AN: I've managed to update this earlier than I thought I would... though, I'm still writing it at midnight... meh XD

Disclaimer: I don't own Vocaloid or the song 'Interviewer' by Kuwagata-P (a really good song if you haven't heard it!).


A few weeks earlier…

The alarm blared from its spot on the bedside table. Within two seconds, a pale hand shut it off with a groan. The hand lingered there for a few seconds, before the hand's owner sat up.

"Ugh… Why is the sun so bright?"

The girl rubbed her tired eyes and let out a big yawn, then got up from her soft, warm bed, and made her way out of her bedroom. Crossing her fingers, she walked over to the bathroom door, hoping that no-one else had managed to sneak their way in there before she had the chance to. She really, really needed to get a shower today, and she needed to do it quickly, as she had to get to the Crypton building by noon for her audition. She crossed her fingers, mumbled a small wish, then opened her eyes.

The door was closed.

She almost collapsed from disbelief. She swore she could hear three different snoring voices coming from their respective bedrooms…

Sighing, the annoyed teen knocked on the door.

"How long are you gonna be? I have to get over to Crypton in-" she glanced at the ancient grandfather clock at the end of the hallway, "-less than two hours! Crap, I woke up so late! Hurry up, whoever's in there!"

She paced around outside the bathroom, occasionally banging on the door and screaming pleas for its occupant to speed up. She looked at the door longingly, cursing whoever was taking their sweet, sweet time in the bathroom. It was most likely her brother, she guessed; but, although he loved annoying her, like any older brother would, he wasn't that mean as to make her late for something that she had been so excited for.

The angry girl finally had enough. She went completely, utterly ballistic on the door, hitting it, kicking it, doing everything to make it open without actually touching the door handle itself.

"LUKI! I SWEAR TO GOD. THIS ISN'T FUNNY. GET OUT OF THAT FLIPPING BATHROOM RIGHT THIS MOMENT BEFORE I CUT OFF ALL YOUR HAIR AND STICK IT TO YOUR-"

Two doors burst open behind her at the same time, making a painfully loud sound when they bounced off of the walls. Three pink-haired, hunched over figures crawled out of the rooms, and gave the suddenly scared girl the most demonic, dirtiest look that she had ever been given in her whole, short life of nineteen years.

"Luka," one of them, a man with long, pink hair, growled at said girl. "What. Do. You. Think. You. Are. Doing." The man's voice remained at the same volume, and at the same pitch, making the question sound like a statement.

"...I-I though Luki was in there…" muttered the terrified teen, before pushing down on the handle to the bathroom. The door drifted open slowly, as if showing her how much of a fool she had been to not even attempt to open it like a normal person. Luka's eyes widened, and she stared at the door in disbelief. Everyone was silent for a few seconds, the three rudely-awoken people glaring daggers at the confused girl. She was about to run into the bathroom to save herself the wrath of her parents in the morning when Luki beat her to it.

He ran into the bathroom, blowing a raspberry into Luka's face as he closed the door, then locked it with a 'click'. Luka looked at the door, then at her still angry parents, then just slid down the wall in defeat.

"Sorry…" she mumbled, deciding to use her ten years of drama lessons to make her parents let her off the hook. "It's just… This audition means so much to me, and if I was late to it and that led to them not even considering me for the job because I wasn't punctual, then I'd be heartbroken…" Luka sheepishly got up, brushed herself off and started walking back to her room, not daring to meet her parent's eyes, for fear they'd notice her facade.

Luka and Luki's mother and father were the President and Vice President of Luka's father's great-great-great-grandfather's company, Megurine Corporation. The company started out small, but soon expanded to dealing with people and products from all four corners of the earth. Their primary business was musical instruments, in particular guitars, but all of their products were of the highest quality and made with care.

They expected one of their children (the one that wasn't irresponsible... in other words not Luki) to take over the business when their father died. Consequently, they kept an eye out for Luka more than Luki, making sure she was polite, civil and kind to all those she would come across. This plan was slightly disrupted Luka figured out that she wanted to be a pop star and found a way to do it. Luka's parents agreed only to the pop-star-diva business if she agreed that she would drop the music thing if the company needed her. Luka happily obliged to this contract.

"Luka… wait," she called out, her tone of voice soft and caring, completely unlike what Luka's father had been like just minutes before. Luka froze, then walked around her door so that her mother could see her when she talked to her. Keeping her head bowed, she spoke.

"...Yes, mother?"

