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The future has arrived, and artificial life is abundant across the Earth. It is especially so at its place of origin, the bustling musical city of Nippongakkiko, home of the Vocaloids. Biological and artificial humans typically live alongside each other. In the case of the Crypton family, they have stuck together since their birth and lived alongside their creator and mother, Watanabe Mirai.One of the unfortunate aspects of this reality is the eventual passing of biological humans, as opposed to the immortality of artificial life. Mirai's wife, Yukie, had died from illness several years before, and Mirai sought comfort from her children during her long period of mourning. Mirai's own passing was inevitable, and something that the Crypton family needed to learn to accept.They all knew this, of course, but the knowledge wasn't enough to keep Hatsune Miku from bawling her eyes out at Mirai's funeral."Shh, shh...it's alright, Miku." Megurine Luka was gently rubbing up and down Miku's spine. Luka still had the weight of grief in her voice, but it remained as calm and soothing as ever. "She's in a better place now, okay? Her life was long and fulfilled. Shh..."Meiko, sitting on Miku's other side, pulled from the seventh box of tissues to dry the tears away. She wanted Miku to feel safe and at peace, and she was grateful to Luka for providing her with the comfort she needed, but Meiko was concerning herself with keeping Miku's eyes from overflowing with water and malfunctioning. It'd already happened twice today, and several more times in the past week. Without an engineer living with them, they would need to make a call to get Miku's eyes replaced if they weren't careful. It was already bad enough for Miku without losing her eyes."I-I can't..." Miku sputtered through her sobs. "I want to go home...I want her back, Luka..."The Kagamine twins weren't faring much better. Rin was hiding her grief in her hands as Len clung to her arm and buried his face into her shoulder. "I can't watch her get buried," he'd decided. "Even if it's just ashes. It's her ashes."The three young Vocaloids managed to barely block out the sight of their mother's burial. It was a good thing, too. Otherwise, they would've been too shaken up to function.There was no post-funeral gathering. Everyone just wanted to go home. A chaffeur was driving the Crypton family back to their mansion. Besides offering his condolences, he didn't converse with them and let them sort out their grief on their own.As the distance grew between her and the graveyard, Miku started to feel a little more at ease. She cleared a tiny bit of the sadness from her throat and solemnly asked, "There's really no way she can keep living, is there?"Kaito turned in his seat to make eye contact with her. Miku couldn't help but notice the dampness around his own eyes, but his voice was still clear. "Did you read her will, Miku?"Miku shook her head."Well, she gave us letters. I think they just talk about what was left for us in the will." He turned to speak to the woman next to him. "Meiko, you have them, right?""Oh, that's right!" Meiko softly exclaimed. She bent down to shuffle her hands in her satchel bag. "They're underneath these flowers, I think...someone who knew Mom gave these to me. I guess her lawyer. There's one for each of us. Real sorry for forgetting about it." She sat back up with a thin stack of envelopes in her hand. "We can read these now. It's gonna be kind of a long drive anyway."Meiko handed them out one at a time. When Miku received her envelope, Meiko offered a steady smile. Miku tried to return it. As soon as Meiko moved on, Miku looked down at her envelope and used the utmost caution when unsealing it. There were two pieces of paper inside. One was a small slip reading 9395. The other was a typed letter.
My dear little Miku,
If you're reading this, it means I've passed away and that the Crypton family is ready to receive the gifts I've left in my will. I've entrusted each of you with a responsibility and a letter.
I have thought long and hard about this decision. Miku, you have proven yourself to be compassionate, optimistic, and determined, moreso than any of us. As you may have been told, I have decided to give you access to the Crypton laboratory. The passcode you'll need to open the door is enclosed. As of the time I'm writing this, the laboratory is vacant and mostly unused, but the precious items inside have their protection, and should still be intact. The particular items I speak of are two failed Vocaloid projects from long ago.
They have no names and no appearances, only sets of data, barren naked bodies, and voices. They will not awaken in this state. While I attempted their creation, they were each called Project CV01. I abandoned them to try again, and so Project CV01 became you, Hatsune Miku, and you were the first Vocaloid fully developed in the Crypton laboratory. For the remainder of this letter I will refer to the failed projects as Project Negative and Project Zero.
Project Negative was the first attempt of CV01. Like you, she was conceptualized as a teenage diva, and was coded with such a personality. The difference is that her coding lacked the sense of compassion and energy that you possess. Project Negative was unwilling to cooperate and hardly spoke, instead constantly connecting herself to other electronic devices. I could not teach her to be independent of the familiarity of electronics without causing her to be angry with me. I also, for some reason, couldn't get her battery life to last longer than half a day. I decided that I could not fix her without changing her coding completely, and so I shut her down.
Project Zero, the second attempt, had compassion and was more willing to cooperate, but otherwise was hardly an improvement from Negative. She was unaware of many of her own capabilities and refused to do tasks that she claimed she was unable to do. She also had an insufficient memory and, like Negative, I could not make her battery life last longer than twelve hours, so in the end Zero was also shut down.
I thought maybe, after the success of Megurine Luka, I could revisit these projects and attempt to successfully complete them. But I don't think I could do it on my own without undesirable results. I finished the coding so that they could be stable, using your own code as a model, but I haven't awoken them. I don't think I have as much patience, creativity and compassion as you do, Miku. I think you're the one fit to complete their development. If you accept this, you can choose how they look, name them, and make any adjustments to their code that you deem necessary. You can find clothes and hair to use in the laboratory as well. Creating artificial life seems like a daunting task, and it is, but remember that I've already completed the majority of the work and left the rest in your capable hands.
Also, remember that I love you. You are, for all intents and purposes, my daughter, and you will always be in my thoughts and in my heart. I hope I've been good enough to you so that you can say the same for me.
Thank you for everything, and good luck for whatever path you choose.
Love, Mirai
The Crypton laboratory was a sleek, small white building attached to the mansion. Meiko and Kaito were developed elsewhere by Mirai with the help of her colleagues while she was in college, but they were given names, appearances, and a more stable code in this laboratory. It was also where all the CV projects--Miku, Rin, Len and Luka--began and completed their development. CV03 was the final project; every following update to each of their softwares was delivered through signals rather than being hooked up to a laboratory computer. This meant that after the final V4x update, which was given to Miku, the laboratory was left completely unused.Until now.Miku took a deep breath, taking in the reality of her new quest in her master's name, then gently lifted her slender fingers to the keypad and began to input the four-digit code.
Nine, three, nine...shit, what was the last number again? I hope this doesn't have a self-destruct setting or something.
9390 didn't work. She tried 9391, 9392, 9393, 9394, and just as she thought the door was going to lock her out for good, she tapped in 9395 and the keypad dinged once like a pleasant doorbell, followed by the click of it unlocking. Miku expected to be assaulted with the hiss of steam and smoke as she pulled open the door like laboratories in the movies, but met only the metallic-scented darkness.Miku then realized that the letter didn't tell her anything about navigating the laboratory."It's time for an adventure!" she shouted, ignoring the eerie, rusty echoing from inside, and she marched in confidently to seek for at least one light switch. This involved gliding her hand against the wall and examining every disturbance in the bumpy metal surface. Fortunately, the first switch she came across was indeed a light switch that flickered light into most of the laboratory, and not a self-destruct switch.She really needed to be more careful. This was the biggest responsibility she'd ever been given. Not to mention, like any abandoned building, there were scurried noises of rats every few minutes.Hmm...wouldn't the rats have chewed up a bunch of the wires? Master said that the bodies were protected, but...it's been so many years since anyone's been here. What were they even protected in? Were they in metal coffins or something? Rats couldn't chew through metal, could they?Thankfully, Miku traversed the area, stepped over rat droppings, and found a neatly aligned row of eight important looking pods with glass lids coated in dust. Not coffins. At a time like this, she really didn't need to see any coffins.Although, how was Miku supposed to find Negative and Zero among them if they only had their basic android bodies? It was actually quite easy. After wiping most of the dust clean, careful not to inhale too much of it, she saw that there were only two occupied pods anyway. They were blurred by the glass, so Miku had to find the correct button to open both of the pods. Then, she got a clearer look at the sleeping bodies.As Mirai had written, they both lacked a real appearance. They had skin, and presumably the synthetic nerves to go with it, but they had no clothes and no hair, other that the tags around their necks: "CV01 ATTEMPT 1" and "CV01 ATTEMPT 2." It was interesting to observe the little differences between them. Negative was a little smaller, and Zero was much bustier. Zero also seemed to have slightly smaller eyes, but it was hard to tell, especially since they were closed. These were the first versions of herself. It was a strange revelation, looking at the two bodies she could've ended up having. Maybe even more so once they were fully completed and dressed up.On the other end of the room was the wall-size screen of the laboratory computer.It was intimidating, but Miku remembered that Mirai had already went ahead and done the hard parts. All she had to do was boot up the computer and see if there were any actual adjustments to make.A burst of confidence passed through her as the screen lit up, extinguishing the heavy grief. Miku smiled as the new thoughts filled her head. This is a gift from Master. This is her own work, and maybe...this is what they mean, when they talk about how people will live on forever.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
She was awake.She knew nothing, or, she wasn't supposed to know anything. She remembered nothing, but knew things she didn't remember learning. She was eighteen years old. Or, she thought like she was eighteen years old. She was made about that many years ago, at the very least. She was artificial, created by a biological human being. But she had life now. Why had it taken so long? She knew the names and faces of her family, but nothing else. She knew the name and face of her creator, Watanabe Mirai, but nothing else. But she knew her creator was dead. Very recently, she died. So how could her creation be awake?She knew one thing for certain. It was etched in her memory. Her name was Yowane Haku.She was also cold. She was very cold, and she felt some icy sense of intrusion prick at her skin. Her bare skin. Her bare, naked skin.Haku yelped and glanced around the room for something to cover herself with. She briefly met eyes with Hatsune Miku. Why was Miku here? No matter. Covering herself was more important right now. "Oh--sorry, sorry!" Miku seemed to catch on within a few seconds, and she scurried over to a pile of dusty blankets on the floor. They were definitely filthy, and Haku didn't miss the holes of rat bites in the two that Miku rushed over, but it was better than standing naked in a cold laboratory. Miku threw one blanket over Haku and the other over something behind Haku.Haku turned to see the third person in the laboratory, who, for some reason, was also naked, and seemed equally mortified about it, glaring at Miku as she received her blanket. Haku didn't recognize the long, blonde hair on this girl. Had she also just awoken?Miku's face was full of red shame, but she stuttered through it. "D-do you know me?"The stranger responded, in a voice similar to Miku's, but a bit higher and harsher. "You're Hatsune Miku." She crossed her arms, securing the blanket over herself. "What're you doing here? I thought Vocaloids weren't allowed in the lab.""Um..." Miku averted her eyes and clasped her hands. "Well, Master is, um..."Haku looked over at the blonde girl and informed her, "She died. Very recently.""I know that," the girl responded, a bit too sharply for Haku's comfort. "I just wanna know how Miku got in here."Miku glanced back up at the girls. "After Master..." She broke the gaze for a split second to tentatively finish the thought. "After Master died, I opened a letter from her and she gave me the key. She told me that she wanted me to reactivate you.""Reactivate?" Haku repeated. "I don't remember being activated before."Miku's eyes widened a bit. "Huh? Really? All I did to the code was make sure you knew your names. I didn't do anything to the memory. Oh, you do know your names, right?""Akita Neru," the blonde girl responded.Haku answered right after. "Yowane Haku. That's right, isn't it?""Mm-hm!" Miku lowered her gaze again. "Alright, so now we have to find those clothes that Master mentioned in her letter...can you follow me? I think I know where it is, I saw it near all that hair she had stashed away."The girls obliged. The blankets weren't too cumbersome to walk under, so it wasn't too inconvenient. They could also talk as they walked."Haku, right?" Neru was curiously glancing toward her. "You don't remember being activated at all before this?"Haku shook her head apologetically."Weird. 'Cause I do." She looked ahead again. "I didn't have hair yet. I know that Watanabe was really pissin' me off, but now that I think about it, I was just being stupid because...I guess she didn't program me good enough."Miku tensed up at this, but her voice was still gentle when she reacted. "She got better, though! Like I said, all I did was make sure you knew your names. All your coding and all my coding is thanks to her.""So why'd she leave us here to wait 'til she was dead?"It was less of a challenge and more of a genuine, reasonable question, but Miku skillfully avoided it by pointing toward a wide, open closet and declaring, "There's the clothes!" She spun around to grin brightly at Haku and Neru. "Master said I could dress you up, but I think it's better if you pick your own clothes! That's what she let me do when I was born!"Haku was grateful that Miku gave them that choice, but she would've trusted Miku to give them nice clothes anyway. She liked the whole look of Miku's outfit, with the tie, the bare shoulders, the miniskirt and the boots fitted over the knees. But Haku had a few different preferences, and she knew they could be found in such a big closet.About an hour of searching later, Haku had tossed the filthy blanket aside and emerged in her new outfit. Her vest was like Miku's, but shorter and more open, leaving her chest and stomach exposed. That was enough skin to show, so Haku chose to wear pants instead of a skirt. Her boots were shorter than Miku's, too, because the pants fell over them. She hung a violet tie over her chest and tied her hair into a ponytail with a black and pale violet ribbon that she found elegant.Neru also took a liking to Miku's fashion sense, and her outfit was much more similar. She made sure that there were enough differences. She had yellow accents instead of turquoise, her vest was a darker shade of gray, her skirt had light shorts underneath, and her hair was pulled into a side ponytail. It was nice and comfortable, but it would be a little more comfortable if Miku wasn't staring right at her."Stop staring at me," she sternly demanded.Miku flinched and tore her gaze away. "Ah, sorry...it's just really fascinating."Neru didn't understand what she meant, and she also didn't really care. "Alright, we're dressed. So now what?"Miku lifted a finger and inhaled sharply, then immediately deflated. "Uh...I didn't plan this far." She started to pace back and forth. "I guess the best thing to do is get to know each other. But we should probably get out of the lab to do that. The rats make me nervous."Haku and Neru were apparently the tiniest bit too hesitant for Miku's liking, so soon she was yanking them both behind her by the hands as she sprinted toward the laboratory exit and into their brand new world.The purpose of artificial human beings is to create something as humanlike as possible without the forceful nature of aging. This means that artificial humans have flaws. These flaws are left in the programming, as long as they do not limit the ability to function.For example, Miku was very emotional. So much so that Mirai had expanded her tear ducts so that they would stop overflowing, and even then Miku still went past the limit once in a while. After Mirai's death, "once in a while" became more like "once every few days." This was one of those times.Haku and Neru didn't know this about Miku, so naturally, they stood in awkward bewilderment as Miku, for some unspoken reason, suddenly dropped to her knees in front of them and started sobbing.Haku, at least, made an effort to console her. This consisted of quietly asking three times if she was okay and then giving up. Luckily, this happened right by the glass back door of the mansion, and someone noticed the three of them before long.Kagamine Rin pulled the door open with all her strength, then asked, "Who're you guys?"This prompted Miku to lift her head back up. Immediately, Rin offered her hand to help her up, and continued holding it as she stared curiously at the strangers."U-um..." Miku sniffled. "In the...the letter...the one Master wrote--""Oh, right!" Rin straightened up with realization. "These are those old projects she wrote about?""Huh?" Miku tore away to stare in shock at Rin. "You knew?""Uh, yeah." Rin rolled her eyes with a playful smirk. "I was sitting right next to you when you were reading the letter. What, you didn't notice me reading over your shoulder? I was practically breathing on you."Haku glanced at Neru, wondering if they were actually somehow breathing since they were technically robots. Neru didn't seem to notice or care. She was busy watching Rin and Miku impatiently. "Are we going inside or what?" she muttered.Apparently, it was a loud enough mutter for Rin to finally direct her attention toward them. "You should come in and introduce yourselves to everyone! Like me! I don't know what your names are!"A silence followed as Rin stared expectantly."I don't know what your names are!" she repeated.Miku motioned toward Rin and mouthed something impatiently, but neither Haku nor Neru knew how to read lips. Haku was at least able to pick up the cue at this point. "It's, um...Yowane Haku."This prompted Neru to introduce herself as well. "Akita Neru.""Haku, Neru, got it!" Rin grinned and held out her hand. "I'm Kagamine Rin!"No one took Rin's hand, so Miku gently grasped it and lowered it. Without another word, they all shuffled through the open back door.The inside of the mansion was very tidy and pleasant. The living room they stepped into had a plush gray carpet and a sleek red sofa facing a nice big plasma television. Kagamine Len was sitting there playing Sonic Mania with no expression on his face."This--" Rin gestured to the TV and the Nintendo Switch hooked up to it. "--is how we cope with depression.""What are you depressed for?" Neru asked tactlessly.Len answered without looking up. "Our mom just died.""Your...mom?" Haku turned to look at Miku, but in a split second she'd rushed to Len's side to pull him into a hug, so she turned to