2025-10-09: Unproven Treatment
- Log: Unproven Treatment
- Cast: Rin Sasaki, Hazuki Nakao
- Where: Iyf Shibuya Hotel, Shibuya, Tokyo
- OOC Date: October 9, 2025
- IC Date: July 23, 2012
- Summary: Hazuki stops by to share her own experience with, and some of her knowledge of, Homunculus. Rin fixates on one specific detail.
<Pose Tracker> Rin Sasaki has posed.
The Iyf Shibuya Hotel stands at nine-stories high, sits at the corner of two smaller streets away from the Central Street traffic, but is still conveniently only a few minutes' walk from Shibuya Station. The lobby and shared amenities on the bottom floor are warmly-lit and trendy, clearly intended to create a welcome and inviting image to travelers. But the upper-floors are more utilitarian, with narrow hallways and small rooms from the distance between the doors.
After a few brief texts earlier in the day, Hazuki was given Rin's room number, eighth floor all the way at the end on the left side. Hazuki will need to check in at the front desk and give her name before being allowed up, and Rin also requested that Hazuki text again before knocking. It seems that Rin is concerned about the appearance of unwanted visitors. Or more likely, a singular visitor.
This done, Rin will open the door to her small room. She is wearing a long, flowing burgundy skirt and a simple form-fitting black shirt; no jewelry except her wedding ring. "Nakao-san?" she asks a little uncertainly, a frown creasing her features, as if Hazuki isn't quite who she was expecting from the brief text exchange previously.
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
The girl who appears outside Rin's door can't be older than 18, and perhaps younger. She's clad in a black cap, with black jacket and white shirt, compression gloves on her hands like a gamer would have and a pair of jeans and boots - all of it appears very European Trendy. Indeed, when she speaks up, her accent is clearly English, despite speaking Japanese. She tips her head, a little nervous.
"HI, I'm Hazuki Nakao..." she greets. "Are you the one Myunghon-san asked me to meet?" she says politely.
A pause. Why is- oh, she's nervous because of Hazuki's age, isn't she? "Ah, uh... we can talk more inside if you'd like, but I'm... I'm familiar with the kind of event you're facing, so Myunghon-san asked me to talk to you." She smiles softly, trying to be encouraging! She got confidence in what she's *saying* but perhaps not as much herself, it would seem.
<Pose Tracker> Rin Sasaki has posed.
Hazuki's appearance does not instill as much confidence in Rin as Myunghon's did, certainly. And her first (and most recent) conversation about these matters noted 'no small amount of personal danger' as part of the ultimate solution -- and so seeing someone of highschool age outside her door in connection to this matter does not thrill her. Still, if Yeo-San sent her over...
Rin's frown deepens, but she steps back to allow Hazuki inside. "Come in." It's a modest room -- room for a small bed, a desk next to it (currently occupied with Rin's laptop, displaying a lockscreen, and some papers facing down), a single chair, a door leading to a tiny bathroom, and a small amount of empty floor in the center of the room. As always, space is at a premium in Tokyo, and Rin doesn't know how long she is going to be exiled from her own home.
Rin closes the door behind Hazuki, then locks it and sets the chain again. She gestures for Hazuki to take the only chair, and sits down herself on the edge of the bed, facing her, hands folded in her lap. "Nakao-San. I appreciate your time -- I understand finals are currently in session, so you must be very busy. But..." Pause, slight trailing off. She doesn't like this at all.
"I will admit, I was not expecting anyone still young enough to be taking highschool exams," she finishes finally.
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
Hazuki follows, taking a seat in the chair. She can tell she's not instilling confidence... but she's got to help. As Rin sits across her, Hazuki considers. "Oh, it's no problem. I mean, exams are busy, but..."
Oh, that kinda stings, but... it makes sense Rin wasn't expecting her. She nods softly. "I understand. It's a weird situation for me too. I know... what you're going through quite personally," she settles on saying. "My friend... he... well, I can get into that in a minute. You can tell me about it, if you'd like." A pause, as if she considers. She should give a bone, make her feel more confident...
"It's scary, right? One day, they're normal, the next, it's like... you can feel the hairs sticking up on the end of your neck around them. That weird sense of uncanny valley. Their inability to communicate the same way, be the same way. Their mood changes drastically. It's like they're an entirely different person, no, not even that. They're just something else. Right?"
<Pose Tracker> Rin Sasaki has posed.
Rin listens silently as Hazuki speaks, and seems to become at least slightly less guarded as she does so. So a personal connection to the 'one other case' that Yeo-San referenced; Hazuki's presence here makes a little more sense, then. And hearing some pieces of her own experience out of someone else's mouth -- that isn't a strangely-dressed shady backalley shop owner -- is also a measure of relief on its own.
