silenthowlsstuff - Tumblr blog

silenthowlsstuff · 7 months ago

Text

Keep Talking (Kaiju No. 8 Fic)

Today, I bring the joy of more hoshikaf!! Truly this ship and the fandom have dug their claws in and I'm already swimming in ideas, so prepare to be fed more of them!! Enjoy~

Word Count: 4152

In the midst of a mission to exterminate kaiju, communication is key. Without it, the risk of injuries or death increases dramatically. But there are times where, in the midst of battle, that communication falls apart. It’s to be expected honestly, which is why they have people in the command centre that listen to all the information that comes in from everyone and figure out who needs to hear what as fast as possible. They truly don’t get enough credit—the command centre staff that is—when they do so much for the Defence Force, and quite often get the blame when communication suffers, even when it’s not their fault half the time.

Kafka both gets it and doesn’t, mostly because he’s attuned to the communications between everyone, keeping one ear on those of the third division to make sure that no one is about to die, and the other on the command centre in order to hear their reports on the kaiju so that he may offer what knowledge he has on the beasts. So of course, that also means he’s usually the first—ironic that this is what he’s first in—to know when someone drops out of contact; communication systems can break with a good enough hit, so as long as the person is still transmitting vitals, those watching over them will let the lack of communication slide for another minute or so.

But Kafka doesn’t wait, he just goes.

At best, he gets scolded for going to the aid of someone who didn’t need it—usually by Kikoru of all people—and at worst, he’s saving a life.

The mission that he and the third division are on is supposed to be a simple clean up mission. However, when they get there, the area is overrun with yoju, so many that they easily outnumber the third division. The only consolation is that they’re easy to deal with, and they make slow and steady progress in clearing them out. Kafka teams up with Ishikawa out of habit, and they wind up following in the carnage that Kikoru leaves behind as she charges ahead of the rest of them, axe cleaving the yoju in half with ease. Which is… effective, although Kafka wishes that she’d slow down just a little—just a little.

Nonetheless it goes smoothly for the first hour or so, the entirety of the third division working together to slay all the yoju whilst Okonogi and the others try to track down the honju that’s brought them here in the first place. Whatever it is, it’s determined to remain hidden from their systems, lying in wait for something and Kafka doesn’t like it when the kaiju wait; usually it means they’re on the larger size and far stronger than the everyday honju—not quite daikaiju class, but also not entirely honju either. Okonogi had described it to them once that honju of that type were simply the odd ones out, and usually, they were the unpredictable ones.

And it’s the job of the captains and vice-captains to deal with the unpredictable ones.

And—well—

It’s also Kafka’s job now.

The first sign of the honju comes with a loud rumbling that shakes the area surrounding the city that they’re trying to protect, yet Okonogi reports no readings that belong to the honju, only another wave of yoju that emerge just to make this mission even more of an annoyance than before. The next comes with a sudden loud explosion accompanied by shockwaves that send them all to the floor—Kafka tackles Ishikawa to the ground and covers the younger man’s body with his own protectively, even as Ishikawa protests underneath him.

“Senpai! I can protect myself!”

Kafka knows that, but he still remembers how lifeless Ishikawa felt after meeting Nine, and he just can’t let such a thing happen again. He just smiles down at Ishikawa. “You’ve protected me enough times, it’s my turn to protect you.”

His words draw forth a fond smile. “Thank you, senpai.”

The explosion fades as fast as it appears, and a cloud of dust lingers in the air afterwards. And it only takes a second for Kafka to realise that in the wake of the explosion, when everyone had been sounding off, Hoshina had not. That in itself isn’t too odd, as being one of the few blade users in the division meant that he sometimes couldn’t get a hand free to open the communication line when he engaged in combat. But what is odd is the way that underneath the cacophony of everyone shouting to try and figure out where the explosion came from and what caused it, Okonogi’s voice slips through the cracks.

“Vice-captain…?”

She sounds worried, like she’s been trying to get a hold of Hoshina for a while now, and that’s enough to have Kafka’s heart leap out of his chest. His body follows suite a moment later, and without a word he dashes in the direction he last remembers Hoshina being in, Ishikawa calling after him in confusion. But he doesn’t hear the question, blood pounding in his ears as he runs, transforming his legs so that he can move faster. He runs and runs, propelling himself over the bodies of yoju and crumbled buildings with ease, focused on only one thing and one thing only.

Making sure that Hoshina was okay.

Kafka switches to a private channel with Okonogi. “Okonogi-san, it’s Hibino. What’s happened?”

“Oh, Hibino-san!” He can hear the stress in Okonogi’s voice. “I can’t get a hold of the vice-captain!”

For just a second—no, a fraction of a second—Kafka’s heart stops. “Is he alive?”

