2025-09-08: The Best Medicine
- Log: The Best Medicine
- Cast: Shinjiro Aragaki, Niko Kirisaki
- Where: Tatsumi Memorial Hospital, Tatsumi Port Island
- OOC Date: September 08, 2025
- IC Date: July 08, 2012
- Summary: After his attack by a street ninja, Shinjiro checks into the hospital. Niko comes to visit and returns his pills, learning about his return to SEES and getting frustrated at outstretched hands. They end on a good note, because Shinjiro can't help but think she's more than she seems.
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
Shinjiro Aragaki has had a NO GOOD NIGHT. First, Ken Amada came to SEES. Then he got attacked by a street ninja with a mechanical bridge-summoning kami.
That's basically it. That's the whole story.
Tatsumi Memorial Hospital is a trusted place, as much as Shinjiro trusts hospitals at all. Some of the staff remember him as someone who works with Kirijo, so the fact he had slash wounds and was bleeding from his arms and side wasn't reported. Instead, they got him to a room, looked over him, and found no signs of surgical intervention needed. His Persona User constitution protected him from that.
Unfortunately, the red coat did not survive the night.
Shinjiro is currently in the hospital bed, having managed to get a new shirt that he brought with him instead of having to wear a flowing gown that'll be WAY too cold. His wounds have been bandaged up, and they want him to come back tomorrow for a general check-up on his wounds, since while they'd hold him longer if they could, they know from Experience that he won't stay.
He's on his phone right now, scanning Dark Side of Sumaru for ninja attack rumors. He's found nothing.
It is currently visitor hours. The heat is on, but not maxed, despite Shinjiro's internal desires. He thought it'd be rude.
<Pose Tracker> Niko Kirisaki has posed.
Trouble always comes in threes, as they say in the west. As it turns out, the third trouble this time comes in the form of Strega.
Even when the details are kept on the down-low, checking into a hospital still pings radars. Strega is tuned into many radars - especially the kinds that nobody has any business to be tuned into. Though there hasn't been any extra heat coming their way as far as they could tell, they never did get to ascertain exactly what Shinjiro told the cops during his brief time behind bars.
Of course, Niko won't lose any sleep over any of that, but Jin hates not knowing these things. Niko's just the one who volunteered to go have a talk. It's overdue, given how quickly Shinjiro was out and has been running all over the place since then. Niko is many things but she's no blood hound, casual attempts at trying to catch him hadn't really worked out. Now that they know exactly where he is, though...
"Shin-chan, there you are!"
There's a voice he probably wasn't expecting. Niko just appears in the doorway all of a sudden, dressed the same way she always is. Apparently she was able to just waltz in here like that??
Not much time to think about it though, because in the next instant, she underhand tosses him a single, red apple. Why? Do you need to ask?
"Apple a day keeps the doctor away~"
And with that, she strolls right on in, brightly smiling as usual. "So what'd you do this time? First it's the police, then it's the hospital... what's next, the fire department?"
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
Apparently they do let people walk in dressed like that! Who knew.
Shinjiro turns as he hears Niko, and then an apple is flying at him. His hands rise and he barely catches it, but it's a catch nonetheless.
He has a long moment to stare at it, before looking back up to her. "Thank you?" is all he says, before nursing her question in his head. She knows he got arrested, huh... put nothing past Strega.
"Persona-wielding street ninja attacked me. Wanted me in the hospital for some reason. Guess he succeeded."
It's said with *such* a straight face that either Shinjiro's telling the truth or has the driest sense of humor known to man.
"Fire department's probably next given my track record. What are you doing here?" He doesn't know her well, and he is a little scared of her, but checking on him(?) has improved the relationship meter a few inches.
<Pose Tracker> Niko Kirisaki has posed.
Granted, not everyone could probably make it to any random patient's room. Niko's just special! ...That's probably how she'd put it. Truth is, she's got a real talent for convincing people to let her have her way. And it's not like she couldn't back up knowing Shinjiro.
And now here she is! Bringing fruit since that's what you're supposed to do when visiting people in the hospital. She knows the rules. She even obeys some of them.
"Huh. Hate it when that happens." Probably not the reaction most people would have hearing about street ninjas. Niko clearly has no issue believing that. "Assume he's probably in the hospital too?" She narrows her eyes. "Not this one, right? If it is..." Don't think she's above kicking a man out of his own hospital room when she feels like it.
Given the affirmative for the fire department, Niko has half a mind to start giving a lecture on fire safety, but that's thankfully avoided by the immediate question. Which has an easy answer. "What's it look like? I'm visiting!"
But that's not the entire answer. Her hand goes to her jacket pocket (the outside pocket, don't worry, the knife pocket is on the inside), and out comes a familiar canister, which she holds between her fingers as she displays it to Shinjiro.
