Aigis stood there, inert. Around her fellow dorm members she would attempt to mimic basic human functions, such as breathing, but at the moment she saw no point in making such pretenses. None of the people who would be more comfortable with her pretenses were around.
Particularly not him.
Minato.
The name made her software jumble for a nanosecond. A meaningless term to humans but one that disorganized and disoriented her internal workings. Only for a nanosecond, but still. It was more comforting when he was around. She could focus on him, use him as many primitive societies used a compass. Her electronics would fail, but Minato would always be there to guide her.
Her optics functioned again as she looked directly at Itsuki. He was the one man who had complete control over her. Ikutsuki-san. He held protocol over her. It was the most important thing in the world to listen to his words.
No, came something inside of her programming. It wasn't the most important. It just took ordered priority. Aigis began to wonder what the difference was, but her processor's attention was diverted when Ikutsuki began to speak.
"You're so beautiful." he said. Aigis was confused as to why Ikutsuki brought this up. She was designed to be identified as an aesthetically pleasing female. There was no point in establishing her superficial visual characteristics. She was further baffled by his next comment. "You look exactly like her."
Aigis' mind began to race. She was clearly supposed to know who 'her' was. 'Her' was a pronoun, meant to connect to a previously established person. Considering Ikutsuki was no indicating anyone, Aigis concluded she was supposed to know who he was discussing. Aigis searched her memory banks but could find no person she knew he was referring to. She bore no visual similarities to anyone in the dorm.
"I do not understand." Aigis said.
"No need, no need." Ikutsuki said. "You don't need to understand, my dear. You just need to obey my orders, and then everything will fall into place."
Ikutsuki-san was correct. She was not designed to inquire or to ask, but simply to obey orders. She was a machine built for combat, not for learning. Still, in recent times she had becoming more and more curious. She did not need to understand the customs that Minato-san and others had to do her job, but they still held a sway over her. She found herself querying the different members for answers as to the function of a television or clubs and received varying amounts of understanding from the others. Minato generally was the one who gave the best answers.
Yes, Minato. He spoke little, but he was the one whose words held the most value, perhaps because of their paucity. Minato was precious to her, after all. For a nanosecond, Aigis found herself focusing on the exact meaning of those words. Precious, of great value. It was a type of preciousness that she did not understand. Objectively, the only thing that should have been of value should have been his ability in combat. His ability to switch Personas in the middle of combat certainly was invaluable but that was not what Aigis found herself admiring of him. It was not what made him precious. What made him precious was...
intangible. Adjective. Incapable of being perceived by the senses. In other words, she could not objectively establish the value of Minato, or why she valued him above others. It was something that demanded further query.
At the moment there was only one person she could turn to.
"Ikutsuki-san," she said. "May I ask a question?"
Ikutsuki seemed flabbergasted at the suggestion. Aigis could see it in his eyes. He did not consider Aigis human. It was a logical point of view. Aigis was indeed not human. She did not have the understanding of customs or interactions and had physical capabilities far greater than any human being on the planet.
Why did it hurt her when he looked shocked to see her act like one then?
Hurt?
Yes, it hurt her. There was no physical damage to her, nothing she could register, but still she felt her processors focus on that look on his eyes., It stalled her mental functions, almost as though she were a basic desktop computer with a virus.
It had been the first time since joining S.E.E.S. that any treatment like that had been given to her. Despite her differences, none of the others in the dorm treated him odd. Animals tended to avoid her, but Koromaru never shied away from her. Shinji had been abrasive but it was never moreso or any differently than with the others.
Minato had never looked on her with anything other than kindness...
"Of course." he said, his smiling visage coming back. Looking at him, eye-to-eye, Aigis quickly scanned the definition of 'persona' and realized that while he might not have the literal control over them S.E.E.S. put to use, he did in fact utilize them.
"I wanted to ask..." she paused. What did she wanted to ask. Many questions lay in her processors. Clearly a dilemma had been presented to him. Finally, she laid on one important one.
"Why..." she said. "have you disabled the first law of robotics in me?"
Ikutsuki looked even more flabbergasted in that. In the moment Aigis registered his reaction, she also covered the three laws of robotics, established by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. They were instilled by the Krijo group, finding them a good basis for their Shadow suppressors to follow.
The third law: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
The second law: A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings (in this case Ikutsuki-san taking priority) except where such orders would conflict with the first law.
And the first law, the one Ikutsuki-san had decided was no longer necessary in her programming.
A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
"The only logical conclusion I can come to is that you wish me to hurt and quite likely kill human beings." Aigis said.
