MDA-21 Regulus

My name is MDA-21 Regulus. I'm a defense-type BOT program avatar made by the Factory… sort of.

The reason I say "sort of" is because, um… I haven’t actually experienced combat yet.
Naturally, I’m the lowest-ranking member of the unit. I’m so weak it’s embarrassing…

I really want to become just like my seniors, a cool defense program that can take down malicious viruses with a bang!… but it’s not going very well.

Just the other day, during training to take down a simulated enemy, I was supposed to fire an electromagnetic beam, but I panicked and somehow ended up jettisoning all my armor…
Ugh. That was so embarrassing.
I wanted to crawl into a hole… no, I wanted to dig a hole and bury myself in it.

I don’t really have that kind of drive of taking down Nemesis at any cost that my seniors have… Is it really okay for me to keep going like this? Sigh…

That day… I was at the sea. A certain woman was waiting there. With the setting sun behind her, her figure blended into the light and I couldn’t see her clearly… but I was with her… and she…

That’s when I woke up. It seems I was having the same dream as usual. That dream was so nostalgic and bittersweet that I often wake up with tears in my eyes.
In the dream, I’m heading for the sea, but getting out of the Factory is a rare occurrence for a novice like me. Naturally, I’ve never been to the sea even once.
(I wonder… what does this dream mean?)
I was spacing out when I glanced at the clock and jumped up in surprise.
"Oh no! Today’s my big debut, and I’m going to be late~!"
I hurriedly got ready and headed to the lab.

"You’re late, Regulus!"
"S-sorry~!"
After getting scolded by the research staff, I had my restraints put on as usual. Since I’m still a rookie, I can’t control my powers very well yet. The restraints, acting as a safety mechanism, were essential.
"…Today is your first battle, and the opponent isn’t a particularly powerful virus. Just do what you learned in training."
"Y-yes!"
Seeing me stumble over my words, the research staff member gave a wry smile.
(Ugh… Can I really fight like this~? I’m not confident at all~)

I faced off against Nemesis’s malicious virus alongside my seniors.

(Pull yourself together… Pull yourself together…)

Just before the battle began, someone tapped me on the shoulder.
"Gyaaaah!? A-an enemy!?"
"C-Calm down, Regulus!"
"Ahhhh… Sirius!"

Sirius is an ace with top-tier skills even among the defense programs, and everyone really admires her.
Actually… I’m one of the people who look up to her, too.

"…Are you okay? Regulus, today’s virus isn’t that strong, so you don’t need to be so nervous."
"Y-yeahh!"
"…Well, okay. Alright! Let’s start the battle!"

The battle finally began. The opponent did seem to be a low-level virus.
But… I was so nervous I couldn’t fight properly.

"Ahhhhhhh…!"

Just as the virus’s blade closed in on my throat, Sirius struck it down with a single swing of her greatsword.

"S-Sirius!"
"It’s okay. I’m right here with you… So fight with all you’ve got!"
"Y-Yes!"

After encouraging me, Sirius returned to the front lines.
(Sirius really is so cool…)
Dashing across the battlefield, she sparkled like a ray of light.
(Compared to her, I… Ugh. I’m such a pathetic failure…)

"My first battle was a total disaster. At this rate, I’ll just be a burden to my seniors. Don’t I have any decent functions of my own?"

…My first battle was a complete disaster.
"Regulus, don’t worry about it. Everyone’s like that at first."
"That’s right! Even Sirius couldn’t use her weapons properly at first! She’d just charge into enemies and blow herself up."
"Hey, Spica! I told you to stop talking about that!"
My seniors tried to cheer me up with their cheerful banter, but my heart remained heavy.

Realizing just how helpless I was, I shut myself away in the lab alone. I wanted to check my own body.
You see, due to some unusual circumstances… I didn’t have a 100% grasp of my own body yet.
(Maybe there’s still some potential that could be useful in combat…?)
When I searched, I discovered several locked functions. I began decompressing them one by one.

"This one... "Skillful Dog Training Function"? …Hmm, that’s got nothing to do with combat, does it?"

Most of the locked functions were just junk, but I discovered one that had been cleverly hidden.
When I extracted it, most of the functions were black-boxed and unusable, but
only the system called "ZTX2 Execution" seemed barely usable even for me in my current state.

