Songs Across The Seas (A Hatsune Miku Story)

Two

10:16. Tokyo, Japan.

Miku mumbled, turning over and waking from her peaceful sleep. She had slept to her satisfaction, and was now ready to get up. As she woke, she overheard her hotel door opening. Two staff members entered quickly, with room service breakfast. She glared their way, but said nothing to them as she climbed fully out of bed. As she went into the bathroom and changed into a sweater and jeans, the staff members served her food and left as quickly as they could enter. She sat at her bed, looking over the food. She reached over and grabbed her phone, and found that she had received a message from Hiru that read:

"Call me when you wake."

Miku scoffed at his message, sliding her thumb to the left and removing the message from her lock screen. She ate her food, and once she was finished, he opened up the message and called Hiru.

"Morning Miku." Hiru greeted upon entering. "Morning. Why did you tell me to call you?" Miku asked. "Just to let you know what your schedule is today. Sorry that it's coming in so late. Last minute delays caused a few quick changes." "Sure. What're the changes?" Miku asked bluntly. "The press interview has moved from 1 to 1:30 pm at the same place. Also, the production team has a new instrumental they want you to hear. Later this afternoon, I have something I'd like to discuss with you face to face." "Fine. Whatever." Miku sighed, noting everything mentally. "Right. Bye then." Hiru said, hanging up. Miku laid back on the bed, closing her eyes for a few brief moments.

***

Another hour and a half of relaxing passed before Miku went down to her limo and sat in the back, messaging friends. Before the limo drove off, another person got into the back of the limo: a journalist in his late 20's or early 30's. The limo pulled into the street after he got in. Miku looked up from her phone, looking him over. "Hello, Hatsune." He greeted with a polite smile. "Hello." Miku said with a nod, sipping from a bottle of water.

"Forgive me for being so sudden on entering. Your agent, Mr. Hiru, allowed me to ride along, so I could ask you a few questions." The journalist explained. "Go ahead." Miku said politely. He nodded, and raised his pen and notepad:

"Okay. To start, how have your fans been treating you?"

"I think my fans have been good to me for the most part." She said, then continued. "However, it has been brought to my attention that my latest releases have been, to quote, 'repetitive'. My fans are important to me, however, and I want to make them happy and for them to take a liking to my work as they've always had."

"I see. Bringing up the repetitive comment, that leads me to my next question. While your new music was fairly well received, critic reviews on average ranked it about half a point to a full to a full point lower than the rest of your work, on a score out of five. Critics showed that they liked the hits more or less, but stated them as being, as you said, 'repetitive' as well as 'stylistically mundane.' What do you have to say to those who think in harmony with those opinions?"

"I'm interested to understand why they think so." Miku said, trying to maintain her smile and hide her gritted teeth. "And as I've said before, I strive to make my fans happy. I'm taking these new critiques into mind as I create my upcoming releases, which will hopefully be more pleasing." She answered slowly and carefully.

The journalist nodded. "It's good to see that you really care about your fans and how they view your work. Your last tour was rated one of your most successful thus far. Would you say that it's because of your fans?"

This answer came much easier. "Of course. I'd say I owed all my success to my fans."

The journalist smiled and nodded. The limo parked outside of the skyscraper containing Miku's recording studio. "Thank you for your time, Miku." "No problem." Miku said with a smile. The two shook hands. "I'm Jackie, by the way." "Nice meeting you, Jackie." Miku said as he exited the limo. She exited out the other side of the limo, and was led by an escort into the building. She went up to the 15th floor, and to her studio: a large living space with two recording booths side by side, an open stage section, and a closed off section with all the sound engineering equipment.