I Was Smiling Right Beside You

I almost died today. And in that last second—when my cursed energy ran dry and the dark finally closed in—it wasn't my family, my sensei, or my own life flashing before my eyes. It was him. His profile under the vending machine light. His voice saying something I can't even remember the words to, just the warmth of it. Hasaba Nale is a first-year jujutsu sorcerer who survives his first brush with a special-grade curse by inches, and comes back changed in a way he doesn't have a name for yet.