Chapter 1: Miku and The Nutcracker

                   

“Miku, get up already!  It’s Christmas morning!”

Miku groaned as she tugged at her fresh bedsheets, her brother’s voice ringing in her ears.  One of the goose down feathers poked at her soft cheek.  She tried to work it back down with her fingernail, only for it to fly back up again.

“Miku, mother’s going to have both our hides if you’re still wearing your nightgown when Gakupo shows up!  Come ooooon!”

“Gakupo’s never given two whiffs how prepared I am when he comes over,” Miku muttered to herself, “It’s only mother that cares.”

Still, she needed to go down before her brother knocked the door down with his enthusiasm.  And appearing like a proper lady kept the peace.  Besides, she reasoned, Gakupo Kamui’s presence in their home would be a welcome change of affairs.  The quirky toymaker never pressured either of the Hatsune children so hard as their mother did.

Miku crawled out of bed, her floor-length, powder blue night gown settling around her bare feet.  She opened her wardrobe, choosing a simple yet presentable black and green dress.  Noting the snow falling outside her window, she was grateful for the long sleeves – they’d fit well under an overcoat should she choose to take a walk later.

The walks aided in her coping with the stifling atmosphere the home had taken in the last year.

Miku slipped on her white chemise and began to lace up her corset.  After that, layer after layer of petticoats.  She added a pair of black stockings over her long legs.  Finally she pulled the long dress over her head and fastened it shut.

How she envied Mikuo’s simple trousers and shirts – she couldn’t deny that she could be vain about her appearance, but when she simply wanted to get work done, this was far too much effort! But her mother had spent money the family barely possessed on ensuring her 16 year old daughter was properly presentable now that she was approaching marrying age. 

As she finally laced up a pair of black boots, she could already hear her brother stomping down the hallway.  “That boy… makes enough of a racket for the both of us!” Miku remarked flippantly as she sat at her vanity and brushed her hair into two long teal pigtails, securing them with worn black ribbons.  She stared longingly at the clockwork cat on her dresser – long ago a gift from Gakupo, he’d built the small toy for Miku after she’d cried about not being allowed to have a real cat.  Of course all it could really do these days was hop around and jerk around as it tried to walk…

‘If I ask Gakupo when mother’s not listening, maybe he can tell me how to fix it myself…’

The rough knocking on her bedroom door bounced Miku out of her thoughts.  She let out a loud huff and stomped to the door, throwing it open… only to see Mikuo running down the hall as their mother called for them.  She just barely saw the back of his grey shirt and black pants as he ran down the hall in a pair of black boots.

Miku lifted her skirts and began to run after him as well – she was not going to let her brother spoil a fine Christmas morning.  Just as she arrived in the foyer, Miku spied her mother approaching the front door.  The black haired woman gave her daughter a stern looking over before nodding her approval to her appearance – there would be no scolding this morning at least.  She opened the door and Miku relaxed at the welcome sight of a familiar man.

“My, what a lovely Christmas morning we find ourselves having this year!”

There stood Gakupo, with that ever so charming smile on his ever youthful face.  Despite being old enough to have befriended her parents when she was still a child, Gakupo looked like a dashing young man, nary a wrinkle on his face, his long purple hair pulled into a luxurious ponytail that hung down his back nearly to his waist.  His crisp purple overcoat and white shirt and waistcoat underneath showed the care he put into his appearance, along with his snappy black pants and boots.  In his arms he carried an abundance of packages – as usual, handmade by himself.

“Oh Gakupo, why don’t I help you set these under the tree so you can spend some time with the children…” Miku’s mother chided, though a softer tone took hold of her voice as opposed to when she spoke to her children.

In moments the boxes were arranged under the tree and Gakupo had his hands outstretched to his goddaughter.  “Well now Miku, you’re barely a child anymore, but surely you’re not too old for this?”

A smile played at Miku’s lips as she happily rushed forward and gave the toymaker a hug.  As her head drew near his chest, she heard the familiar tick-tock of his pocket watch buried deep underneath his jacket.

As the two quickly parted, Gakupo just stood looking both Miku and her brother over from top to bottom.  “Spirits alive, to think how young you were when we first met…” he murmured, “Where did all the time go?”

At that Miku’s mother laughed – a welcome sound that Miku had been hearing less of these days.  “Oh stop that, you rascal, barely a day older than when WE first met!”

