20 Day Escape (Len Kagamine)

20 Day Escape: Day 14

Day 14:

I've been driving for hours. All I can do is head toward NY and hope the stop I need to make is somewhere on the way.

I pull my brain apart for hours. I don't listen to music. I barely watch the road. I can barely focus on anything at all.

I'm too scared of what they'll do to him.

Would they wipe his memory? Would they pull him apart? Would they make him forget me? Would they shut off his emotions? Would they torture him?

I showed him a whole world that he'd never even imagined. Would they take all of that away?

I hated my father. I hated Daisuke. I hated that all I can do is drive.

And hope.

I got through Nevada when a phone call finally came.

"Please tell me this is good news." I ask, cranking the volume so I could hear Misaki through the bluetooth.

"There's a lab in Colorado, just outside of Boulder. From what I can tell, that's where Daisuke has been doing his work... that's where you should be able to find... remnants."

He means a body. He just didn't want to think that Daisuke was capable of murder.

I knew better.

"I'm in Nevada, still. I'll keep driving til I'm there."

"What exactly is your plan, Nami?"

What exactly was my plan...

"I'll figure it out." I whisper, trying mostly to convince myself.

"I hope you do." He says. There's a silence that almost makes me think he's hung up, but he speaks again, quieter than before. "I'm sorry, Nami."

"I'm sorry he ever got you involved," I press the button to end the call. "This is a family matter."

~-~-~-~-~

It was pretty late when I got to Boulder. I had driven about 17 hours, it was around 11. I was tired, but I refused to let it stop me. Misaki had texted me an address to the lab, and the outside of the location was heavily guarded, even so late at night.

I had no idea what to do, but I had to try.

I drove up to the gate with the security shack, rolling down my window to look at the heavily built man.

"Can I help you?" He asks. What could I even do?

"My father sent me here." I respond.

"Can I see some ID, please?" I really hope my dad didn't put me on some kind of blacklist.

"Here." I reach into my pocket and pull my wallet out, handing my ID to the man, who observes it for only a moment before pressing a button to open the gate.

"Sorry for the trouble, Miss Nigata."

I throw the car into drive and pull into the facility. I park in my dad's sign-reserved spot, because fuck him. A few security guards ask if I need an escort through the facility, but I brush past them and walk straight into the doors of the lab. There's one person working the night shift at the desk.

"How.. can I help you?" He asks, and I lean forward on the counter, prepared to use charm if I had to.

"Hi, Nami Nigata." He sits up a bit straighter at this. "Can you direct me to Daisuke Kato's office?"

"Oh, he isn't here right now. Hasn't been around for a few days." Fuck.

"Yeah, well, that's exactly it. See, I asked him for a report on his work the past few months, and he tells me he's left the entire printed copy for me on his desk. I was in the area anyways, so I figured I'd swing by and grab it."

"... at eleven thirty?" STOP ASKING QUESTIONS, DAMMIT.

"Like I said. In the area." I stop leaning on the desk and pull out my cellphone. "Honestly, if you're going to keep wasting my time, I'm just going to tell my fathe-"

"It's down the hall, go up the stairs and it's the second door on the right. Next to the neuro lab."

"Thanks." I tuck my cellphone away and head upstairs. Daisuke's office was locked.

But the neuro lab wasn't.

The neuro lab was... more like a morgue. There were tables covered with white cloth. Each had a tag, sometimes with a number, sometimes with a name. I recognized all of them.

Ruko, Momo, Uta, Ritsu... but these were all utaus.

To expose my father, I needed one of Kenmochi's inventions. I scan each card, hoping one will sport a vocaloid name.

Hoping is a bad word. But the truth still stands, I needed to find a vocaloid to fix everything.

And then I found a name. And I almost threw up on the spot.

Leon. The first vocaloid. The first I ever saw, the first I ever met, and the first ever signed into a musical contract with my father.

I didn't want to lift the sheet off the table. I didn't want to see...

But I needed the proof. I needed photos. I needed the memory drive.

I'm so sorry. I never wanted it to come to this.

~-~-~-~-~