Destined to Collide - Inumaki Toge

38. Tokyo-Kyoto Sister School Exchange Event (ii)

Maguro completely lost her mind to laughing when she saw how Nobara made Itadori hold a funeral frame and kneel on the floor facing them.

"Ano..." Itadori almost whimpered pitifully, more so when Maguro continued to laugh while leaning onto Inumaki. "Depending on how you look at it, this could be considered a very extreme level of bullying."

"Just- haha! Just do that for a while hahahaha!" Maguro continued to laugh, finding the situation of him coming back to life in one whole piece without a scratch whilst his two other classmates have been mourning him in the form of Itadori Recipe's Meatballs funny. Fushiguro has been making the meatballs whenever he thought about Itadori, and from what she heard from Maki, Nobara has been requesting the meatballs too whenever she misses her noisy pink-haired classmate. "You have no idea the level of mourning you have put them through-"

"Not. Another. Word, Maguro," Nobara almost growled, glaring instead at the kneeling Itadori. "Let the deadman-comes-alive talk. We'd love to know how fun it was for him to hide his big breakout from us for so long."

Not that she minded being told to shut up, but she really would prefer to laugh than talk now.

"Now, now..." Panda started, starting to pacify the situation. They are, after all, going into a competition soon. They need to start discussing on some plans to defeat the Kyoto kids. "You heard his explanation. Cut him some slack. It's not something he wants to anyway. Gojo-sensei made him do that. And I heard it's for a good reason too."

Itadori's eyes widened. "The Panda talked!"

"Shake, shake," (Agree with Panda) Inumaki chimed in, patting Maguro's arms to get her attention. She turned to look at him and wriggled his eyebrows towards Itadori Yuuji.

The pink-haired host of Sukuna turned to Inumaki, not understanding his words. "What?"

"He agrees with what Panda says," Maguro said to Inumaki, her back leaning against Inumaki's back. She extended her hand behind her and played with Inumaki's hair. "Frankly, we'll all need to settle down soon with some good plans if we are to win the competition."

Itadori looked up at Fushiguro with a sort of pleading look on his face. Fushiguro sighed and explained.

"Inumaki-senpai is a Cursed Speech User," he said, putting his hands in his pockets. This is going to take a while, he thought to himself quietly. "Cursed Speech is a technique that amplifies the power and compulsion of words. He limits his vocabulary to keep others safe."

"But of course, this is still a Cursed technique. Everything with a Curse comes with a price," Maguro said, turning around to hook her arm around the Cursed Speech User and leaned against his shoulder. Inumaki smiled at her antics and bumped his head with hers lightly. "It all depends on the types of cases too. The more demanding the command, the more of a toll it pays on Toge-kun's body."

Panda nodded his head. "That's correct. Limiting his vocabulary is a way for Toge to protect himself too."

Itadori appeared to understand his Cursed Speech Senpai's words. Then he moved onto Panda, asking him various questions about his types and how he can speak. Maki barged in to ask about the return of her cursed weapon, to which Itadori only managed to stutter out "Gojo-sensei...h-has it..."

Maki gritted her teeth. "That blindfolded idiot!"

From the other side of the building, Gojo-sensei sneezed.

This ended the introduction topics. After Itadori got to know each of his senpais and their techniques, Maki started the round first.

"We can't change the strategies. There's not enough time," she said, folding her hands to her chest.

Inumaki nodded his head. "Okaka," (Can't change. Need to improvise).

"Well, what can you do, Itadori-kun?" Maguro asked, standing behind Panda and played with the soft fur around his shoulders. "Come share with us. We'll then be able to see which side we can park you in."

"Punch and kick," Itadori said, lifting an arm to flex his biceps.

"That's pretty basic," Panda piped up. "We have plenty of that here."

"Well," this time, Fushiguro backed up Itadori. "I don't know what he's been doing since he's been dead, but if everyone from Tokyo and Kyoto fought him at once without cursed energy, Itadori will win."

"Oho~ You're the silent tough type huh, Itadori-kun?" Maguro said, impressed with Fushiguro's explanation on Itadori Yuuji. Clearly, the boy doesn't know his own potential as much as his teammates does.

Itadori flushes pink. "T-Thank you, Fushiguro. That's so nice of you-"

"I'm just letting everyone know how useful you can be as a frontliner shield," Fushiguro mercilessly beats down the flush from Itadori's face with words. "You can settle the troublesome one, Aoi Todo. Keep him off our backs. That task's perfect for you."