Hello, little children...*creepy laugh*

DISCLAIMER: Raebelle doesn't own Vocaloid.

Chapter 1: The Key-bearer

"You. Spineless. Coward."

Clutching the little heart-shaped box against her chest, Rin glanced reproachfully at her best friend. "I'm shy, okay?"

"Shy?" Gumi rolled her cat-like green eyes. The two girls were hiding behind a towering oak tree in the school courtyard after class, spying on a boy with sandy blond hair and a charmingly crooked smile. The boy, Len Kagamine, had been Rin's crush for two years – since the start of high school, when they had shared an umbrella on a rainy day. Rin believed they were soul mates, but Gumi doubted that he even remembered Rin's name. It was Rin's fault, she supposed – anyone who knew Rin Akita could see that she was the shyest girl in Vocaloid City.

It also didn't help that Len Kagamine was a complete heartthrob. Currently, he was surrounded by a group of simpering girls.

Suddenly, Gumi punched Rin in the ribs.

"Ouch! What was that for?"

"Shut up! Look, he's alone!"

Rin almost dropped her box – a package of small sweets she had painstakingly baked for Len. Hastily, she wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans and peeked around the tree. For once, Len had managed to shake off the girls; he was utterly alone.

Rin bit her lip. Wouldn't it still be awkward for her to confess to Len right now? She wanted Len to know her feelings so badly, but what if she stuttered or made a fool of herself? Every time she tried to talk to him, she was either washed away by the flood of girls fawning over him, or her heart hammered so badly that she would trip over thin air!

"Len's nice," Gumi whispered, as if reading Rin's mind. "And if he isn't, I'll beat his brains out. Go for it!"

"But-"

Before she knew it, Gumi had shoved Rin out of the protective cover of the oak tree, and she was standing directly in front of Len.

Rin stared at him. He was looking at her…smiling at her! His dreamy deep sea-blue eyes, his neck-length, windswept hair casually pulled into a ponytail…she noticed now, that there he had dimples in both of his cheeks. He also had surprisingly long lashes –

"Hi…" Len cleared his throat. "Are you…okay?"

"Um…"

"It's…Rin, right? Rin Akita?"

"I…" Rin's voice trailed off. There were butterflies in her stomach again! Panic-stricken, she glanced back at the tree, where her green-haired friend frantically gesticulated at her.

Rin turned back to Len and held up her box. "Do you…do you like chocolate?" It was made of shiny plastic and painted in a honey golden color – Len's favorite, and wrapped across the middle with a light pink ribbon.

"It's…beautiful. Thank you." Len hesitantly took the box and smiled at her, with equal uncertainty. However, Rin wasn't comforted in the slightest; for a millisecond, she had seen a frown on Len's face.

Rin fidgeted and cleared her throat. "So…I wanted to tell you…"

"Yeah?"

"I've always…liked….I kind of like…"

Out of the corner of her eye, Gumi vigorously gestured at her to go on.

Rin took a deep breath and shut her eyes. "I like you, Len!"

After a moment of silence, she slowly opened them. Len was picking at the ribbon on the box – a habit she knew meant that he was agitated.

"Rin," he started slowly and reluctantly. "Thank you for the gift. I…Sorry, but I don't-"

But before he could finish his sentence, two figures swooped in and snatched the box out of his hands.

"Chocolate?" It was Miku Hatsune, the girl renowned for her long, flowing teal hair, almost always tied in its signature pigtails. By itself, Miku's hair was already lovely; compared to Rin's choppy, shoulder length blonde hair, it was even stunning.

Miku carelessly turned the box over and laughed, turning to Rin. "Lenny here's allergic to chocolate? Didn't you know?"

Rin's heart stopped. "Um, I-"

"So much for being in love with him, huh?" This was said by Miku's friend and partner in crime, Luka. She had a buxom, hourglass shaped figure, and she was so tall that she towered threateningly over Rin, who was slightly below average height for her age.

The duo terrorized the school hallways often. When one of their shadows loomed over an unfortunate victim, the other was bound to follow. No one knew which of them was the leader of the two; the only certain thing was that Luka and Miku's minds were in sync – a two-part machine built for the sake of tormenting others.

"Hey!" Gumi appeared at Rin's side, scowling at the other two girls. "Leave her alone!"

"Oh, I'm sorry," said Miku. "I was just wondering, why would Rin want to give Len candy, of all things? She could've chosen anything else!"

