Chapter Text
”My name…is Leo/Meteor…don’t you ever forget it!”
—-
Ichika moved at a fair pace along the pavement, the wind brushing through her hair. School was a lot more tiring than it needed to be, and that was because of a multitude of things, not just the work itself. It was difficult navigating through a new school year, especially when she couldn’t remember too much about the last one. It was like Middle school all over again.
She sat on a nearby bench to check her phone for anything she perhaps missed while she was on her walk, and thankfully there wasn’t much. It wasn’t too late in the day or too early in the evening for anything important, which Ichika took advantage of by setting off again, missing the odd app that had appeared there while she wasn’t looking.
“Hey! Hoshino, right?” A voice chirped from behind her. She turned around to see a blonde girl with pigtails and a pink gradient. She was part of Ichika's class, right? It was only the first day of high school, so of course it was alright that she couldn’t remember anyone's names.
“Right!” She let the girl catch up to her, slowing down as she looked to be panting already. “And you? I can’t really remember your name, sorry.”
“Wa-? No it’s completely alright! I’m Saki Tenma, you can call me Saki!” She had a grin on her face and an extra hop in her step, which was the complete opposite of Ichikas energy at that current moment. She fumbled with her pair of glasses that she’d forgotten to put on earlier to get a better look of her.
“Well, Hi Saki. You’re also on your way home from school right?” Ichika asked, getting a nod from the other.
“Mhm! Tsukasa was a bit busier than usual today so I decided to take the scenic route home and noticed you.”
“And who’s Tsukasa…?”
“Oh, he’s my older brother. He goes to Kamiyama High school.” Saki said. Ichika nodded again, sighing and looking at the scenery behind her. “Is something wrong?”
“It’s weird, isn’t it? Being in high school. It feels like middle school just flew by and I don’t remember a thing of it.” Ichika remarked. And it truly was weird, but maybe her faulty memory was just her thing and nothing else.
“You’re right, I don’t remember anything from middle school. Ah well, I guess time flies by.” Saki stopped as the two came to a fork in the road. “This is where we part?”
Ichika laughed. “Yeah, I guess so. It was nice meeting you Saki.”
“And same to you too Hoshino!” Saki jogged off, but not before Ichika could call out one more thing.
“It’s Ichika! You can call me Ichika!”
She smiled and was about to go her own direction home when another voice suddenly appeared. It was quiet, but it didn’t feel like it was far away. She froze in place.
“Woah! Where am I? Why is it so dark? Help!”
It sounded…robotic, and it seemed to be coming from her pocket. Ichika looked around, but found nothing that could prove it was something else. No people on the phone, no cars or extra loud TV sets, nothing. The voice tried to speak again, but was muffled by the cloth of her jeans. What was going on, was that really coming from her phone? Suddenly finding herself in a panicked state, she dug out her phone, having it slip between her fingers like a bar of soap and nearly dropping it in the process. She hoped it was nothing. But when her hands finally stopped trembling, she focused her eyes on the screen, And on it was a character of some sort. She had long teal twintails, and wore a grey vest and skirt. And she was staring right at her, her hand on the glass like it was a window.
“Ah! It’s so bright! Huh? Um…”
Ichika screamed and clenched her hands hoping to not drop her phone again. “Who are you?! What are you doing in my phone?!” she asked. She tried to take breaths, shutting her eyes and opening them hoping the girl was gone, but that didn’t work.
“Calm down! Calm down, I'm not going to do anything, I promise!” the girl said. Her other hand was placed on the glass and her face showed hints of concern. Ichika took another breath to finally calm herself, and ran to her house as quickly as she could, shutting her bedroom door behind her. The girl, who had been shaken up from all the running, knocked on the glass. “I’m trapped here, do you think you could give me a hand? That’s all I ask right now!”
Ichika whipped her head around to the door just in case her dad was around, but at the relief of the dead silent hallway, she nodded. “What do you want me to do? And who exactly are you?” she said once she regained her breath.