“Yes.” Okonogi confirms, typing away at one of her many screens. “According to my systems, his vitals are stable, but just before the explosion, they dropped.”

Kafka frowns, and pushes himself just a little further. “And he’s not responding?”

“No matter what channel I try. Perhaps he took a hit that knocked out his comms, but I’m worried because that vital drop was severe.”

“Send me his last known location, Okonogi-san, I’m already on my way over.”

Kafka hears what sounds like a muffled sob over the line, although he can’t be sure, before Okonogi speaks up again. “Thank you, Hibino-san. Dropping coordinates now.”

He hears the beep that signals the data’s been received, and pulls up the screen to look; he’s heading in the right direction, and at the speed he’s moving it’ll only be another minute or so before he arrives at the location. “Got ‘em. I’ll keep you updated.”

And with a quiet affirmative from Okonogi, Kafka switches back to the main channel so that he can catch up on what’s happening around him. He can hear Ishikawa reaching out to him, wanting to know why he ran off the way he did, and Kikoru jumping in to question Ishikawa about what stupid thing that he was doing now. And normally, Kafka would chime in at that moment to argue that he isn’t doing something stupid, and that he’s actually being rather helpful by dashing to the vice-captain’s aid. But he knows that if he says that to either of his friends that they’ll follow suite and on the off chance that the problem is in fact, broken comms, he doesn’t want to drag them away from the mission at hand. So he ignores their calls; if there’s a problem then he’ll call for aid, but until then he continues to run.

He'll be scolded for it later no doubt, for ignoring communication attempts and abandoning his post, but he can’t just stand by and wait for them to reestablish communications with Hoshina. However, he hopes that the scolding comes from Hoshina, because it means that everything is as it should be.

Kafka lets out a shaky breath, finding it amusing that he wants to be scolded by the vice-captain when he normally tried to avoid it.

As he draws closer to Hoshina’s location, Kafka switches to the channel that the vice-captain uses when he’s trying to focus on combat—its one that he and Okonogi use for the most part, where Okonogi relays the important communications through and if needed, links to the main channel that the rest of the third division uses. Hoshina doesn’t use the channel often, only in emergency situations, which is why Kafka hopes that he’ll get an answer if he uses it.

“Vice-captain?” Kafka calls, and waits for a response.

There’s a crackle over the comms, but no response otherwise.

Kafka tries again. “Vice-captain, please respond!”

His commlink crackles. “Kaf—”

The relief that Kafka feels over hearing Hoshina’s voice disappears the moment that he hears an almighty boom and sees another growing cloud of dust and debris not far from him. And Kafka doesn’t hesitate—he pushes off with as much power as he can draw upon without transforming fully and launches himself into the air towards where the second explosion had come from.

“Okonogi-san, I’m almost at the scene now.” Kafka says, eyes scanning the ground below him, searching for—there. “I’ve got eyes on him.”

The sigh of relief from Okonogi resonates within his entire body even though the two of them are nowhere near each other. “Do you require assistance, Hibino-san?

“I’ll let you know.” Kafka says, and then after a brief pause. “I’m sure Ishikawa and Kikoru are already on their way over though.”

Okonogi remains silent before she gives a strained laugh. “You could be correct, Hibino-san. Please, keep me updated.”

“Understood, Okonogi-san.” Kafka nods even though she can’t see him before he starts falling out of the sky, and the only reason that doesn’t terrify him is because he knows his body can handle it thanks to its kaiju powers—not that it stops the feeling of his stomach rising. That will always be an awful sensation, second only to actually dying. Well… third perhaps, since having limbs chopped off isn’t an overly pleasant sensation either. Or maybe fourth—no, fifth, no—

The point is, the falling sensation sucks.

Kafka hits the ground hard, and breaks into a run, dashing forward to where Hoshina stands, lilting dangerously to one side, right as the ground breaks open and the honju shoots up into the air before shooting down towards Hoshina. To his credit, the vice-captain raises his swords up to fight the enormous creature even though it’s obvious that blades won’t do anything against it, and plants a firm foot in front of him, ready to fight a losing battle.

Kafka’s heart stops then, and he doesn’t even hesitate.

He transforms.

“Soshiro!”

The vice-captains name slips out unintentionally, and Kafka lunges, kaiju eyes meeting Hoshina’s as the vice-captain glances towards him, and time slows around them both. Kafka feels as if he’s moving through sludge, not moving fast enough to save the life of the man he respects so much as a kaiju threatens to take it from him. And yet—and yet, Kafka’s arms wrap around Hoshina’s waist, the force of his jump carrying them both to safety as the honju disappears below the ground where Hoshina had been just a moment ago.

And then there’s silence, and yet another dust cloud.

