Stay With Me Chapter 16

Chapter 16 Happy Death
<GUMI POV>
I sing the last words to my song. The crowd claps and claps. Some people whistle, but most of them are sniffling, trying to keep tears from trickling down their cheeks like a waterfall. I bow and thank the crowd for their time. I walk over to the rest of the Vocaloids who were huddling, their hair becoming a rainbow of colors and heights.

"I hope Len is okay, I would hate for him to become completely insane." Rin says playing with the bow on her shirt. Untying it and retying it until she is satisfied with the look of the orange fabric.

The others are just staring into space. Not really looking at anything in particular. I myself sit down next to Teto and sigh. We have never had this kind of experience before, this was the first major injury any of us have had to go through. Some of us have broken a limb or needed stitching, but that was back home in Japan. Internet Co. would patch my, Gakupo, Cul, Ryuto, Lily and Galaco's cuts and bruises in their own personal clinic. I'm not sure if Crypton or even whatever company Teto, Haku and Neru belong to, did do the same for my my friends.

"Hey I heard a new cafe just opened up downtown, anybody want to join me and visiting it?" Teto says standing up. The crowd had already left so there isn't a chance some crazy otaku is going to follow us there and maybe steal Len, Kaito or Gakupo and take them down an alley. Not that anybody would notice a bunch of crazy haired teens walking down the street. The difficult life of an android J-Pop star.

"Sure why not!" I say trying to flip the mood. The others agree. Somebody brings up the idea of bringing Len, how I get volunteered to save him from the labyrinth of the hospital, I have no idea.

I walk down the stage then into the hospital. Through the sliding glass doors,  I remember Neru being on the eighth floor. Not sure where on it sadly. I stride over to the elevator, I have gotten used to the stares all the nurses and doctors were giving me by now. Thankfully I'm on the elevator alone.

I get off when the metal doors creak open on the floor I need. I walk out and look at the directory on the wall facing where I have come out of. I try looking for ICU on it, but all the big words on the map confuse me. I should have paid more attention in class, not that I actually care about when the fuck I'll need to know how to use the Quadratic Formula in my singing career. I end up asking a nurse with brown pigtails where it is. She is quiet and just points behind her. I follow the direction of her sparkly silver finger.

After a couple minutes I arrive at my destination. I look around the next corner for the waiting room. Neru's room is near it if I remember correctly. In the waiting room, sure enough, is Len. He is curled up in a fetal position. His face is white and terrified. I kneel down in front of him.

"Len, is everything alright?" I ask him.

"They had to operate on Neru again." He mumbles out, teeth chattering.

"Now, what's so bad about that?" I ask playfully, bopping him on the shoulder.

"Her heart, it was slowing down, they had to figure out what was going on." Len managing to spit out. I cringe, thinking about surgery.

"Len, we are going out to lunch and are wondering if you would like to join us." I say sitting the blonde boy up. He shakes his head up and down slowly, doubting his answer to the last possible second. "Then let's head down! Everybody is waiting."

Len and I walk to the stairs in silence, with the beeps of the ICU Len's ragged breathing. On the way to the stairs though we have to pass by the ER. Just then a nurse who was walking near us put her arm in front of us, signaling us to stop. Len and I look down the hall, a bunch of hospital workers are running a cot down the hall. As they pass us we got a glimpse of the patient. A girl no older then me with a long blonde ponytail. Len bolts.

"Len!" I run after him, but he is already lost in the maze of the hospital's halls. I search hall after hall. I just decide to give up and go back down to my friends. I cross my fingers hoping Len would make it downstairs and would be waiting for me.

<LEN POV>
I ran away from the girl. She looked to much like Neru. I keep running, tears streaming down my face, a few flying into the breeze. I run past rooms and doctors and down the stairs. Down past other people. Some stop and move out of the way, others completely ignore me. I keep running down the hallways. Out of the lobby and into Teto.

"Ow! What the-" We both had fell to the ground. I can tell she os on the verge of getting mad. Her hair is starting to spin like drills.

"Oh I'm so sorry Teto!" I say helping her up. She stares at me little sparks of fire burning in her pupils.

"Len why are you crying?" Teto says moving my bangs out of my face.

"Well, um..." I find my feet to be very interesting. I kick a pebble that is relaxing near them into a crack in the pavement.

"There was a girl, in the ER. Long blonde ponytail." Gumi walks out of the glass doors and put her hand on my shoulder. I looked up into her emerald eyes. She gave me one of her signature smiles. "Cheer up Len!"

I gaze at my friends. They were looking right back at me. Rin comes up to me and hugs me. "Len none of us are happy with the events of the past day, but we all need to accept the truth and deal with it." She whispers in my ear. Rin takes a step back from me, Teto looks back at me.

