Slice of Life
Chapter 17 – Annihilator
I told myself I would figure out how I wanted to write this chapter, but then I had an epiphany. And it made me want to write this chapter ASAP rather than write out a chapter for Matryoshka!.
Anyway. You all have been so great! Thank you for your continued support. I love knowing that all of you are enjoying my works; and reading the reviews that all of you leave really make my day! Thank you so much! I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Disclaimer: Still don't own Vocaloids. Sadly enough...
The trio sat in silence on the red sheets of the bed. Each of them wore a vastly different expression, and it was clear that just by glancing at any one of them that the atmosphere in Miki's bedroom was heavy. It was an unexpected meeting for the members of the Secret Police, for the commander had called upon this meeting only five minutes ago. Much to Miku and Miki's amazement, the green haired girl was wide awake, albeit not in the best of moods. And though it was early in the morning, 8:30 AM to be precise, Gumi was up, already heated about what had occurred only half an hour ago…
Curtains were drawn shut in Gumi's bedroom, and the short haired girl was sleeping peacefully on her king sized bed. Nestled deep within the orange and green sheets, she was curled up in a ball, a small trickle of drool spouting from the corner of her mouth and onto her pillow. Her messy green hair was strewn about, bangs askew over her forehead. In her ears were the trademarked white Apple earbuds for her iPhone. She had fallen asleep listening to a playlist compiled of several songs by the residents of the Vocaloid mansion while studying for a test in one of her online courses. The textbook that she had been reading the night before had migrated away from the girl, due to her tossing and turning in her sleep.
From across the room two pairs of blue eyes watched Gumi carefully as she scratched at her cheek in her sleep.
"Oi, Onee-chan, is this really a good idea?" Len mumbled to his older sister, as he tied the drawstrings to his gray sweatpants. He pulled the hood of his yellow hoodie up and covered his messy, blonde hair. The boy had only woken up an hour ago, and he hadn't had time to pull his hair into his trademark short ponytail. "What if Gumi-nee wakes up?"
Rin grinned at her younger sibling. "It's okay, imouto-chan! She's a heavy sleeper—"
"I'm not your little sister!" the boy whined as he tried his best to give his twin a scowl. To his disappointment, his scowl only widened Rin's grin.
She waved her hand up and down as if to silently say "Yeah, yeah" before she began to stride across the room. Thankfully, the carpet was thick and her footsteps were muffled. Rin's blue eyes glanced at the sleeping girl, and then at the desk pressed against one wall of the room. She quickly made her way over to the desk and put a hand on the handle for one of the drawers.
Len's blue eyes widened when he realized that his sister was really going to go through with the plan. For once, this was neither his nor Rin's idea. The idea to go on a recon mission had been the idea of someone who Len did not see as a mischievous type. Sakine Meiko had requested that the twins break into the bedrooms of Gumi, Miki, and Miku in search of secrets. Normally, the twins would have both been thrilled with the idea of breaking and entering. It was nothing unusual for them, since they normally had to sneak into a room to pull a prank or two. But when Len had first ben awoken by his elder sister and informed of their "next big job"… He was hesitant. It made no sense to him when he had been filled in on the idea last night, and it made no sense to him now. Why would Meiko want to find some dirt on those three?
The boy was jolted from his musings when he heard his sister begin to ruffle through Gumi's belongings. "Onee-chan! You gotta be quieter about this stuff!" he reprimanded his sister, as he hurriedly crossed the room to join her at the dark stained wooden desk.
"Whoa, imouto-chan!" Rin whispered back as she stared at the black leather bound journal in her hand. "This looks promising! Right? Meiko-nee-san said she wanted us to find out some stuff about Gumi-nee?"
"And Miki-nee and Miku-nee…" Len added, with a sigh. "We already searched their rooms, though. And we did come up with some good stuff to give back to Meiko-nee-san—"
"Right! Like we found out that Miki-nee totally has a huge crush on Gumi-nee!"
"Right, but—"
"Too bad we couldn't copy all of the stuff Miku-nee wrote in there. Some of that was pretty great stuff. Even though… We only read the last couple of entries. But, ya know, still. I didn't really get that whole bit about Gumi-nee and her parents, but it's whatever."
"I didn't either, but, Onee-chan—.. Don'tcha think it's weird that she'd ask us to do that? Meiko-nee-san, I mean. It's weird." He had tried pointing this out to his sister before, and he had been ignored. But this time his sister would take a second, just a second, to think things over.
"Nah, I think it makes life more fun." She opened the journal, and began to flip through the pages.
Len facepalmed. Of course she would think that. Why was he expecting a different answer?
"I dunno.. I still think it's weird," he mumbled. His cheeks puffed out as he watched his sister look through the black journal.
"Who cares what you think?" Rin snorted as she continued to skim through the journal. "You have the notes on Miki-nee and Miku-nee, right?"
The boy put one hand into the pocket of his sweatpants. When his fingers brushed against the small pieces of paper, he nodded his head at his sister.