Gakupo gave the woman a polite hug as well.  “Oh, nonsense, you look wonderful, like always!”

Mikuo seemed to have his eyes directly on the packages under the tree.  “Sooo… we can open these soon, right?”

At that Miku’s mother’s face took a more familiar expression.  “Mikuo, you know we can’t let your breakfast get cold!  They’ll be waiting here until you finish your breakfast!”

 

The Christmas morning breakfast seemed to linger all too long as Miku’s mind turned with what Gakupo could have brought by this year.  As he and her mother largely spoke of practical matters, she tried to remember all the toys he’d brought in the past.  Dolls that cried like real children, soldiers that marched as though in formation, the cat that lunged forward as though pouncing on an invisible mouse, a pink-haired ballerina whose fairy wings fluttered ever so delicately as she mimicked various basic positions.  Over time his creations seemed to get more elaborate – perhaps so much time spent alone gave him time to innovate further.  On her birthday he’d brought her a small model of what he claimed was his workshop, every worker inside moving from place to place.

Finally all the food was gone and both Miku and Mikuo had permission to open their presents, Gakupo laughing at their enthusiasm as he was wont to do.

Miku immediately made her way over to a large green package, searching for her name and finding it in fine cursive script.  She tore open the package, setting the paper aside and lifting the lid.

Inside she laid her eyes upon an elaborate pastel colored castle, looking less like a castle of brick and stone and more a construction out of candy and sweets.  “Here, allow me to help you remove that from the box… I’ll admit I got carried away with this one…”

Gakupo leaned over Miku’s shoulder and again she heard that familiar tick-tock as he grew close.  Together the two each grabbed a side of the castle and heaved it out of the box, setting it aside.

“My, Gakupo, you’ve outdone yourself on this one…” Miku’s mother murmured, “Isn’t Miku getting a little old for toys like that though?”

Miku marveled at all the people in the castle, reconstructed to perfect detail.  Gakupo pointed to various people in the castle as Miku marveled at how he’d come up with stories for each one.  “This is the King of Marzipan, he loves his sweets as you might guess… this is the Queen, she dotes over her daughter… this is Princess Pirlipat, forever above those who serve her… the gardeners watering the flowers day after day…”

“Gakupo if I didn’t know better, I’d say you lived there!” Mikuo joked.

Miku chuckled but her eyes flittered to a man in a workshop… with purple hair… “Gakupo, is that you!?  At a toyshop!?”

The older man let out another rich laugh.  “Is the creator not entitled to craft himself a place within his own creations?”

Miku wound the key on the back of the castle and watched as every person made their rounds.  The King waving his scepter at his bowing servants, the Queen counting dresses, the princess bossing around her servants, soldiers marching back and forth in formation, servants dusting every piece of furniture, the chef hauling out huge pieces of candy…

But after a few minutes of watching, Miku began to grow somewhat impatient at how repetitive the routines became.  It was certainly an impressive work – she couldn’t imagine how many little gears needed to be fitted to make so many people move at once.  The delicacy of the painting of every figure showed the care its maker had put into the castle – the princess with her brunette bobbed hair and her scarlet gown, even the gardeners each had some individuality that allowed them to stand out.  But it felt limited to just these movements, an endless dance of action after action.  Slowly Miku found herself losing interest.  To her great fear, she began to wonder if she was just growing too old for such wonders.

“Hmph… I can’t help but say you’re less than impressed…” Gakupo mused aloud.

Miku tried to hide her reaction.  “No… but I think I’d like to have a look at what inside the casing some time…”

At that she heard a loud sigh from her mother.  “Miku, such rigid work is not intended for young ladies!  Perhaps you should be modeling yourself more after the princess there… I doubt she’d have a lack for any suitors.”

Gakupo let out a dark laugh.  “Anyone who spends that much time fussing over themselves is little use to anyone…”

All of a sudden a loud bang erupted and Miku covered her ears.  Sure enough, Mikuo had quietly opened his own present – a small army of tin soldiers.  Miku spotted the tiny cork cannonball bouncing off the living room wall.  “Direct hit!” he shouted.

“Well at least I still know one of you well enough,” Gakupo joked.

Mikuo laughed.  “You think when I enlist they’ll let me fire a real one?”

