Please enjoy this chapter, and thanks for reading. I really want to thank the reviewers, you guys are awesome. :)

You really think I own Vocaloid? Well, I don't.

-/V\-/V\-/V\-

Miku p.o.v

'I'm late, I'm late.' I muttered to myself while running towards school. I was sure the law didn't allow running if you weren't running for your life, but the law also didn't allow people coming in late at school. Luckily the agents didn't take any interest in a running girl, well, who knows? Maybe I'm running because there's some creep on a motorcycle after me. Of course there wasn't, but did they know that?
While running I studied the people around me a bit. Most of them wore boring grey suits, and I wondered... Since when had grey become our national colour? Most of them were on their PCD (1), probably for business, what else? Games had been banned a couple of years back.
Suddenly I wondered, when all those new prohibitions got installed, what happened to people who earned their money in that branch, I thought a bit about it, before I remembered the time and started running again, I would ask Len or Rin about it later, as they seemed to know everything...

-/V\-/V\-/V\-

As I entered the classroom, breathing heavily, I walked to my seat, then I saw the Kagamines walking towards me. 'Miku, are you alright? Anything happened we should know?' Rin asked, I looked from her to Len and back. 'Why do you ask?' I asked confused, and why were they here at my table, wasn't the lesson going to start in, like, a few seconds? 'Because you're looking as if you were chased by the devil.' Len answered. He seemed to have lost his attention when he discovered there wasn't any huge crisis in town.
Rin on the other hand... She stared at me, impatiently tapping her feet. Why?.. Wait, I hadn't reacted to what Len said yet. I was just staring at them bewildered.
'Cause I was late? I mean, shouldn't class start in like, now?' Both gave each other a confused look. Then they got out their PCD's to check the time. They looked at each other and started laughing at exactly the same second. It was as if one was real, and the other their mirrored version...
'You guys creep me out when you do stuff like that, what are you? Twins?' I seriously asked that question, seriously?! 'Miku... I knew you weren't the smartest girl in class, but to ask if we're twins? I thought you were smarter than that.' Len commented, he was starting to annoy me, acting as if he was better than me, ugh.
Suddenly a friend of mine, actually my best friend, Teto came towards us. 'Miku, what happened? You look terrible!' She screamed. Both Rin and Len did a complete turnaround. 'She thought she was late.' Rin said while giggling like a little girl.
'I think she read the time wrong.' Len murmured weakly. Teto didn't even mind them, which surprised me, what glasses and pigtails could do for a disguise. 'I think I mistook the seven for an eight.' I said while looking at my own PCD, how could I have made such a mistake?

We still had quite some minutes left before class started, and while we were supposed to be making exercises on our own now, no one did. Teachers didn't mind, because they didn't like the new rules which were installed as a direct result of the new laws. Some subjects got banned because they were deemed worthless by the state, even history and geography fell victim to it. They were replaced with new lessons about how one should behave in this new world. Nobody paid attention, the teachers just read from their books while we broke down the classroom. If an agent or inspector walked in while we weren't prepared we were sure to have a new teacher the next day.

A few months back we would've studied while waiting for our teacher, we would've stayed quiet during class while taking notes, and the government would have been proud of us, what happened? Well, there's this group of singers going around town they perform on top of flats and send their songs to everyone's PCD. And it may seem stupid, but those songs helped us, so what does this have to do with our situation? Well, for one, I just noticed that the singers and the terrorist group I joined yesterday share the same name. And second? Teto was trying to get me to listen to their new song, which came out only two days ago.
'Teto, I've already listened to this song, and yes, I think it's great.' I told her for the fourth time that day.
'But Mikuuuu...' She whined. 'It's sung by FireFlower!' (2)
I chuckled. 'You're addicted to FireFlower's voice!' At first, Teto gave me a weird look. But then she bursted out laughing. 'You know, I think you're right. And you know what, when I meet him, I'm going to ask him to marry me.' I couldn't help but laugh.
'You've never even seen him before! What I he's ugly and acts like a jerk?' She couldn't be serious, but then again, this is Teto I'm speaking with. She shrugged before answering.
'Someone with a voice like that can't be a jerk, and I'm sure he isn't ugly, and if he is, I'll just take him for plastic surgery or something.' It was so wrong, I think Teto was very serious about this, while I, her best friend, was laughing about it. What kind of friend does that?

I couldn't answer my own question because the door opened and the teacher, Miss Aki, walked in. 'Morning class, everyone sit down and pay attention, the director will check our class today, but he hasn't mentioned any time, so I'm sorry, but today will be a boring day.'
I like miss Aki, she used to be an artist, but she has a friend in the government, which warned her for the new laws. Before they took effect she made a career switch and became a teacher. She doesn't really follow any of the severe rules, and sometimes she puts Vocaloid on when nobody's there to tell her off. We also may call her miss Aki, instead of miss Akita, and I like teachers who allow you to call them by their first name.
She's the best, but on days like this, she's like every other teacher I know, boring.

Anyways, everyone ran towards their places and got their stuff out quickly. It took us only a few seconds before we looked like a proper class. Sadly enough the director wasn't entering the class at that moment, otherwise we would have passed the test easily.
I took a quick look at my uniform to make sure everything was in place. "Class, can I have your attention. We're going to do a project. Your assignment will be to write a report about what you would like to do. It can be everything. Our school is participating in a project of the government. They are worried about the next generation, especially since rebellion groups like Vocaloid are on the rise. You are free to discuss this with other students, but you're not allowed to leave this classroom, or to use your PCD."
We all nodded, and as soon as she gave us the signal to start I stood up. I tried to make my way to Teto and Gumi, but Len blocked my way.
He had a cold look in his eyes. "Listen tealhead, don't say anything about Vocaloid, singing, or anything which could make things... difficult." I was kinda shocked by his ferocity, but suddenly his eyes regained their normal attitude.
"Please Miku, be careful." With those words he left her to sit with Rin, who seemed very happy about something.
I let go of my breath, which I was holding since Len stood in front of me. "Miku, are you coming or what?" Gumi yelled. "Coming! Jeez, give me a sec'!"

