Gakupo tossed laundry into his hamper until he had completely destroyed Laundry Mountain. He had only one hour until he was due for a checkup from the Master, and he still needed to meet the terms that the Kagamines had set for his blackmail.

He tore off his bed sheets and packed them into a ball and tossed them into the hamper. He was still thinking about Kyoko and the gang of fans.

He picked up his heavy basket and sighed. "It's hard being famous."

Gakupo took his laundry downstairs to the laundry room in the back of the house. He threw in some special color bleach, some detergent and a splash of stain remover before pouring all of his clothes into the wash.

"Um, I could be wrong, but don't you need to separate the lights form the darks first?" Gakupo turned around and found Luka smiling and chuckling at the mess he was making of the laundry room.

"Usually you'd be right, but since I basically wear the same color. It doesn't matter."

Luka grinned. "All right, you make a good point."

"What are you doing back here?" Gakupo asked as he prepared to close the washing machine. Luka strode alongside him and calmly tossed a few pairs of her underwear in with his wash.

"Same as you. Laundry." She said confidently.

Gakupo wondered if he was blushing as he watched Luka walk out of the room, her soft hair swishing around her waist.

Suddenly Master bolted past Luka and started to yell at Gakupo. "We're late! We're late! Come on we have to get started right NOW!"

Gakupo tried to explain that he needed time, but Master was already at the basement door when he turned around. She yelled at him from the door "Hurry up and come down" and Gakupo had no choice but to follow her to the basement. Again.

On his way to the basement He saw one of the Kagamines coming his way. He held out a hand and grabbed it by the arm before Identifying it as Len.

"Ow, Hey, what do you think you're doing?" Len pulled away from Gakupo.

"Look, I'm doing my Laundry like you said, but Master has me doing a checkup; can you switch it from the washing machine to the dryer when the washing is done?" Gakupo asked.

"No way, it's your chore!" Len sassed.

Gakupo sighed. "I'll pay you."

Len squinted his eyes. "How much?"

"Banana bread."

"Deal!" Len shook Gakupo's hand and ran off to meet Rin.

Gakupo wandered down the basement stairs again and again he felt as though he were wandering into hades.

Master waited at her computer desk typing at something when he arrived.

Master pulled up a comfortable chair for Gakupo and urged him to sit down. Gakupo noticed that it was the same soft, plush chair as last time and he groaned inward.

He cautiously plugged in the cords to each of his ports while holding his breath. Last 'checkup' he had been diagnosed with the virus after suffering EXTREME pain in his legs.

To say the least, Gakupo was not looking forward to this checkup.

His bio-information popped up on the enormous monitor and Gakupo looked over the images as Master flipped through the files.

"Now that's weird!" she said finally.

"What's weird?" Gakupo asked cautiously as his heart filled with dread.

"Remember how I said the virus was corrupting your memory files?"

"…yeah."

"Well it stopped."

"It WHAT!" Gakupo could hardly believe his ears. "Wha-wha-what does that mean?" he asked in disbelief.

"I'm not sure. It only changed the file format of the memory data from that night on. It's going to be a little tricky, but in theory we should be able to work around it."

"So… I'm not… I mean… I'll live?" Gakupo asked the question slowly as a ray of hope finally dawned upon him.

"Sure."

Gakupo felt like singing. He started to laugh. "I'm… I'm alive!"

Not only that, he was free! He was free from the fear of dying horribly, free from the guilt of leaving Luka alone. He was free!

"Just be cautious," The Master said "I'm still not satisfied with these results."

Gakupo frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know, but my delicate inner sense of danger tells me that there is more to this virus than I can see on Hotaru. Be wary."

Master smiled. "Other than that, I'd give you a clean bill of health. You should be just fine!"

Gakupo yanked the cords out of his back and raced up stairs. He was light headed. He was jovial. He was so happy!

He saw Luka in the living room and he ran up to her and hugged her around the waist and then he picked her up and spun around with her in his arms.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Luka said as she was whisked through the air. "Gakupo? What the—"

"I'm free!" Gakupo cheered and put Luka back on her feet. He turned her towards him and looked into her eyes. "I'm going to live."

