Sorting out jars is easy, Maguro thought happily. If I finished them earlier, I could meet up with Inumaki and the rest.

Time flies. In the timeframe that it took for Maguro to arrange everything neatly into their respective shelves, the sun had started to set. She managed to finish setting all jars into the shelves and glanced at the last task on the paper.

Ieiri-sensei's neat cursive words scrawled on the bottom of the paper.

Prepare 3 bottles of throat medicine for Inumaki Toge.

Maguro re-read the instruction to get it right and advanced towards the shelf marked with For Throat and Cough. Just as she reached up, her hair stick came loose from its bun and falls clattering on the floor.

And it was right at this moment, Inumaki came into the Infirmary.

Long dark hair came tumbling down from her small back after her hair pin came loose from her hair bun. Inumaki watches as she bent down and picked up the hair stick. Her hair slides forward, and when she straighten back up, she flipped her hair over her shoulder.

For Inumaki, that – was a mesmerizing move.

And that move alone stirred up a desire for her to know what he thought of her all these while.

He just need to let her know.

Now.