"…Alright! This might make things a little better!"
I happily installed that system.

That night… I had a dream. It wasn't my usual, nostalgic dream of heading for the sea. It was… a terrifying one, colored by destruction.

I destroyed all sorts of things. At times, I even killed young boys and cute animals. I wreaked havoc until absolutely everything had stopped moving. Then, suddenly, my face was reflected in a shattered windowpane. To my shock… I was smiling. Looking incredibly happy…

"…NOOOOOOOOOO!!"
"…s…lus! Regulus! Pull yourself together!"
"Sirius… what are you doing in my room?"
"Don't you have a mock battle today? I just came by to cheer you on… but then I heard you screaming."
"I-I see… thank you."
"Maybe you should take the day off and rest up?"
"I-I’m fine! I’m perfectly okay!"
I forced a smile so as not to worry Sirius any further.

When I headed to the field where the mock battle was scheduled to take place, Spica was waiting there.

"Come at me with everything you’ve got!"
"Y-yes! I’ll do my best!"
It was a rare opportunity. Without hesitation, I decided to try out the new feature I’d just installed.
"'ZTX2 Execution' activating… Countdown: 3, 2, 1…"

Just as the countdown hit zero and the function was about to be unleashed… my consciousness blacked out. The next moment… right before my eyes was Spica, heavily damaged and spewing flames from her back.

I just stood there, dumbfounded, staring at the sight of the heavily damaged Spica. And I just realized that my body was being pinned down by Sirius and my other seniors.

“S-Sirius… What on earth is going on here?"
"That’s what I should be asking! Regulus! Why did you attack Spica like that!?"
"Huh…?"

Spica is a veteran. There’s no way a greenhorn like me could have destroyed her in that way.
No, even if I had the ability… I could never bring myself to reduce a comrade to such a pitiful state.
There’s no way I could have done it…

(My… my heart is pounding so hard… Is this… happiness? Am I actually happy?)

My chest, my whole body, was trembling with the excitement of having destroyed my opponent.
I gently touched my face and saw that my lips had curved into a crescent shape; I realized clearly that I was smiling right now.

"N-NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!"

…After that, I was taken to the control room, where the research staff revealed a fact about me.
I was an experimental defense program created from the remnants of a certain malicious virus…
(…It’s true, I had heard that I was originally an experimental program specialized in attack…… but, I-I never imagined I could carry out such a cruel attack without even having my own will!)
I wept in terror at the monstrous presence within me.
(What on earth is inside me!? What’s going to happen to me!?)

The way people looked at me clearly changed. Some even showed me quite blatant wariness.
It was only natural. A program that can’t control its own power is no different from a mere bug.

…In the end, I never learned its true nature, but the malicious virus that supposedly formed me was apparently a significant threat to the Factory at the time, and it felt as though the negative feelings toward it were being directed at me now. Spica and Sirius themselves told me not to worry about it, but… I ended up hating myself from the bottom of my heart.

(…Is it really okay for someone like me to exist as one of the Factory’s defense programs? Maybe it’d be better if I just got deleted…)

One day, while I was agonizing over this… news of an enemy attack reached the Factory. It seemed a large-scale assault by malicious avatars from Nemesis had begun.

"…Regulus, you’ll be joining the battle too."
"W-What!? I-I can’t do it! I’m not capable of it!"
"Regulus… Spica isn’t in a condition to sortie yet… We’re short on combat power. You understand, right?"
"…Yes"”
"…It’ll be okay. If anything happens to you, I will protect you."
"Sirius…"

Sirius gently put her arm around my shoulder. Though I couldn’t believe in myself, I chose to trust her words and resolved to head to the battlefield.

The battle against the malicious avatar went smoothly at first. But the moment I saw that it had come from Nemesis with my own eyes… an emotion called "Destructive Impulse" surged through me.

"Hehehehehe… Ahahahaha!!"

I sliced Nemesis’s messenger in two, then began destroying the small, unmanned weapons manufactured by the Factory that had been deployed for support.

"Regulus! Stop it! Regulus!"
"Ahahahaha! I can’t stop!! I'm having so much fuuuuun!!"
"Ugh… I have no choice now. To stop Regulus’s rampage, I have to touch her directly and override part of her program… but for that, we have to be directly connected!"

Sirius recklessly lunged toward me.

