Since setting out to sea, he has abided by a single rule as a pirate doctor - to not abandon any one of his patients. This time will be no different.
No matter the odds, Trafalgar Law will not let Murasaki Arisa die.
« Trafalgar D. Water L...
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"Arisa. Oi, A-ri-sa! Chidori-dono! It's time to wake up!"
Tatsuhito stifled a small smile as he watched Shiori hover restlessly over their friend. It was close to evening now. The past two hours of downtime they'd spent over a few games of mahjong and leftovers from Tsukinoya had been more than enough to set Arisa's mind at ease and allow for complete exhaustion to set in. The young woman in question had long fallen fast asleep over the kotatsu table with her head pillowed in her arms.
"C'mon, Arisa..." Shiori complained with another nudge. She cast an anxious look outside. "It's getting dark out! And it's a long way back, right?"
"Go away..." Arisa mumbled beneath her breath, turning her head the other way.
"Funny how she didn't even need any alcohol to get this way," Tatsuhito commented, leaning back with a chuckle. "If you'd told me she was drunk, I'd have believed it."
Shiori aimed a glare at him.
"...what am I supposed to do with her?"
"Just have her stay the night," came the practical response. "Look at her. She's clearly not going anywhere on her own, and I'm in no mood to haul her all the way back over to Takanotsume."
Arisa mumbled something unintelligible beneath her breath and shifted again, this time fully burying her face in her arms. Shiori glanced over to her, before slumping her shoulders and letting out an exaggerated groan.
"Of course this is what I get for babying you... God, sometimes you're no better than Riyu!" Leaning down and grasping Arisa's arm from her left side, she jutted her chin at him. "Tatsuhito-kun! Come help!"
Tatsuhito sighed but complied. Arisa stirred a few times, but whatever feeble protests she gave ultimately went unheeded as Shiori unceremoniously hauled her up and helped her onto the instructor's back. With some clumsy coordination, the two managed to get her to the guest room upstairs, where Tatsuhito carefully set Arisa down on the spare futon mattress.
Shiori pulled the covers over her friend's sleeping form. Her expression softened with sympathy.
"She really must be exhausted, the poor thing," she murmured, turning down the lamp and retreating to the doorway where Tatsuhito stood waiting for her.
They descended the staircase together. Once at the entryway, he glanced out of one of the windows through which a minuscule patch of the evening sky was visible.
"I should probably get going."
"Oh... already?" A flicker of disappointment darkened Shiori's face, though she quickly masked it with her usual smile. They went down the landing together, and she reached out to open the door for him. "Busy day tomorrow?"
"Well. Something like that." Tatsuhito hesitated as he stepped out into the front garden "I need to speak with my brother on a few things first thing in the morning."
