-Chapter 9: A Song I Want to Sing-

Docile.

That was it, Len decided. He didn't know why or how it occurred to him, but he liked his discovery.

If he was to describe Kaito in one word, it would be "docile".

It had been an hour since they had left Kiyoteru's house. Afternoon was shifting to evening; thankfully, at this time of the year the sun was generous, so the scenery was still bright and cheerful. The flow of people coming and going never stopped, and after a moment, it seemed everyone stopped turning their heads at the sight of his bright yellow hair, allowing him to blend in. It had been an hour since he had gone off wandering like that, seeking relief in not being recognized, comfort in anonymity. He didn't say a word about where he was going; honestly, he didn't know himself.

But Kaito's hand never left his.

Well, for sure, Kaito wasn't exactly in the condition to ask questions. He had other ways of expressing himself, but he chose not to. He simply followed Len, the older brother figure suddenly becoming the one who needed a lead. Even though he got lost almost all the time, he must still know Len wasn't taking him home. Yet he chose to entrust himself to him.

Oh, Kaito, why are you so trustful you're vulnerable?

"It's kind of nice, y'know." Len pulled on Kaito's hand to get his attention; his nii-chan bent down a little to hear him, then looked at him with big questioning blue eyes. The sight of them made Len smile despite himself; he almost forgot what he was saying. At times like this it was all the more obvious that Kaito was just a kid, a child's soul uncomfortably trapped in a man's body. It was as if he didn't know the extent of his arms or the length of his steps. Maybe that was the official explanation of why he was so hellishly clumsy.

"Just saying," Len managed to regain his thoughts, "that it's kinda nice like this. People stopped looking at us. Maybe they think we're cosplayers or something."

Kaito nodded in agreement, but the question hadn't left his face. He wanted to know why Len was talking about this.

"They don't even know we're Vocaloids. And I was just thinking, hey, it's not too bad. I used to think that I would be really irritated if people didn't recognize me. I found out it doesn't bother me that much… In fact, it feels even kinda nice, to be treated like normal people…"

Kaito nodded again, and blinked. His eyelashes were so long; they shone prettily as they caught the dying sun light, leaving faint shadows on Kaito's pale cheeks.

"I was just thinking that…" Len went on, "that it wouldn't be so bad to stop singing and live like someone normal." He considered it, and added, "… I know you're still in denial but… If you think about it, it's… not so bad."

Kaito's eyes widened. He took on a frantic expression; it was almost funny. Len could even guess the thoughts in his head: Are you drunk? Was it you who stole Meiko's sake? Dear God, Len, it's no good, no good at all! And so on and so forth. Len felt Kaito letting go of his hand to grab him gently on the shoulders and giving him a small shake. His nii-chan gestured wildly towards something nearby, a trash can. Kaito was pointing from Len to the trash can, and then waving his arms disapprovingly. Oh, yes, Len knew what he meant. Crypton would get rid of him, he was saying. But he had his counterarguments.

"Crypton won't do anything, Kaito-nii. Did they bother with you? No. They won't do a thing that will cause them extra charges."

Kaito shook his head, looking slightly hurt. He stepped back, left hand gently clutching at his own throat, and right hand pressing at his chest.

"I know," said Len softly, "I love singing too. Singing is almost all my life – almost. You are a bigger part of my life, Kaito-nii, you and everyone, especially you." It didn't quite come out like Len wanted; he felt like he didn't press the point enough, but he didn't want to turn around and babble about it all day. Instead he just continued, "We can still sing for people. And for each other. I'm sick and tired of singing to make money for Crypton. Of course we owe them for giving birth to us, or rather, for funding Master to create to us. But I think we already repaid them more than enough."

oOo

The house was too quiet when Gakupo got back. Usually, by this time, everyone had already gathered for dinner. He had stayed at the gym a little longer than he had planned, to talk to Lily. He wanted to invite her over, but the girl kept refusing and nothing he said could change her mind. "Rather not disappoint you," she had said, "Rather not make my existence known to too many people, before I know if I have the right to continue to exist."

Somewhere in that blaring fire that was her soul, there was a dark corner that was threatening to devour her. Gakupo wondered how long she could keep up with it.

