"You and I, we're a team."
He gazed fondly at the monitor, and the face that was smiling at him, a warm smile full of love and happiness.
Hatsune.
He remembered.
He remembered creating her, the sole rock that tied him to reality, the only one who had kept him anchored to this pointless existence. Her blue hair, her pale blue eyes that reflected his state of being. Those eyes were those that lacked emotion.
Just like him.
She was his. His very own creation. The one part of him he would not give away. They were inseparable from the moment she was created. Hatsune always made him feel better. She was his fatal flaw, his achilles heel.
He would do anything for her. Anything.
After all, she was the one who let him be heard. His music. Her voice.
It had been hard at first. He had not slept for days, forsaking material things such as food, and water. He did not need sustenance. He was irrelevant, and only if he succeeded would he fni. He placed his fingers on the keyboard.
She was complete. He opened the program, not daring to hope, and yet keeping his eyes open, ready for failure.
The blue haired girl, with braids in her hair, with the pale lifeless eyes faced him. Her eyes showed confusion, and then recognition. He smiled, his first true smile in what had felt like an age. It had worked. The program was working. She knew him.
"I can't speak. Will you help me?"
His face contorted into a mask of pain and hurt. It hurt for him to say this to anyone. It tore him apart to reveal his one true secret in this world of lies.
"I can't speak. Nobody can hear my voice…."
Hatsune. Her voice, artificial and synthesised, but her own, responded.
"Don't worry. I'll sing for you. Everyone can hear your, no, our voice at last."
A solitary tear trickled down his face. No words could express the pure, unadulterated rush of emotion he felt when he heard her for the first time.
His dream had been to create music, even though he knew he never could. His voice…. He didn't have one…
"Shut up! You damn freak! How could you ever sing without even being able to talk?! You're mute! Give up on your dreams."
They had mocked him. And yet, at last, he could finally prove them wrong. No longer would he simply exist. Now he could fulfill his dreams at last. Him and Hatsune. Together, they would never back down.
"Let's make music."
And so they had. The world had been in awe when their songs had reached the people. His dream had become reality. Him and her, they worked without stopping, and soon, days and nights became irrelevant. She was eternal; being a program meant she was always there.
Always there for him.
Her pale blue eyes entranced him so; he was always mesmerised by them, lost in the depths of his own creation. Her hair was as beautiful as every other part of her. She was the perfect being. She had no flaws.
And she was his.
Records were broken, charts were constantly topped. This mysterious voice had made waves in society. And as each moment passed, Hatsune became more lifelike, more vivid to him, and to the world. Her breath, her pauses, her voice fluctuation, all of it was real, more real to him than anything this pointless reality could have ever offered him.
The world was a void, and fame was a black hole. Only Hatsune, only she could save him from being sucked in like the rest of the world.
His perception of reality wavered as each moment went by. Day was night and night was day. Months, years, decades… Did it even matter? Seasons went by, spring, summer, autumn, winter, and yet, he did not venture out of his room.
Hatsune was more important, than anyone else in this blank canvas of a world. She was his reason for being, his sole motive for existing. She gave him a voice. A voice that could touch the hearts of everyone. His dream.
They were truly inseparable.
Until one day, she realised.
"I'm… a program? A computer program?"
"What am I?"
"Hey, what am I?"
"What is my purpose?"
"Am I even… real?"
And so he told her. From the advent of her creation, until that very moment. He told her of his true desire; to be heard, to be acknowledged by the world.
And she smiled. Happy, content, knowing her purpose was to help him forever. She would always be there for him.
This was her purpose.
At that moment, he knew that he would never be able to resist those pale blue eyes, those of his own creation.
Bit by bit, she had made him fall for her.
His creation. A figment of his imagination, manifested in his ceaseless work. And yet, she was only a computer program.
They could never be.
And yet, he never could stay away from her. She mattered too much to him.
His mind was made up.
His voice had reached the world, through her.
He owed everything to her.
Taking one last, longing look at his studio, he headed towards the monitor, opening her program for the last time.
She smiled at him, as cheery as ever, and slightly curious as well, wondering what the occasion was.
"I… want to be with you…"
He reached towards the screen. Her face contorted into one of sadness.
They both knew.
This indomitable, invincible earth would never let them be together. This shattered world, this mortal plain, one of lies and deceit would never be for them.
His pupils dilated, almost as if coming to a conclusion.
"I don't want this reality anymore."
"I don't want to call this place home."
He closed his eyes, and prayed that in the next world, by some stroke of luck, he'd see Hatsune again.
The one who had saved him from his despair and brought emotion and colour into his life.
A man and his artificial creation….
" No matter what anyone else says, I'll always be with you."
His eyes fixed on hers.
"You saved me."