The girl stepped backwards, revealing her full body and struck a little pose. “I’m Hatsune Miku! You may call me Miku, and I want you to open the sekai app on your phone. That can release me from here.” she said, pointing to what she was referring to.
“But I don’t…huh? When did this appear?” she stared at the app, which was right beside her music app. Miku had swayed to the side to give her room to actually press it, and as Icihka hovered her thumb over it, she took a deep breath. “What will this app actually do?”
“Well…It’ll release me from the screen. That’s all I know since I found myself in here.” Miku said with a confused gaze. She looked behind her, like the app was in the background, and after a few more seconds, Ichika opened it.
Miku smiled a grateful smile, and started climbing out of her phone. Ichika dropped it as Miku leapt out, and just narrowly dodged a hug from her which phased right through her instead of connecting. “Ha! I’m….wha?” Miku looked behind herself, she seemed to still be tethered to the phone on the floor. She looked like a hologram, according to Ichika. “Oh, that’s not good.”
“What’s going on? You’re real? Or wait, you’re a hologram.” Ichika replied, stepping around her to investigate a little, crossing the beam that connected Miku to her phone. “I can’t touch you, that hug went right through me too.”
Miku froze up for a second once Ichika crossed the beam. “I don’t think you should touch that Ichika.”
Ichika stopped, avoiding it on the way back around. That was probably her lifeline she figured, but there was something else that concerned her just then. “Wait, how do you know my name?”
“I was, well, I'm in your phone. The tiniest move I made revealed that much.”
“Right…” Ichika slowly sat on her bed and stared at Miku. “I’m so confused.”
“That’s understandable…well since I’m stuck on your phone I better explain a few things.” Miku sat next to her. It was weird that she could interact with some objects but not people. And it was extra weird that Ichika could kind of feel her presence beside her. “I come from the musical land of Sekai, and I came here because of some people that I need to bring back. But I ended up here instead of being…y’know, real. I don’t know why it was with you of all people, but until I get who I want, I’m stuck. I also don’t know how to get home so-”
“Are you-”
“Ichika sweetie! That’s your dinner!” Her mother called out. She turned to her door, then to her phone on the floor, leaning down and coming off the app, only for Miku to get sucked back in behind the screen. Ichika was surprised, and Miku more annoyed, but this was a good thing.
“Oh, well I know how to keep you hidden now. Try and keep yourself a secret, okay?” Ichika said, putting a finger to her lips in a shushing motion. Miku looked up at her and nodded.
“Got it!”
—-
Ichika was feeling very groggy this morning, which was possibly due to her constant thinking about Miku and the existence of this other world. She’d explained it a few times, it was a world that ran on music and feelings, and she was unsure why she was trapped in a phone, mentioning something about being one of the higher ranking people in that world which caused some sort of stir that Ichika never really asked about since Miku seemed uncomfortable on the topic.
But still, despite Ichika’s current mood and energy level, Miku was still as bright and sunny. “We never got sent to school when we were younger, what's it like?”
Ichika adjusted her glasses and chuckled awkwardly, her social battery hadn’t recharged at all, which was definitely going to be an issue for her today. “You have to stay hidden and quiet Miku, I can’t have people finding out I have a girl in my phone-”
“Hi Icchan! Who are you talking to?” Saki had appeared behind her, making Ichika jump and stuff her phone in her pocket hurriedly. Her glasses had nearly fallen off her face, which was something she really needed to fix at some point, but that didn’t matter, as Saki was standing in front of her now with a curious but playful look on her face.
“Oh uh- It’s nothing. I was just chatting away to myself.”
“You do that too?” Saki asked. She was met with a shy but insistent nod which she brushed off. “That's cool, I used to do that. Anyway, should we head to the homeroom?” she added, which Ichika nodded again with a polite smile as she followed behind her.
Saki was nice to be around despite only knowing her for a day. She already had a nickname and was getting greeted at the gate by her. The only issue was, in fact, Miku, who was still in her pocket. She fell behind Saki a little more as she pulled out her phone only to shush her. “Sorry, I just can’t have you out all the time.” she whispered.
