*UPDATE 4/13/12*
I wrote this story in, what, December? I don't even remember the date, but now it's April of the next year, and I have decided to go through all of the chapters and edit them heavily.
So anyway, enjoy!
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Defoko.
Literal English translation:
Default.
de·fault. noun
failure to act; inaction or neglect.
failure to meet financial obligations.
Law-failure to perform an act or obligation legally required, especially to appear in court or to plead at a time assigned.
Sports -failure to arrive in time for, participate in, or complete a scheduled match.
lack; want; absence.
Lack.
Want.
Absence.
/
My name is Uta Utane, but for some reason, the Vocaloids (and some of the fans) like to call me Defoko.
Which means Default. I don't like to be called that. At ALL.
To the Vocaloids I am hardly a blip on their radar. Unless I make them mad. My two best friends, Momo Momone and Teto Kasane tell me I have a beautiful voice, that I was wonderful singing Naruku no Hana, that I should continue my singing, and that someday we Utau will all beat Miku and her damned empty headed 'loid lackeys.
I am highly skeptical.
/
"Nothing's working," I said with a scowl as I slammed my pen down. Teto and I were spending the day at our town's recording studio writing songs accompanied by two of Teto's friends- Tei Sukone and Ritsu Namine. I knew Ritsu (we had a love/hate relationship), but I didn't know Tei all that well. All I knew is that she was a bit cray in the head, violent, had a crush on Len Kagamine that I'm pretty sure Miku sang about in 'Rotten Girl, Grotesque Romance (Stalker)", and she HATED Miku.
"You have a pretty nice vocal range, so maybe if you sing that song an octave higher it would sound more natural?" Ritsu suggested with a shrug of his shoulders. Tei nodded in agreement, her red eyes glowing softly. And eerily. Damn, she scared me. And I wonder why Len's too tired to bully me. He probably doesn't sleep, he's so scared she'd rape him or something. "If you sing it this pitch-" Tei breathed in and did a perfect middle C. "-then I think the song would sound much more natural. High voices suit you better, although you did great when you sang that low part in Cantarella," she added for good measure.
Ritsu nodded in agreement just as Tei had done earlier. "When you put your mind to it, you can sound even better than Miku Hatsu-" Ritsu covered his mouth but realized that it was too late, that Hatsune's name had spilled out, that Tei had heard it and was instantly transformed to Yandere mode.
I spaced out when Teto did her best to try and calm down her psychotic friend, and she failed in an epic sort of way. I felt kind of bad for her, having such a high maintenance friend, but then again, she wasn't forced to be friends with them.
Or was she?
Considering Tei, I wasn't sure.
I watched silently as Ritsu, by some miracle, finally got Tei to calm down by giving her a manga to keep her occupied. It said 'Junjou Romantica' on the front cover, and had some idiot with white hair making a scary rape face toward some guy with brown hair who looked considerably younger. Huh.
I gathered my things, since I knew nothing was going to be done tonight, and walked over to the door. "Tomorrow why don't we meet up at HQ to get more work done? If I'm correct, Ruko hasn't produced a song in a while. We could help her so she doesn't fall behind. I'm sure she doesn't want to do another Vocaloid cover," I said, fixing my purple beret, which matched my purple uniform, which matched my purple hair, which matched my purple eyes. Hmmm. Ma~tching.
Ritsu nodded solemly, remembering that almost all the songs he did were originally by Miku or some other Vocaloid. Tei and Teto both grimaced and my face mirrored theirs, because all the songs we did were also by Miku or another Vocaloid.
"Such a waste. We didn't get to record anything. We could have done this at the HQ and not stolen the studio from the Vocaloids, who are most likely pissed that they can't record anything today. I'm sure we have a death note now," Ritsu said, stuffing some papers and junk into his purse, and walked over by the door waiting for Tei.
Tei also collected her bag and met us by the door. "Coming, Teto?" she said expectantly.