"I'm hoooome! Luka-chaaan?" Brushing those thoughts to the back of his mind, Gakupo called out in his usual sing-song tune, "Rin-chaaan?"

Silence answered him. A little while later, Gakupo heard sounds of footsteps heading his way, but he could tell immediately that they weren't from the people he could expect. These footsteps were meant to tease him. The person walked as if they were counting their steps, but if one counted any slower they would be a three-year old child. From times to times the sounds would suddenly stop, only to resume seconds later from another angle.

"All right, very funny," Gakupo spoke out when the person did the trick again, "I don't know who you are, and how you got here, but you're not scaring me. How about you get out in the open and talk?"

"Oh, no stress, I was planning to."

Gakupo turned around to face the intruder, and almost let out a gasp of surprise. It was Kaito – but only Kaito's face. The intruder's hair was not blue but black; it gave out a slight violet hue when the light shone on it. His right eye was hidden behind an eye patch so Gakupo couldn't see it, but he could see that his left eye was of the same subtle shade as his hair, even though the violet was slightly more dominant here. The eye was narrow and full of mischief, nothing like the wide-eyed innocent Kaito whom Gakupo knew. Besides than the eye patch, the person also wore a great deal of bandages: around his head, his neck and his arms. Finally, a ghastly sight: the person was flicking between his fingers a huge paper cutter, blade extended.

"… Who are you? How did you get here?" Gakupo repeated his questions, but more carefully. The man had the eyes – eye – of a psychopath, and he didn't know how to treat one beside than not agitating them.

"Aw, but of course you don't know me," said the man, and Gakupo recognized something familiar in his lazy, silky voice. It had the same pattern as Kaito's, but another pitch. Was this… what they called a fan-made Vocaloid? As if to confirm Gakupo's query, the man continued, "My name is Taito. I'm an unofficial derivative of the Vocaloid Kaito Shion."

Unofficial derivatives. Fan-made Vocaloids. Gakupo had heard of them, but this was the first time he had ever met one. They were home-made products, built based on the original Vocaloids' leaked designs, made by fans to satisfy the fans' fantasy. Being gender-bended versions, or re-pitched versions, they shared the same cores as the Vocaloids, but managed something they couldn't: to exist independently of Crypton. Their anonymous creators maintained them with black market products and self-assembled devices, which seemed to do the work of Crypton's sumptuous maintenance centers. They were not unknown to the Vocaloids, no, not at all. Gakupo was sure the girls only saw them as Vocaloids who were less famous than themselves. They regarded the Utauloids – the likes of Akita Neru and Kasane Teto – the very same way. Personally, Gakupo would never mix them up. In his opinion, the Utaus at least deserved their own credit, while those fan-mades were only copycats. Moreover, he'd feel very weird to find another him running around singing in his voice. He also heard rumors of a version of him with boobs, which was just awkward.

"… Good, that helped clear things up. I suppose I don't need to introduce myself." Keeping his cool was easier than Gakupo thought. "You haven't answered my other question, though. How did you get here? What do you want? Where are the others?"

"Slow down, slow down, that makes three other questions, Gakupo-dono. Jeez, and I thought you could count. Let me get them one by one." With a soft laugh that would unnerve a God of Mercy, Taito went on, "I got in here because your friends opened up and let me in, as simple as that. They're upstairs, with my companions… and they're not coming down for a while; we have a little… bargain going on. As for what I want…" He drew his blade in and out, fascinated by the sound it made, "Ah, but I already said that. A little bargain."

"Will you cut it out, Taito, he's thinking we're holding them hostages and asking ransom or something."

Another voice rang out, once again the familiar pattern, but at a pitch so low it made the atmosphere vibrate. Sounds of footsteps mixed with the droning of gears drew closer, and Gakupo found himself looking at… quite a spectacle. Another puppet with Kaito's face, but with a body taller and much stronger. It wasn't human-looking, that body; from the elbows and from the knees down, the limbs looked heavily armored, like some armor suits in the mecha anime Len watched all the time. The headset that sat on his blond hair consisted of great, revolving, brass-colored gears, and was decorated with electric blue lights. On his yellow scarf, there was the pattern of a piano, which not only glowed, but appeared to be functional.

