The Choice I Made
Chapter 1.2: The First Week
May 20th, 2067
It had been exactly one week since the incident, and I had been hauled off to the Project Training Facility, or PTF. Since then, I hadn't made a single friend, but that was okay. I didn't want friends. I only wanted solitude so I could learn to focus my power.
As of yet, I was not able to control the size of my power, known as, "The Death Shield". All I knew about it was its specifications, stated to me by the PTF, that it had a will of its own, its ability to annihilate any machine, animal or human that came into contact with it… and how to turn it off.
The Death Shield was like a bubble. A bubble that protected the user by destroying everything around them. With training, you could enlarge or shrink the bubble size, but you would always remain at the center.
I hadn't been able to turn it back on since the incident, which frustrated me to no end.
"All right Neru, that's enough daydreaming. Come on, it's time for your test," a man with cold eyes said sternly, grabbing my wrist and dragging me out the door of my room.
I didn't even try to resist. Without my power to aid me, I wouldn't stand a chance against any of these people. There's no point in resisting.
The man brought me into a room with what appeared to be a human, but there were slight differences in its features. The humanoid being's facial features were slightly pointier than any human I'd ever seen before.
"This is a Vocaloid," I said flatly, inwardly shaking in fear.
"You're quite observant, it seems. We've rewritten the programming of this one so that it won't kill the trainees, so that they'll be safe to fight the enemy, whilst simultaneously getting to know them better.
"You will be facing this Vocaloid in combat, using any means necessary to defeat it," the man continued.
"How deep in its programming did you go when you rewrite the code?" I asked with suspicion.
"I'm not the one who did it, so I wouldn't know," he said nervously.
Liar.
Immediately after I took a step toward it, it ran to me with blinding speed, beginning to attack me relentlessly.
"Aagh!"
Within seconds, I was on the ground, barely holding on to my consciousness. I looked up at the man. He was smiling like a demon.
I looked up at the Vocaloid before me, noticing a blade starting to protrude from its hand.
It raised its bladed hand high in the air. I closed my eyes in fear.
"No… NO! RRRAAAGH!" I screamed.
I heard an explosion, and when I opened my eyes, the Vocaloid's entire arm had been eradicated.
"Hehehe… AHAHAHAHAHA!" I laughed hysterically.
As I got up, it started to disintegrate further and further until only the head remained.
I turned off my power when I saw the head drop to the ground with a thud.
"I'm going to have way too much fun with this."
I picked up the head of the deceased Vocaloid, and something reacted from within me. The bubble activated on its own, completely obliterating the head of the killing machine.
With a devious smirk, I turned to the traitorous man behind me and said, "Mind telling me your motives before I wipe out every trace of your very existence?"
"W-wait! If you kill me, they'll kill you for killing what they believe to be an innocent person!"
"Well, that would be a concern, if only that weren't there," I said, pointing to a nano-video camera in the corner of the room, securely mounted on the ceiling.
"N-no!"
"Yes. If I recall, there are always people watching those cameras… just for disasters like this! I'll get scolded, but killing a traitor like you will be totally worth the punishment," I responded, sounding completely merciless.
"No, please spare me! I'll tell you how the Vocaloids are getting in to this city!"
I stood there, weighing my options. Is he even telling the truth? If he is, ten this is a great opportunity to wipe out their race! But… what if this is a trap? What if he has more of them hiding in wait? I'm not sure how many of them I can handle… after all…
"You have fifteen seconds to tell me. If you don't… well, let's just say that the devil has reserved a seat for you in hell, and it's not a very good one. Fourteen… thirteen…"
"All right… they come in through the sewers and ancient underground passageways under the city!"
"How cliché. Well, I would reward you for informing me of the enemy invasion routes, but… you won't be on this planet long enough to enjoy it," I said, a devilish grin spreading across my face as I walked toward him.
I can read you like an open book. I know you're a Vocaloid.
"N-no, please! I'll do anything! AAAGH!" he screamed, his legs disintegrating as soon as he fell over.
I paused, holding back form retching at the site of the blood coming out of his legs.
When I recovered, I said, "I plan to wipe out the entire Vocaloid race… to change the world for the better… and you can't change the world without getting your hands dirty. Now… you die!"
I let my barrier enlarge on its own, completely eradicating the man... leaving no trace.
That's it! I can't force the barrier to enlarge, I have to let it do it on its own! After all, self-preservation trumps everything else, and it's a part of me. It needs me to survive.
"Neru, we saw everything! Are you okay?" a man with much warmer eyes exclaimed, coming into the room with a girl about my age in tow.
The girl had radiant white hair that came down to her ankles, violet eyes that somehow seemed to glow, even in the mediocre lighting we were standing in. She could only be described with one word.
Beautiful.
When she looked me in the eyes, I felt… scared. Scared of her reaction to my appearance. I was something I had never felt before. Self-consciousness.
She merely smiled at me, easing my nerves… and making my heart race.
Averting my eyes from the angel before me, I looked at the soft-eyed man and said, "You're not going to punish me?"
