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kiyo knew that sukuna didn't do that out of pity or for anybody, however, the male still managed to get rid of the problem that was bothering the kind villagers, to which that had earned a thanks from the priestess herself.

"this tastes like shit", sukuna gagged, spitting the soup out onto the floor as the woman and koji had bowed in apology.

"I'm so sorry for the substandard hospitality, but it's just been hard to get good ingredients lately", the woman — who introduced herself as komachi — had embarrassingly apologized.

"please, I'm sorry about his behavior. he has a tendency to be quite harsh because of his upbringing", kiyo said, side glancing at the male who had just huffed and crossed his arms.

"the soup's actually very good. I'm so honored to have tried such a delicacy", kiyo smiled, finishing her bowl quickly as the woman had showed a face of relief.

"oh dear, you're too sweet".

"not at all, but I was just curious, are the crops declining because of the yōkai from earlier?", kiyo asked, noticing that the people here barely had any rice or vegetables to consume.

komachi sighed, shaking her head.

"it wasn't just because of that one...recently, it's been rumored that...that...that sukuna has been released", the woman hesitantly mumbled, to which sukuna had nearly snorted, grinning proudly.

"what does this have to deal with sukuna?", kiyo asked, knowing that the man wasn't out destroying people's crops.

"the demons have regained hope and even the smaller ones have been hopping around and creating havoc", komachi explained.

"it's all the priestess's fault!", koji chimed in, to which kiyo had glanced up.

"shh, koji, don't be rude", komachi reprimanded.

"I'm not mother! it's not like I'm talking about lady kiyo over here", the little boy smiled, to which kiyo had given a weak one back.

sukuna simply rolled his eyes at the naive humans. they truly were ungrateful and foolish in many ways.

"still—"

"it's okay, I know koji didn't mean to offend me", kiyo smiled, to which the old woman had slightly dipped her head.

"but back to what we were saying, you said that more demons are coming out from their hiding? do you know for what?", kiyo asked.

"well...we naturally don't know much, but if I had to guess...it'd be to seek out their king", komachi shivered, clearly not comfortable talking about this.

suddenly, something in kiyo clicked.

immediately standing up, she had startled the three as she quickly took a small pocket of money and a string of mon.

"please accept this for having us here. we are actually in a hurry. I almost forgot about this important meeting. I hope to see you two soon", kiyo smiled, to which komachi had tried pushing the string of money back into the girl's hands, only to be rejected.

"take it. I promise it's not too much", kiyo insisted, to which the woman had given up, thanking the girl repeatedly.

"at least stay for the night. it's the least we could offer", komachi said.

kiyo shook her head, politely rejecting the woman's offer.

"I'm afraid we're on a tight schedule. please take care", kiyo said as she ushered sukuna out the door, who was sluggishly walking towards the main road.

"take care then!", komachi said as koji waved goodbye to the two.

kiyo only smiled as she turned around, her luscious white hair swaying behind her as sukuna only chuckled.

"scared that my followers will attack the villagers?", sukuna mocked.

"for all I know, the great sukuna didn't have any followers", kiyo stated, already away from the village as they were now surrounded by trees once more.

"only because I never needed anybody's help. they're all stepping stones and unworthy", sukuna replied, suddenly stopping as kiyo had sensed another being following them too.

readying her bow and arrow, the girl was about to shoot before a black hound with three dots on its forehead had popped out of the bushes with a fabric tied to its neck.

"fushiguro's divine dog?"

kiyo had remembered the teen summoning two of his dogs when sukuna had first became unsealed. it was a miracle that she recognized it before killing it by accident.

the black dog happily wagged it's tail as kiyo kneeled down beside it, ruffling it's dark fur as she untied the fabric around its neck.

"meet us at the hayakawa village in three days, sighed by your favorite", kiyo read out loud, crumbling up the paper as she petted the hound.

"thank you. you may go back now", kiyo said, to which the dog had quickly left, meanwhile smoke had started to arise from nearby, to which kiyo suddenly felt her heart drop.

"no..."

kiyo had immediately ran towards the village, with sukuna leisurely following behind.

the straw huts were burnt to the ground as ashes of humans were swept away by the wind that had prompted the flames even more.

"huh? I thought gojō was a man", a low voice commented, to which a single-eyed demon with the upper half of his head resembling a volcano had showed up.

sukuna had watched from afar as he assumed that it'd just be another regular battle.

"you're the one that burnt the entire village", kiyo stated rather than asking, as it was clear that the hunchback demon was the cause of all this.

"I do not answer to a mere human", the yōkai huffed, to which sukuna had smirked at the demon's response.

"though I am curious as to where the famous gojō satoru is", the demon hummed, looking around as he was starting to get a bit paranoid.

"my brother's elsewhere", kiyo stated, to which the volcanic demon had raised a brow.

"brother?" the demon suddenly remembered. "ah! you're gojō kiyo, the irrelevant one", the yōkai laughed, to which kiyo looked indifferent.

she was used to it; it didn't phase her anymore, especially not from some random demon.

"sure, you can say that", kiyo smiled as she dropped her bow and basket of arrows.

sukuna perked up at that action as the demon in front of kiyo as started laughing once again.

"giving up already? pft! what a disgrace", the yōkai mocked as immediately the girl was set on flames, making sukuna hum.

"sorry to disappoint then", kiyo whispered from behind the demon, making him flinch as he stumbled forward many steps.

"wha—but I just saw you..."

nevertheless, the demon — named jōgo — had attempted to blast the girl into ashes with his disaster flames, to which they were quite the powerful fire eruptions.

"are you done yet?", kiyo asked, still standing perfectly in front of jōgo as the demon was awestruck.

"how..."

"you're right. compared to satoru, I am quite irrelevant. neither did I inherit the powerful six eyes nor the limitless technique of the gojō clan, but that doesn't mean I'm completely useless", kiyo stated.

"SHUT UP! YOU HUMANS ARE NOTHING BUT PARASITES!", jōgo yelled as he activated his domain expansion: coffin of the iron mountain.

not only did their surrounding immediately change into that of a volcanic area, but if kiyo was any average person, she would've already been burned.

'the most effective way to deal with a domain is to lay out your own', kiyo remembered satoru instructing her.

"my turn", kiyo smiled.

"I hereby summon my domain expansion: benevolent shrine".

crossing her pointer and middle fingers together, the girl's domain expansion had outstretched jōgo's, and into a two-hundred meter radius.

a heaven-like area with clouds of plenty and stars amongst the bright sky was shown as the wallpaper. a shrine that was like a throne for the gods stood proudly behind the priestess, to which that had caught sukuna's interest.

"w-wha—"

"I hope you reflect on your sins as I send you to the afterlife", kiyo stated as with a snap of her fingers, jōgo's head had came undone, plopping onto the gravel ground, as kiyo had deactivated her domain.

though just before the girl could finish him off, another demon had swiftly swooped up jōgo's head and body and escaped, to which kiyo had felt a bit annoyed.

sukuna jumped down from a nearby branch as he whistled, to which kiyo had ignored it as she picked up her belongings.

"gotta say, you've successfully caught my attention, little miko".

"what an honor then", kiyo casually replied, glancing around the now nonexistent village as her heart clenched.

'it's ultimately my fault isn't it?'