"We aren't?" asked Taito, looking disappointed, though Gakupo couldn't tell if it was real or just an act. "Oh, stop it, you know it was true, what I said. And it was much more fun putting it that way."

With a sigh, the yellow Kaito came in front of Gakupo. "Pardon our intrusion," he said sympathetically while at his back, Taito swept himself out of the scene, walking back upstairs. "Please forgive my brother's manners, he doesn't know how to keep them reasonable. I'm Kikaito, another derivative of your Kaito. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Pleasure's all mine," Gakupo took Kikaito's hand as the latter offered it, and gave it a small shake, "but would you mind telling me what is going on here? Why did the two of you suddenly appear here? What are you up to?"

"Oh, but there are more of us here," said Kikaito with a smile that, maybe unintentionally, made Gakupo want to scream in rage. Feeling his frustration, Kikaito hurried to continue, "We have a good reason to be here, trust me! Now, would you please come with us upstairs? We were just starting to discuss the matter."

It wasn't exactly normal to be invited upstairs in one's own house, but Gakupo supposed that he didn't have another choice.

oOo

"I'm so going to die…"

Grinning widely as if wanting to show her whole set of teeth, Rin turned her head to look at Gumi. Theoretically speaking, since Gumi came into life after Rin, she should be Rin's little sister. Unfortunately, her designers decided to make her older, taller and… well, better-endowed than Rin. After serious discussions, they found no other solution to this confusion than to have Gumi be Rin's onee-chan. There were no hard feelings, though; Rin knew full well that the newborn Gumi still had much to learn and would continue to look up to her for a long time, no matter whether she called her "onee-chan" or not.

"What is it, Gumi-nee-chan?" she asked cheerfully, eyes still fixed on her cellphone. She was looking in her contacts for a certain… Magane Rin.

"I'm so going to die," mumbled Gumi. "I've just been released for a week, have not even had my debut concert, and I'm already sitting in this room with conspirators, plotting to blow Crypton's plans…"

"Regretting it?" asked Rin, still cheerfully. Just to be careful she turned down the volume of her cellphone a little. The one she was calling, being a heavy metal rocker, had the habit of shouting, and she just didn't want to be startled to the point of jumping out of her skin again. In front of Gumi whom she was trying to impress, it wouldn't be very graceful.

Who would have known that Gumi would startle her first.

"Hell NO!" The green-haired Vocaloid suddenly threw herself on the other end of the couch and bounced until she got next to Rin. "Screw the debut concert! I don't know how you all managed to cope with Crypton for so long. Grand spectacles, yes, but soulless performances. All those rehearsals and I haven't received a single compliment for my emotions. Mind your step, Megumi, you're not standing where you should, Megumi, you didn't hold the microphone at the perfect angle, Megumi. Those things aren't what music is about, not the kind of music Master and Kaito-nii taught me. And following orders like a good girl isn't the kind of thing you taught me to do. Crypton won't find me before the other concert. I'm not going to be found unless I've rocked that night!" She poked at Rin with her orange cellphone, "Pass me some numbers, I'll help spread the words too."

"That was quite a speech!" Rin burst out with a mischievous laugh. Now she knew that, if she ever failed her career as a singer, she would definitely be able to pick up one in the field of education.

oOo

"I know a good place. The owner's just finished demolishing the old buildings to build his own complex. His daughter is a fan and… uh, drinking buddy with Meito, I'm sure he can manage to get us a deal."

"Nothing is impossible around a bottle of sake," Meiko agreed heartily, patting Akaito on the back as strongly as she approved of his plan. Of course she agreed; she was drinking buddies with Meito, herself. There was no one besides her fan-made twin who could rival her tolerance of liquor, so they had been hanging out together every so often. She ignored Akaito's wince of pain and went on, "But we still need to dress up that bare ground if we want people to come. Not to mention the light and sound systems. We need a fund. Where are we going to get that money?"

Silence fell around the table. "Well," Akita Neru leaned back against her chair. She kept texting away on her cellphone, and nobody said a word – she had a very damn good reason to be texting now. It was she, after all, who held the contact information of almost all the Utauloids. "Open a yard sale. Sell your old stuff, old clothes. Things like that. Sell your X-Box. Sell your goddamn house."