-/V\-/V\-/V\-

After school Rin and Len took me with them before I could tell my friends goodbye. It was kinda rude, but necessary, I guess... "Why do you guys keep me away from my friends after school?" I asked them, and Rin answered almost directly: "Because we need you after school now, so sorry if your friends don't like it, but I think your training is more important." Yes, she was in a bad mood.
They dragged me to another neighbourhood today, it was much cleaner here, and it looked like there were actually, believe it or not, people living here.
We walked quietly through the streets, but I could see the expressions on Rin's and Len's faces change as if they were talking, must be a twin-thing. People gave us complimenting looks, I think because we were walking in complete silence, not touching each other, and for some reason, they like it. What a weird place to live this is.
We stopped in front of a apartment building and Len opened a door with a card. "I'll give you a card when we're upstairs, it may be useful if you can enter this place without one of us, whatever the reason may be." He told me while we walked in.
The hallway was neat, white and without any decoration. Only doors with numbers next to them. There were no windows, so even though the sun was up, the hall was lighted by several lamps. All and all, it looked exactly like my own complex.
"So were do you live?" I asked. Len pointed upwards while Rin answered.
"The fourth floor, room 407." If door numbers in this complex worked the same as they did in mine, it would mean that the 4 indicated the floor, the fourth in this case, and the 07 indicated the roomnumber, which was room seven.
When we left the elevator I discovered I was right. They led me to a room almost in the middle of the hallway, Len opened it with his card and we entered. "Welcome to our home."
We took off our shoes and I looked around, the appartment was nothing special. Just a small livingroom with big windows, and a small kitchen in the corner. There were two doors, which I guessed led to their bedrooms. "Nice place." I complimented. "We hate it as well." They said at exactly the same time. Then I discovered something on one of the walls, three instruments were lined up perfectly, and I'd only seen them on pictures on the internet.
"Are those?.." I asked, my voice weak. "Yes, those are guitars, Len can play." Rin said. "We both sing as well, you want something to drink?" I nodded. "Okay, please sit down, then we can talk."
Len led me to a large couch, which could easily fit the three of us, and we both sat down while waiting for Rin.

"Okay, Miku, we took you here because..." She didn't have to wait for long, Len picked up where she left almost immediately.
"Most vocals live here, so you know where to find us..."
"And because we wanted a place to talk quietly, this apartment is sound proof, just so we can practise playing, or..." Len picked up again.
"When discussing secret information."
I nodded in understanding, but I was sure that they had to explain it again. "But what are vocals, Rin mentioned vocal power as well yesterday, but she didn't want to explain it." I was curious, would they explain it now?
"I didn't want to tell you that, because it's top secret, and we need a safe place, like this, to talk about it. Even most members of Vocaloid know almost nothing of vocals, and we like to keep it that way, Len, you got the honour of explaining."
Len didn't look at all happy, but didn't argue her.
"Vocals, or actually vocalists are people which are trained in using their voice, just like singers, actually, they're singers, but the vocalists of Vocaloid are a bit different. We use software to edit our voices, and to add a special power to them, but this power has to come from us, which is why we can't use our vocal powers as much as we would like to. As Rin explained, the teal bar on your arm warmers shows your amount of vocal power, and you'll have to train in order to improve it." He finished, but I wasn't content.
"But what is vocal power?" I asked, irritated now. Rin sighed, and started explaining:
"Vocal power is the power to influence others with your voice. There are three different kinds of powers, and you can have only one of them. Inspiration, which I use, courage, which Len uses, and love, which is your vocal power." I nodded.
"So I sing to people to tell them that I love them?"
"No." Len answered. "You sing to them using your vocal power to tell them that somebody loves them and cares for them. It's useful when, for example, someone wants to commit suicide. It's really nice you have it, cause now our threesome is complete, you'll need some training, but I think you'll survive... For now..."
How nice of him to say that.

-/V\-/V\-/V\-

So school decided to kill me with homework and tests, I got like three on Friday, of which one is French, a bad subject of mine, another is topography, for which I have to learn almost all countries and capitals of Africa, Asia and South-America, plus some mountain ranges and rivers. Which is a lot! The other is chemistry, which isn't a lot, and isn't that hard, but still.

So I really tried to do this on time, but technically speaking, this chapter is too late, gomen! Next week is our autumn break, which means writing for me! Yes! if things work out, I may post an extra chapter that week, but I'm not promising anything...

By the way, this is over 2,5 K, which I'm quite proud of, but it isn't the best, I know. I can't promise anything about the length of future chapters.

I hope you guys liked this one, even if it was a bit rushed, there could be some grammar mistakes and stuff in it as well, but I'll fix it somewhere in the future. Please review, I appreciate it.

(1) PCD = Portable Communication Device, a kind of smarter than smartphone, with holograms, 3D, internet, anything a phone would have, except for fun things. Everyone has one, it's even used in school as a teaching device.

(2) FireFlower, I planned on explaining this in the story, but I'll tell you now instead. It's Len's artist name. Since he can't use his own name, and since I was listening to Fire Flower (awesome song) at the time I gave him the artist name FireFlower. Rin's will probably be Meltdown, unless someone has a better suggestion, Miku's, I've got no idea yet.