This story is great for people who haven't played Ib or watched Shugo Chara. No prior knowledge of either are needed in order to read the story.

Her purse nagged on my shoulder and pulled on my neck. Meanwhile, she was skipping happily as if it were a meadow she was prancing in and not concrete steps on a cold fall afternoon.

I sighed in relief once we got inside the warm building.

"Hold this," said Utau as she took off her coat and handed it to me. Before I could even place it onto her purse, she had already signed the both of us in and ventured out into the hallways of the art gallery.

Utau practically begged we come to the Guertena's Art Museum. For a girl her age, she has pretty mature taste. Sometimes I think she's just putting on a fluff to sound cool. We all know she's a sucker for attention.

I thought of going after her and sticking by her side the entire time. I didn't like the idea of being here alone since I know nothing about art, but I've got a feeling Utau would complain that I was being "clingy" if I went with her. "Eh, I have no other motives," I thought.

I tried remembering which hallway Utau went to. "She couldn't have gone that far," I thought. My only problem in this pursuit was that I have a god-awful sense of direction. I ended up passing the same paintings several times.

"Ikuto?"

I turned back the corner I passed when I heard my name, but not by Utau.

"You seem a bit lost," said Tsukasa.

"I'm not," I said, already turning my foot to leave.

"I wouldn't take you to be the kind to appreciate art," he said.

"Well, my sis-"

"Come here for a second," he said.

I searched for an excuse to not go over there.

"I want to show you something," he pressed when I didn't respond.

It was too late, I was already by his side.

"See this?"

He was pointing to a purple rose sculpture that I can't believe I missed. It was nearly my own height and looked very real. Even the fallen petals around it looked real.

"Guertena loved using roses in his art," said Tsukasa "He especially liked purple roses because they represent majesty."

I knew he was lying. And I knew I shouldn't give feedback.

"I really have to find my sister," I said "She ran off."

"Well I won't keep you," said Tsukasa through a disappointed sigh.

I didn't care if I was being rude, as long as I wasn't near him. I felt like he was still staring at me. I looked back. In the distance, he made a slight movement, suggesting he was looking, but turned away quickly when I looked back.

I walked faster as if that'd help me. Like a moron, I looked back again and he was gone. I felt better and slowed back to a relaxed pace. I decided to keep going forward so I wouldn't have to face Tsukasa again.

I walked aimlessly for a long time, passing the same paintings and sculptures in this small museum over and over again. I didn't see as many people as I did just a while ago. Actually, I don't see any people at all.

"Was it always this quiet? Wasn't there music playing?" I thought "How long have the hallways been like this?"

I slipped and fell on something wet. I felt around for something to grip and pull myself on, but my hand ended up plunging into a pool. Not a puddle, a full-grown pool.

Before I could pull away, I got sucked in. The ice-cold water hit me like ice shards. If that wasn't enough, I fell down what felt like a flight of stairs right afterwards.

I tried to sit up, but my vision was still pretty blurry. It was dark, but I could make out a few paintings near me and a door to my right. To my left was a vase with a purple rose in front of another door.

I stood up, noticing this hallway was unusually short. I turned around a few times to examine the area some more only to discover something horrid: the stair case I fell down from was gone. In its place was a solid wall.

The only entrance/exit in the short hallway were those doors. I tried the door to my right, only to find it was locked. I went to the opposite end and moved the table with the vase out of the way to get through the door.

To my dismay and near shock-factor, there was nothing but a tiny room with a painting of a woman. The plaque under the painting said "When the rose perishes, you will also perish." My attention was stolen by a blue key in the center of the floor. I picked up the key because of how odd it seemed. It was plastic and light, but seemed perfect in every way.

"Gah!" I jumped when I looked up and saw the woman had a creepy smile on her face. I ran out of the room and closed it behind me. I saw the purple rose staring up at me from its vase.

"When the rose dies, so will I?"

