Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

As the blood of the kaiju rains down on Hibino Kafka, he realises that Ichikawa was right. He can’t join the Defence Force like this; however, he still yearns to be by Mina’s side.

“Ichikawa.”

“Yes sir?”

Hibino turns his head to look at Ichikawa with a fire burning in his eyes, “I’m going to stand with you and everyone else in the Defence Force, but I’m going to do it my way. Can you help me?”

“Yes, sir,” Ichikawa says firmly. The two share a small smile before Hibino takes off, running away from the scene before the squadron from the Defence Force comes.

After disassembling another giant kaiju the next day, Ichikawa comes up to Hibino who’s eating his sandwich and pulls him to the side.

“Sir, yesterday you said you had a plan to join the Defence Force? What is it and what can I do to help?”

Hibino finishes off his sandwich before replying, “Oh no, I’m not joining the Defence Force, it’s as you said, joining the defence force now would only spell trouble for me.”

Ichikawa makes a puzzled face and asks, “So then what did you mean?”

“I’m just going to go around killing kaiju in my kaiju form.” He replies casually.

Dumbfounded, Ichikawa yells, “WHAT!? That's a stupid plan! Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

Hibino sighs, “Listen, I think that this is the only other option, I can’t join the Defence Force and I can’t just lay low and not use these powers that I’ve been given to save people. I don’t want to watch as I lose more people that I care about all because I’m afraid the Defence Force is going to exterminate me. Besides, you told me not to give up, so I’m not.”

“I know I told you not to give up but this isn’t the way, what if you get caught?”

“Then I’ll just have to rely on you to bust me out!”

Ichikawa puts his head in his hands, closing his eyes as he tries to process the pure stupidity that he’s about to be dragged into. As much as Ichikawa admires his senpai, he doesn’t know if it’s enough to put blind faith into this man he met merely a day ago. As he remembers all of the crazy events that have happened within the past twenty-four hours, he lets out a little chuckle. Even though it only has been a short while, they have been through so much together. Disassembling the gross intestines of a giant kaiju; fighting a kaiju and nearly dying; witnessing Hibino turn into a kaiju; watching as his senpai save the mother and the child.

Ichikawa takes a deep breath before furiously rubbing his face and sighing, “I still think this is an idiotic idea and I'm probably going to regret this but I’ll support you anyway I can sir.”

Hibino gives Ichikawa a big smile, “That’s the spirit Ichikawa!”

“So, how can I help you sir? Other than busting you out of containment.”

“Be my distraction!” Hibino grins.

Ichikawa smacks Hibino on the head.

“Ow! Hey okay! I need someone to distract the Defence Force in case I can’t make a quick getaway for whatever reason and since you’ll be in their ranks, it’ll be easier for them to trust you and what you say, right?”

Ichikawa takes a deep breath and sighs, “Fine.”

Over the next three months, Hibino Kafka works on trying to control his transformation better with Ichikawa Reno trying to help him as much as possible despite not really having the knowledge of how to help your co-worker turned kaiju. The first week was just trying to control transforming from human to kaiju and back again, which was mostly successful.

“Senpai! Your hand is still transformed!”

“Senpai! Your face!”

“Senpai!”

They eventually got it and Hibino was able to smoothly transform between his two bodies without any mistakes. The next few weeks were spent on trying to control his strength; it was easy to summon a great deal of power but trying to reel that force in and make it so that he won’t destroy anything was the tricky part. They tried many methods to try and fix this issue.

Like meditation.

Hibino took a deep breath, ‘In, out, in, out.’

“Okay, I am calm,” He said as he tried to get up but he put a dent into the concrete, “Damn it!”

Yoga.

“I’m not as flexible as you Ichikawa! Aghh!” Hibino yelped in pain.

“Come on senpai, these are very simple exercises, just feel your muscles stretch and breathe.”

Hibino tried to follow Ichikawa but fell over, leaving a crater in the ground.

Stretch bands.

“Just try to stretch it out as much as possible without breaking it.” Ichikawa instructs.

Hibino grabs the stretch band and barely pulls on it before it snaps into two pieces.

“Oops?”

Ichikawa sighs, “Okay, well I think we are heading in the right direction so I have one more idea.”

The next day, Ichikawa arrives at the abandoned warehouse they’ve been using for training with plastic bags and… kitchen equipment?

Hibino stares confused at the things Ichikawa is carrying with him, “Are you going to be cooking while we train?”

“No, you are.” Ichikawa says as he puts down the equipment and begins setting up a temporary kitchen.

“What?”

“This is my last resort, you, Hibino Kafka, will be cooking pancakes for me in your kaiju form and you will do it until I have pancakes to eat.” He says as he sits down into the foldable chair he brought with him a while ago.

“Uhh…”

“Come on! Hurry up! We don’t have all day!”

