Satoru Gojo, the strongest jujutsu sorcerer, was heading back to campus. A bag of takeout sushi for the first and second years swung lightly from his hand.

With a casual flicker of movement, he was gone from the path, reappearing silently between the tall cedars. The source of the energy was just ahead.

There, sitting cross-legged on a mossy patch of ground, was a girl. The screen of her phone cast a pale blue glow on her face in the darkness. She was scrolling quietly, utterly absorbed, as if she were on a subway platform at noon, not in a cursed forest at midnight.