The sound of the car pulling into the driveway told Haku that Ia had returned even before Vy's smooth slightly effeminate voice reached her, "Aria-sama and Megpoid-sama have returned, Yowane-sama." Then the pale haired girl herself came in the front door, followed a moment later by Gumi. The pair of them had been gone all afternoon car shopping, which in and of itself wasn't exactly necessary as they had more than enough vehicles at the Yowane Estate to meet their needs, but following her recent success in the world of show business Gumi's spending habits had grown more and more lavish. It had been perhaps three months since she'd moved in to Haku's family home after her breakup with Teto, and she thought perhaps her short green haired friend was maybe spending money as a balm for her separation from the stoic redhead. That wasn't the reason she gave of course, she simply said she'd gotten more popular since her debut with the Vocaloids and deserved to treat herself, and that while Haku, Luka, and Miku's love of antique cars was endearing that she wanted something more modern to the twenty-second century. Her popularity couldn't be doubted, that was for sure. She and Ia both had made smash hits in the idol world, and though they still performed under the Vocaloid name and did shows with the rest of them they'd also started taking shows in pairs or solo as well; another way for Gumi to dull the pain. More than that even however, Haku had noticed something else… The two of them had begun spending a lot of time together outside of what could be explained by work or as roommates in Haku's Estate. They shared almost every meal, talked quietly in corners, and even stayed up late in each other's rooms, even sharing their baths. They'd been making very suggestive eyes at each other too… well, Gumi had been at Ia at any rate…
For her part Ia seemed reserved about the whole notion. She was perhaps the most emotionally in tune person Haku had ever met, and she was sure that Ia wouldn't intentionally lead on someone who had recently gone through a rough breakup, but… it wasn't exactly recent anymore. It had been months, and they'd still been so… suggestive with each other. She wasn't sure what to do about it. Wasn't sure if she even should, if she even had the right to. They were her friends but… it didn't seem like the sort of subject you could just broach like that. She watched as they came in, and Gumi gave Ia a beaming smile full of adoration, and Ia smiled back in a more reserved way as she shut the door behind herself. The computerized voice of the Estate's AI issued in the entry hall again. "Welcome home, Megpoid-sama, Aria-sama. Was your trip fruitful?"
Gumi let out a sigh of annoyance and glanced at Haku, answering both Vy's question as well as Haku's inquisitive stare. "Uch, no! Their cars were all like super stale. Just a bunch of modern hover cars, nothing with any like real pizzazz. How's a girl supposed to make an impression in a floating white box?" She scoffed to show what she thought of that, then turned to Ia and put a hand on her upper arm in an almost flirtatious way. "I'll meet you upstairs, ne?" Ia gave a nod and Gumi flounced off with a little giggle.
As soon as she was gone Ia turned to blink at Haku. They stared at each other for a long moment and Haku wanted to ask the obvious question, but she also didn't want to be rude. Ever in touch with the emotions of those around her Ia answered the unspoken inquiry. "You want to know if we're together." She said.
Haku blushed ever so faintly despite that being exactly what she was wondering and she muttered quietly. "It just seems… sudden, that's all. She broke up with Teto-chan and a week later…" She trailed off and looked up, but Ia didn't say anything and after a moment Haku tried again. "She's still hurting over it, I didn't think you would…"
"I'm not." Ia said, and Haku blinked at her. "We're not."
"Oh." She felt her cheeks begin to blaze. She'd gotten the wrong idea and had just had to open her big mouth. She dropped her gaze, embarrassed and feeling like a fool. "I… I'm sorry, it was none of my business, I shouldn't have pried."
Ia smiled graciously and waved a hand dismissively. "It's okay Haku-chan, you were concerned for your friends that's all." Her head came up and she considered the other white haired girl. "I think she wants it to go that way, at least I think that she thinks she does. But we haven't… done… anything yet…" Even Ia's cheeks grew red at that and Haku felt her own get a little warmer. "I'm just trying to provide her a safe rebound. Better me than some stranger, ne?"
"Then you're not…?" Haku swallowed hard. "Not… interested… in her?"
They were both blushing furiously now but Ia shook her head. "I think she's a wonderful person and if our situations were different I could… I could see us working but… but that doesn't matter. One look at her face whenever Teto-chan is brought up and it's obvious she's still in love, even through the hurt, whether she knows it herself or not. I won't... put myself between them."
Haku had an impulse and reached out to wrap her arms around her friend. Ia blinked, surprised at the comforting hug, but after a moment she returned it gratefully. "Forgive me, I thought… I thought you were just hurting too after you and Meiko… well… I mean after she moved out of here. I assumed the worst and I'm sorry.
Ia's arms tightened reflexively at that but her voice stayed mostly steady. "Meiko and I… just weren't meant to be." She replied in a sad tone of voice, and Haku didn't fail to notice the lack of address where there used to be one for the other ex-government girl. "After talking it over… and over… we felt that any attraction was probably just because we had to rely on each other so heavily while we were in captivity…"
Haku nodded as she pulled back a bit, "That's understandable, such a shared experience would naturally create a bond between two people.'
"And once you freed us…" Ia concluded softly, "There was nothing left holding is together. There was no heat or passion or anything between us, there hadn't ever been. Without our shared hardship forcing the circumstances, there was nothing to keep us together, that's all…" That's all… that didn't sound like all to Haku and she wanted to press for more details, but she'd already been rude to her friend once, she didn't want to offend again. She wondered if the two of them really were finished… or if they had really ever been together in the first place. She didn't have a chance to really consider it though because Ia abruptly changed the topic on her. "How's Miku-chan doing?"
