Asterisk 3 - (Arknights, SI)

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Warning! From this chapter onward, there will be some cases of 'OOC' behaviors from characters since the GuinGuinverse makes them hella comedic in times of peace. You've been warned (brace for the floff!)!

Rhodes Island is... not what I had expected.

I mean, sure, I had no baseline from which I could think a proper mercenary organization's base should look like, but I think that a fucking landship is that one option that my brain could not conjure as we arrived to it. The convoy of armored cars split in two as the Doctor was rushed to the ICU, while I was taken to be investigated.

This 'investigation' entailed me sitting in a room with a table, two chairs and a single individual sitting across said table. Dark-blue-haired, piercing light blue eyes, feline ears and a thin tail wagging behind her.

"My name is Blaze. We shall not have any talking until you're done with this document!"

She passed the paper across and... I frowned. For two big reasons. First, the thing looked like a medical quiz rather than one meant to 'see if I am a good guy or not' and the other thing is, how do I put it-

"W-Why are you not doing it?"

I opened my mouth and I gestured something missing. Blaze frowned, eyes narrowing on the paper, then on the table, then she looked under it and-

"You forgot to give him a fucking pen!" Someone screeched from the one-side mirror on our left, causing Blaze to jump up and whine back at the mirror.

"W-Well, it's my first time doing something like this!"

Soon a pen found its way to my hands and I started to scribble down the answers to each question. I thought I would have found a new language- something common in some isekai situations but... all of this was in English. And I had no issue in getting the paperwork done. While I was mid-way through, however, I heard fingers tapping on the table and I looked up to see Blaze looking particularly impatient. I paused, frowning as the tapping increased.

"G-Get back to it, dammit!"

I blinked, then scribbled once again, this time at a slower pace. Maybe I was overthinking it but... was Blaze actually upset she couldn't talk to me or something? I mean, she was looking around as if she was the one getting interrogated. Wasn't she supposed to be the one in charge of the situation?

Shrugging at the weird behavior, I had the paper filled up with my data and she beamed, ready to talk to me when- The door slammed open.

Light shone into the room and Blaze turned to hiss at the source of the brightness.

"Can it, Blaze," The brunette on the other side scowled. "And you, come with me- and bring the quiz with you."

I nodded at the girl, getting a proper look of her once I walked out of the room. Wearing a medical coat, the brunette had bear-ears and tired yellow eyes.

She led me around the landship, confidently strolling before taking me to one of the rooms in the medical bay. She took the paper off my hands and read it.

"So... Mr. Bukharin, I just have some cursory info on how you got here, and I wish to start by thanking you for rescuring the Doctor," The woman remarked with a brief smile. "I am Folinic, and I will be the medic assigned to you for the time being."

I nodded. "Nice to meet you, doctor-"

"Oh, I am not a doctor yet, but I am the student of Dr. Kal'tsit and I have some experience for this sort of visits," Folinic nervously admitted. "Please, take a seat by the bed. All I need for now is a quick blood test if... you are consenting to this, of course."

I nodded, remembering something Sin muttered about the crystals I broke and how bad it could be to people's bodies. I thought something would have come up at this point, but I wasn't truly satisfied even if I didn't feel any weird. I offered my right arm and soon Folinic had a needle into my vein to get a sample of blood. She had me patched up quickly and told me to wait by the bed.

I complied, expecting for the waiting time to be... brief. Maybe I got too accustomed to how highly-paced things have been, so I was a bit disappointed with the lack of news by the next hour. I thought about the landship moving without me noticing, of how many people from here died in the city I just left and- well, the Doctor's conditions.

He was alive when I brought him out, but he lost consciousness ten minutes before we arrived to the landship and since he lost one arm. I was an optimist at times, but I didn't trick myself he could just survive the experience like that. And while I wanted to be told how things were, I was in no position to ask that. All I had was the bed, a layer of tiredness and so many questions I couldn't get answers to at the time.

Lying on the bed, I thought that maybe I needed to close my eyes for a moment. To rest, recover, think and hope that this situation could work well for me either way things go with the Doctor. But as I closed my eyes so I could satisfy my urge to sleep, I was brought out of that mood when I heard someone coughing loudly right... outside my door.