Rin grinned, and went back to looking at the journal. She blinked, and then frowned at it. Nothing interesting was written there. In fact, it was empty. Each page was blank, and completely disappointing. "Man, Gumi-nee's so boring! Why would you buy a journal and not write anything in it?"
"I don't think she bought that… Remember? This is the journal that Miku-nee gave her as a present." Len shrugged his shoulders. And then something about the little journal caught his attention. The boy snatched the journal from her hands. "Wait, look… The pages in the beginning are torn out, see?" He flipped back to the beginning, and pointed at what remained of the torn pages. "Gumi-nee wrote something but took it out…"
The older twin stared at the spot, her expression blank. After a few seconds of silence, she threw her hands up into the air. "THAT'S STUPID! Why would you write something down and then rip it out! That's like… Defeating the purpose of even having a journal!"
Smack.
Len used the spine of the journal and hit his sister on the head. "Shut up! Gumi-nee might hear you!" he whispered harshly. There was no mercy in his eyes as he glowered at Rin. The last time the two had dared to come into Gumi's room uninvited, they had been severely punished in the bathroom. An aura of dread engulfed the boy as he recalled the roundhouse kick to the face that had sent his sister flying into the bubble bath, and the bar of soap that had left a monster of a bruise on the back of his head. After that morning, the twins had sworn to never break into Gumi's room ever again…
Too bad they couldn't keep to that promise.
Rin snatched the book back from Len, and repeated his action. The spine of the book crashed down onto his head with double the force. "Take that!" She brought the spine back down to strike him once more. "And that! Don't hit your Onee-chan!"
"Ack—Ow—oww! Onee-chan!" The younger twin crossed his arms over his head as a form of protection.
Ignoring his pleas, Rin's arm went up into the air once more as she prepared to strike Len once more. "Hiya—Ah?" The book had been pulled out of her hand.
Which was impossible. Len was cowering in fear beside her. But… Why could she feel the distinct aura of rage coming from behind her?
Rin gulped, and slowly turned her upper body to look back at the menacing figure that was guaranteed to be standing there. And much to her horror, Gumi had woken up. The older girl held the black leather journal in her right hand, and her left hand resting on her hip. Emerald eyes were narrowed as they glared at the blonde girl. Normally, Rin would have pointed out that one of the straps of Gumi's black-and-white zebra print bra had fallen from her shoulder and was peeking out from beneath the green tank top that she had worn to bed… But… For once, Rin had decided to keep her mouth shut.
"What the hell are you doing in my room at…" A pause as Gumi checked the time on the digital clock that was sitting on her desk. "7:55 in the God damned morning?" Her voice had a harsh edge to it, and both of the twins picked up on that.
They were listening to the voice of the grim reaper. A feminine, cranky, green haired reaper, but a grim reaper none the less.
"O-ohayou gozaimasu, Gumi-nee," Len stammered out, as he slowly brought his arms down from over his head. He gulped, and hid behind Rin. Older siblings were supposed to protect their younger siblings, right?
The elder twin put a grin on her face and chose to ignore the black aura surrounded Gumi and made itself visible to the twins. "Yeah! Good mornin', Gumi-nee!" She gave the fuming girl a cheeky grin. "Sleep well?"
Gumi felt her eye twitch as she continued to glare down at the twins.
Smack.
She brought the spine of the book down onto Rin's head. And again. And again. And again. "DOES THIS ANSWER YOUR QUESTION! HUH? DOES IT!"
"OW! OW! OW!" Rin flung her arms up over her head and began to run for the bedroom door. "TAKE LEN! YOU CAN KILL HIM! THAT'S FINE WITH ME! JUST DON'T HURT ME!" she screamed as she ran out of the room.
Len cowered beneath the all-powerful Megpoid Gumi. "Ah—Ano—I didn't—This wasn't my idea, I swear," he stammered, as he waved his hands in front of him feebly. The look of bloodlust on Gumi's face was doing nothing to calm his nerves. "We were just looking for.. Uhm.."
"For?"
"Paper! Yeah! Paper! We needed paper to write up something for one of our classes!" Len was desperately grasping at straws, and throwing out ideas. Anything to get him away from this deadly situation.
"Really?"
"Really! But, ah, since we didn't find any paper—"
"HE'S LYING! LEN WANTED TO READ ALL OF YOUR SECRETS!" Rin shouted from the hallway. Truth be told, she was standing outside of the room, curiously watching to see if Gumi would rip her brother to shreds.
"ONEE-CHAN!"
"I KNEW IT! YOU LYING BASTARD!" Gumi dropped the journal and lunged for Len, aiming for his neck.
The young boy let out a shriek of fear and sprinted for the door. "OHMYGODOHMYGOD!" He shot past Rin and continued down the hallway.
Rin blinked, unsure if that yellow bullet that had hurled past her was really her brother. "Eh—HOLY SHIT!"
"YOU PSYCHOTIC TWIIIIIINS!" Gumi jumped up, aiming a high kick at Rin's head. Fuel was only added to the fire when she realized that her foot failed to connect with the blonde head.