“That’s alright, just alert me next time.” Miku whispered back before her eyes became fixated on something behind her. Ichika stopped and turned around to look up at the sky where Miku was looking, catching Saki’s attention in the process.
“Hey, why’d you- what?!” Saki covered her mouth as they both stared at the thing, or rather, a person. She was yellow, having a similar uniform to Miku, but only having one giant blonde pigtail instead of two, and having her own phone in her hand. And the kicker was she was floating in the air, but just enough for people to not notice.
“Miku was traced back to here, yet I can’t see her anywhere! Why did this lie to me? It's usually always correct!” The girl said. She shook her phone and groaned, looking around her area. “Oh well, guess I should go elsewhere.”
“Neru!?” Miku shouted, alerting Ichika to everyone around her. Ichika herself covered her phone screen and held it close to her chest while waving people past. Saki had turned to Ichika again, her eyes widening.
“Did something just come from your phone?! I coulda sworn I heard something.”
“You heard nothing! Just uh- give me a moment.” Ichika said in a rush before running behind a wall to hide herself. Her face was still red, she hated drawing that much attention to herself like that, and as she faced Miku the girl on her phone looked shaken. “What did I say about you keeping hidden? You just made a scene! I’m not mad but please work with me here.”
“Sorry, but it was important! That girl is Akita Neru, and she’s one of the ones I’m after! Though I don’t understand how she got free..” Miku explained with her own face turning red hot in a stressful way.
“Huh, she’s one of the people you’re after? How are you intending to get her?” Ichika asked. Miku shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. Then they heard Neru again.
“Ah I heard you! So my phone was right as it always is!” her voice boomed as it became louder as she laughed. Ichika looked around the corner, only to touch noses with Saki instead. She backed up and she felt her eyes were spiralling from all of the mess that was occurring today.
“Ichika! What’s going on? I’m so confused, do you know who that is?” Saki looked a little scared, and Ichika pulled her behind her to get a look at Neru. She was looking around once more, before looking at her phone yet again. “Ichika?”
Ichika turned around and hushed her. “I have no clue what’s going on actually, but basically uh- well- ah come on out Miku you can explain this better than I can.” she tapped on the app, and Miku jumped out of her phone, shaking a bit herself.
“No no no this is the worst time you could have done this! If she finds me I don’t know-”
“Heard you again! But where are you? Hmm… maybe this should help drag you out.” Neru said, pulling a blueprint out of her phone and unrolling it. “I give life to a new you, come out Mikudayo!”
Then a burst of light occurred, and a drag of wind swirled into a pool, nearly strong enough to push Ichika further away, and within that swirl of smoke, wind and light a robot like creature appeared from it, one with the appearance of Neru, just with a larger head, a more cartoon like face and smaller body. It cried out its name, then stomped on the floor which caused it to shake. The remaining students started to run inside, and Ichika hid behind the wall.
“What is that thing?! It’s huge!” Ichika said, now extremely panicked again. Miku put her hands up to try and calm her down, despite being panicked herself.
“That’s a Mikudayo. It was originally created in the shape of me but it seems they got a hold of and altered the blueprint so it can look like anyone.”
“Who’s they? And how big are you to have robots created to look like you?!” Ichika was stimming pretty hard as well, which made Saki start to walk past her to face the thing on her own. It looked like adrenaline had kicked in. But before either Miku or Ichika could stop her, she’d already made herself present.
“Hey! What are you doing?!” Saki yelled, but faltered in her stance once Neru and the Mikudayo had directed their looks at her.
Neru laughed again. “Well for starters you’re just a regular human, I can’t tell you. Secondly, get out of our way.” she pointed at her and the wall behind her, the Mikudayo turning her hand into a ray gun and blasting her way.
Saki ran as fast as she could to dodge the blast, falling in a nearby bush and injuring herself a little. The wall was completely demolished now, revealing Ichika and Miku. Saki stumbled as she sat against the bush and reached her hand out for the pair. “Sorry guys.” She mumbled.
Ichika froze. She looked at Miku, she looked at Saki, she looked at the giant robot in front of her. What could she do? She was just a regular girl, who happened to have a person on her phone.
