What...happened? Where am I? Think, Ibelyn, think...okay, so it was my 9th birthday, we went to this art gallery, I was stuck inside a creepy and dark fictional of it, stuffs happened, I met Garry and Mary, then I pushed them into the painting. So, why am I alive? Wait, why can't I move? What the...? Are these...thorns?! Don't tell me...I'm stuck in this painting!?

"I don't believe I've seen this painting before..."

Wait...is that...Garry?

"It seems familiar but..."

Please don't remember, please don't remember me.

"What do you think, Mary?"

No!

"!" "..." "...*hic*...*hic*..."

No, Mary, please don't cry!

""Goodbye", it depicts a girl tangled in rose thorns. There are tears in her eyes but she has a small smile on her face,"

"*thump*"

Huh?

"Ib..."

Mary...?

"IB!!!"

Her screams were so heartbroken that I can't help myself but hold back my unshed tears, it's not like I can cry in the first place. I feel like I want to hug her and tell her that 'everything's all right' like what my momma do when I have a scary nightmare.

"Mary?! Please don't cry!"

Garry, finally!

"How could you not remember her?! She saved our lives from that damned world (Mary, jesus christ child). She gave up her life just for us and you forget her like she's some sort of trash ready to be thrown away?! How could you?! Stupid! Stupid!! STUPID!!"

Mary...

"Ib..."

"This is an unjust game, isn't it child?"

Huh? Who's there?

"I'm a being who begins with all, who co-exists with the monster who ends all,"

What...what do you mean? Who are you?

"I am Philemon, and you my child, have proved to me and my colleague that not all humans are rotten to the core, and you proved that in a very impressive young age. Young, but selfless indeed,"

O...kay?

"I shall grant you another life yet it will be just as difficult, if not, much more than your previous journey. Death is being desired by mankind, and she will awake in years' time. Are you up to the challenge, my child?"

Is there...is there a chance I would meet my friends again?

"Though there are low chance of seeing your dear friends, I can't say it's impossible. Only time will answer your question, young one,"

Even if there's a possibility of not meeting my friends, I can't abandon the people who are in need. They need help just as much Mary and Garry needed help back then. So...I'll accept your offer, Mr. Philemon, not for my sake but for the others' as well.

"Such marvelous answer from a child like you. Well then, shall we start?"

After he said that, a bright light appeared and covered my vision, and all of a sudden...

I'm in the real world...

I opened my eyes, light blinding my eyes as we passed an open area of the tunnel. People buzzing left and right, some passengers on the phone, talking to whoever it was on the other side while the others were talking to their friends.

I clutched my bag to my chest as 'Memories of You' was being played on my red clip-on headphones. It's 11:30 pm, and I'm supposed to be at the dorm hours ago,

'I hope they aren't that mad when I came in late,'

"Due to a malfunction in the switching system, today's rail schedule has been greatly altered. We apologize to any customers who were in a hurry. The next stop is Iwatodai...,"

"Finally, I'm about to sue this train company for having a shitty service,"

'Geez, old geezer, they were trying to fix the system. Give them some credit, will ya?' I thought to myself.

"Iwatodai. This is the final train bound for Tatsumi Port Island. Please take care to board before our departure,"

I stood up, grabbed my bag then my other bag from the top rack, and patiently waited the train to stop and the gates to be opened. People flooded in and out of the train as the time almost striked to midnight. I grabbed my map of Port Island and started navigating myself to the Kirijo Dorms, or Iwatodai Dorms. All of a sudden, every electronic-related objects stopped, the atmosphere became much more intense and weary, the sky turned to disgusting shade of green, once cleared water has now became blood, the moon has became much more larger and brighter than before, and finally, once a buzzing and noisy crowd have became coffins.

'Just keep on walking, Minako,' I encouraged myself as I walked towards to direction of my tempopary dorm. Splashes of blood, caused by my boots, broke the eerie silence as I continue walking. Finally, what seemed like a 30-minutes or so, I have arrived in front of the dorms.

'I hope someone is awake, unlikely though,', I slowly opened the front door to avoid disturbing my future dormmates' sleep. 'For a dorm, this place is huge!'

"Welcome," I jumped in fright as I heard a young boy's voice. 'This is my first seeing a person outside of their coffin during the Dark Hour,' I thought to myself as I slowly calmed down from the sudden appearance of the child.

"You're late. I've been waiting for a long time," the boy stated as he showed me what seemed like a contract, perhaps for the dorm maybe?

"If you want to proceed, then please sign here. It's a contract," 'Ah hah! So I'm right!' "There's no need to be scared. It only binds you to accept full responsibility for your actions," he finished explaining.

