───

IT TOOK A FEW DAYS TO FINALLY arrive at gojō's mansion, due to himari's wish of not wanting to bother her father.

"okay, I've asked your maid or whatever to get me some ice, but I guess it has to be imported or some shit, so we'll just devise a plan to save miwa first", himari stated, sitting in the main room, as there was a table in the middle of them all.

"first, we'll have gojō and suguru enter the zen'in household and—"

"hold on! and since when were you on a first name basis with suguru?!", gojō interrupted, making himari roll her eyes.

     "quit getting jealous, side piece".

     gojō offendedly gasped.

     "and plus, why do you care? you call him suguru too", himari stated.

     "oh, so you get to call everybody by their first names except me?! you're truly a biased woman!", gojō huffed, making himari's mouth gape open.

"coming from the man who said 'I can't stay committed'", himari immediately retorted.

"well I—"

"himari, we're getting sidetracked", rumi whispered, to which the woman had stuck her tongue out at the white-haired male, who had promptly done the same.

getō sighed, shaking his head.

"anyways, as I was saying, gojō and su-gu-ru will be going to the zen'in household and holding them off as long as they can", himari stated, emphasizing on the dark-haired male's name.

"then I'll sneak in with mechamaru and find miwa. we'll convince her to take the fake poison and BAM! naoya finds her dead, cries or some shit, then when they bury her, we dig out her body from the grave and you and miwa live happily ever after!"

     "how will we know which room is hers?", muta asked, as not even he's seen miwa after her engagement with naoya.

     "we've got an ex-zen'in right here", himari smiled, glancing over at tōji, who just grimaced at the mentioning of that name.

"then what about us?", itadori asked.

"ah, stay hidden. no one can know that I'm back, but ryō, I do have a special task for you", himari stated, making the male groan.

     "what is it now?", the demon sighed.

      "I need you to make a fake holy sword that looks exactly like the real one", himari replied, making many in the room surprised.

     "huh, why?"

     himari shrugged.

     "I don't know....just a feeling. anyways, thanks! and we'll execute the plan in three days!!", himari announced.

     "hm? why so long?", muta asked.

     "uhm, because I still need to make the poison and test it out, bitch! like chille. I get you want to save your juliet, but I need some time too!", himari stated, making muta scoff.

"yeah yeah, whatever", the boy grumbled, to which himari had then followed one of gojō's maids into the medical room, meanwhile everyone else were off to complete their given task.

himari carefully plucked the foliages and berries off the stem of the atropa belladonna, as she dropped them into the mortar.

     the auburn-haired woman then crushed it up with the pestle until it was entirely squished and looked like a drinkable substance.

     draining all the excess first, she carefully spilled it through a funnel and into two small jars.

     with the poison already made, himari then proceeded onto the antidote.

cracking the exterior, himari popped out two beans from each shell, as the beans itself were just as poisonous as the belladonna.

"isn't it dangerous for you to ingest both?", tōji asked, as currently he was the only one that was in the same room as the sweating woman.

himari shook her head as she boiled the beans first so that they were softer to grind later on.

     "belladonna contains tropane alkaloids, and many other toxins. to counter that, you need physostigmine, which is the exact poison found in these calabar beans", himari said, smiling as tōji made a confused expression.

"and you're sure that this is going to work?", the dark-haired male questioned, watching as himari poured the antidote into another two bottles.

"well that's why you're here!! if it does, sweet! if it doesn't, I guess you can take the money that you've been saving up and live the life you've always wanted", himari chuckled, making tōji unconsciously knit his brows together.

"you're throwing your life on the line just for some random murderer that tried to take revenge on you because you decided to leave a man for your own happiness?"

     "mhm! now remember to save me, ciao!!", himari grinned as she downed the first jar of belladonna.

     licking her lips, himari didn't feel anything until her body suddenly started breaking into a cold sweat. the woman incidentally dropped the jar as her hand slammed onto the table, trying to balance herself as all she could hear was her obnoxiously loud heartbeat.

"oi! here, drink the antidote now!", tōji commanded, grabbing the brownish medicine as he handed it to himari, who had just shook her head.

"not...yet...", the woman coughed out, feeling her knees buckle as her body involuntarily fell forward, with her eyes shutting, and tōji there to catch her just in time.

the man clicked his tongue in disdain as he carried the girl onto a nearby rectangular cushion.

tōji could physically see how much the woman was struggling to let out a whimper, as not only was himari's breath erratic, but her entire face paled, with her gripping tightly onto the thin mattress — due to the hallucinations.

     the dark-haired male hovered his hand above her head, only to clench his fists as he awaited a little longer.

     himari needed to completely "die" first before he could give her the medicine, or at least that's what she instructed.

     after a good ten minutes of her body fighting to stay alive, tōji was sure that the ailing woman was on the brink of death, as her breathing was thinner than a sheet of paper.

     attempting to just pour the antidote in the woman's mouth, himari couldn't actually consume it, as her lips made no effort to move.

     grunting, tōji sipped the liquified calabar beans, containing it in his mouth as he lifted the upper half of himari's pale body.

     supporting the woman's neck with his other hand, tōji forced the liquid into himari's mouth, as a droplet or two trickled down her chin and onto her collarbone.

     once tōji had delivered the medicine, he forced the woman to close her mouth as she still had a bit of will left in her to swallow.

     the man then cleansed out his mouth, as he didn't wish to be poisoned next, leaving himari to lay there by herself, leisurely healing in the process.

     "t-tōji...", himari quietly coughed out, making the man halt in his steps, as he just finished washing his mouth.

     "it...worked...", himari weakly smiled, making tōji scoff.

     "good job", the man muttered, gently ruffling the woman's ruby locks, as her lids drooped down once more.