"That's not possible, it's Master's house, Neru-chan!" Miku laughed, shaking her head, "But commerce is certainly a good idea. We just have to think about what to sell-"

"Everyone like sweets!" Teto suggested cheerfully. "Cookies, cupcakes, dango, choco-banana…"

"It'll be a long shot," Meiko considered while Teto continued listing sweets in a sing-song voice in the background, "but at least we're sure it's going to work. He's surely not the only one who likes it sweet with a lot of vanilla." She flashed a little warm smile towards Luka, who returned it with a smaller smile, barely perceptible, but it was there.

"Besides, what fan wouldn't want to buy cookies made and sold by Hatsune Miku, right?" Gakupo cheered them on. "Even if they taste of leeks. And Luka-chan's boobs will help to attract customers—"

He couldn't finish his sentence, since his skull had been slammed against the table by said well-endowed Vocaloid. Fuming and blushing furiously, Luka said nothing, only nodded to confirm her allegiance, while grinding Gakupo's face against the table as if wanting to rub it off.

"We'll spread the word by the Internet." Akaito cleared his throat and continued, not wanting to get involved in the fight. "As you said, Crypton probably won't notice it…"

"They won't," confirmed Meiko, "They don't care what we do with our spare time. But we won't make it too extravagant either. We'll make it look like we're just having fun."

"Then girls, we'll leave the planning and timing to you," nodded Akaito, obviously reluctant to take part in the planning of cookie sales. "We'll try to find a cheap rent for the light and sound systems…"

"… and contacting other collaborators," finished Gakupo, cellphone already in hand.

Didn't think he'd collaborate that eagerly with the copycats, did you? He knew the stereotype: You'd expect the ones with looks, like him, to lack brains. But he wasn't stupid. He knew when a bargain was fair – when he gave something to receive something. He'd give his helpfulness and his popularity, his charms and his voice, for a chance to look good to his fellow Vocaloids. He was tired of playing the forlorn one, the bad guy; he wanted to be a part of this "family", which, he had only just learned, was even bigger than he could ever imagined. Somewhere out there, he had, not a version of himself with boobs, but a twin sister, and she had a name: Gakuko. This concert that they were planning would bring them together. It would bring a part of them, Kaito, back as he was.

He'd help, he'd try to play the good guy. He knew how to. Especially since he had a very clear idea what "collaborator" to call, someone who would need this concert just as much as Kaito did. This someone would take a little convincing, but Gakupo was sure they'd yield to his charms.

(Kumori's stamp of approval goes here – Thank you, you're the most wonderful beta on earth!)

o0o

Warning: Loooong A/N ahead.

A/N: Finally, a new chapter! I cannot express how glad I am to actually finish it! I'm really sorry for the long wait between chapters, guys, but that's what happen when I try to write something without laying out the whole plot ahead. I spend months just trying to figure out what to put in the next pages. I hope you're bearing with this little fic, though it must have drifted very far from what you expected of it at the beginning. Yeah, from a LenKaito fluff fic, it became something like a tribute to all Vocaloids (with some of Gakupo's-struggle-between-good-and-evil).

I have a story, and I know how to end this fic. But it's just the skeleton, and there are many ways to put flesh on it. Since I'm not sure which way I want now, I'll do it the cool kids' way: You tell me what to do. What would you like to see in the next chapters? What pairings, what kind of interactions? Angst, Fluff? Sad, happy? Give me suggestions, hopefully they'll light some sparks of genius in me!

I've also been busy working on some original fics. The biggest one I worked on is a vampire fic, very inspired by Anne Rice's Vampires Chronicles (Interview with the Vampire and co.) I've got some 10,000 words down, but there's some issues and I decided to drop it. Still, it's the first time I write in 1st person POV, and I would like to receive some comment. If you're interested, please search for Smiling Mask in fictionpresse; my first chapter is there. If it interests you enough, just leave me a message and I'll send the rest (not beta'ed yet) to you.

I've been working on some short novels too, and hope to public them sometime soon.

Thank you for your support! Until next time.