Chapter 553: The Waiting Teeth

Hajin found the first approaching shape through the space beside Juna’s shoulder, its hooked arm dragging along the edge of the lowest scar.

"Don’t get up yet."

He stopped trying, letting the back of his head settle against her hand while the creature hauled another part of itself into the square.

Its arm was too long for the shoulder following it, the hook scraping a pale groove through the paving as it turned toward Cessy.

She had moved away from the wall with Lucan’s help, her weight uneven on her feet while Vella kept a hand near the newly held division.

One end of her scarf had slipped down over the bandage, the knot dragging sideways as she tried to keep the cloth clear of the wound.

Rumi followed the loose end with her eyes, checking the marked stone behind Cessy before moving her foot out of the space between them.

Hajin recognized the little adjustment from the sisters’ earlier crossings, his attention catching on the ordinary patch of paving that Rumi kept glancing toward.

The hooked limb followed that small change in position, lifting clear of the ground until its point faced the bandage against her side.

’Cessy first.’

Rumi saw the turn at the same time, her ears angling back as she moved toward the prepared mark nearest the injured demon.

"The hooked one wants Cessy."

Hajin looked for the next scar, finding a divided jaw working through its narrow mouth while the rest of the face stayed hidden beneath the paving.

The two halves opened at different angles, their motion making a dry clicking sound that carried plainly across the broken square.

Lucan drew his sister closer when he heard it, the movement bringing the divided face around until both halves pointed directly toward him.

"Split-jaw is following Lucan," Nari said.

Her right palm stayed close to the exposed return line, the anchor mark catching the light while she watched the creature’s mouth keep opening.

A third shape rose pale beneath a lattice of red threads, its head turning past Hajin before stopping at the six Shards above Didi.

She lifted her chin toward it, keeping her frost ready while her working arm still trembled from the claim she had refused.

"Red-thread is looking at me."

"I noticed," Hajin muttered.

Didi’s eyes flicked toward him for an instant, the familiar impatience on her face oddly reassuring beside the thing rising through the scar.

The fourth approach filled with strokes resembling the damaged designation on the foundation, their lines shifting across the body pushing beneath them.

Hajin’s hand closed against his knee before he felt the burn in his palm, the sting arriving a fraction behind the sight of that number.

Loccy stepped into its line toward the protected passage, placing herself between the markings and the turn leading toward the child’s room.

"Designation-bearer."

She said the name with a disgust that made Hajin glance at her face, finding her lips pressed together as she planted both feet.

The fifth held a chain whose links disappeared back through its scar, the taut length pulling sideways across the routes joining the other four.

It kept its head low while its hands worked, each pull gathering the separate approaches into a narrower space beneath the square.

Ferra followed the links with her eyes, crouching beside the nearest fixture as the metal scraped past a crack in the paving.

"Chain-holder has the road."

Hajin pushed his uninjured elbow against Juna’s support, getting far enough upright to see the line joining all five approaches beneath the bodies.

His right arm objected at once, a hot tremor running through the returned Ring before he could bring his hand away from his lap.

"Here," Juna said, shifting behind him.

She gave him her shoulder to lean against, settling low enough that he could keep the whole square in view over his bent knees.

The position made him feel absurdly helpless until a link scraped across the stone ahead, the sound drawing his attention back toward the fifth creature’s hands.

’Be embarrassed later.’

The Chain answered his right hand with its familiar weight, its first links settling against the paving while he worked his fingers into a grip.

Juna’s gaze followed the movement, her mouth tightening before she placed her palm beneath his forearm to keep the burden from pulling it down.

"I can hold it."

"Then hold it from here."

He accepted the position, feeding the Chain forward along the ground until its leading length lay across the fifth approach’s exposed edge.

The chain-holder pulled again, drawing a line beneath Cessy’s feet that tightened at the same instant as the one beneath Lucan.

Both demons jerked toward the square, their shoulders bumping together while Vella caught Cessy’s arm before the movement folded her across the injured side.

