The meeting had not adjourned.
Seven lamps burned brightly in the hall.
Kagaya Ubuyashiki sat at the head, with Amane standing behind him to one side.
Sanemi Shinazugawa leaned against a pillar with his arms folded. The pent-up anger on his face had yet to fade completely, and the veins in his neck twitched faintly.
Obanai Iguro stood to his right. The lamplight cast heavy shadows over the scars along his face, and his eyes kept flicking toward the entrance.
Giyu stood in a corner. His back rested against the wall, his gaze fixed on the floor. He neither looked at anyone nor spoke.
Then the door slammed open with a boom.
The heavy wooden door struck the inner wall. A revolving lantern hanging in the corridor shook wildly from side to side, its tassels swinging half a foot outward.
Yaha walked through the doorway with both hands in his pockets.
His military boots stepped onto the wooden floor. His pace was unhurried, carrying the languor of someone too full from dinner to bother exerting himself.
Once inside, he did not even bother looking around. His gaze passed over everyone present and landed directly on Ubuyashiki at the head of the hall.
"My immunity and unlimited meals." Yaha's tone was as flat as if he were ordering food. "Are they arranged."
It was not a question.
The corners of Ubuyashiki's mouth lifted slightly. His blind eyes faced Yaha, his expression serene, as though he had been waiting for those very words.
Someone beside him moved.
"Such insolence toward Oyakata-sama."
Obanai Iguro's voice came from the right. His hand closed over his sword hilt, and he drew his Nichirin Blade partway out.
His face betrayed nothing, but his tone held a tightly wound anger that had been building for a long