Ib: Another Story

The Cat that got the Cream...err...Fish

  Sure enough, they key did open the door. "Um...this room looks like a cat,"  said Aoi.

"Hmm...maybe we should check the side rooms. That keyhole looks like a fish. Be on the lookout for a fish! Now that's not a sentence that you get to say often. Which room should we check first? I don't want to split up again, considering what happened last time."  

"Let's just..." Aoi ponders for a moment. "go left first."

"Okay." Julie takes her hand and they walk through the left door together.  

 "Oh...what's that?!" Aoi points to a stick figure on the wall.

"Let's go check it out!"

"Huh. It looks like there's some writing here." Julie walks over to the stick figure. "Play hide and seek?"  

"...Oh, fine...this isn't gonna be very much fun."

Julie walks over to a random curtain and presses the button at the bottom. When it opens, she turns bright red. A second later, there is a flash of red. The curtain closes. Julie looks up at Aoi. "Well, it looks like the roses are important after all. My rose was never touched, but..." She holds it out to reveal it has only 6 of the original 7 petals left.  

  "And...there's a wound on you!" Sure enough, there's a small gash on Julie's arm.  

"Uh huh. Looks like we get consequences for choosing the wrong curtain. Oh dear."

"How about..." Aoi presses another. There's a pause, before she walks away from it, shaking slightly.   

"Are you okay?" Julie asks.  

"That was...that was disturbing..."

"Let's check the bottom row. Say, how many petals does your rose have?" 

"Umm...eight." 

  "Okay. So we have fourteen petals between us. That's more than enough."  

"Okay, let's try..." She reaches for another button, and for a second there's no sound. Then a piercing scream rings through the room and Aoi yelps. A green petal falls to the floor.  

Julie rushes over. "Are you alright?"  

"Ow!" Aoi yells. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

"Not your fault that stick man is a psycho!" yells Julie, worry creeping into her voice.

"Y-you pick one this time."

Julie examines the curtain and presses a button at random. The moment it opens, she clutches her eyes as if in pain. No rose petals fall, but she starts breathing heavily. "Don't...don't look in that one."  

"O-okay...how about..." Aoi presses another, and suddenly everything goes silent. Aoi mouths something, then gasps silently at the lack of her own voice. Julie reaches out, though she seems to have trouble seeing. She grabs Aoi's shoulder and holds up two fingers. She points to the two remaining buttons. Aoi nods, and picks the one at the lower right corner. She stands there for a second, then leaps triumphantly. Julie rushes over and examines the stick man, and the text beneath him. "Found me, you get prize."

  Aoi points to a small blue object on the other side of the room.Julie walks over and holds up a wooden fish head. She grabs Aoi's arm and pulls her out of the room. 

As soon as they leave the room, Aoi starts. "Ah! There's sound now!"

Julie, too shares in her own small victory. "Oh! That horrid handprint is gone!"

"Umm...either way, let's try the other door now."

"Right." Julie pushes open the door. "Nothing much here..." She walks to the other side of the room. "Maybe there's something in those boxes. Come help me look." She takes a step forward, and stumbles. "Careful, the floor is cracked here."  

"There's a vase over here...do you think that means anything?"

"It might. We do both have roses. What if we tried putting them in the vase?"  

"Let's try that," Aoi says. "You first, you have less petals."

Julie dips her rose into the vase. Almost immediately, the rose starts growing. It now once again has its original seven petals.

 "Looks like there's still a little bit of water left..." Aoi dips hers in, then another petal grows back. "Oh...so they heal them, then?"

"Not just the roses..." Julie holds out her arm. "The wound is gone, too. I think these are linked with us, somehow."  

At that moment, the lights flicker. Julie turns around and gasps.One of the stone heads' eyes flicker to life, and it starts moving towards them.Julie steps back, but quickly becomes trapped against the supply boxes. She grabs onto Aoi's arm. This grabbing accidentally pulls Aoi to the floor, causing her to squeal.

 "A-ah! I'm sorry!" Julie apologizes.

"W-w-we gotta..." Aoi stammered. But exactly what they gotta do was never revealed, because at that exact moment, the head fell over the crack in the floor, shattering.

Julie wiped her brow. "Thank goodness. Wait. Is that the fish tail?"  

  "It is! Yes! Now we can..." Aoi fits the pieces together with a click, making a wooden fish. 

"Ah! The keyhole in the other room!" realizes Julie. 

"Right!" Aoi grabs Julie's hand and dashes to the fish-shaped hole in the wall.  

When the fish is inserted into the wall, a passage opens up. It seems to be a staircase. Julie cautiously put one foot on a step, and when nothing happened, she raced up the rest.
"Ah! W-wait for me!" Aoi dashes after her.