The Bike and the Laptop

Chapter 4 - I'm Not Just A Program!

Days later, Chihiro's normal school life began at the prestigious high school. Her schedule was always filled with one thing or another, whether it was Math, English or even Music. However, Chihiro's favourite subject had to be IT, after all, she excelled in technology. She would always get her programming work done in five minutes flat, then when she was given extremely difficult codes and viruses to crack - that not even the head of IT could fully decode - she would easily hack through their programs and place plenty of other programs inside it, even a few self-inflicting viruses of her own. She had left the teachers dumbstruck and proved that she deserved the title of Ultimate Programmer.
Time passed on as days transversed into weeks, everything ran smoothly for the small adolescent, she even started to make new friends.
At lunches Chihiro sat by herself, but almost every time, someone would join her. Most times it was Aoi, accompanied by Sakura, they talked and laughed together until they break was over. "So Chihiro, you got a crush?" The tanned girl slyly grinned and winked at Chihiro. The smaller girl blushed so red that her cheeks were somehow glowing.
"N-no! O-of c-c-course not!" She squeaked in her defence as Aoi laughed uncontrollably on her seat, even Sakura grinned.
When Aoi and Sakura didn't join her, others like Makoto, Sayaka and Kyoko visited her, even Leon joined her every now and then. But once every so often, Mondo would stroll up to her table and carelessly plop down, throwing all his weight onto the seat. The bench would at least fly a metre into the air with Chihiro still on it. The two would eat and talk about other things, even sometimes showing each other some stuff of their talent. Chihiro would show Mondo a bunch of her programs, including her greatest challenge yet, Alter Ego.
"You see, Alter Ego is a self-learning artificial intelligence, so he has the ability to take-in and process new data into his hard drives. He can even change his avatar to make the exact identical look of anyone person he has data of!" Chihiro clicked a few buttons and Alter Ego's head suddenly flashed into her own head, "his main avatar is my face, but I can give him yours, look!" The timid Programmer quickly zapped a photo of Mondo on her phone and then uploaded it onto her laptop. In a matter of minutes she was done.
"See, watch this!" She beamed as she swiftly tampered with the program settings, changing Alter Ego's head into Mondo's, "now he's the Crazy Diamond's gang leader, Mondo Oowada!" Mondo gawked in shock, his jaw hung open. The program exactly resembled his face, it was like looking at an identical twin brother...brother....
Mondo's face tensed as he turned away from the laptop screen, which now lay their like a pillar of darkness.
"What's wrong Mondo, was it something I said..." Chihiro trailed off, her eyes began to swell up with water. Mondo glanced back to his small companion and suddenly realised she was about to cry, "Oh! No you did nothing wrong, I just... had some unpleasant memories, that's all," he muttered shooting a false grin at the timid girl.
Mondo lowered his head and sighed, causing Chihiro to lightly grab his hand, "What's wrong Mondo?" She politely asked the ferocious teenager. Mondo lowered his head even further to avoid letting Chihiro see the bright red blush that spread across his cheeks.
"Nothin' really, its no biggie..." he claimed waving off the subject with his hand. Chihiro wouldn't let up, she could see that something troubled the larger student and was determined to help. "Mondo, what's the matter?" She calmly repeated herself, "you can tell me."
Mondo's eyes met Chihiro's serious gaze, the determined look in her eyes made her look even cuter than she was before, "hmph, guess there's no getting out of it," The boy relaxed and realised that the girl was still holding his hand, "uh, Chihiro, your hand," Mondo a small gesture to his hand, Chihiro then realised she was still holding his hand. "Oh! I-I'm sorry!" She squealed, yanking her hand away from Mondo's. Both of the youth's cheeks flushed red.
"Anyway," Mondo broke the silence, "when I looked at your program it reminded me of my... my brother." Chihiro's flustered exterior transformed into a curious one, "you have a brother? Is he younger or older?" The small girl questioned the older boy. "Older," Mondo replied blandly, his eyes narrowed, "ya' see, he was the one who started the Crazy Diamonds, he was their original leader."Chihiro listened intently on the story, she pushed her laptop to the side. "Oh! He was? Well then, did he retire or something," she asked confused, "or did he just give the gang to you?
Mondo's face darkened, his fists clenched tightly. Chihiro sat there confused, "what isn't he telling me! There's something he's hiding, I know it!" She shook her head and leaned back a little, "no, I shouldn't push, that would be rude of me. He obviously doesn't want anyone prying through his personal business." The timid Programmer was about to tell Mondo not to worry about it when the biker leader spoke again.
