The Secret of Nemo Buster
Several days had passed since the executive meeting for the third development product. I realized the boss hadn't given me a mission at all—she'd essentially handed me a vacation. 'Is it really okay to be this idle?' When she'd told me to make toys for the kids, my first worry had been what on earth I was supposed to create. As I'd noticed the day after falling into this world, the sensibilities of children here were one hundred and eighty degrees removed from those on Earth. The fact that the boss, a young girl, treasured a robot as her favorite toy made that abundantly clear. If I couldn't even match Earth children's tastes, how was I supposed to figure out what kids from an entirely different world would like?
When I confessed this dilemma to the boss, she casually handed me an animation BOX.
"Yes, ma'am."
What the boss gave me was a Blu-ray box set of an animation that had been a massive hit in this world. It was the pinnacle of commercial animation—capturing children's hearts while simultaneously emptying their parents' spines and wallets. Of course, the content leaned heavily toward the boss's personal tastes, but it was undeniably a masterpiece. The boss told me I could turn any of them into a toy. Copyrights were easy—just buy them—so I shouldn't worry. It was honestly impressive that a girl her age knew the number one line every scientist wanted to hear.
"Combine—! It's guts—!"
"Uwooooooo—! Transform!"
'…It's surprisingly fun.' Well, different worlds didn't necessarily mean different concepts of entertainment. If the eras had been completely different it might have been another story, but the timeline here wasn't that far removed from mine. It felt a bit outdated, sure, but honestly this was more than enough to be grateful for. At the very least, it was better than working under that supervising professor who constantly hounded me to do this and that.
"Ah, that one's nice."
While watching the animation, I found a character I liked and jotted down its characteristics. I looked up additional information on the wiki, organized my thoughts on how to build it, and sketched out a rough plan in my head. In my heart, I wanted to make something on the level of the beam-shooting robot the boss had shown me the first day I arrived… but that was impossible. That wasn't science—it was squarely in the realm of superpowers. Hadn't its power source been something called crystal energy? 'If I made a toy with that, the unit cost would start in the hundreds of millions… It might sell, but it definitely couldn't be called a children's toy.'
Of course its performance would create demand, but not only would such a thing be impossible to sell casually in a toy store, it would completely miss the original goal of making children's toys. The boss would throw an absolute fit if I brought her something like that. She'd told me to quietly make kids' toys, yet I'd show up with children's weaponry instead. 'I'll keep it moderate. Toys don't need that many functions anyway.'
At most it would need a self-propulsion drive, voice output, and freely moving limbs. None of that was particularly difficult, so I began building the prototype right away. Truthfully, decorating the exterior took far longer than installing the internal functions.
"─Completed."
After devoting an entire day to robot-making, I finally finished the prototype. All that remained was getting the boss's approval… Well, there shouldn't be any issues. This time it was nothing special.
"─This is the finished product?"
"Yes, Boss."
Regalia stared at the robot the scientist had brought her. She'd sent him off to create animation-related merchandise that could be sold directly to children, yet what he'd produced was an unpopular villain robot. It would have been fine if he'd just made a normal protagonist robot… Even as she thought this, Regalia turned the toy over in her hands.
"You've attached a wind-up key. Wouldn't batteries be more convenient?"
"The original also had a wind-up mechanism. I aimed for fidelity to the source material and an analog feel. Batteries would work too, but since it doesn't have any particularly impressive functions…"
"True enough. In the original it was a villain with nothing particularly noteworthy."
Regalia spoke as she began turning the key on the robot's back with steady whirs. Once it was fully wound, she set it on the desk. The robot immediately began walking on its own. That was it. It didn't produce sound, run, shoot beams from its eyes, or display any special abilities. However, Regalia had learned from experience. Just in case, she glanced at the scientist.
"You didn't add any functions I don't know about, did you? Like suddenly firing rockets and flying through the sky…"
"Come on, Boss. Do you have any idea how much that would cost to produce? This doesn't even leave enough for the kids to buy snacks—how could I make something like that?"
