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In the aftermath of their first mission together, Inumaki is coughing up blood, hunched over on the concrete with a twisted ankle, while Maki stands over him and tries to figure out what the fuck she’s supposed to do here. She could stitch up a gash, but that won’t help when the blood is coming from a wound inside the body, and as for the ankle injury, all she really knows is that he shouldn’t put weight on it. She’s never dealt with that sort of thing herself before, and when they asked Gojo about treating injuries sustained on the field, he gave them a goofy smile and replied, “All you have to do is make it back alive! Then Ieiri-sensei will fix you right up, and you’ll be good as new!”
Which is not how it works—they literally learned in class that reverse cursed technique isn’t actually an instant cure-all. But whatever.
Maki kneels beside Inumaki, poking his arm. “I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t die on our first time out.”
Inumaki heaves, glancing up to glare at her. She’s not expecting a response, given his current state and also the fact that he can only speak a handful of words aloud, but he must not actually be on death’s door, because he manages to lift one hand and flip her off.
She scoffs, rolling her eyes.
“Come on,” she says, hooking an arm around him and heaving him upright. “That dumbass Gojo said Ijichi won’t be here to pick us up ‘til three, so we’ll have to just go get something for your throat on our own. Try not to walk on your bad leg if you can help it.”
“Caviar,” he grumbles, voice rough.
With one of his arms over Maki’s shoulder, she hauls him out of the confines of the curtain Gojo put up before leaving them on their own, insisting he had some ‘super duper important business’ he was needed for back on campus. Considering it’s a Saturday, Maki figures there’s at least an 85% chance he’s just forcing Megumi to train with him, but he disappeared before she could demand any details. Annoying idiot.
They collapse on the curb just outside of the curtain, and Inumaki is immediately back to his retching. Maki leaves him to it while she fishes her phone from her pocket in order to find directions to the nearest pharmacy. Neither she nor Inumaki are exactly well-versed with the layout of the city, considering they spend most of the childhoods stuck on their respective clans’ grounds. But it’s not as if Panda would be able to help them, considering his being a Panda sort of prevents him from freely wandering the streets of Tokyo.
“T-tuna,” Inumaki groans out after a minute. He heaves himself over to Maki, leaning heavily against her as he looks down at her phone. He points at the screen, then lifts his other hand to make a gesture like he’s texting.
“Don’t you have your own phone?” Maki snaps.
“Tuna,” he repeats tiredly.
Maki hands her phone over. He closes out of the maps app and navigates to the internet instead, searching up what Maki can best guess is some sort of cough medicine. He shows her a picture of it, letting her take the phone back from him.
“This is what you need?”
He nods.
“Alright. Give me a sec.”
“Salm—” Inumaki breaks off into a hacking cough, then turn away, spitting more blood onto the ground. Maki grimaces. They really need to get out of here before someone decides they’re delinquents that the cops need to deal with.
“Alright.” Maki pushes herself to her feet. “There’s a pharmacy about five minutes from here. You’re in no state to walk that far, so I’ll have to carry you.”
Inumaki blinks up at her in confusion. He opens his mouth to say something, but Maki interrupts with, “Save your breath. You obviously tore up your throat taking down those curses, so don’t talk and just listen to me. I’ll carry you on my back to the pharmacy and get you your medicine, then call Ijichi to let him know where we’re at. Or I could leave you to die here.”
He raises his hands in surrender, thankfully not replying aloud and worsening the state of his injuries. Good. That means he’s smart and has at least a basic level of self-preservation—two traits that should ideally be common in sorcerers but unfortunately are often nowhere to be found.
Maki hoists him onto her back, then sets off in the direction of the pharmacy. She can’t exactly hold her phone in her hand to check the map while her arms are hooked under Inumaki’s legs, keeping him in place, so she’ll just have to trust her memory. She should be fine, though.
Probably.
Eh, if all else fails, she can just grab the attention of some rando walking down the street and ask them to point her in the right direction. She already determined Inumaki isn’t actively dying, so it’s not as if a minute or two of extra walking is going to cause any lasting harm since she’s carrying him around. He’s not particularly heavy either—is he eating enough?
