Prologue, part 2
3rd Person view
When Hakuno woke up the next day, there were already people in her room. Hakuno was obviously outraged about people barging in to 'her room' while she slept, but when she opened her mouth, she was interrupted by a cheery voice.
"Good morning Praetor!" A tall man in a lab coat walked up to her. He had a long swept back hair and a friendly smile, "My name is Shuji Ikutsuki and I'm, well a kind-of an expert on ASW's here at Kirijo Group. I'm very pleased to meet you, we haven't had a functioning ASW here for almost ten years so forgive my enthusiasm." Hakuno automatically grasped the offered hand causing Shuji to smile wider and then mark something down on a tablet.
"What are you doing?" Hakuno asked and gestured the tablet.
"Oh, this?" Shuji asked and showed Hakuno the screen, "this is an evaluation of you. Our personnel did do some tests with you yesterday, but they were rushed and didn't really amount to all that much so now that we've had a little more time to prepare we will document your status and abilities for real. What I just checked down was that you have at least some cultural understanding programmed into you, based on the fact that you didn't hesitate to shake my hand."
Hakuno nodded at that and glanced at the screen where there was a picture of her and several headlines such as social, combat and general knowledge.
"We'll try to go through as many tests as possible today to get a good picture of how complete you are. Of course, combat tests are limited because of the whole programming thing, but well just do those afterwards," Shuji stated a bit too matter-of-factly for Hakuno's taste, but she chose to ignore it for now.
"What kind of tests are you planning for?" Hakuno asked.
"Well we'll begin with a routine maintenance check of your body, and compare some results with our records. Then we will have an evaluation of your psychological profile. It has probably been noted to you before that your personality is remarkably developed and that has me –and other people high up- intrigued. After that we'll go over your general knowledge about human society and social customs. While those aren't that important to an ASW, they will make it easier for you to interact with humans. Then we will start the combat tests, with focus on tactics as those are supposed to be your models specialty," Ikutsuki explained, "We may add to some tests depending on your results, so it is hard to say how long this all will take, but Mr. Kirijo has made sure that you will have some free time in the evening to spend as you will."
"Very well. Do we begin now or…?" Hakuno wondered if she had to prepare somehow. Considering she hadn't eaten yesterday and felt fine, she probably didn't need to eat anymore, so breakfast would be pointless. Same for showering. As for clothes…
Only Hakuno's head and hands had synthetic skin covering the metal frame. The rest of her body, with the exception of the exposed ball joints on her shoulders and hips, was covered with a thick black cloth that was essentially bolted on her and her it was a bit embarrassing for her to waltz around in what was essentially a spandex bodysuit. Sure, it wasn't the most embarrassing clothing she had seen used (Saber's transparent skirt and Rani's navel showing cleavage came to mind) and Rin's Lancer had actually donned only a blue spandex bodysuit.
But still, Hakuno felt embarrassed about it. It was only because her robotic body's limitations that she wasn't permanently blushing when people looked at her.
Nonetheless, black spandex was probably the best she would get as she was just a robot for everybody else here.
"Yes, we begin now. No 'science' waiting around!" Shuji declared with a smile, making everybody in the room cringe, before walking to the door and signing Hakuno to follow him.
Shuji then lead Hakuno to an elevator which they then took to another basement level.
"Welcome to the ASW Engineering Department Praetor! My apologies for the mess, but the engineers here are very… enthusiastic about their work and get a very few visitors, so they have grown a bit lax about certain things," Shuji explained as they entered a corridor with several boxes containing parts and some oil stains on the floor.
"Ah, it's no problem Shuji. I don't mind a little mess," Hakuno explained. She actually enjoyed seeing something that wasn't completely orderly and sterile, like the Tsukumihara Academy in Moon Cell or the Kirijo Laboratories. Even Hakuno's own room in the virtual school had always been very clean, though she wasn't sure if that was because she didn't have anything to mess it up with or if the private room shared the schools cleanliness automatically.
"Thank you for understanding. Anyway, they should be expecting us right here," Shuji said and stopped to swipe a keycard at a reader next to an armored door that read 'ASW Maintenance'. The machine beeped and Hakuno heard the electric lock open. Shuji pocketed his keycard and pushed the door open, signing Hakuno to go in first.