"No, you see he's..." Mondo's stone cold expression turned into fear as his lips trembled, "he's..." Chihiro's eyes widened  as she finally understood, "he's dead..." Chihiro froze, she was right, what Mondo said had confirmed her suspicions, his brother was dead. "H-how d-did h-he d-d-die?" The nervous girl struggled to form the words from her throat, her lips shook uncontrollably. Mondo stared at the ground for a while, he didn't say a word, he just sat there, silent. Chihiro was beginning to think the biker leader wasn't going to tell her when his voice harshly croaked through the room, "I-I..." Mondo's lips faltered, his body started to quiver, "I-I..." Chihiro clenched the edge of her skirt tightly, afraid of what was to come.
"I killed him..."
Chihiro's jaw stretched open in shock, her Caramel eyes twitched in terror. "It was the night of his retirement, he was gonna hand the gang over to me, but I challenged him to one last race." Mondo's voice held no emotion whatsoever, "During the race, I got stupid and reckless. I tried to speed up and overtake him but I didn't see the truck racing towards me. It was gonna hit me, but then he jumped in and saved me but...he was killed by the truck instead," Mondo now had
tears rolling down his cheeks, his eyes were hidden by the looming shadow of his hair.
Chihiro just sat there, stunned and terrified, "I-I...I..." She wanted to say that she was sorry for his loss, and that it wasn't his fault that it was just an accident, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. So she sat there and waited, waited for something to happen, just something to change the subject.
"I'm such and idiot! If only I was stronger, I could've saved him!" Mondo slammed his fist on the table, frightening Chihiro, "why am I so weak!?!" He grunted. Chihiro couldn't take it anymore, she felt as if the pressure of what Mondo had said was crushing her, his burdens choked her like a murky mist; she could feel the vomit forming in her throat. "I-I...I have to go the bathroom!" She squealed as she launched herself off the table and stumbled out the cafeteria doors, hurling herself towards the bathroom doors. "Wh-What do I do!?!" She frantically panicked, her legs then gave way as she collapsed on the bathroom floor and started to cry, "What just ha-happened!?!" Her small hands cradled her face as she sobbed and whimpered on the cold, lifeless floor.
After Chihiro had ran off, Mondo hadn't left the table, he just sat there silent. BEEP! Mondo slowly turned towards the source of the noise, his eyes slightly red from the tears. It was Chihiro's laptop. BEEP! The device sounded again, causing Mondo to tilt his head in confusion, "What the hell's that thing doin'?" BEEP! Then the screen lit up as the face of Chihiro Fujisaki, the Ultimate Programmer, appeared before Mondo.
"Systems online," the face proclaimed, "software running," suddenly as if realising he was there, Chihiro's face blushed. "Oops, my apologies, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Alter Ego, my master is Ms Chihiro Fujisaki and I am a self learning artificial intelligence!" The program then scanned Mondo as if he were some foreign animal, "checking database for identity match," a small screen the appeared in the corner of the screen thousands of letters and numbers flooded it. "Match found!" Alter Ego announced, "Mr Mondo Oowada, leader of the 'Crazy Diamonds'. He is a friend," Mondo's eyes opened in shock, "Chihiro thinks of me as a...a friend!" The Biker Leader hadn't ever had many friends, the few he valued included his brother and his best friend in the Crazy Diamonds. But now that Chihiro had valued him as a friend, Mondo felt somewhat overjoyed, he had a friend, not just someone who hung out with him out of fear but someone who actually enjoyed him being around. He truly was overjoyed, he now treasured this friendship with Chihiro Fujisaki - maybe even more than any of the others he had - and was never going to let that go.
"My radars sense that you have an emotional problem, would you like to talk about it?" Alter Ego's monotone voice box interrupted Mondo's thoughts, the program identically resembled the small Programmer but had a completely different personality. Although Chihiro was quiet, caring and sweet, this device seemed remote, calm and indifferent to emotions, the fact provoked Mondo to question if the timid girl had a side like this to her. "Nothin', just a little reminiscing that's all..." He replied back calmly, the program didn't seem to buy the lie. "It seems you wish to not talk about it, then I shall research the problem and find a solution," Alter Ego then realised something and looked around the cafeteria, "where is my master? Do you know where she is Mr Oowada?"
