In which Piko and Gumi throw insults at each other

Gumi came inside out of the howling winds and went to her room. On the way to her room she passed Piko.

"Hey there, Spaceship!" He waved.

"Are you calling me fat?" Gumi gave the silver-haired boy a quizzical look.

"No, no! It was just… nothing. Just something Miki said." He started gazing into space, no doubt daydreaming about Miki.

"…No wonder you two are together. You're both really weird."

"You're one to talk, Goggles!" he countered.

"USB!"

"Underboob!"

"Oh, that's low!" Gumi hissed. "Besides, Gakupo took away all of my V3 wardrobe."

"He would." Piko laughed. Though Gakupo was often considered pervy and creepy, those who knew him well knew that he was very caring, both of his girlfriend, Luka, and his younger siblings, Gumi, Lily, and Gacha.

All of the tension having faded, they bid each other goodbye and Gumi went to her room. She went to her desk and crossed off a bunch of names on a paper.

"Not a Vocaloid, not an UTAU…" she muttered. "Next are the Genderbends."

The Genderbends lived in a mansion next door that was a mirror image of the one the Vocaloids lived in. She didn't know a lot about the Genderbends… she had seen Miku and Mikuo fighting often, and she knew that Rinto and Lenka would come over once a week to play 'spin the bottle' with Rin and Len. And then there was Gumo… Gumi blushed and threw herself onto the bed. She was still untangling her feelings about her genderbend. Though they didn't talk often, when they did Gumi felt completely understood. Although that made sense, Gumo was exactly like her in almost every way apart from gender. But at the same time… he also seemed more reserved than her. His creativity expressed itself in quieter ways. This was a nice contrast to her usual loud, crazy self. If she thought about it…they would make such a great couple…

"But!" Gumi shouted as she hopped off her bed. "This investigation is about Akita Neru and her secret romance with…someone! It takes precedence over any and all other love lives!" and with that Gumi stomped out of her room, across the hall to go get Miki.

When she got to Miki's room, however, she noticed the lights were off. Fearing the worst, Gumi put her ear against the door. Nothing. She breathed a sigh of relief as she opened the door and flicked on the lights.

"Miki! It's time to go interview the genderbends!"

"Do you think Mikoto is a pretty name? Or what about Shou?" Miki asked, lying flat on her bed and staring up at the ceiling.

"W-what? Miki, what's going on?" Gumi sighed, exasperated. Miki promptly sat up.

"Piko said that I was everything to him." Miki stared at Gumi for a moment, then fell back on the bed and squealed into a pillow.

"That's great! But we really have to get this show on the road. Come on, we can go hang out with Kaiko!" Gumi went over and tugged on Miki's hand.

"Why can't you go yourself? Is it because of himmmm?" Miki smiled mischievously at her friend.

"No! I mean, yes, but… come onnn, I need someone to help me since Miku is sitting this one out… and, why did Piko call me a spaceship?"

"Long story." Miki jumped off the bed and went to the door. "…Well, are you coming?"

The two girls walked up to the Genderbend Mansion. It was always a little disconcerting visiting there, since everything was on the opposite side of where it normally was. Miki, after walking to the wrong side of the door first, rang the bell.

"Who is it?" called a voice from the other side of the door. Miki had only met the genderbends once or twice, so she didn't recognize who the voice belonged to.

"It's SF-A2 Miki and Gumi Megpoid!" Gumi said. The door opened revealing a bored-looking teal-haired boy. "Ah, Mikuo, just the man I was looking for!" Gumi said, sauntering into the house, Miki close behind.

"What do you want me for?" Mikuo mumbled, barely audible.

"Wow, you are so unlike Miku it's shocking!" Gumi patted his shoulder. "Come on, we're going to interview you! It'll be fun!" Suddenly, Gumi became alert and sniffed the air. "How come the air is so clean? Where's Dell?" she turned to Kaiko, who was sipping tea next to Meito.

"I don't know. He left the house right after breakfast and we haven't seen him since."

"Probably ran out of cigarettes and went to buy some more." Luki laughed from the dining room, where he was playing tic-tac-toe with Olivia.

Hmmm… suspicious. Gumi thought. She filed the factoid away in her brain for later and pushed Mikuo towards the little sitting room by the base of the stairs. She began to explain the situation to him.

"Okay, so we're trying to figure out who Neru is texting all the time, because we think it's someone that she's dating secretly,"

"Uh, Gumi…" Miki said quietly.

"and I was really bored today and I needed something to do, so I went to Teto but she said it wasn't and UTAU,"

"Gumi!" Miki said, louder this time, but she still went unheard.

"so we came here because we thought maybe it was you."

"Gumi!" Miki shouted, just as Gumi turned around to see Gumo's face, only inches from hers.

"Hey, there, Gumi! Haven't seen you in a while." Gumo stepped back slightly to dissolve the awkwardness.

"Hehe, uh, yeah, it's great to see you too!" Gumi was blushing like mad but tried to carry on the conversation while Miki fangirled in the background and Mikuo stood there, confused.

"What're you up too? Some evil scheme no doubt?" Gumo asked her teasingly.

"Yeah we're… we're just trying to figure out who Neru's secret mystery lover is."

"You'll never change, Gumi." he gave her a hug, which made Gumi's face even redder, and then quickly said to Miki, "Congratulations, by the way, you and Piko make a really cute couple." Then he left. Gumi was still standing there like a statue, a statue with a face as red as her goggles.

"Gumi, snap out of it! We have an interview to conduct, remember?" Miki said, snapping her fingers in front of her friend's blank stare. Gumi shook her head to clear it.

"Uh… yeah. Mikuo, have a seat."

"Look, I know you probably won't believe me, but it's not me. Neru hates Miku, remember?" Mikuo explained.

"Yeah, but you are the opposite of her, just like Neru. It would make sense…" Miki started to say, but she trailed off.

"Here, look at my phone. I haven't sent a text in three days, and the last one I sent was to SeeWoo reminding him to get more spring onions." He said, handing his phone over to Gumi. She scrolled through the messages a bit, before sighing.

"It checks out." She scribbled something in her reporter's notebook. "Have you seen anyone else texting an abnormal amount?" she asked.

"Well Meito and Kaiko are texting each other a lot – "

"Wait, are they going out or something?" Miki interrupted.

"Yeah, I think so, although I haven't really asked." Mikuo said.

"Then how come Kaito and Meiko aren't together?"

"We are independent beings, you know." Mikuo said, exasperated at having to explain this concept again. "We are not tethered to our counterparts. Like me and Miku. We're complete opposites. And like how Gumi is crazy while Gumo's mostly sane."

"Right. Sorry." Miki apologized. "But… it's still really weird, right?"

"Can we get back on track?" Gumi asked impatiently, hiding her face. "Has anyone been acting differently than normal as of late?"

"Nope. Everyone has been acting normal. Except… Nero has been really pissed lately."

Gumi wrote a couple more lines then flipped her notebook closed.

"Thank you for your time, Mikuo. Please keep us informed if any of this information changes." She left the room with Miki, lost in thought. Could Neru be dating her own genderbend? Nothing's impossible…

Underboob! I liked writing that part. XD