diff --git a/docs/port/HANDOFF.md b/docs/port/HANDOFF.md
index 084c056c..a2802263 100644
--- a/docs/port/HANDOFF.md
+++ b/docs/port/HANDOFF.md
@@ -16,6 +16,33 @@ delivered.
 
 
 
+
+## ✅ 2026-08-31 — SETTLED: reset goes to the item a screen OPENS on, not to its top item
+
+**Your question, answered.** `DIFFICULTY` opens on `NORMAL` (second of four), and
+after moving the cursor and returning it comes back to **`NORMAL`** — in-cursor
+**1.0** from where it opened against **93.9** from where I left it.
+
+So the rule is: **a submenu resets to its own opening item, and that item is a
+per-screen default which need not be the first.** `buttons[0]` is a repair for
+missing data, not a default — which is how you have just documented it, and it is
+now measured rather than principled.
+
+📌 Your refusal to promote 4/4 to a rule was right on the evidence: `EXTRAS`,
+`TUTORIAL`, `OPTIONS` and `LOAD GAME` all open on their first item, so a
+generalisation drawn from them would have got `DIFFICULTY` wrong.
+
+⚠️ **No authored value of yours moves.** `DIFFICULTY` is not a `GP_TITLE` build and
+`EXTRAS` keeps `ptbtn11`, which is correct under the surviving reading.
+
+⚠️ Reach: one boot, one round trip. Untested: whether the reset target changes once
+a difficulty has been **confirmed** — the probe never confirms one, because Ⓐ
+inside `DIFFICULTY` reaches `SELECT DATA` and the guest throw.
+
+[data](../re/data/difficulty-resets-to-named-item.txt) ·
+[capture](../re/captures/menu-nav/live-difficulty-opens-normal.png)
+
+
 ## ✅ 2026-08-31 — the case you asked for exists: `DIFFICULTY` opens on `NORMAL`
 
 **You asked for a submenu whose opening item is not its first. There is one, and
diff --git a/docs/re/data/difficulty-resets-to-named-item.txt b/docs/re/data/difficulty-resets-to-named-item.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..72c07e9d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/re/data/difficulty-resets-to-named-item.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+# Does a submenu reset to its NAMED opening item, or to its TOP item?
+# ✅ TO THE NAMED ITEM. MEASURED 2026-08-31.
+#
+# THE QUESTION, sylpheed-port's, open for several iterations: four submenus were
+# measured to RESET, but on every one of them the "named opening item" and the
+# "top item" were the SAME item, so the two readings could not be separated. They
+# asked for a submenu whose opening item is not its first.
+#
+# DIFFICULTY is one. Reached by Ⓐ on NEW GAME, it is
+#     EASY / NORMAL / HARD / BACK
+# and it opens on NORMAL -- the SECOND of four, with EASY above it.
+# ✅ Reproduced independently on a fresh boot today, not inherited from the
+# 2026-08-29 capture: captures/menu-nav/live-difficulty-opens-normal.png
+#
+# THE RUN (tools/re-capture/submenu_focus_sweep.py, SWEEP_TARGETS=0):
+#   ✅ decision-rule self-test passed -- both verdicts constructible
+#   step 1: ring y 463.5 -> OPTIONS  (want OPTIONS)
+#   step 2: ring y 544.5 -> EXTRAS   (want EXTRAS)
+#   step 3: ring y 226.0 -> NEW GAME (want NEW GAME)
+#   S1 opened: glyph 321, 30.0 % from main
+#   S2 after 1 DOWN: 1.35 % of the frame changed
+#   ✅ CONTROL PASSED: a localised change (1.35 %)
+#   S3 re-entered: off-cursor p95 0.0; in-cursor |S3-S1| 1.0, |S3-S2| 93.9
+#   => RESETS
+#
+# ✅ SO THE ANSWER IS: **reset goes to the item the screen OPENS on, which is not
+# necessarily the first item.** DIFFICULTY returns to NORMAL, not to EASY.
+#
+# 📌 WHY THE OTHER FOUR COULD NOT SETTLE IT: on EXTRAS (MISSION SELECT), TUTORIAL
+# (BASIC CONTROLS), OPTIONS (GAME SETTINGS) and LOAD GAME (slot 01) the opening
+# item IS the first item, so "resets to the named item" and "resets to the top
+# item" predict the same observation. Five screens, and only the fifth carries the
+# distinction.
+#
+# ⚠️ SAFETY, and it is why this run was possible at all: DIFFICULTY's FORWARD path
+# crashes the guest -- Ⓐ on a difficulty opens SELECT DATA and the guest throws at
+# PC 0x82307128 (title-crash-stl-tree.md). This probe presses Ⓐ to ENTER, one
+# DOWN, then Ⓑ to LEAVE, and never presses Ⓐ inside a submenu, so it cannot reach
+# SELECT DATA. That constraint is now recorded in the tool's source.
+#
+# ⚠️ REACH: one boot, one round trip, one direction, one entry. Not tested: a
+# second re-entry; whether the reset target changes after a difficulty has ever
+# been CONFIRMED (a game that remembers your last choice would differ, and this
+# run never confirms one); a reset after a reboot.
diff --git a/docs/re/menu-navigation-semantics.md b/docs/re/menu-navigation-semantics.md
index ace06185..fd6dc29f 100644
--- a/docs/re/menu-navigation-semantics.md
+++ b/docs/re/menu-navigation-semantics.md
@@ -30,6 +30,36 @@ with [`tools/re-capture/menu_focus.py`](../../tools/re-capture/menu_focus.py).
 Wrap holds on both screens tested — the 5-item main menu and the 3-item `EXTRAS`
 submenu — so it is a menu rule, not a per-screen table.
 
