Teto Territory: The Story of Teto

The Second Fake

Koe collapsed onto her brother. "But then I'll be boreddddddddddddddddd."

"Hey, Koe!" I got her attention. "You should go Christmas caroling! Knock on all the bedroom doors and sing songs for the Utaus. I bet they would love that."

"Good idea!" The small girl hopped up. She adored Christmas, even though she hadn't gotten to celebrate it yet. "I'll start with Charlotte!"

But before Koe could knock on the door, Charlotte opened it from the other side and walked into the living room, quickly turning the TV on.

"Hey, what's going on?" Ted asked, looking up at our red-haired developer.

"New Vocaloid," She said, finally reaching her desired channel. "There's been a rumor that it could be another fake, another Vipperloid."

I gasped. Another Vocaloid like me? Someone who just wanted to sing, someone who would be unrightfully abandoned?

Sure enough, the girl on screen, who had dark hair and was quite tall and muscular, was plunged from the stage, just like me.

Everyone gasped. "I knew it," Charlotte muttered under her breath. "I'm going to go get her."

I almost wanted to ask Charlotte if I could come with her. I knew exactly what it was like, and maybe that girl would like having someone to talk to.

But I didn't. It was like I had lost my voice again.

Charlotte brought the girl back to the studio and they quietly slipped into the soundproof recording studio. They were both in there for a good two hours, and finally Charlotte came out. "Teto, would you like to meet her?"

Oh man. I was gonna be the first one to meet her? "Me?"

"She seems pretty upset, kind of like you were the first time you were here. I know you used to be in her shoes, so maybe you could comfort her a bit."

"Oh... okay. Anything I should know about her?"

"Her name is Yokune Ruko, she's only twelve years old, but she's super tall. Also, she's intersex, 90% male and 10% female."

"Is that like chimera?"

"Well... yeah, I guess so. Ruko is pretty masculine-looking, but I don't think she's very comfortable with the topic. She wants to be known as a girl."

"Alright, I'm going in." I opened the door and I found Ruko curled up in the corner of the room. I walked over and sat next to her. "Um... hi."

She didn't even glance at me.

"My name is Teto, and you're Ruko, right?"

She nodded, still staring at the ground.

"Ah, no voice yet. I know exactly how it feels, because I was in your shoes just a couple months ago."

Finally, Ruko met my eyes. I'd captured her interest.

"Yes, it's true. I was going to be a Vocaloid, too, but I turned out to be a joke. But then the Utau developers, people like Charlotte, gave me a voice. And some of the people here are kind of crazy, but they're so much fun. Trust me, you're going to love it."

And then she smiled.

Ruko eventually got her voice. Like many other Utaus, she slept a lot, and she also liked to hang out in the kitchen, especially when there was coffee. At first, Uta worried that she may be competition to get to Momotaro (even though she denied it several times), but Ruko told her not to worry. She loved to play matchmaker and tried to set them up every chance she could. She also tried to set both me and Momo up, even though we both told her neither of us had crushes.

After that, things were never really the same. It felt so weird to know that there was someone like me, someone who knew exactly how I had felt.

I continued to work on my song. I noted how I wasn't actually that old since I was a chimera, and I added a bit about forgetting to return rental DVDs, something I did quite often. I even had to say several times that I was not a drill, as Ted had started to call me Twindrill because of my hair.

The idea that fake Vocaloids were a one-time thing went right down the drain. We were up to date on news of new Vocaloids, and we were always cautious when a new Vocaloid was about to be released. At that point, nobody was really sure whether the next Vocaloid would be a fake or not.

We were all anxious when Megurine Luka stood on that dreaded stage. Ted was sort of hoping she was a fake, so she could work with us, because he thought she was "hot". But when nothing happened, and she even spoke to the audience, we knew she was a real Vocaloid. It was all anyone talked about for a while, then she just slowly faded out of conversation, and nobody really paid attention to her.

~Meiko's POV~

"Mei, dinner's ready," Rin's small head peeked out from behind the door.

I nodded and made my way to the dining room. I was just about to sit down when Miku barked, "Meiko, did you tell Luka to come down?"

"I didn't know I was supposed to," I responded, taking my usual seat.

She glared at me. "I specifically told you to a couple days ago!"

"But that was a couple days ago. Why should I do it every day?" I countered, knowing I was entering dangerous territory.

Miku was really fuming now. "Because I told you to! That's why!"

"Fine!" I sighed and trudged up the stairs to Luka's room and knocked on the door. "Luka, dinner's ready."

"Not hungry," she replied from the other side of the door.

"Alright," I said simply and I went back down to the table. "She said she's not hungry."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, SHE'S NOT HUNGRY?" Miku screeched. "SHE COULD'VE AT LEAST COME DOWNSTAIRS!"

I shrugged.

Miku pushed away from the table and stomped upstairs. We could hear her screams clearly. The rest of us just ate our food awkwardly.

I sighed. Luka was only making this hard on herself by defying Miku. Nobody had ever done it before, and it was obvious why. Miku's rage was so severe, none of us had dared to disobey her before. But Luka went against her from the start.

Why... why do you do this to yourself?