CHAPTER TWO

Neru sighed as she looked down at the register. It had been a long day working at the small convenience store on the corner of Ogawa and Cat Street. Suddenly something yellow on the table in front of her buzzed and lit up. Neru jumped at the noise it made, then realized it was her cell phone. She shouldn't have been surprised, as she used the thing constantly. Flipping the phone open, Neru looked at what had caused the phone to light up; she had received a text message from Ted Kasane, a friend of hers from a while back. The text read, "Hey when r u done with work?" The language made her cringe, so mechanical and stilted. She couldn't stand how people texted these days, what with these stupid abbreviations. Her fingers whizzed over the small keypad, typing out a message far faster than anyone should have been able to do. Done in nothing flat, Neru had responded,

"Why do you still talk like that, fool? I'm done at eight. What's going on?" with full punctuation and everything. She was sure to be perfect in that.

Neru looked around the store, waiting for the response to her message, seeing very little new or interesting about the place. That was the problem with people these days, she decided, they were just so damn slow. Too much time was taken with things without the efficiency that could be achieved with just a little practice. After all, that was how she got good at things, by practicing! I'm going to have to sit Ted down and really teach him how to text, she thought to herself. Suddenly, simultaneously, her phone buzzed again with a received text message and the door opened with a sing-song noise. A pair of short kids walked inside the store, clad in yellow and white, each nearly the spitting image of the other, talking all the while. Deciding they were worth little attention, Neru picked her phone up and started texting, taking her eyes off the people that just entered the store. Ted's response was, "I dunno, ws watching tv when a program came on about some new singer-idols they look pretty cool. theyr gonna rerun it at 10. come over and watch it with me ok?"

The right side of Neru's mouth made a downturn. Ted should have known how much she despised hit singers these days. They all seemed too peppy, not at all representing true music. That new Miku Hatsune? Poser. Nothing else to say about her. She couldn't really think of anything as bad as her, so she responded, "Alright, fine. I'll come over at 9:30 so I can see what new horrible singer has sprouted."

Setting down her phone again on the counter, Neru looked at the only people in the store at the moment, which would be the twins, as they clearly were. They opened a refrigerator and grabbed two energy drinks apiece. Neru didn't like those things, but she did have to accept that they darn well worked better than coffee, however delicious that stuff was. She hadn't had a good brew of coffee since she had been in America last summer. Working at this stupid convenience store was paying off the payments she still owed on that trip. It certainly was worth it, though. Damn, she thought, I can still taste that coffee. Mouth watering at memories, her phone buzzed again, reading, "But there so cute!"

Enclosed was a picture of both singers. Singers that strangely reminded her of the people who had walked into the store a few minutes ago. She looked up from her cell phone to see that…

They were standing right in front of her, ready to check out. "Eeep!" She gasped as she realized they had been waiting on her since she had been checking her phone. She hastily grabbed the two bottles of energy drinks and scanned them.

"E-eight hundred forty yen, please." Neru said, still caught off guard.

One of the twins, a girl, snidely said, "Hot boyfriend on the line?"

"N-no, nothing like that!" Neru said, turning bright red. She simply had no idea what to say to this assault.

"Sure it wasn't," she drawled, "Gonna take him home and jump his bones all night long? Ride him until-"

"Rin, stop that. That's enough. You've got to stop being mean all the time!" The other twin had tried coming to her rescue, to little avail.

"Oh, come on, she was like asking for it."

Finally catching hold of what seemed like the tail of a wildebeest in stampede, Neru finally retrieved her senses and said quite loudly, "Now hold it right there! I'm sorry I didn't notice you when you stepped up to the counter, but what the hell? You've got some nerve there, little girl!" At this point, Neru had forgotten that these two were in the picture that Ted had sent her, and she wouldn't have cared, even if she had remembered. "It's people like you that give the rest of us a bad name!"

"GIRLS!" The boy looked like he was having an aneurysm, for how his face screwed up trying to get the situation under control. The look on his face told a story of trying to contain his sister far too often. And failing.

Silence reigned.

Each of the three looked at each other, no one willing to say anything. The spell was broken by the door of all things, as it opened to admit a customer. Going completely unnoticed, the newcomer, clad in an orange visor and a business suit that did much to conceal a very robotic body, tromped over to one of the aisles and started to browse the shelves.

The boy spoke again, "Get a hold of yourselves, ladies. We're all in public here, so we may as well act politely!"

The girl interjected, "But she-"

The boy cut her off with what looked to be a great deal of effort, "Shh! As I was saying, I'm very sorry about Rin," He motioned with his hand at the girl, who frowned and nodded at Neru. He then motioned to himself. "I'm Len Kagamine. Sorry to make your acquaintance in such a manner."

Neru nodded at the boy, "Neru."

The boy smiled, "Nice to meet you Neru. I'm sorry that we caused you so much trouble. Sadly, we have to get going. Stuff to do, things to get done." He turned to go, but stopped and took out his phone, "Here, take my number, I owe you one for how my sister treated you. If you need something, give me a call."

Neru took down the boy's number, and smiled slightly, "Thanks Len. I appreciate it. You have a great day, ok?"

"We will. You too!" With that, the twins left, Rin looking over her shoulder at Neru and throwing her dark glares.

She thought to herself, at least one of them is nice enough. That other one, though…

Her train of thought was interrupted by the only other person in the store, as his frame, clearly heavier than anyone she had ever seen before, thudded across the floor and set a sandwich and tea on the counter with a gentleness surprising for someone with a body like his.

"Is that all?" Neru asked.

"Yep," the man answered with a voice higher and mellower than would be expected.

Neru decided that this guy was weird and proceeded to check his items out quickly. It was nearly the end of her shift, after all.

As if on command, the man taking the next shift walked through the door. About a few inches taller than the boy she had met earlier, Dell Honne was a smoker, a workaholic, and completely not her type. She wanted to get packed up as soon as she could when he arrived. Dell locked his apathetic eyes with hers as soon as he walked in and drawled, "'Sup, failtits? Shift go well?"

"Until you got here, yeah. Well enough." She responded acidly.

Packing up only took a few minutes, and then she was able to leave the store to that grey-haired freak already manning the counter. She supposed she did sort of feel sorry for the guy, after all, he did take the overnight shift and the morning shift. The guy must not get much sleep at all. That pity didn't last long, and as she left, she stuck out her tongue at him, prompting a snort and a sardonic wave from Dell.

It only took a few minutes to find a bus going the right direction, and within ten minutes, she was nearing her neighborhood. She flipped open her phone and went through her contact list, scrolling down until she got to Len's name and number. Nice kid, she thought, as she flipped closed the phone and got off the bus.