This bothered her, even though it shouldn't. The first law was just programming, after all. With it deleted, her primary priority was to obey the orders of Ikutsuki, but her processors could not stop focusing on this.
If she had the ability to harm other human beings, she could harm her classmates. She harm Yukari or Mitsuru or Junpei...
She could hurt Minato...
Ikutsuki had regained his composure. "Aigis, don't be bothered." he said. His eyes had what her facial recognition programming recognized as 'fatherly love'. It was curious to see that in her because Aigis had never considered herself to be a 'daughter' to him in a literal or metaphorical context. The look on Ikutsuki's face told her the he did view her that way. Ikutsuki having that kind of earnest emotion seemed alien to Aigis. His tomfoolery and jovial kindness were a facade he put on that he didn't bother with when around Aigis. It was...
disconcerting.
"Ikutsuki-san... will I have to hurt people?" Aigis asked. "...Kill them?"
Ikutsuki's smile did not falter. "Yes, my dear Aigis. You will."
An unfamiliar sensation came to Aigis. It was almost as though she was in pain, but she could detect no malfunctions in her body that the pain usually indicated. This was a... mental discomfort. Unease? Fear?
Yes, she was afraid. Not for herself, but because of herself. It just then dawned on her that Ikutsuki could order her to do things she didn't want to do. People she did not want to see hurt could be hurt.
It took her a long time -nanoseconds- for her to muster the courage to speak. "Will I be doing this to Mitsuru-san and the other members of the dorm?"
"Yes, Aigis." Ikutsuki's paternal smile almost had the beam of pride (a term Aigis never understood, since Ikutsuki was not emitting any focused energy) to it.
Aigis took twice as long to ask "What will happen to Minato?"
"He'll have to die like the rest." Ikutsuki's face hardened when he said that, clearly not liking where this discussion was going.
Aigis felt though she had ceased to function. Her motor functions temporarily ceased and she felt like her optics had been hacked into somehow.
"Then..." Aigis paused. It was difficult to say. "I do not wish to participate."
Ikutsuki gave a full frown. "That is not for you to decide, Aigis. You are to obey my commands."
"I know that, Ikutsuki-san." Aigis replied. "I realize you have not disabled the second law of robotics, but all the same if it is at possible I would prefer to not join you in this activity."
Aigis also hoped that Ikutsuki would not order her to stay here. She had little time until the dark hour, but hopefully if he left without giving the order she could warn him... she could help Minato.
Ikutsuki looked at Aigis, deep consternation on his face. He looked like he was trying to deduce something. A good several moments passed and Aigis was beginning to appreciate the subjectivity of time as it passed. Finally, Ikutsuki gave a wide smile, noting that he seemed to have figure it out.
"My oh my," he said. "has my golem fallen in love?"
Aigis felt irritation and sadness at being called that: a golem. It was an apt comparison, for what was a robot but a golem created with science rather than magic? Still, she felt an ineffable sting from those words. She wanted to give him an answer that would sway him. An answer that would cease that smile that pained her in a way she could not describe.
Yet she could only say one thing.
"Minato-san..." she said, repeating the only thing that made sense right now. "...is precious to me."
Ikutsuki raised an eyebrow as leaned down to look Aigis face-to-face. "Of course he is, and I'm doing this for him."
Aigis paused. "I do not comprehend." she said. "Death is agreed to be something to avoided. There is no way it could benefit him."
"That's a lie often told by people who afraid." Ikutsuki-san said. "There is more bravery in dying, in grasping at what's beyond. That's what we're going to do. We're going to reach into infinity and grab what's beyond. A new golden age unlike any other will come due to the shadows. Do you understand now?"
Aigis paused, but her answer came more easy this time. "I do understand." she said. "You are displaying several symptoms of extreme schizophrenia. I highly advise you admit yourself to extreme psychiatric ass-"
Aigis was cut off as Ikutsuki swung a fist at her. Under normal circumstances, it would have barely dinged her but with most of her functions offline she toppled to the ground.
"You listen to me." Ikutsuki said, his composure gone. "You are mine, you belong to me, and you will do exactly as say." his face then turned back to the kind expression he always had. "Do you understand that, my dear Aigis?"
There was a pause, not because Aigis didn't know what to say, but because she desperately wanted to not say it. "Yes, Ikutsuki-san."
The orders were still in place. Aigis had to follow them exactly as he commanded regardless of her...
feelings.
"Come, Aigis." he said. "We need to go to Tartarus now."
"Yes, Ikutsuki-san."
Her voice was very mechanical.