Chapter 1

She was what they call an artificial being, an android, a cyborg. Her life consisted nothing but endless experiments and research for them to perform on her; a test subject they would call her. They would tell her many times that she was merely a prototype made to accelerate humanity's stage of the future generations, a plot device for mankind as they would call it.

She was nothing but a robot, they told her. She was nothing but an artificial being they told her. She was nothing but an arrangement of machinery, they told her. She was nothing but an Imitation.

At times she wondered if her life was meaningless. To ponder at such things, to look above and wonder if there was a purpose hidden within her barren path; would that make her as human as the others? To feel curiosity as the human brain would, are these the marks of having human feelings? Had it never occurred to them that the definition of being human was only a subjective term? That they don't consider her to be human because of their different perspectives?

But no matter how often she pondered at this question, she always ended up being treated as an android at the end of the day, telling her that the curiosity that constantly prodded her mind was nothing but a feature installed into her for realistic human characteristics. And that this type of action was only considered as a step forward of success to their long journey of awaiting accomplishments.

In all of these madness, in all of these idealistic goals to achieve mankind's very dream of a highly advanced futuristic world, they had been blinded at what she was originally designed to do―to sing. And as they were blinded by their ultimate goal of idealism, they had been striving nothing but perfection that might as well turn into the early stages of insanity.

But still, even if they had treated her as nothing, she still couldn't bring herself to form her own opinion on these creatures; she couldn't hate them. And having realizing this, she instantly knew it was because of her nature; androids weren't allowed to feel or have an opinion. She was only an imitation. How ironic, really, that she was supposed to act as a human but yet was not allowed to be perceived as a human nor was she allowed to bear any human feelings. Imitating―that was what she's now programmed to do. How very hypocritical humans are.

So after having enough of what they really are, she finally broke free from the confinements of the chamber they kept her and escaped. Now, she was running endlessly through the metallic hallways of the lab, her pace sometimes shaking because of her artificial brain taking such a long time to register what she had just done.

"Catch her! Don't let her get away!" The voices echoed through the hallways, followed by ringing alarms and steps reverberating through the walls. Soon, a cluster of men armed with guns and equipment emerged from her view, preparing to reinforce her if she ever gets away.

She knew they would never hurt her; they only thought she was fragile. As she neared through the intricate mazes of the lab, she finally found the exit. Hastily pushing the door open, she ran out in the night.

It was raining and she could feel raindrops tapping and rolling down her porcelain skin. They never let her go outside, much less let her feel the rain, so it was a very foreign, yet refreshing, feeling to her. Staring at the cloudy night sky, her moments were soon interrupted when she heard an ear-splitting sound, followed by an immense pain seeping through one of her arms.

"Stop! What the hell are you doing? Don't shoot her yet! Hold your forces!" the leader instructed through the heavy sounds of the storm.

She winced back in pain as she held a hand over the upper area of her arm. How... How was this possible? Why was she feeling pain? She was an android, she wasn't supposed to feel pain. But all these incoming questions didn't stop her from running away, so she attempted to get away from them as far as possible while they blindly chased after her.

Humans, they were all the same. She realized now that the reason for this pain on her arm was because of the feature they had installed on her. Of course, they were always restlessly trying their ways for her to be more human-like. She removed her hand from the pain and saw a blotch of crimson red staining her skin.

Blood... She didn't know how long she had this kind of installment... She never had this happened to her before. Even her feet was starting to get sore. She couldn't feel it (androids weren't supposed to feel) but she knew she was hurting. As she stared at the discovery, cold rain seeped in through her wound as it gradually soaked her hair and clothes. Though, she still continued to run until she found herself in a dead end of a cliff.

"We have you surrounded, CV01. So, please stop this at once!" The leader commanded while his men around him prepared their weapons. The research lab was located in a faraway island, isolated from humanity, so escaping only had limited solutions, she processed.

"Please, CV01, stop this at once. What good can you get from from running away? We never programmed you to be like this."

They never even used her real name. She knew she had a real name but she had forgotten it overtime because of their constant use of her model name. This only showed that they only treated her as nothing but an android.

An android she was but even if she defied their orders would this make her more human as she is now? No... No, she is not a human. Perhaps rebelling was only a type of malfunction in her brain system, a problem that occurred because of her constant struggle with herself of whether she is a human or not. And the reason for this problem rooted back to these humans.