With a reflexive thought Haku checked the connection that held the presence of her girlfriends in the back of her mind, their mental cyberlink conveying everything about the others to each of the other two as it always did, but she needn't have bothered. She could still hear the music through Miku's own ears across the connection, the sad piano music having been a near constant rhythm in their minds for the past few weeks. It was driving them a little mad, her and Luka both, but at least the twintailed girl had begun playing more than just Rolling Girl over and over again as she'd done at first after she'd finally roused from bed. But even that had been an improvement over the first month. After her parents' deaths she'd been nearly inconsolable, alternating between laying in bed for hours without moving to hysterical fits of crying. Luka and Haku had been there through it all for her of course, but the day she'd gotten up out of bed on her own without one or the other of the two of them to gently urge her to the bathroom and began playing the piano, Haku had thought she was making progress at last but… It hadn't been much of a step. Once she started varying her songs because she could tell she was driving her lovers up a wall it had still been sad songs, always tunes with a morose melody, always a tear jerker.
"She's still…" Haku muttered briefly before trailing off, and Ia nodded her understanding sadly.
"I'd better go check on Gumi-chan." The pale haired girl murmured, and Haku nodded. Ia gave her upper arm a squeeze of reassurance before heading up the stairs and disappearing from sight.
Haku stood there a moment, not really seeing anything in particular, then after a minute headed toward the back of her family's estate, to the large storage room her girlfriends had converted into a studio. She opened the door and walked in without saying anything, but Miku knew she was coming so it would have been unnecessary anyway. The petite girl shifted slightly to the side to give Haku room to sit, a clear invitation, so she sat and Miku played on. After awhile the song she was on ended and Haku felt an impulse seize her. For all their cybernetic components and technological dependence, Vocaloids were creatures of instinct and emotion, and they learned to trust that, to trust the feelings that drove them when they popped up. Reaching her hands up so she was positioned to one side of the piano since she'd taken half the bench, she cast a brief glance at Miku. The shorter girl blinked at her dully, the grief in her eyes so profound it made Haku want to cry, but since she could feel each emotion from the other she just made herself smile and focused on trying to convey love down their link more than anything else.
Without a word she began to play a simple series of scales, trailing to her side off the piano. Her girlfriends had both been giving her music lessons these past months, though Luka more than Miku now, and she managed the scales gracefully enough. Up the scale then down, sounding half steps the whole way. When she got back to middle C on the piano she looked back up to Miku. The other girl had watched her dully the whole time, and turned her stare silently up to meet Haku's gaze in return, green eyes meeting red. After a moment of nothing Haku looked down and repeated the scale, a slow steady rhythm. Miku's presence in the back of her mind was a knot of pain and mourning… but there was a faint spark of interest buried beneath. Luka's presence in her head was perfectly still, and while it always was like that when the tall pink haired beauty was on a souldrinker patrol, focused like an arrow knocked to a bow. It was even more still now, almost as though she was mentally holding her breath as she experienced what was going on at home between her two lovers.
Once she'd competed a third set of scales at a slightly faster pace with Miku's eyes still on her, flickering back and forth between her eyes and her hands, Haku let her smile widen a bit and she leaned over slightly to gently but insistently nudge Miku in the side with her elbow. "Don't just sit there watching. Play with me." She began a fourth scale, going just a bit faster this time, and for a moment she thought her attempt to draw the other girl out a bit might not be successful, but as she peaked the top of the scale Miku set fingers to keys and descended the notes with her, the keys ringing in perfect time. Without a word they started another scale, this time eighth notes with a peppy little hop up and then back down. Then another scale, this one alternating back and forth a full step up then half step down as they worked their way along the scale. Then another scale together, and Miku took that lead this time, setting rhythm and pace for it. Haku smiled as she shifted to the follower in their little duet, and even though they were just playing scales Miku wove the notes a little faster and a little more intricately each time as her fingers danced along the piano keys. Haku was getting better and better at playing various instruments under the tutelage of the much more experienced idols but it wasn't long before Miku's improvising reached the limit of what she could do, and the peak of the complex interwoven set her hands seemed to trip over themselves and mashed the keys with an unceremonious kablong.
Her fumble on the piano keys seemed to pop whatever tenuous bubble Haku had built up with her little prompting and abruptly Miku pulled her hands back to ball into fists like she'd been burned. She clenched her jaw and tears began to leak out from the corners of her eyes. Without hesitation Haku wrapped her arms around the smaller girl and pulled her close, Miku resisting for a fraction of a moment before letting herself lean over into her and start to cry, the sort soul wrenching tears of mourning she was still letting out weeks after her parents' deaths. "Th… They're g-gone." She wailed. "Goooooooone!" Haku could do nothing but squeeze her right, hold her close, and rock her gently through that tears.
