AN: Hey there, I'm not sure there are many fans out there that have an interest in seeing the vocaloids in an action kind of story, but i just really felt like writing this. For now, I'll only be introducing Len and Rin, but more will be coming in the next chapters.
Hymnia
Chapter 1: Prologue
Modern day Tokyo, a place streaming with busy bodies left and right. It was evening at the time, with adults getting out of work and young folk hanging out with their friends. There was, however, a certain person who wandered though the busy streets alone. With his hands in his pockets, his steps silently patted on the concrete sidewalk. All the lights in Shinjuku glimmered with excitement, but the same couldn't be said for the boy. His blue eyes were lit in anger, and his yellow blond hair swayed with no emotion over the loss of loved one not so long ago.
His memory repeatedly played back a certain moment of complete fright and helplessness. He couldn't do anything to help that person; the only thing he could do was just watch. And every time he remembered it, the more his mood soured.
When his anger had finally reached its peak, his foot unconsciously kicked a littered tin can a good ways back from where it was originally. "why...of all people...why her?" he whispered angrily with a young but soft voice.
He could still remember everything, from the moment it happened, to the moment he was right next to her on her hospital bed, and finally the time when the doctors said there was no hope left, and they give him a short few minutes just to give an unwanted goodbye. At that memory, he gripped a small electronic music box chained to a silver lace around his neck.
At that moment, a feeling of uneasiness suddenly hit him like a stray bullet and sent a chill down his spine. When he stopped daydreaming to check his surroundings, the first thing he noticed was a floor of fog just around his feet, and the next was that all the lights had shut abruptly and that all the people had disappeared.
"What the?" He muttered with alert eyes, setting up a readied stance for whatever could happen. After a few seconds, he decided to check his phone to see that there was no signal whatsoever. The only useful thing then was its clock that displayed '7:00' sharp.
"Tch...figures" he said, still in confusion about the current situation.
And just when he was about to start walking around, three ominous figures appeared in front of him in a snap. they looked somewhat like hound dogs, but had some kind of writing all over their bodies. The fact that their teeth were grinding at the sight of the boy made him all the more cautious.
"E-Easy doggie..." he gulped, desperately trying to tell himself to run, but his feet were shaking too much to even do that. During a class lecture he'd learned that dogs are much faster than humans, and that lesson didn't quite lean to his advantage. Even when the dogs had finally started dashing towards the boy with a killer intent, all he could do was put his arms up in a defensive stance and close his eyes...
A loud noise was heard, but he didn't feel anything, which was odd because he thought he would've been dinner by then. When his eyes slowly opened, he saw another person standing right in front of him, and not so far from that person, one of the hounds was fading away on the ground. Looking back at the one who'd saved him, he noticed it was a girl about the same age as him. She also had blond hair and the same blue eyes.
When another hound leaped at them, the girl raised her right hand forward, shooting thin yellow strings from a ring on each finger. With one sway of her hand, the strings sliced the hound into pieces. From the right, another hound quickly approached, but the teenage girl gave the dog a strong roundhouse before chopping it with razor sharp strings.
Still in shock, all the boy could do was stare at the person in front of him before she turned around and greeted him with a small smile.
"You looked like you needed help" She said to the speechless boy, who finally managed to pull himself together.
"What...were those things...but more importantly what the hell's going on? I remember walking in Shinjuku just a minute ago"
"Well...we're still actually in Shinjuku, but at the same time we're not"
"...Care to explain because I'm not following on what you're saying" The boy fired back, slightly confused and slightly annoyed because of that confusion.
"Hmm, it'll be easier to explain once we get out of here. For now, just follow me"
Although she seemed like a normal girl in every possible angle, everything else seemed down right suspicious, from the scenery that looked nothing like normal down to the hounds that almost made minced meat out of the boy.
"And why should I trust you in the first place?" He ended up saying, which only made the girl grin.
"You could stay here and hope that no more dogs will try to eat you"
From that statement alone, the boy felt like he couldn't say anything else to fight back. She had a good point, and as much as he hated leaving his life in the hands of an innocent looking teenage girl with strings that could chop anything at the snap of a finger, he didn't have much of a choice.
"I can tell you're convinced now" The girl said, staring at the boy's twitching eyebrow. "Oh, I haven't even introduced myself yet. My name's Rin...Rin Kesaki. What's yours?"
The boy hesitated for a bit, but eventually gave in. "...Len...Len Sagawa"
As the two walked through the dark filled streets of 'Shinjuku', Len's curiosity only grew. "Hey...so where are we going anyway? We've been walking for at least ten minutes but all I can see are empty roads, empty buildings, and an empty Shinjuku"
After analyzing the area a little more, The blond girl turned and faced Len. "I'm looking for a 'pathway' that'll lead us back to the normal Shinjuku. It should be wandering around here somewhere"
"Wandering?" Len repeated. "Why would a pathway be moving aroun-"
Before he could finish, something very colossal in size dove from the dark sky above. Its entrance was enough to shake the streets of Shinjuku for at least four seconds like a short earthquake. The beast looked similar to a rhino, but had pieces of armor on its body as well as the mysterious incriptions.