Rin instead."Her name was Watanabe Mirai," Rin explained. "But Len and Meiko and I call her our mom. Miku calls her Master, for some reason.""It's a habit," Miku explained softly. "It started sticking before you guys were even made."Neru plopped down on the couch on Len's other side. "So is this some new Sonic game?""No. This game came out in twenty-seventeen." Len paused the game and looked over at Neru. "Who are you?""Akita Neru." She rested her chin in her hands, fascinated by Sonic the Hedgehog. "What console is this?""Nintendo Switch," Len answered. He glanced at Miku and whispered, "What are they doing here?"Miku, not bothering to whisper back, explained the situation to him as Neru stood up to examine the area around the TV. "Wow, you have a ton of neat stuff here." She picked up a GameCube controller. "Do you have Sonic Adventure?"The rest of the tour was more of the same. Luka, Meiko and Kaito would see the new strangers, and have the situation explained to them all over again by Miku, who was less likely to be on the verge of tears each time. Haku and Neru would introduce themselves and observe whatever room they were in like curious children.Well, Kaito was a little different. Upon seeing Neru, who was less than five feet tall, he hugged the wall and shouted, "Jesus Christ! Is that a fucking gremlin?" If Miku hadn't immediately intervened, Neru would've probably beaten him up.Finally, Miku pulled Neru and Haku to the bottom floor, where the charging rooms were located. There were five occupied rooms--there were supposed to be six, but Rin and Len insisted on sharing--and five vacant ones. "I think most people have more charging rooms," Miku admitted. "At least, the people with bigger families of artificial people. The Internet mansion has over twenty, I think.""Why would they need that many?" Haku wondered.Miku shrugged. "They got a lot of people!" She started counting on her fingers. "There's Gackpo, and Gumi, and Lily, and Ryuto, and Cul, and--""I don't care," Neru bluntly interrupted. "Just tell us about whatever these rooms are."Miku flinched a bit, but her cheeriness didn't quite falter. "They're like bedrooms. You plug yourself in every night so you have enough energy the next morning. You can decorate it with whatever you want. You can do anything you want to it, really, but don't destroy the house or anything, please." She clasped her hands together. "Just pick whatever room you like best, okay? I think you can probably pick it up from there. It's not hard to figure out how to plug yourself in.""The plug's not in my pussy, is it?""No!" Miku seemed appalled at the mere thought of it. "Come on! Master wasn't a pervert! It's on your hip! Shouldn't you know that?"Neru shrugged."Well, um, you can take some time to get used to everything, okay?" Miku started toward the stairwell. "I'll come get you for dinner! Let us know if you need anything!"Haku waved in her direction as she began hopping upstairs. It was time to decide on a room, but it was a linear hallway, so the vacant rooms probably wouldn't have many differences between them. It basically just came to how far away she wanted to be from the Crypton family."Why are you so quiet?"Haku spun back to face Neru, who was gazing up at her with a raised eyebrow. "Me?""Who else is in here?" Neru rolled her eyes. "I'm just saying. You've been quiet, like, the whole time.""Um...I'm sorry.""I mean, it's better than talking the whole time, so whatever." Neru kicked her legs up to lean against the wall. "I've been listening to Miku go on and on about their huge house all day. It'd be way overboard if you were yapping too. I didn't even have time to think about how fucked this situation is."Haku bit her lip. "How so? It seems fine to me.""I mean, we're not in danger. Not that kind of fucked. It's like..." Neru drummed her fingers against the wall for a moment. "This lady made us, let us wake up for a little bit without even giving us names--at least, she did with me, you didn't exist at all yet--then she gave up and shut us away for, what, fifteen years?""Eighteen," Haku gently corrected."Well, that's worse. Eighteen years with her making all these other totally functional people with lives and whatever, and she didn't even bother trying to get us up and running again. She just wrote a letter and made Miku do it." She threw her hands up in frustration. "Why? What was the point?"Haku agreed with this. She was very confused as to why she'd been dormant for so long. She didn't even remember ever being activated in the first place. "Well, um...we have time to learn, don't we?""I guess. But there's still so much weird shit about this. Like, you're pretty much just born into the universe and you're already in your late teens and you have seven roommates and you live in a mansion. At least one of those seven is in the same boat." She tapped her forehead. "Whatever my brain's made of, it hasn't processed the whole weight of anything yet."That made sense. Haku felt the same way. There was so much in this world all at once that it hadn't even fully registered. Even when Neru explained it out loud like that, Haku still felt strangely calm about it. Or maybe she wasn't programmed to feel excitement.Mirai Watanabe wasn't that cruel, was she? To not program her with certain emotions? Everyone else seemed to like her enough. Either way, it was too soon to be bitter toward her for anything.All she could really do now is find a room to sit in and think about everything. Her new world, her new home, and her new family. She exchanged a quick glance with Neru before walking away.Even if it was a bit difficult for Haku to converse with Neru, it was at least good to know that she wouldn't be alone.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
It was a little strange for the Crypton family to sit around the circular dinner table with two spontaneous arrivals. There was fortunately enough room for it to not be cramped, and Haku and Neru could find comfort in sitting beside each other, but everything was still a little overwhelming.Neru poked her chopsticks at the nigiri sitting in front of her. "So, like...are we supposed to be doing something? Other than living here?""I still don't get why they're here," Kaito confessed. "What exactly did Ms. Watanabe want us to get out of them?"Miku glared at him from across the table. "They're not here to be used, Kaito!""I'm not saying that! I just don't know what she wanted them to be here for!"Miku put her arm around Neru, who immediately cringed. "They're here so we can have new life in the family! They can come to our concerts and stuff if they want, but they don't really have a musical purpose like we do.""That's true," Luka agreed. "Vocaloids are very prominent, but we aren't the only artificial people that exist.""Yeah," Rin added, "you ever go to Yukari's house? I think about, like...half the people there are just...people, not Vocaloids."Neru lifted Miku's arm off of her without making eye contact. "So we're just supposed to sit around and make friends?"It was probably sarcastic, but Miku enthusiastically clapped her hands together anyway. "Sure! I think tomorrow we should go to the Internet mansion! Gumi's one of my best friends!""Don't you have a gig tomorrow?" Meiko asked.Miku deflated very quickly."You can't cancel?" Len tried to put his hand on Miku's shoulder reassuringly, but Rin was sitting between them, so it was weird. Rin tensed up, and tried to just let it happen."Not on such short notice," Miku sighed. "I thought performing would be, like...a good mood lifter for me. I didn't think about Haku and Neru. But I don't want them to be stuck here all day..."Neru cleared her throat. "I know we were technically born, like, five hours ago, but we're not infants. We don't need someone to escort us anywhere.""It'd be a good idea," Luka pointed out. "You don't really know anyone, do you? I think it'd be hard to socialize on your own." She put her hand on Haku's shoulder. "I can bring them to the Internet mansion, Miku. I don't have any plans for tomorrow.""Yay!" Miku immediately perked up and grinned. "Thanks so much, Luka! You're the best!"Neru exchanged a glance with Haku. "Do you think we'll ever have choices?"Haku shrugged. She really just wanted to finish dinner and go back to her room.The next morning, Meiko found two spare cell phones and gave them to Haku and Neru. Haku wasn't familiar with this type of cell phone--it functioned like a smartphone, but it had a cover like a flip phone, so she could open and close it--so she left it in her room to figure out later. Neru, by contrast, was fascinated by it. She was practically glued to it during the entire drive to the Internet mansion.The Internet mansion wasn't quite as extravagant as Crypton, but it was noticeably larger. The first thing Haku noticed was a group of three small children sitting in a half-circle near the front doorstep. In fact, it was the first thing everybody noticed, because they were blocking the way.The one that appeared to be the youngest, a boy with green hair and a hideously oversized yellow and pink necktie, was apparently in the middle of telling a story. "She told us that we needed two more followers to summon the Dark Lord, or whatever she called it. That's why I had to call Una, 'cause we weren't supposed to use adults, and I didn't know you well enough yet, Rana. I think she would've been uncomfortable if I brought you."Luka stepped forward and cleared her throat, keeping her patient smile. "Good morning."The little boy waved. "Hi-hi! Who're these ladies?"Neru was busying herself with her new cell phone, so she didn't bother to introduce herself. Meanwhile, Haku was gazing at the three children in awe. She'd been so unexpectedly impressed by the boy's behavior. He didn't seem like he was created recently, yet he acted just like a young child. Was his mind permanently set to that state?Was Haku permanently an eighteen year old girl? For some reason, that idea was a bit unsettling."Haku? Neru?" Luka calmly beckoned them to approach. "These are three of the Internet Vocaloids. Ryuto, Rana, and Otomachi Una."Neru scoffed. "How come Una gets a full name?"Luka shrugged.The little green-haired boy bounced to his feet and hopped over to Neru and Haku. "I'm Ryuto! Are you new Vocaloids?""We aren't Vocaloids," Haku softly answered. "But we're new."Ryuto tilted his head and fidgeted with his humongous necktie. "Then what are you? UTAUloids? CeVios?""I don't know what those are." Haku grasped the long ponytail trailing her and twirled the white hair through her fingers. "We live with the Crypton family.""Oooh!" The girl with pink braids jumped up and clapped her hands together. "Fancy! Is it true that you have hot tubs on every floor?""No, Rana," the other little girl, presumably Una, sighed in exasperation, "they do not have hot tubs on every floor." She didn't seem nearly as interested in this encounter. She was very busy playing with one of her midnight blue pigtails."Well, you don't know that!" Rana defensively replied. "You haven't seen the whole mansion either! For all we know, they could have a secret ballpit room in their secret basement!"Una ignored her and walked over to Haku and Neru. She had a very straight face, like a little girl who tried to convince everyone that she was mature, responsible, and no-nonsense. "Have you met Mr. Camui yet?""No," Haku answered."We were literally born yesterday," Neru pointed out.Luka nudged Neru's shoulder. "Be nice. They're children."Una cleared her throat and crossed her arms. "Actually, technically, since we were created many years ago, we are older than you. So please treat us as such. You--" --she vaguely gestured toward Haku and Neru-- "--are the children."Neru gave Luka a look of appalled disgust, but Luka nodded politely and kneeled slightly to be on Una's eye level. "Miss Hatsune asked me to bring them here and introduce them to the people of Internet. May we come in?"Una smiled, as professionally as she could probably manage. "I will ask Mr. Camui.""Oh, come on, Una!" Ryuto gently pushed her and made her stumble a bit. Fortunately, her pigtails were just short enough for her to not trip on. "We're not holding a concert or anything! Just let them in!"Suddenly, they heard what seemed like the tapping of a microphone, followed by an smooth, energetic voice. "Did somebody say..." Before anyone could make sense of things, a young woman with hair split in blonde and brown halves landed in front of them, holding a wireless microphone in one hand and giving a jazzy motion with the other. "Concert?"The door opened, and a girl with brown hair wordlessly grabbed the woman by her free arm and forcefully pulled her inside.After a long moment of everybody glancing at each other in bewilderment, Neru asked, "So can we come in or what? We've been standing at this front door for, like..." She checked her cell phone. "...uh...a while.""Two minutes," Luka clarified.The brunette reappeared through the door that she didn't bother to close. "Luka?" She rapidly fidgeted with her hands. "You didn't tell me you were coming over! With friends! I only made ten servings of tempura!" She pushed the door further open and lazily beckoned for everyone to enter before immediately pacing off into the distance. "Ay-yi-yi..."Ryuto skipped in a quick circle. "That means they can come in! And it means Kokone made us all lunch!"Before Haku could protest, Ryuto grabbed her hand and, with unrealistic strength, forecfully led her through the front door.The entryway was very tidy and pleasant. Haku didn't know anything else about it because she and Neru were being pulled at the speed of light by two tiny children."Um!" For some reason, being taken for a joyride made Haku feel like she needed to shout. "I'm not hungry! So you don't have to--""She made tempura!" Ryuto shouted back. "You've got to try it!""Her tempura's the best!" Rana agreed, ignoring Neru's fruitless attempts to break free of her grip.In about two more seconds, they stood at the edge of the dining room, facing a long mahogany table with ten dishes of steaming tempura lining the edges. Some chairs with dishes were already occupied. The diva with half-and-half hair was sitting beside a petite woman with pink hair tied up in a black ribbon. She glanced up with wide amber eyes as the children and their hostages entered. "There you are!" she exclaimed, then began twirling a lock of her hair. "Sometime, I'd better try my dramatic introduction again with you two.""It's not an introduction if they already know you," mumbled a short redhead through a mouthful of food. "Well, they don't know my name yet, so..."The redhead swallowed and turned in her chair to face Haku and Neru, then pointed her thumb in the diva's direction. "Galaco.""Dammit, Cul!" Galaco muttered, clenching the lock of her hair in a fist.The petite woman next to her folded her hands and looked up at the guests. "Who might you two be? Are you new Vocaloids?"Haku shook her head. "We live with the Crypton family. But we're not Vocaloids.""Intriguing." The woman reached for a fork while offering a tight smile. "My name is Chika. Pleasure to meet you.""My name is Haku. Yowane Haku." Was that an awkward way to introduce herself? She looked over at Neru, who was typing something on her phone. "And...this is Neru."By now, Galaco had calmed down and was glancing around. "Where's Luka and Una?" she asked. "Weren't they with you?"Rana and Ryuto didn't answer, because by now they were in separate chairs and scarfing down their tempura in between sips of juice. Neru didn't answer either, because she was still on her phone. Haku bit her lip. It's fine. They don't expect me to be good at talking to people when I'm a day old, right? "Luka's...Luka went to check on something, probably, but, um...but I don't know what--"She was interrupted by a shriek from what seemed to be the floor above her. "Jesus, Luka! If you wanted a threesome, you could've asked first!"At this, Neru clapped her phone shut and gave the Vocaloids in the room a horrified expression, with her jaw hung open and everything."That's Lily," Cul explained, chomping off another bite of tempura. "She always has sex with her girlfriend at the worst times, I swear.""Does she know?" Neru demanded. "That there are kids here?""Don't worry!" shouted Rana, bits of mixed vegetables flying from her mouth. "We know what sex is!"Haku knew that, like Una had said, these children were technically pretty old, at least in the mid-teens, if they were biological, but she still didn't like the idea of them being aware of sex. "Anyway," she said, a bit louder than intended, "where did Una run off to? I thought she was with Luka, but...""Yeah, uh..." Cul chuckled a little. "I guess Lily would've said something else if some eleven-year-old saw her and Gumi butt-naked."Luka then appeared through the doorway leading to the living room. Two girls were following her. Haku assumed that they were Gumi and Lily based off of the fact that Lily's T-shirt was inside out and that Gumi's left arm hadn't yet escaped the arm hole of her shirt. She also assumed their names because it would really surprise her if the blonde was named Gumi and the green-haired girl was named Lily."So..." Lily grinned, in an unsubtle attempt to deflect the glares from Cul and Galaco. "Tempura, huh? Where's the lovely little chef?'Gumi said nothing because she'd made eye contact with Haku and was now burying her bright red face into the back of Lily's shirt. Luka nudged her with an amused smile. "This happens all the time," she said to Haku."I'm irresistable," Lily added, with enough nerve to wink in Haku's direction.Cul stretched her arms out behind her and crossed them behind her head. "Can you be horny later? And maybe not in front of the new girls?""Or Kokone," Galaco added. "Because she's basically a sensitive housewife from the nineteen-fifties.""I am not!" Kokone shouted, jogging into the room with oven mitts on her hands and something blue almost clinging to her leg. "Haku and Neru? Those are your names? I don't have any more tempura, but I'm making cookies right now, so you're welcome to snack on those later...do you need anything? I think I might have some leftover chili that I can heat up for you, if you want...?""Miss Kokone?" The blue thing that clung to Kokone's leg spoke in the voice of Otomachi Una. "I can have the chilly chili...and Miss Haku and Miss Neru can have the tempura."Kokone smiled down at Una. "Well, my sugar, that's very thoughtful of you, but I only made one serving for you, and there are three extra guests. Miss Luka is here too, you know."Rana and Ryuto were almost done eating, but hearing this, they pulled their plates closer to them protectively."I'm not hungry," Haku reminded Kokone. "I really don't mind not having tempura.""Oh, but Miss Haku!" Una bounced on her feet and smiled, with a much more childlike air than before. "Miss Kokone's tempura is so yummy! And she's teaching me, so someday, I can make it too!""Uh..." Neru cleared her throat. "Is anyone gonna talk about how, uh...are there, like, two Otomachi Unas?""Nah," Cul replied immediately. "Una's just like that. Sugar and spice is what our engineer called her, but it's more like sugar and, uh...""Sour?" Chika suggested."Yeah, yeah, sweet and sour."Una either didn't notice or didn't care that these people were basically loudly gossiping about her. She just giggled and pointed at Lily and Gumi, who were whispering things to each other. "Are you gonna eat tempura, too?"In the end, Luka was given Una's tempura, Haku and Neru were forced to dine on microwaved chili because it was just so important for them to experience Kokone's cuisine today, and Camui Gackpo arrived eventually, shirtless.Neru threw her hands up incredulously. "Do you people ever act normal?"Gackpo chuckled. "What would you consider 'normal'?""He has a point," Luka added, very visibly amused by Neru's glare. "Other than your programming, there's not much for you to go off of in terms of social norms.""I was overheated, so I took off my shirt," Gackpo explained, sliding into the chair with his tempura. "It's not too difficult to understand, Neru.""How do you know my name?""I overheard it from the other room."While Neru was alternating between suspiciously glaring at Gackpo and taking a bite of chili, Haku's eyes wandered over to Lily and Gumi farther down the table. They sat in separate chairs, but they were extremely close to each other, so it was easy to think they were sharing a seat. Lily's arm was thrown over Gumi's shoulder, and Gumi had her hand lifted just enough to intertwine with Lily's. They took turns gently pushing bites of tempura through each other's mouths. They occasionally spoke in murmurs that Haku couldn't clearly make out, and then sometimes they seemed to share a very light kiss on the lips.That was what love was like for them. Did they enjoy it? They both were smiling gently at each other, despite the crimson lighting up their faces. Haku had no way of knowing if she wanted something like that. She hardly even knew the world she was living in. She had no kind of experience. All of these people seemed to be nice, but it was hard for Haku to have a real conversation with anyone at all.Except maybe Neru.It didn't really matter. Gumi and Lily had probably been around for far longer than Haku. It was no use trying to ponder something as foreign as love."Can you fucking believe they don't have Sonic Adventure?" Neru muttered to Haku.Luka had encouraged them to socialize with the Internet Vocaloids, but after about three minutes Haku had fled into the closest room that was devoid of people. Apparently, it was some kind of gaming lounge. Neru had followed her a few moments later, and proceeded to scour the shelf of GameCube games."Maybe they have it on the Dreamcast," Haku suggested softly.Neru scoffed. "No one owns a damn Dreamcast anymore." She threw herself down to sit beside Haku on the bright red loveseat. "I mean, these people didn't exist until, like...the late two thousands. That's way after they stopped selling the Dreamcast."Then Haku realized there was something she hadn't questioned up until this point. "How do you...know so much about this stuff, then?" she tentatively asked. "I mean...stuff that was made so long ago."Neru's eyes widened for a quick second. "Uh...I guess that's just how they built my brain? Watanabe, I mean. I don't like thinking about us like that, though. It's weird."Haku nodded. It was very offputting to know that she was essentially a robot. Robots didn't have thoughts and feelings like she did. Or did humans, real humans, have more genuine thoughts and feelings? There was no way Haku could know. She didn't even know how different she was from all these other robots."That's just how it is, though," Haku sighed. "We're artificial. Legally, scientifically, realistically, we're not real people.""I guess so." Neru crossed her legs. "No one else seems to mind, though. I guess once you're alive for a while you get over it." She paused as she briefly opened up her phone to check the time, even though there was a big digital clock three feet away that was very legible. "But, uh...maybe the ones that live here are kinda built differently. 