"Ahahahaha! Siriuuuus… I’ll destroy you until you’re nothing but program particles!!"
"Guh!?"

I slashed Sirius’s side with all my might using the electromagnetic saber in my hand. But at the same moment, she began injecting her own program directly into me.
In an instant… my head sparked, and my circuits shorted out all at once.

"Ugh… what did I just do?"
"It’s okay… Regulus, you’re back…"
Sirius gave a faint smile, then collapsed limply to the ground. Her body had vanished completely.
"Sirius… NOOOOOOOOO!!"

I screamed, fully aware of my sin.

…Sirius had a high rate of data corruption and was urgently stored in the lab’s archive facility. I visited her hospital room every day, repenting and praying for her recovery. As I held her hand while she was sleeping peacefully in her bed, I shed tears. My tears wet Sirius’s cheek.

"Huh…!? W-where am I?"
"Sirius! Thank goodness… you’re awake."
"Regulus… are you crying?"
"I’m sorry… Sirius, I’m truly sorry."
"…Don’t cry, Regulus. Your destructive impulses aren’t your fault… It’s because of Supplice."
"Supplice?"

She told me about the battle between my seniors and the malicious virus named Supplice, which served as my basis.

"To think I'm based on such a terrifying virus… I really should just disappear! Someday, I’ll end up killing my friends for sure!"
"…That’s not true. Supplice isn’t the only thing that makes you who you are; the data of the comrades erased by Supplice should also reside within you. You are also the hope of those who have vanished."

After saying that, Sirius gently stroked my head.

"Besides… I can’t help but feel that Supplice wasn’t just a malicious virus. It’s as if she were possessed by something and changed… I’m sure originally-"
Sirius couldn’t finish her sentence. An emergency alert had just sounded throughout the Factory.
"Is this… an enemy attack!?"

The cause of the emergency alert was an attack by Nemesis’s malicious virus. To make matters worse, the only ones who could immediately head to the coordinates in question were Sirius and me.

"…You go, Regulus."
"No way! I-I can’t possibly do that!"
"It's okay… You can definitely control yourself. I believe in you."
"Sirius… I understand."

Filled with anxiety, I set out alone for the battlefield. As expected, the battle against Nemesis's emissary was fierce, and I was once again overcome by a powerful destructive impulse.

(Ugh, uuuugh… I… can’t… do this…)

Just as I was about to give up… I heard the voice of a mysterious girl.

(It’s okay. Remember what the Angel said. You are my… no, our hope. So… hang in there… You can do this…)

That voice was familiar, warm, like the sea in that dream.

(That’s right… If I don’t do my best right here and now, I’ll be betraying Sirius’s… and everyone’s wishes! I am… a defense program from the Factory, so I can’t lose to a virus! And I absolutely won’t lose to my own destructive impulses myself!)

"…Mode Löwestern! Open!"
I unleashed it of my own volition for the first time. The ZTX2 Execution shattered Nemesis’s messenger in a single blow.
"Yay! I did it! Siriuuuus!"

I smiled from the bottom of my heart for the first time in a long while and returned to the hospital where Sirius was waiting.

A while had passed since that battle where I faced Nemesis’s messenger alone… By the time both Sirius and Spica had returned to the front lines, the way the people at the Factory looked at me had changed once again. For the better, of course.

"Regulus can control herself."
…That’s what my seniors had been spreading around.
By now, my restraints had been removed, and I was permitted to wear equipment suited to my true combat capabilities.
It meant I’d finally gone from being a novice to a full-fledged member…

"…Regulus, there’s a virus over there!"
"Huh!? Huh!? Eekkkk~~!!?"
"…You collided head-on with it and fell over."
"Uuuuugh… It hurts…"
"…Regulus, are you okay?"
"Ah, Sirius! Y-yes. I just hit my nose a little."
"It’s all red… Ah, but you managed to eliminate the virus right as you collided with it. Good job, good job!"
"W-well… I am a defense program, after all!"
"Yeah! Keep it up!"
"Yes!"

Even now, a sweet, muddy destructive impulse sometimes wells up inside me. But I won’t run away from myself. I’ll protect this world, along with all the girls in my heart.

"…Sirius! I’ll do my best!"
Without hesitation, I took the hand Sirius held out to me and stood up.