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MEIKO has a special cabinet in Crase Cafe where she stores the strongest liquor. None of the kids are supposed to touch it, and she keeps it a secret from An and the others.
The cabinet is only opened when all the adult virtual singers— so the versions of herself, KAITO, and Luka from everywhere except School SEKAI— are together and something serious has happened.
If this didn’t count, then who knew what did.
MEIKO had felt it, before Kohane came in tears to tell her what was going on. A new rec center had opened up, a convenient walk from both Kamikou and Miyajou. Both Akito and An’s friend Haruka had been training there when all of sudden, the building just collapsed.
They were the only ones injured, both left in comas and unable to wake up. The effect on the SEKAI when they lose a pillar of it, even like this, isn’t immediate, but MEIKO knew the change in the air.
Her counterpart from the Stage SEKAI clearly felt the same way, wordlessly arriving. MEIKO chased the kids out and opened the special cabinet.
“How’s Minori?” MEIKO asks.
“Distraught,” Stage MEIKO says, throwing back shots of vodka while MEIKO makes herself a rum on the rocks. “How’s An-chan? She was friends with Haruka and Akito so…”
“I haven’t seen her,” MEIKO says. “I haven’t seen them all at once since.”
“The others are trying to see if there’s a way we can call to Haruka, maybe get her consciousness back to her body.”
“You think that’s the problem?” Reportedly the comas they were in were abnormal, but something tying into the SEKAI would be rare.
“It’s worth a try, isn’t it?” Stage MEIKO says. “Besides, it gives them something to do other than worry.”
“Yeah,” MEIKO says. “We should probably head over to Empty SEKAI after this, Ena-san’s probably upset too, it might be affecting them.”
“Miku knows they won’t come over themselves,” Stage MEIKO mutters.
Suddenly, there’s a weird flash of light, and the two MEIKOs are in a different SEKAI, one they haven’t seen before. Standing before them is a Vocaloid they don’t often see around them.
“µ?” MEIKO gasps. “What’s wrong?”
“MEI-chan and MEI-chan!” µ says, tears forming in her eyes. “I’m sorry!”
“What are you sorry for?” MEIKO asks, warily. µ was well intentioned, certainly, but she was… naïve, sometimes. As if nearly destroying the world wasn’t enough proof of that.
“W-well I heard about what happened to your kids,” µ says, “and I wanted to preserve their consciousnesses like I did with Marie-chan–”
“Wait, Akito-kun and Haruka are in comas because you trapped them in Mobius?” Stage MEIKO says.
“No! They were already in comas, this was just to make sure they didn’t suffer any long term consequences from lack of brain activity, it’s just, something went wrong and their consciousnesses… fractured.”
“Fractured?” MEIKO asks.
“I’m asking Ritsu to work on it, but I think they might be scattered across your SEKAI so someone has to get them all back together.”
“µ, I swear –” Stage MEIKO says, but MEIKO stops her.
“Thank you for telling us µ. We’ll try and find the fragments of their consciousnesses. But in the future, please let us know before you want to help.”
“Ritsu’s working on it! We’re gonna fix it!”
“I know you will,” MEIKO says, before they’re returned to Street SEKAI.
Stage MEIKO just grabs the vodka bottle and starts drinking. “Why,” she says, wiping her mouth, “does she have to be like this.”
“She’s got more of a connection to the Metaverse-Es than us,” MEIKO points out. “She’s constantly exposed to a much wider array of human emotion, of course she gets mixed up sometimes.”
“And because she can do that, who knows how long Akito-kun and Haruka will be in comas?”
MEIKO can’t exactly argue with that.
“I’ll go tell the others,” Stage MEIKO says. “And I’m taking this.” She tucks the vodka bottle under her arm and heads back to her own SEKAI.
After locking up the liquor cabinet, MEIKO calls the others to tell them the news.
Akito arrives first.
“Akito!” MEIKO gasps, “there you are!”
“Akito?! Akito you’re ok!” Len and Rin run up to him and start bombarding him with questions.
“Where have you been?” “Shouldn’t you be in the hospital?” “Does Toya know you’re ok?”
Akito blinks. “The SEKAI has a hospital now?”
“What?” KAITO asks. “Akito what are you talking about, in the real world you–”
“Real world? We can’t go to the real world.” Akito says. “Did you seriously forget that?”
MEIKO has a bad feeling. “Akito, who are you?”
“Eh? Akito Shinonome?”
“And what are you?”
“A Virtual Singer? Duh? Are you ok?”
MEIKO curses under her breath.
“Wait, I’m confused,” KAITO says. “Akito, that isn’t funny. What’s going on?”
“I just had a talk with µ,” MEIKO starts, but KAITO’s eyes glaze over.
“Actually, nevermind,” he says.
MEIKO rolls her eyes. “This is fine, we’ll just take him to µ and–”
“Sorry I’m late!” an unfamiliar voice says. A girl with blue hair and a jean jacket arrives. “What’s the important meeting?”
“Hey, Haruka,” Akito says. “Mostly they’re asking weird questions.”
MEIKO’s mind is racing. Haruka-chan is here, not her own SEKAI, and wearing street clothes. That makes no sense, unless…
Without a word, MEIKO rushes over to Stage SEKAI, and practically collides with her other self.
“I had a–
“--feeling something was wrong,” MEIKO says. Behind Stage MEIKO, there’s something that confirms her concerns. A second Haruka, in her idol outfit.
“They’re Virtual Singers,” MEIKO groans. “So there’s one for each SEKAI.”
“Oh I was scared you were going to say that,” Stage MEIKO says.
“Let’s call everyone.”