V5.5 README handoff — 15 October 2026 — private, not a release acceptance

New source documents:
tools/release/README_v55.txt
tools/release/README_special_v55.txt

These are finished player instructions for the future sealed V5.5 bundles.
They have not been installed into public downloads or the site. No V5.4 file
was modified. Root must verify every new gameplay statement against the final
composed ROM and its matching final core before using these documents to
prepare/seal the player stages. Product README wording has no WIP promises.

Final-pair evidence still required by the release owner:
- Gambit persistent normal metadata: genuine close punch three-hit and magic
  five-hit chains, preserving existing V5.4 launcher/air/landing routes.
- Owned hitstop command buffer: actual motion/cancel/contact/meter and negative
  controls, without removing hit pause, animation steps, damage or hitstun.
- Special forward dash hop: point/side and legal paid-companion lifetime checks,
  neutral recovery, follow-up movement and actual Duo expiry/ownership.
- Marrow/Sabretooth postthrow guard; Marrow posttag facing and subsequent
  control/guard/KO-partner ownership on the final matching pair.
- Retained finite69 V5.4 cases: Stock6, Special Gambit8, guard20, Marrow/Omega8,
  duplicate6, native Wolverine/Iceman6 and recovery/menu15.
- Native healthy Storm/Wolverine entry cues absent and genuine Wolverine KO
  0x195/0x295 retained in both mirrored Special takes, pinned queue events/PCM.
  This is not a complete imported hurt/KO voice repair or a full Stock native
  audio acceptance. Imported voice/fallback limitations remain in the README.
- Exact final pairing refusal10 and twice repeated functional controller/load
  lifecycle with no guest writes or save-state loads.
- Actual clean-source C#5 replay of complete21/30 members and whole ZIPs from
  the candidate stages after these README files are installed and sealed.
- Separate extraction/replay of finished released archives after final
  manifests, launchers, core files and corresponding sources are installed.
- Actual Windows inbox compiler/workflow checks remain the release owner's
  separate gate; local PowerShell Core CLR checks do not establish it.

Explicit unresolved limits retained:
The original Marrow/Omega corruption sequence is unidentified and remains
open. Installed selected routes cannot close all audio/visibility reports.
No new portrait assets or in-game character-select layout changes are added.
CPU22/Harder is retained; near-unbeatable difficulty remains tester judgment.
No all-roster/action/stage, full donor parity, Windows gameplay, physical four
controllers, online/Fightcade, full arcade ladder or native-board claim.
New cameos, Cable adaptations and Akuma additions remain outside V5.5.

Install/source facts carried forward:
Two-player: clean XCOTA Euro950331 + MVC1 Euro980123; generated xmcota.zip.
Special: those two plus XMvsSF Euro961004/USA961023/Japan961023 and MVC2 Naomi
Export/Korea RevA cartridge; generated xmcotas4p.zip plus matching V5.5 core.
Split XMvsSF clones require their clean shared parent. Keys remain inside
clean inputs. Whole package extraction, merged parent/outer-ZIP support and
original input preservation remain. Product README now separates package
integrity, source-revision and Special runtime content/core refusal messages.

The corresponding-source collector's generated README prose now explicitly
names both extra sources: libretro.cpp for the Special pairing gate and
retro_input.cpp for the inactive-controller refresh guard. Source collection
and core behavior were not changed by that wording edit.