The younger girl had the sense to leap out of the way. Rin tumbled along the carpeted hallway, and stopped on her knees. She blinked, and looked back at Gumi, who stood in the middle of the hall, hands balled into fists. "Ah—Ano, G-Gumi-nee!" She put a nervous grin on her face as she watched the enraged girl step towards her. "Ya know, violence isn't always the answer, right? So you should let me and Len go free." She nodded and gave Gumi a thumbs up.
Gumi returned the gesture by turning her own thumb down.
"…Okay, how about you just let me go free, and I'll give you Len to destroy?" This time her other thumb went up.
Gumi obliged by putting her other thumb down as well.
Rin gulped. "Well.. That's not very reassuring—WHOA! WAIT!" She jumped aside once more, narrowly escaping another potentially lethal kick. "WHY DO YOU ALWAYS WANT TO KICK ME?" she whined, as she scrambled to her feet and began to run like a cheetah down the hall.
"I NEED TO PRACTICE MY KICKBOXING ON SOMEONE!" Gumi roared as she chased after the frantic blonde. That is, until a bedroom door swung open and someone grabbed her wrist. The act caught the furious greenatte off guard. The fact that someone was able to catch her while she was running was incredible in itself.
A drowsy redhead stepped out from her room, keeping a firm grip on Gumi's wrist. Miki yawned and rubbed at her eyes drowsily. "It's kind of early for all of you to be playing around in the hallway," she mused, as slipped her hand from Gumi's wrist and laced her fingers with the green haired girl's.
Although Gumi was still thoroughly pissed, her expression softened ever so slightly at the minute act of affection. "Er—But.. I need to go kill the twins first. And then I'm going back to sleep." She pulled her hand out of Miki's grip and dashed after the fleeing twins.
Miki sighed and shook her head.
And this led them back to the present situation. Gumi had returned to Miki's room with a triumphant smirk. Miki had the sense to go ahead and call Miku to her room, feeling that some sort of meeting was about to take place.
Imagine her surprise when she saw Gumi return with the twins gagged and tied together by the wrists. They were dragged into Miki's bedroom, and unceremoniously dumped beside the bed.
"Anyway, now that that's taken care of," Gumi began, as she brushed her hands together to shake off imaginary dust. "Let's get this meeting of the Secret Police started."
Both Miki and Miku exchanged looks.
"The brats have something to say. Don'tcha, psycho twins?" Gumi looked over the side of the bed. The smirk that she had worn when entering the room was replaced with the grin of a demon. She reached over and tugged the bandana out from Rin's mouth. "Wanna tell them what you told me?"
Len's eyes widened in fear and he began to uselessly struggle against the ropes that bound his wrists behind his back. He would have been able to escape if his wrists weren't also tied to Rin's.
Unlike her twin, Rin simply looked back up at Gumi. Now that she was seated, a surge of idiotic bravery overtook her. "Uh, no," she answered. "But maybe if you cook me breakfast I'll talk?"
Her twin gave her a frantic look, silently pleading with her to just go ahead and spit it out.
Gumi scowled and leaned in closer to Rin. "How about you tell them what you told me about Meiko-nee and Lily-nee, cook me breakfast, and then I let you go?" she retorted. "Or you could just stay tied up like that for the rest of the day."
"Do I have the bandana back around my mouth if I pick the second option?"
"Yes."
"Will I be fed?"
"No."
"Oh." Rin sat there, weighing the options.
Len was still in a state of perpetual panic.
Miki reached over and tugged on Gumi's tanktop. "Ano, Gumi-nee," she began slowly. "Don't you think that's a little harsh?" It was clear that she was not comfortable with the situation at hand.
Miku had to admit, despite knowing Gumi had a wild temper, this was a little beyond the norm. "I agree with Miki-chan, Gumi-chan," she chimed in, her usual fake smile gone. In its place was a disapproving frown. "This is a bit too much."
"Those little jerks—"
"Okay, I'll talk," Rin conceded, with a shrug of her shoulders. "But I'm not cooking breakfast. That's just humiliating!" She gave Gumi a cheeky grin.
The green haired girl rolled her eyes, but stretched out on the bed. "Whatever. Go ahead and talk."
Rin continued to grin. She looked a little triumphant that she was going to be able to get away from Gumi without receiving any extra bruises. "Well, it all started yesterday," she began, purposely making her voice sound distant as if she were recalling an ancient memory. "I was—"
Len felt a bead of sweat roll down his head. "Eh? Yesterday? Was I there?" He asked, his voice muffled by the bandana in his mouth.
The older twin glowered at her brother, and proceeded to head butt him. "No. Now shut up while your Onee-chan tells her story," she snapped, ignoring the grunt of pain from Len. "Like I was saying… Yesterday afternoon I was walking by Meiko-nee's room. And you know she's usually hanging out with Haku-san or with Kaito-nii, but she was in her room, so it was weird. Her door was open, too," she added as an afterthought. "Anyway. Like I said, the door was open and I could hear voices. It was kinda weird since I heard Lily-nee's voice coming in there from Meiko-nee's room. So, I decided to sit out in the hall and listen!" The blonde girl gave her senpais another cheek grin.
