As the three women fell through the breach, Yaha happened to pop that dark red piece of Cursed Object into his mouth.
The crunch rang clearly through the quiet Underground Granary.
Hinatsuru landed first. Her boots crunched against the rubble. She raised her head.
She saw Yaha.
She saw the two enormous, overlapping four-armed phantoms behind him. They slowly twisted in the dim moonlight, radiating an aura that froze her soul.
She saw the smear of dark red blood at the corner of his mouth.
She saw what remained on his right index finger of the thing he had extracted from Gyutaro's remains.
Then she looked farther down.
Her husband's body was caught in the blood ribbons, with a man's hand plunged into his chest.
The hand pointed downward, its back facing up, its fingers already buried in his chest cavity. Dark red Cursed Energy seeped between the fingers, pulsing as though something was being stirred inside.
Every trace of color had drained from Tengen Uzui's face. His lips were gray, his eyelids drooped, and only the spot where that hand pierced his chest still rose and fell ever so faintly.
It was as though he had been nailed there.
Hinatsuru's pupils shrank to pinpoints.
Behind her, Suma and Makizuru landed at the same time. Both women followed Hinatsuru's gaze, their movements so perfectly synchronized that it seemed the same string had tugged their necks.
The entire Underground Granary fell silent at that moment.
Even the wind stopped.
Yaha turned his head. He was still chewing that thing. His jaw worked twice before he forced down the chunk of highly concentrated essence. A gulp sounded in his throat.
He saw the three women.
Three women covered in blood, wearing the uniforms of the Demon Slayer Corps' Hidden Corps, with fresh