Luka looked confused for a moment, her eyes searching his. It took a while for the information to sink in.

But when it did she jumped up and wrapped her arms around his neck and squealed, "Whoopee!"

Rin walked into the room and asked "Luka onee-chan, what's going on?"

Gakupo laughed and said "My virus isn't going to kill me! It's non-fatal!"

Rin started to cry, "Oh that's wonderful!" She hugged Gakupo and he picked her up and put her on his shoulder and she road on his shoulder as they walked around telling everybody the wonderful news.

Kiyoteru high-fived him, Len fist bumped him, Gumi hugged him so hard he almost dropped Rin. Gakupo couldn't find Kaito, but Miku kissed him on the cheek and so did Yuki, who knew nothing about the virus in the first place.

Gakupo changed his laundry smiling. He still had to take a shower, but the whole world seemed to have taken on a luster, like gold. Everything seemed much more precious, much more beautiful.

Picaro walked into the laundry room and Gakupo picked him up and kissed him. "Oh, Picaro you beautiful cat! I'm not going to die!" Picaro started purring and nodded his head, batting his big blue eyes; as if to say "See, I knew it."

Gakupo took a bath and scrubbed himself vigorously. He wanted to wash the bad feelings off and cleanse himself of the entire virus episode. He rubbed himself raw with an old, worn-down was rag and he spent tedious minutes trying to thoroughly wash his hair.

He wondered what hair washing was like for male Vocaloids WITHOUT long purple hair. Probably very quick and easy, since they didn't need to wash three feet of hair.

Once he was sure that he was squeaky clean he stepped out onto the bath mat and un-clogged the drain of all of his lost purple hair.

He felt great! He felt like a new man! He brushed his teeth and put on cologne, and he felt fifty feet tall.

He quickly blow-dried his hair and changed into his fanciest clothes, which was only an eggplant colored suit that had been made special for him. It was really quite comfortable compared to some other suits he had worn for photo shoot and such.

Gakupo checked the time when he went to his room. It was 7:33. He was going to be late! And lord only knew how those pictures would fare on the internet.

Gakupo rushed down stairs humming Dancing Samurai and skipping every second step. He crept into the kitchen and found it darkened.

"Hey, I'm here." He called into the dark as he flipped on a light.

"SUUUUPRISEE!" Gakupo's mouth dropped in shock.

The twins launched confetti from two confetti blasters and almost every Vocaloid in the house was cheering and clapping in a crowd underneath a banner that said "Congratulations" in purple paint.

Gakupo laughed as the twins shoved him over to the table that had been set for two in the center of the crowd. Sweet Ann put a party hat on his head and the Kasanes blew on party horns, and Kaito started a chorus of 'for he's a jolly good fellow.'

"For he's a jolly good fellow

For he's a jolly good fellow,

For he's a jolly good FELLOW!

That isn't going to die!"

Gakupo put his head in his hands and laughed! "These crazy people!" he thought. "These crazy people are related to me!"

He looked up from his hands and saw Luka, immaculately dressed at the other end of the table and all of the other Vocaloid were filing out of the kitchen in a hurry.

"What's going on?" He asked Luka as everyone made a mass exodus from the room.

"Everyone decided to set up a date for us. " Luka smiled. She was wearing a pretty yellow sun dress and had a head band with daisies in her hair. Gakupo thought it looked very fetching.

Len walked up to the table officially. "Hello, I'm Lenard and I'll be your waiter this evening, have you taken a look at your menu's?"

Gakupo snorted a laugh and Len shot him a withering glare. Len was dressed up in a waiter's uniform and it immediately became clear that Rin was behind the planning of this event. There was no way Len would purposely don anything with frills, and the uniform had frilled sleeves and a frilled collar.

Gakupo lifted the 'Menu' which was just another manila folder with the words "Glazed Japanese Eggplant" written in black magic marker.

"Um… I think I'll have the eggplant?" Gakupo said as he handed the 'menu' to Len.

"Hmmm… I think I'll have the same." Luka said handing her 'menu' to Len.

Len bowed. "I'll be right back."