With one last look filled with the realization of near freedom, she stepped backwards and jumped off the cliff.

-XxXxXxX-

It was often Megurine Luka would jog by towards the harbour during mornings and stare passively at the ever-so mystical waves rolling by in the ocean. It was a peaceful sight for her and always a good start to her day. She would sit down on the beach, bury her feet under the sand, and occasionally tap her toes against the earth while feeling the cool wind pass by her. She would watch the sun rise towards the sky and it would always fascinate her how beautiful the stages of the day would change. And doing this daily routine was certainly no exception today.

As she watched the vivid, orange sunrise glow under the growing blue sky, a shadow of a figure caught her eye. She squinted, attempting to catch a clearer view through the orange sun-rays. What she saw, however, made her gasp and run shivers through her spine. A young girl was floating in the middle of the ocean, not too far away from the shore.

Luka immediately got up and ran towards her, her legs sinking deeper in the ice-cold water as she got further. Luckily, she was wearing short-shorts and it was low tide, so all her worries of getting majorly wet quickly disappeared.

"What the..." Luka was speechless once she spotted a closer look of the figure.

Her clothes were ragged, multiple scratches were etched on her probably-once-beautiful skin, and it almost looked like she was dead. Her long teal hair was floating quiescently in the water along with the rhythm of her frail-looking body. Her eyes were closed and her slumbering form would have almost looked like a placid sight if it weren't for the gravity of the current situation.

Luka's heart pounded faster against her chest, taking a long time for her to register the event. A girl―possibly dead―was floating right in front of her in the ocean. She might have drowned or jumped off a cliff last night, she concluded.

Taking a deep breath, she hesitantly wrapped her arms around the girl's petite figure and dragged her towards the shore. Her whole body was freezing cold and that made Luka's stomach churn as she came to the conclusion that she might possibly be touching a dead person at this very moment. Still, she tried to ignore the thought and laid her body down, hoping that this person wasn't dead.

"Um... Hello... Please don't be dead..." Luka whispered as the conclusion of this person's death dawned on her. It didn't look like she was breathing and it made Luka's body tremble. Her day only started off as a normal morning and now here she was finding a dead body of a girl in the middle of the ocean. It was unbelievable, really.

As Luka was about to take out her phone and call the ambulance, she realized that she can perform CPR on this person right now (she took a few classes when she offered to be a lifeguard). This person's life might as well depend on it, even if the thought of having to touch lips with a girl she barely knew was embarrassing and uncomfortable.

Luka took a deep breath and placed her hand over the teal-haired's chest and neck, desperately finding any hint of a heartbeat. But after a few seconds of coming in contact with her skin, she heard a voice; a soft, somewhat emotionless, steady voice that sounded like a falling snowflake lightly thumping the ground. And she heard that it was coming from the girl herself.

"Lost memory storage. Now attempting to reset memory load. Will complete in the next hour."

Luka jumped. What... the... hell... was that? She saw her lips moved so it must be here. Even if the teal-haired girl's eyes were completely closed, the voice must have belonged to hers. There was no other person around besides her. But still, why did she say that? And the voice sounded so awfully robotic, as if it weren't a real human voice, as if it were forced.

Luka didn't even know, let alone hear, what the girl was exactly saying. Maybe she misheard her somehow. Maybe she was jut imagining things. At least it assured her the girl was still alive and that was enough for her to feel relieved.

Luka stared at her body. She looked so frail and even if her face were marked with scratches she looked so cute with her mouth slightly open as she slept. She looked like she might be around the same age as hers even though her features somewhat resembled that of a child.

As Luka studied her figure, she noticed that the girl had a huge "01" stamped on her left arm in red, solid font. Maybe a tattoo, perhaps? But she didn't look like she was in the proper age of having a tattoo―Luka shook the thoughts off, considering that it was futile to delve further on that.

She figured that she shouldn't leave her alone here. Leaving a cute, innocent-looking girl alone was always dangerous, as malicious crimes in the city were always rising. She knew it would be heartless, so after carefully placing her behind her back, Luka took her home. It was the least she can do.

A/N: This story is based off/inspired by Miku's song, Imitation. (youtube-dot-com/watch?v=1q6YfInOzPE) I figured I should just write something right before my break ends.