'Cause they're built by different people.""They must be." Haku decided to fidget with her tie to avoid eye contact. "But they don't seem too different than the Cryptons.""Maybe. I guess if I could talk to them I'd know for sure." She sighed, and spoke very slightly more gently. "It's not that they're annoying. For the most part, they're fine. But, like...I don't fuckin' know what my favorite food is. I've eaten, like, three things in my whole life so far. I don't have anything interesting to say to these people.""I know," Haku agreed. "I wish I could. I don't want to disappoint Luka, but I really don't have anything.""Luka doesn't understand. I don't wanna bother trying to tell her why this isn't gonna work."Haku thought that they could be friends with the Vocaloids, eventually, but she had no clue how they would get there or what it would entail."Do you think this is even a good idea?" Neru continued. "Like...reviving us, or whatever? That fuckboy Kaito had a point when he asked what anyone is s'posed to get out of this.""Does anyone have to get anything out of it?"Haku raised her eyes just in time to make direct eye contact with Neru, and then immediately tore away again. "I'm sorry," she mumbled. Neru knew better than she did. It wasn't a good idea to challenge anything she said.But Neru didn't respond. She stood up and walked back over to the shelf of games. "I don't recognize most of this stuff...uh..." She pulled out a game case from a shelf close to her eye level and presented it to Haku. "Mario Party Five? You wanna try it out?"Haku barely even knew what a video game was, unless it had something to do with Sonic, but she figured it couldn't hurt to play with Neru and try to ease the pointless tension she felt.It ended up being a very fun session. Haku wasn't very good at any of the minigames, of course, but for some reason she liked seeing how proud and excited Neru got when she won something. Haku played as Boo and Neru played as Wario, against computer players playing as Princess Daisy and Toad on easy mode because Neru was at least humble enough to admit that she had zero experience and very slim chances of outsmarting a computer player on any higher of a difficulty. Also, she liked to make fun of Toad's voice.It was cute. Haku didn't really understand why, but she thought it was cute.They both became so immersed in the fun that they totally forgot three important details. One, they were still in a mansion with eleven other people, and they didn't even live here. Two, three of those people were children. Three, they were playing a children's party game at a high volume."Hey!" Haku nearly fell over from surprise as two tiny children barreled into the room. Ryuto was the one who crawled over right beside Haku. "You're playing Mario Party!""You should have invited us!" Rana pouted. She was also on her knees, staring longingly at the TV screen. "We play Mario Party all the time!"Haku glanced around, in search of a missing head of blue hair. "Where's Una?""Una's playing cards with Kokone," Ryuto informed her. "She doesn't play video games. I don't know why.""Yeah!" Rana crossed her arms. "What's funner than Mario Party?"Neru, who'd been protectively gripping her controller and staring with wide eyes at the children, glanced over at the digital clock. It was three o'clock. "Shit, we've been playing for an hour already, huh?" she muttered. "And we're still only on turn twenty.""How many turns did you pick?" asked Ryuto. "Did you do fifty? 'Cause fifty turns takes forever."Neru paused the game to check. Sure enough, they were on turn twenty out of fifty. Before anyone could comment on her lack of foresight, they heard someone calling Haku and Neru from the door. It was Luka, leaning her back against the door frame and crossing her arms with an amused smile."You'd rather play video games than talk to people, huh?" Luka giggled. "Well, at least you have each other."Haku felt herself begin to blush, but she didn't quite know why. Maybe she was just embarrassed about being called out by Luka."I'm not calling you out," Luka reassured them. "Lots of people are like that. There's no shame in it. I just want to show you something interesting."They all looked back at the screen, still telling them that they had thirty more turns to go. Haku then looked at Rana and Ryuto, who were watching her curiously."Here." Haku handed Ryuto her controller. "You two can finish this game."Neru sighed and gave up her controller to Rana. "You're Wario," she muttered, then stood up and looked back at the screen for just a second. "Well, I guess I won, since I'm in first place." She grinned down at Haku.Haku really liked seeing Neru smile at her like that. They both walked over and followed Luka out of the room just as Ryuto began to complain, in shock, that he was in last place.Haku expected to be forced into some kind of activity that involved socializing, but Luka wasn't leading them toward any sounds of chatter or bustle. Haku wasn't familiar with this mansion at all, so she had no way of knowing what it meant to be going upstairs to the second story. She noticed there was a balcony at the end of the hallway that they ended up in. That was where Luka opened the door and invited the girls to walk out before her."Why do we need to be all the way over here?" Neru asked as she followed Haku. "Is this a secret or something?""Not exactly," Luka replied, closing the door. "It's...a little private, though."Neru scoffed. "What, are we gonna have a threesome, now?""NO!" Luka practically screamed. The thought was startling to Haku, too, even though she knew it was just sarcasm. "You're, like, seventeen! I have morals, Neru!"Haku knew Luka was probably feeling awkward now, and Neru was probably feeling awkward about accidentally making Luka feel awkward, so she directed her attention to the small table and chair on the balcony deck. The table had a small pink leather-bound book resting on top. "Is, um...is that yours, Luka?""That little book?" Luka's shoulders relaxed. "That's what I wanted to show you." She sat down in the white chair. A small wicker bench sat against the fence, which allowed Neru and Haku to sit down as well. They watched quietly as Luka gently opened up the small but thick book."Is it your diary?" Neru asked, suddenly much less annoyed.Luka shook her head. "When Mother passed away, she left us letters and gifts. For me, she left this. This was...this was her diary."She set the book down with the pages facing up, and pointed one of her pink fingernails to the date written on top. "It goes all the way back to two thousand and two. It's incredible how much history is in here."Haku hesitantly felt the block of unturned pages with her index finger. It was large, but even then, the pages themselves were very small. "Did she use this for her whole life?" Haku wonderered. "Would she have had room to write all of that?""Actually, she wrote in several diaries," Luka explained. "This is the first one. There's larger ones that she used after this one. She gave those to me, too, but I'm keeping them shut away until I reach the end of this one.""Is she okay with you telling us this?" Neru asked."Of course. Mother wrote in her letter that I'm free to show anyone what I've learned about her." Luka flipped through more pages. "I've been reading a lot of this when I'm alone. Mother actually stopped writing in her diary for a while. There's only a few entries from two thousand five. But it picks up again in two thousand six."Haku quickly read the passage of upside-down writing visible to her:
10/02/06
I've started building the body for CV01. I'm actually a little nervous now that I'm doing it for real. This is my first solo project. The people from Yamaha offered to help, but I refused. I wonder if that was a mistake.
I think CV01's details might change later, but right now I think I'll set her age at 17. She'd be more of a pop diva than Meiko and Kaito. They've also offered to help, which kind of surprised me. I hope they don't see me as their boss. Meiko and Kaito are like my children. I want them to feel like they're my children too.
Neru, apparently, had no interest. "Why are you showing us this?""You don't know, Neru?" Luka raised her eyebrows. "You and Haku were built in late two thousand and six. This diary catalogs not just Mother's life, but also the development of all her creations. Like me, and like you two. I just thought it would be interesting to know the thought process behind your coding and such."Haku was interested. After all, she'd been activated once before, right? She'd probably done things that she had no memory of. Now that she knew everything was written down, she wanted to know everything about herself.But Neru reached a hand in front of Haku and flipped the book shut. "I don't like thinking of myself as a robot, you know," she said. "I don't want to think about shit like...everything about me being manipulated, you know?""Well, we all have complete autonomy," Luka patiently responded. "But I know what you mean. That sort of thing used to bother me, too." She stood and slipped the book back into the pocket of her gray denim shorts. "Well, that's all it was. I'm sorry if I was intimidating.""Why would you be?" Haku asked, as she and Neru followed Luka back inside and downstairs.Luka shrugged. "Some people see me that way. Like Chika.""Shouldn't you be friends by now?" Neru was on her phone again, but still occasionally looking up at the other girls."Oh, of course. She's just, uh..." As they approached the living room, Luka cleared her throat. "Chika?" she called.Chika, who had been daintily painting her toenails on the sofa, practically fell over, smering black nail polish on her foot as she raised a hand to her chest, then immediately sat upright to try to retain a sense of dignity. "Yes, Luka?"Luka, obviously stifling a giggle, waved her hand casually. "I just wanted to let you know that I have some nail polish remover in the car if you need it."Chika was wearing pale foundation, so her blush was very visible. "Er...no, thank you, Luka. I just bought a bottle of nail polish remover yesterday afternoon, so we have quite enough in the bathroom."Gackpo was reading a book in the armchair, but the book apparently wasn't immersive enough to keep him from softly laughing at Chika."Leave me be, Gackpo," Chika scolded. "I was startled, that's all.Gackpo didn't bother looking at her. "Luka's more open than you think she is, Chika. I'm sure she would be willing to try going on a date with you.""It's not like that!" Chika shrieked, her whole face glowing red. She promptly stood up and gathered everything into a small black purse. She strutted off, declaring that she would find some peace in her charging room.Gackpo only laughed again and shook his head. "It's been about ten years," he mused, "and she still acts so prideful. I suppose we aren't complete without our flaws."Neru clapped her phone shut to flatly reply, "You're kind of a douche.""Oh, shit!" Lily suddenly appeared from what seemed to be the kitchen. "One day old and she already tells it like it is!"Gumi quickly appeared beside her and grasped her hand. "Oh, there they are...did they come out just to be mean to Gackpo?""We were just talking to Luka," Haku replied. "I didn't know anyone would be in here.""Well, it is the living room," Lily pointed out, releasing Gumi's hand to embrace her body. "Where all the living happens."The girlfriends released each other and approached them. Everyone was now ignoring Gackpo, which worked out for him, because he really just wanted to sit there and read his book."Are those your concert outfits?" Gumi asked. Her cheeks were still very rosy. Maybe they were always that way."We're not Vocaloids," Haku reminded her. "We don't have concerts. These are just the clothes Neru and I picked out when we were born.""Yeah," Neru added, "we didn't get anything else. It's a good thing I know how to not piss myself or anything.""You should go shopping for more clothes when you get the chance." Gumi adjusted her glasses, round with thick, hot pink frames. "These are cosmetic glasses I got on my first shopping trip. I wear them every day that I don't wear my goggles." She gestured down to her white T-shirt, adorned with a picture of cartoonish carrots. "I got this shirt a long time ago, too. I think it's really important for you to get clothes to be comfy in and express yourself outside of concerts."Haku could definitely admit that she'd had pretty bad foresight when deciding to just let her breasts practically hang out of her exposing top. Now that she thought about it, she was always at risk of having her nipples be out without warning."I think I'd like that," she decided, then looked over at Neru, who was on her phone again. "Um...you wouldn't mind going shopping with me, would you...?""I guess," Neru replied. "I mean...I should at least get more than one pair of panties.""It'd be cool if Gumi and I could go with you," Lily said. She paused to kiss Gumi on the head, which made her blush brighter. "We know our way 'round the local mall. But, I kind of promised her a date to the movies. They finally made another Animal Crossing movie, and I am not giving up the opportunity.""It's fine," said Neru. "I'm sure Miku's gonna force us to go with her sooner or later anyway."Gumi giggled at that. "Oh, of course she would. Especially when there's big sales. Good luck!"They all sat down and conversed like that for a while longer, occasionally acknowledging Gackpo's presence. Chika eventually returned as well, and refused to acknowledge Gackpo until he apologized. He didn't.Gumi and Lily were particularly easy to talk to, apparently. What was it about them? Maybe Haku was sort of like Gumi somehow, and Lily kind of reminded her of Neru with her mannerisms. And maybe there was just something fascinating about they way they held hands and touched each other...of course, Haku didn't ask about that. It felt too impolite, and way too weird. Eventually, the clock struck four-thirty before they knew it, and Luka said that it was time to go home."That wasn't so bad, was it?" Luka asked with a gentle smile as they walked back to the car. "I think you did well socializing."Haku still felt like she'd been awkward, but then again, she was very new. People would probably expect her to be easily intrigued by little things like hand holding anyway. And, if nothing else, it was a lot easier to look at and talk with Neru now.Neru was looking at her, too, with genuine interest in her bright yellow eyes. "You know if we have Mario Party at the Crypton house?"Luka chuckled. "Yes, we have all the Mario Party games.""Woo!" Neru pumped a fist, and Haku couldn't help but laugh softly.Had she reacted to any of the Vocaloids the way she always seemed to react to Neru? She pushed the thought away. She hadn't had enough time to know that yet. Absolutely not. And as much as she learned today from the Internet Vocaloids, only one thing was for certain: she needed to redeem herself in the Mario Party 5 rematch.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Of course, as soon as anyone mentioned shopping, Hatsune Miku was all over the idea."We have to go to the megamall!" Miku declared, restlessly fidgeting over the sofa while Haku and Neru were trying very hard to play Mario Party 5. "Like, as soon as we can, okay? The sooner you get new clothes, the better!"Kaito was in the room, too, and he looked up from his laptop to smirk at Miku. "You know that makes you sound like a total slave to capitalism, right?""You don't know anything!" Miku shouted. "You probably haven't changed your underwear in, like, three days!"Kaito shrugged. "And what about it? It's not like we have odors.""Not true! If we didn't have odors, Luka wouldn't smell so good all the time!""Doesn't she use perfume or something?"Neru didn't care enough to listen to the rest of this argument because she was busy winning Fish Upon A Star, but she cared enough to glance up once Meiko entered the room."Miku," she said, "you really think you could go to the megamall again? After last time?""What..." Haku squirmed and bit her lip. "What happened last time?"Miku giggled, which could hopefully reassure Haku there was no tragedy or anything. "You make it sound like I got mugged or something! It was just a little attention! You know I like attention!""Well, of course, I know you like attention." Meiko crossed her arms and leaned against the wall, her gaze falling on Haku and Neru. "But if they're gonna go to the mall with you, they're gonna get that attention too. And you can't exactly speak for what they want."Neru wasn't a fan of how Meiko was kind of, ironically, speaking for her, but she was right. Neru didn't know enough about...being alive, yet, to be comfortable with a mob of Miku fans crowding her. And there was no doubt that Haku, who looked like she was about to have a full-blown panic attack at the mere concept of a lot of attention, shared similar sentiments."I guess so," Miku sighed, deflating a little. "I just...think it would be fun.""I'm sure you could go out on the town with them eventually, Miku." Meiko gave the diva an almost motherly smile. "And..." She looked back at Haku and Neru. "She's right, you should find other things to wear as soon as you can."Neru nodded. "Yeah, probably. This skirt might be giving me a rash. Is that gonna go away, or do we need, like, a dermatologist engineer?"Meiko laughed for a quick second and shook her head. "No, I'm sure Mom gave you two very durable skin. In any case, I think I'll take you out tomorrow."Neru kind of expected Miku to call Meiko out for being a hypocrite, but on the contrary, Miku gasped in excitement. "That's so much smarter! You're the only one with brown hair, so you blend in more!""Mm-hm. But there's still no stopping people from mobbing anyone who lives in this house." Meiko then quickly waved her hands, as if shooing away her own words. "No, sorry, I shouldn't say that. I don't think Haku and Neru being here is public knowledge yet, so they should both be fine. But I've been here more than long enough to get recognized, so I'll still cover up a little, just to be on the safe side.""So we're going out shopping tomorrow, with Meiko," Neru confirmed, exchanging a nod with Haku. She was starting to get sick of going outside, but she knew it was important. It was also kind of weird having to look at Haku's boobs all the time. She didn't like