“Well it’s not so simple to do when you’re out on the battlefield!” Gakupo explained, walking over to the little army and crossing his arms in contemplation.  “You mustn’t forget, there shall most likely be someone on that battlefield looking for you out there too!”

In moments, Gakupo and Mikuo were absorbed in conversations about his past as a soldier. Within a year, Mikuo would be old enough to enlist and more and more Miku found him less interested in being clever and more interested in being a hero.  As such behavior was acceptable for a 17 year old boy, that left Miku alone to try and mold herself into something more respectable.  Marriageable.

She began to pry at the casing to her castle when something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. Normally the sorts of toys Gakupo brought were metal and gears, but resting near his seat, laid down with great care, was a small wooden nutcracker.  Miku set down the castle and wandered over to it – it looked so different from the normal white-bearded nutcrackers she’d seen growing up.  This one had the expected large head and jaw, perfect for slipping in perhaps smaller nuts, but he seemed so much younger, with his blue hair and eyes, rosy cheeks, and round wooden nose.  As she picked up the nutcracker and held it in her hands, she felt that whoever had sewn his costume picked a seemingly dated uniform, with a white jacket covered in gold buttons, a long blue sash, neck, and cuffs, black pants, and tall brown boots.  His tall black cap completed the ensemble.  Such a costume was certainly eye catching on a toy, but Miku doubted it would be practical in a fight.  Even so, she had to admit there was something more lifelike about this toy that drew her curiosity.

All of sudden Miku noticed the conversation around her growing quiet.  She turned to her family, wondering what she could have possibly done that was so shocking.  “Gakupo?  Is something the matter?” her mother asked.

“Yea, you were just telling me about the battle of the Weisskopf Hills…” Mikuo prodded.

Gakupo’s blue eyes remained transfixed upon Miku… no, not her, the toy.  “Oh, I’m sorry, is he important to you?” Miku asked, “I can put him back if you’d prefer.  Does he belong to someone special?”

She began to examine the doll again more thoroughly.  “I know he’s made of wood, though.  Did you hide the clockwork inside?  I don’t see a wind up key or anything…”

Gakupo seemed to regain his composure as a smile crossed his face.  “Well, I was intending to give that doll to the first pretty girl that asked about him, given that he’s such a handsome fellow.  Since you seemed disappointed by the castle, why don’t you have him to keep it safe?”

“Well, while the last thing Miku needs is anymore toys,” her mother interrupted, “Something useful like a nutcracker should suit her fine.”

Miku smiled at the little toy.  “Thank you, Gakupo,” she said politely, but in the back of her mind she was already planning what sort of odd surprises the nutcracker could possess.

“So what does he do?” Miku asked as she kept prodded at the toy, looking for a mechanism.

“It’s a Nutcracker, I think that should be obvious,” Mikuo joked, causing his sister to grow frustrated.

“I know that!  I meant, does he walk around or move his eyes or… or dance?”

She gestured to Mikuo’s toy soldiers which were already starting to wind down.  “Fire cannons or…”

“He cracks nuts,” Gakupo said, “If he does anything else… that’s up to him.”

Mikuo’s joking laughter rang in her ears.

 

The cold winter air felt refreshing after the morning spent indoors.  Miku’s mother and Gakupo had gone out for some shopping, so it was just her and Mikuo at the house.  Her brother was indoors, having already begun to merge his toy armies together.  She couldn’t understand why that’s all he could think of when such elegant creations stood before him.  Even if the clockwork castle was repetitive, Miku still found herself entranced by the knowledge of what made it move.

But right now there was the puzzle of her new nutcracker.  Gakupo didn’t normally keep such ordinary toys on him – and he was daft if he thought nobody had noticed his dramatic reaction to Miku putting her hands on it.  “Maybe you’re some kind of prototype…” Miku whispered, “Whatever you are though, there is something special about you, and I’m going to figure it out.”

She ran her hands underneath the shirt, and while she easily found the long lever hanging down to form the back of his coattail, controlling the mouth in order to crack an actual nut, she found no other signs of unusual mechanical additions.  She knocked her fingers against his large head, but she didn’t hear the familiar rattling of gears.  “Come now, Gakupo would never keep something so ordinary…”

She let out a sigh as she kept pacing herself through the gardens outside.  “Well, we’ll have plenty of time together to sort you out, all right little nutcracker?”