“Found you! That was easier- and you’re attached to a phone? Oh my gosh really? How pathetic, taking you out should be easy. Mikudayo!” Neru lamented, setting the robot on to both of them. Ichika tightened the grip on her phone, her own nerves starting to turn to adrenaline. She took a stand, looking like she was ready to fight while still shaking.
“What has Miku ever done to you? Heck, what has Saki ever done to you? Why must you attack us in particular?”
“Stay out of it human!”
“No…I can’t!”
Miku had a glare of numbness. She felt odd, like something was building up inside her.
“She might have not had a choice, but she got stuck with me! And no matter what, I want to help her! I’ll admit I'm petrified, but hurting another person is never an okay thing. So….I’m ready to fight!” Ichika shouted. She’d gotten a tiny bit more confident, only for Neru to spit it back in her face.
“Really? How? You’re useless! Mikudayo, hit the pigtail girl again, she seems to have value to this one.”
The Mikudayo turned back to Saki and aimed at her, but when it released the beam, Ichika had jumped in to push Saki away from the blast. She was in a lot of pain, feeling a more burning sensation than anything else. Neru shrieked.
“How can you be so stupid?! You’re merely a weak human! What do you think you can accomplish by doing that?!”
Ichika struggled, but managed to pull herself up from the ground and stood with her feet quite far apart. Miku still stood to the side, not being able to move because of the weird build up in her chest. “I don’t want to see anyone hurt! Even if it hurts me…I want to help them!”
And there it was. The selflessness of Ichika in that moment, the intenseness of the moment, it all combined into one. Miku held herself in her arms before a bright purple coloured light had seemingly burst from her chest and formed into a ball carrying a multicoloured music note. Miku held it in her hands, and a gasp from Neru was heard. It was like nobody knew what it was, even Miku. The only thing Ichika knew next was the ball being thrown right at her, and she had no time to even stop before it completely absorbed her and Miku.
Suddenly it was like Ichika was in an abyss of blue and white, with only her phone and Miku, who was also floating. She reached out to her confused. “What’s happening to me? I suddenly feel…”
“Better? That’s something Leo/Need powers do.”
“Leo/Need…?”
“I don’t have time to explain right now, but I know now why I was placed on your phone. All I need you to say is my name, tap the app, then say the words ‘musical interlude’.”
Ichika looked at her phone. She swallowed her fear and took a breath. “I’m not too sure about this…but okay.”
“Miku.”
Miku disappeared into her phone. She tapped the app, which then made the phone float out of her hand and a few metres away from her.
“Musical interlude!”
Her phone glowed and out of it came a guitar that looped nicely around her body. Her body was also glowing multicoloured, but she strummed the guitar and created a little melody. A few chords, then she stuck her hands out which transformed into black fingerless gloves, along with a black and light blue cuff that started at her elbow and finished right at the centre of her hand.
Next she played a few more chords, then turned around and lifted her left leg and tapped it, then repeated it on her right. That transformed into black boots that also had cuffs from her knees downwards.
She then played one final riff which made the guitar explode into sparkles and her body transformed, which gave her a white sleeveless shirt with a four-point star on her chest and accompanying black curved stripes on her torso, and dark blue shorts with the same light blue fabric tied around it which seemed to cover half of the left side of her waist and left a giant knot on her right. There was also a black corset and decorated choker just to top it off.
And finally a headband had seemed to shoot across the top of her head like a falling star, as if it was a falling four-point star. When she tilted her head back her hair completely transformed too, growing longer and longer and turning a lighter shade of blue then her natural hair.
Then she dropped from what looked to be a dark sky full of stars, landing on her feet and dragging her hand across the sky then clenching her fist and taking a battle stance.
“Like the pulse of a falling star….Leo/Meteor!”
When the smoke had finally cleared, she was back in the real world, and had just realised what had happened. Miku was gone, she was receiving stares from everyone who was part of the fight, and as she looked down at her hands to get a better look of herself-
“What?!” She screamed. “What am I wearing, why is my hair longer- wait why is it lighter?! Where's my school uniform- Miku what have you done to me?!” She panicked, yet again.
