Noriko didn't get up when Itadori and her classmates knocked for breakfast either. How many hours had she been lying there, she wondered, in the the same shirt Ieiri had given her and her original uniform from yesterday? The sunlight trickled in through the gap in her hastily drawn curtains; she lifted her eyes to peek through the crack out of the window onto greenery. Her eyes were dry and irritated from hours of staring at the wall next to her bed.

A few moments later, she finally managed to muster the energy to push herself out of bed. Swinging her legs over the side, she glanced around her room - her umber eyes landing on her haplessly placed holster. A curse... she mused... of course, her only solace in this forsaken world would be double-edged. She snickered aloud bitterly, before her expression dropped again and she rose to undress and prepare clean clothes.

Noriko couldn't bring herself to walk all the way to the shower rooms within the dorms so settled for sponging herself down at the faucet her room. Drying herself off, she prepared her skirt, shorts, a new shirt and a light pink hoodie - she didn't feel well enough to wear the hideous navy one. She smoothed down her bangs, re-tying the bandages around her low pigtails. Rummaging through her jewellery box, the First Year pulled out a set of stud earrings and a few bracelets.

Deciding she'd postponed herself long enough after a minute of staring lifelessly into the mirror, Noriko turned to the holster - that vengeful feeling bubbling up in her gut once more - and picked it up with sheepish hands.

"You make me sick, you know?" Scowling at it, she forced herself not to gag at the feeling of it's cursed energy - energy that'd made her so comforted before. It had enabled her to do anything she wished (her wishes were very small), and now it'd destroyed her. Either way, she clipped it around her leg, not bothering to replace the ink canister.

She supposed now she'd had more time to think about it, she knew what the black heart had meant. Princess Shikishi had fallen ill during her occupation of Kamo shrine as Head Priestess, until it became unbearable and she'd left to become a Buddhist nun - her poetry often contained themes of her lamentations of it, if they weren't describing the weather or love that Noriko had never personally felt. She remembered bitterly that she'd been moved to tears in sympathy for the princesses when she'd read her poetry - but all that was left now was anger.

But what in all of Yomi, did Shikishi's illness have to do with her?

After a few sombre minutes of contemplation, another sharp knock sounded at the door, and from the familiar energy, she knew it was Satoru Gojo.

"I'll be a second," she responded, not moving her eyes from the floor, however, after another heavy silence, she yanked on her trainers and scooped up her schoolbag. She removed the old shirt, throwing it away in disgust, before opening the door to her instructor. "Does the principal want to see me?"

"Bingo~! My student is so smart~!" Gojo cheered, shooting her a goofy smile, which wasn't acknowledge by his student as she locked her door behind her, dropping the key into her bag which resumed it's usual place over her shoulder. "I explained to him as best I could, but I have a feeling you probably have a better understanding of the events than I do."

It was silent between them - apart from their steady footsteps - as they walked down the corridor towards the exit of the dorms.

"Did... did you see what happened?" Noriko brought a hand up to lightly grasp at the fabric of her hoodie. She kept her emotions in check, however difficult it was.

"I did, and I'm not sure it's something we should be talking about here," Satoru shrugged, guiding her into the open as they crossed a courtyard. She didn't say anything more as they approached a separate building. Like most the school buildings, it was built in a traditional style and had the signature shoji doors - Noriko forced down a wave of nausea. Her instructor pushed them open and they entered a dim room. Her footsteps were notably lighter and she glanced down - with much apprehension - and noted the tatami flooring.

"Miss. Kamo, I see you're feeling somewhat better," the principal, Masamichi Yaga, noted as he adopted a wide stance with his arms cross over his chest. He wasn't as tall as Gojo, however, had broad shoulders and tanned skin. He seemed to be chronically wearing a pair of sunglasses - no matter what the environment.

"Just Noriko is fine - I don't particularly want to be linked with the Kamo clan," she shrugged bluntly, twitching slightly as the doors behind her slid shut and Gojo strode over to one of the pillars in the room, leaning to laze against it. She really didn't care for whatever clan impressions she had to uphold anymore, not when she had bigger fish on her plate.

"Alright... Noriko then, take a seat," he gestured for the chair in the middle of the room. She followed his lead, dropping her schoolbag by her feet as she slumped down into the chair, noting there was a similar one behind the sorcerer across from her. He took a seat as well. "Gojo has informed me of an entity in your Domain. He explained that it was possibly some kind of phantom baring relation to Shikishi Naishinno, and that it attacked you."

"Mmm... I wouldn't say it attacked me," she hummed, intertwining her hands as she regained somewhat of her normal composure. "There was no physical wound -"

"Gojo said it had your heart?" Yaga interrupted, his gaze flickering from Satoru, who shrugged, back to his student.

"It had... our... heart." The words felt odd on her tongue. "It's... somewhat complicated and I can't explain it without sounding strange."