Halfway across the city Luka turned down another alleyway yet was still connected to her two girlfriends at home via the satellite linkup Haku had established in their cyberminds to maintain their direct connection at virtually any distance. She could feel the grief and despair coming from Miku so sharp and intensely it was almost like it were her own. They all wanted to cry over this, The Hatsunes had been all the parents any of the three of them had had, considering the circumstances. It was a major blow, not just to them personally but to the Vocaloids as well. With the doctors gone and their previous Compound destroyed they were short on resources and had almost no way to do anything besides basic maintenance. Haku was doing her best to figure things out, but with Miku being nearly inconsolable and needing their love and support through this it really limited how much could be done at a time. And then there were the souldrinkers…
Luka really hated this blind patrolling business, it always made her skin crawl. She had no idea why Vocaloids could sense the creatures when near enough, but with the Compound gone along with all of the tracking equipment inside it that meant they had no other means of detecting souldrinker activity aside from wandering down alleys or driving through the streets. Fortunately she didn't have to go barging into buildings since her detection range was enough to tell if anything was inside it from a couple dozen meters away, but it was still a touch and go process. Some nights she'd get four or five of the creatures, others maybe one, and sometimes whole evenings would pass without a trace of any. Haku was working on a way to link the satellite still in orbit and the detection devices the Hatsunes had set up around the city into the Yowane Estate computer banks, but without the Hatsune's old equipment she was having to rewrite programs from scratch and design new routing methods, and the work was slowed down by their need to console Miku in her grief at the deaths of her parents in the explosion.
Her thoughts drifted around these things as she did her best to convey love and comfort down the cyber link to her girlfriends to be there through that grief even if she wasn't there in person right that moment. She could feel it reach them, feel them respond, and they all shared in the grief and the love alike. She could feel the softness of Haku's shoulder and arm through Miku's cheeks and side, could hear the wails and feel the shaking of Miku's body through Haku's ears and arms. Luka was on autopilot as she walked around a couple of different blocks, most of her attention occupied but not really concerned by it because her instincts wound guide her in this, as they did in everything else. She was walking a circular search path outward with the center being where she had parked the Ferrari, and so it was as she was crossing another street she felt it. The other two felt her sense of the souldrinker too and the sudden danger of the situation was even enough to halt Miku's tears as both of her girlfriends focused on her, and she carried them in her mind like spectators as she began to hunt. Well, more than spectators, since they could experience everything she was thinking or feeling as she went about this.
First down one street, then around the corner and down the next. The creature was on the move, possibly hunting a victim even as she hunted it in turn. It led her through a plaza district with heavy foot traffic, and it must have been moving at a brisk walk judging by the way it was keeping ahead of her, her own stride carrying her swiftly down the sidewalk with her pink ponytail streaming out behind her. At last she caught a glimpse of it though as it rounded the edge of a busy restaurant, an unassuming young man slim of build but with the unmistakable papery whiteness to his skin that said he was on the prowl. People pointed at him as he scurried past because he stood out, not just due to his skin tone but also because of his eyes she knew, even if she could only see the back of his head from behind. She just needed to tail him until he went somewhere secluded she could follow him, and then it would be all over.
He seemed to be indecisive about what he was doing, and over the next almost half an hour Luka followed along as he stopped repeatedly and looked at the people going about about their business all around. A couple of times he broke off to follow a lone person here or there, but he kept abandoning them before searching for someone else. She'd never seen this behavior in a souldrinker before and it gave her pause. Usually when they were in a feeding craze they would just pursue someone and attack, this was a different pattern all together that she was unfamiliar with. Miku and Haku in the back of her mind, seeing this too through her eyes and hearing her thoughts on it were concerned as well, and worried about her safety on top of it. She could feel their ill ease through their link as though they were there beside her and it made her skin prickle.
"Don't worry." She thought to them as she paused a few meters back as the souldrinker stopped at a street corner to wait for a couple of cars to hover by. "We've done this dozens of times. There's nothing to be concerned about."
"We haven't seen one act like this dozens of times though." Came a reply from Miku, her worry higher than Haku's. The irrational part of the petite girl's mind was lumping this in with her grief over her parents, a fear of losing Luka on top of that enough to cause panic to well up inside her.
"It will be fine, Luka-chin is the strongest of us now, she can handle it." Came a thought from Haku in spite of her own worry.
"How do you know? I thought you were strongest, Haku-chin?" Miku's reply came through as traffic cleared and the souldrinker hurried across the street and Luka was quick to follow, still keeping her distance a bit.
"You two went through some fairly heavy training before all of this recent stuff happened, I think you're both stronger than me now." It was certainly possible, but it wasn't like they could find out for sure. None of them dared so much as express it, but they all knew it; all of the testing equipment, including the sonic chamber, was gone along with the Compound. All they had now was whatever equipment Haku's parents had left in the lab breath the Yowane Estate. They all felt Miku's pang of grief flash back, but they were both still focused on Luka's hunt.
She kept with her target until he finally seemed to set his sights on a victim, pursuing his prey down an alleyway as a teenage girl turned down it while fiddling with her phone barely paying attention to her surroundings. She disappeared between the buildings a step or two ahead of the creature, and Luka didn't need the heightened urgings of the other two in her head to make her pick up her pace and run for the alley. A souldrinker needed only seconds to kill, and a scream from the girl heralded the sight of him having pinned her to the wall of one of the buildings. She was panicking and flailing at her attacker, but before anything further could happen Luka let out a low reverberating note that was just carefully enough tuned to stagger them. The souldrinker rounded on Luka snarling and the girl stumbled a few feet away and looked back in surprise.