"Oh, no, I need to go to the store for some baguettes, so I won't walk with you. See you later, guys!" Teto said with a wave. The three of us shrugged and walked into the hallway.
/
A rule I have always had since Miku declared war on us- completely avoid the Vocaloid household and completely avoid their surrounding neighborhood. If the rule is broken, there are consequences of elephantine proportions.
So today was not the day to make an exception to my rule.
I exited the studio and headed through Hana Park, accompanied by which in my opinion was the world's most beautiful park. But then again, my opinion was rarely highly regarded in these matters. Or… any matter.
The park was in the middle of the town with the Vocaloid HQ and Utau HQ on either side of the town, so going Hana Park wasn't the safest route to get home, but again, the most beautiful. About halfway home, I heard something I didn't want to hear tonight, and I'm sure that Ritsu and Tei were just as pissed to hear it too.
"Well well, if it isn't little Default!"
I could almost hear the smirk in her voice, the little broad. "Konbanwa, Hatsune," I said strained, as Ritsu instantly grabbed Tei's arm so she wouldn't attack the bane of her existence. Of all our existences, really.
I turned around to face said bane-of-existence. I forced a smile, looking the egotistical beast in the face. And sure enough, there was that Miku Hatsune flanked by Gumi Megpoid and Rin Kagamine, who were wearing equally annoying and intimidating smirks on their faces as well.
Behind them I could see Lily, Luka Megurine, SeeU (who were the only Vocaloids I knew that were actually nice to me) with a concerned look on their faces, as if something bad was about to go down (when was there not?), Sonika, Iroha Nekomura, Piko, Len Kagamine, Meiko, and also her brother Kaito.
I'd only heard about him in little detail, but enough to know that the tall male Vocaloid with short blue hair (who was currently nonchalantly eating an ice-cream cone) fit the short description Teto gave me.
I had never seen him before, again, only heard… And I have to admit, Teto's description didn't describe how smokin' hot he was.
But all I needed to do was get out of this park and back at the Utau HQ. "C'mon, let's blow this stand," I muttered to Ritsu, who nodded and followed me (while pulling a yandere Tei who, not only saw her enemy, but her stalker-ee, or victim) while I turned on my heels to start briskly walking back home, but only to have a slightly drunk (or, you know, VERY drunk) Meiko block our paths.
"Where ye think ya goin', 'lil Default?" she snarled. I pretended to ignore her and walk past, only to have my shoulder grabbed by Sonika. "Do you know what all the 'loids have been doing all day while you and freak and psycho-" she gestured to Tei and Ritsu, who both gave little offended gasps, "-and Kasane and have been writing songs at the recording studio?"
I groaned as I remembered that there was only one public recording studio in our town (since it was such a small town, hardly even a town, really, just a collection of shops and houses, I'm surprised we even have one) and the Vocaloids refused to use it if we Utau were in it, so they usually hogged it all for themselves and complained when we got there first.
Reason #2,073 why I loathed Vocaloids.
"C'mon Sonika, let up. We get the studio all the time- it was time for them to get some time," Lily said firmly to Sonika, who scowled and stepped back. Unfortunately, Sonika was not the leader of this group- Hatsune was. And I knew that none of them would let up or leave if Hatsune was still here torturing me.
"That studio better be open for the next two weeks, Default. Iroha needs a new song," she said with another sneer. It was to be expected, really. "B-b-but!" Ritsu spluttered. "Ruko needs a new song even more than Mizki! We have to have the studio for at least one more day! I can't tell Ruko that she'll have to do yet another Vocaloid cover- she'll be devastated! And you have a recording studio in your house! Use that!"
Now it was Gumi's turn to sneer, or "Do a Hatsune", as I used to call it, but it sounds dirty.
"Tough stuff, homo. You must think that you're all that if you think that you can rob the studio yet another day from us. And what's wrong with a Vocaloid song?"
"Yeah," Hatsune added. "You love doing our songs, right, Default?"
