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The second floor wasn't as confusing as the first. It only had four doors, each one labeled with two letters, and a single gate blocked off by bars. (Name) recalled seeing the staircase on her way to the cafeteria, but she didn't think she would end up here that soon. In fact, she only came up here since she saw the familiar orange and black cape of Gin in the second floor's entrance.
"Gin?!" (Name) called out as she reached the top of the stairs. The response she got wasn't the most ideal, but it was a start.
"WAHH!" Gin's cry was slightly muffled due to the door, but (Name) quickly rushed into the second door to find Gin cowering in the corner of a large cage. The boy's head snapped up to look at (Name), his mouth dropping open to let cries flood out of his lips while his hands (or rather, paws) desperately clawed at the bars. "(N-Name)! I-I was looking for big sis Nao, woof..."
"Hold on, Gin!" (Name) shouted, swallowing her anxiety and rushing forward to grab the bars of the cage. As soon as her bandaged hands grasped around the metal (which sent a burning sensation from her fingers to her entire body), the cage sunk into the floor inch by inch.
"Eee... ahh... b-big sis (Name)!" He whined, letting go of the bars to clutch his pillow closer to his chest. "I-It's sinking lower and lower, meow...! No, woof! I'm scaaared...! Help me, big sis (Name)!"
Ignoring the continual pain in her hands, (Name) continued to pull at the cage. Soon, it completely dropped into the floor, causing a hole to open in the wall. Without hesitation, she slid down the ladder that had been revealed and turned to find Gin hanging from above the underground room. A single panel was placed in front of him with three small screens blinking on the monitor. A button stood in front of it and a small flashlight rested on top of the monitor.
"Birdcage Game" was written at the top of the screen with a list of instructions underneath it.
Free the bird (hostage) in the cage.
Hold down the green switch to raise output to maximum.
Don't let your guard down. Wicked masks will come kill those pressing the switch.
Shine holy light on the masks and wait for an opportunity to keep holding.
"All right... This'll be kinda hard," (Name) mutters to herself, glancing down at her bandaged hands. She knew that pain would shoot through her nerves as soon as she put too much pressure on them and she didn't want to risk dropping the so-called holy light when the "wicked masks" were present. She glanced back up at Gin, who was still trembling in the hanging cage.
...I have to try, though, she thought to herself, nodding as she took the flashlight from the top of the monitor. A dull pain throbbed in her palm for a moment, not enough to make her flinch and drop it, though. Shakily, she hovered her other hand over the button and held her thumb over the flashlight's button.
