Hey guys! I have returned from the shadows at last! This summer's been hella busy for me so super sorry for the long hiatus. Thank you for your patience in awaiting this and now without further damn ado I present to you the promised Epilogue for The Musical Angel. Hope you enjoy! :D
Disclaimer: I do not own Vocaloid
Kokoro Kiseki and Reunion
Len's POV
The chimes began to play and I had my back turned to the audience as I stood in the darkness on stage. I wore white gloves, black pants and shoes, and a white T-shirt under a long-sleeved white jacket. The coat was open and fell to my heels and had short, but thick, vertical yellow stripes on my chest and on my shoulders where they went straight down towards, and around, the cuffs. I looked to my right as I began to sing and raised my right arm slowly while the lights faded on. "The first miracle was that you were born." Lowering my right arm, I slowly raised my left as I looked in same direction. "The second miracle was the time spent with you." I turned around, my long white jacket and ponytail flowing behind me as I danced around on stage while the crowd cheered in beat with the music. My hair wasn't exceedingly long, but it definitely grew an inch or two in the five years that had passed.
Yeah, five. I was twenty now; no longer that scrawny little teenager on the outside, but I was still him on the inside. I could hear my friends' cheers from offstage even while the stadium was filled with the screams of our fans. They've grown too. The events over the past few years have changed us all in more ways than one could ever imagine. Rin's passing still feels like a sharp blade stabbing us, but we continue living, smiling, and singing our hearts out like we had promised her.
With that thought in mind, I smiled brightly and took a breath and stretched my arms toward the audience. "Once, a lonely scientist created a robot, you can say that his creation was a miracle. But there was still one thing missing," I held up my left index finger and placed my other hand over my heart, "one important thing that can't be made. It is something that they called a heart in a program." A look of sadness came over my face as I shrugged my arms. "I hope I could teach and share with her happiness and sadness of people." I placed both of my hands over my heart. "The miracle scientist wishes." I lowered my arms. "Distress continues. Only time passes by." Again I brought my hands to my heart. "The singing voice of desertion and this Kokoro." The lights went to black as I bowed my head, my hands clenched at my sides.
I stood there as the sounds of gears turning and machinery turning on sounded, before looking at the audience, a saddened look on my face. "Reflected inside of your eyes is me. What does that existence mean to you?" I brought my hands in quickly as I bowed my head for a second, then spread them out and lifted my head quickly. "Time for him is not infinite, but she doesn't understand that yet."
"Why do you cry?" I gasped and whirled my head around to see Rin's matured face on the huge flat-screen at the back of stage, her face illuminated against the dark background of the screen and the blackness of the stage. It disappeared as soon as she sang the line and my jaw was gaped as was everyone else's I'm sure of.
Originally we decided to play Rin's version of this song in the background of my own when I first created it not too long after Rin's passing, so upon seeing her face all of a sudden, and what appeared to be a current image of her matured face, we were all completely taken off guard. However, tears came to my eyes as I smiled. Rin . . . I wiped my tear with a finger. So she really is still looking down on us all even during our concerts. I lightly bonked my head as I sweat-dropped a little. Duh, of course she would you dummy. I bowed my head, eyes closed for a moment, before facing the audience with a smile. "Mystery, 'kokoro', 'kokoro', mystery." Rin's face came onto the screen with every other word as I sang with her.
"He taught me what happiness is." She sang as her face briefly appeared on the screen.
"Mystery, 'kokoro', 'kokoro', mystery."
"He taught me what sadness is."
"Mystery, 'kokoro', 'kokoro' forever."
"It's beyond my understanding!" She cried out, clutching the sides of her head as her face appeared again. "Aaah!"
I bowed my head and closed my eyes as I brought a clenched hand over my heart. "The first miracle was that you were born. The second miracle was the time spent with you." I opened my eyes slightly and gazed sadly at the floor. "The third miracle has not yet come. The third miracle has not. . ."
"Receiving message . . ." Rin's robotic voice said as her blank expression projected on the screen. What she had said surprised me into looking up at her, although she could not see me. I had not written this as part of the song and furrowed my blonde eyebrows as I lightly cocked my head in confusion and slight surprise. "The source is from . . . the future me."
My eyes widened and I stood, frozen, in place. I heard my voice continue to sing along with Rin's Kokoro playing in the background like planned, and yet, the words I heard did not escape my mouth. "Over a few hundred years this messaged was received from the singing voice of a future angel. Her voice singing from her Kokoro." Upon hearing of the future angel singing from her heart, joy swelled up inside of me, making me beam and proceed with dancing to what I had written while Rin's song played along with my own. I spun around on stage singing my own heart out. "The first miracle was that you were born. The second miracle was the time spent with you. The third miracle is the sincere heart from the future you. The fourth miracle does not exist. The fourth miracle I do not need. Thank you for everything! La la la la la."
