We need more songs to update with! I need a good one, I need a good one…ah, I got it! LUKE, ROLL THE LOTTERY BALL!

*Sighs before kicking it*

It's "Dolls!"

*Another one falls out with it*

And "Marionette?"

…Luke, I may need your help here…

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"We're going to go see a musical?"

"That's right, Len! It's called Red-String Puppet, and it's about a human-sized puppet that falls in love with her human creator!"

The word puppet made Miku shiver. She wasn't one to like puppets. In fact, she secretly feared all dolls that weren't cotton stuffed. The trip where Rin went through a porcelain doll museum led to poor Miku holding nightmares about that place for about a week and a half,

"Are they…actually going to use a puppet for the main character?" She shivered.

"Don't worry, Miku. The part is being played by Ginsora." Kaito chuckled as he closed the book in his hand. "She'll be human."

"That's good…" She sighed. "At least I can tolerate it."

"Are we going backstage?" Len's eyes sparkled.

"Apparently, we are." Kinsora sighed. "Ginsora wants to rub her role in my face."

"WE'RE GOING BACKSTAGE!" Len jumped in the air.

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Backstage, the area looked really crowded, nothing close to what it looked like onstage. There were people running around holding anything mechanical or costume-related, bumping into the others as they were trying to squeeze through the space without any air in their lungs.

"How in the world can people run around in this?" Gakupo whined. "It's a lot less crowded when we're on tour."

"That's because you guys are getting make-up and costumes ready." Kinsora sighed. "It's always like this…"

"Ah, there you guys are!"

Everyone looked up to see Ginsora walking toward them. She was wearing a simple nightgown outfit that shaped her curves, and there were lines on her joints that made it look like she was indeed a puppet with joints. These make-up guys sure know how to make things look convincing.

"What do you think?" She twirled. "Don't I look like a helpless human puppet waiting for my true love?"

"…no, you look like Ginsora." Kaito answered. After a few seconds, he got what she meant. "Uh…you look pretty, though!"

"Why, thank you." She looked willing to forgive him. "Hopefully, my leading man will be able to match my talent and magic singing!"

"Well…unless the main character isn't being played by Hareta Nakiri, then you're going to want to worry…" Kaito looked inside the program.

"Wait, WHAT?" Meiko dived into the program. "Hareta Nakiri? You're costarring with THE Hareta Nakiri?"

"That's right! He's the best at what he does!" Ginsora grinned. "But don't worry, I thought that it would be nice if I allowed you guys to meet him before opening curtain."

"The Hareta Nakiri! I can't believe we're meeting up with THE HARETA NAKIRI!" Meiko screamed at Luka.

"I know. I heard it a thousand times."

Rin gave up caring about them and started to wander backstage, leaving all of them alone. Moving through some people, she found herself staring straight at a doll in front of her. Slowly, she picked it up and moved some dust off of its face. It looked like a redhead man with a white jacket and black pants. What caught her interest was that there was no face on the doll at all. Was it incomplete?

"That's for the show."

She turned her head and saw that a man was hovering over her. He had short hair that was covered with a paperboy hat and a black outfit (with a long-sleeved shirt that he constantly checked), but what struck her as odd was that his face seemed to be completely covered by darkness and she didn't seem to get the feeling of someone staring at her, even though he clearly was.

"Oh…so you're using these for the musical?" Rin asked. "But this one looks incomplete."

"It holds an entire body structure, so it's operable." The man answered. "Don't worry about it."

"OK…it looks cute." Rin giggled. "Who made this thing?"

"I'm not sure. From what I remember, it was a woman." He answered. "With long, flowing hair and…the most beautiful eyes…"

"Huh?"

"What? Oh…it's…nothing." He smiled as he held the broom in his hand. "You better make sure that you put that back before you lose that."

"Of course. This isn't mine, so…" She placed it back down. "Oh, by the way, I'm Rin Kagamine…I'm with Ginsora."

"Yeah, you were with that group that was just talking to her. I figured as much." The man answered. "If you're curious, I just saw them head off to the stage."

"Oh, thank you." She stood and walked, before stopping. "Oh wait! I forgot to ask you-"

But the mysterious man was gone.

