8

School was over and Kenji was in the library, waiting for Airi to join him. At last, she came in breathlessly with that carefree smile she always wore and sat next to him.

'You took so long,' said Kenji reproachfully. 'Well, I completed my part, what about you?'

Airi looked at him in surprise. 'All of it! Really?'

'Of course,' said Kenji matter-of-factly. 'That was the deal, wasn't it?'

'Um...yes,' said Airi awkwardly.

'Well?'

'I tried, but I just wasn't in the mood, so I only did the diagram and the introduction,' said Airi, showing it to him. 'I'll do the conclusion later.'

'What do you mean by "mood"?' said Kenji. 'If we agreed on something, that means we have to do it, right?'

'Well, I just wasn't feeling it, okay?' said Airi indignantly. Kenji's reproachful tone was was worse than their teacher's!

'Feeling it? What weren't you feeling?' said Kenji, as if feeling was the most ridiculous thing in the world.

'I wasn't feeling like studying! I wasn't in the mood!' said Airi, annoyed at his way. 'And don't you dare tell me you've never felt that way!

'I never feel, I always do what I have to,' said Kenji flatly. 'And you shouldn't have said you would do it by today if you knew you were unable to — or just too lazy!'

'My gosh, you really are mean, aren't you, you snobbish nerd!' said Airi crossly. 'And here I thought I had misjudged you from the first day I saw you!'

'What do you mean?'

'Oh, you've forgotten all about Rei so fast?'

'Who's Rei?!'

'The girl you pushed over like a piece of straw! Ring any bells?'

Kenji stared at her. 'Well, she attacked me first, why can't you see that!'

'Attack?! She said a couple of mean things, but she did not deserve to have that done to her!'

'She hit my forehead! That was a clear invitation for physical combat!'

Airi sighed exasperatedly. 'No, it wasn't! You can't even see what's wrong with you, that's your problem!'

'I don't have a problem, it's you who's making a fuss unnecessarily,' said Kenji, in cold confusion.

Airi looked at him and shook her head. 'Fine. Forget about it. That's just how you are, I suppose. Mean. Cold. Spiteful. No remorse...'

'Why can't you see, I had to do that!' said Kenji insistently.

'Oh, have a heart, for Heaven's sake!' said Airi.

'I do have a heart! What does that have to do with anything?' said Kenji, confused.

'If you did, you wouldn't be the way you are!'

'But, the heart has nothing to do with personality or emotions,' said Kenji, picking up the papers on the desk and looking at them briefly. 'Look, we just wrote an entire assignment on it, and it is clear that the function of the human heart is only to pump blood into the body and sustain life!'

Airi stared at him. Was he completely off his rocker? Or was he mocking her?

'So?' she said heatedly, getting up and snatching the papers from his hand. 'If you genuinely think that the nature of the heart can be confined in a three-page science assignment, you know nothing about the art of being human!'

She threw the papers back on the desk as she finished speaking, and as they fluttered downwards, Kenji looked at her, taken aback.

'But... it said in the textbook that the heart is simply a functional organ that is incapable of emotion,' said Kenji, eyeing her cautiously; the passion in Airi's eyes was something entirely new, and awed him somewhat.

'Oh, and what else can a silly textbook say, anyway? That's just the bare science of it! But if you can only look beyond all that, you'll realise that the heart... the heart is what is key to being human, to being humane; and for a heart that is incapable of emotion, there is no point of it continuing to give life; because a person with an unfeeling heart is far more dead than someone with an unbeating one!!' said Airi spiritedly.

'Feelings, feelings!' said Kenji, and a hint of something glinted in his eyes and momentarily startled Airi. 'How can you say that feelings are so important, when they are in fact the reason why all evil exists in this world? When desire and emotions are the root of all chaos?'

'Excuse me, but feelings are the reason why the world isn't entirely evil despite everything! Emotions are the reason why good still exists, and always will!'

'Good? Where is the good? You saw what Rei did the other day — you saw how people just watched and helped neither me nor her; why didn't they? All because they didn't want to. Because they didn't feel like. Or maybe, because their hearts are pleasured by watching cruel spectacles. It is the person who lets their heart win over their mind, who lets desire and feelings win over duty and obligations, who is in fact deserving of death!'

'Oh? What do you suggest then, that we all live like robots? Or abandon our feelings entirely?' said Airi, staring at him in shock. What was wrong with this boy?

Kenji wondered what a robot was, but he decided not to ask.

'Yes,' he said seriously. 'I believe that if humans learnt to control and supress their feelings, they would be a harmonious and successful race.'

'My God! You actually believe that?' said Airi, looking disgusted. 'What are you, a wannabe dictator? Or a dystopian sci-fi villian?

What in Saturn's name was she calling him?!

'What are you trying to say?' he said, surprised that his flat tone had an edge to it.

'I'm trying to say,' said Airi, 'that the day humans forget how to feel, they would cease to be human anymore!'

There was a pause.

'What does it matter?' said Kenji, after a few moments. 'If a race is flawed, they have to evolve to remove those flaws, haven't they?'

'Humans without emotions would be devolved, rather — just like you! I hate it when you're like this,' said Airi. 'You're disagreeable and cold, and we do not need more people like you in this world!'

'I don't care what you think!'

'And I don't care whether you care or not!'

Kenji looked her, rather flustered. 'At least I'm better than those spectators in the picnic!'

'No, you're the same! You're heartless, just like them. Just like Rei. The truth is, Kenji, that your version of the world is already mostly true; most people do not feel; most people do not have hearts; most humans... are not human. And that is the reason that there is evil in this world! That is the reason for the chaos! But NOT the other way round like you so wrongly think!'

Kenji stared at her, as the world seemed to turn upside down, though his inner turmoil didn't show on his neutral face. Everything he had ever known to be true had been challenged by this human girl, who herself seemed overcome with those despicable emotions his people had scorned as far as he could remember. He wanted to say something, but he didn't know where to start and how to go about it. In fact, he didn't even know what to think.

'I'm leaving,' said Airi, grabbing the assignment papers and stuffing them in her bag. 'You've done your part on time, bravo. I'll complete the rest on my own and submit it. No need for us to meet again. Goodbye, Kenji, and I wish you joy of your bleak, emotionless world!'

She was gone before he could process what she had said, and he was left alone, lost in the storm she had created, hardly noticing the stares from nearby tables, or the gradual darkness which signaled it was high time for him to leave.