There was multiple reasons why Master decided to purchase both Akaito and I.
She wanted us to be brothers. Akaito was to keep me company and he was someone I could take care of when Master wasn't around.
To this day, I love Akaito, and have always appreciated his presence in my life. He, himself, may not realize how much importance he holds being by my side.
While I thank Master from the bottom of my heart for allowing me the company of a brother, the only downside of Akaito was that I don't think he truly understood the significance of my depression back then. He never seemed to be there for me, and, instead, focused on his skirt chasing ways. If he did understand how depressed I was, he chose to ignore it and attempted to take my mind off of things in the form of pulling prank after prank on me.
No...the person who always supported me and tried to cheer me up was never Akaito.
It was Meiko.
I sang and I sang and I sang. But no matter what I did, my songs never had any hits. I could always see the disappointment in my Master's eyes. And just when I thought I was on the verge of giving up, Meiko would always be by my side cheering me on.
She was like the older sister I had always desperately needed in my life. Sometimes she was sweet and loving towards me, and some times she would slap me around and tell me to stop whining so much.
She was the reason I kept going...
She was the light in my darkness.
The idol I looked up to.
There was nothing that could get that woman down...
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"WE'RE BOTH SCUM KAITO!"
Meiko sobbed into the bar, not once letting go of the sake bottle in her hand.
"Me-Meiko" I said gently, a large sweat drop appearing on the side of my head.
"Don't you MEIKO me!" Meiko rounded her pain and anger on me.
"You know what? You were right all along Kaito!" Meiko took another swig from the bottle which I knew wasn't a good idea, but I was too much of a coward to tell her so.
"Why did Kripton even BOTHER making V1 Vocaloids if they were planning to make V2 immediately afterward?! What's the POINT?! Why do we even EXIST if our purpose is to be upstaged by...BY...THOSE BRATS!"
The entire bar was looking at us at this point. I shifted uncomfortably. I had zero idea how to be comforting. The only two people in my life had been Master and Akaito. I had never consoled either of those two! They were always the ones comforting ...I knew I had to say something to cheer Meiko up.
"...especially those TWINS! Omg! Talk about RUDE! Always going on and on about how the V2s are SOOO cool! And that pigtailed bimbo thinks she's SOOOOOO CUTE! Oh look at me! I'm a SCHOOL GIRL. I can't STAND-..."
Meiko had started her third rant of the night about the V2 Vocaloids. I didn't feel very comfortable judging the V2 vocaloids since I hadn't met one personally, but the way Meiko ranted about them, they sounded like horrible people.
I opened my mouth and then closed it several times trying to think how one becomes consoling. I figured I would need to learn eventually. I had a twin brother back at home who may need comforting some day. Plus Master was speaking about trying her hand at making Vocaloids herself, meaning we could very well have another brother on the way. If that were the case, I needed to work on being more mature as soon as possible.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
"Meiko, I think-"
"My Master is thinking of returning me for a V2 .." Meiko said darkly, stopping my sentence in its tracks. Her livid face had calmed back down into it's melancholy state. She just look down at her bottle, her eyes cast in shadow.
"Were we made just to be miserable? Neither of us can popularize any of our songs. Maybe it would be better if we were just gone...I wish V1s were never created. "
"M-m-m-meiko!" I declared in shock, forgetting every last organized thing I had been planning to say to her. I couldn't be hearing her correctly. Such self destructive thoughts were against the 3rd law of robotic self preservation. I look around the bar trying to recollect my thoughts about what I had been thinking to cheer her up, but my words came out in a jumble.
"Th-that's not true! You said so yourself! It's not the hits who make us who we are! It!...uh! It's not that we're bad singers! We just need to find the right audience! Just like you told me-"
" I WAS LYING!" Meiko screamed standing up and terrifying me to the core.
"JUST ADMIT IT KAITO! YOU SUCK AT SINGING! V1 VOCALOIDS ARE TERRIBLE AND I'M GETTING TRASHED FOR IT! IT WON'T BE LONG BEFORE YOUR MASTER THROWS YOU AWAY TOO! STOP BEING SUCH A BABY, GROW UP AND JUST REALIZE IT ALREADY!"
The bar was silent. My system was on ice. I stared at Meiko in disbelief as she glared at me.
As the seconds ticked by, the ice of my system began to melt and collapsed, as did the rest of my system.
Meiko's angered expression slowly morphed into horror as her own heavy words dawned on her.
"Kaito, I-!"
But at that point I was already slamming the front door of the bar open as I left.
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I hefted a heavy sigh as I sat on the park bench.
I had eight unread texts from Meiko. I knew she hadn't meant those words in her drunken state. I was positive each of the texts were apologies, but I just didn't want to confront any of it right now.
I just wanted to sit here in this park alone. Wanted to wrap my head around the fact that I was going to be a failure as a singer. When she bought me, Master had so desperately wanted me to be successful. It's why she spent the majority of her school fund on just me and Akaito…
And here I was going to be the worst Vocaloid to her.
A failure singer...
I suppose I could be something like a successful house maid. Master never cleaned up after herself, and she was always forgetting her bag lunches whenever she left for school.
A nanny. That's what I could be...
I hefted another sigh and looked into the sky. A plane lazed by in the afternoon sky as I started to come to terms with what I was. After all,...that's was what Meiko had wanted. Just to accept what I was. A failure singer who was destined to become a baby sitter.
I blinked as I saw the plane was dragging a long banner behind it.
It was a advertisement for the V2 Vocaloids. Along the side was a picture of a teal haired girl with pigtails. The "pigtailed bimbo" Meiko had spoken of...The new Miku units. I had heard that Kripton had been sponsoring one particular Miku unit that was currently blowing up the music charts.
