Kagamine Len and the Case of the Disappearance of Hatsune Miku's Shoujo Manga
Chapter Three
"You need to work on how you say hello, Rin."
"Why? What's wrong with it?"
"You shoved Kaito over. You could have really hurt him."
"Mou…" Rin pouted, arms folded. Her over-sized hair ribbon seemed to droop. "I didn't mean to shove him. I was just trying to surprise him, you know? Like, BADAN!"
"Well, don't. You don't know how strong you are."
"Ooh~ Did I tell you that I beat Gakupo in an arm-wrestling competition the other day?"
"Huh?" Len blinked at Rin slowly. Very slowly. "You did?"
"That's right. She did," Miku piped up. "It was impressive. He called Rin 'shorty', and then Rin challenged him to an arm wrestling match, and she kind of, um…"
Miku didn't finish that sentence, but Len knew Rin well enough to be able to do it for her.
Went berserk.
Rin was a dangerous person…
Len was sitting on Rin's left side, Kaito to his right, Miku facing him; the four of them crowded around one small, circular table in a cosy café.
Ever since Rin's overly-enthusiastic greeting outside, Kaito's back had been hurting. Out of concern for the older Vocaloid, Miku (kind-hearted as ever) had suggested they go to a nearby café to sit down, in the hopes it would help Kaito recover.
"Anyway, I wasn't doing anything wrong," said Rin. "I was just showing Kaito-nii how strong my affection for him is! It was strong, wasn't it?"
"A-ah… Yes… V-very strong…"
Kaito attempted a smile, but it was weak; not quite reaching in his eyes. His face was slightly too pale, but his cheeks were too pink, and his eyes were fixed firmly on his coffee.
The fact Kaito had ordered coffee was unusual in and of itself, in that the blue-haired Vocaloid frequently favoured more sugary (or 'childlike', thought Len) drinks, but…
There was something wrong here – and the distinct aroma of coffee beans hovering in the air wasn't it.
Len frowned.
Was it just his imagination, or… was Kaito trying not to look at him…?
Could it be, possibly… that he was worried? Did he think Len was annoyed at him?
Maybe he shouldn't have scolded Kaito so much when he dropped his ice-cream earlier… And maybe he shouldn't made such a show of sighing and rolling his eyes when Kaito dropped the shopping all over the floor.
Aaah… This was stupid.
Why should Len feel guilty, anyway? Rin was the moron who pile-drived Kaito from behind, thinking that would be a suitable way to say hello. Even though Kaito was a lot bigger than she was, he was also very easily taken by surprise, so clearly doing something so reckless was a bad idea…
But, Rin never seemed to reflect on her actions. Maybe she thought such things were for lesser creatures.
Len sighed, sipping his banana milkshake.
"Any~way, Kaito-nii~ It was a good thing we ran into you!"
Quite literally…
"W-why…? Were you looking for me…?" asked Kaito, peeking up at Rin from underneath his bangs.
"Mm… Not so much, but… Miku-chan has been playing detective, you see?"
"Detective?" asked Len, his interest piqued.
"I don't know if I would use such a grandiose term…" said Miku. "I was just, um… Lately, I noticed something, and… I wanted to ask if you two knew anything about it."
"Huh? What is it?"
"Well… It's just… You know I'm subscribed to that girls' manga magazine?"
"Huh…"
Len wrinkled his nose, trying to think. Maybe there was something like that. He wasn't sure. He didn't often pay attention to any mail the Vocaloid household received, unless it was addressed to him.
Rin liked to scour through everybody's mail, and would often open packages that didn't belong to her out of curiosity, just to see what was inside (that one time Kaito had accidentally ordered some kind of strange adult movie from a dubious German website had been a particularly embarrassing incident… Rin hadn't let Kaito live that one down for months).
But Len wasn't like Rin. In fact, that was the one wish he made every single Tanabata.
I hope I never become like Rin.
It wasn't as though Len disliked Rin, it was just… One Rin was more than enough for any household to handle. Two Rins might, potentially, create enough negative energy to destroy the whole world.
"I think so…" said Len slowly, nodding his head. "But what about it?"
"It's just…" Miku frowned, curling a strand of teal hair around one finger. "Even though my magazine is supposed to arrive on Friday every week… Lately, I've been receiving it late."
"Late?"
"Yeah. On Saturday instead. And, when it shows up on the doorstep, it's already been flicked through. The pages are crumpled."
"Huh…" Len exhaled slowly, leaning against his chair. This was started to sound like a real detective story, straight out of an Agatha Christie novel.
"So, you think somebody in the house is taking your magazine on Friday morning, reading it before you can, then putting it back on the doorstep the next day?"
