Vocaloid Academy
Buried Pasts
It was a really ordinary Saturday. In the morning, Len was busy punching at his video game while Rin organized her dressing table, rearranging her makeup and accessories. After a few hours of playing around, they headed out for lunch. After lunch, they went for their usual Saturday walks. Walking after a meal is really good for you. Sitting down directly after you eat would make you fat. Exercising would get you a stomachache. But on weekdays, they're rushing off to classes after eating, and guess what do you do in class? You sit.
Len couldn't care less about the eating and walking arrangements and whatnot. But again, he's a boy. Boys don't get fat. It doesn't matter if Len ate an entire pizza for lunch and sat for the next ten hours. He wouldn't gain a fraction of a kilo. But Rin on the other hand… Rin shuddered to think about what would happen to her if she ever did that. As a result, Saturday became their exercising day, when she would drag Len out for hour-long walks to burn off extra calories.
She actually mapped out several routes. Sometimes, they'd be circling the school compounds. Other times, they'd be visiting the lake. Today, Rin wanted to explore the forests.
They strode out into the lazy afternoon. Students were sprawled across the courtyards, basking in the sun as they finished their homework. Some had their lunches out, eating them while watching videos. Rin and Len crossed the clearings, passing a little coffee shop before plunging deep into the greenery.
The forest was cooler than the outside, and the scenery was stunning. Birds twittered from trees, the leaves crunching under their feet, and paths of sunlight streaming from the skies.
"It's beautiful, isn't…. ah… ouch!" Rin stumbled onto something sharp. She staggered forward, but Len grasped onto her arm, stopping her before she fell onto her face.
"Are you all right?" Len said anxiously.
Rin brushed herself off. "I'm fine, I'm fine. What is it?"
She squatted down on the forest floor. Something glinted, and she brushed back some earth. It looked like a small patch of bronze.
"I don't know." Len got down beside her. He shuddered.
Rin continued to brush off the leaves and dirt. The small patch of bronze widened, soon turning into a gleaming hilt.
"Is it a knife?" Rin asked eagerly, not caring about how dirty her hands might be. "Help me, Len! Let's get it out."
"A-are you sure?" Len stuttered. "It's a knife. It's dangerous. We should leave it buried, so people don't get stabbed…"
"Don't be scared!" Rin scoffed. "We're not kindergarteners. We know how to handle knifes and stuff. Come on, help me get it out."
Reluctantly, Len started picking at the soil. Either way, Rin was doing most of the work. Seriously, why was Len so afraid of it? It's not like the knife is going to come to life and start hacking his head off.
After a good ten minutes of digging, they finally got it out. It wasn't a knife. It was a sword, at least three feet long, stained with earth, but it still looked good. The edge looked pretty sharp, and you don't have to be a blacksmith to tell that it's made of some seriously high-quality metal.
"Cool," Rin said slowly. "Come on, let's bring it back to our dorms."
"Our dorms?" Len blurted, fiddling with his tie nervously. "Don't you think that's dangerous? What if people see us with it? They're going to think that we're murderers!"
"Hey, you're being ridiculous." Rin felt very annoyed. All right, Len could be kind of timid and nervous and easily scared sometimes, but he was just being really stupid now. She picked up the sword easily. Len scuttled back like a mouse.
Striding ahead, Rin headed out of the woods and into the buildings. The sun was now hidden behind a thick cloud, and reluctantly, the students outside started heading indoors. Rin slipped into the structure through the back door and back to their room, with Len scurrying behind.
Rin tossed the sword down onto a table and rushed to the bathroom, picking up a towel and soaking it in a bit of water before returning. Deftly, she picked up the sword and started shining it, wiping off the grime.
"What are we going to do now?" Len fretted. He rummaged through a stack of old books, fishing out the Vocaloid Academy Student Handbook. "Look! The handbook says that harboring dangerous objects are strictly not allowed!"
Rin snorted. "Mayu drags around a freaking axe to all of her classes, and nobody cares."
Len opened his mouth to protest, but shut it quickly. It's going to be pretty hard to defend that rule when a student is openly flaunting and getting away with it in broad daylight.
There was a knock on the door. Len scrambled to his feet and opened it, revealing a beaming Miku.
"Hello!" Len said, relief evident in his voice. "Miku, you have to help me! Rin wants to keep this scary sword!"
"It's not scary," Rin growled.
"A sword?" Miku said curiously. She stepped in and peered at it. "Cool! Where'd you find it?"
"In the woods," Rin answered. She held it up, the metal gleaming. "Looks pretty sweet, huh?"
"It's terrifying," Len insisted.
"He's just being a scaredy-cat," Rin said dismissively.
Miku frowned. "Rin, you do realize that you're not allowed to keep dangerous objects at school, right?"
"Yes!" Len whooped. "She supports me! We have to get rid of it!"
Rin scowled. "Tell that to Mayu and at least half of the school."
"Well…" Miku hesitated. "I'm just saying that maybe we should keep it, but we should keep it hidden and secret. Don't let anyone know about it for the time being. I mean, you guys might have discovered something really cool, and we might not even know about it. If we show it around, people might try to steal it, and teachers might try to confiscate it. Maybe we should do a bit of research first, and then show it to others?"
"Sounds like a good idea," Len said.
Rin nodded. It made sense. "All right. Let this be our little secret, then."