"Run!" Luka told her vehemently, and the girl dashed off as she turned to face the creature. It lunged at her, swiping and snarling, and for all it's body was that of a shorter wispy guy it seemed to have speed enough to make up for it, and then some. The knots of worry in the back of her head surged as Luka had to duck away from a particularly vicious slash of hands twisted like claws. She felt fingers rake through her flowing pink locks to snag the bow holding her ponytail and tear it free. The nanites making up the fake ribbon gave, since they weren't doing anything besides holding carbon in place, and she let them retract back into her body as she completed her spin, but the souldrinker gave her no time to recover, keeping right on her and slashing again and again and again. She spun and ducked and weaved as she ever had, and despite Miku and Haku's mounting anxiety watching this through her eyes and feeling it through her body, Luka never felt like she was in any danger. It may have been quicker than most, but it was still just a souldrinker, and she was a Vocaloid. She needed only a moment, only the briefest instant of opening, and she slipped right onto the crack of his offense when he swung wide and over compensated. The first note channeled through a wrist twist slammed into it's temple snapping it's head back, the second note from her other hand took it in the throat so hard it's skin cratered out in a ripple, and the last high pitched note from an arm curl blasted into it's chest hard enough to send the creature into the wall of the building. Brick and mortar cracked and spiderwebbed out from the impact and the thing slumped to the ground. It was hard to say which of the blows had delt the mortal blow, but after it slid to the ground it did not move again.
"Do you always have to do that?" Miku demanded in her head.
"Do what?"
"The wall slam thing! Are you trying to be flashy?" Came the accusation.
"What? No!" It was a playful accusation, a joke made to relieve tension, but Luka was confused. "I do not always do that."
"Maybe it's a signature move thing? Like wrestlers do?" Haku suggested, and she heard a giggle through her snowy haired angel's ears. Miku's giggle. Miku had giggled… after so long it was one of the sweetest sounds she'd ever heard. She felt the other two clutch tighter at each other in their embrace, and right that second Luka wanted nothing more in the whole world than to be home with them to share that moment, but… she stared down at the body a moment then very nearly jumped in surprise when a tentative voice came down the alley toward her.
"Oh my god, I was just saved from a rapist by a famous idol!" The teenage girl exclaimed and she moved closer tentatively casting nervous glances at the slumped body. "Did you…" she swallowed, clutching her phone to her chest. "Did you… kill him…?
"Oh no she saw the whole thing." Came Haku's thought in her head and Luka tried to recall exactly how much the girl could have seen. She stood a bit shorter than Luka herself did and had her bangs and front of her lilac shoulder length hair pulled forward into their own tails which hung like a frame at the sides of her face, and her purple eyes were bright and alert. She seemed concerned by the events that had just transpired but not afraid, when staring down at her would be attacker.
"No, just knocked him out." Luka lied smoothly, turning to face the girl with a step that brought her own body smoothly between the teenager and the corpse behind her. "I've got this under control, I'll call the authorities to have them come pick this man up, you shouldn't concern yourself further miss…?"
"Yuzuki." The girl said, tilting her head up at Luka. "Yuzuki Yukari."
"Yuzuki-san, everything is okay now. You can feel comfortable heading home now, ne?"
"Heading home?" Yukari asked with a curious little befuddled expression on her face. "Won't the cops want a statement from me? Don't I have to file a report?"
"She's not going to go away so easily." Luka thought, more to herself than to her girlfriends. She tapped a chin thoughtfully. "Perhaps you're right. Then will you go notify a police officer for me?" Luka asked diplomatically. "I'll wait here and see that no one comes along to disturb the area."
The girl stared at her for a long few moments before giving a shrug and a nod. "Alright, I'll be back as soon as I can." Yukari turned and ran off down the alley, turning the corner and disappearing from sight. Immediately Luka turned and reached down for the body.
"What are you going to do?" Came Haku's concerned thought.
"I don't know, but I can't leave it here to be discovered." Luka thought back as she hoisted the body before her, letting out a grunt of effort and silently giving thanks that the man had been such a slight build in life.
"Maybe you could dump the body somewhere?" Miku hazarded, but it was a half hearted thought, they all knew she couldn't. Lacking the Compound's cleanup crews was a blow now. This had been such a headache these past weeks.
"I guess I'll have to stash it somewhere nearby then go get the car to come back and get it. I don't think I can get it to the foundry like the others, not this early in the day. We'll have to take it later tonight after dark." Huffing with the effort she slid the body down the alley until she reached the corner the opposite way Yukari had gone, then peeked out to make sure no one was looking. When she thought the coast was clear she dragged it across the street to the opposing alley way, down to the opposite end of that one, and glanced out there too. She had to wait several times while foot traffic cleared, anxiety at being caught with a corpse mounting inside her.
"If you can get somewhere to hide with it for a bit we could come get you." Haku suggested in her mind.
"It's not too far to the car, I just need somewhere to stash it for a few minutes." She felt them both about to object as she managed another dash into another alley, then spotted a dumpster. It seemed too obvious a place, but there wasn't anything else in easy eyeshot so she dragged him over to it as she cut off the objections. "Besides, if the worst happens, I don't want all three of us caught. I'd need you two to come to my rescue."
"Please be careful. We'd rather it didn't come to that." Haku replied to a fervent wordless agreement from Miku, and Luka nodded, knowing they could feel her assent.
The body went over the side of the dumpster with a heave and a grunt of effort, but she managed it. For all of her power as a sonic energy wielding cyborg she was still a young woman with no more upper body strength than any other girl. Her enhancements were all energy based and agility augments, not strength or power, and her abilities did not help her in this. She shut the lid on the dumpster, cast a worried look at the two doors of the alleyway that led into the adjacent buildings, then hurried off to make for the car. The Ferrari was some little ways off now that she'd spent time pursuing the souldrinker, but the sooner she got to it the sooner she'd be back with it. She tried not to look hurried as she made her way down the busy streets, and reflected that they needed a better system for this sort of thing. Though, with the loss of their previous arrangements, they needed a better method for a lot of things. "We'll talk about it later, try to come up with new methods." Came a thought from Haku, having been aware of her musings, and Luka nodded at nothing as though her white haired angel were there with her.
