• We snuck out minutes later. The more we hesitated, the less time we had to escape. The old woman was bound to return soon, to check in on her fake son that is. Tenbou was leading me, I staggered behind, I almost regretted leaving. But… Dante was the only cyborg who could tell me my meaning, my place in this strange world. We were once humans, but we were salvaged for some reason. We had to have some importance. Finding out that I was really part human only raised more questions that even a computer could not answer. Not only that, I finally realized why I could almost feel human emotions; I was part human after all so it was only natural that it would manifest itself sometimes.

    Tenbou yanked my wrist forward as we ran through the trees. On the horizon, the beginning of a sunrise and a sliver of ocean was in sight. I was surprised. I had no idea we were so close to the ocean all this time. Behind us, we heard a feeble, grieving cry… The old woman no doubt. I tried to pull back, I tried to pull my arm free of Tenbou’s grasp… His hand barely moved at all.

    At that moment, I saw his face, his usual little smirk was gone and his face was as straight and as emotionless as possible. Because I hardly knew Tenbou and everything I knew about him was based on trust and the common bind we had as cyborgs, I had no idea if that was simply his default expression or if he was in pain. I could only guess, I could only guess that he felt pain. He was part human somewhere. Maybe, like me, he could feel like any other regular human (or almost, at the very least). I did not dismiss the possibility, but that emotionless expression could have been nothing more than an action caused by the machine part of him. Machines do not feel. It was too confusing, I hated not being able to read him.

    … Still, something told me… Something deep inside told me he was in pain… Some sort of sensation in my synthetic stomach…

    I started to pick up my pace as we got to the beach. To tell the truth, I had no idea what we would do once we reached the water. Tenbou apparently had a plan. Why else would he speed ahead with such determination, such confidence? He was planning something, I knew it.

    “Get ready to jump.” he said.

    “What?” I said.

    “Just jump.” he replied.

    He jolted onwards, and he had no intention of stopping, even as we were approaching a steep cliff that towered above the ocean. Now, I must admit, cyborgs are very durable, we could fall a thousand times from the same building and manage to function normally. Though, cyborgs, most anyway, have a difficultly with water. Even the most advanced computer (sometimes even the waterproof ones) short circuit because of water. Mind you, it usually took a bucketful or two of water to get cyborgs’ circuits to short out, but, as far as I knew, no cyborg in the world could tolerate an ocean full on water in their systems. Not Tenbou, not myself. So why was he aiming at that cliff? It only led to air and then ocean below it. All I could do was believe in him and go against any common sense programs I had.

    And then came the edge. I closed my eyes tight and obediently jumped. I clawed my nails deep into Tenbou’s back. All that was below us was water, all we were standing on was air.

    “Why did we jump?” I asked.

    “Because flying is faster.” he said.

    “What?!” I asked in bewilderment.

    I soon saw what Tenbou had meant by that. From his back, large metal wings sprung to either side, like those of an expensive jet. I supposed that that was one feature that Tenbou had that I did not. (I could almost envy them, yet, I did not have the luxury of that emotion.)

    And then it occurred to me, “Where are we going?” I asked.

    “I suppose…” he started, rubbing the patches of facial hair on his chin and jaw “… Somewhere worthwhile or beneficial to us.”

    “Worthwhile? Beneficial?” I said.

    “Well, yeah. That’s why I left the island. I couldn’t spend my whole life with that woman. I don’t need food. I don’t need women. And yet, when I stayed there, that’s all I got everyday. Plus, I though it’d be better if that woman died knowing the truth about her son. You had a reason to leave where ever you were, right?” he said.

    “I suppose… I did not like life in a laboratory. It was the same thing everyday, and it would be until my hard-drive and motherboard failed and I died… And…” I started.

    “‘And’ what?”

    “And I wanted to see the Kings of Cyborgs, Dante.”

    “Why?”

    That was a good question… Why? I knew my reasons; I had questions to ask Dante, questions about why I exist and such. But, hearing Tenbou's question, how he was so blunt about it... I was wondering if my answer was good enough for him... If my reasoning was important enough for King Dante.