Miki stared at Rin, her mouth hanging open. "Rin-chan! You shouldn't do that—"
"Mou, Rin-chan's sneaky, isn't she?" Miku giggled. It was to be expected of the Kagamine girl.
Gumi put her arms behind her head and snorted. "Continue."
"Right! I sat down in the hallway next to her door and just listened to what they were saying," Rin continued, the grin on her face widening as she began to get caught up in her own story. "Meiko-nee was talking to Lily-nee about all sorts of stuff, and Lily-nee kept joking around, saying that Meiko-nee was drunk at 3 in the afternoon."
"Which wouldn't be surprising…" Gumi muttered under her breath as she closed her emerald eyes.
Rin laughed and shrugged her shoulders. "I know! But, uh, anyway… I think I heard Lily-nee stand up, but the weird part was, Meiko-nee mentioned that it'd be easy for Lily-nee to win Luka-nee if Lily-nee knew Miku-nee's weakness." Since her hands were tied, she nodded her head at Miku as if to emphasize this point.
At this, the teal haired girl tensed, her teal eyes widening a little bit in alarm.
"Eh? Really?" Len looked at his twin, a surprised expression on his youthful face. "Huh… I didn't think Meiko-nee would ever be sober enough to think of that."
"Yup. She said it'd be a piece of cake to get to Luka-nee if Miku-nee was beat by her own weakness," the blonde girl repeated. "But then Lily-nee said something like 'I can't fight Miku if she has Gumi-chan there to protect her. And there's Miki-chan, too.' Or something like that. Can't remember all the little details—"
"Whatever, keep going."
"Geez, okay, Gumi-nee…" Rin puffed her cheeks indignantly. "Meiko-nee kept talking about weaknesses and stuff, and I guess Lily-nee thought about it. Or something… Actually, I think she mentioned that she had a pretty good idea about Gumi-nee's weakness," she added thoughtfully. "They got up to leave, and I wasn't really paying attention to what they might be doing, so they caught me sitting out in the hallway." She scowled at the memory of being caught red-handed. "So they said they'd pay me if I could find out all of your weaknesses. 'Course I said yeah. I mean… Money just to sneak into people's rooms? I do that all the time, so I might as well be paid for it, right?"
Miki stared at Rin with a mixed expression of horror and disapproval.
Miku's pokerface smile was gone, and the color had drained from her cheeks.
"Wait… Why did I get dragged into this?" The younger twin's words were still muffled by the bandana-gag, but he suddenly realized that his sister had failed to explain why he had become part of the plot.
A snort came from the elder Kagamine twin. "'Cause I'd need someone to sacrifice in case things became violent," Rin answered as if this were the most obvious answer in the world. "Duh."
Len sighed. Of course.
Rin nodded once. "So last night we—" she nodded her head at Len, "snuck into Miku-nee's room while she was sleeping. And then we slept over here in Miki-nee's room, woke up super early, searched her room, and went to Gumi-nee's room… And got caught."
Gumi took this as the end of Rin's elaborate tale. She sat up, and swung off of the bed. "Yup. And don't forget that you lot got your ass handed to you," she added, as she untied the twins of their bondage. "Now scram, before I change my mind about letting you go."
The twins did not need another warning, and they bolted from the bedroom. The door slammed shut behind them.
The commander of the Secret Police stood up, and folded her arms across her chest. As her fellow police members looked back at her, they noted the varying emotions that danced in Gumi's eyes.
Rage. Determination. And could that possibly be a hint of fear?
"Right, now that we know what the enemy's up to," Gumi began, snapping the two long haired girls from their silent musings. "We can make sure we're prepared for whatever they might throw at us. And we'll have to keep an eye on our backs… We don't want them to find any of our weaknesses." Her brows creased together as she continued to give her closest friends a stern look. "You got that? I didn't think Meiko-nee would ever come up with something like this… She's playing dirty, damn it, and we're not gonna let that slide. I'll fight her if I have to—"
"No."
Gumi's eyes honed in on Miku, who had swung her legs off from the bed. "What?"
"No," Miku repeated herself. "We're not fighting. I'm sorry that you two somehow became involved in this, but we're not going to fight." She frowned a little bit as she stood up. "I'm not going to drag the two of you down. It isn't fair of me to ask you two to get hurt because of me."
"We won't get hurt."
"You saying that won't make me change my mind," the teal haired girl retorted. "Just let me handle things my own way, okay? It was only supposed to be me that would be at risk of getting hurt. Not you, not Miki-chan… Just me. So please, can we leave it at that?" She sighed, and began to massage her temples. "I can handle this. I should have stuck with my simple plan from the very beginning. Now things are spiraling out of control—"
"Shut up!" Gumi snapped at her supposed best friend. "You're being an idiot! Geez, I hate when you try and do something like this! You're not invincible, ya know. It's not possible to be able to do everything on your own, or try and take care of yourself with something like this!" She clenched her hands into fists as she continued to glare at the frustrated teal haired girl. Why're you even apologizing? We're your friends, so of course we'd want to help you, even if you didn't ask for it!"