Saki pulled herself up from the floor to point at her with an intense stare of shock and surprise. “Ichika..you’re a magical girl!” she shouted as she pointed at her.
“I’m…a magical girl?”
“And I don’t have time for this. Mikudayo, finish her off!”
The Mikudayo slammed its fist down on the grass which Ichika dodged by jumping up around a good hundred feet and landing on its head, which she used as a launchpad to go even higher by mistake. It toppled the robot onto the floor, but created the problem that Ichika was high up in the air and was seemingly floating. She turned to Neru who wasn’t too far away from her, and she definitely caught Ichika’s face because she grinned right back at her.
Ichika finally landed on the other side of the Mikudayo. Well, that was certainly a power. And she guessed she shouldn’t call herself Ichika anymore, she was Leo/Meteor. How did that even come to mind anyway? “What do I do now?”
“Meteor, hit it with your attack!” came Miku’s voice.
“Miku?! Where did you come from?”
“Down here.” it was coming from something that was also attached on the side of where the fabric was. It was her phone, but it was extremely decorated and looked more pretty than anything. “You have a special attack, it's called Ordermade. Just focus all of your energy into one attack and boom!”
“How do you know this stu– uwah!” the Mikudayo had gotten up and already sent a blast her way, which she dodged effortlessly. She slid under its feet to knock it over again, which was a surprise even to her. “Seriously, how do you know this stuff?”
“I’ll explain it after, come on you need to do this!”
“Okay then!”
Meteor ran a little further from the school to guide the thing out, partly running away herself, trying to think on what Miku meant. There was some sort of special attack, and its name was Ordermade. How could she actually do that?
That was when she noticed Saki had followed and, while still hurt and panting, was running along straight to Meteor. “Ichi- Leo/Meteor! You can do this! I believe in you!” She screamed.
Meteor lit up, both metaphorically and literally. She smiled. Saki was still here for her. And she was starting to grow to like the name she gave herself.
“What’s going on now?! I don’t like your attitude! Whatever your dumb name is, that’s going to be forgotten in no time!” Neru fought back, biting her tongue back. It was extremely obvious how mad she was getting.
“My name…is Leo/Meteor…Don’t you ever forget it!”
Then something burst from her chest and she was in the blue void she was in earlier, but she had a better grip on what she was doing. She grabbed the phone and tapped on it once more, a beam of light blinding her, but producing a vat of energy which morphed from a guitar to a bow.
“Order….” she drew back the bow. “Made!” and it released a powerful arrow that shot straight through the Mikudayo, making it blow to pieces in front of her face. The void faded away once again and the bow disappeared, leaving Meteor to watch as everything around her managed to fix itself up, even the wall and Saki to an extent.
“Meteor!” Saki was running towards her at full force now, and she smiled with her eyes closed, only to feel something small hit her forehead and a white flash showed itself before her.
–
“Mhm, thank you Icchan for visiting me!! And you brought flowers too! I’m so happy I could-”
–
“Ichika? Ichika!!” Saki shouted as Ichika, who was now herself again, regained her little bit of consciousness. “Ah thank goodness you’re alright!
Ichika sank to her knees with a blank expression on her face. She was exhausted. “Saki…did you feel that? Did you see that?”
“Hm? I didn’t see anything but you absolutely destroying that robot thing!” Saki gave her a hug, which Ichika hesitantly accepted. It was still only morning, she needed a moment to process literally everything.
“Oh…my…god! I can’t believe it- ahh!” Neru was throwing a little temper tantrum in the sky, but once she was noticed, she looked away in embarrassment. “I’ll- I’ll get you next time just know it! Stupid Leo/Need…” was her final words before she vanished into nothing.
By now, Miku had also climbed out of her phone again and was staring at the sky. “Wow! Who knew?”
The two girls looked at her, Ichika looking confused and a little upset, and Saki mainly curious.
“I didn’t! Miku.” Ichika stood up with Saki’s help. “You have a lot of explaining to do.”