Chapter I

Of Projects and Storybooks

Written by A Rock (aka. Shyion's Brother. AN for more info.)

Sitting comfortably? Good enough lighting? Alright then. Now, let's begin our little tale.


In some place, at some time…

A young man was being carried by two large, burly men, one holding each of his arms as they took him through a catacomb of buildings. His body was limp, his feet dragging on the ground as his unkempt blond hair covered most of his face, his soul crushed even as his hands formed fists with knuckles of white.

Finally the three reached a single building, its intimidating brick walls rising high as three men dressed in complete black stood by its iron doors, rifles held firmly in hand.

"The Commandant said to toss this tramp in with the rest of them." One of the two men said to the three standing at attention. The three looked at each other very briefly, before nodding as one ushered them in.

The first room they entered was relatively small and cramped, the discarded clothes folded into neat piles on one side of the room. Suitcases, handbags, personal effects were also stacked alongside them as the tiles glistened with malignant intent. But the blond didn't care about all of that; instead letting himself be pulled onwards through a large metal door.

Roughly, he was tossed in as he landed on all fours, wincing slightly in pain before looking back again at the two men.

"I don't know why the hell he let you get off so easily, but rest assured that you're still going to end up like all the rest of them!" One of his escorts jeered at him as they began closing the doors, hundreds of people already within the room, completely naked, watched them.

He turned around to look at the doors closing, before his eyes suddenly opened, realisation dawning upon him.

"No!' He shouted finally before leaping forward at the last moment. But he was too late, the doors shutting close with a metallic clang as he pounded the door with his fist.

"Damnit! No! It can't end like this, you fucking assholes! Just one more time! Can't you just let me talk to her one more time!" He shouted and screamed in rage as he continued hammering the door, but to no avail.

After a few moments his movements weakened and his hammering stopped as he slouched against the metal doors, staring into the dark room, waiting for the inevitable to happen.

It came duly, silently.

A whiff of almond permeated through the air as people, ignoring the smell, looked at each other in confusion at the lack of water from the shower heads.

Suddenly from the crowd, a scream erupted as a man in the far corner convulsed in pain, clutching his chest as he toppled over. Very soon, dozens were soon to join him. Men, women, children, the elderly, all began to convulse in pain as a silent killer wafted through the air. And the man, was no exception even as he spied something within the deepening darkness.

"Mmm…There's so many torn and missing pages in this fossil of a book…Oh well, we'll just have to leave that bit alone then…"

The blond sat up slowly as he leaned against a wall to support himself, his free hand grasping his throat tightly, moving it slowly down to his chest, above his heart. His nails dug into flesh, blood flowing down and staining his striped fatigues, his breathing weakening with every breath he took.

'Am I going to die here?' he asked himself as tears flowed from his eyes as the burning pain within his chest grew, spreading throughout his body. 'I can't breathe…My chest burns like an inferno… God, am I truly going to die here, in this darkness? Please…'

He looked up towards the black roof of this small hut, even as many others around him began falling to the ground.

"Please...All I…wanted to know…What…" He whimpered with his last few breaths.

Then, his shadowed figure too began falling to the ground, colliding with a weak thump as a small ball of paper rolled out of his hands.

"Was Your…Name…"

Then, as his last breath left him, he closed his eyes as his body ceased to move.

The shuffling of papers can be heard in the library as high shelves stacked with books upon books could be seen everywhere.

Somewhere within the library, a young blonde girl sat, a large pile of opened books dropped beside her in a rush. Yet for some reason her rush had been stalled, as she flicked through the pages of a single, tattered and aged book she held in her hands, her eyes glued to the pages that were available.

In some place, at some time…

A young woman laid in bed, the clean smell of the white hospital surrounding her as she breathed shallowly, her eyes closed. Accompanying her breaths, was the soft, constant buzzing of an electrocardiograph, the humungous machine etching out peaks and lines in time to her heartbeats.

'I can't move…' she whispered in her mind, amidst a myriad of changing and morphing images and words passing through the black abyss she saw in her mind's eye.

'How long have I been like this…I can't walk at all anymore…I can't speak clearly at all anymore…I can't see nor hear properly…I can't eat properly either, I can't…move anything at all…I can't, even…even think clearly…"

"…But yet…you're still there, despite everything…'

Through the abyss, she saw a young blond man standing, his back turned to her. Even amidst the chaos that was clouding her mind, that figure still rang true and clear even after so long.