The redhead was quick to agree with the commander. "Y-yes, Miku-nee!" Miki managed to stammer out. "I would have wanted to do something to help you end up happily with Luka-nee, anyway. So—So I'm okay with all of this. Even if you didn't ask, I would have done something—"
This time it was Miku's turn to lose her composure. "That's exactly my point! I never asked for either of you to involve yourself in this!" She gave her friends a frustrated look. "No one was supposed to get hurt. No one was supposed to get involved. It was just supposed to be an easy plan."
"But it's not anymore, so shut the hell up and let us help you," Gumi shot back. "Face it. We're already in too deep to try and get out, anyway."
Miku groaned and shook her head. She turned her back to her friends as she began to cross the room. "I give up," she sighed. "Do whatever you want, I guess." The teal haired girl opened the bedroom door, and stepped out of the room.
"Oh, trust me, we will," Gumi called out to Miku as the door clicked shut. As soon as it closed, Gumi promptly turned her head and frowned at Miki. "Sometimes I really wanna smack some sense into that girl."
The redhead sighed, and shook her head. "Mou, Gumi-nee, you just need to be patient with Miku-nee," she explained, as she stood up from her bed and strode to the closet. The girl was in search of a proper outfit to wear aside from her pajamas. After all, her crush was in the bedroom. It would hardly be appropriate to sit there in her jammies while talking to Gumi. "It's kind of obvious that she is pretty worried about us." Her tiny hands opened the door to her walk in closet, and she stepped inside, red eyes quickly looking over her clothes. "Just because of that smile that she always has, I thought she was okay…" She looked back at Gumi and saw the scowl on the short haired girl's face. "Well, maybe not 'okay'," Miki amended. "But I didn't think she was too concerned about how we felt about things."
Gumi shook her head, and sprawled out onto her back once more. Her hands were then thrust behind her head as she stared at the ceiling. "Yeah… I dunno. I hate that damn smile of hers," she griped. "Sure she's pretty when she smiles, but it's not the same as when we were dating. Or even before then. She's not happy anymore, and I hate that. Miku worries too damn much about us and it's pissing me off. That chick needs to think about herself," she added. "Thinks she's all sneaky about worrying over us… Screw that! She should know that we would notice something was different!"
Miki began to unbutton her shirt. When she heard the end of Gumi's mini rant, she poked her head out from the closet, fingers still undoing the buttons to her red pajama shirt. "Mm, I guess you have a point there," she conceded, her lips turning down into a small frown. "But… Maybe Miku-nee has a good reason for not wanting anyone to worry about her?"
"Doubt it."
"… Well, she wasn't like this until the two of you broke up," Miki added quietly, before she ducked back into the closet to finish changing. "And for that matter, you sorta became weird when it came to Miku-nee after that. You're hot, then you're cold… You're yes, then you're no…"
At this, the green haired girl tensed. This was true. When it came to dealing with Miku, Gumi tended to either pull one of two acts; she was either completely okay with Miku and treated her as if all had been forgiven, or she would be completely fed up with Miku. The frown on her face widened as she closed her eyes to muse over their fall-out. It had been a pretty big deal within the mansion when they had first split. Most of the residents avoided saying something to Gumi for fear of being snapped at, except for Gakupo. Her purple haired cousin had been the only one to check up on her, and on occasion Miki and Luka would say a kind word to her in passing. "I… Guess you're right," she agreed with Miki after her long pause. "That doesn't change the fact that Miku's being stupid right now."
"I don't think she's being stupid," Miki came out from the closet, dressed in a fitted light green hoodie, and denim skinny jeans. The long haired girl sat down beside Gumi on the bed, and looked down at her with her wide red eyes. "I understand why she's a little upset with us, but… I don't think you should call her stupid."
"Why's that?" Gumi opened one eye and peered up at Miki.
"Because you're just saying that because you're worried about her, too," the younger girl answered, as she flicked her bangs out of her eyes with a quick move of her hand. There was a smile on her face as she continued to speak. "Even though you complain, and you're hurting, you're still worried. It's hard to watch someone you love struggle with something that they can't handle on their own. And it's harder to hear them reject your help."
Gumi clenched her teeth and rolled onto her side so her back was to Miki. She said nothing in response, but she knew Miki was right. "Hmph…"
The ahoge'd girl merely shook her head at Gumi's childish act. "And, you know, as much as I know you're hurting over seeing Miku-nee like this," she hesitated before she continued to speak. "I think it's great that you still care so much about her after everything that happened… You're a really good friend to her. She's very lucky to have you to rely on."
The green haired girl shut her eye and shrugged her shoulders. "Nah, you're being too nice. I'm not that great," she mumbled in protest. "If I was a good friend, I'd find some way to convince her that it's fine if we help her. And I'd find some way to help her wrap things up so she could be with Luka-nee, not join her in this game that she's in." She paused and punched the bed. "And if I was so great, I wouldn't get mad at her all the time. She's just so… So.."
