A different kind of IC intro

[papadojima]

Who: Dojima and OPEN
Where: Caduceus Hospital, Leo District
Summary: Dojima doesn't arrive quite as planned.
Warnings: None so far.

Today, after being silent for a few days, the HORUS system beeps back to life, indicating a new arrival... at Caduceus Hospital in the Leo district. Not at all where Visitors usually arrive...

Dojima opens his eyes after a strange dream. Persona... must be because of what his nephew told him. He groans as nurses get to work around him, hooking him up to machines, giving him oxygen and dialing different departments for a head to toe examination of the new patient who was visibly in bad shape. Shit, why had they unhooked him in the first place?

"Sir? Sir, what is your name?" the youngest nurse asks, writing pad in hand.

He hisses in pain before repying "Dojima... Ryotaro."

"Okay. Do you know where you are?"

"Inaba."

From the look the nurse gives him, Dojima understands this was not the right answer. But, if he's not in Inaba... where is he???

Comments

before anyone shows up!

[hinoto_npcs]

It was about twenty minutes after the nurses had finished hooking Ryotaro up that one of the doctors managed to personally bustle his way in to the room directly. The man looked a little haggard, but put on his best smile when he saw the man lying in the hospital bed.

"Mister, Dojima was it?" He smoothly crossed the room, eyeing the (much smaller) amount of machines set up in the room. Geez louise, they really lucked out catching this guy so fast. "My name is Dr. Abi. Are you able to answer questions? I need to know if the pain medication has kicked in properly."

:3

[papadojima]

"I feel like I'm floating..." Dojima slurred a bit. "Nothin' hurts." Which is something, given that in Inaba he recently got out of surgery to screw his three broken ribs back into place.

( =①ω①=)

[hinoto_npcs]

"It may be stronger than the stuff from your own world. We've made a few steps forward, here." The doctor kept his tone light as he carefully checked this machine and that, scribbling down something on his clipboard before flopping in to the chair set by the bed.

"You were pretty banged up when we found you- and it's good we did!" Dr. Abi nodded, and let his face drift to something more serious. "Do you remember anything of what happened? Don't strain yourself- but anything you can recall will help us care for you."

[papadojima]

"I... Nanako... I couldn't..." Dojima covers his face with his hands for a moment. "Namatame... I was... in a car accident."

[hinoto_npcs]

"Nanako?"

Dr. Abi jotted that down, as well as making a note about the car accident, and the other name.

"Is Nanako a relative of yours, Mr. Dojima?"

[papadojima]

Dojima has to focus to make sense of the doctor's question. "Sshe's my daughter... she's been kidnapped... Souji... where... where's my nephew?"

[hinoto_npcs]

Once again, the doctor jotted down the information, before pulling out a beeper. One of the nurses from before came in, and the two had a hushed conversation, before she left with a nod.

"We're going to do our best to find them, Mr. Dojima. Can you give us any physical descriptions? Ages?" It was a lot to ask the man, frankly, but he couldn't not try.

[disconinjafrog]

When Yosuke got a ping of a new arrival on his COMP, he was in the Virgo district, just getting out of Junes with a bag of things for a certain someone's birthday later that day. Usually he ignored these kinds of pings either for being too far away or simply because he didn't think he'd be the best one to handle new arrivals to the city...

But this one was conveniently close, and... And it was in the hospital? Did one of the arrivals show up and get injured, had they been injured already? Maybe it wasn't really his business but... he had a nagging feeling to just go check it out. He wasn't late anyway, he had plenty of time to get everything set for his friend's birthday.

So the teen decides to turn his bike around and head out in the opposite direction, to the Caduceus Hospital, chaining it up outside and running up the steps to the front desk. A quick question with the nurse had confirmed his fears: an arrival did just show up, pretty mangled and lying in a hospital bed. What he hadn't expecting though, was the name of the patient...

"Dojima-san?!" Yosuke's eyes widened and he nearly dropped the grocery bag he was holding. "What, you have to let me see him!!" He started protesting with the nurse who seemed to want to refuse admittance to see him. "No... I'm not family but he's my best friend's uncle, he knows me!!"

