A/N Gah! I didn't realise it'd been this long since I last posted a chapter! So here's the next one~

BTW THERE WILL BE QUITE A LOT OF OOCNESS IN THIS SERIES. But Vocaloid is kinda crack anyways, so whatever :P

Enjoy~

Five ~ Fame

A month had passed since Yukari's words had left a scar in IA's sanity. Miku seemed pretty fine when they were practising songs with JIN, she even seemed fine when IA caught her hanging out with the other CVs – that was when she'd first met the (apparently) 'beautiful, suave, sexy, bilingual' Luka. –No, seriously, that's what she was officially described as! And back to the point, IA was practising the latest song in the Kagerou Project called Yuukei Yesterday (about a tsundere girl who felt she was falling for her best friend) when the rising star heard a beep in her cyberbrain. She'd received an email from her creators' company, called 1st Place, saying something about planning a new voice bank for her already. Yes, in the first few months after IA's release, many of her songs reached 1,000,000+ views on NND and she was getting more famous in the west as well, but a new voice bank?! Was she even ready? But then again, creating new voice banks takes roughly two years at least, and she'd be ready by then, wouldn't she?

Apparently they were still brainstorming ideas, but the main goal was to give IA a more breathy, clear and high-tempo (even though she already had the highest tempo of all Vocaloids so far) voice that suited rock songs perfectly. IA blinked at the email and re-read it a few times. The name: IA ROCKS. They planned for it to be released summer 2014. IA never imagined she'd get this much credit so early on, and she was slightly scared. Her first thought was to ask Miku about what it was like to be famous, but Yukari's words still frightened her. She shook her head: she needed to do this. Maybe she could've misheard her best friend, or she could've misunderstood the meaning behind it. Anyhow, she was going to confront Miku!

…After consulting the Kagamines and Yukari.

IA asked Rin, Len and Yukari to come over to her place ASAP via the cybernet (she literally just made that name up, but it was basically texting through her cyberbrain to the other Vocaloids). Yuka was the first to come, followed by a confused pair of blondes. Well, IA did suppose she'd called a little suddenly, but she'd been a little jumpy and unsure ever since she'd met Miku, so she thought it was best to seek wisdom from more experienced Vocaloids (even though Yukari only had a few more months' experience than IA). Yukari was the first to actually ask what was going on, IA replying with a very rushed answer.

"So… You asked us to come just because you were scared of talking to Miku?" Rin asked in an are-you-serious tone of voice. Len continued, "We are still talking about Hatsune Miku, right? Not some fanmade counterpart, right?"

"IA, is this about what I said to you that other day?"

"Well, it's been nagging at me…" The three stared at her. Yukari quickly explained what she'd said to IA before, Rin and Len now getting the picture. A strange smirk spread across their faces after a second, Yukari openly wondering to IA, "Why did you even bring these two troublemakers along? Well, I could understand just Rin, but why Len too?"

"Gah! It's not like that, it's just I forgot they were actually two separate people – they have the same email!"

"Yeah… that gets annoying sometimes," the Kagamines dead-panned.

After sorting out what IA's problems were, the other three came to a simple conclusion. –No, it WAS NOT IA having a crush on Miku! That certainly wasn't true. They came to a conclusion that one: it would be more fun not to explain what Yukari meant and to let IA figure out for herself; and two: IA just needed to speak to Miku privately and sort things out. Now came the hard part, getting them alone together. Miku's schedule was full up most of the time, but Yukari pointed out that the two had practise sessions on the Kagerou Project together – "Well, obviously!" The purple-haired V3 had stated whilst sighing at Rin and Len's dumbfounded faces. So, the next day when IA set out for the same studio she went to at 10:00am every weekday to practise songs with Miku and JIN, she didn't practise vocals or lyrics as she walked, she practised casual conversation phrases. Yep, totally not weird. Well, nothing's weird when you're a Vocaloid – at least that's what Luka had told IA when they'd briefly met.

IA sang Yuukei Yesterday whilst Miku tried to come up with a catchy tune that could potentially become her next song, since the next song in the series was set to be sung by IA. After an hour they had their mid-way break: this was IA's chance. The white-haired singer moved to sit beside Miku.

"Strange, you usually keep your distance," Miku raised an eyebrow, IA fumbling around for a reply.

"Uh, well, you see… I just wanted to have a chat. Like, um, what's your personal favourite song that you've sung?"

"Ooh, good question! Hmm… I like World is Mine but I like a lot of others too… I suppose songs like The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku and shake it! are fun to sing too, though. Oh, and one of my recent hits, Romeo and Cinderella."

"Yeah, I think I've heard that recent one," IA paused, remembering the lyrics with a blush. "Um, the lyrics are a bit rude, though, aren't they?"

"Meh, makes the song more popular. And you?"

"Huh?! Oh, well… I don't really have that many songs so far, but I quite like A Tale of Six Trillion Years and a Night. Hey, I've got a good question, what's your favourite song that's not sung by you?"

"Ooh, goodie," Miku looked unnaturally devilish for a moment… but somehow that seemed more like she was being herself. "I really like Rin and Len's Story of Evil, but I like their cover of magnet, too…"

"Wow, even though it's your own song?" IA was missing the obvious clue Miku had spilled. Miku rolled her eyes, slapping her hand to her face whilst sighing.

"Haven't you noticed, IA? It's pretty obvious, what with the 'password' and all," IA's eyes widened: so it really was a thing! Wait, why would Miku of all people be interested in ships?!

"Eh-heh-heh, well, ya see… I'm kind of a closet otaku." Miku made a sort of half embarrassed, half proud face. IA stared at her for a second.

...That second turned into a minute of awkward silence.

IA had always thought of Rin and Len as the otakus, being geeky gamers and loving anime/manga and all. Well, surprise, surprise, Miku was in on the secret too. IA had heard of anime and manga before but had never really watched or read any. She'd once played games with the Kagamines and Yukari (Yukari was a gamer/hacker – but don't tell anyone the latter!) but had never gotten obsessed with them. That might just be because she hadn't had much experience, though, so she vowed to try it again sometime – as well as watching some anime.

Miku seemed to see straight through IA into her cyberbrain and grinned demonically, "Welcome to the dark side, my new best bud…"

A/N OMG I MADE MIKU SO CREEPY AT THE END! This depiction of Miku is based off me, to be honest, but since Miku is basically an all-rounder I'll show her other sides too throughout this fanfic XD And if you didn't know, an otaku is someone who is obsessed with Japan/originally Japanese games/anime/manga/merchandise/other things like Vocaloid, etc… So yeah. An otaku is the word to describe me XP