Miki looked at Gumi in alarm. "'So…?'"
"I hate her so much…"
"Do you mean that…?" Miki asked reproachfully.
"… Sometimes."
With a sigh, Miki laid down next to Gumi. She hesitantly wrapped her arms around Gumi's waist, and buried her nose into the other girl's back. "No, you don't mean that at all… Why do you think you have to be so angry with her all of the time?"
Gumi stiffened, and nearly pulled herself out of the embrace. Even though she had promised Miki that she would open up more, it didn't change the fact that talking about all of this was painful. She wasn't ready to completely spill her guts out to the younger girl. "Can we drop it? I don't.. Not now, Miki-chan.. Not now."
"Alright… Is it okay if we stay like this for a little bit longer?" Miki asked, her voice muffled by Gumi's clothes and back. "This hug I mean.."
The older girl was quiet for a few seconds. "Yeah," she breathed out. "That's fine.." Although she may not be ready to break every single wall down, Gumi decided it would be alright to let her guard down just a little bit when she was around Miki.
"'Sup, kiddos?" Meiko sat beside Lily in the dining room. They were merely munching on toast, but they were dining nonetheless. "Did ya get any new info?" Her deep brown eyes looked at the twins who had entered the room expectantly. A wide grin was on her face as she took a bite out of her breakfast.
Her companion, on the other hand, did not glance up from her toast. Lily sat in the chair beside Meiko's, yet her deep blue eyes were focused on her breakfast. Truth be told, she was not completely awake yet, and it had amazed her that Meiko had been the one to awake her from her slumber. She absentmindedly brushed her blonde bangs out of her face before she bit down on the corner of her bread.
The elder twin gave Meiko a thumbs up as she took the seat opposite of her. "Yup! I thought we were gonna die, but hey, we still got it!" Prior to locating Meiko and Lily, the Kagamines had both decided it would be best if they did not tell their employers that they had nearly died to try getting these precious secrets.
Rin looked up at her brother, who stood beside her chair. "Hurry up, imouto, and give Meiko-nee the notes."
Len twitched when he was referred to, once more, as a 'younger sister.' "Mou, Onee-chan… I'm not your little sister—"
"Yeah, yeah, just give the papers over."
The boy sighed, and pulled the crumpled pieces of notebook paper from his pocket. He set them down on the table and slid them over to the eagerly waiting brunette. The papers were snatched up almost immediately, and those chocolate eyes quickly skimmed over the words that were hastily scrawled upon them.
"Ah, man, this is some great stuff," Meiko exclaimed, with a laugh. "There's definitely some workable material here." She glanced at her half-asleep companion, and gleefully waved the papers in front of Lily's face. "Lookie here! Now we know Gumi-chan's and Miki-chan's weaknesses, or at least… What'll really bother them," she corrected herself. "Now we just need to find out Miku-chan's weakness, and you'll be able to snatch up Luka-san for sure."
As soon as Meiko had finished speaking, Lily gave Meiko a side-long glance. Her mind was becoming more coherent, and she was slowly picking up on what the brunette was telling her. "Huh—Wha—Oh, really?" she mumbled, as she rubbed at her eyes. "Great? And how are we s'posed to find that out? I swear that girl has the creepiest smile… And she never really talks about how she's feeling anyway—"
"But you said she talks to Luka-san, right?"
"Right-… Oh…" Lily blinked a few times as she realized what Meiko was trying to get at. "Huh. But I doubt Luka-chan'll tell me anything that Miku's told her." She shrugged her shoulders, and tore off a piece of her toast. "Luka's always been really good at keeping other people's secrets. So that's not going to work."
Meiko shook her head no. "Nope, you're wrong. That's not what I was trying to say," she gave all three of the blondes a devilish grin. "Trust me… I can find out her weakness."
Lily snorted, and popped the piece of toast into her mouth. "Yeah? Are you going to make little robot spies and send them around the mansion?" she joked.
"Actually… Yeah."
Lily choked on her toast, and the twins promptly burst out into laughter at the sight of the coughing elder blonde. When the offending piece of food had been dislodged from her throat, Lily managed to croak out a single word. "What?"
"Nah, I was kidding," Meiko waved a hand dismissively. The corners of her mouth curved into a devious smirk. "Actually. I don't think we really need to know Miku-chan's weakness at this point. I already know Gumi-chan's weakness, and we know Miki-chan's weakness. This is going to be a piece of cake… We're going to annihilate them."
At this, Len stiffened, and Rin gave the brunette a curious expression. "Hey, Meiko-nee, why're you so worked up about all of this? Are you mad at them?" she asked, knowing that her brother was dying to know the same.
