𝚑𝚘𝚠 𝚝𝚘 𝚍𝚒𝚎.

◇cling on◇

"i'm my own right hand girl."

finally, you were able to explain the situation to gonbee. "say again..?!? all of this was a misunderstanding.... caused by my too-superior insight?!" you smiled. "here, sara, let me see the gun." you pointed it towards your hand, cocking it and pulling the trigger. "see? it's not even loaded." you offered the weapon back to sara, but she motioned for you to keep hold of it."pretty much, yeah." he hesitated. "..understood. untie me." for a model prisoner, he sure was bossy. "you gonna help us?" keiji questioned, but gonbee laughed. "hahaha. you're all fools. who would assist someone they don't even know after hearing about the main game? someone among you will surely turn traitor! and only softhearted fools will die." he was met with no response. "it can't be only me thinking that...correct?"

with that, joe removed gonbee's ropes.

"...what is this meant to be?" for someone so desperate, he seemed surprised to actually be untied. "...i've given up on suspecting my allies. i just can't imagine it! that there's a bad guy among us.." once again, gonbee laughed. "mwaha.. given up on thinking, eh. what do you know about them? hahaha..." joe shrugged. "well, yeah, i dunno anything, but... it's what my heart says, so what else can i do! i'm not smart anyhow. so i'm gonna believe this feeling." how.. sweet? "...hmph... you say such cheesy things. oh well. as a thanks for untying me, i'll let you go without retaliation."

"so.. no will to help out." it didn't seem like too much of a loss to you. "i refuse. ...but i won't interfere. so long." with that, he walked out. you weren't sure where he was going to go, but he hadn't had a chance to explore yet, so. "man... being called cheesy sure is making me embarrassed." a few people smiled and laughed, making the atmosphere a lot less tense. "now then, should we go search for nao all together?" keiji wasn't a very stand-still guy. "y..yeah, that's it! let's split up and search!" reko seemed a bit thrown off her game. strange. "s-sorry.. i'm still not feeling great. is it okay if i rest here..?" sou seemed just as off his game as he usually was. "aw hell.. gin, kanna, you guys rest here too." kanna just nodded, timid as always. "guess we'll hold down the fort here, gin..?"

"i.. i don't wanna, meow..!" that said, the boy ran to you, hugging your waist. "big sis f/n... i want you to take me, woof..." sighing, you gently smiled, picking him up. "alright, alright. sara, you wanna search with reko?" the girl nodded, walking over to the singer. "alright then. let's go, f/n." nodding, you sent one last look towards sou and kanna. "....you okay, kanna..?" it was quiet after that. sighing again, you nodded to keiji as you made your way out of the bar. you weren't really sure where you should go next, but it seemed the friendly neighborhood policeman was following you, so you doubted it'd be any help to ask him.

deciding on the game room, you headed through the central hall and smoking area hallway. the first thing you saw when you got into the game room were kai and q-taro looking at the large hole around the dart board. "she didn't fall down this large hole, surely?" it seemed hard to miss. "come to think, where's this hole even go to?" seeing nothing interesting, you walked to go into the blue room, hearing kai speak. "..i would like to believe she's safe." the blue room was certainly more interesting than the game room, given the life size doll sitting in one of the chairs. even better, it was you! "..our enemy's got some weird hobbies, huh."

"you think they put it out here for a reason?" the blonde thought for a second. "there was some kind'a mirror room upstairs. maybe it's for some puzzle with that." you remembered that you had only gone into one of the rooms on the second floor. "guess we should take it then." you motioned for him to grab it, given you were already holding gin. keiji picked up the doll, carrying it like you'd hold a baby. "you sure you wanna carry gin the whole time?" you quickly nodded, continue to walk out, making your way straight upstairs. "naoooo! where'd you go?!" joe, reko, and sara were looking around the second floor landing. "hey, now that's a shout! keep searchin' like that!"