When she finally got back to the car she had to wait for a line of hovering vehicles to hum passed in their perfectly precise computer controlled line before she could get in. As she shut the door and inserted her old ID badge to start it up and reached for the wheel, the thought occurred to her that if she'd had a modern car instead of an antique with a primitive computer and bound to the ground with rubber tires she could have linked to it through their satellite feed and driven it to her and the body with her mind, or even just summoned it and let a current day computer self drive it to her. It could have saved a lot of hassle today.
"Can we maybe retrofit one of our cars with modern tech?" Haku wanted to know.
"I've seen it done as hobby projects before," Luka thought back, turning the Ferrari out into the street and around the first corner. "But it's a lot of work that means basically rebuilding most of the vehicle. In the end so much of it is gutted and rebuilt the antique is basically just a shell around modern equipment custom fitted into it, and at that point it's not really even a classic anymore cuz you've taken out all the old magic."
"Nooooooo I love my classic Ferrari! Don't hurt it!" Miku thought insistently.
"Well… then maybe we should see about getting a modern car just for our hunts, ne? It would be a lot safer." Back in the studio Haku was looking around the room she was still sitting in while cradling Miku to her chest. The petite girl seemed perfectly content for the moment to nuzzle in where she was, but Haku couldn't stop a faint blush at the feel of her girlfriend cuddled in and touching where she was, her cheeks and nose bumping the sides of her breasts, but she wasn't thinking about that right then. Well… barely thinking about it.
"As long as it's a sexy car." Miku's thought seemed a grumble even in her head.
"Maybe we should go car shopping with Gumi-chan then." She suggested with a very out loud giggle, and Miku turned her eyes up to catch Haku's gaze.
"Maybe we should." She said out loud, and Haku felt her chest surge with emotion, and she reached up affectionately to gently brush back a few light blue bangs out of the way of those gorgeous green eyes.
They both watched in their mind's eye as Luka pulled the Ferrari around to the alley she'd left the body in and parked in the mouth of it just far enough in that it was out of sight. She left the engine idling as she got out and walked around to open the passenger door, and as she did the voice of an older man just visible walking by on the sidewalk passed the alley drifted to them as he ranted to a preteen boy following him. "-telling you you're damn lucky to have the sorts of gadgets and gizmos you have these days! When i was your age 3D projections were still experimental and took screens the size of a table top to make anything worthwhile, and hard light hadn't even been invented yet so you couldn't even interact with them! The best we could ever do was wave our hands through them to mess with the light rays! And even then, my grandpappy used to tell us all about how his first phone didn't even have a projector, and how cars when he was a boy were still all stuck to the ground! Humanity has all had it so easy the past couple hundred years no one even appreciates the-" the pair moved on out of sight, the boy clearly not paying attention to his grandfather.
Miku blinked and tilted her head. "Phones without projectors…?" She made a face considering the notion. "Then how did they watch 3D videos?"
"I don't think they did." Haku pondered. "I wonder just how much of modern day technology that we take for granted would be amazing to someone from like the twentieth century."
Her musings were cut short as they watched through their girlfriend's eyes as she tried to get the body out of the dumpster. It seemed the trash level inside was lower than Luka could reach and they could feel every sharp poke and jab of the metal trash bin in the pink haired beauty's sides and tummy through their cyberlink as she hoisted herself up the edge of it. On the outside Luka looked as calm as a frozen lake as she always did, but on the inside they could feel her anger and revulsion at having to deal with this. None of them said or thought anything, just tried to convey love and comfort down their connection to help Luka through this, doing their best to be there for her despite not actually being there physically. Haku thought maybe in the future they should all go together to provide support since it was up to them now, since they didn't have a team at the Compound to do this anymore, or at least go in pairs. They needed to find work arounds for everything to make up for what they'd lost. They had a lab here, her parents must have had some way to deal with-
Abruptly Haku cut off mid pondering and blinked. Miku looked up at her curiously, her moment of mental clarity through her grief still persisting in light of Luka's current struggles. The taller idol had made it clear she didn't want them coming out and risking themselves with her in this moment, but they were at home, and maybe… "Come on." Haku said, urging Miku up off her lap so they could stand up.
"Eh?" Miku uttered a confused plaintive noise at losing her warm snuggle spot, "Where are we going?" Haku took her by the hand and led her out of the studio, wanting to keep Miku as grounded as she could for as long as she could before sinking back into melancholy. Focusing on the music had done it at least for a little while, and with Luka's struggle with the souldrinker she'd been focused too. She wished she'd thought of this weeks ago, could maybe have saved her love some grief, but she hadn't thought Miku to be the focusing type because she was naturally so distractible. But maybe it was that distraction she'd needed all along, and Haku mentally cursed herself for not seeing it sooner. She felt a squeeze of her hand and glanced around at the other girl as they walked through the halls of the mansion. Miku offered a small sad smile. "You know I couldn't handle this without you… both of you… don't you?" She whispered, tears springing up to her green eyes. Haku stopped in her tracks, reached out, and wordlessly wrapped her arms around her girlfriend. Miku accepted the embrace readily enough, and they stood there like that in the middle of the hallway just soaking in the softness and warmth of the other girl until finally Haku got their feet moving again.