Rin lets out a slow sigh and speaks quietly, not really making eye-contact with Hazuki. "My husband. I didn't notice the changes as anything amiss, at first. We've -- he's been going through a...difficult time, and the changes were generally positive, but not flagrantly out-of-place. There was something, almost a little off. But he hadn't been home much, you see, and I thought it was simply -- trying to reacclimate to his presence at home, because I'd become more-or-less accustomed to his long hours and work trips."
She continues again only after a long pause, and there's small hitch in her voice when she does. She understands more now than a couple of nights ago, but if talking about this with Yeo-San was difficult, talking about it with a highschooler... "It was a few nights ago. I've never felt anything like it, and I sincerely hope I never do again." A small, involuntary shudder as she brings the memory back up. "As if there was -- Something Else there, in our bed; not my husband. And this, this overwhelming feeling of -- of being hunted."
There's a haunted look in Rin's eyes, but she doesn't lose her composure completely as she did in front of Myunghon. "I have never felt so much fear, so much dread, in my life. I left in the middle of the night. I haven't -- I haven't been able to bring myself to go back. It didn't seem like it would be...safe to do so." She intentionally does not elaborate further on that point.
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
Hazuki listens thoughtfully from the chair, considering. Rin's husband... how horrible. She won't pry, though she's old enough to piece some gaps. "I see... I'm very sorry."
A considerate look. "How much has Myunghon-san told you about what we do? We're the kind of people who fix this sort of problem," she says with much more confidence than she had before, something about being a Persona User giving her more confidence than being an ordinary girl. She takes a moment to consider her words.
"There's some things I'll need to help him. Our team can only fix his psyche and expel the parasite with an important object, and a lonely place that he would consider his, as Myunghon-san might have explained." A soft, courageous smile.
"Let me tell you my story. My friend... he changed. He, too, was Homunculized. Other people, those like Merry, noticed he changed. I gained the same skills by not giving up on him. I don't know if the same is true for everyone, but... we're fighting to save him, and we will fight to save your husband, too. So don't give up hope that things won't return to normal, okay?"
<Pose Tracker> Rin Sasaki has posed.
Rin appreciates that Hazuki does not pry further. She already does not love how many personal details this has involved so far.
"The highlights, I think, and only when I asked directly. A parasite that 'infects the psyche' and then 'entering minds' to remove it," Rin replies to the first question. "Very light on specifics." Not that she was really in the correct headspace to ask for them that night. The basic concepts were, by themselves, removed more than enough from what she previously understood of the world.
More personal details. At least the order of these conversations wasn't reversed, and this time, she can touch on it without open tears in front of a highschool student. But her voice is muted and a little terse. "Yes; that, also." The answer to riddle of the object and the location seem like they were known to her immediately. She might not want to talk about it, but there's no real uncertainty. "Our first ultrasound image, and a -- there's a small temple cemetery not too far from our home." The implications are impossible to avoid, although it's clear she'd prefer not to dwell on it right now.
What comes next elicits a small but clear measure of alarm from her. Myunghon mentioned one other case. Hazuki speaks as if 'saving him' is still ongoing. "Wait, you've -- has there been a successful intervention yet?"
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
Hazuki nods to the highlights. "That's right. It's... not something we can show people, and it only makes less sense the more we explain it," she admits. Though, the personal details... "Do you have this ultrasound image, or do we need to recover it? Once we have it, I need to take it to the graveyard to be able to enter his 'mind'." She doesn't ask about the implications. It must be traumatic enough.
Instead, as the alarm comes, Hazuki winces, a hand moving to grab her choker. "Ah... not that I know of, but not due to attempts. This is a new experience for many of us! There are those with more experience, but they're not... generous helpers... in the same way we are, I don't believe." That's probably not reassuring, so...
"I've been in my friend's mind. It's not a normal, safe place. It's very dangerous, actually. But we've made headway, and have found the parasite's inner sanctum. I know... you probably can't trust me. This sounds like too much of a risk, too much of a danger. But I need to really tell you..."
A breath hitches. This is hard to say, but it's important. "I know for a fact that if we don't do this, your husband will die. I don't want anything from you in exchange. I just want to help you, and make sure these nightmares end."
<Pose Tracker> Rin Sasaki has posed.
Does she have the image on hand. Even if she'd known how important it would be that night, she couldn't have accessed it without risking waking the...creature in her bed that she had just painstakingly lulled to sleep. "I don't," Rin admits, with a small shake of her head. "I know where it is, but as I told Yeo-san already, I'm not...if at all possible, I would prefer not to step foot in the house again alone." She can't hide it; the thought alone puts her on edge.