Miku’s eyes took in the serene landscape, dusted with snow.  She wanted to burn it all into her mind – this could well be her last proper winter at home.  “Mother wants me to go to finishing school…” she said aloud, “They might not let me take you there.  I’m supposed to be learning how to be a proper lady.”

She started angrily mimicking her mother’s voice.  “Sit up straight, stop running out doors, do you even know how messy you’re making this room?  Women aren’t supposed to be taking toys apart, they’re supposed to be practicing their handwriting!”

She sighed.  “Teto would have loved that joke…” Miku said, “Her family had the money to send her out last year though.  I hear she’s already well on track to finding a nice husband.”

Indeed, she’d already heard her friend Haku had found a husband and didn’t even end up moving back home.  But such a path wasn’t the one Miku desired.  While she loved some more traditional past times such as singing, she also yearned to try something more intellectual… more like what her godfather did.

“Making toys wouldn’t be so bad… they make children happy right?  Then I don’t see why I can’t learn the practicalities needed for such a career on my own…”

Miku dusted the snow off the wooden bench and grabbed a seat, gently resting the nutcracker in her lap.  “It’s not that… I don’t want to fall in love… or get married…”

… it was just that she didn’t need that to be her entire life.  Everything she loved as a child, every dream she wanted to have, felt like it was being suffocated.  “Why do they keep trying to make me into something I’m not?!  I just want to be myself and still make everyone happy… is that never going to happen?”

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.  She needed to calm down, and yelling at a nutcracker wouldn’t help.  She began to recall a favored song she’d learned when her family could still afford a music tutor.

“Will I find what I'm looking for lying somewhere on this endless road? I will surely be able to find it when tomorrow comes… so I just need to open my eyes right now!”

Singing had been something she enjoyed once almost as much as building things.  Sometimes the monotony of fitting the pieces together washed away from a little song or two, cleared her head… using part of her body while she focused on her mind.

“Is what I'm looking for waiting for me beyond this endless sky? I need to be a little more positive than yesterday… so I will stretch out my hands right now!”

Her mother wasn’t always like this, Gakupo had assured her.  She’d been a more hopeful person when Miku’s father was still alive.  Now that she was older Miku was more aware of how Gakupo had been helping to support the family as he could, even though his toymaking job took him across the world for months at a time.  Even so, it was one thing to be practical, but another to utterly stifle her!

“There is no meaning to humans' existence in this world… that's why everyone tries to search for their "reason of living"...”

Miku stopped, her emotions clearer.  She could have laughed at herself, talking to a toy as if she still were a little girl.  ‘Well… and to think I was worried I’d outgrown toys altogether…’

She gave the little nutcracker a pat on the head.  “Well!  You’ve been a wonderful little listener, my Nutcracker.  Thank you!”

“You’re welcome!”

Miku’s face stood frozen in shock.  Had it just… talked to her?

Again Miku began to fuss over the doll – what had she missed?!  Had Gakupo really snuck in some kind of audio box?  But… why did it answer her right then?!  How could it possibly be smart enough?!

The pig-tailed girl darted her head around – was it Mikuo playing a prank?  But this voice sounded a little older than him…

Now Miku didn’t quite know WHAT to make of this strange toy, but she wasn’t letting it out of her sight until she figured it out!

The nutcracker spoke no more, only staring ahead with its wide painted eyes and frozen wooden smile.

 

As Miku entered the house, still examining the nutcracker with the utmost concern, she nearly bumped straight into her brother.  “Miku, you’re day-dreaming again?!  You got your head up in the clouds so much, you can’t pay attention to what’s on the ground!”

Before she could offer a snappy retort, Mikuo had snatched the nutcracker from Miku’s hands and started making his way towards the kitchen.  “HEY!  Give that back at once!” Miku insisted, chasing after her brother and making as if to take her new “friend” back.

“Calm down, you can have him back… I just wanted to see how good he was at his job.”

Mikuo had sat down at the kitchen counter, where out lay a small bowl full of assorted holiday nuts.  He plopped the doll down on the table as he began fishing through them.  “He’s got a smaller mouth, but he looks pretty strong… he can probably handle all kinds of things.”

At once Mikuo grabbed for an almond and shoved it into the nutcracker’s teeth.  Before Miku could stop him, Mikuo had pushed the lever and at once the shell cracked perfectly.  He dumped out the debris, gnawing on the nut as he handed the doll back to his sister.  “Your turn!”