Huh, for a dorm contract, that's a very weird term and condition. I looked closely at the contract and I can't helped but read the last sentence.

"I chooseth this fate of mine own free will?" I said in a questioning voice, 'That's a very weird wording for a contract,' I thought as I signed the 'seemingly' harmless contract. I gave back the contract to the boy, and he grabbed it, checked the paper, then all of a sudden, he snapped his fingers and the contract disappeared. I rubbed my eyes to check if what I really saw was true.

"...Very well. Time is something no one can escape. It delivered us all to the same end. Wishing won't make it go away, and so it begins...," the unknown kid disappeared as if he was melting into the darkness.

"...Who's there!? How can you be...? But it's...! Don't tell me...!" a girl, about the same age as me, exclaimed as I saw she was reaching out for what must be looked like...'A GUN?!'

"Wait!" an another voice and I shouted at the same time. I looked where that came from and I saw one of the most beautiful women that I have ever seen in my entire life, including my life in France mind you and that's saying something.

She had a luscious wine red hair, same eye-color as her hair, a white blouse with a large red ribbon to which is probably the school uniform, flowy black skirt, and high heeled knee-length leather boots. She seemed much more taller than an average Japanese high-school girl (No hate nor shame to them) and has the same gun as the pink-clad girl.

Then as if it didn't happened, all the lights were turned on which meant that the Dark Hour has passed. 'Finally, I always feel uncomfortable during that time of the day,'

"I didn't think you'd arrive so late. My name is Kirijo Mitsuru, a third-year. I'm one of the students who live in this dorm," Kirijo-senpai introduced herself.

"...Who's she?" the girl-in-pink finally asked Kirijo-senpai.

"She's a transfer student. It's a last minute decision to assign her here. She'll eventually be moved to a room in the girls dorm," Kirijo-senpai explained to the girl.

"Is it okay for her to be here?" the girl asked, I faked-coughed and the two of them looked at me.

"Is it just me or are you guys just that oblivious to talk about the person right in front of you?" I sassily stated, my left hand rested on my hip as my other hand still has its grip on my bag.

"Apologies. Anyway, this is Takeba Yukari. She'll be a junior this spring, just like you," Kirijo-senpai finally introduced me to the pink-clad girl now dubbed 'Yukari-san'.

"...Hi, I'm Takeba Yukari," Takeba-san meekly greeted me.

"I'm Arisato Minako, and um, one question. Why do you guys have guns?" I curiously asked, worried for my own safety and my sanity.

"Huh? Um, well, it's sorta like a hobby, well technically it's not a hobby..."

"You know how it is these days...it's for self-defense. It's not a real gun, of course. It's getting late, you'll find your room on the third floor. Your things should already be there by now. I suggest you tuck in for the night. Good morning, ladies," Kirijo-senpai said as she left the living room, probably to prepare herself for a night's rest. Takeba-san and I were the only people left in the living room, and awkwardness was present in the room.

"Oh...I'll show you the way. Follow me," she instructed, and I nodded. Then the both of us started to walk towards the 3rd floor, by the time we got to my room, I was ready to pass out and sleep in peace. But before that, Takeba-san stopped me from entering by saying,

"So this is your room, easy to remember right? If you need me, you can find me at first door to your left. Any questions?"

I thought to myself carefully, 'How about that mysterious boy...?'

"So, um, I signed a contract earlier," I slowly admitted, and was confused when I saw the surprised look of Takeba-san's face.

"Huh? What's this about a contract?"

'What?'

"Um...can I ask you something? On your way here from the station, was everything okay?" Takeba-san asked.

"Yeah," I nonchalantly lied to her. 'It seems like she and Kirijo-senpai knew about the Dark Hour, huh?'

"I see...nevermind, then...Well, I'd better get going...Um...I'm sure you still have questions but let's save it for later, okay? Good night-I mean, good morning...," She awkwardly bid me goodbye as she went back downstairs, probably to get some water after that incident happened earlier.

I entered my room, placed my bag on the floor and flopped onto my bed, not caring if I slept on my clothes that I wore for 9 hours straight. I rolled, my back flat on the mattress, as I slowly contemplate on what occurred for the oast 8 years of being alive. 'Did I make the right choice?' I thought to myself as I slowly close my eyes to welcome the peaceful darkness.

'I won't let you down, Mr. Philemon...,'

Hullo everyone! For the schedule of the fanfic, I can only update every other day, at most, 3 days, since I have a lot of time in my hand, I thought why not update almost regularly? So some, if not, most of the dialogues here are from the game, I just added some responses for the main character that weren't added in the game. Yeah, Persona 3 and some of the dialogues belong to Atlus, and Ib the game belongs to Kouri while the fanfic's plot and concept belongs to me.