Can You Hear Me [Closed]

[stringmods]

Who: Akihiko Sanada & Friends
Where: Caduceus Hospital
Summary: Akihiko Sanada arrives from the Tower of Animus which means he needs a new body.
Warnings: Persona 3 Tear Factory

Sector F Level 4B-Room 2.

The area looked more like a science lab than an actual room. Numerous tubes were surrounding Akihiko, along with monitors of every type and subject. And that was for the medical part. What was more, candles and strange summoning circles and items were surrounding the bed as well, as medical met mystical in a strange array. Hinoto-Ri had perfected their arts, but they still had a long way to go.

"He's still rather weak," a voice above him said, distorted. "Did you send the message to his relatives?"

"Yes. I believe a positive experience may jolt him out of of the vegetative state he's now in."

"I wonder if he hears us. Damn Visitor should appreciate what we're doing."

"Dr.Stein, please remember that we are men of cloth sword to heal and protect as much as we can. This includes Visitor and Demons."

"I know. I know. I'm sorry. Let's leave him be and we can preform most tests later."

Comments

[themortalhalf]

He does remember. It wasn't something he could forget, really, so it takes him by surprise when she asks to see him alone, despite the current events over the past month. This Aki might not even know who she is, but then again, he might. It was hard to decide what to expect anymore. The Akihiko inside the hospital room could be one of the versions of him they saw in Geartopia. Older. Or younger. Or it could even be the old Akihiko from Minato's side of the coin again, having somehow found his way back. Still, he takes the request in stride, after a couple seconds of thought, face softening somewhat as he nods and steps away, leaning agains the wall behind him, trying to ignore the attention-seeking beep of hospital equipment.

"If that's what you wanna do," he says. "You can come and get us when you're done."

[greatseal]

It's because she's faced this scenario before that Minako doesn't question Miki's choice. Seeing a Minato who didn't remember her - didn't even know her at all, had really hurt. There's no guarantee that a Minato who returned to the city would be her Minato, the one she'd gotten to know. And if she wasn't sure of what she'd find, it would be easier to start by talking to him alone.

"Yeah! We'll be right here when you need us!" Moral support from afar.

[hinoto_ri]

A few minutes after Miki went on, a doctor came by, giving them a small bow.

"Mr. Aragaki and....Ms.Sanada?" Well she had a 1/2 chance of getting that right.

[themortalhalf]

He looks up at the sound of his name, back straightening, arching an eyebrow as he regards the doctor levelly. She's... half right at least. He guesses he can't blame her for making that assumption, even if Minako's hair is a bit to vibrant to fit in with the Sanada line. She's enough of a handful as she is, anyway, is without adding Sanada genes to the mix. His nerves would probably be a bit more frayed by now, if that were the case.

"Yeah. Mostly." His eyes flicker towards the door, mildly concerned. He's not the type to eavesdrop, and has no intention to, but he can't hear Aki's voice at all. Just Miki's every now and then, muffled. Not enough to make out the words. "But his sister's already in the room with him."

That should narrow her guesswork down.

[hinoto_ri]

"Oh I see! My apologies. Then this must be Ms Arisato." She tapped her pad for a few seconds, as if weight what she should be doing. "Perhaps it's best to leave them alone for a few more minutes, then. We were hoping she'd come to reinforce a positive experience to aid him recover after all he's been through."

She gave them a small nod in greeting.

"I'm Dr.Abi. We were weighing when to send you the message, but after the twenty hour-long operation we preformed on him, he was still having issues. In the end, an hour after it was done, I was given permission to contact you. I apologize that it was so early in the morning."

[greatseal]

"Twenty hours?!" Akihiko had never hurt himself so badly during the time she'd known him to require surgery of that severity. She hadn't heard anyone say he'd hurt himself badly before they'd met, either... so what in the world was going on? "What exactly is wrong with him, doctor? Will he be all right?"

Akihiko is tough, but now she's starting to worry.

[hinoto_ri]

"He's fine now," she confirmed. "He's not in danger anymore. But we had to rebuild his entire body from scratch since he arrived in nothing but a shell. It took a bit of both science and magic to be able to accomplish it."

VERY SIMPLE THINGS THAT HAPPENED EVERYDAY IN HOSPITALS--jesus crust.

"There seems to be no side effects, but it make take him a few days for his body to adjust to be able to use muscles properly again."

[themortalhalf]

All of that earns... a very long pause from Shinjiro as he grimaces, looking back at the door with growing concern. What the hell was any of that even supposed to mean? That... wasn't how he arrived. He had just.. popped into being when he had been dragged here. Though Shinjiro had some understanding that their existence here wasn't exactly physicaly the same from how it was back in Iwatodai. He didn't know how the hell you even went about rebuilding a body, but he wasn't going to question that so much as question why Aki actually needed it. It's good and all that he's fine, but...

"What do you mean, 'shell'? Did something go wrong when he got pulled here?"

[hinoto_ri]

"He had a collar on him like a few other Visitors that had showed up before. Do you remember, the Tower? A few of you traveled there, or so we heard the rumors...A few months ago, another Visitor arrived from that world. We realized that they had no physical body after some research on the collar clasped around his neck. Just a holographic-like shell holding the soul in. It's different than, say, when someone shows up and they are supposed to be dead. There's still an echo from their original world that a proper shell can be built upon. But in this case, the body wouldn't be found in that world, if it makes sense...It was probably in the world before that. From world to world to world..."" She frowned and tapped her pad again.

"I'm sorry, but it's still all very much in theory stages, and a learning process for us as well."

[greatseal]

"The Tower?"

