puppy knuckles | inuokko

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"wake up, toge!"

inumaki shot up in a sweat, jolting upright and ready to bring his high collar down, only to see panda and maki standing in front of him.

maki put her hands up. "hey, hey, calm down." she said in a lower tone. "it's just us."

inumaki slowly lowered his guard.

wait a minute.

where are his injuries?

he brought a hand to his throat, caressing it. it no longer burned. the concussion he gave himself didn't sting anymore either. it was like he was made new.

"takana?" he asked with urgency.

maki rolled her ankle around; little did inumaki know, that leg was completely crippled not too long ago. "i know," she said. "yuuta fixed us."

yuuta....did this? inumaki thought.

where is yuuta.

"ikura?" he asked, a hint of desperation to his voice. 

maki and panda looked at each other and frowned. "toge...we can't understand what you're asking." maki said, disappointment lacing her words. 

inumaki only sighed. not the first time. 

he quickly stood up, running to find the other boy. "toge, wait!" panda called after him. 

inumaki ignored their calls; yuuta could be hurt, or even worse, dead. he didn't care if he got knocked down by some stray curse on the way, as long as he got to know that yuuta was okay. 

please be alive, please be alive, please by alive-

"toge!!"

inumaki felt a hand grab his wrist. he turned around to see maki and panda facing him, maki's hand around his wrist. 

he furrowed his eyebrows. "okaka-"

"we're not stopping you." maki cut him off. "we're gonna look for him with you." 

inumaki's eyes widened, looking up at panda to know if it was true. panda only nodded his head, a small smile on his face. 

even though it was unable to be seen, toge smiled at them underneath his collar. "shake!" he said, continuing to pick back up his pace, the other two following soon behind. 

inumaki rounded the corner, panda and maki at his sides.

"yuuta!" maki called out, looking around.

"he can't be too far, right?" panda asked.

"shake!" inumaki agreed.

suddenly, a familiar ringing rang throughout inumaki's ears.

"die."

a cursed speech user was there.

he looked around in a hurried anticipation, but to his surprise found none of this clan.

"takana...?" he looked around in confusion.

panda and maki only watched him, unable to have heard the command from so far away. no surprise to inumaki; only other spell casters could hear the cursed energy from a command. and this one was close enough to actually hear the command.

but there's no speech users here... inumaki thought. unless...

yuuta?!

toge's eyes widened at the realization. he turned back to the other two behind him. "tuna tuna!" he jumped.