"…So you're saying there isn't any? You're not going to surprise me with some strange new function later?"
"You're worrying too much. There's nothing like that."
The scientist answered with complete confidence, but Regalia felt strangely anxious. Finding this scientist on the street had been the greatest stroke of luck, but it was also the source of her greatest anxiety. What he was doing was essentially walking across a bomb while carrying a chest full of treasure. With luck he might obtain the treasure, but one misstep and everything—including the treasure—would be blown to bits. Watching from the side, Regalia found the sight incredibly nerve-wracking. The fact that he himself didn't even realize he was strolling through a minefield only made it worse.
"Well… if you say there's nothing strange, I suppose I have no reason to stop you. Very well. I approve. Proceed with the release."
"Yes. Shall I send the blueprints to the company?"
"Do so."
A new product was released from Evils Enterprise. It was a toy for children—a villain robot that had made a brief appearance in a famous animation. Naturally, judging that it had no special functions, Evils Enterprise priced the toy extremely cheaply. It was essentially a loss-leader. After all, children wouldn't be satisfied with just one villain robot. The goal was to lead them into purchasing more expensive robots based on this one—primarily the protagonist units.
However, the robot Regalia had assumed would be unpopular turned out to be a character with a dedicated cult following. It had an oddly strong appeal to young boys…
"Dad! Buy me that!"
"What is that?"
"You don't even know? It's Nemo Buster!"
Since the child wanted it and the price was cheap enough to cover with allowance, the new toy from Evils quickly spread to households everywhere. There were also plenty of people who bought anything from Evils Enterprise without question.
"It's from Evils Enterprise? Then I should get one."
"A toy for… 9.99 dollars? That's cheap."
The fact that most of these buyers were either Evils Enterprise employees or worked for its subsidiaries was an open secret. Thanks to that, the new product became a runaway bestseller in E City where Evils was based, while selling moderately well in other cities. At least until one particular video was uploaded.
[Shoosh shoosh!]
It was home camera footage of a child playing with Evils' newly released toy, Nemo Buster. In the video, the child wound up the Nemo Buster and then attacked it with another robot toy. The Nemo Buster, which had been waddling forward, collapsed after several hits. The child burst into delighted laughter. Then, a cat passing nearby brushed against something, causing a tall stack of objects to topple toward the child. If it fell on him, it could have been dangerous.
─In that instant, the wind-up robot that had been lying on the floor quickly stood up and knocked the falling objects away with its body.
[Huh—?]
The child tilted his head repeatedly, seemingly unable to understand what had just happened. The video ended with the parents rushing in after hearing the noise and embracing their child.
It was a short one-minute SNS video. Yet this single clip dramatically changed Nemo Buster's sales figures.
"…Didn't you say you didn't put anything in it?"
Regalia let out a deep sigh. I remained silent as I stared at the video titles on the monitor, their view counts, and the sales graph for the toy displayed beside them.
"Um… I really didn't put anything strange in it."
"Then what exactly did you put in it that allows a wind-up robot to move on its own!?"
"It's just a simple circuit…"
"How does it move without any power source!"
"Well, because it has a wind-up mechanism. That provides the power…"
"How much power could something like that possibly generate!"
Regalia pounded her chest as if her insides were about to burst. But I had nothing to say. Honestly, I didn't quite understand why I was being scolded like this. I hadn't realized that even a circuit of that level was off-limits.
"I told you to make a toy, yet you created that!"
"It's still at a toy level though…"
"Maybe by your standards—!"
Watching Regalia get this worked up over something so minor, I subtly recalled the robot I'd tucked away in the corner of my lab. The one that used superpowers to achieve semi-permanent power. I wondered how she would react if she ever learned about that particular creation.
'Good thing it hasn't been discovered.'
Deciding I would keep it hidden to the very end, I bowed my head repeatedly to Regalia.