"Eh?" Meiko's smirk was wiped off of her face when she was asked for the reasons behind her actions. "That's because Gumi-nee put hair dye on my face!" she exclaimed, her brows creasing together as she recalled the memory. "That brat has no respect for her elders! I'll make her regret ever messing with me!" The oldest girl in the dining room stood up on her chair, and planted one foot down on the table. She began to punch at the air, imagining that she was fighting the green haired girl. "I'm going to take her down with a one-two punch! And then she'll shut the hell up once and for all!"
The twins stifled their laughter; Rin's hand was covering Len's mouth, and Len's hand was covering Rin's mouth. Both of their shoulders quavered as they continued to try and keep their snickering down to a minimum.
Across from them, Lily stared at the brunette. "Are you fighting a ghost?" she snickered, as she shook her head.
"Shut up!" Meiko roared, as she pointed a finger down at Lily. "I'M GOING TO HELP YOU TAKE GUMI-CHAN DOWN, ONCE AND FOR ALL! NOW GO CALL THAT GIRL I TOLD YOU ABOUT AND TELL HER WHAT TO DO!"
"Sure, sure. But, you're stepping on your toast." The eldest blonde pointed at Meiko's foot, which was indeed squishing the golden brown bread.
"Huh—AH! MY BREAKFAST!"
The twins promptly burst out into a fight of uncontrollable laughter.
A day had passed since the revelation that Meiko was now part of this dangerous game of chess between Miku and Lily. The thought of having to consider Meiko as an enemy scared Miki just a little bit. She was unsure of what the older girl was capable of, or how the brunette could possibly change the tide of this complicated war. Rather than spend another afternoon thinking about what Meiko may know, the redhead had decided to spend her time playing DDR.
Although she was alone in the game room, Miki did not mind, for the music that came from the dance machine was enough to keep her at ease. When she played DDR, all of her attention became concentrated on stepping on the appropriate arrows beneath her feet. And so time passed her by as she glided along the dance pad. From playing single mode on the expert and challenge difficulties, she switched to playing doubles on expert with the arrows reversed. Normally, having the arrows flow from the top of the screen to the bottom would confuse her, but she needed a challenge. She needed something to help keep her distracted from that headache of a situation between Miku and Lily.
"Love! Love! Love! Love!
L-l-l-love shine! YEAH!"
The voice of Riyu Kosaka sang from the machine as Miki continued to press her feet down on the flashing arrows.
"Nya~ Miki-chan's so good at this game!" A voice said from behind her.
At the sound of the voice, Miki tripped over her own feet, and fell onto the floor of the game room. She groaned and her eyes were tightly closed. That voice shouldn't be here. They didn't live here. And besides, there was no real reason for that girl to visit… And just hearing that voice made her chest tighten from the previous heartbreak she had experienced from this girl.
"Ah! Miki-chan!" Now the voice was right above her. "Are you okay?"
Hesitantly, Miki opened her ruby orbs and looked straight into the bright yellow ones of her previous crush. "Ah… I-Iroha-senpai… Y-yes, I'm fine…"
Nekomura Iroha gave her a cat-like smile, as she helped the ahoge'd girl stand up. The older girl's long, light pink hair was pulled back into a ponytail. Even though her hair was tied up, it still reached to at least the back of her knees. With her hands on her hips, she laughed. "Wow! I didn't know you got so good at DDR!" she exclaimed. "But I guess it has been a while since I last visited."
"Ah.. Y-yes, it has been a while," Miki agreed, as her red eyes looked over the other girl. The other girl was a Vocaloid, but since she had been primarily sponsored by the famous Sanrio company, Iroha lived in her own plush apartment away from the Vocaloid mansion. And based on Iroha's outfit, it would appear that the other girl was fine. Black cardigan, light gray blouse, designer khaki skinnies… "Ano, are you here to visit everyone?" She nervously clasped her hands behind her back, and avoided making direct eye contact. Those golden orbs, as beautiful as they may be, were still a little painful to look at.
"Eh?" Iroha's grin only became wider. "Nope! Just here to visit you!"
Miki felt her heart clench once more. While she had once had a huge crush on this cat-like girl, she had been promptly rejected. And since then, Miki had avoided seeing Iroha… But that wasn't to say that she was completely over the golden eyed girl. "Oh? Is that so?"
"Yup!" Sanrio's sponsored Vocaloid hopped up onto the dancepad and pressed a finger against the control panel in search of a song. "I missed seeing you around! You stopped coming to visit me, ya know, and that kinda sucked. It was nice to have you around." She looked over her shoulder at the somewhat shocked redhead. Iroha gave Miki what one would describe as a 'puppy-dog-face', but somehow Iroha managed to look more like a kitten. Maybe working with Sanrio and Hello Kitty was having a lasting mark on Iroha…
"H-huh?" Miki gulped, and she could have sworn that her heart had stopped beating. "You're visiting—Me? Why?"
"I just told you that I missed you, didn't I?"
"Well—Y-yeah, but—I don't—That's great?"
"Isn't it?" Iroha went back to giving Miki a Cheshire cat grin. "You're just too cute to stay away from! I missed seeing you."