Behind the door was a large room with one glass wall providing a view into what was probably a testing chamber. There were also numerous screens displaying different kinds of information about ASW engineering, though Hakuno's attention was grabbed by the largest screen as it displayed a picture of her and a brief summary of the Praetor project. There were also three overall wearing men huddled together around a table, one of them looking up at her –probably alerted by the noise. He was also European.
"Ahh, the Praetor! Glad to finally meet you, come in, come in! We've been waiting", the man exclaimed and poked the other two to pay attention, before approaching Hakuno.
"I am Gerulf Friedemann, though you can refer to me as just Gerulf. I've been in charge of this branch of the laboratories for ten years now, with my enthusiastic assistants, Tsukuda and Ueda here," Gerulf introduced himself and shook Hakuno's hand, before scratching the back of his head awkwardly "Well, it sounds nice to say that I'm in charge, but considering that the ASW department has only been gutted more and more during the last decade and that I haven't even seen a functioning ASW until today, it's not really much." Hakuno really started to wonder what was up with the ASW department. Their only expert was only close enough, the department itself was disused and the head of department hadn't even seen an active model before.
"But! We still have had some exiting things to research. Such as this here," Gerulf pulled Hakuno to the table. There was a prosthetic arm on the table, hooked onto a small machine from the port on its shoulder.
"This is the Stroheim Mk IV Arm Cannon with complimentary UV-lights! I've been working on making a prosthetic version of it for human use, but I can't wait to see it used in where it was meant to be used!" His enthusiasm on the subject was palpable and Hakuno found herself liking the man's attitude.
Well, until he started fiddling with her shoulder joint with a power tool he had pulled out from nowhere.
Thankfully, Shuji had gotten over being totally ignored and stopped him before Hakuno lost an arm.
"Now now professor Friedemann, I know you've been dying to work with a functioning ASW, but Praetor is not vetted for live weapons yet. In fact, we're here only for a maintenance checkup and then we'll start mental evaluations. Combat tests are last on the list and as I said, no live weapons," Shuji said calmly and pried the man loose. He looked disappointed, but then he just sighed and put the tool on the table.
"Yes, Mr. Ikutsuki. I remember that. Ueda! Get the tools. Tsukuda, put the arm back into storage."
"And remove the magazine," Shuji finished the order.
Hakuno watched the men move with caution, while rolling here shoulder cautiously. It still moved smoothly, so Gerulf hadn't done anything yet. Still, his casual jump from cool toys to dismemberment had made Hakuno wary. Even if it wasn't done with malicious intent.
"My apologies Praetor, I got a bit exited," Gerulf apologized with a small bow, "You have to understand, I'm a bit frustrated about this whole thing. We've been so stagnant for ten years now, I couldn't help but get a little eager."
"Just… try not to do it again. What is this ten year thing anyway?" Hakuno changed the subject, while still keeping an eye on Gerulf.
"I suppose you didn't get an explanation of it yesterday then? Well, the short of it is that all of the people in the department died when the Kirijo Laboratories in Tatsumi Port Island –the original place where the ASW's were deployed– were destroyed. An experiment there went terribly wrong and the resulting explosion not only killed the CEO of the Group at that time, but also destroyed or broke beyond repair all the active ASW's. While the research data of the department was saved," Shuji waved a hand at the screens that still displayed data about ASW's, "we didn't actually have anyone alive who had worked on the ASW's anymore. I had some experience as I worked with a few in my own project, but everyone else had just the notes to rely on. Also, the explosion destroyed our stockpile of Plumes of Dusk, the most important components for making ASW's, so it was decided that no more ASW's would be made unless more Plumes were found. And that's why the department has been on the decline."
"Basically, that. Our work has been mainly reverse-engineering the existing frames in case we find something useful or learn how to recycle Plumes of Dusk. Made some headway into prosthetics with them, but no dice with the Plumes," Gerulf explained and Hakuno nodded, her curiosity sated.
Then the assistants returned, one of them pushing a cart with some sort of machine and a toolbox on it. Gerulf grabbed the toolbox and motioned Hakuno to sit on one of the chairs around the table.
"Well then, let's get started. Ueda, get the maintenance tutorial on the big screen!" Gerulf hollered to the assistant.
Hakuno felt that this wasn't very good idea.
