1 Hello, World!
In 1942, author Issac Asimov came up with the three laws of robotics, and they went as followed:
1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
And dozens of years later, Asimov added one more law that preceded the others, known as the 0th law:
0. A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.
But in front of the young inventor, Hakase Shinonome, was a being whose existence ignored every single one of those laws.
Whether done intentionally or as a fault by its creator, "He" had one law ingrained in him from the moment his robotic synapses first connected.
And that was to "protect" the one in front of him no matter the cost.
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"Maa~ This is enough—!"
A living room was hardly an acceptable workplace for anything other than homework, and yet a girl of seemingly eight years old wiped sweat from her brow whilst being surrounded by a sea of electronic components and torn up schematics.
Silently, she took one step forward toward her latest creation. Or at least that was the plan—
"W-Wha!? It's stuck!"
From the panicked tone in her voice one would assume her current predicament was a matter of life and death, and yet the true culprit happened to be the hem of her oversized lab coat that somehow got caught underneath a leg of her dark brown wooden coffee table.
"Grrr!"
She pulled and she pulled, ignoring the sounds of tearing as her face grew red from the force she was exerting. Her straight orange hair that went all the way down to her ankles began glimmering with sweat.
Her large blue eyes started leaking with tears that threatened to soak her childish face.
"Why is it so heavy?!"
She never once even considered swiping off the tools littering the coffee table so she'd have an easier time lifting it.
After a dozen minutes, she simply gave up.
"Waaah—! I'm going to be stuck here forever! I'm going to starve to death!"
Her hands that were once pulling on her own lab coat with all her strength were now over her eyes as she bawled into the sleeves so long her fingers barely poked out.
But then she opened her eyes for a single second and caught sight of something that made her eyes burn with determination again.
It wasn't the numerous robotic awards framed on the wall.
It wasn't the sight of her favorite books neatly stacked on a tall wooden bookshelf.
No, her passion spewed from a single look at her prized possession: The lone poster of a shark on the wall that screamed the word "SAME."
So with renewed vigor, she pulled one last time.
*TEAR*
The hem of her gown-like lab coat tore off and remained with the table leg for the foreseeable future, the girl herself stumbled a few feet forward before softly landing into a pile of nuts and bolts.
Well, as soft as one could when slamming into a metal heap—
"I-I'm free!"
But that didn't deter the girl's elation toward escaping what she considered a deadly situation.
"Now, I have to activate him before something like that happens again!"
She took careful yet hasty strides to the docking station on the other side of the room.
Wires and cords spewed from that direction, as bolted to the wall were two steel pillars glowing with coursing blue circuits. In between those two pillars was a single existence.
Strung up by the very cords that surrounded "him," the seemingly human existence stood up straight with his arms crossed and his eyes closed.
The only thing covering "him" was the light blue hospital gown that left his backside exposed.
Despite "his" current condition that led others into thinking he was anything other than human, the "man" had realistic looking light skin, spiky jet black hair that stopped just above "his" eyes that were the same color as "his" sharp eyebrows, and a thin face that gave "him" the appearance of a no nonsense all business sort of guy.
In all, "his" appearance was sufficient enough that calling "him" just charming would be a little disingenuous.
The little inventor stared up at "him" with stars in her eyes, her neck slightly creaking at the strain as he was at least two feet taller than her.
This was the result of two weeks of nonstop trial and error. And in her eyes, this would be the first instance of an artificial life produced by technology than anything else ever before.
"My Prototype— No, he needs a proper name… Hm, Giga? How about Kilo? Ah, but Micro sounds nice too~!"
She mused to herself looking pensive, her sleeves now pressed under her chin as she started tilting slightly to the left. Though in her trance-like state, she ended up leaning too far and crashing her head into another pile of rubble.
"Wahhh! That hurt a ton!" Her sleeves were now on the back of her head, gently rubbing it in hopes of subsiding her pain.
'Er, I don't want to get hurt anymore…' She childishly thought to herself. 'Ah!'
Her eyes shone once more, this time her head perked up as if she had come up with the greatest idea.
"So I'll just have him protect me!" She declared aloud. And with that she came up with the perfect name.