As the music slowed down and as the chimes sounded, I slowly raised my right arm as words projected on the screen behind me. Extra words we had discovered from Rin's version appeared on the top while words from my song appeared on the bottom:
'It was exactly a miracle. The robot that obtained Kokoro kept running. She sang all of her feelings. But the miracle lasted only a moment. The Kokoro was far too big for her and, unable to withstand that weight, the machine shorted and was never to move again. However, her face was filled with a smile and she really did look like an angel.'
'The third miracle is that two miracles had occurred at the same time: one is a sudden communication from the future, another one is a program modification. Her song corrected her own mind. It is a correction that becomes a chance that she obtains Kokoro. His life ended yet he gave her the inheritance of solitude, and he entrusted her the key to the miracle.'
By now the music had tapered off and I looked up at the ceiling where the lights intensified before dimming as I brought my hand down, a fist loosely clenched, and my head bowed. When the lights went completely out the audience erupted in cheers and I waited a few moments before hurrying offstage to happily greet my friends who were still wiping their own tears after the surprise our little musical angel gave us.
~A few years later~
Rin's POV
I gazed absently the world below me as I sat on the fluffy golden beige cloud, my ankles over each other while my arm propped up my torso. "What's the matter, Rin?" Asked a calm, echoing voice and I sighed.
"I don't know. It's just I'm watching all of my friends down there while I'm all the way up here. I guess I just missed them."
"But you were able to break the sixth wall in participating in their concert a couple of years ago, honey. I'm sure that brightened their spirits in knowing you're still watching over them." The woman with long, flowing, golden hair smiled her genuine smile she was known for.
"I know." I replied after another sigh. "It's just not the same."
"I understand." I looked up at her from my place on the cloud with a tiny smile.
"At least Father is doing well." I felt her take a step forward so she could peer over the land visible through the large gap in the clouds. Her arms were casually folded across her chest and she smiled.
"You're right."
We smiled as we watched my father run back and forth at a school fair, monitoring stands and even participating some to help his students. He had become a strong advocate for the world of music and even managed Vocaloid to acquire new students. His passion for music was ever-growing even amongst his busy life as the school president, though he would be retiring shortly. And speaking of retiring, Mr. Takahata just recently filed out his forms and trusted his school to Suzuki and Pablo, who decided to take photography and makeup/outfit design as a second objective so the good of Vocaloid High could come first. My warm smile grew. It pleased me beyond measure to see everyone who had changed my life doing so well to ensure the world of music would always thrive. I take another look at my father and see how far he's come and I know deep in my heart how he still grieves Mother and me, but he doesn't dare show it. He had promised the both of us he'd live the rest of his life happy, healthy, and with no regrets.
My heart and smile fell when a thought crossed my mind: no regrets. That wasn't the case for others, one in particular: Mami was absolutely devastated and disgusted with herself due to her childhood and due to how poorly she treated me for all of those years, that she had tried to commit suicide a number of times. Mother and I had to watch it all. All of the times she tried, and all of the times she failed. She now lived in a foster home, as her grandmother had passed away long ago leaving her with no more family to stay with. I don't see her grandmother around, but that's probably because she's too busy saving her granddaughter and trying to tell her she's on Earth for a reason. To tell her to quite dwelling on the past and to look to the future. Unfortunately, it wasn't going as she had hoped. Mami's parents are always nowhere to be seen around here and I have just grown to accept it since they were basically the cause of Mami's demons and I couldn't care less. They had practically planted the seed of woe in their daughter and with it in full bloom, look where it's gotten her. But as of now, Mami was back in a mental hospital again and it was sad to say she was almost a regular. However, all Mother and I are capable of is praying she'll heed her grandmother's silent words and change her outlook on life.
Suddenly, I was snapped out of my thoughts when realization struck me, making me furrow my eyebrows and lean forward to have a closer look. "What's the matter?" Mother asked me and I kept my gaze at the world below.
"It's my friends . . . they've . . . they've suddenly disappeared!" Panic rose inside of me and I immediately sprung to my feet and ran to the smaller gap were newcomers came after passing the grand golden gates. I waited, biting my lip, with sweaty palms. Why did they disappear so suddenly? Could they have? No . . . please don't tell me they- My thoughts trailed away as I heard laughter and saw the tops of five heads appear.
