Part I. The boy who never speaks.
Len Kagamine is an average boy.
He doesn't stand out, he doesn't talk much, and most of the time he can be seen on the corner of the room reading a book. He's your typical loner and from primary to middle school, no one really bothered him. (Something he is more than fine with.)
His grades are mostly average.
He's not bad at gym class but he's not good at it either.
His looks are mostly so-so. Not ugly, not the ikemen type either.
Or at least that's what people can deduce with that thick glasses he choose to wear ever since he fucked up his eyesight by reading too much in fifth grade. Not to mention his hair which he doesn't bother to tie which falls just above his shoulder and covers nearly half of his eyes.
All in all, Len Kagamine is just an average boy.
Nobody likes him but nobody hates him either. He's just there and that goes well both for him and everyone around him.
See, Len likes his life.
When he sits on the corner of the room and puts his headphones on and opens his book, he's content.
Sure his high school life (pretty much his life, to be honest) is painted in gray and he sees everything in gray—not literally, of course—but it's more than fine because he's at peace.
Len Kagamine believes that the more human interaction he have, the more trouble he's going to be in. He's been an observer all his life and what he had seen on the sideline didn't appeal to him that much.
During preschool, he witnessed these two kids proclaim they're going to be each other's prince and princess forever. Only for them to stop talking the moment they reached first grade.
Then on primary school, he witnessed this tightly knit group slowly drift apart and move on to new friends by the time sixth grade came in.
And in middle school, the same thing happened over and over again. Boy meets girl, they grew closer, then they stopped talking once they had enough of each other's company. Group meets another, they become friends, but eventually breaks up upon realizing their differences.
To him, he'd rather avoid everyone and die alone than be with someone who will eventually leave him for someone new.
It might be a cowardly and rather pessimistic outlook in life but he's dead set on finishing what he had started. And beside, he's not entirely lonely.
He might be average on most levels but if there's something he truly excels in, it's his imaginative mind and his ability to transform his imaginations into words.
In fact, the light novel he wrote has already sold hundreds of thousands of copies and is currently at the top 5 light novels of the year. His editor has even informed him that a big animation studio is interested in turning it into an anime, something he's really excited about. Additionally, he's also good at online games and mostly spends his time playing in his room.
He doesn't have any problem interacting with people ingame because to him, so long that they don't know each other IRL, it's fine. And it's not like interacting in game requires long sentences. His replies are mostly one liner and none of his party or guild members seems to mind.
Bottom line is: Len Kagamine is an average boy who sees everything in gray and is fine with it.
Rin Kagami on the other hand is nowhere near average.
Len knows because he's known her since they were six.
Her family moved in to the house next to his and from the first time he had seen her, he made up his mind to stay as far away from her as possible. He just knew then that getting involve with someone like her was nothing but trouble. Sure, he was only six then but it wasn't hard to follow his gut feeling.
And sure enough he was right.
For the most part, at least.
She's loud, she always stands out, she talks a lot, excels in both academic and sports and she's beautiful. Not to mention, she have many friends and most of them are popular kids, which also make her one by default. She never fails to make heads turn whenever she walks by and to Len's gray world, she's way too colorful that it's almost nauseating.
Also, there is just something about her that simply doesn't feel right.
He can't explain how but he just feel some sort of evil aura coming from her. It's faint but he swears it's there which adds up to more reasons why he keeps his distance from her.
Sure, she tried befriending him a couple of times (especially during primary school) but his Evasion skill is way too advance that she eventually gave up.
That's right, getting involve with Rin Kagami is the last thing that he want to do and it'll stay that way until they graduates high school and move on with life.
At least that was the plan.
It happened one afternoon when he choose to write the draft of his new light novel in the school library.
Students were mostly preparing to go to their respective clubs so Len was confident no one was going to see him. As popular of a writer he is, he's not really comfortable telling people that he writes light novels as a hobby. It's a secret and he's dead set on keeping it that way.
Len choose to sit on the furthest table inside the library just so nobody sees him.
The window was open then. He watched as the wind lazily swayed the curtain and carried a few petals from the nearby cherry blossom tree. The atmosphere was perfect; the boy thought and placed his school bag on top of the table and start doing a rough draft.