"See that thing over there?" Rin asked, readying her stance. "That's the gateway"
"Are you serious?!" Len loudly replied. "How're we supposed to use that to get back to Shinjuku?!"
"By beating it of course"
"Crap...this is like an old video game. And how are we supposed to beat that thing? It could probably tear up time square in 30 seconds if it wanted to"
That was a pretty good question. Even Rin seemed to doubt herself a bit. In their current situation, she could think of only one thing to do for the time being.
"We need to run for now. Come on!" She said, grabbing the boy's arm and speeding off. The rhino-like being gave chase, but it fortunately wasn't fast enough to keep track of the escaping teens. With a little running, they soon came across a small shopping center which looked like a good enough spot to hide from any hostility. Len's only concern was...
"Did we have to stop at the bra section..." He asked with a small blush as he looked down to the ground before receiving a good knock on the head, courtesy of Rin.
"Get your head out of the gutter. I need you to focus if we're gonna get this right"
"Get what right?"
"I'm gonna unlock your 'hymnia', which could allow you to fight like I fight. I think that'll even out the odds with the rhino. Now, just close your eyes and try to relax"
Len was still as confused as ever, but it was about time he realized that he needed to take action first, then ask questions later. There were just too many extraordinary things going on for him to even begin to make sense of anything.
The moment he closed his eyes, he suddenly heard a singing voice which was no doubt Rin's voice. It sounded very pleasant and relaxing, but he couldn't understand what she was saying. The lyrics didn't sound like any known language, but something a whole lot different. As she continued to sing that slow paced song, Len began to feel something strange. It felt like a strong power to say the least, and seemed like it was growing with every lyric.
Eventually, a bright light surrounded Len with a certain symbol just below his feet. When the mysterious but easing song drew to its close, the light slowly disappeared, and the same symbol below the blond boy appeared as a much smaller version below his right eye. Along with that, he found himself holding a strange weapon on each hand that took the shape of a grip handle with a blade on one end, and a small gun barrel on the other.
"There, that should do it" Rin finished, looking at Len's face which was pretty much in awe.
"...So I can fight it with this?" he asked, still staring at each weapon on his two hands. Just then, the building shook with a tremor, followed by the roar of their enemy who seemed to have found them.
"We gotta move!" Rin commanded, grabbing Len by his arm again, but this time twirling the strings around them like a gymnastics ribbon. "You might wanna brace yourself" She suggested before a strong force jolted them out of the building and all the way up to its roof. Len, however, didn't act as surprised anymore. With everything that was happening, he'd been surprised too many times in one day. He wondered how on earth she was able to spring-jump them like that, but chose to set that question aside. From their current position, they had a good view of the armored rhino.
"Len, try using those weapons. Since it looks like a pair of swords with guns attached, I don't think you'll have a problem with range"
Listening to her advice, Len flipped the weapons to their gun ends and continuously pulled on the trigger located on each grip. A normal target would've been filled with holes by now, but the rhino's armor coupled with its thick skin prevented the projectiles from doing much damage.
"I think we need to try something else, Len"
"...No kidding" He replied.
"You don't have to be so negative about it, you know?"
But fortunately, an idea had popped up in Len's head just at the right time. "Hey, use that spring thing to get me over to the rhino's head" Although he had an idea...didn't mean it was a great one.
"T-That's too dangerous!" Rin remarked. "Stuff like that usually only works in movies!"
"You got any other ideas?"
Now it looked like it was the other way around. This time, Rin found herself without a sentence to fight back, and as much as she wanted a safer way, there wasn't.
"Fine...but be careful, alright?" She gave in with a worried tone before twirling five strings around the determined young man. "When I give you the signal, jump as high as you can" Len anxiously waited for any word as he transferred all the pressure unto his legs as if jumping from one building to another. And finally...
"Jump!" Rin yelled, and her companion did just that before being launched by a force so strong it felt like being catapulted by three trampolines combined. At first, Len panicked due to the sheer height and speed of his jump, but managed to calm himself down as he approached. Thankfully, the unorthodox tactic worked, and Len soon found himself right on top of the rhino's scalp. Without a second to lose, he repeatedly opened fire on its thick skull, causing the rhino to try and shake the attacker loose.
As he continued to shoot, small cracks started to show themselves on the thick layers of its skin. "You can't run now!" Len exclaimed before flipping his weapons to their blade ends and stabbing both of them into the hole he'd created.
Because of that, the rhino let out a pained roar before heavily collapsing unto the ground, creating a large fog of dust that shrouded it for a short while.
"Len!" The blond girl called out, running over to the downed rhino which was slowly fading away. Not far from there, Len could be seen sitting down on the pavement with an exhausted look on his face.
"I-I can't believe it actually worked. Are you okay, Len?"
"Tch...does it look like...I'm ok...?" he tiredly replied between breaths.
At that, the scenery suddenly changed from that lifeless Shinjuku to its former self, gleaming with lit signposts, and busy people walking, talking, and laughing. For once, Len couldn't be anymore relieved to see the city again.
"Now that we're done with that, let's go" Rin concluded with a smile as she and Len stood up.
"Go where?"
"Well, you said you wanted answers, right?"