Arknights: It Can't Possibly Be My Fault... Right? — Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Going Home

Rhodes Island Medical Department.

It was the exact same sterile white ceiling and the exact same lingering scent of disinfectant. Kai slowly opened his eyes, blinking against the harsh fluorescent lights.

“What the hell… is this hospital bed my designated spawn point?” he muttered, rubbing his temples as he pushed himself up against the pillows. He didn’t rush to get out of bed, choosing instead to sit quietly and piece together the fragmented memories of what had happened right before he blacked out.

Right on cue, the sliding door hissed open. Y.P walked into the room, her eyes already glued to the medical chart in her hands.

“Yo, big sister Y.P. We meet again,” Kai greeted her with a lazy smile.

Y.P let out a long, exhausted sigh. Without missing a beat in recording the vitals from the bedside monitors, she replied, “I would strongly prefer not to see you. Every single time you show up here, my workload miraculously doubles.”

“Haha, well, it can’t be helped. With great power comes great responsibility, right?” Kai leaned over, trying to peek at the chart Y.P was scribbling on. It looked like absolute gibberish—a chaotic scrawl of medical shorthand he couldn’t even begin to decipher. Defeated, he awkwardly scooted back against the headboard.

“How are Amiya and the others? Did they make it back safely?” he asked, his tone shifting to something a bit more serious.

“Relax. Aside from you, they are all in perfect health. Would you like me to call them over?” Y.P answered, her gaze never leaving her clipboard.

“Uh… before we do that, what time is it anyway?” Kai scratched the back of his head. He scanned the pristine walls; this infirmary didn’t even have the decency to hang a clock.

This time, Y.P couldn’t even be bothered to formulate a verbal response. She simply reached into her pocket and tossed Kai his personal terminal. He caught it and tapped the screen. The glaring numbers told him it was already noon the following day. He had been out cold for nearly twenty-four hours.

Seeing that Y.P had zero interest in making small talk, Kai started messing around with his terminal. He tapped into the Rhodes Island intranet and immediately noticed a brand-new forum icon sitting on the dashboard. A new feature?

“Big sister Y.P, what exactly is this?” he asked, holding up the screen.

Y.P paused her writing, glanced over, and said, “That appears to be a new network board Closure set up. She claimed it was a space for Rhodes Island operators to share interesting daily occurrences. It has been active for a little while now.”

“Is that so? I really hadn’t noticed it before,” Kai murmured. He tapped the icon, figuring he might as well see if there was any juicy gossip to pass the time.

As it turned out, the number one trending post was about him.

The title read: “Shocking: A live biological transformation performed in broad daylight—is this a distortion of human nature or a complete loss of morality?”

Clicking into the thread, he found a shaky video attachment. It was footage of the exact moment M3 had shifted into her monstrous construct form right in the middle of the cafeteria. Scrolling down through the chaotic replies, he spotted a highly upvoted comment from M3 herself: “Why do you have photos of this! Delete them right now!”

Kai chuckled under his breath and tapped the like button on M3’s angry comment. He continued scrolling down the main page until a freshly uploaded post caught his eye.

“Unscrupulous profiteer Closure is selling fake fruit and treating our lives like grass—refund my LMD immediately!”

Wait, something like that actually happened? Kai raised an eyebrow and clicked the bait.

“I bought Closure’s special offer fruit yesterday. When I got back to my dorm today to eat it, I realized this thing is nowhere near being a fruit! Not only is it incredibly bitter and astringent, but I literally cannot even bite into the skin. I finally treat myself to some fresh fruit for once, and you scam me this thoroughly!”

Kai stared at the attached image, not quite knowing how to react. Why did that fruit look so suspiciously familiar? Just as he leaned in to get a closer look at the blurry photo, the screen flashed gray. A system prompt popped up: [This post has been deleted by an administrator.]

The heavy hitters from the Engineering Department worked fast, it seemed.

Amused, Kai happily kept scrolling. The content on this forum was surprisingly rich, filled with all sorts of mundane complaints, mission stories, and daily life shares. He even scrolled past a detailed guide from a Lupo operator on the proper techniques for grooming tail fur. Even though Kai obviously didn’t have a tail, he still read through the steps with absolute seriousness. Who knew? Maybe it would come in handy one day.

Eventually, Y.P finished logging the machine data, and Kai had reached the bottom of the gossip feed. He set the terminal down. “Can I go now?”

Hearing this, Y.P stopped and looked at him with genuine confusion. “I never said you couldn’t leave. I was actually standing here wondering why you were just lying around playing on your phone this whole time.”

“Huh? Weren’t you recording my medical data?” Kai asked, feeling entirely speechless.

“Is the data physically written on your skin?”

“What about last time?”

“Last time, Doctor Kal’tsit explicitly instructed me to make you wait for her,” Y.P stated flatly. Kai seriously began to suspect this deadpan medic had a deeply hidden, black-bellied streak.

“Speaking of Kal’tsit, where is she anyway?” Kai swung his legs over the edge of the bed, slipping on his shoes and grabbing his jacket. He needed to find something to eat.

