───

THE ZEN'IN BROTHERS WERE THE ONLY ones left standing, with the exception of gojō and the head of the kamo clan, who both weren't interested in becoming the next shogunate.

meanwhile pseudo-uraume was being cornered, the prison realm had incidentally slipped from their icy hand and landed on some random dead body.

      tōji was first to take action, attempting to free the demon king from the cube, meanwhile gojō had playfully threatened miguel to give him the black rope.

actually, the white-haired daimyo just straight up snatched it, not even caring that it was specially passed down from miguel's ancestors.

with the black rope and inverted spear of heaven combined, both weapons quite nearly cracked the entire cube, to which a large piece of flesh had spilled out, releasing sukuna from the prison realm.

sukuna embraced the fresh air, as he hastily revealed his true form, ripping the top half of his kimono in the process.

     thirsting for blood, the demon combed through his coral pink locks, as he madly grinned.

"YOU! I WILL MURDER YOU ALL FOR TRAPPING ME INSIDE THIS STUPID CUBE!", sukuna raged, to which everyone could feel the intense bloodlust oozing from him.

"A-APOLOGIES, SUKUNA-SAMA!! PLEASE FORGIVE US!!", one of the demons stated, as all of the remaining ones kneeled, halting in the middle of the battle.

"RYŌ!!"

     everyone's jaw dropped, as they watched himari jump into sukuna's embrace, wringing her arms around his neck, as he haughtily smirked, taking this chance to also flip gojō off.

     "missed me that much?", the demon teased.

"you bet your ass I did!", himari boldly proclaimed.

"we released the demon king?!", okkktsu choked, feeling his heartbeat accelerate, as he gripped tightly onto his katana.

"mah, mah~ no need to be so uptight, yūta-kun", gojō assured, hastily grabbing uraume by their hair, as he sliced off the top half of their head, showcasing a disgusting brain.

"this parasite was the thing residing in our precious shogunate's body. isn't that right, lady yoshiteru?", gojō loudly inquired.

the meek concubine nodded her head in trepidation, thickly swallowing, as she was cuddled up next to the other wives and peasants.

"this proves himari's innocence, so no one should be blaming her for the death of lord yoshiaki anymore!", getō followed up.

with getō and gojō keeping uraume pinned down, himari had handed sukuna the yumi and moon stone.

"I think it's best if you end it", himari whispered, urging for the demon king to get his closure with uraume, even though he knew that it wasn't actually them that was baring their teeth at him right now.

"wait...isn't he...kamo noritoshi?!", chōsō questioned, to which the teenager — the actual kamo noritoshi — had raised a brow in confusion.

"huh? I'm right here", the boy stated.

"no, his real name is kenjaku. it took me a while to figure it out, but he must've taken kamo noritoshi the first's body and resided in there for over a hundred and fifty years.

he changed into the shogunate's body to challenge me to go get the three stones because he wanted it for himself.

I'm not sure if my theory is accurate, but he must've found uraume's body and posed as them to seal ryō.

all in all, their purpose is to evolve humans or some shit", himari explained.

everyone looked at the woman, speechless.

"ah, I could've sworn you reminded me of someone. you're mayako's daughter aren't you? how reminiscing~", pseudo-uraume hummed.

     "great! I'm glad I remind you of someone, now shut up and die", himari waved, watching as sukuna confusingly held the bow and moon stone.

     "babes, you're supposed to activate the moon stone", the auburn-haired woman said, walking over towards sukuna, as when she squeezed the moon stone three times, it had morphed into a golden arrow.

with the special arrow pressed against the yumi, sukuna drew back the string, aiming the weapon at uraume's exposed brain.

     himari patted sukuna's back, as if encouraging him.

     "forgive me, uraume".

     with the arrow flying towards kenjaku at full speed, it was as if the guardians of the two stones had vaguely appeared for a moment.

     a silhouette of the byakko (white tiger) from the moon stone and the genbu (a tortoise with a serpent wrapped around its body) from the sea stone both dispersed into the air alongside the arrow and yumi.

     "YOU BITCH! I SWEAR, YOU WILL DIE A TERRIBLE DEATH FOR RUINING MY PLAN!", kenjaku screamed, before all of uraume's body had crumbled up into ashes.

     "I didn't ruin anything. your plan was just shit!", himari huffed.

     sukuna silently let out a puff of air, as he felt himari clench onto one of his many hands.

     "at least they're free now", the woman smiled.

     "that's true..."

"lady himari, all of the people are safe!", itadori reported, as chōsō followed closely behind.

     "sweet!! what a great ending!!", the woman smiled, to which she had started heading towards the zen'in clan.

     "y'all done fighting?", himari asked, loosening her ponytail, as the top of her skull felt sore.

     "this is none of your business! leave it to the men to work out who's going to be the next ruler", naobito stated.

     "I want to join too. in fact, I want to be the empress of this country", himari bluntly replied, causing a fit of laughter to ring through the crowds of demons and people.

     "y-you?! you must be out of your goddamn mind! a woman ruling? and plus—"

     "I found the stones of the three precious children, didn't I? I helped defeat kenjaku and proved my innocence, didn't I? and the people love me, don't you guys?!", himari asked, turning around, as everyone cheered — especially the women.

     all of the civilians kneeled down, including the demons, who were forced by sukuna.

     even gojō got down on both knees, to which himari had specifically remembered the man saying that he would never dip his head to someone who was weaker than him.

     "ALL HAIL LADY HIMARI, OUR SAVIOR!!", the people thanked.

     the zen'in brothers flinched in annoyance, as they all clenched their fists, clearly about to rebel.

without wanting, tōji had pinned down his own father — zen'in jin'ichi — meanwhile gojō had naobito covered, and getō had ogi taken care of.

sukuna stood behind the head of the kamo clan just in case, as they were basically forcing them to accept himari as the new ruler.

however, naoya had quickly gotten up from the ground, attempting to heavily injure himari.

     "I'll say this as many time as it takes, but women don't deserve to rule!"