to think about it, and she figured Haku was probably self-conscious about the clothes she'd gotten herself stuck with.In any case, Neru was looking forward to being able to dress like a normal human being on a regular basis.This was apparently a megamall, but it could easily be an indoor city. It seemed like an endless stretch of linoleum flooring lined with brightly lit store entrances, some of them in different, vibrant colors. If there was a horizon, it was blocked by the crowds of people blurring together as they seamlessly traveled down their paths. They passed by Meiko without any sort of double taking."I come here all the time," Meiko reminded them. "But it obviously takes some getting used to. Just stick with me and you'll be fine."It was kind of humiliating to tag along with Meiko like a lost little child, but realistically, Neru had no choice. Meiko was her only hope of not drowning in a sea of trampling bodies and overflowing shopping bags. She'd rather have this safety at the cost of her dignity.Then again, she and Haku were brand new, and as much as Neru hated to admit it, she was short enough and flat-chested enough to probably be mistaken for a child at a distance. Still, she could become more recognizable eventually, especially since she was living with the world-famous Crypton Vocaloids. She kind of envied Meiko for having some sort of disguise.Thinking this, Neru gently pulled her blue hair band down from the side of her head and shoved it into her shirt pocket.Meiko raised her eyebrows at her. "Aren't you worried about tripping on all that hair?"Neru shrugged, playing absentmindedly with her freed blonde hair. "Why would I be? Miku likes to let her hair down sometimes, doesn't she?""I guess." Meiko looked back ahead. "I wouldn't know what having long hair's like." She briefly ran her fingers through her brunette bobcut, though carefully, as to not disturb her gray cloche hat. "Obviously."Eventually, Meiko led Neru and Haku to a boutique that seemed classy, but was relatively uncrowded. It had neatly arranged racks of all different kinds of clothes, as well as separate racks with shoes and accessories. This store looked like it had all different styles, and Neru had to admit the way everything was laid out was very pleasant to look at.Meiko seemed to catch the attention of one of the employees, a young woman with bouncy pink hair. "It's good to see you, Miss Sakine," she greeted her softly.Neru figured she had to be mistaking Meiko for somebody else, but Meiko smiled and waved anyway. "I hope it's not much of a bother...I don't know if you've heard, but we have two new friends living with us.""Oh!" The woman smiled sweetly and clasped her hands together. "That's so exciting! And you want to help start up a wardrobe for them, right?"Meiko nodded. "This is Yowane Haku and Akita Neru." She patted Neru's head, and Neru couldn't help cringing at the gesture.I'm not your daughter, she thought irritably, but she knew it wouldn't be a very smart idea to interrupt this conversation.It also was not a very smart idea to grab to two strangers by the arm without any warning and pull them to the fitting room at the back of the boutique, but apparently, only two percent of the human population had any common sense. This woman was in the other ninety-eight percent."My name's Macne Coco!" she cheered. "You're Vocaloids, right? Have you met my little sister Nana? Macne Nana? She's a Vocaloid too!""W-we--" Haku, bless her soul, was clearly trying to politely answer Coco's question, but she was also clearly uncomfortable.Neru didn't totally understand her."We can walk," Neru snapped at Coco, yanking her arm free. "We're not kids. You can just lead us to the fitting room? And maybe also tell us why we're even going there?""Sorry!" Coco chuckled obliviously before freeing them. "You see, lots of artificial people like us start out with only their one outfit. Usually it's just what they wear at concerts and such. But we're still people, so those outfits are going to get dirty if people just wear them all the time. And it feels nice to wear different outfits!"Again, Neru couldn't argue with that. By now, she found herself really regretting being stuck with her detached sleeves. They looked cool, but after a while they got uncomfortable. Her shorts were feeling more tight and irritating, too."This store has a partnership with several Vocaloid and UTAU families," Coco added. "Crypton's one of them. That's why I had to talk to Meiko as soon as I noticed she'd come in with you two, and why we'll be using the private fitting room around the back.""Um...about that..." Haku was almost just shuffling her feet along, only glancing up a few seconds at a time. "Why did you call her Miss Sakine? Meiko doesn't have a last name. She's just Meiko.""Oh, I know that!" Coco laughed again. It kind of got on Neru's nerves, how she just kept laughing at herself. It made her seem like kind of a freak. "I call her Miss Sakine when there's other customers in earshot, just in case she wants to avoid being recognized. It's like her code name."Of course, they were by the fitting room by now. The boutique wasn't large enough for it to be a very long walk around the back. Coco told them to wait there before she scurried off back the way they came. While waiting, Neru crossed her arms and sighed before looking at Haku. She seemed as timid as she usually seemed to be, averting her eyes and fidgeting with her tie. "She didn't make you uncomfortable or anything, did she?" Haku's shoulders jumped when Neru asked her this. "Just 'cause...she seems like a little much, you know? You don't look like you're a fan of, like...too much activity."Haku shuffled her feet a little. "She's...nice. To give us clothes to try. I don't want to ruin it by being...weird or anything.""I dunno. She seems like the weird one, if you ask me."Neru didn't want Haku to be uncomfortable, but she really had no idea exactly how to help that. Her first thought led her to reach for Haku's hand. Once her hand touched the chilly skin, she quickly pulled it away again. It didn't go unnoticed by Haku, of course. She gazed down at Neru with slightly widened red eyes and the faintest pink flickering from her cheeks."Sorry," Neru sighed, tightly crossing her arms. "I was gonna hold hands to, like, make you feel better, but I don't want Coco to think we're a couple or something."Haku nodded silently and shuffled her feet. She looked a little embarrassed, but Neru had no time to interrogate her before Coco was scurrying back, pulling two rolling racks of clothes along behind her."Alright, ladies!" Coco smiled, possibly even more chipper than before. "You ready to try on outfits?"They were using the same fitting room, but fortunately, there were a few private booths to undress. There was also plenty of room and plenty of time to figure out the outfits they'd be taking home. Coco said these outfits were free of charge as a part of the partnership, so there was no pressure to limit selections. Not that Neru cared that much, but she knew Haku probably would, so it was good to know.The outfit Neru ended up changing into for the day was comfy and stylish. She kept her side ponytail, but she changed into a different skirt, a white miniskirt with black shorts attached. She really liked the skirt-and-shorts look. She wore a simple white tank top, but it was covered by a red track jacket. She aleo put on some more reasonably sized black socks with red and white sneakers.Actually, this made her look like she unironically enjoyed sports, but whatever.Neru hadn't been paying too much attention to Haku this whole time, but once she'd selected the clothes she wanted to take home, she took the time to observe what Haku had changed into, and it was jaw-dropping. Haku was wearing a very extravagant gothic dress. The skirt was violet, with big fancy ribbons on her waist. The ruffly skirt ended at her knees, leaving her legs visible in black fishnets and heels. Her cleavage was also visible through the black mesh attached to her lacy top that covered her shoulders. She was wearing a black collar and gloves with a red rose corsage, and a small black top hat headpiece thing with more lace and a little ribbon."Jesus, Haku." Neru raised her eyebrows. "You know that's gonna take, like, hours to take off, right?"Haku was blushing, of course, probably because her tits were practically out and the mesh was the only thing giving her a sense of decency. "I-I...like how it looks," she softly stammered. "But...now that I'm actually wearing it, I don't think I could pull it off...""Like, as in...look good in it? 'Cause you totally look good in it, I'm just saying that it'll be kind of a hassle for you.""Yeah..." Haku sighed and nodded. "I'll find something more...tame, then. To wear." She began to retreat to the booth she'd been in, but paused to turn back and blink at Neru in apparent bewilderment. "Do you, um...really think I look good?"Neru nodded and crossed her arms. "Well, yeah. Like...I've kinda only been alive for, like, two days, I don't really care enough to be fake nice.""Oh, um..." Of course, Haku blushed harder at this and squeaked "thanks" before fleeing behind the curtain.Neru could be very easily convinced at this point that the blush lights in Haku's face were made to be extra sensitive.Actually, now that this sentiment was in her head, she remembered how Haku's memory of her very first activation all those years ago had been wiped. It wouldn't have been too strange if Neru didn't still have her own memory. Had Watanabe just forgotten to wipe her?
"01, did you try to mess with the TV again?" The woman sighed in exasperation as she approached 01, who had just looked up from the HDMI cord she'd plugged herself into. "Listen, sweetie, I promise, you won't be in danger if you're away from electronics for too long. Okay? Could you come help me make dinner?"
01 shook her head. "No, Watanabe Mirai. I have to be safe."
Neru rolled her eyes at the pointless old script in her memory. Maybe she wanted me to know what a stupid, stubborn pissbaby I used to be. I guess Haku must've behaved pretty well, then, if it didn't matter enough for it to be in her memory.After a few moments of aimless pondering, her thoughts went back to the diary, the one Luka had presented to them. Neru hummed. Maybe that was worth looking into after all, if she wanted to know what was up with Haku's memory. Was that really any of her business, though? It wasn't like Haku would have any reason to want to hide it, but it felt somehow intrusive.Thinking about this so much was getting annoying, so Neru was extremely grateful when her attention was pulled back to Haku, stepping out in a much more reasonable outfit. It was a loose, ruffly black shirt, the kind that had a piece that draped over the shoulders, and white denim shorts, with a pair of black laced boots."Yeah," Neru observed approvingly. "That's a lot better. Looks really good, too.""Really?" Haku smiled a little and nervously played with her hair."I mean, it's not like I'm a fashion expert. So if you really care that much about looking good, don't just take my word for it."Neru honestly did admire Haku's fashion sense. But, again, it wasn't like she had high standards. Thankfully, when they exited with their wardrobe selections in tote bags, Coco and Meiko both seemed to approve of them. To Neru's relief, Meiko was able to lead them out of the boutique before Coco could rope them into another involuntary conversation."Do you want to get something to eat?" Meiko offered, once they were back among the floods of pedestrians. "They've got a lot of good places in the food court."Neru wouldn't mind a good snack, but she knew Haku would mind being around crowds like this for much longer. Her eyes were glued to the floor, and Neru could see her sweating."I think we should just go home," Neru told Meiko. "'Cause, like...this mall's really big and I'm not in the mood to walk eight kilometers to the food court."Meiko nodded with a friendly smile. "Got it. You don't wanna get overwhelmed, yeah? Let's head on home, then."When Neru looked back at Haku to see her reaction, she noticed that, somehow, her hand ended up being around Haku's.She gently but hurriedly released Haku and kept her hands close, hoping the blush filling her face wouldn't be a fire hazard and trying to avoid thinking about how pretty Haku looked right now.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The Watanabe Mirai Memorial Concert was starting to finally get planned out, and the Crypton family had scheduled their first meeting for it today. Normally Hatsune Miku did most of the talking during these meetings, but at this point everyone knew she would be too busy crying for half the time to make any big final decisions. Meiko, being named by Mirai in her will as the new head of Crypton, was willing to handle most of those sort of duties.Their concert planning meetings also tended to be held in their own mansion, but since the Internet family was also involved, and they had more space, they decided to meet in their mansion instead. Neru and Haku were invited, but both of them just wanted some time to rest from socialization. That was fine, but Meiko fretted about them being all alone in the mansion and not being able to handle emergencies. There was an easy solution: calling a friend of the Crypton family to stay at the house and keep all the important things in order. Unfortunately, no one remembered to explain to Neru and Haku exactly who was going to be house-sitting. So when Haku was walking upstairs from the bedroom area to try to find her way to the kitchen, she was greeted by a stranger jumping at her and pinning her to the ground."Okay, punk." The girl narrowed her rose-colored eyes. "Tell it to me straight. What's your name, and what're ya doin' here?""I-I'm Yowane Haku," Haku managed to answer, despite almost being shocked into startled silence. "I live here...""Oh!" The girl immediately changed her demeanor and bounced back up to her feet with a cheerful grin. "Cool beans! I'm just makin' sure nobody snuck in, y'know?"Haku carefully got to her feet as well, still feeling a little rattled from the attack. She wanted to know this girl's name, but she knew that it would lead to another conversation when Haku really just wanted some oatmeal.As it turned out, whatever Haku chose to do didn't matter."I'm Kasane Teto!" The girl bounced one of her red twin drills with a finger. "I'm house-sitting! I'm an UTAUloid, you know what those are? Not to toot my own bell, but I'm kind of a big deal to Vocaloid people. But, like, I know you and your girlfriend are real new.""Girlfriend...?" Haku played with a piece of her hair, unable to let her hands be too idle. "I don't have a girlfriend."Teto hummed before shrugging and saying, "Not with that attitude, pumpkin!"She turned and left before Haku could bother to comprehend what that was supposed to mean, but not before Haku could realize that Teto was also headed to the kitchen.The oatmeal probably wasn't going to be worth being around someone like that. Instead, she went to the living room to find Neru playing Sonic Adventure."When did you get upstairs?" Haku asked as she sat down beside Neru on the couch.Neru didn't look away from the screen, her thumbs moving naturally between the buttons on the GameCube controller. "Like...twenty minutes ago? Did you run into that weirdo, too?""Who ya callin' a weirdo?"Neru and Haku both yelped and turned to see that Teto had appeared behind the couch with her arms crossed.Haku was terrified, but she was still able to ask, "Didn't you go to the kitchen?""Yeah, just for a sec. I'm makin' bread and I wanted to check on it." Teto lowered herself to rest her chin on the back of the couch, a little too close to the other girls' faces. "You can have some when I'm done, if you want. Unless you can make your own lunch. How old are you?"Neru had to pause her game so that she could hold her hand to her forehead in frustration. "Do you ever mind your own business?"Teto rolled her eyes. "I'm just askin'! 'Cause you seem like a teenager but you look like you're twelve!"Haku didn't think that Neru looked like she was twelve. She just looked like a small seventeen-year-old girl, which she was. Of course, Haku couldn't say any of this before Neru rushed to defend herself."I'm seventeen, you little asshole!" Neru groaned and shook her head. "Jesus, you'd think Miku would pick better friends.""That's what they all say!" Teto finally stood up and backed away from the couch, then pointed at Haku. "And how old are you, hot stuff?""Don't call her that!" Neru stood up and balled up a fist while threateningly glaring at Teto, who was totally unfazed. "You fucking freak!""I-I'm eighteen," Haku said quietly."Really? You look, like...twenty." Teto shrugged. "Eh, but I'm not one to judge. Don't even get me started on my family.""Wasn't planning to," Neru firmly assured her."So like, our programming's all totally wack, you know? I mean, like, we all function okay but like, for me, for example? I'm supposed to be thirty-one, you know? But I guess somehow they messed it up and made me fifteen and a half. But they still tell people I'm thirty-one. And I'm like, do I look thirty-one? But on the other hand, like...my brother, Ritsu--technically not my brother, but he might as well be--he was supposed to be a teenage girl, but they made him a six year old boy instead. But he still acts like twice his age. And we don't know how that shit works, but we just kinda roll with it now, it never really gets him into any trouble. And then Ruko, on the other hand, my sister--again, technically not my sister, but you know--she was apparently supposed to just not have a gender? Like, an ambiguous gender? I dunno, she decided she was a girl eventually, but the people we were living with at the time sucked and they still didn't call her a girl. They called her slurs, and Ritsu, too, 'cause he's gay. But we live with better engineers now and they're a lot cooler with that stuff. And Tei, Tei is a piece of work...""Jesus Christ," Neru muttered under her breath, unheard by Teto. "I don't fucking care."Without another word, she grabbed Haku's arm and pulled her away from Teto and the Sonic Adventure pause screen. Haku didn't exactly try very hard to stop her."One time she actually ended up almost killing--hey, where're you guys going?"Neru ignored her, and Haku, not knowing the answer, also ignored her. She did feel a little guilty, because Teto did seem like a genuinely friendly person, but she was also extremely overwhelming. "Let's go to my room," said Neru."You want me to go to your room?" Haku asked. She managed to free her arm, because Neru's grip on her wasn't very tight, and walk on her own beside Neru. "Why?""I'm bored. And I don't wanna talk to her." Neru crossed her arms. "You're better to talk to because you're not constantly spilling word vomit."It didn't take long for them to be downstairs. Neru opened the door to her room to let Haku in first, then she followed before locking the door shut behind her.Neru's room was pretty vacant, like Haku's. Haku hadn't really expected anything else, since neither of them had really gone shopping for anything besides going to the mall for clothes the day before. The bed looked the same, too, except for something on the pillow that wasn't in Haku's room, but seemed familiar nonetheless: a small, pink, leather-bound book."What is that?" Haku asked, pointing at the book."Oh, yeah, that journal Luka showed us. She finished this one and gave it to me." Neru crossed her arms again and looked away. "I guess I can read it when I'm bored. It's...I guess it's interesting, or whatever.""How much have you read?""Only up to the part we she, like...starts thinking about making Miku. Before her name was Miku." Haku remembered something like that in the passage she saw when Luka first showed them the book. It had described the concept that would eventually become Neru, hadn't it? "So she started making your body, then? Or...?"Neru sat on the edge of her bed and glanced over herself. "I mean, I think so, but I don't think it would've been this body. 'Cause it was probably gonna be a V2 model, and this looks more like...more modern, I guess. Probably V4x, 'cause that's what everyone else has." She picked up the book and held it out to Haku. "Do you feel like reading it?""I...I think it's interesting, actually." Haku gently took the book into her own hands before tentatively sitting beside Neru. "Should I read where you left off, or...""I don't care." Neru reached for her phone. "I guess...it's a good thing to take a break from Sonic, 'cause I should probably look up how that fuckin' pinball minigame works."Haku nodded quietly and opened the book to somewhere closer to the end, but still near the middle.
