The digital clock on the night stand flashed in red numbers "3:17". Its way too early, so why is Leon awake now? He soon remembered why once he heard his wife Lola sobbing on the other side of the bed. Leon his eyes, why of all times? He knows once he is awaken in the middle of the night it's hard for him to go back to sleep. But since he is a caring husband, he crawled to the other side to check what's wrong and hugged her.
"What's the matter babe?" The sleepiness was still present in Leon's voice.
Lola turned around, her face was scrunched up and red her mascara ran down her face which mixed with the other makeup on her face. It kinda looked liked she was melting. Why can't people cry beautiful like in the movies Leon thought?
"I-I'm still thinking about what Kaito said earlier.." Lola trailed off into more sobbing. Leon realized if she's still in makeup then she hasn't gone to bed all this time. He was so exhausted from the Christmas party Big Al and Sweet Ann was hosting that he didn't pay attention to her.
"Why Leon? Why are we going into retirement?! I know our software is dated but can't we be updated like Meiko and Kaito?! We're so close to our 10 year anniversary! Why now?! Why us?!"
Leon tried to console his wife by answering her questions but she was just ranting and crying all over the place. He really hated to see his wife like this usually she's upbeat and full of "genki" as Meiko would say. He just wishes he hadn't told her what Zero-G said and let the retirement just happen.
A few hours ago everything was just perfect. All the Vocaloid and UTAUloids attended Big Al and Sweet Ann's party (except for Gakupo because he and Big Al are having affair and everyone knows and Sweet Ann kinda suspects something between them since they always hang out together. So not to make things awkward, Gakupo didn't go.) Throughout the Christmas Party everyone was having a great time., Miriam was teaching the young Vocaloid children how to sing Chirstmas carols, Seeu gave everyone circle lens from Korea, but they just made everyone's anime eyes even bigger so they decided not to wear them. VY2 Yuuma asked Neru to dance and for the the first time ever, someone was able to pull her away from her phone. And Aoki and Meruri used their magic to create red and green snow outside.
Everything was perfect, but it all ended suddenly when Kaito pulled Leon aside from the festivities to talk. Leon never saw kaito look so serious in a long time, it worried him, but his suspicion was answered once Kaito told him Zero-G's plan on retiring Leon, Lola, and Miriam.
"Leon, what's going to happen to us? " Lola pleaded. "Are we not going to be recognized as Voloids? Will we banned from singing?...will we dies?"
The look on Lola's face when she asked that made Leon feel weak. He wanted to make her feel better, but the same questions she was asking were going through his mind. He didn't understand life outside of being a Vocaloid but he didn't want death to be an option. A Vocaloid lives as a harbinger of salvation by using their voices whether it's making music with a producer or singing live for avid fans. Their sales went down for the past few years so maybe they do touch as many hearts and maybe they didn't touch as many hearts and maybe they do deserve to be classified as Vocaloid failures. But Leon knew that he and his wife did touch hearts and they did put their hearts into everything they sang, not only that, but they were pioneers for other vocaloids to come and spreading of the vocaloid fandom around the world. So maybe it's not that they failed, but their work is done. Who knows what's going to happen to them after New Years day, but what Leon knows for now is to hold his wife tightly and her know it will be alright.