It had absolutely nothing to do with his number. Ell didn't even want it. She was pissed because this was the final nail in the coffin for her-the final proof that she needed to get the fuck out of this kingdom. Ell was a cyborg-a literal second-class citizen in New Beijing, as well as many other countries around the world. Many shops had no-cyborg policies, the testing done for the Roselyn plague was being done EXCLUSIVELY on cyborgs, hell there were entire neighborhoods that banned her existence! Practically everyone looked at her as a monster or an experiment-they assumed that simply because she had robotic parts, she was a robot-incapable of feeling emotion that wasn't programmed. This couldn't have been farther from the truth. She WISHED he had called her a robot as an insult, that would have been better than what she had just discovered-that he was woefully, woefully ignorant. He couldn't identify her as a cyborg-that thought never even crossed his mind. He just assumed she was a robot-he never stopped to ask her if she even was-he really just assumed. And telling her that even if she was, her personality was still nice? What a backhanded compliment! For years, she had been holding out this secret, silent hope that maybe things could be better-that HE would be better. But he was just like everyone else, and nothing would ever change-cyborgs would never be seen as equals.
There were A LOT of cyborgs around-but correctemondo, there wasn't much education on them aside from the basics-humans with robotic parts aiding them in their abilities. Some of them had skin grafting, meaning that their robotic parts were indistinguishable from human parts-they were the lucky ones, they could pass for human. Most didn't have quite as many cybernetic parts as Ell-an entire nervous system destroyed and put back together artificially, stronger than before. Generally people were sort of taught to view cyborgs as people who more machine than actual person-basically robots with human emotions. It made sense that he was so ignorant-but it was still upsetting considering he was the future leader of the country.
ok wait you have too much education man but I love the way you put it.
Akira was still walking home thinking about it
-Cyborg..?..what even is that..?..should I ask mom I don't wanna be rude but she seemed so upset when I said robot..I really wish I could say sorry..I feel bad..but she seemed nice..I really didn't care what she was..though I don't care she may have cared and I didn't even think about that, I'm such a dumbass..-
His mom said nothing about Cyborgs not even that they were robots that have emotions he just and only knew about robots