Hibino quickly transforms and gets to cooking… kinda.

He bumbles around, trying to get all of the ingredients set up without crushing them. Once set up, he tries to measure out all of the dry ingredients but ends up with a lot of it spilled across the table and onto himself. Grimacing at the mess, he tries to clean it up; however he just makes a bigger mess.

“Ichikawaaa I can’t do this!”

Ichikawa just glares at him, “You are a 32 year old man, you can make pancakes.”

Feeling a chill run down his spine, Hibino gets back to making the pancakes. A couple of moments pass before Hibino slowly shuffles towards Ichikawa, deliberately avoiding his eyes as he presents three blobs piled on top of each other. “Ta da…?”

Ichikawa makes a disgusted face at the monstrosity presented in front of him and then quietly takes the plate and dumps the entire thing into the bin.

“I tried my best Ichikawa but it’s so hard trying to cook in this form.”

“Again.”

“Huh?”

“You heard me, try again. You will do this until I have pancakes to eat.”

“B-b-but…”

“AGAIN!”

The kaiju jumps a metre into the air at Ichikawa’s sudden yell before jumping into action and making a new batch. It took about a dozen tries before Hibino was finally able to make a perfect stack. As Ichikawa takes the plate of a seemingly innocent stack of pancakes, he feels a bit of apprehension and prays to whatever god is out there that he won’t die to pancakes. Swallowing down some saliva, he separates a small portion from the rest and pokes his fork into it. Slowly, he lifts the piece off the plate and into his mouth.

Chapter Text

“Huh, it’s good.”

“YES! Finally!"

Ichikawa polishes off the rest of the plate and silently goes to clean up everything.

“So, we’re done with this now right?”

Ichikawa slowly turns to him and just says, “Same thing tomorrow,” before leaving Hibino alone at the warehouse.

“Hah?!”

And so, for the next few weeks Hibino had to constantly churn out dish after dish until he was able to consistently keep his power under wraps and make the perfect plates of food that could even make Gordon Ramsay shed a tear. Western, Italian, French, Japanese and Chinese, he spent each and every day perfecting the dishes from each cuisine. Combining it with his kaiju super speed to make 5 course meals seem like they just appear out of thin air. With all of this preparation and training, Hibino Kafka is finally ready to become the Masterchef champ- Oh sorry, this is the wrong fic.

Ahem anyways.

“You remember when we were running away from the hospital and your body started mutating and going crazy?”

“Yeah why?”

“I wonder if you can try to do that again but this time try to isolate it to specific parts of your body. The hope is that maybe we can have your body change to adapt to different situations on the fly.” Ichikawa suggested.

“I can try, but I’m not even sure how I was able to make it go crazy like that, much less trying to control it or have it do what I want it to.”

“Well, what were you feeling when you transformed, what was your first initial thought that activated the mutation?”

“Uhm…” Hibino thought hard about the thoughts that flew through his head that night, “Panic? Running away? Honestly, I don’t even think that I was the one who triggered the transformation. I think it was the kaiju I ate; they were probably getting comfortable in my body.”

“Okay, well. Maybe just try imagining your hand changing into something and bring back the feelings you felt that night? Better we experiment now then ever right?”

Hibino closes his eyes and tries his best to imagine his hand morphing into a weapon, making weird grunts along the process.

“Can you do it without sounding like you're constipated, sir?”

Hibino’s face burns bright red as he shuts up and quietly concentrates on the image he has in his head; letting the energy in his body flow to his arm. A tingling feeling permeates his arm as the air around him crackles and hisses. His head starts to ache, his organs pulsing and his body shaking. He feels the pain of his arm starting to extend and his hand contorting itself into his new shape: the bones shifting, skin stretching; when all of a sudden he feels a hot flash of pain ride down his arm and he shouts in agony.

“AUGHH!”

“Sir?!” Ichikawa exclaimed in a panic.

The entire process becomes undone in a second and his arm snaps back to its original form, leaving Hibino groaning, breathing going heavy as he tries to recover. Hibino fell to his knees as Ichikawa ran over to the fallen kaiju, looking him over to make sure Hibino didn't injure himself badly. He talks to Hibino, trying to get him to respond but Hibino just stares off into the distance.

‘You are not ready for that, vessel.’

Hearing that familiar voice in his head Hibino Kafka startles awake from his daze. Blinking away the fog in his head as he comes back to reality.

“I’m okay, Ichikawa,” Hibino says eerily calmly, “I’m just not ready for it.”

Hibino gets up slowly as Ichikawa is slightly disturbed by this change in behaviour. Hibino stretches as if nothing happened and begins to walk away from the warehouse. Snapping out of confusion, Ichikawa quickly runs up to Hibino and grabs his hand.

“H-hey… It’s still you in there right?” Ichikawa says with a bit of trepidation trembling in his voice.