Evaluation report
Subject name: 7th generation Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapon "Praetor"
Psyche evaluation: Praetor has displayed, according to records we have access to, abnormally well-developed personality that is indistinguishable from a human one. She thinks of herself as a human for all intents and purposes, while still acknowledging her artificial nature.
As for her personality itself, she has shown herself to be a determined and caring person, with a strong sense of duty. The first and last ones are, according to the records, recurring traits of ASW's, it is suspected to have its origins in ASW's original nature as a programmed machines. Tendency to care about things that are not directly important to the ASW is a bit more common trait on older ASW's, but almost unheard of in new ones like Praetor. Still, it is on a healthy level and we do not see it becoming a problem in the future.
Alarmingly, Praetor also displayed some level of Hedonism during the tests. For example, she admitted admiring art for its beauty and later became distressed when she found out she cannot taste candies or other food. It is unclear how she developed it, but it should be kept an eye on in case it develops into a problem.
Frame evaluation: Praetor's body is not all that different from what is considered normal for a 7th generation ASW. While it lacks the sheer power of a normal ASW frame, it has greatly enhanced senses to make up for it. Especially sight and hearing are augmented with multiple different modes Praetor can activate at will, although having many of them on eats her batteries fast. She also has an amplifier we theorize should be able to strengthen telepathy from a Persona, but we cannot test that theory without Miss Kirijo.
Due to the lack of power, Praetor cannot be equipped with some of the heavier gear (both arms and armor) we have in storage. Instead she has to rely on evading attacks and her Persona to fight and defend herself. In relation to this, while calibrations have helped with Praetor's stumbling problem, she still falls when moving quickly. Switching legs didn't help, so we have started to design additional stabilizers she could wear on her feet like shoes to help with the problem.
Combat evaluation: As Praetor's weapon systems are locked until her programming has been checked, the combat tests focused on theoretical part of combat, with focus on strategy and tactical abilities as those are supposed to be the model's specialties.
Praetor displayed excellent aptitude for combat on small unit tactics in different environments. In all situations she assumed a leading/supporting role in combat and, while going out of her way to avoid fighting personally, had no qualms for leading from the front. She also showed great concern for her comrades, making sure they all survived the missions. She also displayed this kindness to her enemies, killing only when necessary and even then with reluctance. In our opinion, she would probably have some trouble taking a human life unless it was absolutely necessary.
It is also important to note that while Praetor showed great tactical use of items, the manner in which she did so could also be considered rather wasteful.
Knowledge evaluation: Over a course of several situations, both in tests and outside of them, Praetor has displayed a broad knowledge of everyday life and skill in socialization. Her basic education is mainly average high school level, with few exceptions. Praetor has broad knowledge of history and mythology, while her modern knowledge (or what was modern when she was built) is lacking. We believe this to be on purpose, but details can be found in attachment 04a.
Nonetheless, with Praetor's displayed all around knowledge of human society we believe she could function perfectly well in human environment without revealing her artificial nature.
Important: Despite careful examination between and during the tests, we found no evidence of outside tampering from Praetor. Combined with the results from the investigation into her storage area, it is unlikely that she awakened intentionally. However, definite proof of this can only be obtained if we check her main programming.
Our conclusion: We believe that after Praetor's programming has been checked and the remaining combat tests (live weapons, actual combat, Orgia mode, summoning a Persona) executed, she should be relocated into Tatsumi Port Island, where she should be placed in the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad under Miss Kirijo. They are still lacking members and Praetor's already displayed abilities would be very useful to the group, even if she didn't have a Persona.
Takeharu smiled as he read through the report Ikutsuki had just sent him. The man had done good work once again. And the news was good too: Praetor would be a great asset for S.E.E.S. according to these results. Takeharu could sleep better at night knowing that his precious daughter had a weapon like Praetor at her side. And then he immediately felt bad about thinking Praetor as a mere weapon, hadn't he already concluded that she was a person from their first meeting? And hadn't the science team come to just that same conclusion in the report he just read?
Takeharu sighed tiredly. He really wasn't cut out for this, he just wasn't pragmatic enough. While he could plot and plan, he just couldn't be ruthless enough when needed. Ikutsuki had said him so multiple times and while Takeharu liked the man, he just couldn't be a pragmatist like him. He regretted too many things already; he didn't want to add to them just because it would be easier.
After one final glance through the report Takeharu closed the file and prepared to go over other reports from the Kirijo Group.