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After a few minutes, Rin was able to find the entrance to the main stage. What she ended up finding was that her family was sitting in the audience, and that both Ginsora and another man were onstage acting out something. She assumed that the man was the Hareta that Meiko was stressing about for the last hour or so. She snuck down to the audience and sat down next to Miku and Len.

"Where were you, anyway?" Len whispered to her. "We were worried that you got lost or something!"

"I just found the dolls that they were going to use for this play." Rin answered. "One of them looked incomplete though, as if the person never got the chance to finish it."

"Don't tell me that you wanted to steal it!" Len giggled.

"Oh, shut up!"

"Dolls? Really? You have plenty of dolls at home." Miku butted in.

"That's not the issue! It's just that…I don't know, I wanted to finish it!" Rin grinned.

"OK, now you're just weird."

They turned back to the stage, where they were watching Ginsora acting as if she was just learning how to move on her own. Odd enough, as Rin noticed, she was moving without Hareta being in the room. That alone got Meiko to wait patiently to see her idol again. Suddenly, Ginsora started singing.

"Oh my goodness…she's actually good." Luka blinked.

"Well, what were you expecting? She's in a musical…as the lead!" Kaito smiled. "She had to be good."

Rin shook her head. She wasn't really expecting Ginsora to be a show-stealer, but she had to admit with Kaito: Ginsora can handle herself. Around that time, she noticed that the curtain had moved a bit, revealing the man she saw earlier. However, it was his back, so she was unable to see his face. Odd enough, it looked as if he was trying to avoid showing his face to the stage.

What was that about?

She shook her head as the song ended. The stage crew ran onstage to change the setting as Ginsora stuck her tongue out at Kinsora. That's when everyone remembered the sad truth: Kinsora can't sing for her life. She can only write lyrics (most of which aren't bad).

"So? Are you jealous now?" She asked.

"Yeah…very." Kinsora answered sarcastically.

"…OK, the dolls are a little too much for me." Miku stood up. "I'm going to the bathroom."

"I just saw it." Gakupo pointed backstage. "Just follow the bright lights in the ground."

Miku took that to heart as she climbed up the stairs backstage. After a few seconds, she was able to find the bathroom (which was state-of-the-art, despite the dinky look of the entire theatre) and left without so much as thinking about it. When she headed back, she accidentally bumped into one of the stage hands carrying a box of something. She barely had her time to mutter her sorry when she realized that the man was gone, and there was a doll on the ground. Unfortunately, the guy was gone long before she had the chance to return it.

Geez, what a weird doll. There's no face on it. But these details…my goodness, it looks as if whoever made this took forever and a century! She found herself walking with it. Maybe this is the doll that Rin was talking about. The one that was incomplete yet extremely detailed. Hm…better give it back to the stage hands before they think I'm stealing something.

She looked around for a stagehand and saw one heading her way. He had a paperboy hat and short hair, his black outfit blending him into the darkness that was the stage. Miku almost bumped into him, if it hadn't been for the fact that she was standing at an open doorway in midday.

"Oh, wow. I almost bumped into you." The man said, his voice a little strained. "I'm sorry."

"No, it's OK. Oh, are you part of the stage hand?" Miku lifted up the doll. "I was just going to return this to someone."

"Huh?" He leaned in. "You look…familiar…"

"Do I? I think this is the first time we've met." Miku held the doll out. "So…can you take this?"

"Is this part of the show? Maybe you should hand it to the guy onstage. I'm just the guy cleaning up." He answered, looking down. "Besides, I don't have the authority to handle those things."

"What are you-?"

But the man was walking away as quickly as he could. It was around that time that she realized that there was a red stain on the back of the doll's left arm and part of his jacket. Not only that, this strange man seemed hell-bent on avoiding physical contact with this doll at all times. She'll just have to find out how to get it to someone.

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Miku snuck the doll into her bag when she headed back out to the stage. Lunch was being served at that time (namely pizza and coke), and when she descended down the stairs, she was greeted with Kaito holding a slice out on a paper plate with one of his trademark smiles.

"Thanks…" She quickly got it while blushing. "What's the toppings?"

"Pepperoni and extra cheese." Kaito grinned. "And I added a bit of leeks in there too…your favorite."

"Uh…thanks."

She sat down on one of the audience chairs as she slowly began to eat her pizza. Half of her tried to find the strange redhead and try to touch him with the doll, but alas there was no one around. She turned back to her pizza, suddenly realizing that Rin was sitting next to her.