Her mother sighed before speaking. "We are sorry. We know how hard you've worked for this audition, and we realize how important it is to you. Therefore, I think our anger at you was misplaced, and that your father was a little bit too harsh on you before. All I ask from you is that, next time something like this happens again, you check the door if you hear no reply from inside. You know how your father can be - when he wakes up at midnight, he forgets all the house rules and such," said the older lady with a smile, causing Luka to let out a breathy laugh out of relief.

"Yes, mother. I understand. Next time I will try and remember what you have told me today. Thank you for your kind words," thanked Luka with a bow and a smile, before turning back to go to her room to wait for Luki to leave the bathroom. While she was waiting, she pulled out the papers with the song lyrics she was going to sing and practiced for her audition. Everything needed to go right. She needed this job. She was pretty sure she wouldn't be able to carry on living if she went there, froze up in front of all the important people and ended up losing to a little nine-year-old girl like she did last time. Because being trash-talked in front of your elders by a seemingly-angelic nine-year-old was not one of Luka's proudest moments.

Luka shuddered at the memory, before returning back to her song lyrics. She was about to run through the song once again when Luki called out to her.

"Luka! Bathroom's free!" he yelled, before waddling off into his bedroom. Luka yelled a quick "I'm going!" then raced into the bathroom before anyone could sneak their way in before she could. In there, she stripped off her clothes, threw them into the dirty pile Luki already started in the corner, then jumped into the shower.

After a quick five-minute shower, Luka turned off the water, wrapped a towel around her body, then walked back into her bedroom. As she walked in, she sent a passive glance in the clock's direction. 11:34am. It took a few seconds for the time to register in Luka's mind. When it finally did, Luka went into panic mode.

"...Crap."

She raced into her bedroom and pulled the clothes out of the wardrobe she had prepared the night before. Hastily, she chucked them on, then plugged her expensive hair straighteners and hair dryer into the wall socket near her mirror. While the straighteners were heating up, she got to work on drying her hair. Every thirty seconds or so, she would stop drying it and check how dry it was, cursing her hair for being so long. This only made it take longer to dry her mass of sakura hair.

"God… Why didn't I notice the flipping time?" grunted the annoyed teenager. Luka was usually much more organised and good at time-management than this; and to have something like this happen to her on a day as important as this day was! Luck was clearly not on her side.

After a good fifteen minutes of stopping and starting the hair dryer, her hair was finally dry enough to be straightened. She sprayed some of her "magical mist" over her hair, that would prevent it from being damaged by the heat - she knew these things never really worked, but she could never be too careful when it came to her precious pink locks - and then ran the straighteners through her hair, making her previously wavy, slightly messy hair look downright beautiful by anyone's standards. Luka smiled at her own reflection, tidied away her papers and prepared her arguments to get someone to drive her to the Crypton building.


"Thanks Luki!" chirped Luka, opening the door of the red car. Originally, Luka was going to get her mother to drive her, but since her and Luka's father had been called out to work unexpectedly ("On our one day off, they actually need us, but when we are already there, there's nothing for us to do!" was one of her father's complaints), they told Luki to drive her. And since Luki didn't want to face the wrath of his parents, in particular his father, who was feeling a bit sour after his rather rude awakening in the morning and about the fact that work called him on his paid day-off, he quickly agreed and allowed Luka into his treasured car with open arms.

"Nah, Luka, you owe me one…" uttered Luki, slouching into the leather car seat.

"Hey, you were the one who agreed to drive me! Don't look so upset about it! Besides, you get to spend more time with the wonderful person that is me-"

"Your audition was supposed to start twenty-five minutes ago."

"..."

"..."

"...Crap."

"Yep."

"..."

"I'd run if I were-"

Luki didn't even get to finish his sentence before Luka ran off in the direction of the towering, thirty-storey building that was Crypton's headquarters. He just sighed, before pulling the car out and heading back home.

That sister of mine… I don't know how she manages to be such a pain in the ass sometimes.


A panting Luka arrived at the desk of the luxurious lobby of the Crypton Tower, the tallest, fanciest, most expensive building within a good ten miles or so. Every single person was wearing designer suits or other business-y type clothes that probably cost more than Luka's new smartphone. Which was why it came as a surprise that the receptionist, as well as everyone else close enough to see Luka and her less-than-fancy clothes, didn't even bat an eyelid at her odd attire, which consisted of a pair of light skinny jeans, a white blouse and a pair of blue headphones around her neck and some sneakers, not to mention her bright pink hair that would make anyone stand out from the crowd.

She stopped for a moment, caught her breath, then asked the lady at the desk her question.

"Uh… can you please tell me where the auditions for the new Vocaloid singer are taking place?" Luka wasn't good with strangers, and was wondering as to whether she had come off as rude. She certainly didn't want to seem like that - this receptionist could actually be good friends with someone judging the contest, and she figured it would do more harm than good if she told the judge that the person they are considering hiring was really rude. This one little thing could ruin it all for her.

