First Sound Future

chapter 5

Mikuo had returned- finally, elating his sister. He had brought Ruko, Iroha and Meikane along with him. He had always traveled in company.

Ruko Yokune stretched and yawned.

“I’m actually kinda happy to be back,” he was saying. “America can be too exciting sometimes.”

Mikuo laughed. “Too bad we gotta’ go back!”

Miku wanted to impatiently pull her brother aside, but seeing as they just got here, she couldn’t do that just yet. She had kept debating with herself about whether she should’ve asked Mikuo his opinion or not.

She would wait until he was alone, then. For now, she wanted to get a glimpse at these twin Humvoids Sune had told her about. She left the building they stayed in, and took the secret, underground path into the labs of the Corporation. She was permitted this access, of course, but she began to wonder if she’d actually be able to see the Humvoids as she had Sune. Then she wondered if Kagamine Len and Rin had seen them.

It was deathly quiet, as usual. Those familiar whizzes and beeps of computers and processors greeted her processor, those electronic whirrs all too recognizable to her. She peaked in the lab room that Sune had been raised in. It was dark and empty. So, she continued to the next set of lab rooms.

Luckily, she didn’t have to go far. They were side-by-side. She made sure she couldn’t be seen and peaked down into Mim’s room. She wanted to immediately backtrack at the sight- it was revolting. The poor girl below had blackened skin in disgusting patches all over her left arm.

Miku slapped a hand over her mouth, staring wide-eyed down at Mim. What made it worse, the small girl was staring back up at Miku, ignoring the men around her. Her short blonde hair looked freshly washed and she was wrapped in a white towel- much like how Sune always was. Her blue eyes shone with misery.

She cried out as tears began to stream down her pale face, penetrating Miku with a wretched stare.

Miku backed away from the glass immediately, before a lab worker spotted her from below.

Bravely, she delicately and quietly walked to the next window, and cautiously peeked down into Pent’s room.

He had just been washed too- his golden hair wet. He clutched the towel around him and sneezed. From what Miku could see, he had nothing wrong with him. So why was his sister’s arm so . . . deathly looking?

She closely observed his face. She could see an actual relation between Pent and Mim. She wondered which worried mother the Corporation had stolen these siblings away from. They looked around four, which meant they’d be released in six more years to live amongst the Vocaloids, like Sune was.

Pent yawned, and the lab workers around him scurried about like always.

“Her arm looks horrible, doesn’t it?” Lily’s voice startled her.

She turned to face her friend. “It does. I wonder what’s wrong with it?”

“They say that for some reason, she’s easily more bruised now than when they first got her.” Lily stared down at Pent.

“But the only thing they changed for the twins was their voices.” Miku stated.

Lily nodded. “It’s what happens when you mess with DNA. It just messes everything up.”

“The poor girl started crying. She looks so miserable.”

“She’s just in pain.” Lily assured, as if she were Mim’s doctor. “Her bruises have gone internal- that’s why they’re so black-looking.”