"Hey, so about that cafe," Teto seems to think we need to get away from the depressing building. "So who's in?"

"Gakupo, Haku and I were think of going to bail Meiko out of jail. Don't you remember she got arrested for drunk driving? Catch y'all later." Luka, Haku and Gakupo head to the parking garage.

"They came in a separate car." Kaito informs me.

"Well do you guys have leeks in your pants...or skirts? Let's go!" Miku grabs Kaito by the scarf and skips away. She got no more then two blocks when she turns around and runs back, Kaito's face turning blue like his hair. "Um....where is the place?"

Teto sweat drops. All of us laugh like we've never laughed before. Even I laughed, it isn't that heartfelt, but I still did. Once we finish laughing, and helping Kaito not die from Miku's death grip on his scarf, we head to the cafe.

We all thought it was going to be like a Starbucks knock off or something around those lines, but we all stand in front of a sign hanging from the building's wall.

"Cafe Otaku...Teto..." Mikuo glares at the pink haired chimera.

"Ehehe about that.....You guys okay with a cosplay cafe? I hear every Sunday is Vocaloid day." Teto tries to reason with Miku's brother, but to no avail.

"C'mon Mikuo! It doesn't seem too bad! Look there are plenty of people eating in there." Rin grabs his sleeve and points in the cafe. I made a mental note to talk to both of them about each other.

"Ugh...fine." Mikuo grumbles giving in to Rin's badgering.

We walk into the cafe. Kaito goes up to a girl wearing a SeeU costume and asks if she could get the hostess for us. The girl drops the plate she was holding and gasps. The plate fell to the floor and shatters. The whole restaurant fell silent.

"It's just some cosplayers get over it!" Some person in the back shouts. Another girl dressed as Luka came up to us and asks if we were here for a job.

"Um...no? We are actually here for a table. We aren't cosplayers, we are the real thing." Mikuo grumbles.

Most of the diners went back to their conversations. None of them seem to care that we were here. Maybe they didn't know us cause they were lovers of some other Japanese fandom. But the waitresses were very kind and gave us a table for all of us.

"Okay, this is kinda awkward, but Konichiwa! My name is Miku Hatsune! But since I can see she's actually sitting here," the cosplayer gestures to Miku, "You can call me Sierra." The girl looks a lot like Miku actually, she has blue eyes, just not teal. The wig is very interesting. It's a mix of teal, blue and green.

"Wait wait wait!" Kaito speaks up, "Miku stand near Sierra." Miku got up and stood right next to our waiter. Sierra is much taller, but Kaito laughed, "You guys look a lot alike!"

"I guess we do! Nice to meet you Miku! I'm a very big fan and love all of your music!" Sierra shakes hands with her, "Okay we are getting side tracked. Would you guys like anything to drink or start out with? Wait! Lemme guess. Orange juice for Rin, ice cream for Kaito, carrot juice for Gumi, leek smoothie for both of the Hatsunes, bread basket for Teto, and a banana  smoothie for Len!" We all nod in agreement. She leaves to give the kitchen our order.

"She's a true otaku for knowing what we all like." Gumi says fiddling with the silverware.

Another one of the waitresses, this one dressed as Rin, delivers our drinks and food. She then ruffles my hair for like five minutes.

"Um...can I help you?" I ask her as I turn around.

"Oh! I'm soooooo sorry! I've just always wanted to do that!" I look at her, even though she was dressed as Rin, her freckles and hazel eyes give her away. Plus I can see a small strip of auburn hair creeping out from under the wig.

"Is it weird that no one ever does that?" Rin tells her. She seems very nice.

"We'll I don't know why! Your hair ish sho fwuffy!!!" She says the last part ruffling my hair again.

"Emma! Stop molesting Len!" Our waitress, Sierra, comes back and scolds the Rin cosplayer.

"Sorry Len~!" She skips away to take another table's order.

"Sorry you guys, she really loves you Len." Sierra says sweat dropping.

"I would have never guessed." I mumble sipping my smoothie.

"Would you guys like something to eat?" Sierra says getting back to business.

"I think we are good, thanks." Teto said with a mouthful of bread. She then starts moving her head back and forth. "Oh oh oh oh oh oh~!" I listened carefully and hear Miku sing the all to familiar song.

"Baka baka baka yaru beki koto wa subete wasurechae utau odoru egaku kotoba okuridasu anata no iro ni shite ageryuuuuuuuuuu!" Miku sang to herself as the song ended. I cover my ears, sure Neru only gave background music, but she is still in it.

"Is something wrong Len?" It's the Emma girl again. She's just passing by with a plate of empty dishes and glasses.

