lovely // a vocaloid fanfiction

chapter 3 // closed doors

As Flower slowly returned to consciousness, she winced. Everything hurt, especially her head. The snow-haired girl hazily recalled being kicked in the head before waking up wherever she was currently. She did know one thing: the floor was cold and stone-hard. And now that Flower thought about it, the floor probably was made of stone. She let out a small groan as she tried looking around. The entire room was dark, and she could barely see anything, when suddenly—

"Oh! Are you finally awake?"

Flower flinched, jumping up defensively. She immediately regretted this, however, collapsing back to the ground due to the strain on her legs. Looking around, she tried determining where the sound had come from. Her eyes eventually landed on a masculine figure sitting in the corner. Their eyes glistened curiously, head tilting to one side.

"Don't worry, I won't hurt you. What's your name?"

As Flower's eyes slowly adjusted, she could make out the figure's features. He had medium-length, blond hair and deep brown, almost red eyes that were fixated on her. They both stared at each other for a good minute before Flower replied.

"Flower... and where am I?"

She nearly bit her lip as she quickly remembered where she had been sentenced to. And now that she did recall it, the kick to her head seemed to only intensify in pain...

"You're in The Sanctuary dungeon. Well, actually, it's less of a dungeon and more of a locked room where they house prisoners. What'd you do to end up here?"

"M-Miku didn't have a use for me, so she sent me here..." Flower replied shakily. She wasn't sure who this boy was, or how he ended up here. A part of her didn't want to know. But one thing was for sure— he was the nicest of all the people she'd met here so far.

"Oh. So then you're new, right?"

Flower nodded.

"Can I give you a piece of advice?" When Flower nodded again, he continued. "Miku will eventually give you a station here to watch out for other survivors, promoting you to a subject. She'll provide you with many things, actually, but this is all a part of her trap. She's not a good person. Trust me. Even after you are promoted, you need to be skeptical of her actions."

Flower's eyes widened. What did he mean by that? From what she could tell, The Sanctuary was a charming place. How could their leader not be a good person? She asked these questions to the boy in the corner, who merely shook his head before replying.

"Goodness. On one occasion, she executed someone for refusing to call her by a title of nobility! Ever since then, she started enforcing the rule that everyone call her 'Lord Miku,' or 'High Lord Miku,' or really anything along those lines as long as it wasn't derogatory. In my opinion, it's all bullshit. In fact, she's got many bullshit rules. I don't know if I can go into them all..."

He continued. "And not to mention she makes her subjects do all of her dirty work, like planting and harvesting food, and obtaining and filtering water from the Fountain. You'll be fortunate if you don't get one of those jobs. It's practically slave work..."

As Flower listened, she struggled to believe it. Yet, somehow, it made sense. Of course someone in power would corrupt like that, she thought. Still, Flower wanted to hope that their leader, Miku, was not that way, and that The Sanctuary was, as advertised, a generous place.

The blond boy blinked. "Well, anyways, I should probably introduce myself, shouldn't I? The name's Yohio, but you can call me Hio if you'd like."

Flower gave him a faint smile. "It's nice to meet you." She hesitated for a second before proposing a question to him. "Why are you being so kind to me?"