It was quick for him to get lost in his imagination.
In his mind, his gray colored world started to bleed colors. In his world, the table he's sitting on was made of glass, that instead of blue, the sky was in this beautiful shade of rose pink and there were two suns instead of one, that the buildings were made of red bricks just like the old times, and mythical creatures were roaming free.
The story centers around this boy who couldn't speak.
Len furiously scribbled his idea on the paper and visualized what this boy would look. No one special, he thinks. In fact compared to the other citizen of this mystical land, he's average. It is because of this reason that the boy sought help to find his voice. He hoped that by finding it, he wouldn't be so average anymore, that he'd finally find confidence in befriending anyone without his insecurities getting in his way.
So the boy travelled to the next kingdom and asked the help of a great mage.
When they finally meet, the mage told him that the road to retrieving his voice is not going to be easy. He told him that he's going to face a lot of obstacle that will test him and his faith.
"The mage then ask," Len unknowingly murmurs. "Do you still wish to continue?"
The boy hesitated. There was a chance that he's never going to be coming back if everything goes downhill, or that even if he did, he was never going to be the same. The stakes were high. He haven't even given his parents a proper farewell, and while nobody was really going to miss him aside from them, the idea that he's never going to come back made his heart ache.
Even so, he wanted this.
He wanted to stop being a coward and finally do something about himself. So, while hesitant, he finally told the mage that he'll do it with trembling voice and shaking hand.
Len then leaned back to his chair and reread the initial premise.
It wasn't perfect but that's fine. His editor would help him fix that problem. What he needed to do now was to think of how the heroine was going to look. This was crucial because there were instances that the heroine can break or make the novel. His fans really loved the heroine in his last novel and he wants them to feel the same toward the new one.
Patting his chin with the tip of his mechanical pencil, he started to brainstorm.
How long should her hair be? Long? Nah, maybe he'll give her a short one this time just to contrast his previous heroine. How about her height? The previous one was leaning on the short side but it probably wouldn't hurt to have the new one on the shorter side again. It'd be nice if she's cheerful just so there's a balance between her and the protagonist who was leaning on the gloomy side.
Then what?
Frowing, the boy leaned back to his seat again and crossed his arms on his chest. He gave his draft a look and contemplated what he had written so far.
He could go with this heroine but now he have to think of how they'll meet. He could always go to the simple road where they simply become acquaintances when he asked her for directions. The usual thing and it was less tedious. The problem was, it was kind of boring.
Len might not admit it but he wanted the two to meet in the most unconventional way.
With a sigh, the boy diverted his eyes from the paper to the open window.
The sun was already setting and painted the sky and everything it reached in orange and different shades of yellow. It was definitely a pretty sight, the boy thought then. Len especially liked how the orange mixed in with the pink petals of the cherry blossom near the window. To him it was like a scene out of a fairytale and the boy nearly smiled. Nearly.
With a shrug, his world was once again back to it's gray color as he decided that it's finally time to go home. He would finish the entire draft after he eats his dinner and finishes his homework.
The boy stood up from his seat and was ready to gather his papers when something unexpected happened.
His fingers barely grazed the edge of his drafts when suddenly a huge gush of wind came in from the window. Len watched in horror as the papers started to rise up from the table before flying straight out of the window. It was like time slowed down as he tried to reach out and grab them before it's too late.
He only managed to grab one and he felt his heart pummels when the rest escaped. The boy hurriedly made his way toward the open window and watched as they levitated under the setting sun, somewhat sparkling, and slowly they fell down.
Just as he thought his misfortune was over, he looked down and locked eyes with the last person he wanted to see.
The papers scattered around her and he could see the surprise in her eyes. It was like time stopped as his heart skipped a beat while his drafts surrounded her like snow which fell straight from the sky. As her blue eyes—a color which rapidly bled within his monochromatic world—widened with realization alongside his, Len knew then that his treasured quiet life was most likely to not be the same.
Because if there's one thing he know about Rin Kagami is that once she finds your weakness, she's going to use it to her advantage.
after 8 years I finally did a vocaloid fic.
be proud of me, mom. Lol
© i own nothing. I'm poor.
