The room was silent.
The only sound came from the projector.
On the wall, the final moments of Kaito Aramaki's match played once again.
Yui Tsukishiro sat at the end of the table, her eyes fixed on the image.
Kaito moved across the arena.
Kuroya raised his hand.
Ice formed.
The two fighters collided.
Yui leaned forward.
"Stop."
The projection froze.
Across the table, Akihito Kurogane looked at her.
"What is it?"
Yui stood and approached the image.
Kaito was staring toward an empty section of the arena.
She pointed at him.
"Here."
Daigo Arakawa crossed his arms.
"What about it?"
"There was nothing there."
Daigo looked at the projection.
"Obviously."
Yui turned toward him.
"Then why did he react?"
Nobody answered.
Yui rewound the recording.
The fight began again.
Kaito dodged an attack.
He moved forward.
Then—
He suddenly stopped.
His head turned toward the left.
His eyes widened.
There was nothing there.
"Stop."
The projection froze once more.
Yui looked around the room.
"He reacted to something."
Maki Shirogane rested her hand against her chin.
"An attack?"
"There's no Shōin activation."
"A sound?"
"The arena microphones recorded nothing unusual."
Sora Mikazuki adjusted his glasses.
"Perhaps he simply lost focus."
Yui looked back at the image.
"For one second?"
Sora didn't answer.
Yui's voice became quieter.
"And then he did it again."
She played the recording forward.
Kaito continued fighting.
Several moments passed.
Then his eyes moved.
This time, toward the opposite side of the arena.
Nothing was there.
Yui paused the footage.
"He saw something."
Daigo frowned.
"Or thought he did."
Yui looked at him.
"Exactly."
The room became silent.
Akihito leaned forward.
"What are you suggesting?"
Yui hesitated.
"I don't know yet."
She looked back at the projection.
"But I don't think we should assume that everything Kaito experienced during that fight was real."
Akihito stood.
The investigators immediately turned toward him.
"Good."
Yui blinked.
"Good?"
"A theory is useless without evidence."
He looked toward Maki.
"Re-examine the arena."
Maki nodded.
"Daigo. Continue interviewing the officials and witnesses."
"Understood."
"Sora. I want every document connected to Kuroya Shidou."
Sora adjusted his glasses.
"Already working on it."
Akihito finally looked at Yui.
She straightened.
"And me?"
Akihito paused.
"Watch the match again."
Daigo raised an eyebrow.
"That's it?"
Yui didn't respond.
Akihito did.
"If she's right, the answer is somewhere in that fight."
Hours later, the Divine Crucible had returned to silence.
The ice from Kuroya's Shōin had been cleared from most of the battlefield.
Only faint traces remained.
Yui stood at the entrance.
Maki was several meters ahead, examining the ground.
"You should be resting," Maki said.
"So should you."
Maki smiled slightly.
"Fair."
Yui stepped onto the arena.
It felt different without the crowd.
Without the shouting.
Without the pressure of thousands of eyes.
Now there was only stone.
And evidence.
She walked toward the center.
What did you see, Kaito?
Her eyes moved across the battlefield.
She tried to imagine the fight.
Kaito standing here.
Kuroya there.
The ice spreading across the floor.
Then Kaito suddenly turning toward something.
Yui stopped.
She looked down.
A small crack ran through the stone.
She crouched beside it.
Something glimmered beneath the surface.
"Senior Maki."
Maki looked up.
"What is it?"
Yui carefully brushed away a thin layer of frost.
Beneath it was a small fragment.
Dark.
Almost black.
Yui frowned.
"That wasn't here before."
Maki walked toward her.
She knelt beside Yui.
"Don't touch it."
Yui stopped.
Maki removed a small examination tool from her coat.
The fragment reacted.
A faint pulse spread through the stone.
Maki's expression changed.
"What is it?"
Maki didn't answer.
She examined the reading again.
Then once more.
Yui watched her.
"Senior?"
Maki slowly lowered the device.
"This isn't Ice Shōin residue."
Yui's heart began beating faster.
"Can you identify it?"
"No."
"Then what is it?"
Maki looked toward the empty arena.
"I don't know."
For the first time since Operation Kurokage had begun, uncertainty appeared on her face.
Yui looked at the fragment.
Then toward the place where Kuroya Shidou had disappeared.
Something about the entire fight suddenly felt different.
Kaito's confusion.
The empty spaces he kept staring toward.
The strange residue.
Yui stood.
"I want to see the recording again."
Later That Night
The administrative building was almost empty.
Yui sat alone in the evidence room.
The match played silently in front of her.
Once.
Twice.
Ten times.
She watched Kaito's movements.
His eyes.
His breathing.
Then she noticed it.
Yui leaned closer.
"Wait."
She rewound the recording.
Kaito inhaled.
Nothing happened.
She rewound it again.
Kaito inhaled.
A few seconds later, he looked toward the empty arena.
Yui froze.
She checked another camera angle.
Kaito inhaled.
Then reacted.
Again.
And again.
Her eyes widened.
"It's not the attack."
She stood.
"It happens before the attack."
Yui grabbed her notes.
Her hands moved quickly as she wrote.
Subject reacts after inhalation.
She stopped.
Her pen hovered over the page.
A knock came from the doorway.
Yui turned.
Akihito stood there.
"You're still here."
Yui looked back at the screen.
"I found something."
Akihito entered the room.
"What?"
Yui pointed toward Kaito.
"He wasn't reacting to the fight."
Akihito remained silent.
Yui swallowed.
"I think he was reacting to something only he could perceive."
Akihito looked at the recording.
"And what does that mean?"
Yui stared at the dark screen.
For several seconds, she said nothing.
Then her eyes moved toward the evidence container holding the strange residue.
"I don't know."
She looked back at Akihito.
"But I think we're investigating the wrong Shōin."
The room fell silent.
Akihito stared at her.
Yui stared back.
Outside, the lights of the Divine Crucible burned against the darkness.
Somewhere within its walls, the truth was waiting.
And for the first time—
someone had begun looking in the right direction.