I growled at her. "My name is NOT Defoko or Default, Hatsune! It's Uta."
Hatsune tsked and turned to leave. "You better stay away from that studio, you hear me Default?" she said and with that, she and all the 'loids (except for Lily, Luka, and SeeU) exited the park.
"I'm sorry," Lily said solemnly. But I knew she really didn't mean it- she pitied me, which is better than hating me, I guess. "Would you like us to walk you guys home?" Luka said in the same tone Lily used, again, pity. "We're fine," I said forcing a smile.
SeeU walked up to Ritsu and linked arms with him. "This week's the third Friday of the month! You excited, Ri?"
"Ri" smiled and nodded. "Definitely." What was so important about the third Friday of the month? And why were Ritsu and SeeU leaving? And why was Tei chatting it up with Lily and Luka?
"Have a nice night, you guys," I muttered under my breath. And with that, I turned to walk off, leaving the three
/
When I reached the outskirts of Hana Park, I heard footsteps. Goddamn it, was Miku really coming back to fire more insults at me? Call me Default? But instead of a smug tone, I heard an apologetic one. Not like Luka or Lily fake apologetic, but actually apologetic. And instead of a bratty voice, I heard a deep one.
"Hey, I'm real sorry about that. Miku can be a real bonafide bitch sometimes, but the other times she's pretty alright. You should meet her Append, she's practically a saint, you'd love her."
I whipped around, and there was Kaito, smexi blue Vocaloid. He should put that on his business card. KAITO: ICE-CREAM LOVER, AND SMEXI BLUE VOCALOID. "Hey, Defoko, right?" he asked.
I scowled. There was that damned nickname again. "Uta Utane," I said with a growl.
"Alright then, Utane-san," he said. "Sorry I called you Defoko. I'm Kaito Shion."
"Oh, I know."
There was an awkward pause.
"N-n-not that I stalk you or anything like that, I've just heard of you before." I stammered.
Kaito gave me a smile. "Well, it's nice to meet you." And with that he bowed. I bowed back out of sheer politeness.
"Well Shion-san, I really need to get home." I said, then turned to walk away, mentally beating myself up for having a crush on a Vocaloid. And in such a short time, too! Was this one of those stupid 'love at first sight' things that Ruko reads in her books?
I thought about what the other Utau would do if they knew. They'd all possibly kill me, but it seems as though "Ri" is all buddy-buddy with SeeU.
"Oh wait! Let me walk you home," Kaito said. "And you can call me Kaito instead of Shion-san. Can I call you Uta instead of Utane-san?" I looked at him. This was the first time a Vocaloid wanted to call me by my actual name- even Lily and Luka called me Defoko.
"Oh, uh, yeah, sure, whatever," I muttered. We continued to walk, and Kaito started talking about how awesome it is to be a Vocaloid, and I talked about how crappy it was to be an Utau. But somehow, somewhere along the way, we apparently clicked. I ended up walking to my room with Kaito's phone number, a date to go to the movies the next day with him, and my head in cloud nine.
/
Telling Ruko she had to do another cover of a Vocaloid song was a painful job, but she took it surprisingly well. I have to confess that I was too happy to feel bad for my fellow Utau. I had a date with a Vocaloid. Hatsune didn't even have a boyfriend. I knew this for a fact, because if she did, she would be screaming it into the streets. I wondered if I should wear my standard uniform to the date, then decided not to. After about thirty minutes of debating with myself on what to wear, I finally settled for a plain white blouse, my signature purple tie, my favorite black denim mini-skirt, purple leggings, and my black dress shoes. I wore my beret, because I didn't think I was Uta without my beret. I silently slipped out of HQ to not be caught on the way to my date with Kaito.
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Only reviews telling me to continue the story will make me do so. So review people! Review! I can also do this story from the viewpoint of another Vocaloid (for example, if you want to see what Tei is doing or Miku or Rin or Teto then I can add a chapter where they're talking. I take requests!
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