───

HIMARI STOOD THERE CONFUSED, as blood was dripping down her cheeks, meanwhile the holy sword's tip was perched on top of the ground, with the same nasty red liquid smeared across it.

     "ah, you freed gojō? thanks birdie!", himari waved, making the phoenix shake its head.

     "huh? so...it wasn't you??"

     "it was you, my dear", amaterasu stated, looking straight at the bloodstained woman.

     himari raised a brow before laughing out loud, clutching her stomach and softly groaning at the same time, as there were quite a few bruises littered around her body.

     "oww...shit", the woman quietly cursed, to which rumi had hurried over towards himari's side, assisting her.

     "indeed, you slayed the demon snake and hence the spell broke", amaterasu explained.

     "oh damn...I was hoping a kiss would work, but I guess that's okay too", himari grumbled, making rumi sigh in relief.

     "but I thought you said that only one would make it out??", itadori questioned, not that he minded that both were now okay.

     "I never said that the other wasn't going to", amaterasu slyly replied, making himari gasp.

     "I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO DIE!!", the woman shouted, only making the goddess chuckle.

"but you didn't, and you even managed to retrieve the kusanagi-no-tsurugi", amaterasu stated, making himari's jaw drop.

"t-this is the heavenly sword of gathering clouds given to you by susanoo?! this musty dusty swor—"

rumi gently elbowed himari in the stomach, quickly making the woman shut up as she awkwardly chuckled.

"I-I mean...how lovely!! it's got such a pretty color...", the woman smiled, watching as the phoenix was perched on top of amaterasu's shoulder.

"since you're the one that was able to pull it out, it's yours to keep. on the pommel of the sword is the sun stone that you so desire. and this is the guardian of the stone: suzaku", amaterasu explained.

     "you're...really just going to give it to me?", himari asked, still not believing what she was hearing.

     amaterasu nodded with a slight smile.

     "I have tested your courage to know that you deserve it. and the fact that you didn't just leave your comrade to rot in the cave is another commendable act that I've noticed, so yes. it is now yours", amaterasu answered.

himari then examined the bloodied amber stone embedded onto the upper hilt of the sword, unconsciously curving her lips up into a wide smile.

"well thank you for the—"

as soon as himari looked up, the sun goddess and suzaku were gone, leaving her astonished.

"eh?"

"stop standing there like an idiot. you reek of death", sukuna stated, making himari scoff.

"I know you ain't talking", himari snapped back, making itadori and rumi smile.

sukuna was about to rebuttal before tōji had picked the woman up by her waist, hoisting her up onto marengo.

     "ugh, but I'm still dirty", himari mumbled, awkwardly holding the sword, as she still needed to polish it and get a scabbard for it.

     "it's not the first time I've seen blood", tōji stated, smearing some of the liquid off himari's cheek, as the woman's head was facing the dark-haired male.

     with that being said, sukuna had returned back to his bunny form, as it was a given whenever they rode their horses.

     "shall we head to a nearby village and settle down for a few days first?", itadori suggested, to which himari had vigorously nodded.

     "YES! A SHOWER AND CELEBRATION IS MUCH NEEDED!!", himari cheered, nearly dropping her sword and sukuna.

tōji let out a low chuckle as he held onto the reins, heading off first, with itadori and rumi swiftly following behind.

gojō and getō glanced at each other, as they've been silent throughout their entire conversation.

"are you alright?", the dark-haired male questioned, to which gojō had brushed through his fluffy white locks.

     "I shouldn't have let my guard down", gojō muttered, to which getō had just put on a playful grin and patted the male's back.

     "mah~ it happens to the best of us sometimes", getō brushed it off, mounting his horse as he awaited for gojō to do the same.

     the white-haired male cracked a small smile.

     "haha, yeah", he quietly agreed, quickly catching up with the rest of the group, though his thoughts lingered along.

"UWAHHH!! BATH TIME, BATH TIME!!", itadori and himari chanted, making people stare weirdly at the duo — especially himari, since she was covered in an excessive amount of blood.

"AW MAN!! RUMI, LET'S GO, LET'S GO!!", himari exclaimed, dragging the girl up the flight of stone stairs, as the rest were quite a bit behind.

separated by a wooden sign right in front of the hot spring, the two girls tightly gripped onto their bucket, about to enter the female entrance, before someone had harshly grabbed onto the collar of himari's clean kimono — provided by the inn of course.

     "hey, where do you think you're going, pervert?!"

     himari snapped her head around as she gaped at the man that was holding her by her collar.

     she would've slapped the man's hand away, if it weren't for her recognizing his infamous scar that was across his left eye.

     "t-t-tōdō?!"

     "hah?! how'd you know my name?", the buff male questioned, making himari's eyes dart sideways, as she didn't have a proper answer.

     "anyways, that's the girl's hot spring. as much as I love hot girls myself, you've got to have respect for them and dignity!", tōdō lectured, making himari choke.

"NO, BUT I—"

"say no more, brother! from today onwards, I shall show you the real way of being a respectful man!", the male proclaimed, dragging the struggling himari into the male hot spring, as rumi worriedly looked around for help.

it wasn't until a few minutes later that a familiar pink-haired boy — and demon — along with getō, gojō, and tōji had showed up.

"ah, rumi!! you're still not in the spring yet?", itadori asked.

"and where's she?", tōji vaguely questioned, though everyone knew that he was referring to himari.

"u-umm...p-PLEASE HELP HIMARI!! SHE GOT DRAGGED INTO THE MEN'S HOT SPRING BY THIS REALLY SCARY BOY!", rumi squeaked, making tōji immediately rush in with the others.

"what did the boy look like?", itadori asked.

"umm...very tall and muscular...has black hair...and...AND A SCAR ACROSS HIS FACE! I think himari called him t-tōdō?"

"gotcha! no worries, rumi! I'm sure lady himari's fine!", itadori assured.