"Huh? I'm not—W-well—Ah, th-thank you for saying so…" This was all too confusing for the poor ahoge'd girl. No matter how she looked at this situation, she was still having trouble comprehending that Nekomura Iroha actually missed her. She paused and thought it over once more. Actually… It would make sense for Iroha to feel lonely at times. After all, she was living alone in that apartment. The other Vocaloids would visit her on occasion, but Miki had been the only one to consistently visit on a day to day basis. "Uhm… I missed seeing you, too.." It was the truth. She had missed Iroha, even though the 17 year old had broken her heart. Granted, Miki did sort of spring the news on the cat-like girl, but Iroha simply did not possess the tact to gently decline Miki's feelings. It had been more of a blunt "I don't like you that way" sort of situation.
"Ah, really!" Iroha exclaimed, as she tackled the younger girl into a tight hug. "Yay! Maybe you can stop by and hang out with me more!" Her golden eyes were closed as she pressed her cheek against the younger girl's and rubbed them. "So cute. I forgot how adorable you were!"
"Wh-wh-what!" Miki sputtered as her eyes went wide and a wild blush spread across her cheeks. "Ah—Ano—I-Iroha-senpai! Th-that's not true—"
"And so modest! Mou, you're just an overdose of cuteness!" The pinkette buried her nose into Miki's cheek and mewed. "Nya, nya! Kawaii~"
"I-Iro-Iroha-sen-…"
"Eh?" Iroha looked at the girl who had slumped over in her arms. It would appear that Miki had passed out from the intense scarlet blush that had seemingly engulfed her entire body. "Oops…."
Out in the hallway, Meiko and Lily were leaning against the wall beside the door to the game room. With a triumphant smirk, the brunette stood up and began to walk down the hallway. It seems that Miki was not impervious to the effects of an unhealed broken heart. Now that she knew that Miki was vulnerable to Iroha, she was positive that they would be able to bring down Gumi, and in a domino-like effect, Miku as well. "I told you this would work," she said to the blonde that trailed behind her.
"Yeah, I guess…" Lily had a slightly reproachful expression on her face. "I dunno if it's the right thing to do… Using their weaknesses.."
"All's fair in love and war."
The blonde was quiet for a moment. She then nodded. "Right. This is war." Her hands were balled into fists as she strode past the brunette with a look of pure determination plastered onto face. "Miku is going down."
At this, Meiko laughed. "Don't forget Gumi-chan! She needs to go down, too... Marring my face with that damned hair dye..."
"I don't care what happens to Gumi-chan at this point," Lily replied as she narrowed her eyes. "If she gets hurt because she's involved with Miku, then fine... Whatever. This is war now."
The brunette smirked and shook her head and quoted a song made famous by one of their famous Vocaloids.
"'Love is war'."
Note: Shorter chapter than some of the last few, but I hope you all enjoyed it!
Ah, for those of you who don't know, Nekomura Iroha is a Vocaloid running on the Vocaloid2 software. She's the official Vocaloid of the Sanrio – Hello Kitty company. XP Although she may not be one of my favorites, I do enjoy her. Especially the songs "Neko Neko Super Fever Night" and "Behind the Door."
Review Replies:
Major Mike Powell III: Yeah… Writing about Miku's empty smile creeps me out sometimes, too. Hahahah. XD;; I'm glad to hear you did enjoy the chapter! Thanks!
LukaFan: Yes, Lily did mess up big time, but she knows that. Ah, about Gumi and Miki, Miku's simply worried that things may end poorly between the two. But only because she knows that if things went wrong, Gumi would probably end up treating Miki the same way she treats Gumi now.. In a love-hate sort of situation.
LOL. I giggled at the thought of someone walking around with "GAKUPO" scribbled on their forehead. Silly fans!
And wow…. Yeah, those definitely beat my dream LOL. Thank you for reading and reviewing! :D
Meislovely: Hey! Pass the sake over here! Hahaha! Thanks for the review. Your friends are pretty funny, too. :P
Blahblahblah: Aw! :D I'm glad that you really enjoy both of my stories! That means a lot. Thank YOU for reading and reviewing!
PaperCutVictim: Gah. What haven't we covered in our PM? Lol xD Thanks for the review, though!
(Miki: :c … Can we please not talk about my underwear?)
Jak656: Even if your mind was hazy, I still appreciate that you reviewed! :D See you in the next chapter!
Kokoro Tenno: Wow.. o.o My story kept you up late? I'm sorry if you ended up being tired at school! But I was VERY happy to read your review. It was very detailed! Thank you so much! :D And don't even worry about rambling. I love reading long reviews. I'll do my best to continue to meet your expectations!
Chinesis' Fan: Ah, I can't tell you what'll happen later on! But thank you for reading and reviewing!
Rocketman182: Thank you so much! ;w; Thank you for reading and reviewing!
Okay! Once again, I'd like to thank you all for sticking through with the story! It really does mean a lot that all of you enjoy "Slice of Life" so much! (And those of you who like "Matryoshka!", thank you for your added support! :D). You're all amazing people. ;w;
I'll see you all in the next chapter!