Commentary:
Some of you might have seen this coming, but Rikku will be sticking around for a while longer. He'll come in handy later for certain plot points, and it's what he would do anyway. Jiro is whispering in panel 2 because only he is aware of Rikku's "Red Power".
Relevant Pages:
5-12, 6-1, 14-13, 14-14, 14-15, 16-27, 21-2, 21-4