If it was the latter, leaving them trapped here long enough would make them break down on their own.
Little by little, they would grow suspicious of everything, begin to doubt their companions, then turn on one another until they finally died.
"It's a slow death." Tetsu no Sosuke glanced at the body on the ground, then sat down beside the steps. Propping his chin on one hand, he tried to work out what they should do next.
Shinobu Kocho was silent for a moment. "I have an idea."
Tetsu no Sosuke looked at her.
"We can't just sit here waiting to die," Shinobu Kocho said. "If we managed to find each other, we might be able to find Inosuke, Tanjiro, and the Water Pillar too. We don't know how to break out of the Spiritual World yet, but if we put our heads together, we might find a way."
Tetsu no Sosuke nodded. She was right.
Then he thought of Nezuko.
Nezuko wasn't human... and he didn't mean that as an insult.
She was different. Perhaps she would notice something they couldn't. Either way, finding Tanjiro and the others had to come first.
But how were they supposed to find them?
No one knew how vast the Spiritual World was, or whether they were walking in circles. A thin veil seemed to hang between them and the others, like a curtain separating their worlds. No matter what they did, they couldn't reach the other side.
None of them had an answer, least of all Zenitsu Agatsuma. Tetsu no Sosuke and Shinobu Kocho sat thinking for a long time without getting anywhere.
Then, suddenly, a roar rang out. "Pig Assault!"
Blades tore through the void, seeming to split the very air in two. A pig-headed boy burst out of nothingness,