“Soshiro? You’re good at… disrespect… Hibino Kafka.” Hoshina croaks, and Kafka glances down at his vice-captain. “You’ll be doin’ laps… when we get back.”

Kafka nods; he’ll do as many laps as Hoshina wants.

“Okonogi-san was concerned when you dropped out of contact.” Kafka says, and then actually looks over Hoshina. There’s a gash across the vice-captain’s forehead, blood running down his face and the eye on that side is squeezed shut—whether because of an injury or the blood, Kafka can’t tell. Hoshina’s suit is also torn in places, blood dripping from those wounds as well, and a closer look shows that his shoulder looks wrong. A dislocation then, from the way he’s holding himself.

Hoshina laughs, a smile on his face. Always the smile.

Kafka never wants that smile to disappear.

“Okonogi-chan worries too much. I’m fine.” Hoshina says, the grimace on his face suggesting otherwise however.

“Will all due respect, vice-captain, I disagree with you.” Kafka says and gently lowers Hoshina onto the ground, keeping an ear out for the honju. The last thing he wants is for it to sneak up on them. “What happened?”

Hoshina winces as he’s placed on the ground and Kafka notices that he’s dragging one leg. Broken? Hard to say. “Bastard’s good at hidin’ his presence. Came right up from underneath me.”

Kafka nods. That explains why despite all the yoju about, they haven’t been able to detect the readings of the honju; some kaiju are like that, Kafka’s learned, and it’s never any less annoying when one appears on a mission. “What can I do to help?”

“Well, since ya already transformed, blastin’ it away would be nice.” Hoshina suggests with a smile—this one less friendly and more bloodthirsty.

Kafka shudders, remembering such a smile when Hoshina had tried to kill him before he’d revealed himself, and knows that if the vice-captain were able to move properly, that the honju would be having a bad time. He steels himself, though, and nods. “I’ll—”

He doesn’t get a chance to finish his sentence as the ground opens up underneath them. An arm wraps around his neck, and a leg around his waist which is all that Kafka needs to know before pushing himself into the air. The arm around him tightens, but Hoshina manages to hold on despite his injuries.

“Well, that’s a little inconvenient.” Hoshina remarks as if they’re fighting a yoju instead of a honju. “Do your thing, Kafka, I’ll be fight.”

“But, vice-captain—”

Hoshina’s hand slaps against the side of his face. “No buts, it’s an order. Destroy the honju before it goes underground again.”

Kafka nods and calls forth on his power. One good blow should be enough to obliterate the honju—and even if it isn’t, Ishikawa and Kikoru can’t be too far away to deal the finishing blows themselves. What matters most right now is protecting Hoshina, a job that Kafka intends to do well.

The kaiju lets out a deafening roar and Kafka returns it with one of his own just as he lands on the roof of a building that’s miraculously still standing, and pushes off the edge towards the honju. He hears Hoshina grunt in his ear, and his grip tighten more, but Kafka can’t focus on it right now because if he does, he’ll lose power, and he truly wants to finish this fight in one hit. As he nears the honju, he twists his body to draw Hoshina closer to him, and then unleashes a powerful punch that sends shockwaves through the air—and the honju with it.

Kafka grits his teeth when the honju doesn’t immediately blow apart, and prepares to launch another attack once his feet are on the ground.

Only, he doesn’t get to.

Because Kikoru comes flying forward and with one swing of her axe, cleaves the honju in two.

“Hibino Kafka, you idiot! Running off and transforming without telling anyone!” Kikoru shouts.

Kafka can’t help but grin. “Ah, you know me, Kikoru; I just want to help people.”

“Well, don’t ignore communications next—vice captain!” Kikoru cuts off as she lands on the ground and spots Kafka—now returned to his human form—with Hoshina resting against him.

“Ah, Shinomiya, nicely done as usual.” Hoshina says, smiling. “You’re getting’ the hang of that weapon there.”

“Excuse my disrespect, vice-captain, but don’t even try to deflect!” Kikoru huffs, coming to crouch before him and Kafka. “Ishikawa’s right behind me. Once he gets here, we can head back. With the honju down, the others will have an easy time with the yoju—at least, they better.”

Kafka blinks at the backhanded comment but elects not to respond to it. Respond… oh right! “Okonogi-san, we’ve secured the vice-captain, but we need medical.”

“Already dispatched, Hibino-san!” Comes the reply.

“Ah, Okonogi-chan, how lovely to hear you worryin’ over me.” Hoshina says

Okonogi lets out a huff. “I wouldn’t have had to worry so much if you’d responded to me after the honju appeared!”

“Well, lapses in communication happen sometimes, can’t do much about it.”

“You aren’t getting out of it that easy, vice-captain!” Okonogi snaps, the slightest bit of frustration seeping into her voice before she falls quiet and then murmurs. “I’m glad you’re okay though…”

Hoshina lets out a breath that has Kafka tightening his grip on the man, and they both look towards the corpse of the honju, and smiling, Hoshina murmurs back. “It was a close one, I’ll tell ya that.”

