-eng- Koishi Komeiji-s Defeat- Cave Adventure -... -

It was a room. A perfect sphere of polished obsidian. And in the center, a single, still pool of water. No—not water. Quicksilver. It reflected everything with cruel, liquid clarity.

“Where does this go?” she asked a cluster of glowing fungi. They didn’t answer. Of course they didn’t. But she smiled anyway, her hat’s little eye-bud bouncing with each step.

“Stop it,” she said, backing up. Her heel hit a rock. She stumbled. Fell backward. -ENG- Koishi Komeiji-s defeat- Cave Adventure -...

She screamed. A raw, ugly sound that echoed off the obsidian walls. She grabbed her chest, where her third eye lay dormant, and pulled .

It showed a girl with tears streaming down her face. A girl clutching her knees in the dark, whispering, “Why won’t anyone look at me?” It was a room

The cave’s trap was not death. It was not madness. It was truth .

And defeat, sometimes, was the only way to win. No—not water

Above them, the obsidian walls began to weep. The cave—this ancient, lonely thing—had done its work. It had defeated Koishi Komeiji not with force, but with a mirror.

The cave shuddered. The silver pool cracked. Light—real light, painful and golden—poured from the fissures.

And Koishi Komeiji remembered.

She fell to her knees, sobbing.