"I wasn't anywhere before Kamo Shrine," Noriko shrugged, pulling her ponytails over her shoulder and smoothing them down against her hoodie. Satoru Gojo blinked behind his blindfold, stepping back from the girl and returning to a lazy slouch against the wall. "Do you mind if I go for lunch after I explain? I've never spoken so much in my entire life, and it's exhausting."

"Of course," Masamichi Yaga grunted as he leant forward in his chair. Her attitude was much restored, and there didn't seem to be any lasting physical damage - perhaps it'd been merely the shock of the whole scenario. Gojo had also seemed quite shaken (in any way that Satoru Gojo could look shaken). "I doubt we'll reach the bottom of this today, but do you mind continuing? What do you mean you 'weren't anywhere' before the Saiin took you in?"

Noriko caught the intensity in his eyes behind the sunglasses and took her time to collect her thoughts. How she ended up at the shrine wasn't something she cared to repeat, no matter how much the High Priestess gushed that it'd been 'prophetical'.

"My mother... she wasn't a very well-off woman within the town and she was constantly in and out of hospital with a chronic disease. She... had a one night stand with my father - who we think may have been a sorcerer - and he abandoned her after finding out she was pregnant," she mused, a bitter tone to her voice as she stared at the wall, avoiding either of their gazes. "She was reaching the due date when her health took a decline. Various doctors had told her that I wouldn't survive the delivery - she was so weak due to her illness, and because of that I was malnourished and stunted."

Yaga didn't dare interrupt her this time. Her eyes didn't exactly begin to mist over, but there was a coldness in her gaze that he assumed must be a part of her own grieving process.

"She ran out of hope, they couldn't induce a delivery since she was so weak, and so they thought they'd just let me naturally be delivered stillborn. She was so desperate she climbed up to the Kamo shrine one night - I don't know how she had the strength to do it, but she did - and pleaded within the Shimogamo shrine." Noriko continued, beginning to feel more and more uncomfortable. "The Shrine Maidens just guided her in, thinking she was just going to pray for a safe birth. She didn't. She asked the Gods if they could do anything to save her baby and promised anything - anything - in return."

Gojo could already see where this was going.

"It was March 1st. She began contractions right there and then, and give birth to me within the shrine. I was born against, all odds, alive and healthy - despite being born early and previously predicted not to make it. The High Priestess said it was a miracle." It was cold, and the soft, staticky nature of Noriko's energy had grown still - like a rock, still and weighted, and icy to the touch. "She began to haemorrhage and bled out all over the shrine floor - it was stained for weeks, you know - they said it was a night of true Godliness. And that's what I meant when I said I hadn't been anywhere but the shrine."

Yaga watched in morbid curiosity as she shot him a bitter grin. Her words sent shivers down his spine, and he was truly aware - again - of the insanity of those who become sorcerers.

"She trapped me there." Noriko hummed, tapping her painted fingernails against the chair. Blinking herself out of her trance, she pulled herself up out of her seat and glanced awkwardly between the two staff members. "Do you mind if I go to lunch now? I haven't eaten since this time yesterday."

"Ah... Of course, Miss - Noriko. I'll let Gojo inform you if we have any updates," she nodded, treading back over to the exit and pulling the door open before slipping out into the light. Yaga remained hunched forward in his seat, fingers interlocking as he watched her leave. He spoke more to himself than his previous classmate. "I think I understand now."

Noriko hummed to herself, weaving through corridors as she locked her fingers together and pushed them above her head - stretching her shoulders which were sore from her sleepless night. She was ready to be normal again, she mused to herself, glancing into the classrooms she passed. They were mostly empty, as the college only had very few students. Truly, the First Year wondered, how in the world did it sustain itself? Maybe because Japan was constantly running low on sorcerers.

Approaching the lunch hall, she heard the loud, cheery voice of Yuji Itadori inside. He, Kugisaki, and Fushiguro were sat round a table, plates full of food in front of them, and it appeared the latter two were unhappy with something as they lectured him about being annoying. They were so intense, she mused - so at odds with each other that she didn't understand it. Surely it wasn't commonplace to just blatantly insult other people and continuously bump heads? Noriko supposed she'd have no real idea of how people function normally - outside of a shrine - and continued on her way to select some food.

After she'd done so, she strode over the table and caused Yuji to jump as she set her tray down next to him.

"Morning~!" She chirped, sliding into the open seat and forcing a straw into her carton of chocolate milk. Ah, the delicacies that were sugary, processed food, how she'd been missing out. "How was class? Did I miss anything important?"

"Oh, no. Nothing too big - just stuff about technique variation," Nobara offered her a wide smile, spooning a large bite of her lunch into her mouth - which she finished chewing before she continued. "Are you feeling better then, Noriko?"

"Mmm, pretty much. I just exerted too much energy with Gojo-sensei yesterday; I was pretty much knocked out until half an hour ago," the lies came so easily to. "Thank you for asking. How did the exorcism go yesterday?"

Kugisaki was about to reply, however she was cut off by a series of loud boasts from Yuji. Chatter filled her ears and Noriko watched with guarded eyes as her classmates began to squabble. However, a pulse of energy startled her and a cold feeling began to seep into her bones. On the right side of Yuji's face, a mouth had appeared.

While this had been her first encounter with Sukuna, she knew, instinctively, that it was him.

"Ah, it's the shrine maiden -" Yuji slapped a hand over the mouth, turning to glance over at Noriko, who blinked back at him.

"Ignore him, he's just being annoying."

She plastered on a grin.

"Of course.