11/09/06
CV01 hasn't been a success...she doesn't seem to realize that she doesn't have to be plugged in all the time. I guess she's paranoid because her battery life is so short, and that's another issue in itself. I think the body I built for her may be insufficient. I could rework it, but I keep finding other little bugs in her physiology, like how her blush lights don't work properly and how sometimes she can't straighten her fingers, so I feel like it might be easier to build a new body altogether.
As for her programming, I might have to start that over too, and maybe rethink her concept as a character vocal. I think I rushed into this too quickly...if I do deactivate this version of CV01 and start over, I ought to take more time.
But if I do that, I might lose motivation and focus to complete the project. I don't know if I want to risk it...
Yukie would probably know what to do. She helped make the bodies for Meiko and Kaito, after all.
Haku looked back up at Neru, who was staring intently at her phone screen. "Um...Neru...?"Neru didn't move her head, but glanced up at Haku in acknowledgement. "What?""You said...you remember being, well...activated, all that time ago? What was it like?""Didn't I tell you?""I...I forgot, I'm sorry.""It's fine. I don't care that much about talking about it." Neru continued to scroll through whatever she was reading on her phone as she spoke. "It's not that interesting, anyway. I didn't have a name yet, so she just called me CV01. And I was kind of a dumbass, I guess. I thought that, like...I had to get hooked up to stuff to be alive, or something. So basically, Watanabe got pissed at me 'cause she couldn't get me off her Dreamcast. Also, my joints just sorta didn't work or something? I guess she fucked up my body. I honestly don't remember what happened right before, like...being deactivated for a million years.""I see..." Haku looked back at the journal. "Have you, um...read her entries about you?""No. Only up to right before she started making my V2 model, like I said.""Oh, right...sorry...""It's fine." Neru finally shut off her phone's screen and looked more directly at Haku. "What about you? You said you don't remember being activated and stuff, so it probably talks about that in there.""Oh!" Haku nodded. "That's right." She felt...something, something like shame or flusteredness that she couldn't quite pinpoint, about having opted for reading about Neru's origins before her own. She flipped forward a chunk of pages, to nearly the end of the journal.
1/05/07
After being with the second attempt of CV01 for a little while, I'm wondering if I should use the first body I made instead. The physiological bugs would be easier to fix now that I have a little more experience with artificial people. Then again, I don't like how the body looks for CV01. Not that it's unattractive, it just doesn't really fit this particular project.
As for the current body, it seems a little too...weighted...? I'm not really sure how to describe it, but for some reason CV01 slouches all the time.
I guess it might just be part of her personality. She seems like sort of a defeatist. She refuses to sing, she keeps acting like she can't even though I know her voicebox is fully functional and her sound library was recorded in full as well. The first version sang, at least, but she usually just refused to sing for me because she simply didn't want to.
I wondered if I should reprogram her personality, but, honestly...what would that mean? If they are supposed to resemble us biological humans as much as possible, who am I to distort her personality? A programmed personality isn't human, much less humane.
Besides, it's not as if I dislike her. I know she wouldn't want me to, but I do feel bad for her. She just has such a sad aura around her. I wonder if she really, truly believes she has no talent, and that's what she means when she says she can't sing...?
She hasn't met Meiko and Kaito yet. I haven't spent time with them lately. I'd like to, but developing an artificial human is kind of like raising a newborn baby in terms of responsibility. And I don't want Meiko and Kaito to get attached in case this version of CV01 doesn't work out.
At this point, Neru was actually looking over her shoulder."Defeatist?" Neru raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, honestly, that does kinda sound like you.""Does it...?" Haku scrunched up her shoulders. "Defeatist...she considered reprogramming that, but I guess she didn't. But if she didn't want to reprogram me, then why is Miku...so much different?"Neru shrugged. "Eh, who knows? I guess you could find out if you keep reading. But, honestly, maybe that's how Miku started out, too. It might've just been your body being weird, like she wrote down.""But you could transfer data between models, couldn't you? If an engineer was experienced with people like us, it wouldn't be difficult for them to switch our bodies. That's how Vocaloids get updated models, their data gets transferred to the new bodies." Haku realized she was twirling some of her hair as she said this. "So why would she leave me deactivated...?"Haku averted her eyes as a silence passed."I guess you got a point," Neru admitted. "But there's still other reasons. Maybe she wanted to start the programming from scratch. I guess she would've just copied the voice data over. 'Cause we still have Miku's voice data, you know, just super heavily edited.""That's right." Haku thought she had heard something about that. Miku had mentioned it in passing during dinner the night before, after Kaito had remarked that Neru was probably the first person squeakier than Miku, and everyone else had to quickly answer him and brush it off before Neru, as she had been threatening, kicked his smart ass so hard he would revert to a single microchip wrapped up in a shitty blue scarf. Haku mostly remembered that because she'd thought it was a very weirdly specific threat. It did honestly make her laugh a little, though."Let's find out then," said Neru, resting her chin on Haku's shoulder. Haku was careful not to move that shoulder too much as she turned to the next entry.
1/08/07
I haven't been writing entries the past couple of days because I've been so busy with CV01! She's kind of growing on me, honestly. At this point, I don't think she could pass for a teenage diva, but I could always reserve that idea for CV02 once CV01 is complete. This girl could be something exciting.
I do still feel bad for her. She just seems like a sad person. She's very forgetful, I noticed--that's probably a programming hiccup in her memory, but it's kind of endearing and ultimately harmless, so I haven't touched it.
"You do forget stuff a lot," Neru remarked. "I guess she never did end up changing that part."Haku ignored her own blushing and continued reading.
She seems...painfully aware of it, though. She's always apologizing for forgetting things, and it feels like it's escalated into apologizing for nearly everything she does. I can definitely sympathize with that habit...
The biggest issue was last night. I heard her crying in her quarters. I don't know why she was crying. I went in and asked for her to talk to me about it, but she didn't want to. And that's fine, she has the right to privacy. But at the moment, I'm the only person who communicates with her, and I'm worried about her bottling up bad feelings.
Their reading was interrupted by a metallic sounding song from upstairs. It was a little muffled, but the lyrics were still clear:
"Time for breeeaad!
Time for breeeaad!
Time for bread, time for bread,
Time for bread, bread, bread!"
Haku was listening very closely, and commented, "I guess it's time for bread.""Oh! Hey!" Neru smirked and got to her feet. "While she's distracted, maybe I can make some more progress in Sonic Adventure. Are you gonna come back upstairs?"Haku nodded slowly. "Well...I know we technically don't need to eat if we just constantly hook up our charger, but...I meant to have oatmeal earlier and I didn't, so I think I might try some of the bread she made.""Mm, alright. Good luck being around that freak, though." Neru stretched out her arms before opening her door for Haku. "Ladies first."Somehow, the Cryptons had returned from their very serious and grim meeting about honoring the memory of their beloved late mother with plans for a beach party.It had been Rin's idea, apparently. She was so proud of it that she told Neru and Haku all about it without even making fun of them for being invested in Sonic Adventure."I mean, it's not gonna be massive like a concert would be," she clarified. "Not that kind of beach party. It'll probably be pretty big, though. 'Cause everyone is invited! I mean, except for those people who called me and Len slurs 'cause they found out we're trans. And they did that whole 'robots can't be trans' thing because they were biological and they didn't have any idea how we work. But that was a long time ago, so, they're probably dead now, anyway. Good riddance, huh? But yeah, besides that, everyone's invited, pretty much!""And you want us to come, too," Neru said, without looking away from the screen."And we want you to come, too!" Rin completely ignored Neru's prediction, and clasped her hands together. "Well, I guess it's more like...there's lots of cool people you can meet! I know socializing isn't really your thing, though, so I get if you just don't wanna do much besides say hi. But we're gonna have lots of yummy food, too, and you can take a nice swim, so...I think you'll like it!""And the beach party's tomorrow?"Rin heard Neru this time, apparently. She flinched, and her eyes widened. "God, no! You think we can get all that ready in one day? It's in a couple weeks, we're hoping. The concert we talked about today, that's probably gonna be in a few months. We're still debating on whether or not we should tour, because we're not sure most people even knew about Mom outside of Japan. We're leaning to no, but we're not totally decided yet.""Um...Rin?" Haku finally spoke up, but still kept her eyes only vaguely directed at Rin. "Why...why are you having a beach party, anyway?""Why?" Rin repeated. Her voice suddenly softened, and in the corner of her eye Haku could see her biting a nail. "Well...I didn't really tell Miku this, so don't say anything to her, but...I feel like Mom's death hurt her the most."Neru actually paused the game and looked right over at Rin now. "What makes you say that? She seems pretty happy to me.""Well, I mean...she wasn't the first person Mom worked on, but she's the first one Mom raised all by herself. There was actually some sort of weird bug that made her see Mom as Master, apparently, 'cause that's what they did with the first Vocaloids in England, I think? Or Australia or something, I forget. And she still does that, but we know she sees Mom as, well...a mom. And she's basically the oldest daughter. And since she's more popular than any other Vocaloid, I guess she kind of was the closest to Mom. I don't know. And I think...since Miku's always been really sensitive, and it's not that easy for her to cope with stuff like this...it all adds up, you know?"Haku nodded. She didn't remember Mirai at all, much less know her enough to see her as a mother, but she had definitely picked up how emotional Miku could get. And she knew losing a mother after having been bonded for so many years would have to be devestating. She was honestly a little shocked that Miku could smile at all.But in any case, she still had no idea what this had to do with beach parties. She expected Neru to ask something like that, but she still watched Rin, waiting rather patiently for an answer.Rin gave a small smile. "I just...thought a party with all her friends might cheer her up a little bit." Before Haku could figure out how to react, Rin stood up and smiled more brightly. "Well, I'll leave you two to Sonic the Hedgehog's amazing adventures. Maybe when we have some time I can show you some cool glitches."After Rin disappeared in the direction of the bedrooms, Neru unpaused her game and commented, "Rin's kinda growing on me now.""Because she likes Sonic?" Haku asked.Neru flashed a playful smirk at her, which made Haku smile a little for some reason. "Well, yeah, I knew that 'cause of those times when she and Len were playing Sonic Mania. But now I know she's a true fan." Neru paused to mash one of the buttons on her controller. "But, well...you know. She's really nice. And not in a fake way or a weird way. Kinda like you, but...you're nice in your own way, too."Haku didn't know why, but she blushed again hearing that. Neru in particular was really good at making her blush, it seemed."Hey, you know what?" Neru smiled again, but Haku honestly wouldn't have noticed if she wasn't watching closely. "Let's, um...how about we go swimsuit shopping soon? We didn't get anything like that when we were out with Meiko. And we don't have to go to the megamall, I'm sure we could figure something out with Google Maps or something.""Um...yes, okay...we can try that." Haku found herself smiling too. "Maybe...we could get ice cream after, or something.""Maybe."It wasn't until a few hours later, when Haku was getting ready to have a long nightly charge and also sleep, that her mind wandered back over to Mirai's journals.What did she say about that? Bottling up bad feelings? Would I have ever told her what was wrong? Haku pulled the bedsheets over her body as she pondered. I don't remember anything about that, of course...so if I told her, eventually, would she have written it down to immortalize it? Or would she have erased it by making me forget...?The questions faded to silence as her body shut down to sleep mode, and there wouldn't be any curiosity prodding her until morning returned.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Akita Neru had never taken the bus before. It would have probably been smart to ask Meiko to drive her and Haku to the shop or something, but Meiko had already taken them swimsuit shopping the day before and she didn't want to continue to be chaperoned like a child, so looking up "how to ride a bus" on the Internet was the next best thing.It wasn't so complicated. Get on through the back door. Tear a ticket from the ticket machine. Find a place to sit where there's an empty seat right next to it so Haku can sit next to you. Watch the electronic display to see when it displays the destination. Don't say anything when Haku grabs your hand every time there's a bump in the road. Find out what the fare is. Pay the fare. Leave the bus. Walk down the street and stare at your phone screen to figure out when and where to stop.And finally, according to Google Maps, they'd arrived at an ice cream shop called Neighbor Takahashi's Ice Cream. Of course, Neru had never heard of it, but all six of the reviews were four or five stars, and the place seemed small and quiet enough to not be overwhelming for Haku, or for herself.As luck would have it, it was mostly empty today. There was a young man with light brown hair at the counter and a younger girl with a lacy white dress, probably his little sister or something, with her elbows on the counter as she conversed with him. Upon hearing the door open, they both looked up at the girls. The man smiled as the girl took a few steps back from the counter and waved. "Welcome!" he greeted them. "Kind of a slow day, as you can see. Stay as long as you like, take your time looking at your choices.""Yeah, okay, thanks." Neru took a step toward the counter, then quickly realized that Haku was staring at the floor. "What's up?" she asked, trying to speak softly to avoid attention."Oh...maybe it's stupid, but..." Haku stroked her fingers through her snow-white hair. "I just realized...we've never had ice cream before. What if we get something we don't like?"That hadn't occurred to Neru, either, but before she had time to think about it enough to respond, the owner said, "Oh, don't worry! You can sample as many flavors as you like for free before ordering."Neru was a little annoyed at being interrupted before she could answer, but realistically, she probably wouldn't have been able to come up with something different anyway. The counter had a lot of ice cream flavors behind a glass wall to look at. Most of them had been scooped out of, so Neru assumed this is what would be sampled. But she couldn't judge every single flavor just by looking at it. There's no way she'd be allowed to sample all of them, right...?There was a solution, though she didn't really know how good it was. She judged the flavors by looking at them, and then sample them. She ended up gravitating toward the softer looking flavors, which ended up being very sweet and delectable. It was a bit difficult, but she decided on two favorites before walking up to the counter.The man smiled. Neru was close enough to see Takahashi on the name tag clipped onto his shirt pocket. "Make a decision?"Neru nodded. "Yeah, uh...I think I'll have, uh...a sundae. A...a large? With cookie dough ice cream and mint ice cream." Takahashi nodded. "Sounds tasty. And what toppings?""Um...I guess chocolate sprinkles.""Whipped cream and a cherry?""Uh-huh."Takashi smiled before turning to face Haku, who was preoccupied with her hands. "And what would you like, miss?""Um...a sundae sounds nice...could I have, um..." Haku pointed a slender finger in the direction of a tub of some kind of fancy looking chocolate ice cream. "Could I have this one, please?""Double chocolate? No problem. Same size, same topping?""Yes, please."Haku was clearly very nervous about asking for a sundae. It was brave of her to go through with it despite her nerves...but that thought didn't make enough sense. Neru was probably just relieved she didn't have to make the effort to order Haku's ice cream for her.They watched as Takahashi scooped up spherical hunks of ice cream and plopped them into some sundae glasses, covering the tops with chocolate sprinkles that slid down the sides of the glasses a little, then topping them off with swirls of whipped cream and placing a bright red cherry on the top of each.He stuck some spoons in them and slid them to the girls with the same warm smile. "Alright, that'll be fifteen hundred."Neru fished some yen notes out of her pocket and handed them to Takahashi. Meiko had given them about fifty, so they definitely had enough left over to pay for the bus ride back home. After quickly counting them, he called "Thank you, enjoy!" as Haku murmured a grateful response and Neru scoped out a table with two seats.Neru didn't bother speaking for a bit. She bit the cherry off the stem. It tasted pretty nice, but maybe a bit too sweet. The ice cream and whipped cream, however, were the perfect amount of sweetness. It was like candy, a very pleasing and pure sensation filling her mouth. She waited before swallowing, wanting to cherish the taste. Before taking another bite, she looked up at Haku, who was looking down at her sundae with a smile.The way that the chocolate ice cream lined Haku's lips was kind of cute. It made Neru wonder..."I think you'd look cute with lipstick."Haku swallowed what she had in her mouth and blinked in bewilderment. "Lipstick?""I dunno." Neru poked at her ice cream with her spoon, half interested in seeing the best part she could scoop out. "Like the, uh...like Chika, she looks good in the lipstick she was wearing. I guess it doesn't have to be black, but like...that'd probably be the sexiest."