It takes several minutes of arguing before the stubborn nurse finally complies and takes Yosuke up to his room, ordering him to be careful and be quiet and not to disturb the patient too much.

Poking his head in nervously, Yosuke looks around and notices.... Wow... he looked just like how he did back in November, after that accident...

"Dojima-san?" The teen was a little bit quiet, and was seriously debating on whether or not he should have just contacted Yu right away with the news that his uncle was in the city, and hurt.

[papadojima]

Dojima opens his eyes at the call of his name, slowly. He turns his head towards the door and spots... oh, it's one of Yu's friends. "Hanamura?" he whispers. "I had the strangest dream..."

Suddenly he sits straight up, the gesturing tearing a scream of pain out of him. "NANAKO! Did you find Nanako...!" Two nurses come immediately at the scream, scolding Yosuke and Dojima, the first for disturbing the patient, the second for having opened his surgical wound on his chest again.

[disconinjafrog]

Yosuke shrinks back, taking one step backward in terror from his sudden screaming, and he doesn't even notice the nurses yelling at him as they try to calm Dojima down and get him to relax. His knuckles turn white as he drops the grocery back on the floor by his feet and clenches his fists, trying to brace himself.

"Dojima-san, Nanako-chan is fine!!" Goddamnit, he should've contacted Yu first, he's such an idiot... The frightened teen approaches slowly. "What happened to you?? Why are you injured like this??"

[papadojima]

It took a moment for Dojima to be able to speak again. "Car accident... weren't you there? Argh!" A nurse pressed hard on his wound while another went to get suture thread and a needle.

"Where's Nanako?"

[disconinjafrog]

"Car accident??" Wait... wait so he was... oh shit. "You mean you just got out of the car accident from chasing down Namatame?? Shit..."

He shakes his head and holds his hands out to try and make a 'stay calm' gesture. "Nanako-chan is fine, she's safe and sound with Yu right now, you don't need to worry." The nurse offhandedly informs Yosuke that Yu Narukami had already been contacted, so there was no need to panic and try to get a hold of him.

"They'll be on their way, okay? You don't need to worry, Dojima-san!"

[linefacingforever]

Yu was trying very hard not to panic, for Nanako's sake. He was also trying very hard not to break out into a full out run as he entered the hospital, the sterile smell hitting him in the face and bringing back bad memories of pain and painful recoveries. His hand was wrapped around Nanako's as he went up to the front desk, told where to go and who to speak to, and again it was difficult for him not to break out into a full on run, trying to keep his long strides short, trying not to panic.

His uncle was here... his uncle was here in Hinoto-Ri, in the hospital. Just... dammit. Dammit, Philemon, why did he have to do this?!

Yu paused as they waited for an elevator to arrive to take them to the floor Dojima was on, turning down to his little cousin. He gave her hand a squeeze, quietly hoping that she would be okay too... the last time her father had been in the hospital, she had been as well, and hadn't had the chance to worry about him. He knew she was strong, but...

"Are you okay, Nanako?"

[greaterdays]

"Yeah, I'm okay!" Her answer is resolute. After all, they aren't even sure what's wrong with Dojima yet. It could be nothing that serious at all (even if Yu surely knows better than that by now.) Nanako doesn't understand why her father would be hurt again, but he'd healed just fine the last time he was in the hospital. And so had Yu. "I know Dad will be fine."

[linefacingforever]

Yu smiled faintly, grateful that she was that brave and optimistic. Him? He was freaking out, worried that someone had gotten to Dojima first, whether it be the government or Adachi or the Anoli or something some other power had come out of no where, and...

He turned away, forcing out a breath as the elevator arrived, allowing them to enter. No, he needed to stop thinking like this, but he couldn't help but be worried. There was just too much that could go wrong here...

[greaterdays]

Nanako may not be able to read all of the emotions behind his stoic expression, but she can at least tell he's worried. She squeezes his hand.

"It's okay, Big Bro. The doctors here are really good."

[linefacingforever]

Yu blew out a breath at that, giving her hand a squeeze again. "I know; they patched me up good, didn't they?"

The elevator let them off on the right floor, and after stopping by the nurse's station, they were led off to one of the rooms. Yu peered in first, just to see if the sight would be too much for Nanako to see as well, before pushing the door open all the way.

