How did things like this always seem to happen to the most unassuming, unwilling, and normal people? In every form of entertainment: anime, manga, books, tv shows, movies, you name it, it's always the completely normal, quiet people that get roped into the craziest, darkest adventures.

Emiko Ibara was one of those people.

The clock in the library clanged to life, making her nearly jolt out of her skin. Glancing at it in surprise, she was shocked to find that it was already midnight She hurriedly gathered her books, shoving them into her backpack, and made her way to the front. On her way, she noticed she had been the only one still there.

The night librarian, a petite older woman with horn-rimmed glasses narrowed her eyes at her as she approached, scoffing as Emiko apologized before slipping through the doors. She heard them click behind her as the librarian locked them, no doubt annoyed that she hadn't left a few minutes before close.

It was a cool May night, a stark contrast from the heat of the day. It felt good against her skin, but cold enough that she wished she had a sweatshirt with. She would have to make note of that for tomorrow.

Emiko attended XX University, fairly prestigious among colleges in Japan. For her, it was study-your-ass-off, play-games-later, but for a large population of the students, it was the other way around. Most of the students that went there were from wealthy families that paid for them to be there for reputation only, they didn't actually care about their education. Emiko was there on a scholarship, one that she'd lose if she didn't get certain grades.

So as her fellow peers stumbled home from the clubs, she followed in their wake from the library.

Somewhere out there, her best friend Nanaba would be among them, most likely following some guy to his house. Emiko sometimes wished she could be like her, feisty and gorgeous, able to do whatever she pleased. Nanaba would beg her to come clubbing with her, but Emiko would only shake her head with a pile of homework next to her.

She wished she didn't have to care about being there. That she could float through without having to constantly stress about getting the best grades possible. Odds are, though, even if she did have the money to be there and could float through college, she'd still strive to get high grades. That's just how she was.

The silence was the first thing that Emiko noticed, pulling her out of her pity party. Glancing around, she realized there was no one around her, the crowd she was following seemingly dissipating into thin air. There were no sounds of traffic, no shouting, no hustle and bustle, not even any birds chirping. It was so silent, it was deafening.

An ominous feeling took over her body, creeping into her bones. It rooted her to her spot, frozen from the sheer terror that was beginning to suck the breath out of her lungs. Never had she felt something like this before, so soul crushingly terrifying that she couldn't even think.

Slicing through the silence, she managed to turn her head toward the sound of ripping. It was unlike anything she'd ever heard before. Indescribable. Her eyes met the sight of an inhuman shape, pale against the shadows where it sat. Its body jolted, synced with the sound of the ripping. It's back faced her, spine lined with sharp horns.

Still not able to move, she let out a shaky breath. The thing stopped as soon as she did, slowly turning to latch it's empty-eyed gaze on her. Ice filled her veins as she gaze into empty sockets, a long tongue swirling to lick something red from its pointed teeth.

At its feet, were the bodies of several people, faces stretched into gaunt screams. Their intestines were strewn about the sidewalk, blood spattering the buildings around them. Emiko realized with gut-wrenching fear, that the ripping noise had been their limbs being torn from their bodies, as they lay haphazardly in the road.

Move. She told herself, Move!

No matter how much she warred with her body, she couldn't even so much as slide her foot forward, as the creature rose to its full height. It towered over her, its shadow casting even more darkness around them.

It crept forward, exposed feet slapping against the hard road. From deep in its throat, a moan escaped, reverberating in her head. It was now directly in front of her, every fiber of her being telling her to run, but the muscles in her body turned to cement.

The creature's long tongue snaked out from its mouth, twisting itself around her face. She winced from the saliva, tinged red from the blood of the bodies it had been eating. Its breath assaulted her senses, foul with the smell of flesh and blood, of bones crunched between its teeth.

"P-please," She croaked, uselessly calling for someone, anyone, "someone please…help me."

One of its hands reached toward her. She knew in that moment, that if it touched her, she would be dead. Either way, the realization dawned on her that she was really about to die.

Suddenly a fountain of blood erupted from the creature, from its outstretched hand to be more precise. It covered her, hot and sticky, and oh so sickly smelling. She fell back from the surprise of it, just barely hearing the creatures cries through the pounding in her ears. Something solid caught her before she could hit the ground, sweeping her off her feet and into a cradle of arms.

Looking up, you met the site of a man with striking alabaster hair, a black blindfold covering his eyes. A wry smile quirked his lips, his head turned toward the creature as if he hadn't quite realized she was in his arms.

Emiko felt her breath hitch in her throat as he finally tipped his head down towards her, "Hi! Come here often?"

"W-what?" She sputtered.

"Like, do you go to this college?" He asked, "I've heard the student bakery here is to die for, but I haven't tried it yet. Is it as good as everyone says?"

She blinked at him, and then at the creature, who was clutching a now handless arm, and then back to him, "Um, sir, do you see that thing?"

"Hm?" He cocked his head in question, and then laughed, waving his hand dismissively "Oh that! Yeah, yeah, don't worry about it. So about the bakery-"

With a wail, the creature leapt toward them, making the man sigh in annoyance. Gently setting her down on her feet, he held up a finger, "Just one second, okay? Don't go anywhere."

She watched as he effortlessly ducked out of the creature's way, placing a loving hand on its back. He muttered something under his breath, and flakes erupted from under his touch. The creature's screams pierced her ears, and she held her arms over them for any bit of relief.

Pieces of the creature were floating up into the air as its body slowly disintegrated into nothing.

Emiko let out a whimper as the screaming grew louder, squeezing her eyes shut from the intensity. Before she knew it, her arms were being untangled from her head, making her look up in protest. The man knelt down in front of her, covering her ears with his own hands. The noise was almost immediately cut out, how she didn't know, but in that moment, she didn't really care. She clung to his forearms, and he smiled, "Better?"

