Noriko hummed lightly, rocking on the balls of her feet as she glanced around the forest. The trees were tall; thinner at the bottom of their trunks but flourishing into a canopy of leaves above. Not as much cover as she'd liked, she noted, she could've done with some more ground-level foliage. But at least, she'd switched out her brightly coloured hoodie for a black one with cute heart designs on the front, which should've helped to make her less visible... maybe.

Panda glanced over to her, her movements catching his attention out of his peripherals, and he placed a large paw on her shoulder to still her. To say the team had taken a little hit when they learned about the assassination plot would've been an understatement - Fushiguro, especially, was uncharacteristically angry. But, Noriko seemed fine... and she'd reassured them it would be. Perhaps a little too confidently, he mused, but... she had done the most research.

"We're starting in one minute." Gojo Satoru's voice rang out from the speakers overhead and the group shifted slightly to look up towards them. Maki grimaced, bracing herself for the mess that would be the event. "Now, let's hear a few words of well-appreciated encouragement from Iori Utahime-sensei."

"Huh?" Noriko assumed the soft, feminine voice belonged to Utahime - she'd only ever heard her speak a few words. It seemed Gojo was still causing chaos wherever he went as the staff member began to stutter. "Uh, some degree of injury will be unavoidable, but... um... now and then, help each other out... or something."

"Time's up."

"Wait-"

"Now, let the sister school exchange event... begin."

At his yell, the Tokyo students shot from their stilled positions into a run. Fushiguro and Maki lead the front while Noriko began to distance herself as she veered off to the side. Pushing herself faster, she soon overtook Fushiguro - who sent her a brief nod - and she leapt over a few rocks. Maybe she should try out for track teams when this was over, she wondered as she dodged the trees in her path. Logically, the Curse should've been released somewhere at the exact halfway point between the schools, but it must've been mobile, so, reasonably, could've been anywhere within a three mile radius.

Reaching down her hand, she unclipped a new pouch on her holster. It turned out that sewing wasn't too hard if you were already skilled with delicate things such as calligraphy and drawing. Her holster still held her brush, however, there was now two cylinders of ink (instead of just one) and a few pouches. The one she reached into held pages of paper tightly rolled into thin tubes and tied with various ribbons or plaited cords.

Noriko supposed with her technique, she'd already received a huge advantage. She could ready her moves before she even stepped foot in the forest.

Cautiously, her dark-eyes lifted to the foliage above her as the birds in the canopy above took flight in a shrieking envoy and the ground shook beneath her feet.

'Todo must have got to them', she hummed lightly, 'good'.

If the focus was on their fight, she had much more freedom, since it was more likely that the faculty would be observing that - rather than her.

Noriko snapped the pouch on her holster closed as she slowed to a light jog and began to channel her energy. She tossed the scroll ahead of her and watched as it began to crackle - the red rope around it singeing and shrivelling as her energy poured through it. The paper followed suite, crumpling into a point before black ink began to splatter out from the pinnacle. Before it hit the ground, the washes of ink began to meld into tiny, pale spheres and hundreds - if not thousands - of tiny, white mice began to form.

"My kodama nezumi*... find me the Grade 2 Curse!" Noriko instructed, leaping over the ivory sea of mice as she continued on her path. She didn't even stop to look back as the white mass began to shrink as the rodents delved into the undergrowth and travelled fast through the wooded mountainside.

It was unfortunate the way this had to turn out, she mused to herself as her face relaxed into a frown. She wouldn't be able to get her 'revenge' or one-up that damned Kamo heir, or even get the chance beat up Mai again, but... she supposed she had different priorities now.

However, winning over those smug bastards would probably substitute those feelings anyway.

Once she was certain she could no longer hear the rumbling from Yuji's fight, Noriko slowed her pace and observed her surroundings. Glancing around, she eyed the lowest hanging branch she could see and made a mad dash for it, leaping up to grab the branch. Noriko managed to get a strong grip and she pulled herself up before making quick work of scaling the pine tree.

She broke the canopy after a minute of climbing and glanced around. Momo Nishimiya was no longer in the air and she could see Nue circling a couple trees a few miles or so from her. Her lips pulled into a smirk as she took in the perfect execution of her plan.

Roughly guessing, the dark-haired girl assumed she was maybe somewhere near the halfway point and settled herself comfortably in the tree. Unclipping the other new pouch, Noriko unrolled a blank sheet of paper and began to write with a black biro. Her hands made miniscule movements as she fought to squeeze her description onto the parchment.

If she was going to continue having her advantage, she couldn't let her stock of scrolls reduce.

While creating ink creatures or objects on the fly was okay for handling Curses, she knew in a real fight against another sorcerer, they wouldn't even give her the chance to open her ink canister.

Ignoring the series of earth-shaking crashes that came from where her teammates were, she continued to write, barely having time to reroll the scroll and safely deposit it into her holster pocket when she felt the sharp pulse of energy in her chest... followed by a deafening gunshot noise.

Of course, it was too loud to be just a regular gunshot and Noriko's eyes frantically scanned the horizon. Fortunately, despite her disorientated state, she was able to spot a few trees shake and then a gentle puff of smoke rise above the canopy a quarter of a mile away. Producing another tube of paper from her holster, she threw it away from her into the air, wincing backwards when it too began to crackle.

It fell and began to form a few feet under her.

Out from the point of creation sprung a Chinese-style paper umbrella*. It was huge and red with small white embellishments... and it bore a monstrous face. As it began to rise up to become level with her, she noted the large gash down the centre of the umbrella's cone. It had caused the paper to split into two vague-looking wings.

Her lips quirked upwards.

"Well, I've certainly used more questionable creations as transport before," Noriko belted out a laugh as she threw herself from her branch, wrapping her hands tightly into fists around the handle of the umbrella. It dropped slightly in the air at the addition of her weight but regained it's altitude quickly. "It's my first time bringing forth a tsukumogami* before, so please be careful."

The eyes of that monstrous face glanced down at her briefly, travelling it's stare down her arm as she pointed over at the trees she'd seen the smoke appear from.

"That way, please~!" There was a rough gust of wind and Noriko gripped even tighter if that was possible as she hung from the yokai. The umbrella dove foreword, ducking down in the air before ascending high above the canopy. The dark-haired girl couldn't help but let out a childish squeal as she was flying through the air. "This is much better than that damn bird I created before."

They were only in the air a couple moments before the umbrella began to dive downwards again into a clearing relatively near to her desired location. It tilted backwards as they came close to the forest floor, slowing their descent. When she felt it was safe, Noriko let go of the handle and dropped onto the mossy ground. She waited until the yokai was no longer above her to dispel him and wrinkled her nose as a fountain of ink began to rain down behind her and stain the ground black.

Adjusting her bisento on her back, she braced herself, inhaling the damp, woody scent of her surroundings as she searched for the source of cursed energy. It was quiet for a moment before she jolted, turning in the clearing to run towards the heavy source of energy behind her.

It was cold...

and vaguely fishy?