“Oh! That came out a lot more mysterious than I intended,” Hibino says with a chuckle, “Sorry if I scared you Ichikawa.”

“What did you mean when you said “I’m not ready for it”?”

“Oh, the kaiju that I ate talked to me and that was what it said.”

“What!? Sir, you need to stop mentioning these things a lot less casually. Like what do you mean it talked to you!? Kaiju can talk to us?!”

“Yeah, it talks to me telepathically. I can hear its voice in my head, which is a really weird feeling. Also this isn’t the first time it’s done this, back in the hospital before I ate it? Swallowed it? It shoved itself down my throat? Anyway, before that, it told me it “found me” whatever that means.” Hibino explained with a shrug.

Ichikawa’s jaw dropped and his brain temporarily stopped working trying to process the information that was just unloaded onto him. Once Ichikawa rebooted himself he shook his head and yelled. “SIR! Please tell me about these things earlier!”

Ichikawa sighed exasperatedly, “ Has it said anything else to you?”

“No, that was all that it said to me so far.”

“Okay uhm, we’re tackling this another day. I need a break from all of… this.” Ichikawa said as he gestured vaguely to Hibino.

“Sorry…?” Hibino said meekly.

The next few weeks pass and the topic of the talking kaiju never gets brought up again. Mainly due to Ichikawa having an aneurysm every time he is reminded of it and Hibino not wanting to upset Ichikawa. During this time, they spent it working on different martial art techniques from tutorials they found online and practising applying the skills they learned by sparring with each other. It helped Hibino learn how to pull his punches when fighting with another human in case he ever encounters an altercation with the Defence Force, as well as just generally improving the quality of his sloppy punches and kicks. For Ichikawa, it helped him immensely to duel with Hibino as he learned how to duel with a kaiju, something twice the size of him. It also made him push his body harder than he ever had before to match up with Hibino’s kaiju super speed.

As the sun rises and falls, another work day passes and another kaiju is dismembered. Hibino Kafka decides to go home and take a shower before meeting up with Ichikawa as he was sent for intestine duty again. Even with the protective white suit off, he still reeked like kaiju feces; the smell was so strong it made him feel a bit funny. As he made the slow trek home, passing by the busiest of streets, everyone made sure to stay at least a metre away from the stinky man; which made Hibino a little depressed but he understood why. Hibino was about to cross another street when he felt something was off and he hesitated.

The ground shook and that was the only warning before a giant kaiju broke through it. Debris scattered everywhere, large chunks of concrete flying through the air and a big dust cloud enveloped the area. Screams from every direction could be heard; old, young, women and men alike, their voices pierced the skies as they ran wildly away from the destruction zone. Making use of the dust cloud and the chaos, Hibino Kafka quickly jumped into action and transformed into Kaiju No. 8.

“Hey! Come at me!”

He let out a deafening roar that drew the attention of the other kaiju away from the panicked civilians. As the kaiju moved he could see that it broke a hole into the office building nearby, the poor office workers slowly backing away from the missing wall with terrified expressions on their faces.

‘I can’t punch the kaiju from this angle damn it, it’s too close to the building. But maybe…’

Hibino sends his energy down to his legs in order to slip behind the kaiju. He was unsuccessful as the kaiju used its hand to swat Hibino away, catapulting him into another building. ‘Ow, that hurt badly.’

He gets up and tries again, this time in a zig-zag pattern which successfully lands him behind the kaiju; putting himself in front of the building as he punches the kaiju’s back, which forces Hibino’s hand right through the kaiju’s stomach. The body of the kaiju swells and balloons before it finally pops, splattering the area in a large coat of crimson.

‘Ew, now I also have to clean off Kaiju blood on top of smelling like shit.’ Hibino thinks with disdain.

His thoughts are broken by an ear piercing scream coming from above him. He tilts his head up and sees that one of the office workers was about to fall off of the building.

“Help! Somebody help! Please, I don't want to die!” But they couldn’t hold on anymore and their fingers lost their grip on the edge of the floor they were holding onto.

“AHHHH!”

Hibino powered up his legs once more as he jumped up to try and catch them; however he ended up using too much force and ended up passing the falling civilian. ‘Oops.’

Swiftly, he twisted his body around into a pencil shape as he dived back down to grab the person. Using his powers he was able to speed up the process, once he got to them he wrapped his arms tightly around them. He swung his body around to ensure that he took the brunt of the collision as they hit the ground.

‘Oh my god, my back!... I shouldn’t have to say that as a 32 year old!’

Slowly, Hibino unwrapped his arms around the civilian and tentatively asked. “Are you alright, ma’am?”

The lady, still a bit shocked from the fall, turned around and saw Kaiju No. 8’s face and screamed bloody murder. She jumped up from the kaiju’s lap and instantly put a few metres in between her and Hibino.

