───

     HIMARI SIGHED AS SHE ENTERED THE cave with gojō, who although had no weapons, was capable of fully protecting himself and the woman.

initially it was dark as hell, but as soon as the two stepped forward, there were torches lit up on each side of the cave, guiding them deeper into the cavern.

     nothing was peculiar about the cave, with the exception of it seeming like one of those haunted house tours that you'd enter to test your courage on halloween.

     "say...why did you offer to come with me? is it because you know that I'm going to be the one dying?", himari suddenly asked, making gojō snort.

     "you really think that I'm going to let you die?"

     "so....you'll die in my stead?", the woman asked, quirking her eyebrow, as gojō shook his head.

     "we're going to both make it out alive with the stone", gojō confidently replied, making himari highly doubt the man.

     "I know you're the strongest, but amaterasu is a literal goddess, sir. however, I will so graciously die for you, since you're prettier than me", himari sighed, causing a grin to plaster onto gojō's face.

"you think I'm pretty?"

"who doesn't?", the woman honestly retorted, making gojō hum.

"mah~ what can I say? I am very charmi—"

"suddenly, I wish to retract my statement", himari stated, making gojō playfully gasp.

"guess I'll just watch you die in this cave alone", the male uttered, making himari snap her head up at the tall daimyo.

"and you wonder why I like getō more", the woman quietly scoffed, making gojō huff.

     the two then continued walking in silence for at least ten minutes. although it was starting to get a bit unbearable, himari was persistent on ignoring the white-haired male, who had suddenly stopped in his tracks.

     "is something the matte—"

without warning, gojō had immediately pulled the woman by her waist, pressing his body against hers, as something unpleasant had slithered towards them.

     himari nearly screamed at how many beauty rat snakes there were, toppling each other as their scaly bodies wormed against one another.

himari and gojō slowly backed away from the incoming threat, trying not to make massive movements that would cause the snakes to shoot out and attack.

the woman held her breath as she dared not to stare at the pile of snakes, as reptiles always made her shiver.

she much preferred small and furry animals, like sukuna as a bunny.

"what, scared?", gojō mocked, making himari nod.

"please just use your red reversal or something and blast them away. I can feel them crawling on my skin just by looking at them", himari squeaked, hiding her face in gojō's chest, as she physically could not handle nearly two hundred snakes, wiggling on the ground.

"how'd you know my technique?"

himari snapped her head up so fiercely that it was like her emerald eyes were clashing against gojō's lapis ones.

"sir, where are your priorities?", himari softly questioned, making gojō grin.

     "fine, fine~ I suppose that I could do you a favor and save you for once", gojō sighed, holding onto himari with one arm, as he lifted his pointer finger.

"reversal technique: red", gojō casted, to which a small red ball had formed at the tip of the white-haired male's finger, making himari glance up.

the woman had watched it many times in the anime when he was fighting against jōgo, but seeing it in person was just incomparable.

it was like a tiny sun, who's radioactive waves swerved in a clockwise manner, ready to fire at any point of time.

himari had to cover her face in gojō's chest once more, as the light was blinding and nearly lit up the entire cave.

     in a quick moment, all himari heard was a low chuckle from gojō and a pat on her back.

     "they're gone", gojō confirmed, to which himari had relaxed a bit, looking upwards, as she was still in the daimyo's embrace.

'BITCH, TOO CLOSE! TOO CLOSE!!', himari internally panicked, to which the woman had cleared her throat, as she smoothly slipped out of gojō's embrace.

     "anyways, thank you for your service...uhm...w-we should get going", himari stiffly mumbled, turning around as she suddenly felt something clench around her waist.

     the auburn-haired woman froze.

"h-hey...gojō...y-y-you never told me that you could transfigure into...", himari paused in the middle of her sentence as she had to deeply suck in more air.

"please tell me you transformed into a snake as a prank....", the woman meekly squeaked out, leisurely turning her head around, as she covered her entire face speedy quick.

     not only was gojō turned into a statue, but a massive bluish-greenish snake with golden irises, had made its way towards the duo, on the verge of squeezing the life out of himari.

     the woman knew not to look into the snake's eyes, so since her back was now facing it's head, himari had peeked through her fingers, witnessing a sword that was stuck in a rock.

'was that always there? or is this cave just playing mind tricks on me? maybe this snake is fake t—'

the monster had suddenly thrown himari against the wall, causing the woman to groan in pain as a huge breath had escaped her esophagus.

"definitely not...it's as real as my pain..."

rumi curled up into a ball as she nervously fiddled with the hem of her kimono; a gut wrenching feeling creeping up from her stomach.

"would you like some water?", itadori asked, offering the female a bamboo water bottle, as the brown-haired girl just shook her head.

"do you think that they've found the stone yet?", rumi quietly asked, to which itadori had just sighed, sitting beside the girl.

getō, tōji, and sukuna leaned against the trunk of a tree, as their eyes were closed, seeming to be in deep thought.

sukuna's eyes then snapped open, hastily standing up, as his face contorted into annoyance.

     "I can only sense one of their heartbeats", the demon king stated.

"w-who is it?", rumi asked, though a part of her also wished to not know.

sukuna grinned, as his harsh complexion faced towards rumi and itadori, with tōji and getō closely listening in too.

"my contractor".

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a/n: hello my darlings!! I hope you're still enjoying this story so far! I think I'm really going for a slight slow burn to build himari's relationship w/ the 4 men, so yeah,,

also, himari will be "weak" towards the very beginning, b/c she is technically from the current time, and it's just unrealistic for her to suddenly become op.

if you liked it, please vote + comment!

     love you all <3