Artist's commentary
Ayane Shitani part 7
It's all too much. Everything that was happening to the girl was just too much. Ayane loses all of her remaining composure as she makes it back to the torii gate. Notes on a board…a map in a jail cell…thoughts of having to go through any more of this place, that had already killed her, drove her to the brink of insanity. Her mind is racing, she can’t gather her thoughts in any sense. All she wants to do… is run away. Ayane runs into the large pool of water behind the gate. An exit is all she hopes for, back in the direction that she came from. She dives into the deep water below.
It is dark… her vision is blurry… yet Ayane remains shortsighted. The girls constantly looks around, trying to see anything though the darkness and blur. Despite the obscurity, she is able to spot and use some of the nearby rocks that are poking out in order to push herself a little further.
She has been underwater for awhile now, and with all this movement, she was losing oxygen recklessly. The lack of air within her body makes itself present, with Ayane instinctually trying to cover her mouth as bubbles leak out through her fingers. The girl swims upward, mindlessly expecting an air pocket or surface to show itself. However, the cave ceiling presents itself before the girl. The lack of clear sight during this dive has put her in a position with no direction. Ayane is lost.