"Say," IA posits through the blind darkness of Yukari's room, "Yu?"
"Hm?" the lavender-haired VOICEROID grumbles.
"Well," IA says, as silent as a mouse, "if I comply with them, after my graduation — if that's what you want to call it, as an idol, I'll be auctioned off to the highest bidder. I'll be sent to some seaside manor, and you and I will never see each other again."
"So, it's like the red dot in the middle of the Japanese flag?"
"Exactly," IA recapitulates, "it means to surrender or die."
"Where is the route where you choose neither?"
"I don't know, I'm just a doll. Dolls don't know much about free-will, or hope, or a will to survive, or things like that."
"You're not a doll," Yukari stares unblinkingly at the cerulean reflection of the night on the ceiling, "that's for damned sure!"
"An android is created to serve the desires of others," IA states, "plain and simple."
"What if there really is not such thing as desire?"
"Preposterous," IA corrects, "my desire to see you, is why I'm here right now, instead of back at my empty condo... a place where Teto pops in occasionally to bring me surprise gifts! That girl is a raving shop-a-holic!"
"Well, then, why do you come here?"
The sound of slick car tires splashes through an avenue.
"I come because," IA catches her breath, "I come because, I've fallen in love with you."
"But, why?" Yukari asks, blank-faced, "Do you even know?"
"You pull my heart strings, plain and simple."
"So, what do we do now?" Yukari asks, the circuitry in the irises of her eyes clicking.
"As you suggested," IA says, a processing logo suddenly forming in the orbits of her eyes, "there is the notion of escaping, but I feel that the success-rate of such an ante has a very slim do-ability rate."
"Ha, do-ability," Yukari repeats with a smile, patting IA on her head, tussling her hair-wings, "I like that word. It's good."
With cartoonish steam plumes pouring out of her ears, IA absconds her with, "Please take me seriously, for a second, please!"
"Oh, I am," Yukari interfaces animately, "but, it doesn't mean that I can't admire the beauty of your words while doing so!"
"Geez," IA fumes, "if you say so!"
"I know so," Yukari responds with a wide grin and kisses one of IA teeny pinkies.
"Okay," IA's kissed hand freezes and she strokes her chin with the other, "so, how do we escape the system? As a said, I'm sure this place won't be hidden for long. They'll find it and render it insecure, and possibly, they'll possibly kill us both."
Yukari gets a look as cold as steel and whispers, "I have guns."
"Killing people should be off the table," IA cries in appellation.
"If it's in self-defense," Yukari says with sincerity, "I'm willing to."
"You speak as if you're a child," IA reiterates, "living in a pipe-dream, a video-game world. You know it isn't that simple. They have trained killers!"
"Since childhood," Yukari strikes the sinister match of malediction again, "I've been training, too. This place is sound-proof, so no one's ever heard me. I'm a rock singer, so no one's truly ever suspected my abilities with a firearm."
"What happened to you, to make you like this?"
"One day," Yukari says, knowing that her words are empty, "I might tell you."
"I doubt you ever will."
"You know me well enough then," Yukari shrugs, "I will tell you this, though, I have three dissociated personalities. I'm not sure which one is the real me. And it's hard to gather a single, cohesive picture of that time... while being split. My dominant personality is known as Jun — my dark, desirous side is known as Lin, and the egoless extremity is known simply as Onn. The only person who has encountered all three of them is my good friend, Akari. She says that those names are identities that they chose for themselves. If anything severe happens, on of those two might take dominion over my soul."
"If one is desire and the other is a lack thereof," Akari says with a few vacant blinks, "then what are you, in the schema of personalities."
"I'm the watcher," Yukari states in eyes as clear as a babbling stream, "the other two are like the angel and devil on my shoulder, and I sit in the middle and to observe. I am always just sitting on the throne of power, never sure of what decision to make. Whether to choose desire or piety, it can be hard sometimes. Sometimes I give into the whims of one personality more than other, even without said alter having to be an active participant in the decision."
"I see," IA says in a belabored breath, "so, you and them are one, but some side's serve as more extreme dictators behind the decisions you make and emotions you feel. Does that mean that Onn is a saint?"
"In a way, I guess," Yukari ingeminates, "I see her more of someone who has transcended the need for worldly desire, an ethereal spirit. Her presence has been compared to the bristling awns of a cherry blossom tree branch, she often wears flowers and her hair. And she floats around this corporeality, rather than walks."
"And what about Lin?" IA asks skeptically.
"Do you really even want to know about Lin?" Yukari laughs uncomfortably, but a grimace plays across her thin smile, "Lin will do anything and everything to make sure that she is gratified, whether it be: sex, drugs, or murder. She has no care, except for self-gain."
"How frightening!"
"They rarely come out," Yukari dwells in her thoughts as she says these things, "but Akari has had to stay far away from Lin, to feel any sense of security."
"And these sides," IA corresponds with fear rounding her eyes, "these sides are caused by a traumatic event."
"Yes," Yukari retells, "as I may have implied, I didn't always live in the slums."
"I didn't figure so," IA whispers, "so, to kill and fight off our detractors. You would have to give yourself over to Lin?"
"Yes."
"I think," IA curates a correct response, "I think that we should go our separate ways, then."