Len's POV
We all laughed as we mounted the final steps of the cloud stairwell and when we made it to the top, we all went absolutely silent at who our eyes immediately fell upon: a girl with blonde hair that fell just past her shoulders. There was a thin yellow strip on both sides of the black heeled boots she wore which reached a few inches above her knee. She wore a back sleeveless dress with a white top, exactly like her sailor fuku only without the flap on the back, completed with a yellow ribbon tied underneath the collar. There was also a sole, long, thin, yellow stripe running on top of the black gloves she wore that came a few inches past her elbows. Finally, to complete her overall person, was her signature bow, with one black ribbon and one white, tied onto her white head band. She stared at the five of us with round cerulean eyes that revealed shock, sadness, joy, and overall disbelief.
I could see why she was in doubt. We looked nothing like ourselves, well Miku and me, really. Miku finally stopped wearing her teal hair in her signature long pigtails and finally decided on having it straight down, or fastened to her head with a simple clip 'to keep her from tripping on it' we always joked. Whereas me, on the other hand, I was basically no different from the concert where I performed Kokoro Kiseki. I had grown into my body and was more built thanks to Gakupo and Kaito coaching me at the gym. Those two and Luka didn't change at all, really, they always looked mature, but now that Miku and I had joined them, well, I can easily see how this blonde would have trouble recognizing us. However, we all knew right away who she was and it was far too long, and too good to be true, that we were finally with her once again, and this time, forever.
"Rin?" Luka asked quietly and as if snapping a thread holding back her emotions, the blonde cried out as she threw herself into all of our arms.
"Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh!" She sobbed as they embraced, I was hidden in the back trying to join in the love. "It's really you guys! It's really you!" She pulled away and sniffled, her blue eyes shimmering with a sea of tears. "But, what are you guys doing here? I-I was watching over you and-"
"Sh." Kaito said gently cupping her cheek. "It's alright Rin, we didn't do anything reckless."
"We were on our way to our final concert in Tokyo after our world tour marking the end of our music career when there was an accident involving the plane we were on." Luka smiled.
"It was all 'boom'~!" Miku cutely imitated the explosion with her hands and a small sound effects for a final touch. "The stage really did light up for you I'm sure~." She smiled, proud to incorporate the title of the concert dance-off we had performed so long ago. Rin smiled even brighter than before, if that was possible, and tears streamed down her face.
"It really did, in fact, it was so bright that it puts Kokoro Kiseki to shame~." My heart dropped at the mention of it and I blushed when the others parted enabling Rin and me to stare at each other. She smiled as more tears escaped from her eyes.
"Len." She said quietly.
"Rin." I answered in a hushed, disbelieving tone.
"Oh would you quite with the naming" Gakupo winked at me, "and get with the hugs and love already?" This made Rin and I blush a bit more but we didn't care, because the next thing we knew we were running to each other and I was lifting her up by the waist as I spun her around laughing. Then she kissed me quickly, but passionately, and I smiled brightly as tears escaped my own eyes. Still holding her up, I embraced her tightly for a while then put her down and stared into each other's eyes after an eternity, as if silently telling each other what had happened in the time we last saw each other in those brief seconds.
Her smile widened and she finally faced everyone as I draped my arm around her and she wrapped her arm around my waist. It was then that I saw a beautiful tall woman with deep blue eyes and long golden hair approaching us. "Everyone," Rin said gesturing towards her, "I can't believe I can finally say this but . . . this is my mom." We all smiled.
"It's a pleasure to finally meet you."
"Likewise." Lilly said dipping her head with a proud smile. "My daughter has told me everything about you." She glanced at all of us and ended at me. "I truly thank you from the bottom of my heart for changing my daughter's life."
"Don't mention it." I smiled back then looked down at Rin's shining eyes. "She changed our lives as well." Rin's smile grew then she looked at us with a slight apologetic look.
"I'm sorry about your concert, guys. You were taken from your finale all too soon."
"Look who's talking~." Miku chirped as she leaned forward with her arms folded. Rin laughed a little before looking directly at each of us.
"I missed you all so much."
"As did we." Kaito beamed before we enveloped our little Rinny in a massive group hug. Finally, we were all together again, and nothing could tear us apart.
Well it took me long enough: basically a frikking year, but I think it was worth it. I hope you all liked this story, despite the rollercoaster of feels I strapped you all in when you first started, but I think I've done my job as a writer in giving you that strong attachment to all of the characters. With that being said I am putting 'Complete' on this fanfiction at last! I must say I am really proud with how this came out and I thank you all for Favorite-ing, Following, and Reviewing this story, cuz without that I wouldn't have the motivation to complete it! So without further damn ado I bit you adieu. Thanks for reading this and I'll see you all in my next story. :)