Rin leans forward as Hazuki explains the lack of known successful interventions, a deep frown creasing her features. Perhaps this may be a lesson in not overburdening the layman with unnecessary details. "If there are others are more experienced in these matters," she begins, putting weight onto each word. "Then why am I not speaking to them, instead? Nakao-san, there is --"
She's becoming more animated now, more intense, reaching a more feverish pitch with each sentence. She comes to her feet and begins pacing the bounds of the small room. "There is a monster wearing my husband's skin. I have been exiled from my own home. You are now telling me that death is an inevitable outcome of a failed intervention. Cost is not relevant. I do not -- I do not require generosity at the expense of expertise."
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
Hazuki takes a breath as Rin starts getting upset. How does she parse this? She must have screwed up... but the animation of Rin gets her on edge. The fever pitch increases her own anxiety, and...
"I don't mean... generous as in 'we work for free'. They're... I think they're wild cards. I don't know how long they've done it. What they do. Why they do it. I can't say trust someone I can't even fully trust myself. You don't have to trust me, but I want to help. There's people out there like us who can be bad people." She remembers what Akari told her.
A breath. "I'm going to help either way. If there's a monster killing someone, I can't not do something. I have this power inside me that can do something better than what we might take as fated. Let me help you and your husband."
Hazuki's standing up. "At the very least, let Myunghon-san help. If you don't want to trust me at all, trust them. They've done a lot for me, and a lot for many people in Sumaru, from what I understand."
<Pose Tracker> Rin Sasaki has posed.
It takes a couple of attempts for Hazuki to make herself heard, but when she finally does, Rin finally pauses in her increasingly-frantic pacing, leans against one of the walls with one hand, her back turned to Hazuki. She listens. Perhaps she realizes how close she was getting to outright screaming at a teenager. "I...see. Greater expertise but untrustworthy," she responds finally to the clarification, her voice soft and muted. She can read between the lines well enough, even if Hazuki still is not as precise in her language or as confident in her delivery as she would prefer. It is very hard to deny her earnestness, at least. And perhaps Myunghon-san can provide more precise details on these 'others' later.
"I am -- familiar with the type of person, at least, even if not any of the fine details." If nothing else, both people that have expressed willingness to assist have stressed the importance of a single physical item. What happens if she losses access to it by handing it over to the wrong person?
She lets out a long, slow breath, and then returns to sitting on the edge of the bed even after Hazuki rises. It is hard to perceive if Rin is always this mercurial, or if it's the pressure getting to her. "I owe you an apology, Nakao-san," she says, finally, after a lapse of silence. Her words are more measured. She gaze is fixated on the floor. "This has been a very difficult time. I am not accustomed to understanding so little, and what I have learned so far is -- not easy to come to terms with." Pause. Another slow breath to steady herself. "But you were willing to come out to speak with me, to help, for no personal gain, and I have been deeply unfair to you."
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
As Rin calms herself, Hazuki takes a breath, nodding about the expertise. She doesn't know if she thinks Peacock Silk is UNTRUSTWORTHY, she likes them a fair bit, but... she can't suggest them, much like she can't suggest SEES, because she doesn't know their true goals. Myunghon came to her, so she trusts them, at least.
"No... I scared you, and I'm sorry for that. This is a horrifying thing, and it's not... easy to swallow." Hazuki tries to smile, though. "But I believe we can do it. We have a lot of allies, a lot of people trying to save my friend, without even knowing him. For all those who could be bad, there's still good."
Hazuki pauses, eying the door instead of sitting back down just yet. "Why don't I leave you for now? We can arrange the rest over phone. Just keep hope, okay?"
<Pose Tracker> Rin Sasaki has posed.
Rin nods. "Yes, it is -- getting late." Hopefully she didn't chase off Hazuki completely with her outburst. It seems that there are an extraordinarily small amount of people that can functionally help. If a teenager is one of those, then letting her hair-trigger nerves get the better of her in the moment was not the wisest choice.
"Nakao-san," she adds abruptly right after, before the door is opened. "I know you said that some of it was difficult to explain and impossible to demonstrate -- but this is my husband, and my whole life, in the balance. When there is time, please. I want to know more. In full detail," she stresses.
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
Hazuki turns as she moves to leave. "...okay. I promise I'll tell you everything," she says, genuinely, before leaving. And if Rin doesn't believe her or is scared off afterwards... that's her choice. For now, she has to get home and go to bed. It's exams week!