As I was working on an extended version of Suspicious Silence, it ended up more extended than I originally planned, so it's going to take some more time, but in the meanwhile I've written another little story somewhat inspired by it (well, it also has gaming). Hope you enjoy it.
Also thanks to Eterya for editing.


Ikiro: Gamers Die Twice
(Kagamine Len, Kagamine Rin, beheading, casual)


The relatively cool temperature of the room sent refreshing chills through Rin’s wet body as she walked out of the bathroom clad in nothing but a towel on her shoulders. Heading to the kitchen to grab a box of juice and drying her hair on the way, her path led through the living room, so Rin stopped to tell her twin brother he could now use the bath. Len just nodded, too busy playing some video game; he looked pretty tense, sitting on the very edge of the sofa, leaned quite far towards the screen and clenching the controller with sweaty hands.

“Is it something new?” Rin asked unenthusiastically, she’d never gotten the appeal of games that made you more stressed than having fun.

“It’s Ikiro: Gamers Die Twice from the creators of Soulful Darkness,” Len replied in a mix of excitement and unease, finding it difficult to play and talk at the same time. “It brings hardcore gaming to a whole new level, ‘cause it comes along with a special device that cuts off your head when you lose,” he tilted his head to the left a bit to demonstrate some kind of a collar on his neck. “Basically, when you die in the game, you also die in real life. So, Gamers Die Twice.”

“Sounds silly,” Rin absently noted, as she finished drying her hair and put the towel over the back of the sofa. “Why would you buy a toy you can only play with once?”

“You simply don’t know how many games I’ve bought that I’ve never even started at all,” Len laughed nervously, desperately maneuvering between enemy attacks. “Sales do that to you.”

“You’re not doing this just to avoid your turn at cooking today, are you?” Rin asked, pondering what she should prepare for dinner considering the prospect of having to do it by herself.

“What? Of course not!” Len protested, violating his controller to keep up with the game so fiercely it had to be illegal. “It’s to blend the border between the game and reality, thus creating an unrivaled feeling of immersion.”

“Sounds like some marketing scam,” Rin waved away, resuming her way to the kitchen.

“Don’t judge it before you try it,” Len replied, but turning his head after his leaving sister made him miss a single enemy attack, immediately taking a deadly blow from the bandit, and Rin had only made a couple of steps away before she was stopped by a torrent of blood gushing from Len’s neck right onto her back. Turning around she saw Len’s head roll up to her feet along with the device that had cut it off.

“Great, now I’ll have to bathe all over again,” Rin sighed as she apathetically picked up Len’s head. “So what, feeling immersed now?” she asked condescendingly, looking into her twin’s vacant eyes, but of course there was no response; clearly he wasn’t feeling anything anymore. “Told you it was a marketing scam,” Rin concluded, nonchalantly tossing the now useless head away.

She picked up the device to see it could have any real application outside of this one game. It seemed to work like the shutter in a camera with a number of blades that could retract into the collar. There was also a button that Rin suspected was for manual activation, so to test her assumption she put her hand through the collar and pushed that button; and just as she'd expected the blades abruptly closed, cutting her wrist like butter. Thoughtfully examining the resulting stump of her arm, Rin decided that maybe she should wear this collar to school tomorrow. Then when someone asked about it, she'd tell them to push the button and see for themselves. Rin could bet they wouldn’t expect her head to suddenly fly off! She smirked, pleased with herself, as she pictured her classmates’ shocked expressions before they realized they’d been pranked and burst into approving laughter only for it to fall on deaf ears as Rin would no longer be around to appreciate the praise. Now that was how this alleged entertainment device should be used for actual fun!