“You could have asked!” Miku huffed, but she had to admit she did at least want to put the toy to use.  She grabbed for a small pecan, careful to make an allowance for the size of the opening in the nutcracker’s face… and with a satisfying crunch, the little soldier had demolished the shell at once.

And so for a few moments brother and sister were finally at peace, each taking one turn after another going through the nuts in the bowl.  Miku found herself rather disappointed that the toy didn’t seem to possess any unusual abilities as far as nutcracking went, but at least that worked.  ‘But it still doesn’t explain why Gakupo would be carting it around…’

The calm snacking came to an abrupt halt when Mikuo plucked a rather large almond from the bowl.  “Wait, Mikuo, I don’t think that’ll fit right!” Miku warned.

“Come now, I think he’s a good enough soldier to be able to crack through it!”

Wedged tight in the nutcracker’s jaw, Mikuo yanked the lever and…

CRACK!

“MIKUO!”

The older boy looked surprised as this time the nut did not break, but the poor nutcracker’s jaw had.  The wood had large hairline cracks within the surface, the lever hanging far looser.  Miku grabbed the toy back at once, yanking out the nut and trying to inspect the damage.  “Miku… I’m… I’m sorry…”

“Why can’t you be more careful with my things?!” she shouted at him, “Don’t you have any respect for them?!”

Mikuo did look legitimately upset, but clearly there was little he could say.  “Oh… I don’t have anything to fix him either…but…”

Miku pulled a ribbon from her hair and carefully wrapped it around the jaw of the toy.  “There… you won’t get any worse, my nutcracker…”

“What in the world was that commotion about?”

On the sound of Miku’s mother’s voice, both children sat up straight in their seats.  “Indeed, what could have caused such a sudden disturbance?”

Gakupo followed the older woman into the room.  “Oh, did your nutcracker sustain war damage?” he said, noticing the little ribbon around its jawline.

Mikuo tried to explain nervously. “I… Miku and I were trying him out on the nuts and…”

“…and Mikuo just smashed through his jaw!” Miku shouted at him.

“I didn’t do it on PURPOSE!”

“Settle down, both of you!” Miku’s mother said and at once both children fell silent.  “Mikuo, I know you didn’t mean to break her toy, but this isn’t the first time you’ve been that careless.”

Miku heard that familiar tick-tock sound as Gakupo leaned close to her.  “Why don’t you let me have a look at him?  I’m sure he’s not badly hurt.”

The pig-tailed girl gently handed the toy to the toymaker and his trained eye immediately spied the damage.  “Oh, this isn’t too serious… I have some of my tools with me in town, I’ll take care of him for you.  He’ll still need to rest like a good soldier though.”

For a moment, Miku wanted to ask him one question – why had she heard the nutcracker speak?  But then she fell silent again.  Not in front of her family or she’d never hear the end of their jokes or scolding.  She simply nodded her head politely.

 

True to his word, Gakupo had the toy returned to Miku’s home by the time he came by for dinner, though Miku noticed he’d left her hair ribbon wrapped around his jaw.  When she’d asked why, Gakupo first covered by claiming the doll needed to recover just like any good soldier and a fair maiden’s “token” was the best medicine.  When she pressed him though, he admitted the wood glue needed to stay solid.

And so Christmas dinner passed without any further incidents.  Miku took her nutcracker and her toy castle up to her bedroom – the castle she set on an end table in the corner, the nutcracker she gently laid on her vanity.  “Don’t worry, Mikuo won’t be coming in here tonight, okay?  You’re safe.”

Miku found herself talking to the toy again, hoping to prompt another response, but he stayed silent again.  ‘I hope I’m not going mad among everything else…’ she thought to herself.

And yet she’d still turned the doll’s head away from her as she changed back into her night gown before she went to sleep.

The sound of her door opening and footsteps awoke Miku from an easy slumber.  “Mikuo?  Get out…” she muttered before she regained her senses – she always locked her bedroom door for privacy, so it couldn’t have been him…

Her eyes floated around the room before she noticed something missing from her vanity – the nutcracker!

Miku quickly hopped out of the bed, her long hair bouncing behind her as she ran across the room, putting her shoes on as soon as her feet touched the cold floorboards.  She thought she’d locked the door, right?  Mikuo wouldn’t take her toy again, would he?  Yet as she marched towards his bedroom door, she heard two sounds that cast doubt on that theory – the first, Mikuo’s loud snoring from inside the bedroom.