The lab levels of the basement behind the secret hidden nanite door (which spread apart for them like a curtain drawing itself open) were fairly expansive, stretching easily the length of the entire manor. When they'd first found it after discovering the refuge of her family estate she'd made a cursory inspection of it just to see what sorts of things were down here, and in truth it had everything the old Vocaloid Compound had held in terms of facilities and equipment, with the sole exception of a testing chamber, but there was certainly plenty enough room for one. After spending time working down here on things like her old error code and the new loop exit problem her software had been throwing occasionally since they'd flashed her hardware she'd found more secret nanite doors leading deeper into the lab. The main room that the stairway down exited into held the giant main lab terminal and a couple of exam tables. Haku walked them through it to the door on the opposite side and into a hallway that turned left and kept going straight ahead. To the right was a door that led to the huge underground garage which Luka had completely taken over, having rearranged every tool and piece off hardware in to her liking. Haku started to walk by it, then paused a moment looking around. The other rooms nearby were component design and maintenance rooms, but…
"Haku-chin what are we doing down here? This place totes gives me the wiggins." Miku complained.
Haku blinked at her curiously. "Why? It's not all that different from… the others we've been in." She's almost said 'from your parent's' but she changed it as she was talking and tried not to think it. A stab of emotional pain from the cyberlink said she didn't manage it, but Miku shook her head and gestured at the lab around them.
"Those seemed as creeptastic to me as this one. So cold and sterile, no life, no beauty."
"It's a laboratory." Haku blinked at her. "What do you think it needs, carpets and flower vases?"
"Maybe!" Miku stuck her tongue out at her. "Right now I'd settle for knowing what we're doing."
"We need to make some modifications." Haku said, glancing around at the hallway again and through the doors she could see. "Carrying on The Vocaloids is up to us now, and we need to start working on things if we're going to get it under control."
Miku blinked at her wide eyed. "What things? What changes?"
"An incinerator, for one thing." Haku said as she began ticking off points in her mind out loud as the thoughts seemed to mount in her head. "So that we have a reliable private way to dispose of the souldrinkers. We need a new sonic testing chamber so we can conduct our own tests. Maybe even a training room made of the same sonic meshing we can train in. We need to find a way to relink the satellite and detection grid to the computers here so we can go back to monitoring the city. I'd like an exam room because I still don't know what the souldrinkers even are or how exactly they work aside from basic principles we talked with the doctors about before. We need a more dedicated maintenance room because we need to be able to monitor our cybernetic implants incase something goes wrong, and we need-"
"Okay okay I get it!" Miku threw her hands up in surrender.
"I think they're all a great ideas." Came a thought from Luka in their minds.
"How are we going to do all of this?" Miku asked and waved a hand at the walls. "That's so much, it will take the three of us forever to accomplish it all!"
"We'd need a team of people to help pull all that off in a timely manner." Luka put in, her thought in their heads accompanied by a view of the road as she was making her way home.
"Maybe…" Miku muttered quietly, and Haku could tell she was trying hard to keep her grief in check as they danced around recent events, could feel the effort the twintailed girl was putting in to holding it back. "Maybe… some of my parent's… team survived the explosion?" She suggested tentatively. "Maybe we could find them…?"
Haku thought about that for a moment but ultimately shook her head. "I don't see how. We were programmed to ignore them, and that never got resolved in the flurry of other events. I don't even know what they look like, let alone their names. Do either of you?"
Miku shook her head morosely and they could feel doubt down their link from Luka. "There has to be something we can do."
"There is." Haku replied, and smiled at her petite girlfriend when her eyes came up hopefully. "We need to recall the other Vocaloids." Miku blinked then smiled prettily and moved in for a hug. For the first time in weeks she had very nearly the feel of her old self back. The other Vocaloids were like family now, after everything they'd been through, and she desperately needed family at a time like this. She buried her face against Haku's neck and nuzzled softly. "Thank you." She whispered, and Haku just squeezed her tightly around the middle.
They spent the next twenty or so minutes until Luka got back going room to room and taking more detailed stock of what was in each and figuring out the purpose for each one. The maintenance rooms right across from the garage access had to stay of course, and so did the component room beside them with it's stations set up for part and implant design and analyses. The storage room on the end however was right beside a secondary back door from the garage, and as it was mostly empty Haku thought it might be large enough for a furnace and conveyor. When they went back down the hallway to the start beside the main room and took the branching corridor further back they found rooms with heavier machinery, most of which she didn't immediately recognize but she assumed had to do with larger scale metal manipulation and the automation necessary to turn out their cybernetic implants. One room back here looked like a sterile chemical bath and another held racks and racks of jars with various colored liquid suspensions in cold storage on one side, a huge chemistry station with rows of tables in the middle, and several large mostly clear glass cases on the other wall that were all empty.
"You could practically build a Vocaloid from scratch in this lab…" Haku said as they wandered between the last few rooms.
"I think I saw a horror flick like this place once." Miku quipped.
They went back out to the front highway, having been keeping a mental eye on Luka's progress, and knew she was nearly back even before the smooth slightly effeminate tone seemed to come from nowhere in the hall they stood in. "Megurine-sama has returned, Yowane-sama."
"Thank you Vy." Haku replied to the Estate's A.I. "Will you please open the hidden garage access for her?"
"Certainly, Yowane-sama." Came the smooth response and the two girls stepped into the garage to watch. A section of the ceiling at the far end of the garage began to lower down at an angle and the light of day could be seen shining through. A few moments later they could hear the Ferrari's engine throttling before that car itself came into view. Luka descended down the ramp and into the hidden garage before the ramp lifted once more to close behind her, and she stopped the car and cut the engine in front of them.
Miku ran up to the pink haired beauty and barely waited for Luka to straighten up out of the car before throwing her arms around her in a huge hug. "Welcome home, I missed you!"
Luka squeezed the twintailed girl around the middle and kissed the top of her head. "I missed you too."