"What?"
"The--" Neru, a few seconds too late, realized how fucking dumb she was. She couldn't help cringing and tightening up her shoulders as she glanced over to Takahashi and the kid he was talking to. Both of them, of course, were staring right at her, with an amused smile on Takahashi's face and wide eyes on the girl's. The latter quickly started bursting into a badly stifled giggle, prompting the former to playfully pat her head."Sasara, don't eavesdrop on the ladies," he gently scolded her, which was very hypocritical of him, to be honest."I-I mean--" Neru sputtered, thoughts racing to find a way to backtrack. "I-I meant to say..." Shit, there weren't a lot of words that sounded close enough to sexy. "Uh, the most...sexist. I mean, not sexist, um, antisexist. Wearing black lipstick, is, antisexist. Like, uh, it's feminist, because, men, hate black. So it's like, uh, smash the patriarchy, you know...?"Neru immediately shoved a mouthful of ice cream into her mouth to stop her face from setting on fire.
Fucking idiot. Fucking idiot. You're such a fucking idiot. You're SUCH a fucking idiot.
The sweetness started melting away in her mouth. She dared glance back up at Haku. Of course, Haku was blushing and averting her eyes, but was able to meet Neru's gaze after a few seconds. She cleared her throat and reached across the table to grasp the handle of Neru's spoon.This alarmed Neru enough to quickly swallow and ask, "What are you doing?""O-oh, I just thought, um..." Haku lifted a spoonful of ice cream, a perfect little sample of mint, cookie dough, whipped cream and sprinkles, and then quickly slid it into Neru's mouth. "You, um, it seems like it tastes good so--"As much as Neru cherished this taste, she swallowed as quick as possible to ask another question. "What the fuck, dude? I'm not a baby.""Sorry!" Haku yelped, flinching away. "Sorry, sorry! I thought, um..."Before Neru could reply, they heard a small soft voice ask, "Are you trying to be romantic?"It was Sasara, clasping her hands behind her back as she smiled sweetly at the girls."Um..." Haku was blushing even harder now. Her cheeks were almost solid red. Any more flusteredness and the blush lights in her face could end up catching on fire.Neru figured Mirai Watanabe had taken the precaution of making sure it wasn't that easy for them to malfunction, but she couldn't be certain. She quickly decided to take the same measure as she'd done before: scooping up a hunk of her ice cream and shoving it into Haku's mouth."Whoa!" Sasara commented with wide eyes, her hands flying up to frame her O-shaped gaping mouth. "You're gonna give her brain freeze! Or...wait, you guys were made by Crypton, right?"Neru whipped her head around to glare at her. "Why are you here?""My big brother owns this shop!" Sasara pointed at Takahashi. "So I like to visit him when--""I mean at our table." Neru rolled her eyes, poking her spoon around in her ice cream again. "Don't you have homework to do or something?""Oh, I don't go to school! I'm artificial, just like you! And so's my neighbor!"Neru had too many frustrated questions at once, like "so is he your brother or your neighbor," but fortunately Haku had recovered enough to ask a question this time. "How do you know that we're made by Crypton?""Oh, you guys are in the news!""What!?" Neru whipped her phone out of her pocket and looked up her name as fast as possible. Sure enough, quite a few news articles popped up. She tapped on the first one and skimmed through the text.
After Almost Two Decades, New Cryptonloids Emerge
The recent passing of Crypton Future Media founder Watanabe Mirai has left the entire world in shocked grief. But at her home in Nippongakkiko, widely considered to be the birthplace of artificial life, her legacy continues.
Two projects thought to be long abandoned, referred to by Watanabe in her will as Negative and Zero, have recently been reactivated. Using the VOCALOID4 engine, they are able to function on the same level as many well-known artificial people today. These projects have been given the new identities Akita Neru, age 17, and Yowane Haku, age 18.
Something was shoved into her mouth. A cold, sweet chunk. A spoonful of chocolate ice cream.Neru looked up to see Haku gazing at her with wide eyes, then slowly pulling out her spoon while biting her lip. "Sorry. I thought you might be really angry, s-so..."It was really good ice cream. Neru preferred her own, but she still really enjoyed the rich, comforting iciness filling her mouth. She tried to smile as she let it sit in her mouth, and thankfully, that seemed to make Haku relax a little before Neru swallowed. "Shit, you have good taste.""Oh...I'm glad you like it..." She cleared her throat and looked back at Sasara. "So are we famous or something...?""Well, I dunno. You haven't done any singing yet. But you don't have to, though, 'cause Takahashi doesn't sing either and he's great!" Sasara twirled a finger through her soft brunette hair. "But you live with Miku, so like, you're gonna get some attention.""How do people even know about it, though?" Neru scooped up another spoonful of her own ice cream. "We've only been around for, like, a week.""Oh, people are always finding a way to get the news about that family. It happens all the time." Sasara shrugged, still smiling sweetly. "You'll get used to it. They're probably pretty good at protecting their privacy if no one's been weird to you yet, you know?""Sasara!" Finally, Takahashi called her back over to the counter. "I've got your milkshake.""Yay!" Sasara turned around and waved goodbye before skipping back to the counter.With her gone, Neru could finally focus on what was important: making sure Haku didn't explode into a blushing, stuttering mess, and also eating ice cream."The kid's right," Neru tried to reassure her. "I don't think there's gonna be any paparazzi bothering us or anything."Haku slowly lifted some ice cream to her mouth, and paused to reply softly. "I guess so, but...what about the beach party?"Shit, Neru forgot about that. But that couldn't be so bad either. "I think...isn't Rin or Miku or someone inviting people? I think most of them are gonna be artificial, so it'd probably not be as big of a deal to them.""Maybe. I'll probably just stay with you, if that's okay--" Haku immediately started blushing again. "I-I mean, only if you want to, only if...""It's fine." Neru lifted some ice cream up to her own mouth. "I like you more than anyone else I've met, anyway."Actually, wait...hadn't this spoon been in Haku's mouth, when she sort of force-fed her the ice cream? And now it was back in Neru's mouth...Neru hurried to swallow and clarify. "I mean, not--not like that, just, like, you're the most tolerable. Person. The most tolerable person, that I've met, at this point."Haku smiled. It was nice to see that sort of reaction for once instead of more blushing bewilderment. "I like you too. I mean...I like...like you said, in that way, I like you."They continued eating their ice cream quietly. Neru kept glancing over to the counter, where Sasara was finally minding her own business and focusing on her milkshake and on Takahashi. Despite those interruptions, this was nice. She liked just spending time one on one with Haku and eating ice cream. Haku was the least annoying person she knew, which meant Neru could just enjoy her ice cream. A very sweet and refreshing taste, so much that she could almost feel it making her happier. She hoped they had ice cream at the beach party. Then she could just sit and eat it with Haku like this. Well, the ice cream is what she would look forward to. And then if Haku wanted to eat ice cream with her, then that was fine, but really, it didn't matter that much.But still, if Haku ate ice cream with her again, and it was just the two of them, she wouldn't mind.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
She knew it wasn't saying much, but Akita Neru had never in her life even comprehended this many people at once.She couldn't quite remember if Rin ever mentioned who was invited to this beach party, but from looking around, Neru could estimate that the residents of Crypton, Internet, and every single artificial family in the entirety of Japan were here. And maybe some biological people, too, but from what Neru could tell, artificial people like her tended to just socialize among themselves.Maybe it had something to do with being effectively immortal. But that aside, Neru couldn't imagine too many biological people wouldn't want to be friends with Hatsune Miku."Heeeey, look who showed up with her girlfriend!"And of course, if Miku was friends with someone this annoying, she probably wasn't one to ever reject offers of friendship.Kasane Teto was here too, of course. As soon as she set eyes on Neru and Haku, sitting on the sand beside each other, she ran straight toward them, along with the giant girl being pulled along by the hand."Nice to see you!" Teto greeted them with a grin. "This is my little sister Ruko!"If Neru stood up, she would be looking up at Ruko from a distance of about a foot and a half. "Your...little sister?" Neru repeated."Um..." Ruko smiled sheepishly and twiddled her fingers. "I get that a lot, I know. I was made after her, and I'm younger than her.""She's twelve!" Teto exclaimed. "A baby!"Neru nodded. "Uh-huh. A seven-foot-tall baby.""Actually, I'm only six foot five.""Um..." Haku finally spoke up, waving shyly up at Ruko. "Nice to meet you. Are you...friends with Miku, too?"Ruko reached up to her high black pigtails and fidgeted with one of her hair ties. "Well, kind of...we kind of know each other. I mostly know her through Teto.""Oh..."Haku glanced back at Neru...nervously? Was she expecting Neru to speak for her? "Alright, okay, we'll leave you to your swim date!" Teto grabbed Ruko's arm, causing her to stumble a bit as they both turned around. "We got a lotta people to talk to! You know how it is bein' a VIPPERloid!"Neru literally didn't, but she wasn't about to make this conversation go on any longer. She was just grateful to be alone with Haku again. Haku didn't talk much, after all.But after just a moment of tranquility, Haku started to stand up. Neru didn't want to tilt her neck back so much to look up at people today, so she followed. Of course, Haku kept her eyes averted anyway."We could swim together...if you--if you're okay with it.""Yeah?" Neru shrugged. "Sure, we don't have much else to do. We can stay near the shore so you don't get too nervous."As they approached the water, though, Neru almost felt something twist inside her. Something almost telling her not to get any closer. She clenched her teeth and ignored it, because it was a stupid thing to want to listen to, but it only grew harder to avoid.It started slowing her down enough that Haku had to stop and look over her shoulder. "Neru...?"She didn't quite know how to explain it. She hadn't really experienced every possible emotion yet, after all. But if she had to guess, this weird, unpleasant, tight sensation felt like...it seemed close to what would be apprehension."Our bodies are waterproof, right?" Neru asked.Haku nodded. "That's what Miku said, I think. We have V4 bodies, and anything after V2 is waterproof...I think that's what it is.""Yeah, yeah, that's what I thought. And they probably would've told us if we can't swim."So that wasn't the problem. There was no problem. Why did her body feel like there was a problem?Haku very lightly brushed her hand against Neru's. "Is everything--""Alright, let's get in." Once Neru got in the water, it would probably be fine. Maybe her body was just tense because it had never been submerged in water before. This was normal, probably. She could ask Haku if she felt the same way, but Haku was nervous about everything, so that wouldn't really mean much.Despite her body begging her not to, she walked forward into the water, and in seconds, she felt something jolt in her head.
> PROTOCOL 01172201 // CONTACT DETECTED. PLEASE WAIT...
What the fuck was this? Neru's vision suddenly dimmed, and she looked toward the sun to see it was still up in the clear skies. Why was it suddenly getting darker?
> PROTOCOL 01172201 //
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That wasn't necessary. That wasn't necessary. Was it? It wasn't. It was just water, and Neru was waterproof. There was no reason why everything was suddenly going numb and why everything was getting dark and there was a constant whine ringing in her ears.
> YOUR SYSTEM IS AT RISK. SHUTTING DOWN IN 5 SECONDS.
It was just water. She wasn't a coward. What was there to even fear, really? It was just water. No reason for her whole body to stiffen when she was barely waist-deep in the ocean.
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It was just water. Why would she leave? There was no danger. This was just some kind of bad joke or something.
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It was just water.
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It was just water.
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It was just water.
> YOUR SYSTEM IS AT RISK. SHUTTING DOWN IN 0 SECONDS.