Her hand reached out…

'Why…can't I move it…' She thought, as she saw her hands were bound tightly by a black ghostly mist by her side. "Even here…I can't move properly either…"

As she tried to move her hands, fighting against the mist, the chaos within her mind suddenly cleared, exposing a scene she both dreaded to remember, yet yearned for.

"Grah, it's missing here too…Meh, skip again~…"

"I shouldn't have pretended to be strong…" She whispered, her pure, weak voice reverberating throughout the room.

"Dear..." A man said, looking up suddenly from a chair on the opposite side of the room.

His eyes were clouded, deep dark bags forming beneath them, behind his hard cold spectacles.

He stood up, walking over to the bedside as his face was contorted with both worry and false hope as he saw the trail of tears leaking from her eyes, staining the white pillow.

"When I said goodbye to you…I shouldn't have done it…" She continued, heedless of the man. "I shouldn't have pretended to be strong…I'm sorry…Sorry…I still…I still want to see you again…again…Just one more time…"

A brief rustle of paper could be heard as a small paper plane fell out of the girl's hands onto the floor, the soft crunch sounding like a bombshell to the man.

But he kept quiet at this, watching the plane there on the ground for a few more moments before turning around and smashing the wall with his fist, the small vase containing a yellow rose rattling gently on the tabletop next to the bed. He gritted his teeth as his blond hair drew over his own face, tears of his own trickling down his pale skin.

"Mmm…" The girl moaned as her cloudy eyes opened slightly to look around, finally aware of the man who then immediately responded to her.

"Yes, sweetheart…" He said clearly as he knelt down by the bedside. He watched her mouth form incoherent words, even so knowing what she wanted and knowing how wrong things have gone.

Silently, he picked up the fallen plane from the ground, guiding it back to her hand as he clasped it firmly, but gently, within his own two large hands.

"Go to him, my dear…I'm sorry, for everything." He spoke finally, as he released his grip, smiling sadly.

Her eyes slowly opened wider as she felt it, her hand slowly enclosing around the plane, gently so as not to crush it, but firmly as if it meant the world to her.

Slowly, the girl's mouth turned upwards, a smile that he never thought he would see again, a sight that brought even more tears to his eyes even as he knelt firmly by her side, watching her closely.

"Thank you…" She whispered as her eyes closed, her mouth still smiling, her final word mouthed only as she finally lost the strength to speak, her last breath leaving her as the electrocardiograph went flat, its constant, mechanical buzzing unheeding of the moment.

He knew it was flat. He didn't even have to look.

It was a few more moments as he stared at her now lifeless, smiling face, before he buried his own in his hands, kneeling by the bedside, as he let himself cry, his convulsed, pitiful sobs rebounding everywhere in the lonely room.

"Hey…" A voice asked.

The girl continued to read intently, her eyes fixated onto the book.

"HEY!" The voice again shouted. "RIN! CLASSES ARE STARTING IN 15 MINUTES!"

"Yargh!" She exclaimed in surprise as her body turned, her hands hiding the book behind her back as if it were her personal diary. "Ah, Len! Don't do that!"

"Ah shut up." He dug his ear with his right pinky, his left hand on his hip as he watched his twin on the floor.

He was dressed in his trademark knee-length pants and white sailor T-shirt, a loose yellow necktie hanging limply from his neck as he looked at her with his blue eyes.

"Nothing else was working. Now come on, classes are starting soon and we're gonna be late if you don't start moving!"

"Ugh, again?" She moaned. "We just had classes…"

She in turn was dressed in her trademark shorts and sailor top, the yellow bow around her neck identical to the white one resting atop her head.

"An hour ago." He filled in the blank exasperated. "What the hell have you been doing anyway? You just rushed off after the last class like your life depended on it!"

"Erm, well…" She turned around too look at the pile of books behind her, each half opened and dumped onto the floor and each other, some pages folding onto themselves.

"History books?" He looked between the pile and her sceptically, before his eyes widened and he began nodding his head in understanding. "You haven't finished that essay you?"

She blinked several times as she watched him, the book still behind her back before looking away.

"How much have you done anyway?" She asked him back immediately.