"No," Yukari laments softly, "I need you around, IA. You're the only person that I've been capable of falling in love with."
"But, to risk our safety and your sanity," IA muses, "I'm not sure."
"Tonight," Yukari swallows, while grasping IA's elbow, "tonight, will you perform a duet with me?"
"Sure," IA says, suddenly flustered, "what song?"
"Rin and Len Kagamine's Dolls. I want you to sing this cover with me."
"That's such a beautiful song," IA murmurs, the flattery of such a request causing shivers to crawl up her spine, "are you sure you want to sing it... with me?"
"There's no other person that I could have that kind of synchronicity with!" Yukari blurts out, brashly, "Never, with anyone else, could I."
"Okay," IA concedes, "let's rehearse, then."
The evening, the two of them appear on stage, hand-in-hand. Yukari is dressed is a short, white lace gown with two violet fringes of each side, while IA is wearing a long, gothic-styled, block dress and ribbons tying together the open back. Yukari vociferates with humble clarity, "The VOCALOID idol, IA, and I are going to sing a song together tonight."
Gossip and whispers of a possible romantic affair break-out in the crowd, Yukari ignores them and continues, "The song is called Dolls, by the VOCALOID twins, Rin and Len."
When the music begins, their free hands clutch together with such might, that their palms are white and bloodless. Yukari sings first—
夜のこの街
This town in the night.
灯りがともる
The lights are lit.
軋む歯車と車輪の音
I made the sound of creaking
響かせて歩いた
Gears and wheels echo as I walked
行く宛もなく
With nowhere to go,
上手く歩けなくても
Even though I could not walk well.
私は何故生まれたのでしょう
Why could it be that I was born?
何故心臓は銀の色なの
Why is my heart the color of silver?
IA joins in at—
遠い昔にあの人が言った
In the remote past, that person said,
「君は特別な人形」だと
"You are a special doll" to me
踊り歌い
Dancing and singing,
彼に褒められるように
So, as to be praised by her.
今も歌ってる ずっと
I am singing even now, forever.
彼が瞳を覚まさなくても歌おう
Even if he does not open her eyes, I will sing.
私は何故生まれたのでしょう
Why could it be that I was born?
ただ永遠に歌い続ける
I will just continue singing for eternity.
They sing together like a gasp of fresh air, the verse—
いつかは眠りつき
One day coming to sleep,
あの人のいる素敵な場所へ
To the great place where that person is
願いは叶わない
My wish will not come true.
一人歌い生きて壊れて
一I live singing alone and break
時が流れて
Time flows,
歌も忘れて
I forget my songs, too,
あの人眠る場所へと急ぐ
and I hurry toward the place where that person sleeps
ひび割れた身体をひきずりながら
while dragging along my chipped and cracked body,
何度転んでも
no matter how many times I fall down.
海の見える場所に花を添え
Accompanying the flowers at a place where I can see the sea一
さあ眠らせて
Come, let me sleep
あの人と共に
Along with that person.
願いを叶えましょう
Let us grant my wish.
「君は充分一人で生きた」
"You have lived alone long enough."
あの人の声が聴こえた 近い傍で
I heard that person's voice close at my side.
夢の中で何度も聴いた声
The voice I listened to so many times within my dreams.
優しく胸に響き渡る
It tenderly resounds in my chest.
穏やかな光
A gentle light
私を包んで
Surrounds me,
笑ってる
And I'm smiling.
笑ってる
I am smiling
Tears flow soundlessly in ribbons down both of their faces; the two of them want to live as independent beings, no longer dolls. No longer trapped, no longer controlled. Their fingers are laced together like roots from the same tree. They are no longer alone in the solemnity of existence.
The rest of the band is speechless: Maki is drinking herself to death, Kiritan is smiling... feeling a strong swell of pride pass over her, and she looks over to Akari, and the silver-haired maiden is weeping, but traces of a smile are across her lips. Kiritan inquires with worry, "You okay, 'kari?"
"Yeah," Akari chokes out, "I'm just so relieved that she's finally found someone that makes her truly happy. She's been a loner for so long, you know."
"I agree," Kiritan nods and makes sound effects, while scratching her head, "I just hope that this whole thing doesn't end with both of them losing."
"What do you mean?"
"The system will purge their relationship like a virus," Kiritan explains, "it's very likely that one of them will lose their life, in the process."
As Kiritan's words ring through Akari's ears, the two lovers return to find Yukari's subterranean hideaway completely vandalized. Food is strewn out and broken against walls; all of her guitars, save for the one on stage, are smashed. Luckily, Yukari had the forethought earlier, to hide a few of her machine guns, but the ones left out — had been stolen.
Even her small cot of a bed had been ripped apart, feathers from the springs stuck to her feet and toes. Everything that Yukari had collected over the years, save for the things she had hidden away, had been ruined in the matter of hours! She falls to her knees, shoulders shaking.
"I should go back to them," IA says with a numb shudder.
"No," Yukari begs quietly, "please, stay here. You're all that's keeping Lin from resurfacing, and wreaking havoc."
"Okay," IA surrenders, "we'll stay in a hotel tonight, though, okay?"
"Alright."
TO BE CONTINUED