"Also, you forgot something when you left jail. Very sloppy, Shin-chan. What do you to say for yourself?" It doesn't really feel like a serious reprimand, given her tone and cheerfully smiling expression haven't changed at all.
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
"No, he escaped. Did a number on him, but ninjas, you know?" Shinjiro says quietly. "...basically threw a supernatural smoke bomb."
As Niko just says she's visiting, Shinjiro's tension eases. Guess she's not so bad, after all... "Thanks."
But then the pills are revealed, and she asks what he has to say for himself. Shinjiro takes a breath, the trauma of that cell coming back. What *does* he have to say for himself?
"...I wasn't expecting to get bailed out."
Honestly, he would have stayed there until he died if it wasn't for Mitsuru.
The fact there's been no police casualty reports at least shows that Niko got them stealthily... but why was she there? To bully him? To bust him out? To clean up a loose end?
"...thanks again."
<Pose Tracker> Niko Kirisaki has posed.
"Well that's not fair," says the one who throws supernatural flashbangs if she needs to get away, and has in fact thrown an actual one as well. "'s long as you made him hurt back, I suppose." She's pretty sure she can count on Shinjiro to have managed that much.
Niko isn't one to say things she doesn't mean, so when she says she's here to visit, that's not a lie. She should hope she's made it obvious that she likes Shinjiro. It's just not the only reason she's here.
"Bailed out?" She doesn't bother hiding how much that answer surprises her. "Really, you didn't just bust out of there as soon as the Dark Hour hit?" Then she thinks about it a moment, and realizes, "I guess if you did, there'd have been a hole in one of the cells." She'd know, obviously she was there. And without causing a ruckus, even. Who knew she was capable of subtlety?
Without another word, she calmly steps closer to Shinjiro's bedside, so that she can hold out the canister to him. Why? Because she's not throwing that, it's valuable! Nah, even she knows that wouldn't be the real reason to ask 'why'.
"You paid for it, fair and square. So... here. Still got whatever was left in there. Just, hide it better this time? Jin's gonna have a fit if you're not careful with the stuff he sells you."
Could it be that she's actually just... being nice??
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
As Niko mentions busting a hole through a cell... "It's fine. It handled itself." That way he doesn't have to dwell on the emotions of sentencing himself to death via withdrawal.
Though, as she reaches out and offers the pills, he slowly takes them. He opens them up - is he checking them?
No, he's taking one. He hasn't had time to get a supply set up from Mitsuru, and he's a little late.
Popping the pill into his mouth and dry swallowing as usual without care of being watched, he takes a breath, grimacing once more from the taste that never quite gets better.
"Shirato's not going to sell to me anymore, I don't think. Things... have changed."
It's better that Jin knows from Niko than learning at the worst possible moment.
"Thanks, Niko. You're not that bad."
<Pose Tracker> Niko Kirisaki has posed.
That's the thing, Niko would never depend on the odds of things handling themself. If she needs something handled, she'll handle it. Only reason she wouldn't act is if she didn't care, but who wouldn't care about their freedom? She'd never understand that.
As if sensing there'd be no point in trying to, she doesn't respond to that assertion. Instead, she quietly watches on, as Shinjiro takes that pill. She's not smiling anymore, wearing an expression that makes it hard to tell what she might be thinking about. She only cants her head at the assertion that Jin wouldn't sell to him anymore. "I didn't tell him you lost this," she clarifies.
"But, that's not what you mean, is it?" Niko does have her moments of sharpness. Crossing her arms, she follows the line of thought to, "Are the people who bailed you out making you do something you don't wanna do? You don't gotta go along with that. If you need backup, just tell me whose asses need kicking, I could use the exercise."
Perfectly sincere offer, too. Though, is she really not that bad? She grins at that one. "What, you kidding? Have you looked at me? I'm bad to the bone!"
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
"That's not what I meant," Shinjiro says as she says she didn't tell Jin. But then she's offering to help him kick asses because someone might have forced him to do something he doesn't want to do...
He shakes his head once, as funny as it'd be to have her fight Akihiko again. He might even enjoy it. "I chose to do this. I'm... going back to SEES." Even as he says it, it's more like he's resigned to it than he is excited, which he isn't. "There's something I have to do, and I don't trust anyone else to do it for me."
Though, about bad to the bone... "Maybe on the outside. But you seem to care. Otherwise you wouldn't be here right now. I know this is going back to Shirato in some form... but I don't care about that. If that's all that motivated you, you wouldn't have given me this."
He lifts the apple up briefly, a small smile on his face. She's definitely cheering him up in some way.
<Pose Tracker> Niko Kirisaki has posed.
"...Oh."