Miku nodded, taking a slow sip of her vegetable juice (even though Miku had advertised this particular brand of juice in adverts before, that wasn't simply for show – Miku actually did like that funny-looking light green juice… Even though it reminded Len, quite strongly, of swamp water).
"That must be it. And, that isn't all."
"It's not?"
"No. Volumes of my girls' manga have been going missing from my room."
"Are you sure you haven't lost it?"
"No. I take good care of my manga. I keep them all lined up on my shelf in alphabetical order."
Len knew how much Miku liked her romance stories. He hadn't really believed Miku would be so careless as to lose them. He just needed to cover all his bases; discuss all possibilities.
Haaa~ Just like a real detective~~~
Rin giggled, jabbing Len in the ribs with her elbow.
"You're enjoying this, aren't you?"
"H-huh…? I, um, I…" Len spluttered, his face slowly turning red. "N-not at all…! I-I'm just interested…!"
"Hohoh~ Just admit to it. You're happy you're able to live out your dream, right? You've always wanted to be a detective, haven't you?!"
"N-no, I'm not that childish… I'm not excited over something so banal, really…"
Rin giggled.
"It's OK, dearest brother of mine~ Even though you like to act soo~oo mature, I know you're still a child at heart~"
"Mou… You're one to talk… You still dream about becoming a princess. That's way more childish than wanting to be a detective."
"It isn't a dream if it's already true~ Hohohoh~"
"You're not a real princess, though. You just play one in a well-known song series. It isn't the same thing."
"To my fans, I'm a princess. They'd do any~thing I asked!" Rin smiled mischievously, eyes narrowing. It was the kind of expression that would send a chill down anybody's spine. "They'd even gouge out their own eyes if I batted my lashes and asked nicely… Kukukuku~"
Len shuddered. Although Rin looked so sweet, she had a side like this, too…
He couldn't help but feel sorry for her fans. They'd all been deceived…
"Anyway, um…" Miku's voice, soft and gentle, brought Len back to his senses.
He turned to look at Miku, his first (and perhaps only) client in his career as a detective, and tried to arrange his facial features into an expression of suitable severity for a real hard-boiled detective.
"It's not like I would mind if this person would just ask to borrow my things, but… Since I don't know who's reading them, and why, I can't help but be curious…"
"Hm… Well then… Let's see… Who could the suspect possibly be…?"
Immediately, Len turned to look at Rin. He couldn't help himself. If the mysterious phantom thief was anybody in the Vocaloid household, Rin was the most likely candidate.
Rin glared at Len, puffing her cheeks out like two balloons.
"Hey. And what's that look supposed to mean?"
"It doesn't mean anything. Not in particular. But why are you acting so defensive, Rin?"
"I'm not acting defensive. I'm getting annoyed because you're doubting my innocence!"
"Because you don't have any innocence!"
"That isn't fair! Why're you blaming me right from the start? You haven't even interviewed anybody about it! Besides!"
Rin slammed her palm against the tabletop.
"I don't even like romance stories! I think they're totally boring! Why would I, Kagamine Rin, start stealing Miku's girly manga anyway?! It's totally not my style!"
"Well…"
Len frowned, relenting. Rin did have a point there. Even though Rin was the most shameless member of the household by far, who always took things without asking (the 'Incident of Kaito And The Adult Movie He Ordered By Mistake Which Rin Opened Without Permission And Then Used To Mock Kaito For Five Months Afterwards' sprang to mind…), she didn't like romance stories. She had no interest in them at all.
So who did that leave…?
Obviously, it wasn't Len. Not unless he'd been sleepwalking. Besides, it was against Knox's commandments for the detective to be the culprit (and Len was definitely going to be the detective, even if Rin did think it was childish).
Len didn't think it was Miku, either. He couldn't rule her off his list of suspects entirely, but Miku wasn't a liar. The closest Miku ever got to lying was when she declared, quite proudly, during her days to make dinner, that the meal had turned out 'delicious' – when, inevitably, it hadn't.
It never did.
Then, there was Meiko… but Meiko didn't like romance stories, either. Whenever movie night rolled around, and it was Meiko's turn to choose a film, she nearly always picked action.
Was it Luka, then...? Cool, calm, mature, collected Luka, who knew how to fillet a fish and how to remove grass stains from clothes, and enjoyed reading books written by authors with long names that weren't Japanese that Len, despite his own passing fondness for European literature, had never even heard of.
So then, the only person left would be… Kaito…?
Could it be…?
Len looked at Kaito suspiciously, his eyes narrowed. Kaito turned his head away, his face red.
Come to think of it, throughout this whole conversation, Kaito had been strangely quiet, hadn't he…? And he had been acting awfully strange lately.
But why would Kaito steal Miku's romance manga? What motive was there…?
Len frowned, linking his fingers together, placing his elbows on the tabletop.
This really was a mysterious case…