Shinobu Kocho's wrist was caught in his grip.
He wasn't squeezing hard, but his five fingers held fast, their joints braced against either side of her wrist bone like iron pincers clamped precisely onto the joint's weak point.
Yaha didn't look back. He moved quickly, covering the distance from headquarters' main hall to the outer corridor in just six strides, each carrying the oppressive tension left over from the meeting. Behind him, the Nine Hashira remained in their various positions. No one spoke.
Shinobu was dragged along behind him. Forced to quicken her steps, her straw sandals scraped rapidly over the stone paving.
"Hey, big guy. My hand."
Yaha didn't let go.
"You're deforming my radius."
"Shut up."
The two disappeared through headquarters' front entrance. Giyu stood and followed them for two steps before Rengoku reached out to stop him by the shoulder. Rengoku shook his head, an exceedingly rare silence in his flame-red eyes.
Neither spoke along the way. Yaha walked faster and faster until cursed energy burst from beneath his feet and he simply took to the air with Shinobu, sweeping over three streets and two stretches of woodland before landing on the corridor in the Butterfly Mansion's rear courtyard.
The impact of their landing shook two lanterns on the corridor posts dark.
Momentum sent Shinobu stumbling half a step forward. Before she could steady herself, a hand pressed onto her right shoulder. The downward force buckled her knees, pushing her into the old wooden chair in the bedroom.
The chair back creaked, and its four legs scraped white marks across the floor.
Yaha braced his arms on the armrests on either side and leaned forward, bringing his face, still bearing traces of cursed markings, less than a handspan from Shinobu's.
Dead-fish eyes.
Icy.
Shinobu raised her head,