The Learning Curve
Chapter 7 (the last one!)
Cipu
I walked into study hall, like usual. Although this time, I had a pass to go down to the lab. I told the study-hall supervisor that the mice needed observation, but it was a lie. I was drawing plans for New Cipu.
Juunana-sama stopped me at the door.
"Where are you going?"
"The lab. The mice need tending to."
"Okay. I was so busy last night, with you and all, that it nearly slipped my mind to finish my calculus and philosophy assignments. So I'm doing them this period."
"It's okay." I kissed him gently on the cheek.
"I love you," he said. "See you after class."
Nuriko hid behind the alcove of lockers, her .45 ready to fire.
"See? There she is! She stole my man! She's dead meat!"
"Shut up, she'll hear you," said one of her friends.
"Who gives a damn? She deserves to die anyway! I've hated her all of my life, and this is my defining moment! I finally get to see her demise!"
Cipu walked unwillingly into their trap.
Cipu
I heard a loud bang from behind the locker alcove.
The next thing I knew, several pieces of hot lead seared through my chest and head.
I cried out the only name I could think of in my blood-spattered daze, the only one that meant anything to me.
"Juu-kun! JUUNANA-SAMA!"
Juunanagou
I was working through my philosophy assignment when I heard Cipu scream.
I rushed out of study hall to see what was the matter.
Then I saw her, bullet holes in her chest and head, lying in a pool of her own blood, passing in and out of consciousness.
She was going to die.
"Juu-kun," she whispered. "I'll miss you."
"I can wish you back with the dragon balls."
"No use, no use. It's better off for me to die. Don't wish me back; life is torment. You know that. To be mortal is a...pleasure."
With that, her head fell to the floor.
I gathered data on her body. No pulse, no breathing, no brain activity. She was dead.
Nuriko stood behind me. "What's it like to have a dead girlfriend?" she asked in an icy tone of voice. "Now you can date...ME!"
"You stupid bitch!" I screamed. "You killed her!"
"Of course I did." She smirked.
This made absolutely no sense. Humans didn't have programming; nor did they serve Dr. Gero. So why were they so cruel? Why? Was it a game to them, like killing had been a game to me? The rage welled up within me. It grew into a massive energy bomb in the palm of my hand.
I had to take revenge on my beloved Cipu-sama. I just had to.
Then, without warning, I lifted my hand into the air and fired at Nuriko and company.
It blew them to smithereens.
Juuhachi and the principal came running out to see what was the racket.
"So, you are set in your old ways, brother," she smiled.
"YOU! YOU ARE EXPELLED FROM GREEN MEADOWS! BOTH OF YOU!"
"I-I didn't do anything," replied Juuhachi.
"Yeah, right," said the principal. "You orchestrated this whole mess. Killing our beloved Nuriko."
"Sis, let's get back to the Kame House."
"Agreed."
"Don't wait for me...I have to pick up one thing."
I went downstairs, to Cipu's old lab, and got the cage full of artificial mice, which, upon realising the barbarous nature of humans and their society, were my only friends.
Back at the Kame House, I started packing my things.
"Where are you going, Juu-kun?"
"I am going to leave you and this cursed society behind. I can't bear what they did to her. I just can't."
"Will we be on good terms?"
"It depends if you turn traitor and marry that goddamn Shaolin. He could kill anyone, anything. Stupid humans!"
With that I flew out the window, looking for a place of habitation that was far, far away from any human.
After hours of flying, I saw an abandoned log cabin in the mountains. It was in pretty good shape.
I landed on its lawn and began to make myself at home.
I got out my rifles and my clothes and put them in the storage closets of the cabin.
On the mantel of the fireplace, I put the cyborg mice- a reminder of the only human I knew who had transcended her cold, brutal nature, and had found the courage to love me.
I stared at them for hours, days. I remembered when she and I played chess... I remember our first kiss...I remember the feel, the beautiful form of her body that night we made love.
Then something happened.
An abyss formed within my body.
I almost...cried. I would have, had I the mechanisms to do so. Damn Gero!
She was gone.
Humanity had betrayed me yet again by killing her.
I guess I'll stay up here for a while, making a living at hunting or chopping lumber or something, until human beings learn to control themselves.
And I will always remember Cipu.
~*end*~
NOTES
Yeah, this is kinda sappy, and Cipu's kind of a Mary Sue, but she died.
"Deida Cipu" is a pun on "data" and "CPU"… a fitting name for a computer/cybernetics expert.
Juunanagou may be a bit out of character, but that will be remedied with the sequel to The Learning Curve, "Suck My Kiss", which I am currently working on. (And, no, Cipu doesn't get revived. And it's going to be a BIG lemon… keep these things in mind.)