She didn't know how she could hear him and not the creature, but she just nodded. It was the least bizarre thing that had happened that night, so she wouldn't even question it.

After a moment, he let go of her head, rising to his feet to inspect his work. Emiko stood next to him, eyes frantically searching for the creature, "Where did it go?"

"I killed it." He said simply.

"What was it?"

His head tipped again, and he turned to face her, "What do you mean?"

"That thing," She gestured to where it had been standing only moments before, "what was that?"

"You mean you don't know?"

"Am I supposed to?"

"Have you ever seen anything like that before?" He asked, "Even something small and out of the ordinary?"

"Nope," She shook her head, "I've had a perfectly ordinary life up until now."

He touched a thoughtful finger to his lips, "A Window without knowing she's a Window. How did that slip through?"

Emiko was about to ask what he meant by windows, when her eyes caught site of the bodies. In her terror before, she had largely been able to get past the site of the creature's carnage, but now that she had come back to her senses, her stomach lurched. Unable to hold it in, she felt the contents of her stomach coming up, and vomited where she stood, heaving until there was nothing left. Only then did she see that, quite embarrassingly, she had puked right on her hero's shoes.

"I am so sorry!" She said, wiping her nose and mouth on the back of her arm, which, she was rudely reminded of, was covered with the creature's blood.

He picked one foot up to inspect it, and then shrugged, "Well that's not the first time someone's done that. Rookies puke almost every single time."

"I don't understand what's happening." She said, rubbing her temples and squeezing her eyes shut, "Who are you? And what was that thing? And what are windows? And rookies? Are you like the Men in Black?"

"Whoa, whoa, slow down there, speedy Gonzales." The man put a calming hand on top of her head, "First of all, my name is Satoru Gojo. I'm a Jujutsu Sorcerer."

"Jujutsu Sorcerer?"

"Sort of like the Men in Black you mentioned." He grinned, "Except for curses and not aliens."

"I am so lost." Emiko muttered.

"I was sent to this university because someone is placing curses on students and the university itself. We've been seeing an uptick in violent attacks, such as this one." Satoru shifted his weight onto one leg, "Though, we haven't had any reports of special grades. This is perplexing."

"So you're telling me getting cursed is a real thing?" Emiko asked, arching an eyebrow, "Isn't that all just supernatural hullabaloo?"

"Hullabaloo?" Satoru grinned, "I like that, I'm going to use that more. And no, it's not all hullabaloo, it's just that normal humans usually can't see cursed energy and spirits like this one. Which makes you not a normal human."

"Oh no," She shook her head, "I'm totally normal. One hundred percent. I don't want any part of whatever just happened here."

"Well get ready to be." He sank down to rest on his heels, inspecting one of the ravaged bodies, "Now that you've seen one, you'll see them all."

"But why did I see it?"

"You're what's called a Window at the very least." He rubbed a bit of blood between his fingers, "You're not a sorcerer, but you can still see curses for whatever reason. Though, you do possess cursed energy, that much I can see."

She stared at him for a moment, and then started walking toward her dorm room, "I need to go to sleep. I'm hallucinating. Yep, all of this is one big hallucination."

"What was your name?" He called from behind her.

She didn't know what possessed her to look over her shoulder, but she did, and answered, "Emiko Ibara."

"I'll be seeing you around then, Emiko." He waved nonchalantly, "Also, you never said how the bakery was?"

"Why don't you just go see for yourself?"

"Because I get all depressed when I get my hopes up for good sweets, and then they turn out to be bad." He pouted.

"They're pretty good I guess." She said shrugging, "I'm going home to take a shower. I'm not going to get in trouble with the police am I?"

"Nope, I'll handle it."

Emiko was too exhausted and mentally overloaded to question him on it. She just continued on until she got to her room, sneaking in so as not to wake her roommate. It was an extra long shower night, where she scrubbed herself nearly raw to get rid of the creature's blood and saliva. Before she realized it, tears were flowing from her eyes, mixed with the water from the shower, as images of those dead people flashed against her closed eyelids. Never in her life had she ever, nor expected to ever, see something like that. She didn't even know a human body could look like that, much less rip in that way. So unnaturally.

And who was this Gojo guy? How had he made the creature disappear like that? All while having a blindfold on? The feeling of his arms holding her to him crept into her mind, and she nearly beat her head into the shower wall. How was she thinking about something like that after everything that happened? She did have to give herself some leeway, he had been quite handsome despite having the blindfold. What was it even for, some sort of fashion statement?

Sinking into bed, she decided that she would go to sleep and try to forget all about it. He told her he'd handle it, so she would let him. She would wash her hands of him and his talk about curses and spirits and all that malarky. When she woke up, she would be refreshed and renewed.

But how was she supposed to wash her hands of him, when the man in question was animatedly waving at her from across the library the next day, making her friend Nanaba stare at her in confusion. It was only then, that Emiko Ibara knew that this was just the beginning. Though she had no idea just how much of a story she was going to be thrown into, nor the challenges she would be forced to face.

One thing was certain though, Satoru Gojo was not leaving her alone any time soon. And she didn't know if that was a good or bad thing…


A/N: Hi there! Thanks for taking the time to read my work here, it means a lot! If there are any "you" typos instead of "her", I apologize. I've been writing a lot of Y/N stories lately and just do it by habit. I think I got them all, but just in case!

It's been a while since I've had the idea in mind for a chapter story, so we'll see how this goes! It's not the best first chapter I've ever written, or the longest, but it's honest work!

I hope you enjoy!