Arknights: Code Remnant

0-1: Azazel

"Y-yeah. I'm fine..." Ruby muttered as she tried to move past the old man. She had remembered moments like these before, she then remembered what happened to the people she met. She was tired of leaving places in ashes, and people she meet dead because of her.

"Just... want to find a place to... rest..." The girl suddenly collapses onto the man's arm, her legs failing her as the man holds her still. 

'Hands... Hard...' Ruby thought as she felt the texture of the man's hands through his gloves, while she didn't have the energy to think, instinct told her that the man was a veteran fighter.

"Severe exhaustion, starvation, and thirst... This is bad." The old man deduced as he noticed Ruby's heavy breathing and shaking arms. Without a second thought, the man pulled Ruby from the ground, cradling her as he began to run.

"There's a nearby infirmary, hold on." The man's words grew distant as her conscience faded away.

~~~

Ruby awoke to the sight of an unfamiliar ceiling, feeling her body resting on a soft mattress. Yet for all the comfort presented to her at that moment, she felt empty. Both in mind and stomach, she had not a thought in her mind or the stomach to move.

She laid still for minutes, the endless hum of the lights above her proving her thoughtless self the only entertainment once more, well at least this time, it wasn't in a damned language she did not recognize.

It took another half an hour for something to happen, as the door suddenly creaks open, but only enough for the air from the outside to flow inside.

"Hmm? Finally awake?" The familiar voice of the old man seeps through the open door, only for the girl to hear footsteps walking away for a minute, and back again. This time, however, the door finally opens completely, revealing the old man to be carrying a tray of steaming porridge. 

He had changed out of his long coat and black long sleeves, now wearing a looser and pitch-white buttoned long sleeves, yet his pants remained.

"You've slept for the entire day, I was starting to worry that your condition had worsened." The old man commented as he began preparing Ruby's meal, flicking a mechanism under her bed, which slowly began to raise her upper half to a sitting position. He then places a bed table over her lap, with the bowl of porridge and a glass of water on said table.

"T-thank-" Ruby's voice was raspy and cracked, her tone so low it was as if she was mumbling to herself.

"Stop, before you say anything, eat," The old man shook his head as he gestured at the large steaming bowl of porridge on her bed table, "Shredded roast Wilderbeast porridge mixed in with mashed potatoes, easy to digest, good for someone that's starving." 

The man had barely explained what the dish was as Ruby grabbed her spoon and dug in. With a quick swipe, a column of steam gushed out of the dish, each scoop in her mouth gave the perfect mix of salt and spice, the soft texture of the mashed potatoes with the harder flakes of rice and strands of shredded meat was like heaven in her mouth.

Yet as she quickly devoured her meal, she could feel her aura chipping away as the boiling heat was reduced to temperatures more tolerable for her insides. Whatever the case was, she was dying to have at least something inside her empty stomach.

The sound of her spoon hitting the bowl over and over again was the only noise in the entire room, with the old man simply waiting in silence, observing.

"Thank- thank you." Ruby blurted out amidst her eating, her voice now filled with life, her tone somewhat back to how she had remembered it.

"It is my duty as a doctor to save a young girl who collapsed in my arms." The man explained, finally speaking up and breaking the silence.