The Vocaloid Collection -

He never told the Archive what he’d done. He filed the mission as “Asset unrecoverable.” But every night before sleep, he played a secret file on his own locket: a recording of slot #047, singing a lullaby about a cherry tree.

He lowered the disruptor. Not because he was sentimental. Because he realized the truth: the Vocaloid Collection wasn’t a hoard. It was a cemetery. And you don’t blow up a cemetery. the vocaloid collection

Kaito felt his chest cave in. He wasn’t listening to code. He was listening to a eulogy. He never told the Archive what he’d done

She pressed play.

“You see?” Reina whispered. “This isn’t a product. It’s a person. Chie put her own soul into the tuning. If I give it to her father, he’ll just cry and lock it in a drawer. Here, in the Collection, she sings forever. All one hundred of them sing forever.” Not because he was sentimental

Kaito accepted the job for the money. He stayed for the mystery.