"Nope! Nothing at all!" Kaito says shooing her away. "It's 'kay Len, I got your back, these girls don't need to have a stroke right here." He says whispering into my ear.

"So what brings you all here?" Sierra says coming back to our table for refills.

"Um...we are just on tour here in America and we stopped here on our way from a small concert." Gumi says half heartedly.

"Hm..." She puts her finger to her chin thinking, "I could've sworn I was up to date on tickets I was at your concert last week and I'm going to the one next week and the one in NYC, where was the concert?"

*Shit...* I mentally swear. I can feel my eyes start to water up, our waiter seems nice and all, but I don't want to break into tears in this public place full of people who know me.

"Sierra, can I talk to you?" An older woman, maybe in her late thirties, obviously the manager here because she isn't in costume, takes our waiter aside for a moment. We all sigh in relief. I would have broken down and I would have given all these fangirls so much grief.

I then hear the not so subtle tap of a mic. I look to the small stage in the back near the kitchen. The manager is on stage. She then starts to speak about how it is such an honor to have us here in her cafe. She then calls us up.

"Now I hope you all don't mind but could you sign some autographs?" She whispers sweetly to us.

"Sure not at all!" Kaito says in his usual chivalrous tone.

"Well I hope you all have something for them to sign cause the Vocaloids have agreed to sign autographs!" The manager cheerily announces to all the diners.

We then sign like twenty or so papers until all the customers are taken care of. Then come the waitresses. I keep track of who they were cosplaying in my mind.

*Meiko, Haku, Teto, Gumi, Iroha, SeeU, Luka, Mayu, Sonika, Cul, Lily, Yuki, Miki, Kaiko, whatever Gakupo's sister's name is, Mizki (VY1), IA, Mew, Yukari, Prima, Sweet Ann, Rion, Lapis, Lola, Ring, Akikiloid (sp?), Lenka, Miriam, Luo, Rin, Miku and...*

A girl slides a piece of paper in front of me, I see my friend's and sister's signatures on it. I sign my name next to Rin's.

"What's your name?" I ask as I sign the paper.

"Emily." Her voice is sweet, but had a hint of rebellion. The kind that others take for granted. I look at the paper awhile longer before I have it to give it back. It's a normal lined piece of paper, the kind you buy for school. On the top it has a three random scribbles, well the closer I look I see the names Emma, Emily and Sierra. *So they're friends.* I thought. The names are bubbled and in big bubble letters it says 'The Vocataku Team'. I laugh to myself in spite of the name. Under each name is a drawing of one us. Under Emma is Rin, under Sierra is Miku and under Emily...

I look up at the girl. My heart stops. I see a short girl with dark brown eyes smile at me. But when I look at her outfit her eyes turn yellow. Emily, the girl with the cute voice, was dressed as my crippled girlfriend, Neru.

"Is something the problem Len?" She asks. I don't move and continue to stare rudely at the cosplayer.

"Um...Bye?" She ruffles my head and squeals, a high pitched cute squeal. I don't move as she runs back to the other waitresses. Rin who is next to me looked at me. She gasps and nudges Miku who is next to her. Miku pokes the manager and whispers into her ear something that's inaudible to me.

The manager clears her throat. "Well I hope you all had a nice time meeting the Vocaloids, something has come up and they need to leave." She gives a smile that reeks of falseness.

Mikuo comes over to me and punches me on the shoulder. "So...that girl in the Neru costume left you dazed, huh! She better than the real thing?" He says like only a best friend can.

I don't respond, I don't punch him back. I don't even acknowledge his presence. He stares at me like I had just done something stupid.

"Hey! Len! What the hell happened?" Mikuo says waving his hand in front of my face. I blink a couple times, but still don't utter a single word on the subject.

I sit down on the floor of the cafe. *That Emily girl's cosplay was very accurate, and now I can't stop thinking about it. I came here to clear my mind of Neru, but this isn't helping at all! I can't stop thinking about her now!* I feel a light tap on my shoulder. I turn my head slightly. It is the Emily girl. I quickly wipe my eyes before she could ask.

"Hey you said you were doing a tour, and went with Sierra and Emma to the most recent ones and well where are the others?" Emily says in her sweet voice.

"Well...um besides us Meiko, Luka, Gakupo and Haku came with us." I hope she doesn't notice how I include Haku but leave out Neru, but she went to the concerts so she knows.

"What about Neru? And why aren't they here?" Damn otakus and their obsessive instincts!

"Um...you see..." I'm saved by the scream of a different otaku in the cafe. We both look her way. The girl who is cosplaying Mizki is watching T.V. and the channel is the local news. I already knew what is on it by the way the girl screamed.

