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

“I think I forgot how to feel sad,” she said.

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.

But the cave would not let her. The walls of obsidian reflected her from every angle. A thousand Koishis, all with the same hollow eyes. A thousand forgotten girls. -ENG- Koishi Komeiji-s defeat- Cave Adventure -...

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.

“That’s not me,” Koishi said. But her voice cracked. The smile on her face twitched. “I think I forgot how to feel sad,” she said

And rust, she realized, could be broken.

The cave, satisfied, returned to its silent slumber—its trap still set, its mirror still waiting for the next person who needed to be defeated by the truth. And in the center, a single, still pool of water

Koishi.

“I don’t want to feel that,” Koishi whispered. The smile was gone. Her face was naked, raw, eleven years old and terrified. “That’s why I closed it. That’s why I threw it away.”

Then she found the third trap.