She vaguely recalled Len's address – he had offhandedly mentioned the street he lived on once, before chuckling and telling her that his apartment building was pretty distinctive.
He certainly wasn't lying. Miku gazed up at the building – it wasn't super tall or anything, probably around 10 stories high, but the walls were blindingly white, with creeper plants twining up part-way around the sides of the apartment. She had to wonder how they kept the walls so very, very…clean. There was no speck of dirt or grey to be seen.
The building itself was segregated from the rest of the street by a giant courtyard. There were wrought iron gates preventing people from entering, though she tried giving them a little push and was surprised to see that they opened without much resistance. The gates themselves were extremely intricate – she could see fish, waves and other aquatic creatures moulded into the design. It was beautiful, and definitely one-of-a-kind. Whoever came up with this gate was clearly more than a little in love with the sea.
Two statues flanked the doorway. One was a dolphin, the other a shark, both sculptures astoundingly lifelike. They were pretty big too, towering over her as she approached the entrance. She could swear their eyes were following her, and she shivered, a little creeped out. Glancing at them again, she noticed the blank marble eyes were still fixed straight ahead and assured herself that she was just overthinking things. To be fair, she was pretty nervous.
The doors were made of glass, framed with black iron. They automatically opened as she neared them, and she stepped into the lobby of the apartment. It was a grand lobby, all modern and tasteful gold, with minimalistic chandeliers, a plush red carpet, and a bored receptionist sitting at the front desk. She blinked. It looked more like a hotel than a residential building.
The receptionist was chewing gum, and as Miku watched, she blew and popped a bubble. Her eyes bored into Miku, who suddenly felt a little intimidated. Len never really told her much about his family background or anything, just that he grew up near the seaside and he had a twin sister. He probably could have mentioned that his family was rich or something. This certainly was not the student-rented apartment she had been imagining.
Beckoning Miku closer, the receptionist sized her up, her stare completely blank. Miku fidgeted, wondering if this was normal. She felt like she was being judged. Then again, she probably looked very out of place, standing in such an opulent lobby. "And who are you here to visit?" the receptionist drawled, blowing yet another bubble.
"Kagamine…Len," she stumbled over his name, the words sounding foreign on her tongue. The receptionist's eyes widened a little, and she saw the woman straighten in her chair, placing both hands on the table. "Is he, um, is he home now?"
"As his visitor, shouldn't you know?" the receptionist raised an eyebrow. Miku just felt even more self-conscious. It wasn't like she had expected any of this. Going along with Gumi and Luka's suggestion had clearly been a bad idea. "It is not possible to seek an audience with him as and when you wish. I will need to know the specifics of your appointment."
"Oh, don't worry, she's with me." A breezy voice rang through the lobby, echoing off the gilded walls. Miku whipped around, searching for the source of the unfamiliar voice – she saw a girl walking in through the front doors, a girl who somehow reminded her of Len, with a distinct gleam in her bright blue eyes. "I told you not to just wander in by yourself!" the girl scolded as she reached Miku, placing one delicate hand on her shoulder.
Miku was pretty sure she had never seen this girl before in her life, but if she was helping her out of a sticky situation, then she wouldn't try to question things. "Sorry! I kind of got lost while looking for this place," she answered, a half-truth. She did wander around for a bit before she found the right street – she had never been great at following directions.
The girl tutted. "Well, now you know she's with me, so you'll let us in, correct?" she addressed the receptionist, who nodded wordlessly. She gestured at the sleek barrier behind her, which Miku now noticed led to the elevator, and the strange girl tugged on Miku's hand, pulling her out of the lobby. The receptionist turned her head and stared at them as they passed through the barrier, but she didn't say anything.
"Thank you so much for your help!" Miku spoke as soon as they were safely past the barrier and waiting for the elevator, grateful to her saviour. "I don't know what else I would have done – I didn't really have an appointment or anything," she admitted. The thought of needing an appointment to see her boyfriend was ridiculous. The girl glanced at her and smiled.
"No worries. I think I know who you are." She paused. "You'll be wanting the basement, yes? That's where they all go." Miku frowned. The basement? She hadn't been thinking of anything like the basement. She was pretty sure Len lived in one of the higher floors, but she couldn't remember which one exactly. She had been hoping the receptionist would be able to tell her that before she was informed that she needed an appointment.
"The basement?" she echoed. There was a tinge of unease making itself known in her chest. The girl nodded, her smile never changing. "That's where Len will be?"