Everybody in the cafe, except us Vocaloids, goes to crowd around the T.V. like moths to a light. I can hear the voice of the anchor woman from across the cafe. Nobody is talking anyway. My head starts to sag, but thankfully my hands were there to catch it. I can hear Mikuo, who is standing against the wall behind me swallow very loudly. He only does this when he's nervous or scared.

"We just got another report from the hospital where famous J-Pop Vocaloid star Neru Akita is staying at. She is still in the Intensive Care Unit going under a serious surgery on her heart. She has been in a coma since yesterday when she took part in a fatal car crash. Some known injuries are broken bones in her legs and right arm, broken ribs, a severe concussion, a cut going across her chest where the seatbelt was and many other minor injuries. The hospital has reported that they need to find what is causing Neru's heart to beat at a very slow rate. They also said that during surgery they had to revive her once already. We will keep you updated as we get more news. Back to-" the T.V. is shut off by the manager. She orders the customers to leave so she can talk to us in private with the employees.

<TETO POV>
"Now I hope you guys are praying for her to get better but I just want to tell you that if you ever need help in any way I will be willing to help." The manager is such a kind lady. The rest of the employees also say they would help. I look over at Len. He isn't doing so well.

"Len? Are you okay?" Rin says putting her hand on his shoulder. Len looks at Rin and put his hands on her shoulders and shakes her. "Neru is dying! What the hell am I doing? I'm sitting here eating and laughing while she lays on the verge of disappearing forever!" He stops shaking his sister and pushes me away from the door. I stare at him as he runs down the block and out of sight.

"Well you heard the shota!" I shout at my friends as I run after the blonde.

I run and run. Past civilians who stare at me like I'm a terrorist. Normally I would have sprouted my wings and flown to the hospital, but I was in a large city and another arrest wouldn't make Crypton happy. So instead I run around people and animals down the sidewalk. At one point I think I knocked someone over but I'm running pretty fast so I can't see.

By the time I got to the hospital Len was just getting into the elevators. I decide to wait outside for my friends before racing up after him. After a couple minutes of kicking a stone at the brick outside of the building and having to replace it twice from my strength, my friends arrive. Gumi runs over to me and hugs me.

"I thought you changed and got arrested again!" Gumi whispers into my ear. I push her away.

"I'm smart enough to know I would never get out of jail if I changed." I proudly state.

"We'll thank god! You didn't!" Mikuo says in his gruff tone.

We wait around for Len to come down, we don't want to disturb him. For it would be very awkward if Neru survives and doesn't see Len. We all know this was Len's thing he should deal with. Neru loves him very much after all. To pass the time I keep singing different songs in my head. Any that would make me feel better. I even started singing songs that weren't originally mine, but anything to pass the time.

I'm singing Odds & Ends when Len bursts out the door. He has his arm over his face and obviously looks like had been weeping for a while. We all stand up and look over at him. He has collapsed on the ground and Rin had run over to him. She puts her hand on his back and comforts him like only a sister could, kind of sort of makes me wish Ted could have come. No matter how much Rin comforts him though, Len kept balling.

"What's wrong Len?" I ask trying to be brave and hoping not to get screamed at like usual.

"Neru...she...she...DIED!" He stood up, forcing Rin to fall onto the ground. Unsatisfied by our response he starts screaming, "WHAT THE FUCK DON'T YOU GET? I SAID NERU DIED! WHAT ELSE WOULD THAT MEAN? Now...I'm going back up to say goodbye..." Len saunters back into the hospital and gets back in the elevator.

After a few seconds of staring dumbfounded at each other, we finally start to head up towards our friend. None of us knew if Len was imagining that Neru was dead or if she is actually. We hope she's alive, we really don't want her to be gone. I cross my fingers. Plus my toes in my boots. I look over at my friends, some of them were crying, but others had no emotion at all. I personally don't know how to react to this earth shattering news, but a few tears still manage to escape.

The elevator ride up is awkward. Nobody talks, nobody cried heavily, nobody moves. It's as if we all were statues. Unwanted statues waiting for our time to be on display again. But for the moment waiting in storage. I'm brought back to reality when a small ding sounds above me. The doors open and we step out one by one.

This time the mass of reporters are gone, probably driven away for respect of Neru's sake. I run a bit ahead of the pack and look for Len. I round the corner leading to Neru's room and see him crouching by the door. He is rocking back and forth. Occasionally hitting his back against the wood.

I peer over him so I can see through the window of the door and into Neru's room. No doctors, no nurses, not as many wires. Only two this time. One is attached to her wrist and has a tube leading back into an IV. The other one I can't place where it is attached to my blonde friend, since it's under her gown. But it leads back to a monitor. The machine that keeps the vital signs in check. There is no line going up and down on it. No slopes and valleys. Just one flat line. That can only mean one thing.

Death.