2025-10-07: The Burned Suspect
- Cutscene: The Burned Suspect
- Cast: Tsubasa Seki
- Where: Konan General Hospital
- OOC Date: 2025-10-07
- IC Date: Sunday, July 22 2012
- Summary: Tsubasa, alone in their hospital bed, reflects on their present miserable circumstances.
Tsubasa was transferred to hospital, not long after Katsuya and Akechi got a hold of them, except...
... they were put in a single room, and there's a guard sitting with them at all times to make sure they don't leave, and they're not allowed to have any visitors. (Which at least means their father hasn't visited, either.)
Still. It's the same as any hospital, unpleasant reminder that they remain a suspect notwithstanding; and the juniors who drew the short straw in minding them are never terribly chatty, so they've had a lot of time more or less alone with their thoughts.
The drip going into their veins is cold as hell, though. They hate this shit. ... but as everyone's made quite clear to them, their need for antibiotics is their own damn fault, because if they hadn't spent days hiding out with insufficient medical care they wouldn't be in this position.
"Tch," Tsubasa clicks their tongue to their teeth, glaring at their outstretched arm, though they can do little about it.
They can't even wear their binder, even though the skin underneath it was totally unharmed by the fire... but at least it's in a little bag stuffed into their bedside locker. They hate these stupid hospital gowns, but there's not much they can do about it; the nurses need to access their burns. By some miracle, they said they won't need any skin grafts this time, and they wonder whether it has something to do with the Persona they accepted; if that power, building around them, ended up buffering the heat. Even so... they were still trapped in that building, before a mask dug into their face. They can feel that.
... then again, they were feeling it the whole time. They're just used to pain, by now. Those aches have hung over them ever since their first injuries; there's a certain amount of discomfort which scarcely even registers to them, these days. Of course they wonder if that ended up screwing them over -- if they ignored things they really shouldn't have just to keep their head down, but...
But even if they'd gone to a doctor, the police would have just found them out.
Shit situation, huh.
At least they're saying they should be done with their antibiotics course soon. Might be they'll let them out, once they're done, since they'll just need dressing changes after that... though, are they just going to let them out into a cell? Man, imagine some officer having to deal with it...
(Tsubasa doesn't know that this is a matter of hot debate on the ward, and indeed they're likely to be kept here until they're cleared as a suspect just because the medical staff don't trust the police to make sure their wounds are properly attended. Tsubasa might deeply resent them for misgendering them constantly, but... they are trying to do right by them.)
There's a television bolted up near the ceiling; Tsubasa's rarely actually watching it, but it does at least keep going, to give some measure of input to an otherwise deathly boring experience. They have noticed how the furor over their guilt has fallen right out of the news cycle, though... mysteriously.
"... hope she's okay," they say, their gaze a touch dulled, as they look up at the screen to see a fluff piece about the stress of students going through their finals. "Ain't fair on her... when she actually gives a shit..."
The exams start tomorrow, and Tsubasa hasn't been able to study at all; they already know they're doomed, just like they were last time. (Though they can't blame Hajime, now. ... summer vacation just always sucks, huh.) But Ichika really has been trying to do better at school, even if Tsubasa can't stomach trying to help people much with that, these days, too reminded of the sword which hung over their head should their friends embarrass them. It's not difficult for them to imagine that she's really struggling to focus on anything like that right now, though... when she's gotta miss them as much as they miss her.
It's seriously... not fair.
... luckily, the guard is used to politely ignoring them crying about it, so long as they're not too obtrusive about the whole thing.