[ Crumpled by way of Edamura, too, and his response to reading Shoko's card, but perhaps it's not wrong to think of it as a reflection of her own mangled feelings, too.

Even though her answer comes almost hoarsely. Exhausted. As if this reminder has placed her squarely back into the stress of that moment. ]

We were fighting the King of Curses named Sukuna. So we needed our strongest sorcerer, only he'd died fighting Sukuna, too. It was our contingency. A monster to fight another monster.

[ A beat, before she adds: ]

He was the white-haired guy you saw, that one night.

[ Her classmate. Her friend. ]