Luckily, the receptionist just smiled at her and told her to go to the seventeenth floor. Luka thanked her, then made her way over to the elevator. She pressed the button, waited patiently for it to arrive, then, when it opened, stood to the side to let the people out, then walked in. The doors started closing, and Luka took in a deep breath and closed her eyes. Relax, Luka, Relax… It's not the end of the world if you're not successful in this audition, there's surely gonna be plenty more, only those jobs aren't going to rake in as much money for you, not like the money matters-

"WAIT!" shouted a man with short, spiky black hair in a grey suit, that looked slightly casual while still adhering to the unspoken dress-code of expensive business attire. He was running towards the elevator Luka was in, so Luka decided to be polite and stick her foot between the elevator door, which were closing abnormally slowly.

The doors started opening again, still going at the stupidly slow pace they closed at, and the man panted a thank you to Luka.

"No problem, sir." said Luka, smiling. I really hope this man has some power in this audition, thought Luka, 'cos he might think I'm kind and that I deserve the job…

The man stood there, hunched over, heaving in breath after breath. Luka was reminded of her earlier state, when she had just come in to building and she was at the receptionist's desk.

"Uh… Which floor are you going to?" asked Luka as the doors started their slow close once again.

The man took in one final deep breath, ran a hand through his hair and stood up straight. The first thing Luka noticed is that he was really tall. And by that, she meant really tall. He looked like a man from an advert she saw on the TV once...

"I'm going to floor seventeen. Sorry for that display before, by the way," apologized the man, and Luka turned to press the button before realizing that she was heading to the same floor.

The man continued speaking. "I'm supposed to be judging the audition for the potential new Vocaloid, but the train had issues, and it was delayed by a whole hour, which has got to be a new record or something," complained the man, who ran his hand through his hair again and sighed. "But where are my manners, I'm Yamada Ryo," introduced the man, who then handed Luka his card. Luka quickly glanced at it then stuffed it in her pocket.

"I'm… Megurine Luka…" said Luka, standing there awkwardly.

"Nice to meet you, Megurine-san! Tell me, what brings you to the Crypton Tower? Because you certainly don't look like you usually come here," said Ryo, gesturing to Luka's clothes, making her blush.

"Yeah… I'm here to audition for the spot as the new Vocaloid," said Luka nervously. Her mind drifted back to what the man said earlier. Didn't he say he was judging the contest…?

"Ah, I should have guessed," said the man, crossing his arms, "Well, I think you've got a good chance, as you've got the weird hair color ("No offence," said Ryo, to which Luka replied, "No, it's fine,") and, if your singing voice is anything as melodic as your talking voice, the other judges would surely love you! Also, you're polite. Other people your age, which I'm guessing is about eighteen, would have ignored me, but you were so kind as to hold the elevator for me!" rattled off Ryo to Luka.

Luka carried on standing there awkwardly, scanning her brain for a reply that wouldn't make her sound rude, however, she couldn't think of one. She had never been complimented by anyone that much in such a small space of time, let alone a stranger, and, therefore, didn't know how to reply.

After a good thirty seconds or so of silence, in which the elevator managed to climb a miraculous four floors (Luka would've thought a modern building like Crypton Towers in a technologically-advanced country like Japan would, at the very least, have speedy elevators) Luka replied.

"...Thanks," was Luka short and simple reply, and she dearly hoped it would suffice.

"No problem!" was the man's just as short and simple reply, and the elevator fell silent once again. Luka couldn't tell if the silence was awkward or if it was comfortable, and, even though she wanted to ask the man a lot of questions, she stayed silent, for fear of breaking the seemingly calm atmosphere.

The elevator continued its slow climb up to the seventeenth floor, taking its sweet, sweet time. Every few seconds or so, Luka would look towards the man to see how he was doing, and every time he would have this sort of dazed look on his face.

Luka was curious. Who knows? she thought, he could be thinking about some funny story concerning one of Crypton's current idols, like Kaito, or Meiko, or Rin and Len, or maybe even Miku herself! Heck, this guy could be her manager for all I know!

Luka was about to ask when the man started talking. "You know Miku, right?" he asked, turning towards Luka, the dazed expression still of his face.

"Of course! Who doesn't know who she is?" exclaimed Luka, a little too enthusiastically for the small space that was the elevator. At her enthusiasm, Ryo just smiled.

"Yeah, I'm her manager, and one time she managed to make her bodyguard- Oh, we're here." The manager was cut off by the sound of the doors of the elevator opening.