"Oh, well, about seven-eighths or so?" He said, shaking his flat hand in front of him.

She kept quiet, knowing that she had nothing else to say before her eyes widened as she grinned.

"Leeennnn…" She said as she turned to him, still smiling.

"…I know what you're thinking." He said, sighing before turning away. "Nope, nope and nope. You're doing that essay yourself, I ain't gonna waste my time writing yours up for you."

"Aww, come on!" She moaned, pulling a face at him behind his back. "At least just give me a few pointers and stuff to start off with!"

"Grah, fine then." He said, turning around with his hands on his hips. "You won't stop pestering me to help you later anyway..."

"And then it'd end up me writing it for you by the end of it too." He whispered under his breath.

"Yeah!" She shouted, ignoring his last words as she punched the air enthusiastically.

"I'll help you when we get back home; we still have one more class to go to and you still need to pack up all those." He nodded at the books by her. "You're also going to have a hard time explaining to the librarian about all those creases you made…"

"Shaddup! Just help me!" She was already working through the pile of books beside her, folding the pages flat somewhat and stuffing them in a random order into the shelf.

"Ugh…" Len sighed again before coming over, apparently used to this behaviour as he helped his sister put the books back.

"What about this one though?" He asked her as he finished his section, holding up the book that she was reading before, his line of books stacked neatly and in order. He began to flip through the pages, seeing a large number of pages in varying states of disrepair. "…You didn't…" He gasped as his eyes widened, seeing how badly the book was damaged.

"No, no no!" She shouted, shaking her head as she grabbed the book from him. "I wanna borrow that…and it was like this when I found it."

He looked at her quizzically; how can something that badly damaged help her out at all, before rolling his eyes and standing up. "Meh, whatever, let's get going, we're gonna be late." He got up, the girl quickly doing the same, before they walked out of the library, to their next class.

"And that concludes today's lesson." The teacher said, smiling as he closed the book with a firm thud, surveying the class as they immediately brought out their bags and moved to pack.

"Ugh, I'm exhausted…" Rin slumped onto the table, her hands falling straight down off the desk.

"Pfft, you're a real piece of work you know that?" Len commented dryly as he collected his books. "Come on, we gotta get back and sort out that essay of yours.

"Can we wait a moment?" She pleaded, looking up at him from the desk. "I don't think my brain can handle walking right now…"

"Ugh." He slapped his forehead as he looked at her.

"Everything alright, Len?" A voice asked him from behind.

The boy turned to see the man who had addressed him, smiling as he did so.

"Ah, no, its nothing, Hiyama-sensei." He said, looking at their teacher.

He was dressed in a simple black suit, a blue tie completing his figure as his brown eyes watched them behind spectacles, partially obscured by his equally brown hair.

"Heh, I'll assume it's just Rin being Rin then." He said, smiling back at the boy.

"We all know how she is." A nonchalant voice commented behind the girl.

"Still working on your phone I see, Neru." The man said, turning around slightly to look at the source of the voice.

The blonde girl was busy typing into her phone, her long hair pulled into a ponytail hanging off behind her chair as the beeps continued, her trademark sleeveless grey shirt accompanied by a loose yellow tie and frilled miniskirt.

"Hey, I am here you know!" She shouted, pouting at the two from the desk.

"Anyway, enough about that." Kiyoteru said, still smiling as he turned to Rin. "Might I ask as to what you were doing, staring down at your lap for half of my lesson?" He asked her innocently, still smiling.

"Ah! Er…" She jumped slightly, twisting her body away from them so as to completely hide it.

"Come on, hand it over." He said softly, holding out his hand to her even as he continued to smile.

"Ugh…" She turned around in defeat, holding out the book she had borrowed from the library in both hands to her teacher.

"Hmm, this is interesting…" He said as he picked the book from her hands, studying it carefully as he read the book's title. "I never thought I'd see this guy again…"

"Ah, that was…" Rin began explaining, before she realised what he said. "…What?"

"I remember reading this book back in my days as a student…" He commented as he ran his hand over the spine and the cover. "It was a very good story, despite the fact that none of it really happened, it was based on lots of facts." He blinked once, before turning to her again. "This is as research for that essay your history teacher set you, right?"

"Ah, um, er…Yeah! That's right!" She said, brightening. "I found it in the library today and thought it was very interesting, so I thought that it'd help me out."