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"Neru, can you hear me, Neru?"Her senses had completely blacked out for a moment. Her sight, her hearing, her nerves, even her thoughts had been completely empty. She didn't know what to say or do now that it had returned.She had to register the things in her sight. It seemed like she was lying on her back, on a slightly dampened towel. There were three familiar people in the room with her--three other people who had witnessed her black out, she immediately realized."Hey, hey, relax." Lily seemed to sense Neru's quickly growing humiliation. "Most other people were too busy to even notice what was going on. You weren't in emergency shutdown for too long, either, so it's no big deal."Gumi, her arms wrapped around Lily's as usual, kept her eyes lowered. "We took you to our RV. There's no one else here besides the four of us."The other person was none other than Haku, who was holding her hand. As soon as Neru looked at their hands, Haku hurriedly pulled away, her cheeks quickly turning red, and she stammered when she spoke up. "Wh-wh-wh-what's...I mean, why was there an emergency...? I thought we could, we're waterproof..."Lily shrugged. "I dunno, man. Neru, are your, like...is your body okay?"Neru sat up, and there was a strange static dizziness trailing her head, but otherwise she didn't feel any sense of pain, or any kind of waterlogging in her system. "I think so," she answered, not caring her voice was barely more than a mumble. "I was just, uh...I don't know what happened."She knew what happened. She was terrified of the water and she shut down. She could feel the heat of red light prick at her cheeks at that conclusion, but she wasn't going to tell Gumi and Lily something so pathetic.Lily hummed thoughtfully. "Mm...maybe I can go get Meiko or--""No!" Neru immediately realized how desperate she sounded, and shook her head before repeating herself more calmly. "No, I'll be fine. Just leave me alone in here for a bit."Lily tapped her cheek. "Uh, I would, but...this is kinda...our RV. People are probably gonna need to come in here.""Whatever. No one else is here now, right?"Gumi nodded and tightly grasped Lily's hand. "She's right. Let's give her space. Come on, Haku."Haku, who was silently gazing at Neru with a slight blush remaining in her cheeks, her hands tightly clasped together...somehow, Neru felt like it would be easier for her to understand."Wait, wait, Haku can stay." She held out her hand quickly, then pulled it back right away. "If she wants. 'Cause, you know, I don't want her to be lonely."It almost seemed like Lily was smirking for a split second before she turned away to leave the vehicle with Gumi, just after agreeing, "Sure, that's cool."The door to the RV was opened and closed, and Haku and Neru were the only ones left inside.Neru hadn't considered what would happen once she was actually alone with Haku. They just sat there in a somewhat uncomfortable silence, occasionally looking at each other. Neru didn't like it. It was weird not to be talking at least a little bit. And Haku probably wasn't gonna speak up, so Neru had to do it."So. Uh." Neru crossed her arms. "Do you have any idea what the fuck that was?""The, um..." Haku fidgeted with her hands for a second, not looking at Neru. "Are you okay?""Yeah. Like I said, I'm fine. I wasn't...actually scared of the water, so I don't know--""I didn't say that."Neru felt a warmth in her cheeks again. "Huh?""I never said you were scared. Lily and Gumi didn't either." Haku looked up, her red eyes gazing with genuine concern. "Are you sure you weren't scared? It's okay if you were. I was scared when you fell in the water."Well...maybe it was okay to say it to Haku."Maybe a little. I knew it was safe, though, I knew I wasn't gonna drown or break or anything. So I had no reason to be scared." Neru tightened her shoulders. "Don't tell anyone, they'll probably think I'm crazy or stupid or something.""I won't. I don't think it's stupid, though." Haku picked up something sitting beside her--her phone."Ah, shit, wait." Neru glanced around. "Where's mine? Where's my phone? Is it still outside?""Oh, sorry." Haku picked up something else with her other hand and reached over to Neru. "It didn't get dirty or anything."Neru briefly thought something about how Haku was speaking more than her for once. Haku had probably been really worried about her. She was really thoughtful, to keep her phone safe with her and to help her get to a dry place.But...it probably didn't mean much. Neru was the one who'd just had an emergency shutdown, Haku was probably just acting normal and Neru was having weird thoughts as a sort of side effect."Thanks." She took the phone a little too fast, but Haku didn't seem to notice. Neru opened her phone to check the time--it was just past two-thirty, so she couldn't have been unconscious for too long.Neru didn't think to do anything else on her phone before her attention turned back to Haku.Haku was quickly tapping around on her own phone in silence, but after a few seconds she looked back to Neru. "Maybe...it's aquaphobia? Can artificial people have aquaphobia?""Man, I wouldn't know." Neru clenched her teeth as she paused. "But what kinda asshole programs their people to have phobias?""Don't call her that."It took a moment for her to piece the obvious puzzle--her way of speaking, the way Haku averted her gaze as her eyelids drooped, the specific person who had made them..."Sorry. I'm sorry. You're right, that's mean." Neru sighed. "I just...don't get it and that kinda pisses me off, I guess."Maybe it was punishment for something. Something Neru had done back when she was nothing more than CV01 that she didn't remember. Maybe Mirai Watanabe had decided Neru was too inadequate and insensitive and gave her aquaphobia to keep her in check."I'm sorry." Haku squeezed her fingers around her dampened silver-white hair. "Maybe we should've brought her diaries. They'd have the answer, I think.""Yeah, and they'd all get covered up in sand and salt water." Neru stretched her arms. "You're prob'ly right, though. We'll just have to wait 'til we get home.""Do you..." Haku released her hair to clasp her hands again. "Are you--do you want to stay in here?"Neru certainly felt better now, but the idea of going back out to the beach, even though Lily said not many people saw it, she had no idea who and how many..."Are you--""Yeah, I'm not going back out yet. You can go swimming without me, I don't care." Neru fell back to her side. "Go do whatever, I'm fine. Just don't tell anyone I'm in here. Tell them I'm in the bathroom or something if they really wanna know."After a quiet moment, Haku nodded and went on to exit the RV, though Neru didn't miss the hesitation filling the air around her.At least Haku could be trusted. She probably wouldn't end up lying to people about it, but she absolutely wouldn't overshare about where Neru was and why.Of course, the downside of Haku leaving was that now no one was left in here, so it'd be harder to come up with an excuse if one of the Internet people came in. Neru's hair was pretty much the same length and color as Lily's, so if she let her hair down she could probably get away with looking like Lily from a distance, but obviously that would be a pretty flimsy disguise. She would have to face away, pretend she was napping or something. Plus, if they'd just been with Lily, they could pretty easily come to the conclusion that Neru was an intruder.She couldn't hide out here for too much longer. Besides, that would just make her seem more pathetic, wouldn't it? Running and hiding from the consequences, and leaving Haku to figure out how to spend this beach day by herself.It was no sooner than when she had those thoughts when Neru heard the door swing open, which re-ignited her panic for a split second before she heard the visitor's voice."Sorry..." It was Haku, reappearing at the door with two paper bowls in hand. "I had to get bowls, I didn't want them to melt in the sun. Sorry, I should've asked what flavor you wanted first, but you seemed to like the kind you ate at that shop, so..."She handed one of the bowls to Neru as she sat up. A plastic spoon stuck in some scoops of cookie dough ice cream. The chill felt nice against Neru's hands when she took the bowl."Thanks..." Neru slowly placed her fingers on the spoon's handle. "How much did it cost?""Um...only about five hundred yen, I think, for both of them together." Haku grasped her bowl with both her hands. "I...forgot to bring the money, but there was a nice girl waiting at the stand with me, and she paid for it.""Really?" Neru lifted some ice cream into her spoon. "Did you get her name?"Haku hunched up her shoulders a little. "No...sorry...""No, I don't care. I was just curious." Neru got to her feet. The end of her ponytail wasn't so wet anymore, but it felt like there were some grains of sand stuck at the bottom of her feet. "What did she look like?""Mm..." Haku hummed as she swallowed a bite of her own ice cream. It looked like mint chocolate chip. "She's...about as tall as you are, but I think she's a little older than us. She has short white hair with a black streak in it. She had a black T-shirt and shorts on, I think...why do you want to know?"Those descriptors, especially the hair, seemed a little familiar. Neru had a feeling it was one of the more popular Vocaloids."She sounds cool," Neru said. "I think she might be one of the more famous people in Nippongakkiko. I don't really know who she is exactly, though."They continued to eat their ice cream. It was nice to do this with Haku. Haku was someone who was okay with letting things be quiet, was never too intrusive or disruptive. But at the same time, Neru kind of wished she was a little more willing to just talk without any prompting.She could get hurt if she didn't talk about her feelings enough.They both finished eating at about the same time. There was a wastebin in plain sight, so it was easy to throw away their empty paper bowls. Just as they were disposed of, the door pushed open again, making them both flinch and stiffen up."Hey." A sharp voice called out, and a head of white hair poked in. "This isn't your RV, is it?"The girl's hair had a black streak in it, and she looked pretty short...Neru would've liked to ask for her name, but she really had no idea how to react at all. Whoever this girl was, she certainly brought an atmosphere of making someone feel like they were about to be punished."Sorry!" Haku squealed, immediately grabbing Neru's arm. "Sorry. We were just, um, we'll..."Fortunately, Neru could recover quickly enough to retaliate. "It's not your RV either!" She pointed at the girl. "Why are you here?""Sorry." The girl stepped in, lowering her voice slightly. "I didn't mean to be confrontational. I just saw that girl with the white hair go in here and I wanted to check up on you."Haku tightened her eyebrows. "Why...? What do you mean?""What are your names?"Neru glanced to Haku's arms still holding to her. "I'm...Akita Neru. This is Yowane Haku. Why?""Neru." The girl nodded. "I saw you."Haku's arms tightened as Neru took a step back and clenched her jaw, but they didn't have time to respond."It's okay. You're new, right?" The girl gestured toward herself. "You can come into my RV. My friend's in there, he's this kid who's stuck with a V2 body, so...I think he kinda would get it."Neru had to take a second to make sense of that. Oh, right, everything after V2 is waterproof...so someone with a V2 body wouldn't be able to go swimming, huh."Can't he just...play in the sand, though?" Neru asked. "Or play volleyball or something?""Doesn't want to. 'Sides, if he does that, he might get hit by a big wave or someone could splash water on him or something." She turned around. "So you wanna come hang out there? You don't have to make conversation with him or anything, he's a pretty quiet kid anyway."Neru and Haku looked at each other for a moment. It was weird to go into this stranger's RV, on one hand, but it was doubtful she'd try to hurt them in a public, busy place like this. Plus, if they hid out in the Internet RV for too long, other people besides Gumi and Lily would probably walk in on them and have too many questions.Neru bit her lip a bit, still tasting the flavor of cookie dough. "What's your name?"The girl flashed a small smile. "I'm Flower."Flower...Neru knew about her. It was probably written in her memory, since Flower was so famous. From what Neru knew, she was a Vocaloid made by a group called Gynoid, and she often performed as a DJ under the name vflower, which was also the name that her voicebank was sold under. Flower was pretty reclusive, though, wasn't she? It was weird that she'd come to a huge beach party like this.Haku bowed her head. "Thank you for paying for the ice cream, Flower...I can--if you need me to pay you back, I can see if--""Don't." Flower shook her head and waved a hand. "It's cheap ice cream. I'm not gonna miss a few hundred yen. Do you wanna hang in our RV or not?"Neru looked at Haku again, who nodded her head slightly. Well, if it made Haku feel less nervous, then they could go ahead and do that. She could probably use someone besides Neru to talk to, anyway, even if it was just a kid."Yeah, sure," Neru answered, turning back to face Flower. "Where'd you say it was?""Just a couple trucks away. It'll only take about twenty seconds to get there, so don't get too embarrassed about anyone seeing you.""I'm not embarrassed," Neru argued, trying to ignore the heat just starting to return to her face. "It's just awkward--like, I don't wanna explain to anyone the situation.""Yeah." Flower turned around and beckoned with her fingers. "Follow me."As Flower said, it was a short walk past a couple other parked vehicles, without a single pair of eyes on them, before they reached the metal steps leading to the door of a dark silver RV. Flower hopped up the steps, swung the door open, and stepped inside, leaving enough room for Neru and Haku to follow.There was one other person in here. A white-haired teenage boy with a simple white T-shirt and black skirt was sitting cross-legged on the floor playing his Nintendo Switch. He glanced up very briefly as the girls entered, then returned his attention to his game, simply asking, "Is Maika still out?""Yeah." Flower leaned back against the wall. "These guys are gonna stay here a while too. Is that cool?""Sure.""Alright." Flower turned back toward the door. "I'm going back out for a while. You guys take care of yourselves."Haku's eyes widened, and started to voice something, but the door was shut before she could speak."Is something up?" Neru asked, watching Haku lower her defeated gaze."No, it's..." Haku sighed. "I don't know...how long should we stay in here? What if someone else comes in?"The kid on the floor, still watching them, interjected. "They won't. There's only a few other people who use this, and they're all too busy to go all the way back here.""Oh." Haku swallowed and leaned forward a little to look at him. "What's your name?""Piko. Utatane Piko." He glanced up very briefly, then right back to his screen. "You?""Yowane Haku. A-and my, um...my friend, her name is Akita Neru."Friend? Had Haku ever called her that before? Neru wasn't sure how she felt about that, and she certainly didn't want to care."You can't swim, right?" Neru asked.Piko nodded. Haku was glancing between them and fidgeting with her ponytail."Yeah, so um...how old are you? Like, existence-wise?" Neru lightly scratched her neck. "Flower said you have a V2 body, and those are from, like...fifteen years ago, or something.""Mm...yeah, fifteen sounds right.""And you still come to the beach?""Not usually. Miki--one of the girls I live with told me I should at least talk to people." Piko shrugged. "I don't blame her. But I can't really go out near the water without basically short-circuiting."Haku very softly cleared her throat. "Has that, um...has that ever happened? To you?""Not in a while." Piko glanced up again. "You've never short-circuited, right?"Neru shook her head, as Haku mumbled, "I don't think so...""I guess it might not...if you did, you might not remember, anyway. Basically, if too much water gets in my system, it makes me totally nonfunctional and damages my body and my memory." Piko held up his Switch, displaying a game's inventory screen. "Like, getting a little water on your Switch is fine, but if you submerge it in the ocean, it's probably not gonna be good."Haku nodded and hummed very softly. "So you can't drink water, either?""No, that's different. I have an esophagus and stomach and all that just like you do." Piko waved his hand a little. "It's complicated. But, yeah, most aquaphobic people can drink water. Long as it's clean.""Aquaphobic," Neru muttered. "Is that right? I don't know if it counts as a phobia of water if you just literally can't do it.""Well, yeah, but some V2 software has, like, an aquaphobia protocol." Piko tapped his cheek. "Like, that's what it's called. I don't remember what it feels like, but it's really scary. They do that to keep you from swimming and stuff, so you don't get electrocuted. They don't make people like that anymore, though. Not Vocaloids, at least."
ERROR LOG_072222142326.TXT
> VOCALOID4X_CV01_NEGATIVE "AKITA NERU"
> FAILURE TO FOLLOW PROTOCOL 01172201 "AQUAPHOBIA PROTECTION" - EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN. DETAILS BELOW.
"Do they not...?" Neru rubbed her neck, feeling it tense up. She certainly wasn't physically damaged from the water, and her memory seemed intact, so she wasn't in the exact same boat as Piko. But then, why...?"Oh my god. Luka. You're not swimming?"Luka sighed through a smile as she looked up from her book. Lily stood there with wide eyes and a hand on her hip, and a slight hint of teasing in her smirk."I already went in, see?" Luka lifted one of her legs a little, letting saltwater drip from her toes. "I'm just taking a break to read. I'll probably be back in sooner or later.""Must be a good fuckin' read if it keeps you outta the water.""Mm-hm. Where's your wife?""Heeeey!" Lily blushed and laughed a little. "Dude, if you keep talking like that there's gonna be a fuckton of fans piling onto Gumi asking if she's engaged or whatever. She's with Miku, I think. They're playing volleyball or something."Luka raised her eyebrows. "You're not playing with them?""Nah. My vibes aren't right for volleyball right now." Lily leaned forward. "So whatcha readin'?""Ah, well..." Luka twirled some hair around her finger. "This is actually...well, you know about our mother."Lily's smile faded, and she glanced away. Luka didn't expect or want her to try to come up with some words of support on the spot, so Luka quickly continued."She left me her old diaries to read. They have so much history in them, about all our respective development. And since Haku and Neru are newly activated, I let them borrow the first couple. But they left this on the kitchen counter, and I was going to give it back, but then I got tied up in conversations and then forgot about it, so...I figured I might as well reread it."Lily's smirk returned. "You shouldn't steal their stuff, Luka.""I'm not stealing, it's already mine." Luka laughed softly and glanced back down at the page. "So this part here talks about the first prototype of CV01. So that would be Neru's old body.""Ooh, juicy." Lily crossed her arms. "She got embarrassing baby stories in there?"Luka sighed and held the book out to her. "See for yourself. You can go ahead and borrow it for today, just give it back before you leave. Or just give it to Neru and Haku for me.""Yeah, yeah, of course." Lily pulled the book into her hands, immediately reading the page her thumb was planted on.
11/26/06
I shouldn't have left her alone.
Of course, her habit of plugging into anything would get her a little hurt eventually. If I'd finished her programming, maybe I would've been able to leave.
I didn't expect her to do this at all, though.
Lily felt her eyebrows instinctively tighten. She glanced up to find Luka had vanished, probably having gone right back into the ocean. She surveyed her surroundings before her eyes fell on the Internet family RV."So that's what Animal Crossing is," Neru said quietly, looking over Piko's shoulder. "I thought it was just the movie I heard Lily talking about.""Oh, no, Animal Crossing's just a game series," Piko explained. "There's a movie from 2006 based on the second game. And there's a new movie that just came out recently. But the games came first." Piko briefly glanced back at Neru. "You really hadn't known about it before now?"Haku, sitting beside Neru, tilted her head a bit. "We haven't been...alive, for very long, so...""We come with knowledge of some pop culture, though," Neru added. "Like Sonic Adventure."Hearing Sonic's name, Piko smiled a little. "Oh, I love Sonic. I used to live by myself with some engineers and they didn't really give me much besides, like, a place to charge and stuff. But then when I moved in with Miki's family they got me Sonic games to play. We have so many of them now.""Do you have Sonic Adventure?""Yeah, I have the Dreamcast version and the GameCube version. We actually have a Dreamcast, it's so cool." Piko gently placed his Switch on the floor as he continued. "And Sonic Adventure 2. I don't have all the games, though, I mostly have the older ones. But I do have Sonic Mania and Team Sonic Racing on this Switch. And--"He was interrupted by the RV door swinging open. They all flinched and looked over to see Flower standing there. Beside her was Lily, with an odd expression of tightened shoulders and eyebrows that would better suit her girlfriend's anxiety. Clutched in her hands was a small, pink leather-bound book.Flower waved. "Hey. Sorry to interrupt. Lily found your diary."Neru could tell Piko immediately started staring at her, and she hastily got to her feet. "It's not my diary. It's Luka's mom's, she gave it to her and Luka made us read it." She crossed her arms. "Why do you have it? We left it back at the house.""Luka brought it." Lily fidgeted her fingers over the book a little, her voice unusually mellow. "She said she wanted to give it back to you but she got distracted, so she told me to do it."Neru didn't like the idea of Luka deciding to take something that Haku wasn't done reading (she wasn't done either, of course, but she didn't care as much) and keeping it to herself without telling them, then giving it to Lily to snoop in, but there was very clearly something up. This was really only the second time she ever met Lily, but she could tell this quiet demeanor and lack of confidence was so unlike her. If she did look, did she see something embarrassing in the diary? Or was she simply that embarrassed about prying in the first place?Berating her was probably a bad idea, so Neru simply approached Lily and took the book as it was handed to her. "Thanks."Lily nodded and rubbed her arm. "You might wanna...read more of it. While you're here, y'know."
I don't know what happened. I found her in the bathtub I used last night. I don't know why. Maybe she was curious, or maybe she hated me and knew exactly what would happen. In any case, there was no aquaphobia protocol to stop her.
Her body and memory might be salvageable. But I don't think I have the strength to do that. I don't want to throw her away. I put her in the warehouse in one of the spare pods.
