Chapter Text
The mansion stood alone on the hill in the far northwest corner of town. It loomed darkly over the surrounding homes, a distorted and slightly grotesque mirror on the lives of the city’s better-off inhabitants.
Many believed the mansion was haunted. There were none of the stereotypical signs to suggest it was-no dead trees, no peeling paint or other signs of disrepair, no unidentifiable objects flitting about the grounds, no unusual noises. The idea came instead from an unsettling feeling that it gave off.
Few knew the inhabitants of the mansion, and those who knew the adult members of the Shakumei family found them to be distant and arrogant-stereotypical aristocrats, if nothing else. Fewer knew the children, who had taken the name “Meikane”, but otherwise did little to separate themselves from their family’s image. They would shed no light on the matter.
This reputation suited Miku Zatsune just fine. No one would disturb her scheming, and no one would wonder what happened to Hina Meikane. It had been slightly bothersome to deal with the effect her change had on her siblings, and she didn’t want to know how the rest of the world would react.
Not yet, anyway.
She sat in a chair in a room on the east wing of the mansion, carefully out of direct sunlight. The one real downside of her transformation into a Vocaloid was that it brought out all of her family’s weaknesses that had been trivial when she was a human.
You’d think it would be the other way around. Isn’t the technology supposed to take away our weaknesses?
She opened a bottle of dark red fingernail polish. She applied a fresh coat to her nails and held them just outside of the beam of light. The wet polish gave off a dull gleam, and she smiled.
Just like me-beautiful and dark. I’m also almost the exact opposite of her, and this is almost exactly the opposite color from her hair.
She frowned. Miku Hatsune was at once everything Zatsune loved and hated. She was arguably attractive and had an easy charm. She also had the power that came from being famous and adored-a small amount, to be sure, but one that Zatsune would have liked as a supplement to the influence that came from being a member of a rich and old family. She also had an innocent quality that sickened Zatsune. This had seemed to increase after Zatsune’s creation to a greater extent than could be explained by Zatsune’s newfound aversion to light, almost as if she had pulled what little darkness Miku had out of her during the process.
It didn’t matter. Zatsune would only have to put up with Miku for as long as it took to achieve her goals. After that, she would be…disposable.
Zatsune contemplated her hand for a few more seconds, then started putting polish on the fingernails of her other hand.
The Meikane family was under several curses. Many of them were brought about by the actions of family members in a search for wealth, power, glory, or everlasting life. Although many of these brought temporary benefits, they eventually ended up running the family into the ground. Many older members, once thought to be invincible, were dead, and most of the wealth had faded away. Few listened to the whispers in the dark anymore, and the family’s influence diminished.
As Hina, Zatsune had listened to the old stories and been enthralled, wishing she could claim the glorious past for herself. Now, she was empowered to take actions that she hadn’t been before. She was willing to go far, first to restore the family name, then to live as she wished.
The Vocaloids had taken the first steps for her. Neru had been so easy to manipulate. Her jealousy had made her blind to Zatsune’s true intentions-never questioning, she had done all she was ordered to. The studio Vocaloids were starting to take care of her long-term plans without realizing it. Already, they were rushing toward new discoveries.
She had gained a faint glimpse into Miku’s memories, and this had provided her with more than enough information to start. An ancient sorceress had made or found vessels to somehow collect the seven deadly sins. In the right hands, they would be kept safely away from the world or even cleaned of their taint. In the wrong hands, they could be used to cause great destruction. Zatsune’s hands were definitely the wrong ones, and she wanted these artifacts of great power.
”The sixth shall rise first, bringing darkness in her wake.” She had said these words without a clear idea of where they had come from. She only knew that they felt true.
After all, they say that they’re here to fix the mistakes of the past and to stop a great darkness from rising. Isn’t it ironic that they caused this great darkness to return along with them? After all, their existence made mine possible.
She laughed, a sound that started low and quiet but built in volume and intensity. The sound echoed through the room and could probably be heard down the halls, transmitted by flaws in the old building. After a while she stopped, reining in her hysteria. It was so cheesy to laugh like a villain from and old, bad movie, but Zatsune didn’t mind because it felt natural to do so. The girl that she had once been was quickly disappearing.
Then again, maybe I’m not really changing so much as…coming to the surface. I was in there all along, and I just needed some encouragement to realize it.
She smirked. What do the studio Vocaloids have in them that they don’t realize?