Too close indeed, Kafka thinks.

“You’d think I did die from the way you’re still here.” Hoshina’s voice wakes Kafka from the unexpected nap that he’d taken in the chair beside the vice-captain’s bed in the infirmary.

Kafka lets out a yawn and stretches before he sits as straight as he can. Relief fills him at seeing Hoshina’s eyes open, even though one is obscured by bandages—as is the rest of him after the injuries he’d sustained on the mission. “No one deserves to wake up alone in the infirmary, vice-captain.”

Hoshina hums and turns to look at the ceiling. “Has anyone at least tried to kick you out?”

“Captain Ashiro tried. I… respectfully refused.” Kafka says with a sheepish grin. And when Hoshina looks at him with a raised eyebrow, he can’t help but elaborate further. “Well, she gave me a hundred laps for insubordination, but then told me to wish you a fast recovery.”

Hoshina hums, which prompts Kafka into continuing further.

“And everyone else has at least stopped by briefly to see how you’re doing.”

“They must think I’m on my deathbed then.”

Kafka’s face loses its mirth. “Your injuries were serious, vice-captain…”

Hoshina raises his injured arm a few inches before wincing and lowering it back to the bed. Instead, he raises is uninjured arm and waves it dismissively in Kafka’s direction. “I’ve had worse.”

And doesn’t Kafka believe it. During the time that Hoshina had been unconscious, when Mina had come to visit her vice-captain, she’d told him of how Hoshina had come to be part of the third division, sacrificing his own life to save that of a child and almost dying because of it. She’d also deigned to share with him a few other instances in which Hoshina had discarded his own well-being for the sake of others, and each one had Kafka’s heart clenching. He understands of course, since he’s much the same, putting his own life on the line to save those he cares about. But… it’s different for him. He’s not quite human as much as he tries to prove he is, a fact he is slowly coming to terms with, with each mission that he’s forced to unleash his kaiju form on.

He hates it, but it’s the truth.

And yet Hoshina is as human as they come, a kind person who pushes everyone to their limits so that they can protect themselves when the time came, and its why Kafka looks up to him, strives to be as good a man as Hoshina is, to be as strong as the vice-captain is.

But he doesn’t want to become those things if Hoshina isn’t there to witness them.

“Your entire left side was broken.” Kafka says, repeating what he’d overheard the doctors saying. “Your suit saved you, but it was still bad.”

Hoshina remains silent, watching Kafka with a curious gaze.

Kafka brings his hands together and shuffles forward to rest his forehead against Hoshina’s bed, not saying anything for a moment and just listening to Hoshina’s steady breaths. He hadn’t left the younger’s side after medical had extracted them, not even when the doctors were treating Hoshina, despite their best efforts to get Kafka out of the way. Even Kikoru and Ishikawa had tried to drag him away, but he refused them. He’d tried to tell himself that it was because Mina and Okonogi were too busy with the mission debrief to keep Hoshina company until he woke, but… Kafka doesn’t think that’s entirely true.

There’s something else, something that he can’t quite name yet.

Something he doesn’t want to think about right now.

A hand in his hair causes him to look up, and Kafka relaxes at the soft look Hoshina gives him, dragging his fingers through Kafka’s hair soothingly.

“I worried you.” Hoshina says.

Kafka nods, the words he wants to say stuck in his throat.

“I won’t promise not to do it again.” Hoshina continues, and Kafka nods again. “But…”

“But…?” Kafka murmurs.

“I’ll try not to get myself thrown into a building by a honju that can avoid our sensors.”

Kafka snorts, and smiles. “I think myself and the rest of the division would appreciate it, vice-captain.”

A silence falls between the two of them, and Kafka returns to resting his head against the side of Hoshina’s bed. Now that Hoshina’s awake and he’s spoken to him, Kafka’s hit with a sudden wave of exhaustion, accumulated from recent events. In hindsight, he realises he’s being disrespectful to his superior, but he’s just so relieved that Hoshina is okay, that he can’t help but do it; there’s just something inside of him, urging him to remain by the vice-captain’s side. And he just gives in to it. The worst that the vice-captain can do right now is kick him out and demand that Kafka leave him alone, but considering that the moment Kafka’s head returns to the bed, Hoshina’s hand returns to his hair.

After a few minutes, Hoshina speaks, a teasing note in his voice. “So… Soshiro, huh?”

Kafka’s face begins to burn and he shoots back upright into his seat. “I didn’t mean to—honestly! It just slipped out, and I apologise for the disrespect! I was just—”

“Kafka, chill.” Hoshina interrupts, and then turns his face away from Kafka. “It’s fine.”