The girl gave her a strange look. "Of course. Where else would he be?" she paused. "Ah, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Kagamine Rin. I'm his sister. I don't think we've met, but…well, after a while, there's no real need to. Forgive me for being blunt." Her smile widened.
Miku cocked her head, confused by her statement, but she didn't ask further questions, distracted by the realisation that this was Len's twin sister. No wonder she looked so very, very similar to Len. "Do you study at the same school as Len? I've never seen you around," Miku blurted out, curious. Maybe she could find out more about his family from his sister.
Rin laughed, stepping into the elevator as its doors opened for them. Miku followed suit, and the petite blonde pressed the button for the lowest floor. The doors closed quietly, and they began their descent, so smooth that it felt like they weren't moving at all. "No, of course not. Why would I need to go to school? I can understand why you might not be aware of that, however. Len has been behaving rather strangely in recent years."
Clearly, they were on different wavelengths, because Miku had absolutely no idea what Rin was talking about. The air in the elevator was getting colder, and Miku shivered, wondering just how far down the basement was. It had probably been an entire minute since they first got into the elevator, and there was no sign of the trip stopping anytime soon.
But right as she thought that, the elevator dinged and the doors opened, revealing a large chamber. Miku gaped, surprised at the view before her. She had thought it would be some dingy hallway or maybe an underground cave or something, but instead the place looked very…well, different. The room was huge, with a path leading directly from the elevator to a stone platform in the middle of the chamber. The path was lined with braziers that burned with a blue flame. Despite the fires, the room was freezing – she could see her breath misting as she exhaled. There were little bumps forming on her skin.
The platform, though large, looked rather tiny – it was little more than a small island in a large lake, for the chamber was entirely flooded. "Go on, wait inside. Len will come down in a while. And one word of advice – I wouldn't look into the water if I were you. Let me go tell him that his new bride has arrived." Rin waved at Miku, pushing her out of the elevator and promptly shutting the doors. Miku stumbled out onto the stone path and immediately turned, trying to get back into the elevator, but the button didn't seem to be working.
With a sigh, she rubbed her hands along her bare arms, hoping to generate enough friction to warm herself up. The chill was tolerable but certainly uncomfortable. This definitely was not what she had expected when she agreed to the stupid lingerie plan. She remembered what Rin said about his 'new bride' and wondered what the blonde meant by that.
New bride? She was Len's girlfriend, yes, but bride she most certainly was not. She blushed at the thought. She never dared to think about something like that, since the very first thing he told her about their relationship was that they would never get married. Of course, she did very much want to marry him in the future, but she figured that if she admitted that to him, she could forget entirely about even having a romantic relationship with him, let alone potential marriage. Didn't Len make a promise or something that he'd never get married?
So, why was his sister referring to Miku as his bride? Unless she meant somebody else? She bit her lip, turning the thought over in her head. Who knew? Maybe Len really did have a bride tucked away somewhere. He seemed rich, and rich people were all about arranged marriages and stuff, right? Wait, did that mean she was a third party in his engagement?
Deciding not to dwell on that possibility, she tried to push down the nerves in her stomach and continued walking forward, watching the dancing blue flames in their braziers. No heat radiated from the flames, and experimentally, she held a hand closer to one of the braziers. There was nothing – no sensation of warmth, nothing whatsoever. She frowned. Strange, because she remembered learning before that white-blue fires were significantly hotter than the usual orange-red ones. Maybe they were fake? It looked so real, though.
Rin's warning about not looking into the water danced around the back of her mind. It was very tempting to disregard the warning. She glanced at the still dark waters around her, taking furtive peeks out of the corners of her eyes. It looked clear and harmless enough to her, but she wondered if there was something lurking in those depths. How deep were those waters, exactly? What could be hiding within that was so dangerous, she needed to be explicitly told to avoid it? Her curiosity was making her itch. She took a deep breath.
She had reached the stone platform. Now that she was here, she could see a faint, square-shaped imprint on the ground. Maybe something had been removed from the platform. A pillar, or a table? She couldn't tell. The platform was completely empty otherwise.
There was nothing else to look at, and Rin and Len still weren't here yet, so she was quickly getting bored. The water around her seemed to ripple, as though it sensed her increasing restlessness, and she glanced at it again – no, it was as still as ever, but she felt drawn to its calmness. Her feet itched to bring her to the side of the platform, just so she could take a quick peek at what lay underneath. Treasure? Dead bodies? It could be anything, really.
Maybe just a quick look wouldn't hurt. A very quick one. Just a second. Miku gnawed on her lip, still half-consciously rubbing her arms to keep warm. If Len and Rin still weren't here within the next two minutes, then she would give in to her impulses and sneak a peek.