"Huh? Master?" Mondo wondered then quickly understood that it was talking about Chihiro. "Oh! Chihiro just went off to the bathroom, she should be back soon," he nodded towards the cafeteria doors, to which Alter Ego sighed with relief. "I see then," his face turned from a look of relief to dead serious one, his eyes narrowed firmly on Mondo, "now then Mr Oowada, what is the problem?" The program once again probed the tall male for an answer, Mondo sighed, "for the last time it's nothin'! It wouldn't matter if there was anyway, you wouldn't even understand. Your a computer program, your not human, you don't feel emotions..." The Biker leader tore his cold, purple eyes away from Alter Ego. His mind played tricks on him, reliving the horrifying moments, emphasising his brother's last breaths. Alter Ego's eyes softened, out of both concern and offence from Mondo's comment.
"That's wrong," Mondo slowly turned his attention back to the gleaming laptop, "what do you mean?" He inquisitively questioned Alter Ego, the statement had captured his interest. "It's true that I am a program, and I may not understand the situation... but I feel!" The software's eyes narrowed slightly, "I have just as much emotions as any human here, even if it's only programmed!" His face slightly saddened, surprising Mondo. "Oh, um..." The Biker Gang leader just sat there, stunned by the program's words. Alter Ego's eyes suddenly widened in realisation, "my search webs have found the source of your discomfit! It seems that from my researches and intel recorded from the last half an hour of your conversation," Mondo's face flustered, if this device could listen in on the conversation while still in rest mode, it might not be that hard for him to read and analyse Mondo's thoughts about Chihiro, "the despair you are feeling has been caused by the passing of your brother, Daiya Oowada. He  was killed at a biker race the night before his retirement, you were racing him and then..." His caramel brown eyes rose in surprise before slightly deflating, he trailed off silently. "Yeah, I killed him..." Mondo said emotionlessly, his face cast downwards, "I killed my own brother..." The teenager expected Alter Ego to react as Chihiro did, shrink away in fear and turn himself off. But then something bizarre came from the avatar's mouth,
"It's not your fault."
Surprised once again, Mondo twisted his head towards the computer, he spotted Alter Ego's concerned face looking at him thoughtfully, "you know, it wasn't your fault he died," the face repeated itself. Mondo sat there, jaw unhinged in shock and comfusement, "what does he mean?" Alter Ego continued to bewilder the stunned teenager, "he was killed at the scene of a crash caused by the collision of an oncoming truck. He was killed by the truck not you," Mondo's clenched his fists together tightly, "no, I did kill him! If I hadn't been so reckless he wouldn't be dead!" The confused boy screamed. "If you hadn't been so reckless you would've been the one dead!" Surprised by the program's words yet again, Mondo groggily lifted his head to Alter Ego, "if you had died in place of your brother, he would've never forgiven himself, just like you," The terrified Biker Leader held back salty tears, "when he saved you... If made him so happy. All he ever wanted was to protect you, and he did exactly that." Alter Ego smiled, "your brother has and always will love you Mondo Oowada, don't ever forget that!"
Mondo sat there, not moving, not thinking, not doing anything. The two of them sat in silence for minutes on end until Mondo raised his arm to wipe away the tears rolling down his cheeks. "I have to say Alter Ego, that for a program....your pretty darn human-like," the avatar of Chihiro's face giggled as Mondo stood up, "I better go now, don't worry I'll find Chihiro for you." Just as Mondo was leaving, Alter Ego called back his attention, "Mr Oowada please wait!" Mondo turned, "what is it?" The avatar of Chihiro's face suddenly changed, the graphics twisted and morphed into the face of...Daiya Oowada. Taken back by the seen before him, Mondo could only gawked in surprise. Daiya's head smiled and looked directly at Mondo, "Mondo, never forget that I will always be with you," tears filled Mondo's eyes once again, "and that no matter what, you'll never be alone." And with that, Alter Ego's avatar reverted back to it's normal settings, a small smile played on his lips. Wiping away the tears from his face, Mondo chuckled, "you always were a drama queen, big bro," then with a silent nod to Alter Ego, Mondo strode out of the cafeteria just as Chihiro was coming back. "O-Oh M-Mondo!" The small girl squeaked, the giant of a boy just smirked, "sorry if I scared you back there Chihiro, you don't need to worry," he turned towards the cafeteria, "I know the truth. And I know that my brother is happy."
And with that, Mondo made his way down the halls as he left a shocked Chihiro return to her seat. She noticed that Alter Ego was on and stared at him in amazement, "What happened while I was gone?" The program just smiled, "Nothing much, but I'm pretty sure that from now on Mondo won't just think of me as some 'program'.

Sorry that this took awhile, I had writer's block and I was busy! Enjoy!!! 😄😄😄