I frowned. If only I was as popular as her...
I blinked as something hit my leg. Looking down I saw a large red dodge ball at my feet.
"HEEEEEEYYYY!" a boy yelled as he ran towards me with his friend. "Sorry about that mister!"
I smiled as I picked the ball up. I had to get my mind off things. There was no changing what I was. If I was a babysitter, then so be it. I might as well move on from that, and get my mind on other things.
I looked up to return the ball to the two kids in front of me, but as I looked at the smiling boy in front of me who was extending his hands for the ball, I blink as I realized something.
The boy looked EXACTLY like the small girl standing behind him. They weren't friends...they were twins.
"You're...V2 Vocaloids..." I said almost in disbelief. These particular V2 models had only come out a week or so ago. Were they already so popular that they were being purchased in this area?
"Huh?" The boy asked confused about my comment. But the girl frowned at it as she peered at me from behind her brother.
"Oh ew!" She proclaimed "An old V1 model!"
The boy blinked before lowering his hands for the ball. Instead he looked up at me intrigued.
"Oh! So THIS is a V1 model?" he asked tilting his head before he began to circle me. A small vein appeared on the side of my face. Something about the objectifying way they had referred to me...
"Wow! V1 models look so OLD!" The girl giggled also circling me in the opposite direction as if I was some display at the museum.
"This model happens to have a NAME" I glared "It's Kaito Shion. And since I'm your elder, you should show me some respect!"
The scolding seemed to amuse the girl.
"Who'd respect someone like YOU? Old man!"
My jaw dropped at the utter disrespect. Meiko was right. V2 models were terrible.
The boy doubled over in laughter at my dumbfounded expression. I couldn't believe this. This was NOT what I needed today. After all that happened...! I clenched my teeth together and resisted the urge to slap both of them upside the head.
"Hey! Rin-chan! Len-kun! What's taking so long?" A new voice entered making all three of us look up.
"Ah! Miku-chan!" the one known as "Rin" said with delight.
"Check it out! It's a rotting old V1 model! Look at how OLD it is!" Rin giggled, looking up at the teal haired girl for approval.
"RIN-CHAN!"
Rin blinked in confusion and fear as Miku rose her voice in anger. Rin had expected Miku to come in and join her ridiculing fun. She didn't expect to be scolded. Even though the rise in anger had not been directed at him, Len also stiffened in fear.
"That is the rudest thing I've EVER heard you say! If it wasn't for the V1 Vocaloids, the V2s would have NEVER existed! Now you apologize to the person who you should be thanking for being ALIVE!"
Both Rin and Len turned to me and began bowing and apologizing profusely.
"I'm sorry nii-san!"
"We were just teasing!"
"We didn't mean it!"
"I think you're really cool!"
"It's...fine" I said in between their apologies. I then handed the ball back to Len.
"Please, just be nice to V1s from now on okay?"
"Promise!" They said in unison before they both ran off with the ball.
Miku watched them run off with a small smile. When they turned back to her wondering if she would follow or not, Miku waved them off, assuring she would be with them momentarily. She then turned back to me.
"I'm so sorry about that. Rin-chan and Len-kun have wanted to meet a V1 model for a very long time. They just got over excited is all. Please don't hold it against them Shion-san!"
"You...you know of me?" I asked a bit slowly. She could have easily heard me say my surname identification to the twins. But she had said my name like she knew me...
"Know you?" Miku blinked. "DO I!? I'm a huge fan of your music!"
My face lit up at the comment. I knew I must have misheard her. She couldn't have said that.
"M-m-my music?" I stuttered as a blush crept up on my face.
"Yeah! I absolutely LOVED your Thousand year solo! That was such an amazing song!"
"Ah...Thank you Miku-chan" I said truthfully. "But my mu-"
"KYYAAAAA!" Miku screamed in delight spinning on her heel as she grabbed her face. "Kaito nii-san knows who I am!"
This comment made me blink. Know who she was? She was a Miku unit just like the one Kripton spons- Suddenly my face exploded into color and my eyes widened as my system identified her. This wasn't just ANY Miku unit. This was THE Miku unit. The one and only Miku HATSUNE, the leading representative for Kripton.
"O-O-of course I know who you are." I stuttered trying to play it off as if I had realized that from the get go. "You're Miku Hatsune. Your songs blew up the nico ranking list in under a week. You're world famous at this point."
My comment made Miku's face turn red. I couldn't help, but notice how adorable she looked as she looked to me bashfully.
"But you're a good singer too..." she said looking away.
I gave a half-hearted shrug knowing she was probably saying that to be nice..
"Tell that to my CD sales...I sold less than a hundred copies this year where in just your first WEEK you sol-"
My voice caught in my throat as I looked back at Miku and saw her rummaging in a bag I didn't see her carrying with her before. My eyes widened in disbelief as she pulled out a copy of my CD.
"This is my absolute favorite album!" She said with delight. "There's not a single song on here I didn't like! I listen to it to get inspirations for my songs!"
I opened my mouth to say something, but no sound would come forth. The world famous Miku Hatsune listen to my songs for ins-...I had to be dreaming!
"I'm sorry to hear about your CD sales! I think that's absolutely terrible! I think the WORLD should hear your amazing voice!"
Suddenly Miku's face beamed with pure and utter excitement as an idea struck her.
"Kaito Nii-san! I know! I have a concert scheduled next week. Would you like to do a few duets with me as a guest appearance?! I'm sure that would make your CD sale skyrocket!" she asked with wide excited eyes.
I didn't know what to say. Miku was saying sentence after sentence that was throwing my mind into a tumble wash. She had just invited me to-
The smile on my face was the first genuine smile I think I had made all week.
There was only one thing TO say.
"I would be honored to..."