The silence arrived all at once. One moment the cave was full of the Gravefang's final roar, the collapse, the slow cascade of debris from the ceiling. The next, there was nothing. Just dust drifting through the ambient light and the massive stillness of the Skullrend's corpse occupying more of the chamber floor than seemed reasonable even in death.
Renji stared at it, then his fist went into the air.
"We did it!"
The words came out louder than he intended, which was the correct volume for the occasion. The relief crashed over him in a wave that was almost physical, the release of everything he'd been holding compressed behind the immediate demands of surviving the last hour, and he acted on it without particular dignity. He grabbed Aya first — she made a small surprised sound — then Rei, then Kaede, pulling all three of them into an embrace that was less coordinated than it was enthusiastic.
Aya and Rei dissolved into tired giggles almost immediately.