The second?

A crashing noise in the living room.

‘Did no one hear that?!’ Miku thought as she tip toed to investigate it.  Yet no one else in the house stirred.

As she entered the living room Miku thought at first she was going to faint at the sight.

Across the floor moved a small swarm of mice.  Miku wanted to shriek out right there to get rid of them, but something else drew her attention before that.  The mice… were chasing someone.

And one of the mice was talking.

“You thought you’d get away from us by hiding with the humans, did you?!”

“Nobody escapes our power!  We’ll tear your limbs of and grind them to dust!”

Miku thought she heard the voice of a young girl and boy, and finally she spotted…

… the strangest looking mice she’d ever seen.

They looked somewhat like small humans with token mouse-like features.  They possessed patches of gray fur around their shoulders, knees, hands, and feet, but most of their skin was peach like human skin.  Their large, furry, floppy ears rose out behind their heads, their long whiskers twitched around tiny pink noses and their long, thin, pink tails whipped around behind them as they darted across the room.  Yet each of these strange mice possessed blond hair and wore yellow, regal clothes and glittering crowns upon their heads.  The girl a glamourous yellow dress and cape, the boy a sharp military uniform.

And climbing up Miku’s Christmas tree, to her great shock, was her nutcracker, trying to stay concealed in the branches, still wearing her ribbon tightly bandaged around his face.

Miku crouched down behind the sofa as she tried to take stock of what she was looking at.  ‘I must still be dreaming… otherwise everyone would be awake right now… and… and mice don’t talk and dolls don’t climb trees and…’

“He went up there somewhere!” the girl shouted, pointed a clawed finger up the tree, “You lot, get in there and haul him out!”

At once the boy and his army began to climb into the Christmas tree.  Miku saw the nutcracker trying to get up higher and higher, looking for some kind of safety, but none remained for him.  She saw him desperately begin to throw Christmas ornaments down the tree at his approaching foes and somehow in spite of his doll’s face it seemed to Miku as if his face was more lifelike and expressive now than it was before.

“THERE HE IS!”

Miku saw the nutcracker crawl out of the branches, trying to find another place to escape to but none remained.  The boy approached him menacingly along the same branch, forcing the nutcracker to the very end.  He had no more room without falling off into the waiting arms of the army below. 

“Maybe I should turn you to splinters right now for how far you’ve made us chase after you!” the mouse boy called out.

On hearing such a horrible threat to her poor nutcracker, Miku had finally had enough.  She still didn’t know what was going on but she yanked one of her shoes from her feet.  She didn’t have any other weapons to turn on the mice herself… she aimed carefully at the mouse boy and hurled it with all her might…

“LEN!”

Miku just barely caught sight of the shoe smacking him off of the Christmas tree.  He rolled down the branches and hit the floor.  Miku hid behind the couch, hoping they hadn’t seen her.  “Where did that come from!?  Who dares attack the Mouse King?!”

She could hear the girl shouting and Miku tried to curl up as small as she could.  She wasn’t exactly sure what a bunch of mice could do to her but she wasn’t about to find out!

“Len!  Len, please wake up!”

Miku chanced a peek around the couch and saw the girl hovering over the fallen “Mouse King.”  She worriedly looked into the Christmas tree and saw no sign of the nutcracker.  She hoped that meant he had safely escaped.

“Oh, give up on him for now!  We must ensure my dear King is safe!  But that nutcracker is going to pay for this crime as well!”

She heard the pitter-patter of mouse feet on the carpet – so many at once!  She tried to find somewhere to hide from their sight, ducking quickly into the coat closet and watching the mice escape between the slats.  The girl had her “King” held close to her…

As much as Miku didn’t want to, she had to know how they’d gotten into the house.  She needed a way to stop them from returning!  She pried her other shoe from her foot and began to tip toe along the rug, following the sounds of the mice… they ran through the hallway, near the bedrooms…

Miku following them into the dining room, standing close to a glass cabinet as she lost sight of the many mice near her.  She looked around for them, trying to find some method of escape… when she felt her foot touch something soft…

“OH!  YOU AWFUL HUMAN!  HOW DARE YOU!”

In Miku’s panic she fell backwards into the cabinet as the glass shattered… and she fell into unconsciousness…