The computer program

9. Companionship

It became a thing between us then.

He had a few hours each day when he could go out, and he would go to the top of our hill and I would be there. Or, if I wasn't, he would wait for a while and I would show up.

"Hi, Izuna", he would say, and his voice became warmer and warmer for each time. If it was because he learned more about how to be human, or if he just felt warmer towards me for each time he saw me, I couldn't tell.

"Hi", I would whisper back shyly, not daring to meet his eye.

We would sit down then, him to my left, I to his right, a polite space between us. A few weeks passed and we didn't touch for more than that first time when I had listened to his heartbeat.

Or the absence of it.

But we talked. Oh, and the talks we had. About everything. Serious topics such as politics and the climate to more relaxed things such as people who wrote fanfiction and the Kardashians. Tobirama was, of course, a cornucopia of knowledge, but he would make sure to shut off what he'd learned he should think about different topics and instead try to understand what his true opinions were.

Turned out, his true opinions were marvellous. He was to the left, thought very strongly about the rights of trans people and people of colour, and had a deep understanding about the problem of trusting governments in societies that were driven by money, while at the same time seeing the importance of economy. And he listened to my views with an open mind, asked follow-up questions that made me feel smart and heard.

From time to time, I would bring us something to eat. The first time, I'd brought filo dough rolls filled with vegan hazelnut spread I'd baked in the oven and then topped with soy whip. His eyes had widened as he took a bite, and I'd laughed at how fast he'd eaten his share. I moved on to bring home-made mozzarella sticks, marinated olives, crackers with Brie and jam... One flavour sensation for each meeting, and we would talk while eating.

Within a few weeks, I realised I had started to love this life I was building for myself, this life without Hashirama. I hadn't attended his lectures in weeks, and sometimes, I even forgot about him. He hadn't texted, nor called, and I hadn't, either. A part of me wanted answers, to know if it was true he had only used me in order to create Tobirama. In that case, did I regret doing it? Did I regret helping him? I looked over at Tobirama, so beautiful in the setting sun, not only on the outside but on the inside as well. I decided to keep enjoying our meetings without mixing Hashirama up with it.

Then one day, as we met on top of our hill, I noticed something was wrong.

"What happened?" I asked as soon as he came up to me.

"He's coded something new within me", he said.

I frowned.

"What's that?"

"My vision and hearing is being recorded so he can play it up afterwards."

He said it so casually, I didn't really flinch at first. But then, it well and truly went up to me what it was he said.

"What on Earth..." I whispered.

"I know", Tobirama said.

Not only was it remarkably advanced. The ability to record someone's vision and hearing alone was ground-breaking. I started to suspect that maybe, Hashirama was smarter than me after all. Maybe even smarter than Madara.

But what well and truly shocked me was how incredibly intrusive it was. Hashirama must know how deeply human Tobirama was at this point, that he probably needed many things that humans needed when it came to freedom and privacy, even all of the things that humans needed. Even so, he'd done something so utterly disrespectful. Did he have ethics for this?