After a few moments Miku gave way for Haku to get a hug, which she did happily enough, if with less force. She slid her arms around the slightly taller girl's waist and fit her body in against Luka's curves. "Welcome home." She felt arms encircle her shoulders and a kiss press against her forehead.
"Thank you." Came that crystal voice that always made Haku melt a little inside. She looked up at her glorious idol and Luka blinked down at her. "You really like my voice that much?"
"It's like crystal…" Haku murmured as her cheeks caught fire. She heard giggling from behind her and shot a stare over her shoulder at Miku, and the petite girl promptly glommed on to her from the back, sandwiching her between them. Haku made a little hrk sound but couldn't deny how much she loved this. At least, she couldn't deny it inside to herself, but of course they could hear that.
"So what was your idea?" Luka asked with that small private smile on her lips, and Haku could feel the amusement and self satisfaction coming from her at the compliment. Haku started hard at the taller idol. It wasn't her fault Luka's voice melted her like butter! Luka's smile deepened.
Clearing her throat and connecting to the internet with a thought Haku brought up her 3D visual overlay and her virtual workspace she used when she analyzed things in real time. They could see her visual input too but they turned to look where she was looking, sharing in the virtual environment with her through the link. She gestured toward the far end of the garage where there were the fewest tools and racks layed out, where the wall was closest to the empty storage room. "A conveyor and an incinerator of our own, so we can dispose of the souldrinkers we bring in." At a wave of her hand she created a sort of 3D holo image of a conveyor she'd brought up online from an industrial manufacturer's website. She shifted it with her will so it was sticking out of the wall just a bit, then led them toward the rear door near it so they could look into the storage room with her. Another holo from the manufacturer's website to bring up an incinerator, and she let it hover in the room. "We connect the conveyor to it, so all we have to do when we bring souldrinkers back is pull up beside it in the garage and set it on the end then activate it." With a gesture a plain grey sphere appeared on the conveyor end, which they could still see in their 3D environment despite the wall now in the way. The conveyor carried it around through the wall to the incinerator in the room they were standing in and deposited it in the giant virtual machine.
"That looks sooooooo handy." Miku bubbled.
"I'm surprised there isn't already something like that here." Luka said, gesturing vaguely around to indicate the rest of the lab. "Don't scientists keep genetic samples they sometimes have to dispose of?"
"Maybe they never had a need for something on this scale here?" Haku guessed. "According to my father's notes this was their first real lab and the earliest one they abandoned. The one I blew up was much bigger than this, they probably only did small scale experiments here, while we have a larger need."
"A need to totes roast baddies by the dozen all flambe style a la Haku-chin!" Miku giggled punching a fist into the air, and the other two started at her.
"Miku-chin…" Luka started.
"Mhm mhm!" Miku gave a couple of decisive nods, and Haku couldn't help herself and dissolved in a fit of giggles which the twintailed girl quickly echoed, and a moment later even Luka fell to the gigglefit.
Luka opened her mouth to say something but that moment Vy's smooth voice cut in. "Yowane-sama, there is a visitor pulling into the driveway."
Haku blinked in surprise, glancing at the other two girls, but her loves both looked as clueless as she did. "Who is it?"
"No identification match found in my files." The Estate's AI replied. "Shall I alert the authorities to a trespasser?"
"What?" Miku blinked rapidly.
"Nono, we'll see who it is." Haku said quickly, and the three of them made their way out of the lab and to the stairs that would take them to the hallway connecting to the entryway. As they exited the stairwell they heard the deep ring of the door chimes, Vy's sensors having notified them ahead of time of the approach, and they quickened their step along the carpet. Ia was quicker though, or perhaps just had been passing by on her way to or from upstairs, because they saw her come into view at the end of the halfway and reach for the door handle to pull it open with a kind smile.
"Yowane Residence, how-" She blinked and cut off briefly, faltering for a moment for some reason they couldn't determine. "How may I help you?" She finished, her smile not failing even as her voice had.
"Aria Ia?!" Came a stronger but still feminine voice sounding confused, a voice they all recognized as they hurried up to the door. "Yowane…? I thought I'd find Megurine Luka here…?"
"I mean… well she does live here but…?" Ia began nervously before the approach of the other girls drew her attention to the side and she let out a relieved sigh. She stepped to the side to let the other three dominate the door, Luka standing in there middle with the other two to either side.
"Yuzuki-san." Luka's crystalline voice came out in a neutral monotone that Haku would have known meant she wasn't feeling particularly accommodating of silliness even without being able to feel her sudden apprehension through their cyberlink. "What are you doing here?"
Yukari shifted her wide eyed gaze from Miku to Haku and back to Miku again before looking up to Luka. "You three are famous idols and you live here together…? Then… the rumors about you…" The apprehension in their shared connection changed to outright defensiveness as their visitor trailed off and blinked at Ia for a moment before turning back to Luka. "What other famous singers are going to come out of the woodwork? Kasane Teto? Megpoid Gumi? Are all the Vocaloids here?"
"What are you doing here?" Luka repeated, her crystal voice hardening to diamonds in her heightened state of defensiveness.
"I followed you." Yukari answered in a nonchalant tone as though there was nothing in the world wrong with that.
"Do you make a habit of following idols around?" Luka asked sharply.
"Do you make a habit of carting bodies around and lying about it?" Yukari retorted. The two stared each other in the eye, matching wills in a showdown that surprised Haku. Not many people she'd ever known could pit themselves against Luka in a contest of willpower.
