Arknights: It Can't Possibly Be My Fault... Right? — Chapter 69

Chapter 69: Something’s Not Right!

The air grew heavy, thick with the metallic tang of active Originium. Jagged black clusters jutted from the cracked asphalt, casting long, distorted shadows under the flickering streetlights of the ruined sector. Amiya stepped carefully through the hazardous zone, her boots crunching against the debris, before coming to a halt. She scanned the empty perimeter, her brow furrowing. The rendezvous point was completely deserted.

“That’s strange. Where are Officer Ch’en and the others?”

Kai leaned against a crumbling concrete pillar, crossing his arms with a lazy shrug. “No idea. But if I had to guess? A crucial Lungmen Guard Department stronghold just got captured by Reunion. Lungmen used the chaos to open a direct passage between the outer perimeter and the slums to launch a full-scale assault, and Chief Wei urgently recalled all his forces. So, they just ditched us here.” He delivered the assessment with a casual, almost joking cadence.

Amiya stared at him, her rabbit ears twitching slightly. The terrifying part was that Kai’s offhand remarks usually masked absolute, prophetic accuracy.

Right on cue, the sharp trill of Amiya’s communication terminal broke the silence. She glanced at the caller ID, her eyes widening slightly before she hurriedly accepted the connection.

“Miss Ch’en? Where did your team go?”

Static hissed softly before Ch’en’s strained voice came through the speaker. “…I’m sorry… Amiya.”

“Sorry for what? Are you okay, Miss Ch’en? Is anyone hurt?” Amiya pressed, her tone laced with immediate concern.

“…No, we are fine. It’s just that shortly after we separated from your group, I received an urgent transmission from a colleague at the Guard Department. She informed me…”

“That a crucial stronghold of the Guard Department was occupied by Reunion?” Amiya ventured, testing Kai’s theory.

“…? What? How did you know that?” The heavy, apologetic atmosphere Ch’en had been trying to build shattered instantly. “But that’s not the most pressing issue. The important part is…”

“That Reunion opened a passage between Lungmen’s outer perimeter and the slums, using it to launch a full-scale assault?” Amiya guessed again, her voice perfectly even.

A long, heavy pause hung over the comms. “…Amiya, are you hiding somewhere watching me right now?” Ch’en demanded, and the faint sound of shifting gear suggested the L.G.D. officer was actually looking around her immediate vicinity.

Amiya shot a deadpan look at Kai. He merely raised his hands in mock innocence, wearing an expression that practically screamed ‘none of my business.’

Amiya sighed softly. “That’s not important, I just made a lucky guess. Please continue, Miss Ch’en. So, you led your team away from the abandoned city to go support Lungmen?”

If that was the genuine tactical reason, Amiya could accept it. Understanding the political maneuvering of Lungmen was one thing, though being left behind still stung a little. Fortunately, their own operation had proceeded relatively smoothly thus far.

However, Ch’en’s voice quickly denied the assumption. “The situation hasn’t escalated to that critical point yet. For reasons we cannot determine, the Reunion offensive appears bizarrely weak. From the start of the engagement until now, they have only relied on the advantage of striking first to gain the upper hand, and even that initiative is slowly being wrested back by our forces. also…”

“also what?”

“…also, according to our frontline intelligence, their leaders haven’t even taken the field. This is completely illogical. Clearly, this is a premeditated diversionary tactic. But if they went through the trouble of creating a diversion, why wouldn’t they commit their full strength to break our lines?”

Amiya blinked, her mind flashing back to the brutal encounters they had just survived. “…Um, Miss Ch’en.”

“Hmm? Go ahead.”

“Is it possible… that the Reunion leaders… are currently in extremely poor condition?” Amiya hesitated, chewing her lower lip before finally voicing the thought.

“…Amiya, blind optimism doesn’t suit a battlefield. I would much rather believe they are orchestrating a deeper, more dangerous scheme.” Ch’en let out a heavy, exhausted sigh. “And besides, there is another reason I ordered the team to fall back. I… cannot speak of it clearly over an open channel. I will personally come to apologize to you when I have the chance.”

Amiya’s expression softened. “…Alright. In that case, please be careful on your way back, Miss Ch’en.”

A soft sound of affirmation came from the other end. “By the way, it is obvious Reunion is entirely serious about this campaign. Even the Rhodes Island landship is among their primary targets. My squad was spotted and engaged by a group of Reunion militants the second we crossed into Lungmen’s outer perimeter.”

“What? Are you all okay?!” Amiya’s anxiety flared again. Kal’tsit was currently stationed back at the main ship.

“Nothing major. With the support of your Rhodes Island branch and one of my Guard Department colleagues, we managed to clear them out without taking casualties.”

“Phew… that’s a relief.” Amiya’s shoulders dropped. The ‘branch’ Ch’en mentioned was undoubtedly the tactical squad the Doctor was currently leading through Lungmen.

“Oh, right, Officer Ch’en. Make sure you’re careful of what’s above you later,” Kai suddenly chimed in, leaning closer to the terminal.