He blinks, stunned into silence by Hoshina’s words.

“Sometimes.” Hoshina says after a moment. “It’s fine… sometimes.”

Kafka blinks again, and then decides to take a gamble. “Is now one of those sometimes?”

Hoshina grumbles something that may or may not be an affirmative answer, and Kafka returns to resting against the edge of Hoshina’s bed.

He takes a moment to mull over his next words before speaking them. “I’m glad you’re okay… Soshiro.”

It feels strange to speak Hoshina’s name so casually, but it’s worth it when the other man’s ears begin to turn red and he rolls away from Kafka.

“Soshiro.” Kafka says again, slower than before, which has Hoshina rolling back over to face him as best he can without jostling his injuries, face red and eyes open. The vice-captain opens his mouth to say something, only to let out a strangled noise that alarms Kafka into rising to his feet. “Vice-captain, are you al—”

A hand lashes out to grab Kafka’s wrist, and he finds himself being dragged onto the bed, instinct the only reason that he doesn’t crush Hoshina underneath his weight. His new position is awkward and he quickly adjusts himself until he’s able to lay beside Hoshina—a completely unprofessional thing for him to be doing, but he fears what’ll happen if he tries to leave. He gets his answer on why he’s suddenly being manhandled when Hoshina adjusts himself, rolling onto his injured side so that he can hide his face against Kafka’s chest.

Kafka doesn’t move; he’s pretty sure that he’s stopped breathing too, unsure of what to do in this situation.

Thankfully, Hoshina answers his unasked question. “Breathe, and just lay there. That’s an order.”

An order. It’s an order. He can follow orders.

And so he does.

He remains there, on Hoshina’s bed, with Hoshina also on the bed, and lays as still as he can. When it becomes clear that this isn’t some kind of punishment, Kafka begins to relax, and he drapes an arm over Hoshina’s waist, resting it there carefully before letting his weight settle—the last thing he wants is to hurt the vice-captain that’s trusting him with this… tender moment.

It confuses Kafka and he’s not sure how to feel about it, but it feels… nice, like this is where he’s meant to be.

He can feel Hoshina’s breaths slowing as the younger drifts off to sleep in his arms, and Kafka finds himself doing the same.

But just as he too, is about to doze off, he remembers something. “Oh yeah, Okonogi-san plans to scold you when you’re discharged.”

Hoshina gives a tired laugh. “She always does. It’s fine though; I have you to field her fury.”

And for some reason, those words warm Kafka’s heart more than he feels they should.

#kaiju no. 8 #writing #hoshikaf #hibino kafka #soshiro hoshina #hurt/comfort #angst #injury #fanfic

18 notes · View notes

silenthowlsstuff · 7 months ago

Text

this is the character dynamic of all time!!!

76 notes · View notes

silenthowlsstuff · 8 months ago

Text

Someone to Lean On (Kaiju No. 8 Fanfic)

I watched and read Kaiju No. 8 in a week after months of letting it run away from me, and what can I say other than I fell deep into hoshikaf hell. I'm swimming quite happily in this ship and I absolutely will try to write them again in the future! Enjoy~

No one could find the vice-captain.

That in itself wasn’t all that odd, for it was common for him to disappear without a word whenever he was needed somewhere else on the base, but in those instances, asking someone else where he was, was bound to get you an answer eventually.

This time it was different, however.

Different in that no one seemed to know where the vice-captain had disappeared to.

Kafka frowned as yet another defence force member shook their head when he asked them if they’d seen Hoshina. Just where had he gone? Kafka had checked the training room, the dining hall, the library, and he’d even gone and checked the infirmary in the unlikely scenario that the vice-captain had somehow ended up in there. But his search thus far had yielded no results, and he brought a hand to his chin as he tried to think of where else the man could’ve possibly gone. It wasn’t like he needed the Hoshina urgently—he’d wanted to ask him to spar, but if Kafka couldn’t find him then he’d just ask Ishikawa to spar instead.

“Are you looking for Hoshina?” Kafka jumped at the familiar voice and spun around to see Mina standing before him, a small smile on her face as she studied him.

Kafka straightened respectfully and nodded. “Yes ma’am! Do you happen to know where he is?”

“He went to the training rooms just a few minutes ago.” Mina said before walking past him. “Be kind, Kafka.”

He paused, blinking in confusion at the strange words, but he doesn’t get a chance to ask what they meant before Mina turned the corner and disappeared from view, leaving Kafka standing in the hallway alone. He only stood there for a few seconds before continuing down the hall, following the path back to the training room where he’d first started his search. Be kind? Kafka thought as he walked, wondering just what Mina had meant. She’d said it in a way that was important, yet she’d tacked it on as she was leaving so… was it a warning of sorts? If so, then perhaps it wouldn’t be wise to track down the vice-captain until later.