"Hmm…" he waved the book in front of his face as he scanned through the pages, noting their condition. "Well, judging by the condition of the pages, you won't be able to get too much out of this copy. How much do you know about the Second World War, anyway?"

"Um…Ah…" She muttered, racking her brain for any information that she could bring up, her teacher sighing as he saw her fluster.

"How about you, Neru?" He asked, hoping for a better answer from the other girl behind them.

"Well, I was gonna look up some stuff tonight when I get back…" She said, her eyes still on her phone as she replied.

"Mmm…And how about you, Len?" He asked, not completely satisfied as he turned to the boy.

"Well I have almost finished that essay already so, I'd say I know enough." He said confidently.

"Well, that's reassuring at least." He nodded, smiling. "But do you know anything about what they called the 'Holocaust'?" He asked again.

The twins kept silent at this, the word evidently completely foreign to them as they looked at each other, then at their teacher, shaking their heads as they did so.

"Mmm, not too surprised." He said, holding the book in his hands as he leant back onto a desk. "It's one of those more, inconvenient parts, of history that not everyone wishes were true." He took a brief while to formulate his words carefully.

"Well, our history teacher is a bit of a slacker at least to say." Rin said openly.

"Why is that so special though?" Len asked. "I thought history was written by people there at the time, so something like that shouldn't be so special."

"Frankly speaking, not many people survived the Holocaust." Their teacher said, his eyes gazing sadly at the book. "This book you picked out is both a very interesting read, and full of information as well. Too bad it's in such bad shape; I think both of you'll like it very much." He turned over to Rin, smiling before he continued.

"And I'm quite sure your history teacher'll be quite impressed to see you can write an essay about it as well."

At the mention of that, the full attention of the three was upon him. A good story that can help in an essay? Now that was something unique alright. Even Neru had her interest piqued, the beeps of her phone slowing down as she overheard the conversation.

"Hiyama-sensei…" Rin began, smiling. "Would you mind telling us the story then?"

"Yeah, since the book looks like it's missing half of its contents anyway." Len commented, leaning on his own desk in anticipation as Neru behind them nodded her consent, her attention still fixed mostly on her phone.

"Mmm, well it's been a long time, but I think I can remember most of the details." The man said, sitting down on the chair next to him. "It'll take a while for me to finish up the entire story though." He turned around to look at the class, almost empty already. "If you do have anything you need to do, I suggest I tell you this story some other time."

"No, no, it's fine!" Rin said, shaking her head as she gave her consent, worried that she wouldn't get anything done for the essay. And eager to hear what the rest of the story had to say.

"Yeah, I should be fine with that, I guess." Len said, sitting down on the desk in preparation, Neru nodding her head behind them.

"Ok then…" Kiyoteru began as he opened up the tattered book, reading through the remnants of the first page quickly to refresh his memory.

"Let's begin, in the Summer of 1943…"

I should probably mention that I am Shyion's brother; I'm abusing her third of the account cause I'm too lazy to make my own. Propper introduction will come later. 8D

Hmmm...I'll put up a proper introduction for myself in some other, later chapter but for now, legal stuffs first.

As per usual, the disclaimer for Vocaloid fanfics in general:

I DO NOT OWN VOCALOID NOR ANY OTHER ASSOCIATED PROGRAMS; THAT PLEASURE IS RESTRICTED TO YAMAHA & CRYPTON FUTURE MEDIA. AND NOW SONY AS WELL.

Now, what Kiyoteru has missed out before reading the book to his students, is ANOTHER disclaimer which was unfortunately not present in the copy that they have. HOWEVER, I do have another copy of the disclaimer, which is as follows:

This story uses various incidents, events and places of World War II to construct a story purely for reading pleasure. Hence, the names of several places, and dates of events, will be mentioned throughout the course of this story, but the mention of any names or descriptions that resemble any real-life characters are purely coincidental. While it is based on many incidents commonly held as being true, no event within this story has actually taken place in the real world as described. There will however, be hints at other real events that have, had, or are taking place that are outside of this story's scope.

The two disclaimers above will be mentioned HERE, and NOWHERE ELSE within the story to save space for my other ramblings that I'm sure you'd all want to hear 8D.

And yes, I know I did miss their birthday by 1 day, but better late than never right?

28/12/2010