Luka's shoulders slumped. She wanted to hear this story about Miku and the bodyguard! What could have Miku done to make the manager go into a haze? And why did the elevator decide to speed up just when something interesting was going on?

Ryo walked out of the elevator and gestured at Luka to follow.

"Come on then! I don't think the competition would have started yet, mainly because I'm not there yet and I - not trying to sound egotistical here - am the person with the most influence," said the manager, puffing his chest out a little. Luka smiled, and followed after the happy manager.

"Let's go, then."


Luka was bored.

It was now almost half past three, which meant that Luka had been sat there, in that same, monochrome blue room, for almost two hours, with only herself to talk to. And she couldn't even do that for fear of the other people in the room giving her funny looks.

Earlier on, a random guy with long, purple hair came and sat next to her, and tried to flirt with her. Luka acted like she was listening while trying to show him that she wasn't interested in him, which was hard to do with the amount of questions he kept asking her, even with Luka's excellent acting skills. Thankfully, just as she was thinking of screaming at him to get lost, he was called to do his audition. She didn't know how much longer she could have lasted with him sat there next to her.

She heard someone walk into the room and cough lightly, causing everyone to turn to the person, except for Luka.

"Can Meg-" started the man with the clipboard.

Luka's heart stopped. As soon as she heard the 'Meg-' part, she got herself ready to jump up, wow the judges and become the best singer Crypton had ever employed.

Her inner pep-talk faded into nothingness when she heard the crew member finish their sentence with "-poid Gumi come over, please?"

A girl with a pair of red goggles nestled in her Christmas-tree green hair got up and walked towards the man, who opened the door to let her into the room, just like he had with the other million or so people before Gumi entered the room.

Luka sighed, and swept the room around her with her eyes, desperate to know how much longer she was stuck there for. To her surprise, she was the last one in the room. She smiled to herself. Save the best for last, eh?

Seeing as she was the only one in the room, and the door leading to the area where the auditions were taking place was firmly shut, Luka decided to sing her song out loud to herself, even if she only had time to do it once, if not to see if she could remember the lyrics well then to warm up her voice. Besides, the last time she had talked had been about an hour before, and it was only to try and get that Kamui guy off her back.

Luka couldn't see a guitar around her (she crossed her fingers and hoped that they lived up to the promises on the flyer during the actual audition) so she sung the song she had written about how she felt when she was younger, Interviewer, a cappella.

She started the song, and all the memories of her less-than-happy childhood came flooding back to her. All the times she had tormented her, all the times she had made her feel worthless, all the times she had driven her to…

No, thought Luka, shoving those nasty memories to the back of her mind while starting the chorus, moping over what happened won't get rid of the scars she's given me, both mental and physical…

Luka continued the song, trying to keep the memories from getting to the front of her brain, but, despite her efforts, they settled themselves quite comfortably in the middle of her mind. She kept her head bowed, eyes staring at the grain of the wood of the floor beneath her, concentrating hard on the song, even though she knew her posture wasn't ideal. Only when she got to the last chorus with the different lyrics did she manage to finally push the memories back. When she decided to stand up for herself, things went much better than she thought they'd go. She only hoped that she wouldn't ever have to see her again, because it could go a bit wrong for her…

The song finished, and Luka released a breath she didn't notice she had been holding in. Still looking at the floor, she pulled out her phone and looked at it. Almost four o'clock.

Damn, thought Luka, twirling the phone about in her hands, that Gumi girl is almost as slow as that elevator…

Luka sighed, and threw her phone up into the air in front of her, readying her hands to catch it. Though, this idea went out of the window when she noticed there was a small crowd of about thirty or so people staring at her with shocked looks on their faces, congregated near the door all the singing hopefuls had went through.

Luka's (latest, brand-spanking new, 80 000 yen) phone went flying from her hand, before, to Luka's terror, ricocheting screen-first off of a metal, sharp, pointy table corner and landing on the floor with a thud. A horrified expression took over Luka's face. She looked from the phone to the mass of people near the door, then back to the phone, before hesitantly walking over and picking it up delicately, like it would shatter if she was too rough with it. After a quick peek at the (thankfully) undamaged phone screen, Luka let out a sigh of relief, and it seemed the crowd did as well.

After a couple of seconds of silence, with Luka just touching her phone like she couldn't believe that screen wasn't shattered into a million pieces and the crowd giving her funny looks while she did it, someone walked out and coughed into their hand.

"Can I have everyone's attention please?" asked the manager from the elevator earlier. Luka couldn't recall his name… was it Ryu?