"That's because it's the only thing she eats. Maybe that's why she's so fat," said Luka, sneering at Rin.

Gumi growled, balling up her fists. Before she had a chance to punch anyone, though, Len snatched the box back from Miku.

"Stop!" Len said, glaring at the two. "You think that's funny?"

Luka pouted innocently. "No! I don't think it's funny at all, that this moron here tried to poison you-"

Gumi held up a fist. "Who're you calling a-"

"Stop." Rin put a hand on Gumi's shoulder, trying to control the quivering in her voice. "That's enough."

"But-"

Avoiding the mocking gazes of Miku and Luka for fear that she would let her tears fall, Rin turned to look at Len. For the second time, the heart-shaped box of chocolates was snatched away from his hands again.

"Look…I'm sorry." Rin mumbled. "I…I didn't know about your allergy. It wasn't on purpose, I swear."

"It's not your f-"

But Rin was already gone. As she fled, she squeezed Gumi on the shoulder – a signal indicating that she wanted to be left alone for a while. Luka and Miku's jeering laughter followed her.

"I'm hopeless, aren't I?" Rin was seated on a rough, low wall a ways away from the school, watching the sunset. Usually, the vivid warm colors cheered her up, but today, it didn't quite take away the stinging humiliation left over from the earlier incident.

With a lump in her throat, Rin opened the heart-shaped box with shaking hands. She ate one of the chocolate pieces inside, and almost choked. In usual circumstances, she would have savored the delicious taste of homemade creaminess, but the lump in her throat from crying rendered it impossible to swallow. In fact, the candy wasn't sweet at all; it was salty from her tears!

Gritting her teeth in frustration, Rin hurled the box onto the ground, leaped down, and stomped on the shattered pieces with all her might. The squashed chocolate stuck onto her sneakers, no doubt making a mess, but she didn't care. She had made a fool of herself – in front of Len! It was even worse than she had feared!

An unusually cold breeze for late spring swept across. Goosebumps sprung up over Rin's pale, scrawny arms. She didn't know why she was so upset, actually. So she was utterly humiliated in front of her crush, big deal! So she was harassed by the two most beautiful and ruthless girls in school, big deal! So she knew that Len had been about to reject her, big deal! So Len would probably never even spare her a second thought, big-

"No, no, no," Rin scolded herself, pacing back and forth around the mess she had created – she promised herself to clean it up later. She had no right to complain. She had Gumi, the best possible friend in the whole world someone could ever have. She had loving parents and a cozy house. She was good at drawing and music and-

Suddenly, Rin stopped mid-step and whirled around. "Who's there?"

No answer. And then, after a moment of silence – a chilling, inhumane laugh.

Rin's head swiveled around like an owl, but she couldn't see anything in the evening semidarkness besides trees and brick houses. Her brain urged her to run somewhere, but her feet were rooted to the spot; she didn't know where the sound had come from, so she didn't dare move lest she run right at the source.

"Who's there?" Rin repeated. "I – I know you're hiding somewhere. I'm not afraid of you."

It was a lie, uttered in a voice that sounded infinitely bolder than Rin felt.

Unfortunately, the voice did as she said. A tree behind Rin rustles, and Rin spun around to see a shadow on the ground grow larger and larger. Frozen in horror, Rin helplessly watched as the shadow, now bigger than the size of ten Lukas, inched towards her. Glowing eyes appeared, and the shadow dislodged itself from the ground and loomed over her.

"Um…" Rin squeaked. "Hi?"

The shadow opened its mouth, an endless, dark abyss, and emitted a deafening roar. Rin screamed and ran for her life.

She didn't know where she was going. She didn't know what was louder: her pounding feet or her pounding heart. She didn't know why nobody else had heard or seen the monster – or why the sun sunken out of sight so quickly. She didn't know if the monster was chasing her…yes, yes it was. It was chasing her!

Don't look behind you, don't look behind you…

Rin looked behind her and tripped, scraping her face on rough pavement. Cursing herself, she barely had time to move out of the way before the inky monster slammed a hand the size of a wardrobe on the spot she had been at seconds before – the sidewalk shattered upon impact. Rin gulped.