"What're you looking for?" She asked.

"A stage hand." She answered truthfully. You can never lie to Rin. "I want to return something."

"What is it?"

"This." Miku pulled out the doll. "I tried to return it to this one guy, but he avoided it like the plague."

"Really? That's weird." Rin laughed. "Maybe he hates dolls on a worse scale than you!"

"Gah! Don't scare me like that!"

The two girls looked up from where they were sitting and saw that Luka had just given Gakupo a big ol' smack-to-the-face. The others were merely laughing from her reaction, and realized that Hareta was telling them something. They both leaned in to listen.

"What, ghosts are cool, right?" Gakupo laughed.

"Yeah, not as cool as you." Len laughed outloud.

"But seriously…this entire play is based off a true story?" Kinsora turned to Hareta.

"That's what I heard, anyway. It had something to do with a person who was making one single doll in memory of their grandparents, who was popular with doll making. Everyone says that the person was a dude, but some say it was a female." Hareta swallowed a piece of pizza. "Rumor has it that the guy was killed while working on that doll, and it was never finished."

"…and that's weird because?" Meiko leaned in, confused.

"Well, let's say this: have you guys ever watched The Cat Returns?" Hareta smiled. "Some say that the theory stated there had applied in this incident as well."

"Oh, I get it." Kinsora's eyes widened. "I guess I can understand."

"Hold up, hold up, hold up. I never watched the movie." Gakupo backed up. "Explain this to us here."

"OK. I'll sum it up as cleanly as I can." Kinsora lifted up her hands. "There's a theory in that movie that states that if you give an object such as a statue or a toy enough love and willpower, it can grant a soul of its own, similar to how God grants humans their souls. That's usually applied to the modern day as robots-with-souls."

"Ohhhhhhh…that's interesting to hear!" Len's eyes widened.

Miku and Rin stared at each other for a few seconds before turning back to the doll in Miku's pocket. They waited until they were looking away from them, and then headed out backstage with nothing more than their thoughts and the strangely-stained doll in her pocket.

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"Rin…you don't SERIOUSLY believe that the legend applies to this case, right?"

"Miku, THINK ABOUT IT. Most of the incidents that we go through have a legend attached to it! We sing as a reaction to those legends." Rin turned to Miku. "This is the same thing! This is a legend that needs an ending, and we're going to give these people the ending that they deserve!"

"OK, I can believe that…but I seriously don't think that legends are just going to drift towards us…" Miku sighed.

"Aw, come on. We're total legend magnets!" Rin turned around. "We might as well get our own TV specials!"

I thought we did… Miku thought. "All right, fine. I'll play along. So what are we going on with here?"

"Well, let's take a good look at this doll here." Rin gestured. "There's an open door here, so we can look under light."

Miku lifted the doll under the light, and they both looked at the doll. It was clearly in the shape of a young male with short red hair. The jacket on it was white with buttons and yellow highlights with black pants and shoes. The odd part of the doll was that there was no face on it, and when it was flipped over there were stains on the left arm and jacket.

"Hey, these stains…I always thought that it was juice, but…it's darker." Miku pointed at it.

"It's blood, no doubt about that. This person was obviously killed while working on this." Rin flipped it again. "But this hair…doesn't it remind you of someone?"

"The hair? Really?" She looked at it. "Though…it does remind me of that guy I kept running into. The one that didn't want to touch the doll."

"Ah-HAH! Clue #2 that they're connected: strange behaviors over one object!" Rin pointed at her. "Hey, maybe he's the 'soul' of the doll like Kinsora mentioned!"

"If he's the soul, then why is he outside the doll?" Miku asked. "He'd have to be in the doll in order for it to exist, right?"

"Five bucks and my next pizza slice says that whatever it is, it's the reason why he avoids touching it like the plague." She grinned. "So all we need to do now is finish the doll's face in the image of the soul!"

"Do you know anything about his face appearance?" Miku leaned toward her.

"Actually…I never saw his face. He's always covering it somehow…" Rin sighed. "Maybe we'll have to choose it ourselves?"

"Rin, this isn't Animal Crossing here! We can't just draw anything on it!" She stated. "Besides, what can we even use?"

"Well…you can knit, Miku. You can try that."