I waited for a moment, then trying to sleep again as I thought someone would come to help whoever was outside but-

More coughing. And then again. Rolling my eyes, I forced myself out of bed, put on my shoes and walked up to the door. I was glad I hadn't been locked in the room, and as I looked out by the door, I was greeted by a young woman leaning on the opposite wall, holding an IV staff. She had long brown hair, thin rabbit ears and tired blue eyes. She was wearing a hospital gown and froze up as she realized someone was now looking at her.

"H-Hi."

"Hello there," I hummed quietly. "Should you be out without someone to help you around?"

My question saw her eyes move away from my face. "N-No, but... I want to check on... on someone. It's important!"

I slowly nodded at this, and thought of the few options I could entertain. One would be to just pressure her to go back to her room but... truth be told, I had no means to even force her if I wanted to as I didn't know where her room was. All I knew was that a cute and fragile bunny girl was determined to make it to someone else's room, possibly a fellow wounded individual, and was willing to disregard her injured body.

The other option was quite simple and the one I ultimately picked. I had noticed a wheelchair resting on the corner of the room, so I went to get it from where it was and bring it out of the room. The brunette appeared surprised as she noticed the wheelchair, but offered a tiny smile as I helped her sit there and got the IV staff attached to the chair.

"So, where do we go from here?"

"T-There and then on the right," The girl muttered quietly as we started our unexpected journey through the landship's inner halls. "I am Amiya."

"John."

"N-Nice to meet you... were you in Chernobog?"

"I was," I replied slowly, not remembering if this was the city's name or if I was confusing it to something else.

"Did you- did you see if the Doctor was fine?" Amiya asked quickly, then twitched. "I-I mean, have you seen a hooded man that-"

"I know who Doctor Sin is," I interjected, surprising the girl with my response. "Last time I saw him, he was well. Unconscious, but still stable."

The girl nodded shortly after, leaning against the chair. "Was he... was he truly well? I mean- he is well but, was he hurt much?"

Part of me wanted to lie but...

"He lost an arm," I answered quietly and I noticed Amiya tensing up. "His legs were in a rough shape, but he was still able to speak coherently so... that's good."

He is alive, and he could function as a living being. That much should be enough.

"I-I see. Thank- Thank you-"

"He will be fine," I pressed on, looking down at the girl's bunny ears twitching at my voice. "He is a tough guy, and I have a feeling he wouldn't die as he knows a certain someone would be very upset about it."

There was silence at first, and then the brunette sighed, her posture growing more at ease.

"T-Thank you."

I nodded and I continued to take directions from Amiya as we ventured deeper into the medical hall. No one seemed to notice us as they were all busy pacing about trying to get the other wounded checked up, stabilized and patched up. Taking a few more turns, I had to sit down as we arrived to a closed door with a red light burning over it- the ICU's operation room was currently being used, and I had a feeling the Doctor had been there for a while now.

"You should rest for now. I will wake you up once the light goes off."

"I-I can wait."

"You can't," I rebuked strongly. "What would he think if he knew you wasted hours of sleep if he is going to be fine?"

A bit too on the nose, but while she didn't reply to this, I could tell she understood my point. Amiya tried to hold out through the waiting, but she ultimately gave up and fell asleep.

Meanwhile I was able to last long enough for someone to finally come out of the room right as the red light went off. Huffing in relief, the cat-woman that walked out had started to remove her bloodstained gloves. She had pale white-green hair, green eyes and sleep bags under her eyes. She had a medical outfit on, the kind of thing a surgeon would have for operations and... she took notice of us.

"Why are you two here!?" She half-snarled half-whispered, and I would soon learn that this is Dr. Kal'tsit and - and that Amiya and I were now in detention.


AN

Bukharin meets:
One of the many well-meaning half-braincelled girls (Blaze);
The reliable but most rule-stickling medical assistant (Folinic);
The most adorable daddycon bunny (Amiya);
The Cat-Grandma with enough pain and trauma on her place - but she likes the coffee (Kal'tsit);

Next time... Kal'tsit POV!