Behind the kitchen counter Rin opened and closed the oven door loudly and handed Len two plates of eggplant that they had made earlier.

Len walked back and set down the two plates of glazed eggplant and passed out another manila folder. "I was wondering if you two would like to see our drink and beverage menu?"

Gakupo flipped open the folder. The drinks had more variety at least.

"Lemonade, Milk, Water, Sake." Gakupo thought about his decision.

"Hmmm… water please?" Len looked towards Luka.

"The same?"

Len collected their menus and headed back around the counter where Rin was already preparing their drinks.

Gakupo looked at Luka. She seemed positively radiant.

"Are you alright?" Luka asked.

"I'm fine." Gakupo said dreamily.

"You're really staring."

"I know." Gakupo said smiling. "I like the view."

Luka sighed and grinned. "You're lucky you're so cute," She teased "'Cause that was NOT smooth at all."

Gakupo laughed, and Luka joined him. For the first time in a long time he felt as though a weight had been taken off of his shoulders.

"Hey." Gakupo developed a strange sparkle in his eye that Luka recognized immediately.

"Oh, no!" But Luka smiled. She was thinking "Oh, yes."

"What do you say we…" Gakupo started to laugh and broke his own sentence. "…let's skip desert." He said seductively.

Suddenly a wooden spoon flew out of the kitchen and knocked against Gakupo's head. Luka broke into a fit of hysterics as Rin hissed.

"You'll eat desert and you'll like it!" and she angrily mumbled something that sounded like. "I work all day over a hot stove…"

Gakupo picked something out of his hair that looked and felt like cake mix. And Luka beat against the table trying to get control of her laughter.

Gakupo picked up his fork thinking "Life is good." And together they dug into the well prepared meal.

Master sat in the darkness thinking. It was all that she had done all day.

She had gotten up, gotten dressed and thought.

Sure she had given Gakupo a checkup and finished the Michael Myers android for her wealthy patron and sure she had scared a girl straight. But all she had done since then was think.

She sighed. "The reason I dove into computer sciences was so that I wouldn't have to deal with emotions or moral gray areas." She said to no one in particular.

The Michael Myers android stood up and came over to her and she reached up to pat it on its head.

"You're just a big softy aren't you?" She asked it tenderly. He, of course, didn't respond.

Master sighed again. She had given Kyoko a serious conversation when she had driven her home that afternoon. She felt like a school guidance counselor, but she just couldn't help it. The girl reminded her of herself.

Suddenly her monitor lit up and Dr. Evil's face was plastered across the screen.

"Dr?"

"Hey, Evil. What's up?"

"Someone just e-mailed me that Gakupo's virus is non-fatal! Is that true?"

Master smiled sadly. "Non-fatal so far. Something tells me that this isn't over."

Dr. Evil gave her a curious look. "What's wrong Dr? You don't seem like yourself."

"Because I'm not myself, you see?"

"I do not, see?"

Master smiled. She always used to play these little word games with her students and collages. They were quoting Alice in Wonderland.

"Amundsen." She said quietly.

Dr. Evil leaned into the monitor. "What was that?"

"It's Dr. Amundsen. He's the one behind all of this."

Dr. Evil leapt back form the screen. "Are you sure?" He asked in a hushed tone.

"I'm positive. I thought this looked like his doing at first, now that I have conformation, I'm sure."

Dr. Evil was silent for a minute. "Then, there is no hope for us is there?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, he's the best of all of us. He was miles ahead of all of us. The only one he ever rivaled with was—"

"Me, Evil." Master said proudly. "The only one who could ever get the better of him was me."

She fixed her coat around her shoulders. "Don't you ever forget it; I'll never, ever let him beat me! Especially not with their lives on the line!"

Dr. Evil looked at her with admiration. He'd sometimes forget how formidable she was as a person.

"I know that Gachapoid Ryuto was supposed to come home in just a few days," She continued "But I'm going to leave him with you for a little while longer. Sweet Ann will still be coming and staying with you, right on schedule."

"Yes ma'am." Evil nodded.

"And Evil?" Master added. "Keep them safe."

Dr. Evil nodded and the screen went black. Master started typing on Hotaru.