The shards rain down and affect the nearby area. The Convoy database suggests that the Moon Warps are the reason behind a lot of the oddities in the ruins and environments, but the moon itself seems to fluctuate in how severely fractured it appears.

[So it's... somewhat inconclusive, and Akechi ultimately shrugs his shoulders.]

We're still learning, of course. Though we have some scraps of information, a lot remains unclear.