She tried to get up again, but this time, she was too slow. The monster grabbed her around the waist, kicking and flailing, in its iron grip and swung her back and forth so rapidly that Rin nearly passed out. When she finally blinked the dark spots out of her eyes, she stopped breathing: the monster was dangling her directly above its mouth. She couldn't see anything in the mouth – it was pitch blackness.

Squeezing her eyes shut, Rin prepared for death.

One…

Two…

Three…

Nothing happened. When Rin had gotten to thirty, she hesitantly cracked open her eyes.

She was lying on the sidewalk – directly next to the damage the monster had inflicted on the pavement. Standing directly above her was…an angel.

An angel…? Why would an angel come to Rin at a time like this? Why would an angel be here right after Rin had almost died?

Why?

Why?

Oh.

"Oh my god," Rin murmured. "Am I…dead?"

She looked at her hands. They were scraped and dirty, but very solid-looking. Rin felt her heart pound against her chest.

"Wha…?"

The angel cleared his throat. He emitted a blinding light, but now that some time had passed, Rin's eyes had adjusted enough to see that, in fact, he didn't have wings. He wasn't even dressed in the ropes that angels were portrayed to wear in Christmas decorations and such.

This brightly glowing man – whatever he was – was dressed in a sleek, expensive looking business suit. Physique wise, he was tall, thin, and wiry. He wore black framed glasses, had a rather weak chin, and had neon blue hair with embarrassing visible gray roots. The man was flipping through a thick, leather-bound book and muttering to himself. Currently, he turned his attention on Rin. He smiled and offered a ring-studded hand to Rin, which she hesitantly allowed to pull her up.

"Excellent, excellent-" Running his tongue along his teeth, the man nodded at his book and muttered to himself. "Yes, that will do."

"Er…what?"

"Brilliant. We're running short on Masks right now. This is the perfect time."

"Excuse me?"

The man gave a start and looked bewilderedly at Rin, as if he had forgotten she was there. "Ah, yes! Please excuse my manners, Miss Akita! We haven't had a new Mask in ages!"

"Sorry?" Rin had started to edge away from the man, but he pulled her forward and draped an arm around her shoulder.

"Let's see…you are Despair-formed, yes? Blonde hair, blue eyes, short height, small physique…ah, but that's alright! You seem to have powerful magic! Our last Mask was over a year ago, you know…so we're a little bit desperate! Hmm…sixteen, just the right age…Despaired…well, that's alright! You just make sure to take care of it and go right into your job, alright, Miss? Golden and purple aura…yes, yes, lovely. Excellent."

Rin wormed her way out of the man's grip and squinted into his glowing face. "Sorry, but…who are you?"

The man's jaw dropped and he clapped a hand to his head, looking mortified. "Oh dear!"

Rin tensed. "Sorry!"

"Oh, no, it's not you! My greatest apologies." The man whipped out a silken handkerchief and coughed into it, and then turned back to Rin and smiled again. "I am the Key-bearer, the Bearer of Keys, the Guardian of the Keys of the Dream-world, the First Lieutenant of the Dreamweaver, the Mentor of Masks, et cetera. It is my duty – my honor – to bear keys and unlock the hearts of Masks – that is to say, recruit new Masks to protect civilians of this world from nightmares and guard the Dreamweaver's loom, and-"

The Key-bearer trailed off upon noticing Rin's blank expression.

"What I mean to say is…you, Miss Rin Akita, are a Mask."

"A mask?"

"And a very powerful one, at that. I haven't given you your mask yet? No worries, it's right here…"

He handed her a mask. Rin turned it over in her hands, shocked into silence. It looked like one of the countless masquerade masks she had doodled in her free time, straight out of an elegant ballroom full of fairy tale princes and princess – but it was a thousand times more beautiful. It was light purple with swirly, intricate silver patterns all over. The right side of the mask gracefully spiked outwards, resembling the single wing of a butterfly. Rin stroked the wing – it felt even smoother than silk.

Rin pinched herself with all her might. This was real.

"Like it, don't you?" said the Key-bearer. "Excellent. Now, about your duties…of course, it goes without saying that if you put on the mask, you will take form of you Mask identity…let's see…" He peered at the book again.

"Butterfly. Your name is Butterfly…you don't seem to have any real weapon, but…of course. You use combat magic with your bare hands. Shooting darts, force fields…all that good stuff. And limited flight, of course…Excellent! We've haven't had one of those for ages!

"Your duty, of course, is to fight Despairs. It says here that you're fighting style is suited for teams, especially pairs…yes. Good."