“Doctor Kal’tsit departed for Lungmen shortly after your squad returned. She left instructions that any detailed debriefings should wait until you rendezvous with her in Lungmen. The same applies to the abnormalities in your body. Wait until you reach the city to make any further plans.” Y.P gathered her folders, preparing to move on to her next patient.

‘Abnormalities in my body, huh…’ Kai’s mind drifted back to the brutal clash in Chernobog against Talulah. He slowly clenched his right hand into a fist, waiting for that overwhelming surge of heat. Nothing happened. The explosive power from his memories remained entirely dormant. Hmm… it felt exactly like this back then, right before…

Kai extended his open palm toward the empty wall and softly uttered a single word.

“Incinerate.”

Absolute silence. Not even a spark.

Y.P, who was halfway to the door, paused and stared at his outstretched hand. “What exactly are you doing?”

Kai awkwardly scratched his cheek. “I’m just trying to see if I can cast a giant fireball.”

A heavy silence descended over the infirmary. Y.P stared at him for a long moment before asking, “We don’t have any deep-seated grudges between us, do we?”

“No.” Kai shook his head. He was joking, right? Was there anything in this world more terrifying than holding a grudge against your own attending physician?

“Then were you seriously planning to conjure a giant fireball inside this cramped, highly flammable medical room and take us both out?” Y.P’s expression twisted into a look normally reserved for complete idiots.

“What are you saying, big sister! It didn’t even manifest. I was just testing the waters!” Kai flashed a defensive grin.

Y.P sighed, clearly deciding she didn’t have the energy for this. She stepped forward, lightly smacked the top of Kai’s head with her medical folder, and turned to leave.

“If you want to learn Originium Arts,” she called back over her shoulder, “go to the training room and ask Instructor Dobermann to arrange a safe schedule for you.”

Kai rubbed the top of his head, feeling a bit embarrassed but also falling into deep thought. He couldn’t shake the feeling that the power he had used against Talulah wasn’t standard Originium Arts. Everyone knew that Arts required borrowing the volatile energy of Originium, usually through a casting unit. But back in Chernobog, no matter how he analyzed it, he felt like he possessed absolute, innate control over the flames.

‘Priestess.’

That terrifying, enigmatic name inexplicably surfaced in his mind. Thinking of her, Kai shook his head to clear the thought. It shouldn’t be the same thing. He had never seen Priestess cast a giant fireball in any of the lore. So, what exactly was going on with his body?

Pushing the mystery aside for now, Kai stepped out into the corridor and made his way toward the cafeteria. Halfway down the hall, he heard a familiar voice calling his name.

He turned around just in time to see M3.

The girl came dashing down the corridor at full speed and practically tackled him into a tight hug. Kai was caught completely off guard, his arms hovering awkwardly in the air. What was up with this girl today?

Perhaps realizing that tackling a recovering patient in the middle of a public hallway wasn’t entirely appropriate, M3 quickly stepped back two paces. A bright blush dusted her cheeks. “Um… you’re finally awake, Kai!”

“Yeah, I’m awake. How did you get here so fast?” Kai winced slightly, rubbing his side. That high-speed collision had definitely aggravated a lingering bruise from the battle.

“I saw that you liked my post on the forum!” M3 declared, placing her hands proudly on her hips.

“By the way, Kai, um… about that…” M3’s confident posture suddenly deflated, replaced by a nervous hesitation. Seeing this sudden shift, Kai grew curious. What was wrong now? Had M3 been possessed by some strange Terra ghost?

“What’s wrong? Is there something you need to tell me?” Kai asked, though he kept his pace steady, continuing his trek toward the cafeteria.

M3 hurried to keep up with him. She scratched her head, her expression twisting into an awkward, conflicted grimace as if she were fighting a fierce internal battle. Finally, her shoulders slumped, and she spoke in a dejected whisper.

“I’m sorry, Kai… Kal’tsit told me to protect you out there, but I didn’t do a good job…” She looked down at her boots. “I felt really sad after seeing you lying unconscious in the medical ward yesterday. I didn’t know why my chest hurt. Kal’tsit said the feeling is called guilt, and she told me I should come apologize to you.”

Her raw, unfiltered confession left Kai stunned. He stopped walking and took a good look at the girl standing in front of him. He had to admit, his preconceived notions from his past life’s game knowledge had heavily biased his expectations. The M3 standing before him wasn’t the cold, calculating, mature entity he had imagined. She was still learning how to be human.

But none of that mattered. This time around, she wasn’t just a summon. She had Kal’tsit, Amiya, and him by her side.

“It’s okay, I forgive you,” Kai said softly, his casual demeanor softening into something genuine. “You can just do a better job of protecting me next time, right?” He reached out and gently ruffled her hair.

“Really!?” M3’s eyes lit up, but then she blinked, tilting her head as she studied him. “But… you seemed to have become way stronger than me back there. Uh… why did you get all weak again?”

She had only just noticed the shift in his presence. The terrifying aura he possessed during the fight was completely gone, leaving him looking just as frail and human as before. Did that mean she could actually continue carrying out Kal’tsit’s mission to protect him?

Realizing this, M3’s mood instantly skyrocketed. She didn’t even mind Kai’s hand messing up her hair anymore. The two of them resumed their walk down the corridor toward the cafeteria, the atmosphere light and comfortable—just like the very first day M3 had taken on her human form.