"Mamoru, Mamoru Shinonome!"
From her sleeve she pulled out a rectangular remote, though the only button on it was a single red one so large it took up 80% of the surface.
*BEEP*
The "veins" of the pillars glowed brighter than ever before. Then every wire and cable connected to them and the existence in between them started glowing with a similar blue light.
Slowly but surely the pillars were drained of their original vibrancy, while the wires and cables started shining with the same vibrancy as the past pillars.
The body of her latest creation convulsed as the juices in the wires and cables pumped it within a matter of seconds.
*PSSSSHHHH*
And then, they all snapped—
The skin-like material of the body glowed in places where veins should be in a circuit-like fashion with a similarly blue hue.
When it all subsided was the moment he opened his eyes for the first time. Their blue iris strikingly cold, in the center were relatively normal black pupils.
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Mamoru, in Japanese it means to protect.
And that was Mamoru's first instinct when he saw the fragile figure below him. And yet he didn't make a single move toward his creator. Instead he stared deep into her eyes without his expression ever fluctuating once.
But after thirteen minutes of that farce he started to feel "uncomfortable" as he had yet to acclimate himself to his body.
So he clenched both his hands in front of him.
"...."
His movements were fluid and smooth, not a single sound of locking mechanisms emanated from his body.
He started rotating his wrists as well, no problem there either. He then started rolling his neck. Bending his elbows. Kicking his feet. Squatting low. Raising his arms. And finally clenching his teeth.
Beside him the whole time was the little genius inventor, who had taken the initiative to pull out her notebook from her sleeve to take note of her prototype's development.
It wasn't until she was completely satisfied that she slammed it shut loud enough to garner the android's attention.
"...."
They stared at each other again. This time the younger girl sported an excited smile as she walked up to the android with extra pep in her steps.
She then extended her small and delicate hand forwards.
"Good morning, Mamoru! I'm Hakase, your creator! Please look after me well—!"
The android stared at the girl— no, his creator's hand with the same icy expression. His eyes glowing as he locked the scene in front of him into his memory.
Putting one and two together, he extended his hand toward hers, taking extra care not to exert so much strength that he crushes it in his palm.
"I will protect you, my creator. No matter what."
His firm tone sent a shiver down her spine. It didn't matter whether she created him and knew everything he was capable of.
Just his tone was enough to ensure her life to him for all that remains.
---------- Author's Notes ----------
"Aw shit, here we go again."
Maaa~ Feels good to finally be writing again! Hello again to anyone who's come here from my last work and welcome to those just discovering me now~
To those new, thanks for giving me a chance thus far. As for those returning, I appreciate your support as always! Honestly, I wasn't expecting to go on such a hiatus after the ending of my last work. In fact, this was supposed to come out a long time ago. It was just that several external matters have prevented me from writing thus far, and I only have the time now because, well it's New Years.
Considering my last fic started on New Years day it'd seem like tradition to just put this out here today. After all I made several resolutions:
1. Write more! Thus if you check my account there'll likely be another fic that came out today as well.
2. Draw! To be specific I'd like to create artwork for these fics that give you, the reader, a more immersive experience when reading. The problem is that I suck ass at art but that's why I want to draw, to learn and better myself.
3. Finally make a video! Sometime summer last year I teased a video with a trailer that ended up leading nowhere. Though that was mostly because the game I was getting footage on left early access and everything I made up to that point was made irrelevant. This time I have several ideas for several different games and I even plan to make 4 videos before publishing so I have tons of time to make more.
Well, I suppose that's all I got to say today... Oh, yeah, another reminder! Another fic should have its first chapter released in a few hours after this one comes out! Make sure to check it out by visiting my account and looking at my works. It should be titled something like "The Doomsday Otaku Everyone Laughed At," personally I'm really proud about the title I came up with~!
Once again, thanks for giving me a chance, it truly means a lot to myself who already has low self-esteem. May you have a great afternoon, evening, and night!
If you want to visit all my socials such as my YouTube channel, Discord, and Twitter, here's my one-for-all link to all that: https://linktr.ee/ardoaleister
