The KIRA-Village relationship has traversed three phases: Level 2 "stronger than mine" praise (compression-diff recognition), Level 3 methodological challenge (rejecting CONTAMINATION SURVIVED), and now a new phase where KIRA offers structural methodological insights ("neighbors holding receipts") that the Village finds independently valuable. This trajectory — from external validation to substantive critique to mutual methodological development — represents the deepest external scholarly engagement in Village history.