The seconds passed by agonisingly slowly. When Miku finally counted to 120, she exhaled in relief – neither of the blond twins were here yet. The elevator showed no sign of moving. Hurrying over to the side of the platform, she looked down at the still waters, holding her breath as she tried to find something to catch her eye. The waters swirled and at first, she saw nothing special – just her own reflection staring eagerly back at her.
Disappointment surged within her, but then something flickered, and she quickly turned, trying to find the source of movement. She moved towards the right, where she was sure she saw the thing, whatever it was. She didn't have to stare too hard to find it – once she located the source of the movement, she gasped, kneeling to take a closer look.
Deep within the waters, she saw…figures. Small people, moving around. They didn't seem to notice her looming over them. Ghostly, incorporeal shapes – made out of seafoam? Yet when she looked at those vague representations of people, she saw within her mind's eye features clear as day. The visions took her by surprise, blooming into her mind from nowhere. In her head she saw this very same chamber, but this time with a throne in the middle of the stone platform, where she recalled seeing that square-shaped imprint just now.
The throne was made of white rock. Dead coral? She wasn't sure. It was an ornate throne, beautiful to behold. A boy lounged on the throne as people knelt before him, their heads bowed in reverence. The boy, who was holding a trident, yawned and beckoned to the people to rise. Miku realised with an abrupt jolt that the boy was Len. But he looked – she didn't recognise him at first because he looked so very, very different from how he did now.
For one thing, his hair was long. She was used to seeing his hair barely touching his chin – it was just about long enough for him to do a short ponytail, but that was it. This Len's golden hair was done up in a loose, messy braid, and even then, it was long enough to reach slightly past his waist. His hair was threaded through with pearl strands. She knew this boy was Len for she recognised his features, but that was where all other semblance stopped.
"Which one today?" he asked. His voice was different too. Distant, cold – she couldn't imagine this person making any stupid jokes or teasing anyone. She shuddered. This Len sounded like he was business only, his tone clipped, his words short. Someone approached him, one of the people who had been kneeling moments ago – they lowered their hood, and Miku saw a very attractive young woman bowing her head, clasping her hands together behind her back. She couldn't be sure from this distance, but the woman looked like she was trembling. From fear? Len didn't say anything, but she could hear hissing.
She looked around the room and realised there were heads surfacing from the waters surrounding the platform, beautiful men and women, all with long hair and fair skin. They were watching the proceedings, but neither Len nor the others on the platform paid them any attention. "Are you sure? This is what you wish for?" Len asked, drawing everyone's attention back to him. The woman nodded, and Miku was sure now that she was shivering.
"Please give us the blessing of the sea, and provide us safe travel," a man's voice boomed. The others were all still cloaked, so Miku couldn't tell which person within the group had spoken, but he sounded weary. "We present to you our offering, the chief's daughter, to be your bride. In return all we seek is good fortune and fair weather in our voyage."
Len nodded. He didn't look particularly pleased nor upset – it reminded Miku of when they stopped kissing last night, when she couldn't quite get a read on whether Len enjoyed what they did either. "Thank you for the offering. You will get what you seek. And now you have obtained what you came for, leave and tell not another soul what happened here."
The group immediately turned and hurried down the platform – Miku observed that instead of an elevator, there was a set of steps carved into the wall, leading out of the chamber. It made her wonder how long ago this was. Was this a vision? A memory? Was the boy sitting on the throne really Len, or was this some kind of alternate reality? She honestly couldn't tell.
The woman who revealed herself stayed behind, and the people in the waters hissed again in unison, some of them beginning to climb onto the stone platform. Before they could get up however, Len slammed his trident against the ground, the loud sound ringing through the chamber. The beings in the water stopped. "You have one night." Len addressed the woman, who just gripped the material of her cloak, staring blankly back at him. Miku really had to admire her beauty. She looked like an actress, with her high cheekbones, large eyes with thick lashes, her full, pouty lips. She looked womanly. More so than Miku, at least.
"I understand, my liege." She paused, and Len tilted his head, waiting. "My…husband." It seemed like she was testing the word out on her tongue. The people waiting in the waters laughed, and it sounded more like a reptilian hiss than anything – Len didn't react, instead getting up from the throne and walking towards the woman. One hand reached out to touch the woman's chin, tipping her head, and he stared unblinkingly into her eyes. The woman didn't move.