"If we could all return to the stage please, so we can let this last person have her audition, I would be grateful, and I'd imagine she would be too," said the manager, causing everyone to file out, whispering things from "wow she sounded so good" to "wow I can't believe her phone screen didn't crack". Luka stood was still on her knees with the phone in her hand, just watching all the people leave. Wow, she thought, how are so many people fascinated by a phone screen not cracking? Don't they know, it's made of that fancy new Grizzly Glass!

Luka kept wondering about the secrets behind the Grizzly Glass while the room emptied, leaving only Luka and the man (was his name Ryu or was it Ryo…?) to fill the silence.

The manager eventually broke it.

"...When can you start?"

Luka's head shot up. "...Sorry?" said the confused teen. He couldn't be serious… all he heard was her singing the song in a room that could have made her voice sound much better than it actually was.

"I said, when can you start? In other words, I'm offering you the job," explained the manager.

"..." Luka was shocked. Sure, she knew she was good, but she didn't think she was that good as to get a spot as a part of one of the biggest, most successful group in the whole of Japan without an audition.

"...Well? It that a yes or a no?" questioned the manager. One could tell he was very excited, to the point of impatience.

"Uh… don't I need to sign paperwork and stuff like that-"

"Well, of course, but I need to know if you might actually take the job before I go and print off all the paperwork," said the manager, running a hand through his black hair. "We can't waste all that printer ink and paper for something that might not even happen, you know!"

Luka smiled, then nodded. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure my parents will agree to letting me work here," said Luka, the smile on her face growing.

"That's excellent! Then, I'll need you to follow me to pick up the papers. I'll even help you to your car, if you need me to!" offered the manager. Luka was slightly worried about just how much paper she would need to get her parents to sign, but thought of something more pressing than the signing the papers themselves - how she could get them home without dropping or losing them on the train.

"Ah, but I have to take the train home…" sighed Luka, picturing all the things that could go wrong with the papers that decided her future.

"Oh, that's no problem. We'll just arrange for a limo to take you back if there's no-one from home to pick you up," said the manager, like the limo wasn't a big deal.

Luka stared at the manager. "A… limo?"

"Yeah. Don't look so shocked, let's go!" With that, the eccentric manager walked off towards a door opposite to the one where the large crowd was gathered.

Luka almost forgot about the people waiting in there, expecting a performance from her. She didn't feel like voicing the issue, though, so she didn't mention it. She already got the job - they'll be hearing her singing a lot more now, that's for sure.

The door slammed shut behind the manager, and Luka noticed she had drifted off into Luka Luka Land. After a short run, she managed to catch up with him, and prepared herself for the massive stack of paperwork she would have to get her mother to sign when she got home.


Luka was sat at the kitchen table with her mother, signing the abominable stack of paper that was her contract. They had managed to read through and sign a third of the papers in an hour and a half, which was what Luka considered a good pace. She was busy scrawling her signature at the bottom of what seemed to be the millionth piece of paper that day when her mother called her from across the table.

"Luka, darling… You never mentioned that you would get to do a duet with Miku if you won this competition!" exclaimed Luka's mother. One wouldn't think it just by looking at her, but Luka's mother was very into what was considered 'young people's music'.

Luka snorted. "Heh, yeah right, like they'd let an amateur like me do a duet with a goddess like her…" disregarded Luka with a wave of her right hand, while her other hand continued signing paper.

"No, dear, look! It says, "Megurine Luka will have the opportunity to release two singles, one of her own and another with Hatsune Miku, and, providing that said singles are successful, she shall be offered a permanent place at CFM." Luka's mother shoved the paper in Luka's face, just to show her she didn't make it up.

Taking the paper from her mother, Luka snorted again. "No mother, it says that I get to- Holy tuna, it does say I'm doing a duet with Miku!"

Her mother smiled at her and nodded, almost as excited as Luka was, but containing it.

It took a few seconds for the words on the paper to properly register in Luka's mind.

"MOTHER! I'M DOING A DUET WITH MIKU!" screamed Luka.


AN: See... told you it would be longer! Though, I didn't think I'd make it three times longer... oh well.

I was aiming to make this chapter about 3,000 words, then ended up getting to ~4,500 before I realized I was making it too long, then ended up forcing myself to stop at ~5,000 words. I was originally going to make this chapter lead up to the point where Luka and Miku met, but that would make it ~15,000 (and I'm not even exaggerating there).

Thanks for reading, and please review! I love reading them! Also, don't forget to follow/favourite the story (if you think it is worthy) or maybe even me if you like what I'm doing here! It encourages me to write faster!

See you next time! :D

Edit 28-02: Attempted grammar fixes, but I still feel like I've missed some... meh