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AFTER HIMARI HAD RECEIVED THE SPECIAL nikumans from rumi, she had turned her back from the guards and started ripping them apart.

     himari had sincerely hoped that rumi got the correct idea of putting the moon stone into one of the steamed buns, to which she was not disappointed.

     grinning, the auburn-haired woman had picked out the slightly oily stone, sneakily examining it, as she rubbed it clean with the sleeve of the prisoner clothes that she had to change into.

"let's see...now how do I use this?", himari mumbled to herself, hesitantly biting it with her molars, as nothing had happened.

     "maybe a chant? but would that be up to my mother? technically...wouldn't it be made up by tsukuyomi?"

     himari then groaned in frustration, leaning her forehead against the wall, as she stared at the stone, hoping to manifest some shit.

     "maybe I need to align my chakara by doing some yoga first", himari muttered, hiding the moon stone under her raggedy pillow, as she stood up, stretching her arms first.

meanwhile the woman was channeling her big brain juice, sukuna and tōji were out searching for a person with stitches across their forehead.

     the two had split up to fasten the process, and even though there was a whole lot of land, the two were quicker than the average human by a ton.

     sukuna ravaged through the forest, though immediately halting, as he witnessed a flash of white.

     the demon king stood in the middle of the bamboo trees, as he skimmed around the forest, suspiciously waiting for an attack.

     "it's been a while, sukuna-sama..."

     sukuna's eyes widened, as he snapped his body around, nearly stumbling backwards in shock, as he witnessed his deceased friend standing right before him.

     "u-uraume?"

     the white-haired monk had casted an ever so sly smile, nodding.

     "I'm glad that sukuna-sama hasn't forgotten about me yet", they stated, to which sukuna was still in utter disturbance, unable to comprehend how they were still alive.

"gate open", uraume commanded, to which a cube that was thrown sukuna's way, had extended into four corners with a mass piece of flesh connecting them — and a giant bleeding eye in the center, locking in on its target.

sukuna flinched, unable to turn around, as the flesh had molded onto his form, detaining him.

"how are you...no...", sukuna grunted.

"who are you?", the demon darkly questioned, to which uraume had suddenly started chuckling, removing the bandages on top of their head.

     the demon king suddenly clicked his tongue in distaste, as he noticed the stitches across the top of uraume's forehead.

     the pink-eyed monk then removed the stitch, unraveling a purple brain that was residing in uraume's head.

     juice spilled out from the top of their head, trailing down their terrifying grin, as they very much enjoyed the utter horror expressed from the king of demons himself.

     "kenjaku, pleasure meeting you, ryōmen sukuna".

     "huh?! what do mean ryō's gone?!", himari asked, nearly smacking her body onto the ground, as the woman was currently doing a handstand to work out her arms.

     "he just never met me back at the estate. I tried looking for him but I found no trace or sign of him", tōji explained.

     "but sukuna wouldn't just disappear out of thin air. he wouldn't run away either because he still has a contract with himari...", getō concluded.

     "then someone must have kidnapped him", himari stated, sitting down normally now, as too much blood was flowing to her brain.

     "hah? but who would want to kidnap him?", tōji snorted, crossing his arms, as getō shook his head.

     "that might not necessarily be true. those who are in need of power or those who fear him might try to hinder us by taking him away", the man deduced.

     "I agree. it reminds me very much of when satoru got sealed in the manga", himari hummed, to which the two dark-haired males had perked up at that.

"satoru got what now?"

"sealed. ya know, in this cube with like eyes all around it. I think it was called the prison realm or something", himari casually explained.

tōji and getō stated at each other, then turning their heads towards himari.

"you don't think..."

"that sukuna got sealed..."

"by that cube, do you?", the two questioned in sync.

himari raised a brow, swatting her hand around in denial.

"no way!! the prison realm's meant to seal satoru. why would they use it on ryō? and plus, he'd have to have like a dead friend to catch him off guard and—oh my fucking god, ryō's sealed", himari instantly realized — remembering the story about uraume.

"then how do we get him out?", getō asked.

"aw shit! you need two tools, but I don't know if the other one's still around...tōji has the inverted spear of heaven, but we also need the black rope", himari anxiously grumbled.

"black rope? where is it?", tōji asked.

"overseas", getō immediately answered, to which himari was baffled by how getō had instantly knew the answer.

     but she supposed that since getō never betrayed gojō, miguel never fought the man and kept his weapon from being destroyed.

     "ugh, it's going to take forever to get it though!!", himari whined, covering her eyes, as tōji just scratched the back of his head.

     "we should be fine without him", getō calculated, as he held great pride in his and gojō's strength.

     "at least for now", the man quickly added on, not wanting to upset the woman.

"and by the way, have you figured out how to use it yet?"

the auburn-haired woman then sighed, shaking her head in distress.

"no...I tried singing...tried some weird chants...I even tried breaking it, but it just won't budge. at this point, it just seems like a useless stone", himari dejectedly stated.

     "perhaps it'll be of use later on. I'm sure you'll figure it out, himari. just don't give up", getō smiled.

     "thanks", himari replied.

     "you guys two. or else I'm going to get executed by that misogynist in two days", the woman chuckled, to which tōji and getō had just nodded.

     they were definitely not going to let that happen, even if they had to rebel against the entire japanese hierarchy.