They gather before the ceramic vat in the yard.
Shamane: Are you sure? To use this?
Kaalaa Baunaa: What's wrong with it? It has enough water to soak me in.
Shamane looks at the old vat and then checks the filthy water and rotten leaves inside. There is a silence between them.
Shamane: Hmm, you are much more practical than I thought.
Kaalaa Baunaa: Oh, before I go ...
She hands the Vishnu idol to Matilda.
Matilda: Hmm? Aren't you going to take it with you, Ms. Kaalaa Baunaa?
Kaalaa Baunaa: No.
She slowly shakes her head.
Kaalaa Baunaa: Shamane has a point. This is our last chance to win this fight, and it should be kept away from Kumar as far as possible.
Matilda: Emm.
Matilda: Ms. Kaalaa Baunaa, take this with you then!
Matilda passes over a crystal. It is shining brightly, like a freshly picked star.
Kaalaa Baunaa: This is your ...
Matilda: My pendulum! It's one of my collections, one of the purest! Even I don't have a lot of them around.
Matilda: I realized that the theory of meditation you've talked about is quite similar to some of the crystal divination theories. So, perhaps this will help you in the water, if the crystal can stabilize the magnetic field and guide you in there.
Kaalaa Baunaa: You ...
Matilda: Humph, no need to be surprised. This is how quickly a genius can think!
Kaalaa Baunaa: ...
Kaalaa Baunaa: Thank you.
Shamane: Ah, great. So, it's only me who can't understand this "meditation in water" thing. Well, it takes all sorts of rocks to form a mountain.
Before he finishes his sentence, Kaalaa Baunaa has quickly submerged her legs in the water, as if the cold didn't bother her at all.
Kaalaa Baunaa: Okay, the pendulum and enough liquid.
Kaalaa Baunaa: And all I have to do now is ...
Kaalaa Baunaa: Think of Kumar.
She bends her knees and lets herself slide into the water.
Her world is immediately free of sounds.
Kaalaa Baunaa: ...
As soon as her head is completely submerged in water, the cold attacks from all directions.
Kaalaa Baunaa: inhales
Be it real or false, delusional or real, a world reappears before her.
Kaalaa Baunaa: ...
Kaalaa Baunaa: Where else could it be more suitable ...
Kaalaa Baunaa: ... than the place we first met?
The familiar stone stairs extend much longer than she remembers. The rough red bricks, the well-calculated and carefully designed arc ... Everything in Jantar Mantar has a unique kind of beauty.
Kaalaa Baunaa: Hah. How thoughtful you were, Kumar ...
Kaalaa Baunaa: ... to recreate the observatory in the Realm.
The figure standing still on its top looks like a black singularity.
She knows who it is.
Kaalaa Baunaa: Just an illusion in my mind.
Now, her left foot is on the first step.
Kaalaa Baunaa: ...!
Resistance is expected.
Kaalaa Baunaa: She remembered almost every detail of me as a child.
The figure standing in front of her greatly resembles her younger self—always fist-clenching, always ready for confrontation.
And now "the girl" is irritated by the intrusion.
Illusion: ...!
"She" rushes toward Kaalaa Baunaa and throws quick punches.
Kaalaa Baunaa: Oh, it hurts!
Kaalaa Baunaa: Did it hurt this much when I hit someone as a child?
Illusion: Get out! You should not be here!
"She" tries to drive Kaalaa Baunaa away, fighting her like a trained warrior.
Kaalaa Baunaa: Ah, yes. Mom had taught me a few moves to deal with those brats at that age.
Illusion: Leave!
Kaalaa Baunaa: Hmm. This feels weird.
Kaalaa Baunaa: Did Kumar put you here? To guard this fragment of memory?
Illusion: ...
Kaalaa Baunaa: This shall be the obstacle in my way to where I want to be.
Kaalaa Baunaa: It's time to face the illusion from the past.
COMBAT
Illusion: Ah!
The illusion is dispersed and then gathers again in the distance, but this time, "she" is no longer irritated.
Illusion: Heh heh.
Kaalaa Baunaa: ...!
"She" gradually fades away in the light and shadow of the observatory, and her voice goes further and further.
Illusion: From the past, to the present, and the future.
Illusion: The thing you are clinging on to, facing, and chasing ... Think what it is.
Kaalaa Baunaa: ...
Kaalaa Baunaa lowers her head to look at her palm.
Kaalaa Baunaa: You are still asking questions that cannot be answered, just as you always did.
Kaalaa Baunaa: What do you think I "should" chase after?
Her fingers clench gently.
Kaalaa Baunaa: I won't be misled this time, Kumar.
Kaalaa Baunaa: I have never given up studying astronomy since that day.
There is only an echo in the empty space. The illusion has gone.
She looks up at the almost endless stairs.
Kaalaa Baunaa: Keep moving.