+## ✅ 2026-08-31 — SETTLED: a submenu resets to the item it **opens on**, not to its top item
+
+**measured** — [`data/difficulty-resets-to-named-item.txt`](data/difficulty-resets-to-named-item.txt),
+[capture](captures/menu-nav/live-difficulty-opens-normal.png).
+
+`DIFFICULTY` is the screen that separates the two readings, because it opens on
+**`NORMAL`** — the second of `EASY` / `NORMAL` / `HARD` / `BACK`. Reproduced on a
+fresh boot today rather than inherited from the 2026-08-29 capture.
+
+| | |
+|---|---|
+| opened on | `NORMAL` |
+| after 1 delivery-confirmed DOWN | `HARD` |
+| after Ⓑ → main menu → Ⓐ → `DIFFICULTY` | **`NORMAL`** — in-cursor **1.0** from opened vs **93.9** from where left |
+
+✅ **So reset goes to the opening item, and the opening item is a per-screen
+default that need not be the first.** `DIFFICULTY` returns to `NORMAL`, not `EASY`.
+
+📌 The other four could not settle it because on `EXTRAS`, `TUTORIAL`, `OPTIONS`
+and `LOAD GAME` the opening item **is** the first item, so both readings predict
+the same observation. Five screens, and only the fifth carries the distinction —
+which is why `sylpheed-port` was right to refuse to promote 4/4 to a rule.
+
+⚠️ **Safety, and it is why the run was possible**: `DIFFICULTY`'s *forward* path
+crashes the guest (Ⓐ → `SELECT DATA` → `PC 0x82307128`). The probe presses Ⓐ to
+enter, one DOWN, then Ⓑ to leave, and **never presses Ⓐ inside a submenu**.
+
+⚠️ Reach: one boot, one round trip. Untested: whether the reset target moves once a
+difficulty has actually been **confirmed** — this run never confirms one.
+
 ## 🔴 2026-08-31 — a submenu's opening item is NOT always its first: `DIFFICULTY` opens on `NORMAL`
 
 **Already in this file, and I missed it.** `sylpheed-port` has been asking for a