The Seven Wonders Of Inumaki Toge

No. 5 Panda

Rumor has it that Inumaki Toge has a panda friend. Rumor has it he can talk. He can understand Toge, and he fights cursed spirits too.
Now, if only this was true.

~~~~~

Toge has been in a daze ever since they put him on painkillers.

They said they just put him on pain relieving medication, since he hurt his arm pretty badly once again, but somehow the aching pressure on Toge's mind and thoughts tells him there's more in those IV-meds they're giving him throughout the day. It feels like his head is exploding, like he cannot think.

He's been like that for the past days; feeling sick and weak. Most days he's barely able to get out of bed, and if he's not weakened enough to just stay seated, he needs to be escorted to the toilet.

He's not quite sure why they won't let him use the toilet or get food, or anything at all, on his own. Every time he gets out of bed either his mother or a nurse has to come with him.

They all look at him like he's crazy too, or so it feels.

They have no clue what happened that night that Nanami brought him here.

Even though the memories are quite hazy for Toge as well, he still remembers how he was standing eye in eye with a human-like curse. Maybe it was a curse user just like him, he wasn't quite sure, but it was mocking him. Besides its foul mouth, it was strong, so strong even that when its hand touched Toge's arm it felt like his arm exploded right then and there.

He had to find shelter and keep himself from bleeding out.

Fortunately, Nanami came to the rescue in that exact moment; taking his tie off as he was going into overtime. Toge knew Nanami would start fighting against the cursed spirit, but he also felt deep down like he had to help his fellow curse user, that's why he left his safe place.

Everything else is blurry, no matter how hard Toge tries to remember.

He just thinks they must've fought that curse together and either won or lost. Anyhow, Toge must've ended up badly wounded; why else would Nanami take him to a hospital? Why else would they be still giving him painkillers like he will die of pain when they don't?

Toge wish they'd just take him off them, the painkillers that is; because of them, he's been feeling so odd. It's almost as if nothing is real, not even him. It feels as if he's living a strange dream, while at the same time it makes everything he sees and even dreams at night more realistic than ever before.

That's why, it seems to absurd when a talking panda walks into Toge's room. He even finds himself wondering if he knows this panda, and well, what's more crazy than thinking you know a panda.

"Toge—" the panda says as it limbs towards Toge.

Toge frowns; the panda is speaking? The panda knows his name?

The panda is speaking!? Toge's frown grows even more furrow.

The panda takes a step closer, calling Toge's name again before collapsing onto the hospital floor.

Toge's breath catches in his throat when he sees dark red blood seeping from underneath the panda's hairy body. Tears well up in his eyes, but he's still not sure why he's crying.

That is, until a tear slips down his cheek and everything comes back to him; not just what happened after he left his safe shelter that evening with Nanami, but also who this panda is and what must've happened to him.

While Toge was lying here, drugged up, Panda was outside fighting for his life. Fighting the cursed spirit Nanami and Toge had let go that evening. And the curse was obviously stronger. And now, Panda was hurt, all because Toge was too weak to beat this cursed spirit in the first place.