The cracks in the ground extended to either side from directly beneath the long table. The cuts were smooth, without tremors or sound, simply splitting the bluestone slabs in two.
Broth leaked through a crack in the bottom of a bowl, dripping onto the table.
Zenitsu dropped his chopsticks. Inosuke sprang from his chair, drawing both swords. Tanjiro stared hard at the line spreading beneath his feet, the sound of his teeth clenching clearly audible.
Rengoku stood, his right hand on his sword hilt, his fiery red eyes sweeping over the ground.
The cracks were spreading. They radiated in every direction from the center of the courtyard, each perfectly straight and orderly, with a geometric precision beyond human hands.
"Infinity Castle's spatial laws are seeping through." Giyu's voice came from the corner, flat and even. "They're probing the coordinate anchors here."
No one answered.
The door on the west side of the corridor opened.
The footsteps were unhurried, each step landing on the wooden boards with the lazy heaviness of someone who had eaten his fill. Yaha emerged from the doorway, his right hand in his pocket and his left still clutching a bone with half its roasted meat uneaten.
He glanced at the cracks in the ground, then looked down at the one beneath his feet. It ran straight through the middle of his sole.
"What's the rush?"
He tossed the bone into the courtyard. It struck beside a crack in the bluestone with a thud.
"It hasn't cut into the load-bearing structure yet. We've got at least fifteen minutes."
The tense shoulders throughout the courtyard eased a fraction in unison.
Yaha walked to the end of the corridor and leaned against a pillar, his dead-fish eyes sweeping from left to right. Rengoku, Giyu, Mitsuri, Muichiro, Tanjiro's trio, and