Pilot 823 Cleaning Question

[mulrich]

The last step of my pen cleaning process is filling a pen with distilled water and placing the pen nib-down on a paper towel inside a cup. The water normally drains and dries out within a day or two. Probably an unnecessary step but it seems to clean out ink that isn't washed by normal flushing. 

 

I did this with a Pilot 823 a few weeks ago but the barrel is still basically full of water. The valve is definitely open so the water should be able to freely drain through the nib. This pen has always had a little trouble with ink flow so maybe there's something wrong that I'm missing. I'm not sure what I should be looking for; maybe something in the section?

 

Any pointers would be appreciated.