When Nico Minoru had an encounter with the Upward Path while she was "making a withdrawal" in the bank the Adjudicator knocked her out. When she came to she found her captor to be an old Japanese woman called Witchbreaker. Witchbreaker immediately knew that Nico was a Minoru and claimed to be Nico's great-grandmother. Witchbreaker's torturing Nico was suppose to be some kind of test that she had to undergo to prove she was worthy of her powers. Apparently, this torture enabled Nico to access more magical power and transformed her staff of one.