No.

Kafka put a stop to that train of thought, the urge to find Hoshina growing even stronger now that it’d even crossed his mind. And well, if the man was in the training room after disappearing for almost the entire day, then something was up, and Kafka had to make sure that Hoshina was okay after whatever it was that’d happened; the vice-captain was human too after all, as much as he tried to pretend he wasn’t. So Kafka walked, striding down the hallways with purpose, thinking about what he’d actually do upon finding Hoshina. His original intention had been to ask him to spar, but he wasn’t too sure if that would be an option, although he’d still ask.

He arrived at the training room after a few minutes and peered through the doorway to indeed find the vice-captain in the training room… and he wasn’t training.

At some point he must’ve been training because there was sweat running down his neck, chest rising and falling at a rapid pace, and there was one blade in hand. The other was by Kafka’s face, embedded in the wall beside where he stood. And Hoshina himself was on his knees, as if he simply couldn’t hold himself up anymore. Kafka frowned and stepped into the room, stopping to pull the vice-captain’s blade from the wall, and made his way over to the shorter man, holding the blade out once he was close enough. “Vice-captain?”

Hoshina jerked, head shooting around to look at him, his eyes splitting open a fraction the only indicator that he was surprised. “Kafka…?”

His eyes dropped down to the blade, slipping shut once again, and he reached out to take the blade. “Thanks.”

Kafka nodded and waited for Hoshina to say something more, for him to ask what it was that Kafka wanted with him, but nothing further came from the vice-captain.

In fact, it almost seemed as if Hoshina was… down?

That couldn’t be right; the vice-captain was the one person in the force that was always smiling, even when things looked dire. How many times had Hoshina cheered them all up in training with roundabout compliments about their progress? He was their biggest supporter whilst also being their biggest teacher—he was a man that didn’t falter, that didn’t show weakness when the rest of them were. Kafka knew that part of that was because of Hoshina’s position as vice-captain, but it was also that he didn’t have any weaknesses. At least, none that were known.

Which was why Kafka hesitated for only a moment before he crouched beside Hoshina. “Vice-captain… are you alright?”

“Hah?” Hoshina opened one eye to stare at him. “What are you doing being concerned for me, when it’s yourself that you should be worrying about, eh Kafka?”

Normally, Kafka would huff whenever someone took a jab at his less than stellar training results—although he did think that he was doing quite well all things considered—but this time he didn’t say anything. Rather, he frowned at the words, taking note of the way that Hoshina’s tone was just a little flatter than normal. But just a little, barely noticeable even, except to those that knew the man well. And although he didn’t know the vice-captain well, Kafka had been training with him consistently over the past few weeks, so he liked to believe that he’d grown accustomed to Hoshina’s mannerisms as obscure as they were.

And then there was Mina’s words.

Be kind, Kafka.

That was what she’d said, and he thought he understood them a little better now that he’d gotten a good look at the vice-captain. Hoshina was a man that if you tried to press for information, he’d shut you out before you even managed to open the door. It was just in his nature to do so, born from the way he’d grown up having to prove himself and his capabilities over the years. But Kafka had an edge, a little advantage that only he held, and it was nothing more than his ability to just be human towards others, to care and hold them up when they needed a moment to be weak without judgement. And normally, that was such a thing that he offered to Ishikawa and Kikoru, and when he’d been younger, Mina, but he wasn’t above offering the same to Hoshina.

“Sir…” Kafka began hesitantly. “With all due respect, you seem… down.”

“Do I now?” Came the response, careful but also probing; clearly, he wanted to know what it was that Kafka suspected before saying anything more. “And what makes you say that?”

“No one could knew where you were, and when I was searching for you, you weren’t in any of the usual spots. It wasn’t until Min—Captain Ashiro told me that you were here that I found you.” Kafka explained. And then slowly, he adds on. “And well… when I saw you before, you seemed down.”

For the longest time, Hoshina stared at him with an unreadable expression on his face. And as the minutes ticked by, the more Kafka began to fidget until finally, Hoshina sighed and shifted so that he was sitting.

“Nothing gets by you it seems.”

Kafka frowned and moved to sit beside Hoshina, but not too close. He wanted to show the vice-captain that he was willing to listen, but he also didn’t want to invade the man’s personal space and make it seem as if he was trying to push.

Because he wasn’t.

He just didn’t like seeing the torn expression on Hoshina’s face.

“You don’t have to tell me what’s wrong, but if I can do anything to help—”

“Hush you.” Hoshina interrupted, glancing in Kafka’s direction. “Just be a good little subordinate and sit there, got it?”

