Arknights: The Miserable Doll of Pain and Suffering Vol 1(Being Revised)

Chapter 7

Setsuna sat in front of Kal'tsit in her office with their goggles pulled up. The Fallen Sankta couldn't help but feel like a child to the person in front of them - but that might not be an inaccurate comparison considering she was as old as their ancestors.

"Do you know why I called you here?"

Setsuna shrugged, attempting to hide their nervousness. "Not really?"

"Be at ease, you're not here because you're in trouble." Kal'tsit closed her eyes and shook her head. "No, you're here because of your first assignment."

"Wait, really?" The tension eased away from their body with surprise creeping in. They knew they'd get their first assignment soon but not so soon.

"Yes." Kal'tsit nodded her head. "Rhodes Island will arrive to its destination in a matter of hours and soon after, I will be departing to Lungmen for negotiations with its Chief Executive, Wei Yenwu." She leaned forward and crossed her arms as she opened her eyes and stared at Setsuna face to face. "Your assignment will be to accompany and ensure my safety and everyone involved."

Ensure their safety? Them? Setsuna would have raised their eyebrow and questioned them but they were sure they weren't supposed to know just how dangerous Kal'tsit is in combat.

"I understand." Setsuna nodded. "Anything else?"

Kal'tsit seem to think about their words until she closed her eyes and decided to accept whatever she was about to say. "We're travelling to Lungmen by aircraft and I would like to inquire, if you have any issues in our method of travel."

They wondered why they were asking that.

At least until they thought about it and remembered.

Remembered.

Their vision flashed as, rather than sitting inside Kal'tsit's office, it was exchanged with the insides of a shuttle with the corpses of raiders and blood inside. But they were not alone. They were pushed to the ground, overpowered as a Raider thrusted his knife with Setsuna forced to stop them before a gunshot echoed and blood splattered from their hand. Their hold went weak and that was enough for the raider on top of them to sink their knife into their throat.

Their vision flashed again and was exchanged for another, in the same aircraft but rather than the corpses of scavengers, the corpses were those of agents. This time, their gun, a glock, was out of ammo and they readied their combat knife as they bled. Until a Raider with a rifle came in and shot them multiple times. Mentally and physically tired, they went down easily like a dropped toy.

"-tsuna! Setsuna!"

They were jerked out of their vision. It took them a while to register where they were, sitting in an office with a white haired feline whose green eyes stared at them in worry, stoic as their expression were.

"Take a deep breath." She instructed. "Inhale."

They followed.

"Exhale."

They breathed out.

"Inhale."

They breathed in.

"Exhale."

They breathed out.

The action was repeated a few times before Kal'tsit moved on. "Now, tell me who or what you can see."

They blinked and answered. "You. The desk. The paper on the desk."

"What can you smell?"

"S-some type of fragrance...?"