No matter how much dirt the teenager thought she had on the pink haired beauty she gave a valiant attempt at holding that piercing blue eyed gaze before finally dropping her eyes. Wringing her hands nervously Ia was the one to break the tension with a murmured, "M-Maybe it would be better to have this conversation inside…? I could make some tea…?"
Everyone stood there frozen for a moment as Luka considered the teenager before her. She was the one most under the gun, and tended to naturally take the lead besides, so they all waited on her decision. Finally the taller idol turned without a word in a swirl of pink locks to head inside and Ia let out a little sigh of relief. Once she'd led them into the dining room Luka stood by the spot at that table head because Haku and Miku gave her no choice, standing beside spots to either side. Luka gestured at the far end opposite herself to Yukari as Ia bustled off to see about tea, and once their guest had taken her seat the other three sat as well.
"Whatever you know," Luka began intently, and though she didn't move her head or raise her voice her diamond hard tones still spoke plainly of a stern resolve. "Whatever you think you know, is wrong."
"Then you're not some secret crime fighting vigilante who saves girls in alleyways and drags the bodies off before the police can show up?" Yukari asked dryly.
"We're not vigilantes." Luka replied just as dryly. They stared at each other a moment or two before she went on. "There are things in this world that no one knows about that would be very dangerous if word got out, and we work to contain them. It's a secret, and the fact that you know is very bad."
Yukari started at the three idols then abruptly burst out laughing. "Like spooks in the night?! Please! You're famous idols! Singers! And if the rumors are to be believed, you're in a romantic triangle which, judging by the way I found you all here-?' She glanced around at the Estate them raised a questioning eyebrow. Haku felt a surge of defensiveness through all three of them again but none of them said anything and Yukari gave a short nod. "And now I'm expected to believe you're some sort of monster secret service on top of it? Do you have any idea how insane this all sounds?"
"We know exactly how insane it all seems." Luka said quietly but still diamond hard as Ia came back with the tea, setting cups out and pouring for everyone, starting with their guest, then the pink haired beauty and then Haku and Miku before returning to the other end of the table and pouring for herself. "You can believe it or not, but what you should know is that we must defend this secret… at all costs."
A chill ran down the back of Yukari's neck and she gave a little shiver. "What… does that mean?" She eyed them carefully and blinked. "What, you're not going to let me leave over some feigned monster story or something?"
"Feigned?!" Miku squeaked indignantly. "It's true! How could you think we're making this up?!"
Yukari opened her mouth to say more but was distracted by a hand lain on her arm, and she shifted her gaze to the side. Ia had a compassionate look on her face, her eyes a short of lilac shade at the moment shining with empathy. "You were attacked, weren't you?" She asked softly in a sympathetic voice. The teen's face twisted from the confrontational attitude she'd been having with them so far to one of a more upsetting expression, and abruptly it struck Haku what was going on, her realization instantly sparking the same in her girlfriends as Yukari nodded at Ia.
"She's not here trying to cause problems, she's here trying to get a resolution to what she thinks was an attempted rape." Haku thought down their link.
"The poor girl, she must be frightened out of her wits, putting up a brave and confrontational front to hide the pain.' Miku thought back, her own face taking on a sympathetic grimace.
"That's very sad… but why did she come here?" Luka wondered as she considered the two at the other end of the table. "She should be relying on family or friends, or at least going to a mental care ward. Why stalk an idol for it?"
"Because she's frightened and you saved her." Haku returned, their entire metal exchange taking place at the speed of thought, Yukari having only had time during this to nod tremulously at Ia. "You make me feel safe all the time, I can see why she wanted to be here. But we were so caught up in the possible security risks to us a Vocaloids we didn't stop to think about what she was going through…" The feeling from the other two stained with shame down their link, mirroring her own bubbling up into her chest.
"Did you see it's eyes?" Ia asked the girl beside her in a soft tone. "All black swirling orbs like the depths of the abyss?" Yukari stared at her and nodded, her jaw clenching in an uncomfortable looking way. "It's always those eyes that scare me the most." She said a confiding sort of way. "Nothing human about them at all."
Yukari's eyes defocused for a long few moments as she seemed to visualize what she'd seen, what the other girl was describing. They let her ponder in silence until she finally looked up. "They're not human, whatever they are?"
"No they're not." Luka told her evenly.
Yukari gave a decisive nod. "Then I won't tell anyone, I promise." The three at the head of the table glanced at each other, each able to hear the others' thoughts about it. Was it really so easy as that? Did they really just let her walk out like that? What other option was there? What could they do short of more… extreme measures…?
"Please be sure not to." Luka said, none of them able to think of anything else to say about it. An awkward silence descended, each girl looking around at the others, then abruptly Yukari stood up.
"I'm sorry I forced this issue. I shouldn't have come here, I'll leave." She began to make her way to the door.
Ia reached a hand out as they all stood in response but failed to catch her. "Stay and finish your tea at least!"
Yukari shook her head, "No, I'm sorry to be rude, but I should really go." She opened the door and was a step outside when a call from Luka stopped her.
"Yuzuki-san." Yukari froze and turned back just enough to look over her shoulder dubiously. Luka offered a smile that, while it fell short of friendly, was at least kind. "We have a show coming up, all seven of us. Would you like a VIP seat?"
Yukari blinked apparently caught off guard by so mundane a question as a concert after everything they'd just talked about. Then after a moment she smiled back faintly. "Ah, sure. That sounds like a lot of fun." With that she turned to offer a small bow, which they returned, then got into her car and left, the quiet hum of the repulsors soon fading from hearing as she hovered off.