Kafka nodded quickly and did as he was told, sitting quietly, back straight and hands in his lap as if he were waiting for the next order to come. In the silence that followed, he carefully observed Hoshina, watching the man shift once again—this time to pull one leg up so that he could rest his head against the knee—and let out an almost silent sigh. Now that he was sitting closer to the vice-captain, Kafka could now see the tension that lined the other’s body, how Hoshina was so tense that if one looked closely, they would notice the faint trembling. And while he couldn’t see the man’s eyes, he had a feeling that they would be staring at nothing.

It was strange to Hoshina in such a state, which made Kafka all the more determined to help. In any way that he could.

So without thinking, Kafka acted on what his mind was telling him.

And reached over to pull Hoshina into an embrace.

At first, Hoshina stiffened in Kafka’s hold but after a few seconds he seemed to lean into it, letting out the deepest sigh yet. He didn’t say anything, and neither did Kafka as they both sat there on the floor of the training room. Nothing needed to be said in Kafka’s opinion, for what could he say anyway? He didn’t know what was going through Hoshina’s mind right now and it was up to him if he wanted to tell Kafka anything—and if he didn’t, then Kafka fully intended to respect that decision. And if Hoshina did decide to open up to him, then Kafka would listen. Besides, the vice-captain had told him to be quiet and sit there.

So for now, he would just continue to hold Hoshina, buoying him up in this moment of weakness.

Because even the strongest of people needed someone to lean on occasionally.

Word Count: 1654

#kaiju no. 8 #kaiju no. 8 fic #kafka hibino #soshiro hoshina #hoshikaf #writing #fanfic #hurt/comfort #comfort

27 notes · View notes

silenthowlsstuff · 9 months ago

Text

Hehe, my beloved boys enjoying a nice nap together after everything went down at the airport!! Thank you Sapph, you did amazing 🫶

Finally doing some commissions!!

Ranpo and Bram taking their rest after the mess at the airport <3

#bsd #bungou stray dogs #bramran #edogawa ranpo #bram stoker #art

114 notes · View notes

silenthowlsstuff · 1 year ago

Text

Prepare for trouble! >:D

Poe: I haven't seen Karl in a while...

7K notes · View notes

silenthowlsstuff · 1 year ago

Text

Go, go read it!! It's only on AO3 for now!!

Hiii the second chapter of the Infection AU collab with @silvfyre-writings just dropped hehehe

I hope y'all are ready for the ride :)))

https://archiveofourown.org/works/54246199/chapters/137857318…

#bsd #bungou stray dogs #bsd fanart #ranpo edogawa #yosano akiko #pain #so much pain

150 notes · View notes

silenthowlsstuff · 1 year ago

Text

TW - BLOOD

First piece of the Infection AU collab with @silvfyre-writings who wrote the fic I'm illustrating ! A new art will be linked to each chapter (≧◡≦)

#infection au #bsd #bungo stray dogs #fanart #bsd fukuzawa #hyaha art

178 notes · View notes

silenthowlsstuff · 1 year ago

Text

---- BSD Infection AU ----

Tonight I'm giving you a small glimpse of @silvfyre-writings a,d I infection AU collab ! (๑˃ᴗ˂)ﻭ I'm illustrating their story, with a few more arts we will release with the chapters of the fic

#this fic is killing me #i hope you all are ready for PAIN

430 notes · View notes

silenthowlsstuff · 1 year ago

Text

Why Are We STILL Doing This?

I'm just going to straight up say the worst thing you can do as a reader is praise a writer in one breath, then backhandedly bash their ships in the next.

Let me explain.

I'm not talking about the "I don't normally ship x, but I gave this a chance since you wrote it" comments. Because that's fine. It's totally within your right to ship and not ship whatever.

I'm talking about, "Wow, this person's x ship work is so good! But ew, they ship y. Gross."

Y'all, I write fanfic because I want to. No one's paying me to do this. I love the community I've found in doing it, but then, I see people behaving badly, and I get a lot of feelings (hint: none of them are good ones. Mostly angry, a little sad).

I've been targeted and harassed for my ships on AO3. And because I am who I am, I have embraced the petty urge to write that ship I've been told not to EVEN HARDER.

Not everyone is like that. Talking shit about a person because of the ships they like can be really bad for that person's mental health. I know people who have stopped writing popular ships because of the hate they get for their less popular ones despite clear tagging, and it's even more infuriating when I see the same people talking shit get all sad because the writer quit writing the ship they (the reader) likes.

Sometimes, I ask myself, "Why can't we all just try to make this weird wonky fandom space we share in such a way that people's mental health doesn't crumble and they get all the joy out of their fan works they seek?" Then I remember people are people.

Hard ask, but if you don't like a ship, maybe instead of speaking in ways that damage other people, you can just say, "I don't personally like that ship" and not read the thing. Hell, there are ships I don't like, and I can just avoid them because tags. (Yes, I know it's not that easy, but hell, I'm trying anyway).

