2025-07-02: Not Like You
- Cutscene: Not Like You
- Cast: Shinjiro Aragaki
- Where: Cafeteria, Tatsumi Memorial Hospital, Tatsumi Port Island
- OOC Date: July 2nd, 2025
- IC Date: Sometime between late April and early May, 2012
- Summary: Shinjiro feels the pangs of living like he does.
Click.
The vending machine proceeds to make a mechanical noise, as the bag of fluffy golden potato chips, the target of this mission, begins to dispense. Slowly but surely, it begins to move, move...
It gets stuck.
The hospital cafeteria is colored in cool whites and blues, calming colors that contrast with the vividness of the dark red jacket and beanie worn by the tall man standing in front of the vending machine. He elbows the machine, causing a rattle and an old lady to look up from their meal at a nearby table with disapproval, but the chips don't dislodge.
"Tch."
Shinjiro Aragaki considers rattling the machine again, but the old lady is staring at him intently, watching for trouble to report. He takes a long moment to think, before turning. "Whatever."
Two hundred yen wasted. That's precious money, and he's going to have to spend more if he wants to fuel, but it's better than getting kicked out of the hospital, causing Aki more stress. He's already under enough pressure, what with his injuries and the clear dangers of the Dark Hour... Shinjiro's not going to contribute to that.
There's a reason he left, after all.
Stepping up to the hot counter instead, Shinjiro looks over the menu with a precise eye. The food here was pretty fresh, so nothing on it would be a bad choice... the question was cost. A tonkatsu meal would be pushing his budget, and be much more expensive than the chips. Even so, it'd be good protein, and he could take it out of his ramen budget. But his clothes really needed a good tailoring, and that had to be saved for as an expense. Decisions, decisions...
While he's considering what to pick, he hears something from the vending machine, a child, no older than nine, about to put in his money when there's a rattle. "Oh... free chips!"
Shinjiro sighs. For the briefest, tantalizing moment, he considers going to get them... but taking a joyful moment from someone again? That's not something he can stomach.
"Tonkatsu meal and a cup of coffee," he tells the guy at the hot counter, who seems vaguely put off by his look and attitude. He takes his drink cup, heading over to fill it with Hospital Coffee, a substance known across space and time.
Pouring his coffee, the same child from the vending machine comes over. "Hey, mister!"
"Yeah?" Shinjiro asks, looking down. His perpetual aloof scowl fades almost entirely, now just a downtilt of his mouth.
"Why do you look like a criminal?" the boy asks with a curious look, holding the bag of open potato chips and popping one in his mouth.
Shinjiro pauses, scanning the room with a tilt of his eyes. The boy's mother is on a phone call, though she seems to have noticed that her son isn't there. She'll probably come over soon.
"...what do you mean?" He asks, humoring the child.
"You're wearing a big coat and hat, and have a scary face, and are very tall! It's so hot out, I like to wear comfy shorts... are you hiding weapons under there, mister?"
Shinjiro's downtilt becomes a small uptilt, preventing himself smoothly from laughing. "I wear it because I'm cold."
"In the summer?!" The boy's eyes widen. "Are you a reptile? I heard in school that they have cold blood..."
Shinjiro actually laughs at that one, crouching a little to allow the boy to not strain his neck too much. "No, I'm human."
The boy considers this. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah," Shinjiro says, smiling at this point. "I'm pretty sure."
Nodding, the boy looks over to his coffee cup. "Oh, you're right. Reptiles can't drink coffee. It'd make them sick."
"You're right," Shinjiro answers. "They also can't talk."
"They can't?!" The boy's reaction is loud, enough that his mother notices where he is. She puts her phone down, rushing over apologetically.
"I'm so sorry, he's very precocious, he-"
And then, she looks over Shinjiro closely, catching his full image as he stands up tall. Her apologetic faces goes to worry and shock, as she grabs her son and moves to pull him away. "Come on, Taro... let's go see grandma."
"Grandma! Bye, mister!" The boy waves to Shinjiro, leading to him being hurried away faster. By this point, Shinjiro's smile has faded, as he takes a drink of his coffee, waving one hand only when he sees the kid look back. The warmth suffuses into him.
At this point, he goes to take a seat and wait for his food. He opens his phone, skimming through the dinky internet browser and checking Dark Side of Sumaru.
After a long moment at the home page, he considers clicking into the Persona user section. He takes a look at the 'new threads', seeing a piece of misinformation about someone's Persona telling him all sorts of secrets about time and space, and closes out. It was just a distraction, anyways, a piece of his life he can't forget...
"I can't join you. Sorry, Aki. I'm not like you anymore," he mutters, taking another sip of his coffee.
"Maybe I was never like you."