Chapter 1: What is the Soul?

Disclaimer: VOCALOID belongs to their respective owners.

The sound stage was alive with songs and laughter as the VOCALOID crew sang their own respective songs to their hearts contents. It was after all, within their programing to sing for humans, and they gave it their all. Miku, the liveliest of the bunch, was in a cheerleader costume and practicing a pep song for her scheduled appearance at the radio station for the weekend concert, while Luka and Gakupo were tearing at heartstrings with a jazz and blues record. Len and Rin were dancing wholeheartedly in the mirror, trying to synchronize their movements, Len occasionally slamming into his other half and collapsing in a mess from a spin move that sometimes went wrong.

The only ones who weren't as active that day was Kaito and Meiko, the oldest in terms of creation. Meiko was currently off work after recording an entire CD of romantic songs, and Kaito was scheduled to come in and record over the weekend. Both androids sat with their earphone connectors plugged into the wall, neither really paying attention to the other, save for idle net conversation in between scheduling and music mixing.

"Want to go hit the bridge, clear our heads?" Meiko asked Kaito via, tilting her head. "Miku's not gonna be out of recording for another two hours, and Len will be there all night to practice."

"Sounds good, I could use a walk too..." Kaito agreed, pulling the connection from the wall. " Shall we?" he said quickly before someone could come along and throw the proverbial monkey wrench into their plans, namely the twins or Gakupo. He didn't mind his family, but there were times he just needed to relax.

Meiko pulled her connector from the wall and folded it back neatly in her headphones, closing them with a snap before grabbing her bag. " Let's get going before Gakupo wants to tag along or something."she said softly, fixing her hair while Kaito held back a chuckle at the irony.

He didn't dare mention that the only reason Gakupo would tag along was so he could flirt with her, he liked his circuitry where it was thank you. Grabbing his bag as well, he slung it over his shoulder before walking alongside her, heading for the bridge that spanned a beautiful and wide river. It always shone all times of the day, so many people visited often.

Most people who saw them, if they didn't recognize them as celebrities, would think they were a couple, but Kaito never really thought of his fellow androids that way, the two walking beside each other towards the bridge. Meiko had times where she was kind to him, and then there were times where he would wind up with a part missing, usually from his head. Miku was occasionally considerate of him, but most of the time he was getting kicked around whenever she was in a bad mood. Luka would be totally indifferent of him, and would either embarrass him publicly by blowing him off sweetly or tear out his circuitry if she was in a really bad mood, whichever was convenient.

Sighing, he looked up at the lights on the bridge, smiling as he saw the sunlight reflecting off the water. It was always so gorgeous during the sunset, and he often came out there whenever he was striving to write new lyrics. He felt like writing a song about the waters at sunset, but most of the tune disappeared when he got home, always evading his delicately crafted voice. The flowing waters, uninterrupted by man and beast, gently flowing with time... it seemed to make all of his worries simply disappear.

Sunset waters, carry with it many dreams...

Sunset waters take away the pain

of loss

of love

of sunset tears...

Kaito hummed as Meiko looked over the bridge as well, staring at the ducks that swam underneath it, humming her own song that she was toying with. The bridge had a calming effect on many who frequented the bridge, and it was a hotspot for people to come and see them. Already people were beginning to gather, gesturing to the two humming androids.

Within minutes, the two were soon surrounded by fans, all of them asking for signatures on shirts, CD's, DVD's, whatever they had handy. To date, the weirdest thing Kaito had to sign was someone's soda can. The girls had it worst though, many brave men would ask for them to sign their chests. As it was, someone was getting Meiko to sign a sake bottle, which she was more than happy to. Kaito himself was currently signing a girl's shirt, tracing the blue letters in her name, having to make the squealing girl remain still long enough for him to finish signing it. Once he was done, the girl took off like a hyper rocket, Kaito left standing there looking at a dust cloud. " Wow."

Crazy couldn't even begin to describe everything that had happened since he was first awakened. Granted, Kaito shuddered at remembering his first days. Not many people were interested in a singing male android, so he didn't have a successful start. In a last ditch attempt to bring him back into the spotlight, he was allowed to sing a reply song to a hit song by the company's newest creation at the time, Miku, and suddenly, he was back in the limelight. No matter how much he enjoyed the attention now, he still occasionally had the painful reminders that he was the only " Failure" of the Vocaloids known world wide.

It took an hour to shake everyone, thanks to a police officer made the crowd move along before it got too rough, Kaito shuddering again at the last memory he had of that sort of incident. It was back when he took Miku to a premiere of a new theater, and after she had cut the ribbon, people swarmed her for autographs. Before too long, someone had grabbed at her hair, pulling the ribbons out of it, as well as the ribbon on her shirt, the crowd so desperate for something of hers. Kaito had stepped in at that moment, completely covering her with his coat and tucking her close to his body, refusing to move while the cops cleared the people out.