I took the rose; it was firm and large. I put it in my coat pocket.

Then it hit me.

I ran to the other end of the hall and unlocked the door with the blue key.

I entered a modest pair of green hallways. The horizontal hallway was lined with insect paintings. I went down there first; it was a good size, not as cramped as the blue one. I opened a door at the end and entered an empty room. On the other end of the room was a door. I was about to jump over there, but stopped when I saw a bottomless pit sliced through the middle of the room.

"Why the hell-?"

I decided not to spend the whole night wondering why this floor was cut in half and went back out into the halls.

At the end, I saw a pedestal with a message: "Beware of edges"

I assumed they were talking about the edge of the gash in the floor back there. I shrugged it off and continued down the hall.

"Ouch!"

Something punched me!

A black arm was jetting out from the wall, as I backed away from it, more arms came out. I was careful, but did get clawed another time in the face.

I turned again once I made it to the end. There was another door, but it was locked. I saw another bug painting on the wall, strangely out of place. I sorted out my options and could only think of one: I could use one of the paintings to make a "bridge" over than gash in the floor.

Considering my weight, though, I may want to use more than just one. I grabbed the painting, went back (still trying to avoid getting punched, slapped, or clawed) and grabbed a few more paintings.

I went back into the room and lined up my bridge. The paintings were just big enough. I quickly hopped onto the other side. The paintings gave a bit, but I made it.

I opened the door on the other end and entered the room. Inside was a headless, female mannequin and a green key in front of her. I grabbed the key and she began to roar.

She reached out her hands like a zombie and staggered over to me. I ran out of the room and into the other. Once I crossed over the bridge again, I looked back to see if she followed me. She did.

But her weight was too much and she fell straight through the paintings and into the bottomless pit. I never heard her hit the ground.

I used the green key to open the locked room. The room had a pair of simple cat eyes and a fish-shaped indentation beneath them. I also noticed two doors to either side of the room. I went to the left door first.

There were six medium sized boxed curtains inside. One was opened to reveal a stick figure. "Play hide and seek?" it said before disappearing.

I collapsed to my knees "What the hell's going on? Where am I?!"

I severely hoped I was just dreaming.

"Come, come. come find me~!" the voice pestered "I only want to help you go back home~"

I pulled my sorry-self back up and decided to believe the voice. I really had no other choice. And what harm can a little hide-and-seek puzzle do?

I opened one curtain to see a tiny image of a red hand. "Well that's….lame."

I opened another one to find an even tinier image nude woman. She screeched and tried to slap me, but I pushed the curtains closed before that. Even though that wasn't the first nude woman I've seen, that didn't mean I was any less embarrassed.

I opened another to find the stick figure "You found me! I've got a prize for you!"

I heard the noise of something drop in the front of the room. I walked over there to find a wooden fish head.

I grasped it and quickly ran back outside to put it in the dent. "That must mean the tail's in the other room." My anxiety was now anticipation at solving this mini-puzzle.

I went inside to what looked like a store house, the light were blinking a bit. There were boxes and mannequins of all sorts scattered within.

One of the mannequin busts started moving. It shook and wobbled before finally falling and breaking. A wooden fish tail was revealed to be inside.

"Yes!" I grabbed it and left.

I put the fish tail piece into the hole and a passageway instantly opened up.

I was now facing the middle of a horizontal hallway and the vertical hallway that interjected. I decided to go straight down the vertical hall first. I opened the first door I saw.

Inside were six paintings of children in colorful smocks.

"I agree with the one in yellow," said one.

"Only the white one speaks the truth!" said the yellow-suited boy.

"Stand in front of the statue, go east two steps, then south two steps. That's the answer!" said the white-dressed girl.

Even though I had no idea what they were talking about, I held onto that information when I went through the door between them.

Inside was a statue and many tiles. I realized quickly what I had to do. I followed the directions and lifted the tile. I was instantly sprayed with a pink gas.

Everything went black.