"naoooooooooo!!" this time, joe was even louder. sara flinched away, sending him a weird look. "grah! not in my ear, dumbass!! shout away from me!" joe mumbled an apology as you headed for the door that said "mir", assuming it was the mirror room keiji had been talking about. "two symmetrical rooms, huh. seems like your kind'a puzzle." he put the doll of you on the floor. gin held onto you tighter. "might be... another scary trap, meow.." you gently pat his head, looking around the room. on the ceiling of one half was two light bulbs, one lit and the other dim. on the other half, there was an empty hole for a lightbulb. "...wanna ride on my shoulders?" keiji seemed to catch onto the fact that you were looking upwards.

..would you have to put gin down to get the light bulb? you weren't sure why you were so scared to. "..earth to f/n. you with me?" nodding, you sighed. "yeah, hold on. gin, i'm.. i'm going to put you down for a second, okay?" he slowly nodded, letting you set him on the floor. you turned to keiji, who shrugged before kneeling down so you could climb on his shoulders. you shakily reached your hand up to the bulb, heights were never your thing. as you finally made contact with the dim lightbulb, you kept one hand on keiji's head in an attempt to steady yourself. finally, you were able to get it out. "okay, got it." he put you down and you immediately handed him the bulb, walking to pick gin back up. "you seem pretty shaken. first time having a man's head between your legs?"

"are you forgetting there's a kid here?" he raised his hands up as if to surrender as you rolled your eyes. on the left side of the room, there was a flower vase with four flowers, the other side had two. you took one out of the left vase before handing it to keiji, no explanation. "how sweet." once again, you glared at him. "just put it in the vase on the other side." on a table in the left side, there was a spray bottle with who knows what in it. the mirror on the right was blurry, perhaps the spray was some sort of cleaner? you tried to spray it onto the smudged mirror, but to no avail. or perhaps it could made the left mirror dirtier? spraying it onto the clean mirror, the droplets stuck to the glass, giving it the same appearance as the other mirror.

above the mirrors were symmetrical paintings; one of a headless man and one of a gun on each side. "sara fixed those ones already. and the puddles." on the right side, there was a perfectly balanced scale, though the scale on the left was tipped to the right. there was some sort of weight inside of it. confused, you moved the weight to the other side. you flinched as there was a loud noise coming from another room. "go check that out." you waved keiji off, sending him to figure out what the noise was. on the right, there was a piece off wallpaper on a dark window, mimicking the sky. peeling it off, the windows were symmetrical.

turning to the doll on the floor, you looked back at the mirror. you struggled to pick it up with gin in your hands, but you managed to stand it up in front of the left mirror. finally, keiji came back. "here." he handed you some sort of drain plug. "where the hell did this come from?" you looked around, trying to figure out what you were meant to do with it. "the noise was the bath draining in the red spa room." that must've been one of the rooms upstairs you hadn't been to. shrugging, you put the bath stopper on the left scale. everything except the mirrors were symmetrical. you'd have to put gin down again.

"here, stay here with keiji for a second, okay? just a second." he nodded, letting go of you. you stood in front of the right mirror, trying to stand in the same way the doll was, but it didn't work. in the mirror, you looked around, trying to figure out what was wrong. "oh yeah, we have to put the other lightbulb in." keiji handed it to you before kneeling down again. it was just as nerve wracking as the first time. finally, the room could be symmetrical. standing back in front of the mirror, you waited. there was another loud sound outside the room. "way to go, f/n. let's take a look outside." you picked gin back up before following keiji back to the second floor landing. the iron bars that had been there were gone. there was a large red door in front of you, above was the sign with '09' on it. just as you began to walk towards it, you realized you had stepped on something. taking a step back, you looked to the floor. "hm? huh, a key." you moved to the side, motioning for keiji to pick it up. he raised an eyebrow at you, seemingly confused. "well? pick it up. my hands are full." he gave in, picking up the key and looking at it. gin turned to see it. "it's got... a tag, meow."

"the key to the kitchen, eh.."

"time is a game played beautifully by children." -heraclitus