“…Understood.” Though she clearly didn’t grasp the specific context of the warning, Ch’en’s professional instincts logged the advice anyway.

The communication link severed with a sharp beep.

“Kai, is ‘be careful of what’s above you’ some kind of tactical code?” M3 walked over, tilting her head as she studied his face.

“No, it’s just the literal meaning.” Seeing M3 leaning in close, Kai instinctively reached out and ruffled her silver hair.

“Oh… I see…” M3 leaned into the warmth of his large hand for a fleeting second, but her posture remained stiff. Having received her answer, she lingered, her eyes fixed on the cracked pavement as if wrestling with a heavy thought.

“What’s wrong? Are you unhappy?” Even someone as casually dense as Kai could pick up on the shift in her mood. Now that he thought about it, she had been unusually quiet and downcast ever since they left the square.

“…It’s nothing. It’s just…” M3 scuffed the toe of her boot against a piece of rubble. “This time, it seems like I couldn’t help you either…” She knit her delicate brows together, treating the perceived failure as a matter of grave importance.

Kai paused, his hand hovering over her head. He glanced ahead at Amiya, who had already started walking further down the street to give them space, then looked back at M3 with a soft smile. “So that’s what’s bothering you. What are you talking about? How did you not help me?”

“Huh?” M3 looked up, her eyes wide with surprise. “But…”

He raised a finger, gently cutting off her protest. “Weren’t you the one taking care of Amiya and the others before I could get there?”

“That’s true… but it’s not the same! Protecting Amiya and the squad is… is…” M3 struggled, her hands clenching into small fists at her sides. She searched desperately for the right words, growing so flustered she looked ready to start pacing in circles.

Kai understood the core of her frustration perfectly. In her mind, protecting Amiya was simply a baseline duty. It didn’t count as helping him directly. Amused by her stubborn loyalty, he reached out and firmly pinched her soft cheek. It was a nostalgic gesture; in his past life, he had always used this exact method to tease his relatives’ misbehaving kids.

“Mmph… Kai… what are you doing…” M3 protested, her words muffled as she tried to bat his hand away.

Kai just chuckled, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “Wasn’t keeping them safe the very first thing I asked you to help me with? That alone is more than enough. Or… are you blaming yourself for not fighting by my side? Blaming yourself because we couldn’t make Faust and the others stay?”

M3 refused to answer. She just puffed out her cheeks, offering a token resistance against his hand while glaring at him with a mix of embarrassment and defiance.

Kai finally released her cheek, letting his hand drop. “…Besides, if I can handle the heavy hitters all alone, even if it’s a bit of a hassle, isn’t that infinitely better than dragging all of you into the line of fire? Right? It’s a simple principle…”

He moved to pat her head again, but this time, M3 snapped her jaws, half-threatening to bite his fingers. Kai pulled his hand back, raising an eyebrow.

“That’s not right,” M3 said. She stepped closer, her gaze locking onto his with a fierce, unwavering intensity. “That’s not right at all. Even if it’s dangerous, I want to fight alongside you. Even if I might not be of much help right now, I don’t want to just… stand on the sidelines and watch.”

She crossed her arms, her tone dropping into a stubborn, defensive mutter. “And! Talking about risks, you just want to show off all by yourself, huh? Tch. Wonder who you’re trying to impress…”

“Ah, this…” Kai was momentarily stunned, completely blinded by the sudden, raw sincerity radiating from her. A strange warmth bloomed in his chest, accompanied by a sharp spike of awkwardness. He was genuinely touched.

Having handled his entire life relying solely on his own strength, he was deeply conditioned to handle every crisis in isolation. If a burden could be carried alone, he carried it. He never wanted to trouble others.

This was the very first time someone had looked him in the eye and demanded the right to share that danger. And it was coming from a beautiful, fiercely loyal girl, no less.

To be perfectly honest, he had no idea how to handle this kind of emotional territory. He rubbed the back of his neck, looking away. “…If that’s what you want to say… Alright. So that’s how you really feel?”

“Mmm…” Perhaps realizing just how sentimental and exposed her words sounded, M3’s cheeks flushed a faint pink. She nodded sharply, immediately shifting her gaze to the ruined storefronts lining the street.

The two fell into a sudden, heavy silence. The ambient noise of the ruined city seemed to fade into the background, leaving only the quiet, rhythmic sound of their breathing and the lingering tension in the air.

Feeling the atmosphere growing thicker by the second, Kai decided he needed to break the ice before the awkwardness became fatal. But M3, driven by the exact same panic, moved at the exact same time.

“Um…” they voiced in perfect unison.

“You go first,” M3 reacted instantly, waving her hands in a flustered blur.

Kai cleared his throat, nodding. “…I was just going to say, we should get moving. Look, we’ve fallen pretty far behind Amiya and the others.”

“Oh… okay.”

“What were you going to say just now?”

“Uh… I was going to say the exact same thing! Let’s go, hurry up and catch up…” M3 spun on her heel, marching down the street with a stiff, hurried stride that completely betrayed her racing heart.