That's quite the non-reaction, upon hearing Shinjiro is joining SEES. Her face is easy enough to read to see that she's not happy about that. Not that it's going to stop her from acting whatever way she feels like towards its individual members, but... knowing what she does in regards to SEES as a whole, she can't exactly be happy when people get involved with them. She does catch that tone of resignation though. Maybe they're not forcing him, but... is he not forcing himself? Worth attempting an argument.
Before that, though... she seems unsure of herself, looking away when Shinjiro analyzes her like that, one arm dropping so only her right hand is left holding onto her left arm. "...Look, even bad people can do nice things sometimes. I was just doing what I wanted, don't read too much into it."
...He has a nice smile, though. And that infers the way she wants to bring this argument. Returning back to appearing unconcerned, she places her hands on the back of her head.
"Well anyway... I get wanting to get things done yourself, but are you really sure this is what you want? I mean, I've seen you. You doubt what you're doing, pretty much all the time." Was it that obvious?
"It's super obvious," she continues, as if answering that unspoken question. "You just kinda do shit. Takes one to know one, am I right?" She sticks out her tongue. "Difference is, I have fun. While you... do you even know how to make it look like you're having fun?"
She giggles, suddenly, remembering one particular moment. "Well, maybe when your friend makes an ass of himself. I saw that smile." And she couldn't argue that one. Akihiko seems fun. Hella cringe, but unlike Shinjiro, dude knows what he wants.
Ultimately, when she thinks about this, she's only left with one question. "...So what do you think? If you're joining up with them... would you smile more?"
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
The non-reaction gets none from Shinjiro, who takes a breath. But when she seems unsure of herself, and says even bad people can do nice things sometimes... "I know. I also know that... intent and action matters more than something like black and white morality. You might be bad. I can't say. But I'm okay with it with what you've shown."
It's almost hypocritical, but not quite. Shinjiro's own can of worms is a little different than black and white morality.
He doubts what he's doing all the time. That's true. He just does shit. That's true. He doesn't have fun. That's true. He doesn't know what he wants.
That's not quite true.
"...I can't have fun. Not after the things I've done. If you're a bad person, so am I. We just... have a different way of seeing how to handle that." He's onto you, Niko!!!
...Another breath, less ragged, more... determined. "But the past has caught up to me. If I don't do this before I go... that'd be my final regret. I have enough of those as is."
But Niko has one more question. Would he smile more?
This causes him a small laugh, which ends in another small smile. "With those ruffians? Probably not." It's a joke. "...it'll be nice to have Aki stop hounding me. After I punch him a few times for the shit he's put me through."
That ends in a somewhat wider smile, as he thinks about it.
<Pose Tracker> Niko Kirisaki has posed.
Shinjiro puts things in a way that Niko doesn't much like to think about. Too real. There's nothing she wants to say in response to that. Yet her thoughts slip out anyway, in the form of a quiet mumble.
"Don't give a shit about morality. Be simpler if everybody just played their assigned parts."
The look she shoots Shinjiro's way when she realizes she said that out loud is... something else. That is a look that says that a nerve was touched, warning not to touch it any further. Clearly there's a whole can of worms there too, of an entirely different nature. And Niko is shutting the door on that - she is NOT talking about this anymore, and neither is anyone else.
So long as that's understood... Niko's smile slowly slides back in place, returning to a more casual bearing about her following responses.
"Everyone can have fun, Shin-chan. You're just not letting yourself have fun." Maybe that is the difference in how they handle things. But, as made clear, absolutely not going into the details. This doesn't need to be so complicated, in her perception.
She can't exactly argue any more than that. Regardless of the reason, it does seem that Shinjiro thinks it's important that he does this. It's a pity, but, in a way... it may be better that so few others see things the way she does.
In the end, the smile on her face ends up brightening as well, even as she says, "Look at you, saying you won't smile more, while smiling more. You're so dishonest, Shin-chan." She sighs, shrugging exaggeratedly. "Well, if that's how it is, that's how it is. I'm sure I'll see you around, either way. We'll see what happens, won't we~"
It's not meant to be a threat or anything. It's like she said - just the way it is.
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
"...sorry." Shinjiro says, as he notices he poked a can of worms. She shuts the door, so he doesn't continue. He does frown, though. He wishes he could help her... but you can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped.
But as she says he's not letting himself have fun... that's true. But he knows why. Dead men don't deserve to have fun.
He takes another breath. In the end, though, they're both smiling at their own things, and...
"Hah, maybe I am. Maybe having a visitor was the best medicine. I feel ready to discharge. Take care of yourself, Niko. Enemy or otherwise."
At the very least... he won't be seeing her as one outside of combat situations. Maybe that's the curse of human connection.