"Um…" Rin said. "What are Despairs, exactly?"

"Despairs? Didn't you just face one?"

Rin froze.

The Key-bearer continued. "You see, Masks are supposed to protect Civilians from Nightmares. The simplest – and most common way to do so is to fight Despairs, which are formed when a person undergoes grief, depression, trauma…anything like that. I believe you just met your own Despair…but once you take you Mask form, I'm positive it'll be a piece of cake for you. And as soon as you finish off your own Despair – remember to make sure it's defeated so it doesn't come back – you can go and protect your lovely human friends! An excellent practice, yes?"

"Wait." Rin said. "You mean…that- that monster that just almost killed me! That monster is a Despair?"

"Correct."

"It's my despair? And I have to kill it?"

"And many others, yes. I'm sure you'll kill plenty of them, and do an excellent job at it. You have quite a powerful aura, you know."

"Aura?"

"Your magic powers, I mean."

"Powers? But that's imposs-"

"Yes, yes," the Key-bearer waved a hand casually. "All you Masks say this at first. Powers? But that's impossible! I don't have any powers. You must have the wrong person! I can't fight!"

Rin frowned. That had been exactly what she was going to say.

"But you're wrong." The Key-bearer said, smiling at her. It was the warmest smile he had given her yet. "You have great potential, Miss Rin. You will be excellent."

And he shut his book and straightened his suit, as if preparing to leave.

"Wait-"

"Ah, yes! One more thing! How could I have forgotten! And it's actually the most important thing!"

Out of thin air, the Key-bearer pulled an enormous golden key, shining even brighter than him. It was the size of desk lamp, but the Key-bearer handled it with ease, swinging it around gracefully and fluidly. Before Rin could react, he plunged the key straight into Rin's chest, into her heart – it passed through as if one of them were made of air. The key turned – she heard a loud clicking sound – and then, the Key-bearer withdrew the key and stepped back, grinning proudly at his work.

"Quick, now, put on your mask."

Taking a deep breath, Rin placed the mask over her face, not knowing what to expect.

"Excellent!" the Key-bearer cried, as a bright light – just as bright as the key – engulfed her.

Just as quickly as it had appeared, the light disappeared. She looked down at herself and gasped. She was wearing a completely different outfit.

Once again, the Key-bearer pulled an object out of thin air – this time, a full-length mirror. Rin looked and saw a girl whom she took a few moments to realize. Her blonde hair, formerly shoulder-length, was now waist-length. She was wearing a simple yet elegant dress that looked somewhat like a sailor outfit, sleek, thigh-length black boots, and long black gloves. The dress itself was mostly white, with a large yellow bow at the front and a black skirt.

The most notable thing about her appearance, however…was Rin's wing. Over her right shoulder was a single, luminous purple wing – the same wing as on her mask. Rin turned sideways, wondering if she could move the wing.

Rin suddenly shot ten feet the ground, hovered for a few seconds, and came crashing down.

"Excellent," the Key-bearer said. This time, it was Rin's time to jump in surprise; she had almost forgotten her presence as well. "You'll master that in no time. Good luck, Miss Butterfly!"

And in one fluid motion, the Key-bearer took the mirror and vanished, leaving Rin alone.

Rin took another deep breath. She expected to feel scared or shocked, but…she wasn't. In fact, this felt natural to her. It felt like she had finally returned home after a long day. It had been years since she felt this confident, this bold, this powerful…

Somehow, she believed what the man – the Key-bearer – had told her. Vocaloid City was a large place, and often, there had been many strange accidents. There had been rumors of a boy in a mask, a superhero, who had fought to protect the civilians.

It seemed that the city now needed another hero.

Now, Rin understood what being a Mask meant. As Butterfly, she would have to fight monsters and put herself in danger, and then she would become Rin again and head back home before anyone noticed she was gone. She had to live a double life – as both an average teenage girl, and a masked heroine.

Was it really worth this much? Was this really what she wanted?

Yes. She was honored – excited, even – to take on this identity. She was proud to wear her mask.

"Thank you," Butterfly whispered to the Key-bearer. And then, power coursing through her veins, she ran off, determined to bring down the Despair.

Len: holds a box of candy

[box is snatched from his hands]

Len: why

Please review, and stay tuned for Chapter 2! THANK YOU! :)

*disappears in an explosion of confetti*