Lucan swore under his breath, looking down at the shared pull with an expression Hajin had not seen when the Collector first reached for them.

"It’s making one parcel."

Cessy followed his gaze, her hand flattening over the bandage as the line under her feet pulled toward the same center as her brother’s.

The hook lifted higher, its tip pointing toward her while split-jaw’s divided mouth turned to follow Lucan’s attempt to brace himself.

Hajin tightened the Chain across the fifth approach, feeling the answering pull travel into his wrist through every link laid on the stone.

The first hot spark beneath his strap made him bare his teeth, Juna’s hand pressing more firmly under his arm as she felt it shake.

"Wait."

The word came out rougher than he intended, reaching Rumi just as she lowered her left palm toward the prepared mark.

Her eyes moved toward him without her hand following, the route insignia hovering above the point she had already chosen for the crossing.

"Not all here?"

"Not yet."

She looked back toward Cessy’s feet, measuring the space around the tightening hook while Nari stayed with the exposed line behind the fighters.

The chain-holder had its arms above the paving now, its weight rocking as it pulled the bundle tighter around the people it had come to retrieve.

Hajin felt that pull through the Chain, its steady increase making his right fingers slide until he caught the next link against the heel of his hand.

His palm had started sweating, the small loss of grip suddenly more frightening than the creature’s face emerging beneath its lowered head.

’Keep your bloody hand closed.’

Didi stepped nearer to his shoulder, her frost taking the red thread that had begun reaching sideways from the pale fighter toward her wrist.

The pressure checked there, its sudden stillness leaving the thin red length trembling in the air while the pale creature continued dragging itself upward.

Loccy bent her knees as the designation-bearer pushed against her position, the paving grating beneath her shoes before her weight brought it to a stop.

At the passage doorway, the Watcher held Ash close enough that his elbow rested against her leg while he crouched with a piece of chalk.

His hand moved along the threshold, drawing a little circle that faced the place where the five approaches were drawing together.

"There," he said.

The circle wobbled where the chalk caught, Ash lifting it before the point could snap against the rough stone beneath his hand.

Ferra glanced from his mark toward the fifth fighter, her own chalk moving over the slate as the bundle’s center became clear between them.

[ ashley: they’re waiting for the fifth one to get both feet onto the square ]

The message stayed beside the Stream while Hajin watched the last dark portion of the fifth scar cling beneath the chain-holder’s body.

He could feel his heartbeat in the injured arm, each pulse making the Chain seem heavier while the creature pulled against his seated weight.

Juna shifted her foot behind his hip, bracing him as the next tug tried to slide him across the stone beneath her.

Cessy’s scarf drew taut near the hooked limb, its loose end caught against the point while Rumi moved her hand closer to the mark.

Lucan reached across his sister’s back, holding her upright as split-jaw’s mouth opened toward the line tightening beneath his own feet.

The next heartbeat brought the chain-holder’s lower body clear, its knees striking the paving while its chain snapped tight across the bundle’s center.

Hajin stopped breathing for the length of that movement, his attention fixed on the last dark join beneath the fighter’s heel.

The join closed behind it with a small inward fold, leaving all five bodies on the same battered stone as the people they had come to take.

"The connection is complete," Lucan said.

Aria’s fields appeared beside the final scar, their clear lines holding still while the rest of the square seemed caught inside one drawn breath.

[ Five cores: Fully committed ]

[ Counterattack permission: Valid ]

Hajin looked once across the five scars, finding Nari’s right hand waiting at the exposed road behind the fighters while Rumi knelt beside her first mark.

"Nari, close behind them."

Her nod was small, the heel of her palm lowering until the anchor mark touched the line she had been watching.

Rumi pressed her own hand against the prepared threshold, the angle of her body changing as she found the path around the hooked grip.

Hajin let out the breath he had been holding, keeping his voice low enough that the others had to be ready to hear it.

"Now, break the bundle without opening the road behind them."

Rumi’s first route opened beside Cessy’s trapped scarf, its far end settling on the marked stone behind the defensive line.