TL;DR: I saw people being assholes, I have feelings, and I want those people to stop being assholes.

104 notes · View notes

silenthowlsstuff · 1 year ago

Text

Genichirou Thoughts (Bungou Stray Dogs)

Time for Fyre’s Genichirou thoughts! I don't know how much sense this will make, but I'll try my best. Note that these are my personal thoughts. I love studying characters (although this is my first time sharing thoughts), so feel free to discuss with me!! :D

To start with, I am a baby when it comes to BSD, cause I have only been in the fandom since season 4 aired last year, and boy it’s been a ride, especially when it comes to Genichirou’s character. Because my first ever encounter with him was during the Untold Origins where he made a cameo—and well, from the comments on that episode, I legitimately thought he must’ve been the worst character on earth. Like, Shou Tucker bad, that’s how much hate Genichirou was getting on this episode.

And for the longest time, I avoided his character because of that (I wasn’t yet caught up on the series), but then I finally reached Genichirou’s first proper appearance and suddenly I was more confused than anything. At first glance, a drunken, exuberant man wanting to uphold the justice of what he believed to be the truth at the time. At a deeper glance, a complex and interesting character, yet I still refused to give him the time of day because the fandom hated him.

Then I met a certain someone who loves Genichirou, asked some questions about his character, and yeah, that was that, I now love this man and his complexity.

---

With a newfound appreciation for Genichirou’s character, I went back and looked into him more deeply (mostly because I wanted to write fics, and needed to understand him more), and found him quite the interesting character. Because underneath that drunken, joking persona of his, is a man who has been traumatised and hurt by the world and his closest friend, and it changed him drastically.

As a child, we see Genichirou as a happy child, he has fun, he’s friends with Fukuzawa, and he seems to genuinely enjoy his life. But then he becomes a soldier and that’s where things change.

To start with the obvious; his relationship with Fukuzawa. Genichirou tries and fails to convince Fukuzawa to go to war with him, which puts a strain on their friendship, but ultimately what I took away from that, is despite him being upset with Fukuzawa, he still respected Fukuzawa’s decision.

I personally think that it was the lack of contact that fractured their friendship instead of this decision as I see people think, especially since in the recent chapter, Genichirou apologised for not staying in touch.

The next is the war. I don’t think I need to explain that much, since we all have a solid understanding of it, and how it changed Genichirou. Genichirou says himself that “it was in that battlefield, that I was born” which is a pretty powerful message in itself. War changes people, that’s a fact, and Genichirou is no different. He went to war, witnessed the brutality and futility of it, and it changed him, it gave him a goal, which is the goal we strive to see him complete within the series.

Genichirou’s goal is a world without war, as we learnt in 112, after receiving a vision from Amenogozen, and his way of doing that was by making himself out to be the villain to try and unite the world into stopping him. In a way, similar to how William (MtP) works to unite London by becoming the villain if you need someone to compare to. Some would say that Genichirou’s goal of ridding the world of war by becoming its villain is the actions of a morally grey character. Some would say it’s an anti-hero. Personally, I think it’s a mixture of both. Mostly because unlike other morally gray/anti-hero characters we see (William Moriarty, Eren Jaeger, Lelouch vi Britannia, and Koko Hekmatyar to name a few), Genichirou worked alone.

Yes, he’s the head of the DOA, and yes, Teruko knew of his plans, but really, he worked alone to make his plan work.

The main issue with Genichirou’s goal is that he worked alone, but despite that, with the state of the current arc, we can’t say his goal failed or not yet. For that to be certain, we simply need to be patient and wait for the next arc. I would say though, that while his goal may not have succeeded as intended, he still managed to succeed in some aspect. The world will change because of his actions, but it remains to be seen how it will change (I am choosing the 2 hours later part until we know more).

As for why this goal of a world without war exists, well we have the sword, Amenogozen to thank for that, as it showed Genichirou a vision of a battle so terrible, that it prompted him into having this goal in the first place. The problem with this vision, is that we don’t know when Genichirou was shown the vision. All we know is that this fight takes place 36 years after he was shown the vision, which shows the severity of the situation for Genichiro to take action when he does.

All in all, Genichirou is not a simple character, and never was; he's always been complex, and always will be. We see him laughing, we see him joking, we see him caring, and we've seen him brutally stab his childhood friend, and cause the Agency so much pain with his actions. I truly think Asagiri has done well in writing his character, and I’ll be genuinely sad to see his arc end.

That’s my thoughts, thank you for sticking around, I probably didn’t make much sense, but I tried, and I wish to share

#bsd #bungo stray dogs #fukucho ouchi #analysis #kind of #more of thought sharing

9 notes · View notes