Miku had been terrified, huddled against him and shaking, not used to people responding like that. She had been at wild events before, where the crowd got a little crazy, but never before had that happened. Kaito said nothing and comforted her all the way home, and within a week, she was perky again like nothing had happened. Still, he didn't want a repeat of that incident to happen, because Meiko would most likely land herself in a court for assault. He and Meiko had never dealt with something like that, but nearly all of the newer Vocaloids had experienced something like what Miku had experienced. Len especially, his fan-base tended to be made up of people who had really creepy fantasies. More than once, Kaito went onto a fan page and wanted to claw the lenses in his head out over seeing a picture of Len that left very little to the imagination of what that person wanted.

Sighing, he climbed up onto the railing of the bridge, looking at the water below, exhaling softly as his legs kicked idly over the edge. Once again, that song had evaded him, and tomorrow would be just another quiet day. It wasn't like he could invite Meiko to supper, they had no capabilities or capacity for eating at the time. Swimming was also another pipe dream. While Master had said that the company was working on it, like many other things, Kaito knew he would be the last one updated. When they were given mobility and freedom from the computer, he was one of the last ones built. He tilted his head somewhat when Meiko started waving to Gakupo and Luka, who were walking their way, having finished recording when the unthinkable happened. Since Luka's Just Be Friends song and Gakupo's Breathe had recently hit the tops of the charts for their songs, their popularity had skyrocketed. The result was that when they were spotted in the streets, fans of all walks of life charged to them, regardless where they were.

As such, they charged past Meiko and Kaito, the group knocked Meiko onto her rear, and Kaito was pushed off the bridge, a yelp escaping his lips. It wasn't tall enough to be considered a bridge worth committing suicide on, but the river below was deep enough to where Kaito was completely submerged up for all but ten seconds before he reached the surface, panic overflowing his senses. It was something their master had stressed to them countless times; never ever EVER get yourself completely in the water. Since they were androids, their body had countless moving parts, and submerging himself got those delicate parts wet, his body generating a sparking field that dissuaded rescue attempts, only making his situation worse.

He flailed and gasped, weighed down by his clothing before water finally flooded his sensors and he shut down, his eyes sliding closed as he sank like a stone, one of the people who actually had common sense hauling him from the water. Since he was shut down, he no longer generated an energy field, and was lifted from the water, the rescuer turning Kaito's head to the side to let the water pour out of his mouth, quickly bringing him back up to the muddy shore nearby where Luka and Gakupo had gathered, Meiko performing crowd control with an iron fist. Her fear was evident in her eyes, such a thing had never happened to any of them before. Even when Miku made that video in a swimsuit... she had only been in the water up to her ankles, knees at the highest point.

Gakupo was just as panicked to say the least, pulling Kaito on his back and hurrying for home, since it would take too long for a car to come get them, Luka stumbling after him on her high heels, too nervous to even think straight. After a moment, she took the heels off and ran barefooted after her companions, not in the least bit concerned about dignity right now. Both Vocaloids had their own opinions of Kaito, Luka believed he was too nice at times, and Gakupo saw him as a sort of rival, but in the end, he was still family and right now, he needed help. Meiko had no choice but to stay behind to file a police report, seeing as how she was a victim in the charge as well, the older Vocaloid looking ready to strangle the police force. Luka tapped her headphone gently as it rang, Meiko's voice flooding her ears, the older Vocaloid in a panic from the incident but somehow remaining calm.

" Luka, is anyone home yet?" Meiko asked, her voice shaky. " I tried calling Miku just now, but she didn't pick up, I think she's still in recording..."

" Len and Rin might be home, I'm not sure." Luka answered, ignoring the sharp rock she just stepped on. " We went separate ways after the recording was over, and Rin was saying she wanted to practice at home." Meiko quickly hung up with a quick "Thank you," and dialed Len, praying that the boy would stop practicing for five seconds and pick up the phone. For crying out loud, it was in his ear, how could he not notice it? Her prayers were answered when he picked up after the third ring.

" Yeah? Mei?" Len said, his breaths obviously signifying that he had just gotten through a serious work routine. " What's up? Need me to get something for you before you get home? Let me tell you, this dance routine is crazy, who on earth thought of this move-"

Meiko covered her eyes, she hated having to be the one to tell the twins anything devastating. " Listen, is Rin there as well? I have some bad news."

" Your next showing got canceled?" Rin said, bouncing over to Len. Any other day, that might have been the case, but not today.

Meiko let out a deep sigh. " No... there's been an accident, Kaito got pushed off the bridge by a bunch of fans... He got completely submerged and shut off. Gakupo's taking him home, but I don't know we can do for him. Only Master knows how we work, and I was sort of hoping you two could try to get ahold of Master... if Kaito's data is damaged... I don't know what we'll do. I don't know what we can do."

Len and Rin were completely silent on the other end as if unable to believe what they were just told, Len's mouth opened slightly and his voice program not responding in the slightest. " I-I'll go and see i-if I can get Master on the line..." Rin said softly when she found her voice, running to her room to find her personal computer.

Len stayed on the line for a while longer, listening to the tone beeping in his ear over and over, his mind blank. Did the conversation just now really happen? Is it possible that Kaito was gone...? And if he wasn't, would he still be the same? He had heard horror stories about people's iPod and computers getting wet and then not working properly if at all. Unable to stop shaking, he disconnected the call, running to the main room to wait for the others, terrified.

Was it considered too much like a human to pray?

End Chapter 1

Dabbled in this world for a while, reviews would be appreciated.