"…knit what? We have no idea what we want for his face!"

"Just get the knitting set. I'll spell out what this poor guy wants!"

Miku looked at Rin before deciding that she couldn't convince her sister out of this. They headed over to a dressing room, where they found a brand new knitting set that they decided that they might as well use. Miku stared at the doll in front of her as she held the needle in the other.

"So…now what?"

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking…let me think."

Rin held her head with her two fingers as she tried to find a good image for this poor doll and perhaps end this legend (cause they're the ones able to solve them!). She blinked and stared at the mirrors in front of them, noticing the image of a young woman with tan hair over one of her sparkling blue eyes. She was mouthing something that Rin tried to catch.

"Green…eyes."

"What?" Miku looked up. "You say something?"

"Yeah…uh…give him green eyes…" Rin stared at the mirror. "Make them big…maybe Len's size…and add a lot of sparkle into them!"

"OK, OK! Slow down! I can't knit that fast!"

Rin continued to stare at the young woman as she continued to mouth to them directions to knit his face. She quickly assumed that she was the seamstress that Hareta's legend was talking about, since her directions were precise and accurate. As she was mouthing off the commands, Rin couldn't help but be shocked at just how beautiful she was: her delicate features that accented her angular face and the smile that seemed to be on her face half the time. Rin could barely register what she was asking for: a big smile…a checkmark nose…thin eyebrows…in fact, she couldn't even figure out what this guy was supposed to be looking like.

"I think we're done." Miku looked at the doll in her hand. "Wow, he looks really good."

Suddenly, Rin noticed that the woman was mouthing something else. She squinted at the mirror as the woman mouthed it over and over again until the movements became plastered onto her own lips. Miku was looking at Rin with a confused look on her face.

"Lo…re…lei." Rin voiced out. "Lorelei."

"That's supposed to be what?" Miku looked down at the doll. "It's a name, not a facial feature."

"No, I think that's the name of the doll." She turned to her. "Lorelei."

"Lorelei is the name of this doll?" She chuckled. "That's interesting…I guess."

"What can I say? I have a weird way of naming stuff!" Rin posed. "Lorelei, Lorelei…sounds like an angel!"

Miku was about to say something when they saw the door swing open, the voice of a screaming person just outside. Rin ran behind Miku as they saw the redhead stagehand stumble in, slamming the door behind him. It was then that they realized what the problem was: his entire face was plastered with blood.

"Gah!" Miku jumped. "I-Is there a rag in here?"

"Right, right!" Rin ran to the man. "Hold on…let me wipe off the blood so that I can find the cut!"

She quickly started wiping the blood away from his face. After she was done, Rin stepped back and almost screamed: the man had no face. Not only that, but the cuts on his face were the outlines of facial features. Miku realized that and started to panic as well. Suddenly, Miku thought of something strange, as she stood up.

"Lorelei!"

Almost instinctively, he turned his head toward Miku as she held out the finished doll. He reached out toward it as if he could see it perfectly, and instantly the blood vanished from the rag and his face, along with his stage hand outfit. When he stood, he was wearing the outfit that the doll was wearing and his face had been fully carved out, revealing sparkling emerald eyes that seemed to rival the girl's sapphire eyes.

"Am I…?" He looked at Miku.

"Yeah." She answered. "What do you think?"

"I like it. Looks better on me though." Lorelei smiled as he took the doll. "Maybe she'll recognize me now that I'm finished…"

"Who's going to recognize you?" Rin blinked.

But there was no reaction. He smiled at the both of them as he crumbled into dust (much to their shock). Miku picked up the doll as Rin turned toward the mirror, showing the images of Lorelei finally reuniting with the girl in the mirror. They smiled at Rin before they vanished from the mirror. Suddenly, Ginsora came into the room.

"Oh, there you guys are! It's almost opening curtain!" She turned to the floor. "Hey, where'd all this dust come from? This is going to stick all over the costumes, you know!"

They decided not to tell Ginsora or anyone else what just happened as they headed back to the house. The musical was a huge hit, and in tribute to that (and to Lorelei), they both wrote the songs Dolls and Marionette, which ended up being hugely popular.

And as for the doll? Miku keeps it to this day.

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Don't mind me. I'll get my mind out of the whole "legends" thing sooner or later.