"No, of course not!" he said, patting my head and ruffling my hair. "You discovered a traitor in our ranks, and even found some valuable information! You're a hero, in a sense."
"B-but I killed him…"
"Well, that's true, but I'm sure you noticed that his features were slightly more straight-edged than everyone else here, didn't you?"
"Yeah, I know he was a Vocaloid, but… he looked so real," I said quietly.
"That's why the high-ranking ones like him are so hard to kill. They look enough like us to stir up our emotions and make us doubt ourselves," the man said, unsuccessfully trying to comfort me.
"Is that your sick way of trying to comfort me? That only makes me feel worse!"
Tears started to build up in my eyes, thinking about how real he looked. I suddenly realized that I was crying in front of that beautiful girl, which only made me feel worse.
The girl walked up to me, gently putting her hand on my shoulder saying, "I'm sorry… my father isn't that sensitive, but he means well."
"… I'm sorry for overreacting, mister…"
"Hanako. Daisuke Hanako, but you can just call me Daisuke," the man, now known to me as Daisuke, stated. "And don't worry about it, this little one can get pretty emotional sometimes too. Ahahahaha!" Daisuke laughed heartily.
I giggled at that, causing the girl to blush and scold her dad, a pretty amusing sight to behold.
"Anyway, my name is Ayame! It's nice to see such a pretty girl enter the facility, seeing as most of the other projects-in-training are pretty bland."
"It's nice to meet you both! Wait… are you a project too, Ayame?" I asked, finding it hard to imagine such a beautiful girl in combat, especially with hair that long. It would just get in the way.
"Well, yeah! Actually, just to let you know, my hair doesn't get in the way of my role in battle," she said with slight irritation.
"Wha—how did she?!"
"Oh, that's one of her powers! She can read minds! Sadly, that's a double-edged sword," Daisuke said, getting sad near the end.
"Why is that?" I asked innocently.
"Because it means that I can't hide my—" Daisuke paused once he saw his daughter's glare. "Books…"
"What kind of books?"
"Uh… just… you know… comic books," he said nervously, sweating under his daughter's glare.
I giggled at the antics this family seemed to constantly get into. Then… I remembered what happened to my family.
My parents are dead now, and my sister has been missing for three years.
I didn't even notice the tears in my eyes until Ayame came and asked, "What's the matter? Why are you crying?"
"I'm… crying?"
"Yeah. Please tell me what's wrong," Ayame said gently, almost like a caring mother would.
"It's just… seeing you guys bickering like that reminded me of my family before…"
"Oh… I'm sorry."
"Don't be. My parents are gone now, there's no changing that. But… do you want me to tell you the biggest reason I want to go outside?"
"Random… But I thought you just wanted to annihilate the Vocaloids," Daisuke said, completely clueless.
"That's a big reason, but it's not my biggest. I have a half-sister… she was a Third Generation Project, and she went missing three years ago. Nobody knows what happened to her, but I believe she's still out there somewhere. Her name is Kagamine Lenka."
"The famous Kagamine Lenka?! The one who eradicated an entire Vocaloid city on her own in just one night?!" Ayame exclaimed like a rabid fangirl.
"You a fan?" I asked slyly.
"Yes, yes, yes, a thousand times YES!"
It's always her, isn't it?
"Neru, I have a proposition for you," Daisuke said cheerily.
"What is it?" I asked sweetly.
"How would you like to live with us in our wing of the facility? I've wanted to research the Kagamine-Akita family for some time now, and you're such a pleasant young girl to be around. You'd be treated as one of the family. Besides, Ayame's been lacking in the friends department—
"Dad!"
"Ahem. As I was saying, Ayame doesn't have any friends because people are envious of her for various reasons, but you two seem to get along well. I was thinking you could be her first friend here!"
"S-sure! Thank you so much!"
August 31st, 2073
And so began my life with the Hanako family. There were some rough times, but Ayame and I built an unbreakable bond, one that never even seemed to crack. Now I think, looking back on it, that it was because… I loved her.
A/N:
Well, there's flashback chapter number one for you! I bet you're probably wondering why I call this chapter 1.2 instead of just 2. Well, that's because it doesn't continue with the current plot, consisting almost entirely of flashbacks.
As the title decimal suggests, there will be more than one flashback chapter before the current plot continues to actually move forward. There will be three (unless I split them up) more chapters before the official chapter two is released, so you can really just wait until then to continue reading if you don't want to read about the really important backstory that adds to the character development, and explains a ton of stuff that'll just be skipped over in chapter two once I get to it.
Well anyway, I should tell you readers of my SAO story, "The Beater and the Shadow", that I'm well underway with the next chapter, so don't worry about that. For those of you who like SAO and yuri, and wish to see them combined, I encourage you to check out my story, as well as, "The Sake of Forever" by Remoyuki. She's a really talented writer, and I'd actually recommend her SAO story more than my own.
Without further ado, it's disclaimer time!
I don't own any of the Vocaloids/Fanloids I used/use/will use in this story!
Asta la vista!