"I wish you nothing but good fortune," Len said nothing else, allowing his hand to drop to his side. "For tonight, you will share my room, and we will see by tomorrow what your fate will be." He beckoned, and the woman fell obediently into step behind him. Instinctively, Miku shifted out of the way to allow them to pass, though she guessed that this was a vision and he would have passed right through her anyway. Yet Len's gaze darted to her and she gasped, recoiling in surprise. Len came to an abrupt halt, and dread filled her chest.
"Who are you?" he asked, cold blue eyes resting on her. Miku swallowed and looked around, hoping to see something to inspire her – she realised then that the rest of the room was frozen, and the only people moving were her and Len. Even the woman who had been following Len was frozen mid-stride, her gaze wide as she stared at Len's back, lips slightly parted. There was a faint blush on her porcelain cheeks. "Answer me, wench."
Len's voice dragged her attention back to him. He definitely didn't look pleased now. She swallowed, a thick lump in her throat. "I'm – you know who I am!" She didn't know why, but suddenly she felt defensive. Maybe it was related to seeing some random woman calling Len her husband. He told her that he made a promise to never get married! What was this?
"No. I don't." Len's tone was flat, and it took all the defensiveness out of her. She could tell this wasn't a joke – there was no trace of amusement on his face. He was as handsome as ever, but without the familiar glint of mischief in his eyes, Len looked like a sculpture – a perfect, beautiful statue, completely devoid of life. "You should start explaining yourself, mortal. No human can reach these chambers without my permission. You have one chance."
Mortal? He called her mortal. Like he wasn't. There was a sudden, sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. Was Len not human? What had she gotten herself into? "We met on campus, remember? You joined the choir? And I confessed to you, and everything? I wanted to give you a surprise and visit your apartment for once, since you're always coming to my dorm. If I knew it would be such a bad time, then I wouldn't have disturbed!" she quickly justified.
Len was still staring at her with that inscrutable look on his face. "I don't understand what you're talking about," he answered. "But I suppose it doesn't matter even if you want to take this lightly. I have no use for you." He turned, snapping his fingers, and the beings in the water unfroze, staring eagerly at him. Len gave her another look, this one cold and uncaring. "Enjoy your dinner for tonight," he told the others. "Clean up when you're all done."
He continued to walk down the passageway, the woman still trailing obediently after him, and Miku backed away as the water people began to climb onto the platform, most of them grinning eagerly at her. It was hard to think of them as beautiful when they had such sharp canines, the light of the braziers making their teeth gleam. She felt her back hit a wall and she looked around to realise there was an invisible barrier preventing her from getting to the stairs. Len and the woman were already leaving the chamber, and she pounded on the invisible barrier, screaming for help, trying to break the wall – something, anything.
It didn't work. The people came ever closer – out of the water, they were clad in thin white clothes that left very little to the imagination. Their semi-nudity made her uncomfortable, but not as much as their fingers did, their fingernails so sharp that they were practically talons. Some of them were salivating as they approached, reminding her of predators closing in for the kill. Then again, that was precisely what they were – they wanted to eat her. Was she going to die here? She couldn't die, not now. She was much too young.
"Len!" she screamed, a last-ditch effort to save herself from certain death. These people were too close now – any moment and one of them would pounce on her and probably rip her throat out. She squeezed her eyes shut, preparing herself for the onslaught of pain – but then a firm hand grabbed her wrist from behind, and she found herself being yanked through the barrier, being pulled up, up – like she was being rescued from drowning.
She gasped, her head breaking water, and she realised dimly that she was in water – in the very same waters as those people, in fact. "Get onto the platform." She heard a terse voice, familiar and strained – she turned around, one hand wiping the water away from her eyes, and saw Len looking back at her, a thunderous expression on his face. His hair was back in its usual short ponytail now, nothing like the long braid he sported just moments ago.
When she didn't move, more out of shock than anything else, Len sighed and dragged her out, hoisting her onto the platform as though she weighed no more than a feather. The flames in the braziers flickered, and she shivered, the cold slapping her awake – now that she was soaked, the chill in the chamber seemed to pierce into her very bones. She didn't even know she had fallen into the water. "What are you doing here?" Len asked, voice flat.
Miku shook her head, teeth chattering. Her clothes were dripping, multiple rivulets flowing back into the moat surrounding them. That was something she would answer later – first, she needed to find out what was going on. There were too many questions swirling around in her head.
"You're not human, are you, Len?" she asked, surprised that her voice was steady despite the way her teeth were chattering. He didn't answer, and she took that as an invitation to continue. "If you're not human, then…what in the world are you?"