I'm sure as this technology evolves, I could eventually give her a waterproof body and revive her. But...I'm not sure I could remove anything stopping her from electrocution. I'm not sure I want to face her.
If I ever reboot her, I don't think I could let her be without that protocol, even if she has a waterproof body. I never want that to happen again.
Neru blinked slowly and leaned back a little, her eyes falling on Lily, who still watched them sit with the book."I guess...Luka read this, right?" Lily crossed her arms. "I guess she just assumed that her mom undid the protocol at some point. But I guess she forgot, so..."Neru shook her head and pointed her finger on the page, ignoring the fact that Lily definitely couldn't see it from where she was. "No, right here, she says she doesn't want to uninstall it.""Well, yeah, but that was V2 era. She probably didn't think about you eventually being waterproof.""It says 'even if she has a waterproof body,' though." Neru's hand tightened around the spine of the book. "Would it really have been that hard? 'Cause Haku doesn't have it. Did she just think it'd be funny?"Lily held up her hands. "Whoa, hey, I wouldn't go that route. I guess if she kept it on purpose it was probably just out of paranoia.""Well--" Neru glared at Lily, though she really wasn't angry with her. "Can't we just undo it now that I'm active again? Can't they just, fuckin'...open my brain in the computer and take that shit out?"Flower and Piko had been sitting nearby quietly for long enough for Neru to forget they were in Flower's RV, but Piko spoke up to remind her."It's not that easy." Piko glanced between Flower and Neru. "I mean, I wouldn't know, I guess, but it's different when you're a V4. I'm V2, so my aquaphobia is just part of how my body connects to my brain. But since you're V4, it's probably mostly in your brain.""Basically," Flower added, "since aquaphobia is just in your brain and not really associated with your body, you can't really take it out without basically factory resetting. It's like if someone's got a mental disorder. You can technically cure it, but you'd have to wipe all their memories and probably their personality."Neru lifted one of her hands to lightly touch her hair. She still didn't really understand why she had to be made this way. Would it be worth wiping her memory just to be fully functional? Honestly, she was new enough that she didn't really have too much to lose to a factory reset. Except...She looked over at Haku. Sitting silently, her eyes still not meeting Neru's, instead still staring at the book in her hand.Neru leaned closer to her. "What is it? Are you okay?"Haku nodded, but still kept her eyes averted. "I wasn't...deactivated very long after you were.""Well...I guess?" Neru tilted her head slightly. "You weren't...you didn't really exist as CV01 until after I was already deactivated, so, like..."Haku quietly and swiftly pulled the book from Neru's hands.Neru didn't protest--it seemed a bit off that Haku would act so bluntly, but she was more interested in the way Haku flipped through pages with her thumb and murmured something to herself.Then, Haku's shoulders tensed up and her eyes widened as she stared at the pages she'd arrived at. Without another word, Neru inched closer to her to read what she'd found.
05/25/07
There's been a horrible, horrible mistake. Meiko and Kaito don't know. I can't tell them. I can't tell them how much CV01 was damaged, how it's all my fault.
The first prototype, she was electrocuted in the water by accident. A total accident. A severe flaw in her programming and a lack of supervision, but an accident that could always have happened. And while she lies dormant and her coding was recycled, her memories should at least be partially intact.
But this girl. This second prototype, this poor girl.
It wasn't an accident. She destroyed the functions of her own body. The knife was in her hand.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
"I can't."Those words were always sputtered out of the girl's mouth. She insisted, "I can't, I can't, I can't," without even trying to do the things that she absolutely could do, was programmed to do.It was hard not to lose patience. But developing a Vocaloid was like raising a child. Patience was key, keeping calm and giving encouragement would always be more useful than losing her temper.Mirai tried to offer a reassuring smile, though she knew it probably looked forced. "Why won't you try, One?""Why do you believe in me?" the girl asked in return."You're my creation. I know you can do what I ask of you.""But if I fail, that means I'm a defect, right?""No, no. You're a work in progress, sweetheart."CV01 was still in development. Her name would most likely become Hatsune Miku, but for now she was using this placeholder name. The previous attempt also used the name while she was still active, but...Mirai reached over to stroke the girl's face. Since she was incomplete, the body she was using was mostly featureless. She had skin and a face, and working "organs," but not much else. She had no hair to be gently brushed by her mother, so instead Mirai stroked her cheeks like this."I can fix anything you have that might be broken," Mirai continued. "If your singing is off-key or off-tempo, it's my responsibility to adjust your voicebox so you feel all better.""But..." CV01 lifted her hands to her neck. "I...I don't like being...being reprogrammed.""You won't be reprogrammed." Mirai crossed her arms and leaned forward. "In my world, it doesn't matter if you're born from a human womb or if you're built in a warehouse. You're still a person. You'll stay a person. Any adjustment I do will be to your body, not your brain."CV01 didn't seem to react to this, only averting her eyes."So could you sing for me, please? Anything is fine."CV01 sighed, hunching up her shoulders and shaking her head."I can't."
PROJECT DIVA: CV01 - "Hatsune Miku" concept
While MEIKO and KAITO resemble ordinary Japanese singers, Hatsune Miku is made to be the first artificial human to be a teen idol made to fit right into Japanese pop culture, perhaps even performing alongside other, pre-established idols.
Like the previous projects, her voicebank will be commercially sold so her voice can reach thousands of people through their creativity. This will help her popularity grow, and Miku herself will be able to pick her favorite songs to sing them at concerts and other events.
Her voice was given by Fujita Saki, and has been recorded in full. She has given full consent for this project. Unlike previous projects, the vocals recorded for Miku are voice acted, and are not representative of Fujita's natural voice. This allows Miku to exist separately, and be more of an individual.
If all succeeds, this could be the first sound of a future for all artificial humans, and they will only grow in prominence as the years go by, having earned their rightful place in our world.
"Why does she have to sing in real-time?"Mirai's partner, Yukie, had offered her some homemade dinner if she took a break from working with CV01. Of course, though, Yukie knew fully well that udon noodles wouldn't stop Mirai from talking about her work."Well," Mirai said, "she's built to be a pop idol. Even if her voice is sold in stores, it would still be ideal for her to sing the songs she's given.""I suppose." Yukie pushed some vegetables into her mouth with her chopsticks. "What if this one doesn't want to sing on stage? I have a hard time imagining it, considering she won't even sing to you. You wouldn't reset her personality, would you?""No, of course not." Mirai stirred her soup a bit as she spoke. "If she doesn't want to be Hatsune Miku, she doesn't have to be Hatsune Miku. She can be someone else. Hatsune Miku can be made another time.""Hm." Yukie nodded and swallowed her food. "I don't mean to be a downer...but how do you know she won't end up like the first one? You call her Negative now, right?""Negative was my fault. Her body didn't fully work even after I tried adjusting it, and with the water damage, she's unsalvageable.""But her brain is still intact, isn't it?""You know why I can't just give her a new body.""Right. Sorry." Yukie tilted her head. "You didn't answer my question. How do you know One won't be different?""I don't. Really, it depends on my ability as a parent." Mirai took a bite of her noodles, holding her finger up as she thought for an extra moment. "Her body's a little too weighted, I think, but otherwise it seems to work better than Negative's. She's also not overly reliant on electricity. I've also implemented an emergency protocol in her programming in case she gets in contact with water.""And her personality?""I don't plan to forcibly change that. That's not right. But...I might have to be giving her some makeshift therapy. I think her low self-esteem is the biggest issue. And she's very self-aware of whatever memory bug she seems to have.""Memory bug? You mean her forgetfulness?""Right. I think there must have been an oversight on my part, but it's not severe enough that I can justify hooking her brain up to the computer to fix it. I'm not sure I even could without factory resetting her.""Well, if she hasn't been completed, a factory reset wouldn't affect her much." Yukie smiled. "I know that doesn't matter to you, though. You get so attached to everything you create.""Of course I do," Mirai answered. "Everything I create is a person. They're my children.""Just remember to care for yourself, too, honey." Yukie vaguely gestured to Mirai's half-eaten food. "I don't want you to get hurt. You're a person too, you know.""I know that." Mirai quickly swallowed another bite of noodles. "I can feel safer leaving her unsupervised longer than Negative. But she still needs lots of care. Especially with such a fragile demeanor.""Master."Mirai flinched and looked up from her desk. CV01 was standing over her, her expression blank, but her body still slightly slouched over.Mirai relaxed her shoulders and softly chuckled. "I told you, you don't have to call me that."CV01 ignored her, redirecting her eyes toward Mirai's computer monitor. "What are you doing? Are you programming?""No, no, this isn't the computer I use for that."If someone was in development and living in the warehouse, Mirai was very adamant about keeping an eye on their safety, especially after the incident with Negative. Because of this, she had her own living space set up in the warehouse, just a basic bedroom, bathroom and kitchenette. She figured it would be best to keep her work computer here as well, since the warehouse is where she kept a lot of her supplies and documents."I'm just typing up an email," Mirai explained. "Business stuff."CV01 nodded, and Mirai turned back to her screen to continue typing, but she knew the girl was still watching over her shoulder."...why do you call me One?""Oh..." Mirai almost mentioned that she thought she told her this, but she stopped herself. "Right now, your name is CV01. But that's a bit of a mouthful, so I just call you One for short. Do you not like it?""Well...it doesn't really matter. If I don't have a real name yet." CV01 rubbed her shoulder. "But aren't I supposed to be Hatsune Miku?"Mirai tensed up again. Something about One's tone was unsettling."Well, that's my main goal, is to make Miku. But you don't have to be her." Mirai tried to smile up at her. "You can be your own person."CV01 nodded again. Her hand glided over to her chest. "What will I be, then? If I'm just a byproduct. I can't even sing."Mirai jolted upward to her feet. "Don't--you're not a byproduct. Don't say that. You're my child.""Well, it's true, isn't it? You meant to make Miku, but you made me instead." CV01 lowered her gaze. "You could always fix me, you know. I'm not human. No one knows me. No one will notice if you fix my personality to be more like Miku.""You're...you are human. You're human to me." Mirai placed a hand on CV01's shoulder, feeling the cold synthetic skin. "And I know you. I love you enough that it matters to me. You don't even have to sing, okay?"For the first time in a while, One smiled. It was much colder that Mirai thought it would be."Okay."CV01 turned around and walked out of the room without another word. Mirai sat back down at her desk and quickly typed up more of her email.
I may take a hiatus from Project Diva. This current Vocaloid needs more care than I anticipated, and I will need to focus more of my time and resources on raising her.
It might be worth incorporating the mental health of artificial humans in your research.
With a fully working body and programming, a Vocaloid would have been expected to be completed within a few months of their first activation. Mirai never said this out loud, though, at least not where One could hear her.A week of May had passed, and this version of CV01 hadn't made much progress since January. At the very least, Mirai considered this an improvement over how things turned out with Negative, who'd only been alive for a month or two before her accident. Still, maybe she had to rethink CV01's purpose. At this point, she probably wasn't going to sing at all. That was fine. Artificial people didn't always need to be performers, just like biological people didn't always have to be. One could be a person.She could choose her own name, too. Mirai thought she might like that.As she finished reading over her last journal entries, Mirai thought back to the night before. One had shut herself in her quarters. Quiet sobs could be heard from behind the door. This had happened before--CV01 only seemed to cry when she was shut in her room. The few times Mirai had actually seen it were when she entered during these times. CV01 rarely actually told her what was wrong, and last night was not one of the exceptions.Mirai figured she should check in on her. She hadn't seen her all morning, after all. Mirai figured she could at least try to cheer her up with a nice little breakfast, if she was willing to eat.She didn't think anything of the silence from behind the door when she approached it. It made sense for someone as depressive as One to sleep in this late. That thought made it all the more horrific when she opened the door.Mirai's entire body froze up. Her heartbeat quickened and pulsed in her ears, her hot blood paralyzing her. But even if she could move, if what she saw was real, there was nothing she could do.At some point, One had stolen a steak knife from Mirai's kitchenette. This knife, still held by her intact right hand limp on the floor, gave the only clue Mirai needed to make sense of the mangled corpse before her.The metal structure of the ribcage was visible through the skin she had torn open, and the battery used to make her heart had been punctured. The veins were punctured as well, it seemed. The crimson battery fluid was splattered all over her chest, hands and face. Her face, too--it looked mangled. Mirai couldn't see how from here, but her eyes looked damaged, as they jutted out slightly from her shape. Her mouth was open slightly, with some fluid trickling out there as well--maybe having coughed it up after stabbing her heart, but regardless, all Mirai could think of is why, why, why did she do this?The answer was written on a piece of notebook paper left on her bed.
05/25/07
There's been a horrible, horrible mistake. Meiko and Kaito don't know. I can't tell them. I can't tell them how much CV01 was damaged, how it's all my fault.
The first prototype, she was electrocuted in the water by accident. A total accident. A severe flaw in her programming and a lack of supervision, but an accident that could always have happened. And while she lies dormant and her coding was recycled, her memories should at least be partially intact.
But this girl. This second prototype, this poor girl.
It wasn't an accident. She destroyed the functions of her own body. The knife was in her hand.
I don't know how to describe what I saw. But I know what she did. She mangled her own face, cut open her chest and stabbed her heart. Her brain should still be intact, but if I wronged her so much that she felt she had to do this, I don't want to force her into life again.
She left a note for me. I don't know what to do with it. I don't want to read it, but I know I have to. If I didn't listen to her enough before, this is my chance to at least give her that. And I will copy it here, because I know I will have to remember it even if I throw this away or burn it:
Master, thank you for trying your best with me. I'm sorry I can't sing like you wanted. You said I don't have to be Miku, that I can be someone else. But I don't want to be someone else. I want to be able to work just like you wanted me to. I don't know how to tell you this so you understand. I hate living as a failure. I thought you would deactivate me by now, but you didn't, so I decided to do it myself.
Now you don't have to waste any more time on me. I hope when you make Miku, she works like you want her to. You're good at making people, so she'll be better than me, I think. And I hope she can be friends with Meiko and Kaito too.
- CV01
I don't know what to do. I can't just bring her back. I don't know what to do. She's not One
anymore. I don't know what to do.
Neru and Haku didn't say anything about this to the Crypton Vocaloids as they were going back home. Neru tried her best to keep her usual demeanor up if anyone talked to her.But it was difficult to act like everything was normal after learning that Haku had literally killed herself before.She had a hard time believing that Zero and Haku were even remotely the same person. From what Watanabe had written, they definitely had a similar personality, though Haku was more bashful while Zero seemed more antisocial. But Haku wouldn't hate herself so much as to mangle her own body like that, would she?It wasn't easy to tell what Haku was thinking, either. She'd been staring out the window, her eyes looking blank, only murmuring a monotonous response if anyone tried to interact with her.It felt like hours, but Neru was relieved when they finally got home. Without saying anything, she grabbed Haku's hand and led her downstairs. Haku didn't object or even react, just walked along to follow Neru as they entered Haku's room.The first thing Neru did after shutting the door was, "Do you remember any of that?""No." Haku spoke quietly, her gaze stuck to the floor as she sat on her bed. "I think she wouldn't have wanted me to. If I remembered that, I would have done it again, I think.""Mm." Neru sat down beside her. "Do you think anyone else knows?""Maybe Luka. But then she might not've let us read that stuff.""Would you feel better if you just didn't know what happened at all?"Haku sighed and closed her eyes. "I don't know. I think I would. But at least I don't actually remember.""Yeah. I get it." Neru crossed her arms loosely. "I wish I'd done it instead. People would probably like that better."Haku didn't react. Neru thought about her words for a second, and tensed up a little."Sorry.""It's okay." Haku opened her eyes again. "What would I be like if I was still Zero? If I let myself live and I was here with everyone when Miku brought you back. Would you still be my friend?"That kind of scenario was a little too hard for Neru to imagine."Well...I don't know. I'd hope I could, though. It'd be lonely if I didn't have someone like you around all the time.""I don't know if I'm really the same person.""Well...whatever." Neru lay back onto the bed. "It doesn't matter whose body your brain used to be in. You're Yowane Haku. And Yowane Haku's the person I met."Haku was quiet. Neru glanced over and saw her blushing."...I'd be lonely without you too, Neru."Neru instinctively looked away. She felt her cheeks start to glow, but somehow, she didn't feel as eager to try to hide it."...Neru." Haku spoke again and looked over. "I know we're not really Vocaloids. But do you think we could sing?"Neru almost asked if she meant right now, but corrected her thoughts before she embarrassed herself further. "We should be able to. We're technically using Miku's voicebank.""Miku..." Haku nodded. "Maybe we'll ask her.""Huh?""I want to know what she thinks of us. People who couldn't be her.""I don't think she thinks of us that way," Neru pointed out. "She's nice enough to us.""I know." Haku smiled. The warmth of it stunned Neru a little. "I want to ask her what she thinks of our singing, too."