"No matter how strange it sounds, uh... Noriko, it's important that you tell us what you believed happened - you're the one with the best understanding of this whole... situation," the burly man reassured, noting the cute rabbit printed onto her jacket. While he was tempted to scold her for breaking uniform policy, he really did have a soft spot for cute things.

"Alright, but you'll both have to be patient," she shrugged, waving a hand behind her to Gojo, who smirked. So, she could sense his anticipation, he mused internally. "And I have to start with Shikishi first - "

"The princesses?" Yaga interrupted again, staring intensely, but wincing back at her sharp gaze. "Sorry, sorry... carry on."

"Right, so yes, Princess Shikishi was the third daughter of the emperor and in the late Heian period, she was appointed Head Priestess within the Kamo shrines. She had already begun to write poetry by this time (however, none of it was published) and was often accompanied by two poets - one of which it is theorised that she had an unrequited love with. She began to fall gravely ill while at the Shrines and left to become a Buddhist nun. That's when she wrote the most of her poetry... well, then and on her deathbed," Noriko explained, drawing on the countless history lessons of the Shrine she'd been given by the current High Priestess.

"Of course, all these tragic and resentful feelings of her illness - combined with her sorrowful longing - poured into her brush" - Noriko patted the holster - "and it then became a Cursed Tool which was given to the Kamo shrine to contain it," she continued her briefing. "Are we all caught up?"

Glancing between the two men, she shifted her position in her chair, sitting sideways so she could make eye contact - well, what she thought was eye contact with Gojo - with both of them as she continued her explanation. Yaga nodded intently, as did Gojo, who was mostly relieved to see his asset- student... his student regain her normal careless attitude.

"Well, she died on... she died...Oh." Noriko trailed off, furrowing her eyebrows, as she muttered to herself. "Well, that just makes it even more of a coincidence."

There was silence for a moment before Yaga coughed.

"Right, sorry," Noriko continued, rubbing her brow. "So, now we're done with Shikishi. We can move to the present. I had entered the Domain with Gojo-sensei when we both felt some cursed energy. My theory is that it was Shikishi - or whatever embodiment of her - and that we're both... bound somehow."

"Bound?"

"Mmm... I'm not entirely sure on the specifics," Noriko shrugged, waving her arms in a frantic gesture. "However, there have been too may coincidences so I'll list them very carefully: I, at a very young age, - before I even began to use 'assimilated' cursed energy like sorcerers do with techniques - could use Shikishi's brush to conjure up items, and the odd frog. My name, which was given to me by the current High Priestess, is also more commonly read as 'Shikishi' in Kanji. The figure in my Domain had, and this is quoted from Gojo, somewhat similar cursed energy and also bore a resemblance to me, and something I just realised now is that Shikishi died on March 1st, which also happened to be the day I was born."

"Those are just the coincidences, are we all still on the same page?" Noriko queried, checking they both nodded before continuing. "My reasoning for why the figure in my Domain is Shikishi, apart from all those coincidences, are as follows: she was waring garments from the Heian era, the same era she was High Priestess, she pointed directly at the brush, and when she held up that heart -"

"Sorry, what heart?"

Noriko blinked, trying to string the words together in her head in a way it would make sense.

"From my perspective, it appeared like the phantom pulled out Noriko's heart," Gojo suggested, leaning further against the pillar. "I didn't see her do it, I just saw the heart in her hands and a lot of blood."

"Right, exactly!" Noriko enthused, placing her imaginary detective's hat back on. "You might not have been close enough to see, but the blood on her robes was from an identical hole in her chest. It was... both of our heart... in a sense."

Yaga nodded, slightly lost, but on track enough with the explanation to still understand. He made a vow to himself that he'd never ask these two to explain anything complex to him ever again. Managing to get to sleep after Gojo's half-hearted explanation that a student was attacked, but not, was stressful enough.

"The heart - which I got a close look at - was infected with something, which I think is meant to be the physical results of Shikishi's illness. However, it was my heart as well, so whatever has bound me to Shikishi has pushed her illness on to me?" Noriko muttered - this was where her explanation began to lose steam. "She also spoke to me - told me I'm cursed - so I guess whatever ailment Shikishi experienced in her mortal life has now cursed me. That will be all, thank you for coming to my TED Talk."

"I think I understand," Gojo nodded, striding around her to get a better glance at the brush - which he had to admit could no longer determine the cursed energy footprint of. They were all mixed - Noriko's energy, the resentful longing of the brush, 'Shikishi's' energy - all intertwined with each other. Yaga, however, stared at the two in a trance of half-confusion. He was sort of aware, but he assumed this was one of those things he was just going to have to leave to Gojo and hope for the best.

"But, that leaves one thing unanswered," Gojo started abruptly (much to Yaga's displeasure) as he straightened himself up to his overwhelming height, "why are you bound to Shikishi?"

Noriko shrugged blankly, peering over Yaga's shoulder to the collection of cursed dolls behind him.

"I think you're going to have to tell us where you were before the shrine."