Of course Minako remembers that incident. Neither Minato nor Shinjiro had told her very much about what happened over there, but she'd gathered enough to know that it wasn't a pleasant place to be. But relating it to Akihiko is news to her. "Senpai was in that place?"

She turns to look at Shinjiro. The rest of what the doctor had said, about shells, and souls, she can't even begin to parse.

[themortalhalf]

He looks at the other woman sharply, eyes widening. He remembers that place just fine. But he hadn't known anyone from there had—

"Yeah, that's where we went," he says, eyes sliding over to Minako's, almost guiltily (though he doesn't regret not saying anything), before flickering away just as quickly to focus intently on the other woman.

He remembers the collars easy enough. But as far as he knew, they had only been made to wear them to ensure compatibility with the Tower, so the place wouldn't kill them outright. He hadn't known they were just shells. But for as bizarre it sounds, it made sense. To him at least. Fit neatly with what went on there, and how people... came back from things so readily. He's more relieved than anything at this point, to know that Aki's back from there and he's fine and doesn't have to endure that place anymore when he shouldn't have ever had to, but there's still a part of him that's still angry, frustrated. It wasn't fair place for anyone to be, and for all he knew, the others were still trapped there.

"...But if a couple people that were in that tower have been brought here before him, and you've learned that much about it, does that mean you people are actually looking into Animus?"

If the people who were held in the Tower could potentially arrive in Hinoto-ri, if the doctors here could rebuild their bodies, maybe it was possible to do something about the it and get the individuals who were still trapped there out.

[hinoto_ri]

She looked away from him when he brought out the possibility, pushing her glasses up.

"Yes we...thought about that. Unfortunately, that's not possible. At least, not right now. What we gleamed, we learned from two individuals; Doctor Emmett Brown who was here shortly, and Hallelujah who still resides in this world. He was kind enough to let us experiment on him, so we could remove the collar successfully, but this required rebuilding a new body in the process." Her eyes gazed downwards at the floor. "That's as far as our knowledge goes. We have not been able to travel there again using the Shining Trapezohedron, and as you may be aware, we cannot go anywhere a Visitor came from, at least willingly. And I doubt that any individual would want to return there willingly, from the eyewitness accounts we managed to record."

Her feet shuffled as she continued to speak. It was obvious that she felt uncomfortable, but she was very apologetic. "And I know this may sound harsh on my part, but as much as we would put more energy in trying to solve this issue, we have a city still in constant chaos. Civilians are dying at a higher rate than children are being born. Perhaps if we ever do manage to settle down properly, we will add additional funding to help other worlds apart from our own, such as this Tower. For how, our survival comes first. There would be a lot of technology for us to figure out to make this even possible. I apologize."

[greatseal]

"It's all right... You've done more than enough already." Minako can understand her reasoning, even if she thinks it would be better if they could help the people in the Tower as well. Even more so now that Akihiko is here. She looks over at Shinji again, her eyes narrowing a bit. He hadn't seem surprised enough. She was definitely going to have to talk with him later.

But that's later. Right now, Akihiko is who is important. "So, I don't really understand how re-building a body would work or why he'd be holographic in the first place, but basically Akihiko-senpai is a normal human again now?"

[themortalhalf]

His expression thins, but he nods. It's disappointing, but nothing he hadn't expected. He hadn't really believed that there was anything anyone could do about it, not when their own attempts were so unsuccessful. And in the end, it might be very dangerous to do so, for all he knows. It's nothing he can particularly blame Hinoto-ri for, though he still hates being unable to do nothing.

"How long does he need to stay here?"

[hinoto_ri]

"For all intents and purposes, yes he is." There were technicalities and certain things, but they need not worry about that. "He has a normal human lifespan, and he's flesh and blood again. From what we have seen so far, there appears to be no soul rejection or side effects. However, he will need to come on a regular basis for monitoring purposes."

She peeked into the door, a soft smile on her lips when she saw brother and sister talking.

"Just a day or two more before we can release him safely. The mixture of magic and technology is still a mystery to us and I wouldn't want a patient to be harmed on my watch, Visitor, Civilian or Demon."

[greatseal]

"Well... we'll be here when he's ready to leave. Right, senpai?"

She looks over at Shinji again. They definitely need to have a long talk, but right now, knowing that Akihiko is alive and okay is the most important thing. "Miki-chan will take good care of him too."

[themortalhalf]

Shinjiro glances over in her direction, eyes clouding over briefly before softening some. He nods. "Yeah."

He doesn't doubt that he'll have a lot of things to answer to when Aki's not on the forefront of everyone's mind. It's nothing he can avoid anymore, can't just not talk about it, like the Tower never happened. Still, he'll take the respite while he lasts, however ephemeral it may be.

And with that, his eyes drift over to the room where Aki is, lingering there, before they slide back to the older woman. "Thanks."

[hinoto_ri]

She looks surprised at the thanks before smiling, pushing her glasses up her nose again.

"You're welcome." She looked over at the door again. "...I'll come for my visit later. If there's any issues, there's a red button on the left side of his bed."

With that, she walked off.

New thread?

[helenchanter]

And a few minutes later, Miki peeks out from the room. There are some tears in her eyes, but she looks undeniably happy.

"H-hey." she coughs, looking a little embarrassed. "S-Sorry to have kept both of you waiting." She then opens the door wider for them to get in.

[greatseal]

"Don't worry about that. We told you to take the time you need."

But Minako is a bit anxious to see Akihiko, and she's sure Shinjiro is too, however well he's hiding it. With that in mind, she grabs his arm and tugs him towards the now open door. "Let's go, Senpai!"