Teto Territory: The Story of Teto

The Overlapping Sound

"Uta. Utane-chan, wake up!"

"Defoko, c'mon, Teto's surgery is done!"

That got my attention. My eyes fluttered open. "What? Can we see her?"

Momo nodded and took my hand, helping me up. "We can go right now. She's awake."

The three of us went in to find Teto sitting up, a large bandage around her neck. Her eyes lit up when she saw us and she waved.

"Hey, Kasane-chan~" said Momotaro. "Hey, Charlotte."

Charlotte nodded to us. "The surgery went really well, but Teto can't talk quite yet. Her throat's a bit swollen, and it has to adjust to having a voice inside it." As if to demonstrate Charlotte's point, we all watched as Teto drank some water, but winced when she had to swallow it.

"I'm so glad it went well!" Momo exclaimed, hugging Charlotte.

I heard some papers rustle and I looked over to see Teto pulling a paper off the little table next to her bed. "What is it?" I asked as I walked over. I soon realized they were song lyrics. "Oh, you're writing your first song!"

Teto nodded, and then said in an extremely hoarse whisper, "M-Mimi no Aru R-Ro...Robot no Uta."

"Song of the Eared Robot," I repeated, grinning. It was hard to tell what her voice actually sounded like, since it was so quiet and raspy, but hey, Teto spoke! Neither of the Momones or Charlotte heard it, and it was like a secret between me and Teto, something just for the two of us. "May I read it?" I picked it up when she nodded.

The lyrics were... somewhat sad. The song seemed to be about a girl who had a terrible, broken past, full of people who claimed to love her but then they threw her away shortly after. But instead of crying about it, she would keep on singing. The last line was "Throwing that past away, I've come this far".

I gave the paper back to Teto, deep in thought. It was obvious the song was based on all the trauma Teto had experienced in the last five days, her entire existence. The Vocaloids claimed to love her only to throw her away. Huh. Maybe they weren't as great as we all thought... 

"You're officially a Utau!" Charlotte exclaimed to Teto, who was eating ice cream. "Let's add you to the Utau website. Name, Kasane Teto, full name Tetopettenson. Sex, chimera. Age 31."

All four of us, me, the Momones and Teto herself, were surprised to hear this information about Teto, since we had never heard it before and it seemed quite preposterous.

Teto swallowed some ice cream, which Momotaro had given her to help her sore throat, and said slowly, "W-What's... chi-me-ra?"

Charlotte turned to Teto, smiling at her chattiness. "Well, when someone is a chimera, it means they have some female parts and some male parts. It happens when two little baby eggs combine. You're mostly female, Teto, but you definitely have some male aspects. It's like you're two people in one!"

"O-Oh." Teto stared at the bowl of ice cream in her lap, blushing. She probably thought it was weird to be a chimera, and she might have been slightly embarrassed since Charlotte said all of that in front of us. "C-Can't you just put female?"

Momo looked at Teto with a worried expression. "Are you worried people will think you're weird?" When Teto nodded, Momo went over to Teto and hugged her. "You are not weird. In fact, I think it's pretty cool, and I'm sure other people will too." Teto smiled a tiny bit.

I smiled too, but I stayed where I was, standing off to the side. I'm not great at comforting people. I jumped when I felt a hand on my back, and I looked up to see Momotaro smiling at me. I quickly turned my gaze to the floor, hoping my hair was covering my intense blush. When I heard Momo giggle, I looked up to give her a death glare.

"Ahem," Charlotte cleared her throat, gaining our attention again. "Since Teto is a chimera, her age is technically 31, but her human age would be 15, 15 and a half, to be exact."

Teto nodded, and then said, "Wh-when can I sing?"

Charlotte laughed at Teto's adoration for singing. "Soon, honey, soon."

~Teto's POV~

It was so weird, crying with a voice. It was much louder, and while I didn't want to wake everyone up, I couldn't quiet down. My throat still ached a bit, and the crying was only making it worse, but I just couldn't stop.

I was a freak. I was a 31-year-old chimera freak named Tetopettenson without a voice and that was why the Vocaloids got rid of me. I would've gotten rid of me, too. And now I had a voice, and I was with a bunch of strange people. I supposed I fit right in. My only friends weren't even human, just a bunch of robots. I was an outcast. I should run away. I'm not wanted here, or at the Vocaloid Mansion, or anywhere. I'll live alone somewhere so I don't bother anyone. I should leave right now, while everyone's asleep. I sat up in the bed but found my trembling arms were unable to push the covers off, which only made me sob harder.

Just then, Momo opened the door, holding a glass of water in her hand. "Teto? What's wrong?"

I instantly decided against my escape plans. There was no way I could take care of myself, and I knew it. I threw my arms around Momo, soaking her apron with tears. I was really glad to see her. She sat the glass down and sat on the edge of my bed, rubbing my back. As if she could read my mind, she said, "Hey, it's alright. They're going to love you, just like I do. And Uta, even if she doesn't always show it."
"B-But I'm a freak!" I sobbed.

"Shh, you don't want to wake everyone up," she responded gently. Momo had such a soothing motherly instinct that seemed to calm me almost instantly. "If I'm being honest, we're all a bit freaky. Nobody's perfect, you know. I mean, just look at me, I'm a robot who can take my head off! And you haven't even seen what Momotaro can do," she giggled.

"W-What can he do?" I asked, sniffling.

Momo grinned. "Well, he often finds human clothes restricting, and so while he looks like a hot butler, he can turn into a tiny lil' robot!"

That made me giggle, and Momo grabbed a tissue, wiping at my eyes. "Do you like your voice?" I nodded. "I think you really sound like a Vocaloid," she said admirably. "Like the sister of Hatsune Miku!"

At the sound of that name, I pulled a sour face. "You don't like Miku?" Momo asked, puzzled.

Momo adored Miku the most of all the Utaus, what was I supposed to say? 'Miku is actually a horribly rude monster'? "I could n-never be related to her," I fibbed. "She's much better than me."

"Not so," Momo replied. "I believe all synthesizers are created equal."

You know what, Momo was right. Who said we were any worse than Miku just because we were Utaus?

"Now, drink some water. Your singing voice won't do you any good if it's not taken care of properly."

I thought back to my song and what I wrote before I thought I was freaky. Nothing has changed, I thought. I'm still the same person I was when I wrote it. Even if I am a bit strange, I was born to sing, and that's exactly what I'll do. I'm not going to sit around and cry anymore. I am a Vocaloid, after all. I am, even if I don't look or sound like it. I've been a Vocaloid this whole time, and nobody, not even Miku, can take that away from me.

A/N: Hey everyone! So I just listened to Song of the Eared Robot for the first time a couple days ago and omg I'm obsessed (^^;) I'm listening to it right now actually! I wanted to add some of the lyrics in this chapter but I couldn't find any I particularly liked, so I'm writing my own XD I hope to have them done by the next chapter, and I'll probably use them for an English cover on my YouTube channel, TFaithMOMO sometime so ye :D what's funny is how well this song lines up with the events with the book and I didn't even plan it XD so when I write mine I'll try to make them relate to the events of this book as best as possible :3 Okay that's all for now, as always leave some suggestions of UTAUs I could put in here cuz you can never have too many characters, and don't worry we'll be getting some more Vipperloids, anyways things are gonna get pretty spicy so stay tuned ;D