Maki pushes that thought aside. She didn’t come to the Tokyo school to befriend her classmates; she came here to train and become strong enough that she can forcibly take the title of Zen’in Clan Head—so she can give her sister a kinder life.
But…well, it won’t do her any good if her classmates are weak because they can’t take care of themselves. So maybe she’ll keep an eye on him, just in case.
Inumaki remains quiet for the entirety of the trek to the pharmacy, though Maki can feel his labored breathing against her. He maintains a firm hold on her until they come to a stop in front of the building and she lets him down. It’s a bit of a struggle, trying to do so in a way that won’t put any pressure on his injury, but they manage well enough.
“Wait out here,” Maki instructs. “I’ll be back in a sec.”
“Tun—”
“I wasn’t asking.”
Inumaki gives her a stink eye. “Caviar.”
“I don’t know what that means,” Maki tells him matter-of-factly, though she can guess from his tone alone that it wasn’t anything complimentary. “It’ll be faster if I don’t have to help you hobble around.”
Inumaki deflates. He’s still obviously not happy about the situation, but he waves Maki off instead of attempting to argue any more. She takes the opportunity she’s been given, hurrying into the store before he can change his mind.
She doesn’t waste any time idly looking around; she marches up to the first employee she sees, showing them the picture of the medicine Inumaki needs and asking where she can find it. The guy squints at the picture for a moment before giving her the aisle number and sending her on her way. Not exactly the most helpful, but whatever. It’s good enough, and Maki isn’t going to pick a fight right now.
After grabbing a bottle of the throat medicine, she nabs some painkillers, a bag of chips, and a bottle of water as well. She checks out quickly, then exits the store and finds Inumaki right where she left him, sitting on the ground with his back against the building.
“Hey,” she greets, taking a seat beside him. She passes the bag over. “There’s normal main meds too—for your ankle, until we get back to Ieiri-sensei. Plus food and water so you don’t have to dry swallow them on an empty stomach.”
Inumaki peers into the bag, then back up at Maki. “Kelp,” he warbles.
“You’re…welcome?” Maki guesses.
He nods, smiling slightly.
While he takes his medicine, Maki phones Ijichi, letting him know that they finished the mission but are no longer at the agreed-upon pickup point and he should come to the pharmacy instead. Ijichi, of course, spends most of the call panicking because things didn’t go exactly as planned, as if Gojo is going to get mad at him even though Maki and Inumaki are both alive and relatively fine and all of the curses were exorcized. Maki lets him go on for about fifteen seconds before cutting him off with a curt, “Yeah, we’ll see you soon,” and hanging up.
Inumaki snorts. “Salmon,” he says, appreciatively. He holds the bag of chips out towards Maki, raising his eyebrows.
She figures that can only be interpreted as him offering to share, so she reaches into the bag and takes a couple for herself. “Thanks.”
Inumaki gives her a thumbs up.
They stay on the ground, sitting side-by-side and snacking on the chips until the bag is empty. Ijichi arrives not long after, his appearance just as frazzled as he sounded on the phone. Inumaki snickers silently while he lays into them, reminding them that they shouldn’t just walk away from an exorcism site, especially when the curtain is still up, which makes it near-impossible for Maki to suppress her own smile.
Finally, Ijichi talks himself out and orders them to get in the car, grumbling about how he’ll have to make a detour to take care of the curtain on the way back, which will put them getting back to campus even later than originally planned. Maki tunes him out at that point, settling into the backseat and letting out a sigh as she relaxes.
“You did pretty good out there,” she tells Inumaki as Ijichi starts the car and begins driving. “Honestly, I thought working with you was going to suck, but I think we make for a nice team.”
“Salmon,” Inumaki agrees with a nod.
Maki grins.
She didn’t choose to become a sorcerer with the intent of making friends, but…she supposes it might be nice to have some people who are on her side, for once. And she’s grateful it’s looking like Inumaki will be one of those people.