Noriko tried not to let her nerves get the best of her when Gojo Satoru led her into the bamboo forest surrounding the grounds - she sought security in the occasional Jizo statues that dotted the dirt path. There was an old shrine tucked among the forest just within the grounds. It was small (barely more than a saisen* box) and clearly was no longer cared for, but she'd been up once or twice to pray and leave offerings. Shikishi liked it, and it helped ease her sometimes.

"Hmm, sensei, you wouldn't be dragging me off into the forest to dispose of me, would you?" Her tone held clear amusement, but Gojo could hear her anxiety underneath as he glanced back to look at her. Her lips were pulled in the carefree smile, but her eyes were cold and her hand twitched where it hung near her holster.

He chuckled.

"Is that what you think of me?" He mock pouted, leading into some tangent about how cruel his students could be to him. But, he stopped when they reached a small break in the trees and dropped himself down onto the bench alongside the path - directly opposite of the small box shrine. "Of course not, am I not allowed to check up on my students? But, if you feel uncomfortable, you're free to leave now."

He gestured to the space next to him for her to sit, but she shook her head, folding her arms across her chest.

"Your instructors have been telling me that you never turn up to lessons anymore, and Nobara and Fushiguro tell me you're barely around - either in your room or disappearing off to the library or elsewhere," he broke the tense silence.

"Hmm? Does that matter? You know what I'm doing with my time - it's not like their lessons could be any use to me," Noriko retorted, turning to the box shrine and crouching at the face of it, and uttering a quick prayer. Turning to the accompanying Jizo* statue, she placed a nearby pebble onto the pile at the statue's feet before getting up and turning back to her teacher.

"While your circumstances are unique, that also means we have no idea what kind of damage Shikishi's presence has inflicted on you or the exact state of your being - energy or soul. It's important that you don't overwork yourself or push yourself to the point of a serious accident." Gojo retorted, glancing over to the shrine briefly before turning his attention back to his student. "I won't be able to protect you if word gets out about Shikishi - you'll be sentenced to the same fate as Yuji. Your differences won't matter; you'll still just be some kind of Cursed Spirit to get rid of to them."

He did have to admit that he was purposely 'poking the bear' a little, but hummed in approval when he saw no reaction. Noriko merely shrugged her shoulders and her energy remained still.

"Besides, if you work yourself like this, you'll just counteract any progress you make it." Noriko raised an eyebrow, hand making swift work with her holster as she produced a thin scroll from a pouch. It was maybe A4, rolled tightly into a small cylinder and bound closed with the traditional Shinto red, braided rope. He didn't make a move. Gojo wondered for a split second whether this was an attack, but her calm demeanour told him it wasn't. She wasn't stupid enough to to challenge perhaps one of the strongest living sorcerers of her time.

With a flick of her wrist, the roll was thrown into the air between them and the rope began to spark with brief flickers of electricity until it became a visible static accompanied by a few sharp crackling noises. The rope snapped and the paper began to crumple and wrinkle as it unrolled. He barely caught a glimpse at the careful inking across the paper before a surge of energy pulsed from the paper and his tongue began to taste the tang of thunder in the air.

It crumbled until it was a ball and there was a split-second of silence before the paper erupted with a thousand black shadows that grew from the discarded parchment. Each shadow formed a wolf as the ink leapt from the tiny point of the centre of a now visible ball of electricity.

A smirk pulled at his lips as he met the fierce gaze of his pupil from behind the mass of moving creatures, who came to fill the clearing - some standing in a flank position around their creator, some crouching in the undergrowth, or some leaping up to dig their claws in the thick stalks of bamboo to snarl down at him.

The static receded as a final creature emerged, coming to stand beside Noriko. Feminine in figure but easily brushing six foot with broad shoulders and wild, slit pupils - the blacksmith's wife*. Her facial features were a mix between wolfish and human and her clawed hands were almost hidden in the sleeves of her white kimono as her icy eyes remained trained on him. The blacksmith's wife came to stand alongside her defensively.

Gojo was almost drawn into hazy deafness at the collective noise of the thousand growling creatures surrounding them.

"Oh? Is this the Senbiki ōkami?" He mused, pushing himself up from his seat on the bench and turning to glance around at the thousand pairs of eyes that followed his movements. They were tangible: each moving with their own individuality, each manifestation almost as solid as Fushiguro's shikigami, and instead of that heavy, cold energy which they were normally made of, the energy that coursed through the ink was pulsing with that electric scent of Noriko's. "I'm impressed you've managed to improve in such short time."

He was. Her ability to progress so intensely in such comparatively little time was astounding - and it made her almost too useful to get rid of.

"Of course," she shrugged at him, glancing over to the blacksmith's wife next to her, who bowed her head in respect. "Who wouldn't be able to progress this much with the biggest Jujutsu library in all of Japan at their disposal?"

He shook his head at her tone as the smirk morphed into a grin - he considered seeing how long she could keep the wolves here, but he was on a tight schedule.

"Well, I suppose you're right. As your teacher, I'm very proud of you."

Noriko twitched, her fingers twitching in nervousness at his unusual words. The tawny wolves around her mirrored her anxiety and the growls around her grew ever so slightly louder.

She was sure she'd blinked, and that was how she missed it, as the next thing she knew Satoru Gojo was towering over her, with that same carefree grin. However, she felt his dense energy press against her temples as her eyes squinted in pain and she took a quick step back. The bakemono* next to her moved closer to flank her front - not that it would do much against the special grade sorcerer.

"However, as a sorcerer," he leant down until he was a couple inches from her face, noting her pain. So, it was true... that the priestesses of the Kamo Shrine were more sensitive to energy. "I'm going to have to warn you to keep your nose out of things you shouldn't. As useful as you are now, Noriko Kamo, if you pose a threat to my goals, I'll have to get rid of you."