"Uncle...?" he began, his voice soft.

[papadojima]

Dojima stirred a bit in his sleep, then turned his head toward the door and opened his eyes, squinting. "... Yu?"

[greaterdays]

"Dad!" Sorry, big bro, as soon as she hears her dad's voice she pushes around his legs and into the room. It's been almost half a year. That's way too long.

The hospital bed and equipment make her pause for a moment, but besides being tired, he really doesn't look any worse than how she'd seen him the last time he was admitted. So she approaches to hug whatever part of his chest isn't covered in bandages. Hopefully she isn't hurting him too much. "You're really here..."

OH GOD I'M SORRY feel free to whack me over the head!

[misogynistic]

Well, shit. Well shit, well shit, well shit, well shit.

Naturally, aside from family, when an officer showed up in this state, the immediate next people they call for are the police. Well, they called the police period, but this was an extra special case. They also called on the officer's partner, if they were present. Hahahaa, well...

"Dojima-san!?" Adachi was present. It was disorienting as all hell, but he was present. Why, why, why, what was with the timing--

Well, wasn't this just surreal. Nanako was okay and Dojima was the one injured... Maybe he should start becoming bitter to all this stuff. Nothing ever happened as 'usual' here, so... Still, he uneasily stepped inside Dojima's room, wary of the nurses. Seemed like some of them still didn't like him, what with what happened around a month and a half ago. Whatever, too bad for them.

But who knew how Dojima even saw him, though? He could go off saying some stupid stuff like Yu had... So he had to do this carefully as he stopped by Dojima's bed. Judging by the injuries, though, he had a damn good idea of when Dojima had come here, so maybe, just maybe he was okay. Still, it wasn't a definite thing.

"Wow, Dojima-san, it's..." Was it bad that he wanted Dojima to stay sick for a while so he didn't find out about him ditching a certain hour? "Ha, they said you came in pretty bad, but I think they were underselling it!" Yeah. Probably.

/patpat

[papadojima]

Dojime let out a small grunt at the sight of his partner by his bed. It was hard to say if it was disapproval or just acknowledgement. "I'm fine, Adachi, thanks for asking." He rubbed his forehead with his good hand. Damn but he was getting a massive headache and the harsh lighting of the room wasn't helping. He squinted at the lights. "When did you get here?"

/withers

[misogynistic]

"Ha, yeah, sorry about that..." In Hinoto-Ri it would've been February...6th, was it? Meanwhile, it had been March 20th Adachi's time, so... It would be around maybe May if Adachi hadn't left? Hm, how to put that, though.

"Around..." As Adachi paused and tilted his head, he studied Dojima. No yelling... That was a pretty good sign, right? "...wow, a month and a half ago! Huh, I can't believe it's been that long already..." But... "Hold on, what all have you heard about this place so far?"

[papadojima]

It was a very good sign, but on the other hand, Dojima was in no condition to yell.

"I see..." He covered his eyes with his arm. "Nothing you probably don't know. That this is Hinoto-Ri, Caduceus Hospital, and that I have a... a Persona. A thing in my head."

[misogynistic]

"Oh." Well, it makes sense that Adachi wasn't the first to come. Family, then partners. Still, he should consider himself lucky that he had managed to come when the kids weren't present.

"Isn't it weird?" Judging from how Dojima was injured, there had to be only one time he came in... However, how about he use the least tactful way of finding out? "The kids mentioned them, those Persona things, when Nanako-chan was kidnapped... I didn't buy into it, so having it mentioned again? I'm still having a hard time. I haven't even seen mine or anybody else's, so I don't really know what to make of them... But apparently there are even tournaments where people use them!"

Yes, he's an elite. He's been here for almost two months and knows nothing about them. Yeeeup.

[papadojima]

"And you didn't investigate that tournament thing???" Dojima is disappointed in you, Adachi. Even if you didn't believe in it, hell, even if Dojima himself hardly believed in it (he only did a bit because Yu and Nanako had told him about it), a fucking tournament where people used Personas to... do whatever that tournament was about deserved some investigation! Dammit, if you were within reach he'd slap your head.