“Oh! Sorry I didn’t mean to startle you! Please go get checked by a doctor! I tried my best not to hurt you, but my strength is still a bit much! Okay bye!” Hibino bowed to the lady before he promptly left the scene, jumping from building to building before slinking into a back alley and de-transforming.

Meanwhile back at the scene, two officers from the Defence Force arrive onto the aftermath of the battlefield and are quite shocked at what they find. A decently sized crater with kaiju body parts littered across the ground. They instantly command their officers to spread out and tend to the injured as they investigate the scene.

“Look familiar to you Captain?”

“Yes, seems like Kaiju No. 8 has made an appearance but the magnitude of this destruction isn’t the same as the one from a few weeks ago.”

“You’re right. Is it Kaiju No. 8 then? Or a different one? Hm… this case just gets more and more interesting.”

Chapter Text

“Breaking News! This evening a kaiju has just been killed by another kaiju! Witnesses have reported sighting Kaiju No. 8 as the one to defeat this other rogue kaiju!”

The screen changes to show a woman wearing a white button up with a blazer and a knee length pencil skirt. The background shows the destruction left behind by the two duelling kaiju: craters left in the ground; debris thrown about and a coating of blood covering the entire area.

“It was so scary! I thought I was going to die before I saw my favourite boy band, SEVENTEEZ!” The women cried, “But now thanks to Kaiju No. 8, I can see them on their next world tour! Thank you Kaiju No. 8!”

The next few witnesses said the same thing, they expressed their gratitude to Kaiju No. 8 despite still being slightly afraid of him. Of course, everyone didn’t share the same sentiment; some people online took to writing nasty things about their newfound kaiju hero while others tried to poke holes into those who believed in Kaiju No. 8.

“I don’t understand why people are trusting this abomination. Have they forgotten the amount of people who have died because of these kaiju?!”

“But they killed kaiju! Their own kind! To save us!”

“That’s just what it wants us to think! It can apparently talk to us! We can’t trust it. What if it stabs us in the back?!”

The internet, as always, split into two groups: those who were hopeful and those who were not. Either way, Japan now has its eyes on Kaiju No.8.

----------------

“I saw the news last night. Are you alright sir?”

Hibino turns to look at Ichikawa as he swallows down a piece of his sandwich. “Yeah I’m fine, I messed up a bit though and got slammed into a wall.”

“Sir!”

“It’s okay! Luckily I can regenerate my body with my new powers so any damage I sustained in that battle is long gone. Unfortunately though, my kaiju form doesn’t provide me with any type of numbing or anaesthetic to help with the pain.”

“Did you take any medicine after you got home then?” Ichikawa asked.

“Yeah, I did but I think my body burns through medicine really fast because the pain was gone only like 10 minutes before it came back.”

Ichikawa let out a deep sigh, he feels as though each time he meets with his senpai to discuss his newfound powers Ichikawa loses 10 years off of his lifespan. He swears he’s supposed to be the younger of the two but his senpai is way more reckless and wild than he is.

“At the very least you didn’t get caught.” Ichikawa mumbled in slight relief and a hint of annoyance.

“Congrats, senpai on your first steps to standing next to the Defence Force.” Ichikawa flashed Hibino a small smile before his expression turned dark. “ I will make sure to catch up to you and overtake you.”.

“Uhh… thank you…?” Hibino didn’t know whether or not to take that as a compliment or a threat.

------------

“This Kaiju No. 8 is certainly an interesting one,” They say as they tilt their head, “I wonder what will happen when I encounter him; I wonder if I can get him to join me. I want to know more.” Beady eyes stare at the tiny screen in front of him, brimming with curiosity.

------------

Work got tough for both Hibino and Ichikawa as the appearance of giant kaiju had increased exponentially. The hours seemed to drag on and their bodies were run ragged by the end of the day, so much so that they both agreed to slow down on their training sessions. By the end of the week, they both looked like they had already died and their souls were ascending up into heaven. Hibino felt really bad even just glancing at Ichikawa’s miserable state so he became determined to try and cheer him up.

“Hey Ichikawa!” Hibino called out as they finished changing out of their bloody uniforms.

“Yes sir?”

“Let’s go out for ice cream! My treat!” Hibino grinned.

Instead of perking up like Hibino thought Ichikawa would, he scrunched up his face and made a very weird expression.

“What? Why?”

“To celebrate getting through this rough week! C’mon Ichikawa!” Hibino didn’t let Ichikawa respond as he dragged the poor guy out of the building and down the street. Seriously, if anyone was watching this, they would’ve thought Hibino was a predator preying on a young teen.

Once they arrived at the ice cream place, Ichikawa took one look at the name of the place and instantly his face lit up. Hibino snuck a glance at Ichikawa’s expression and a small fond smile crept its way into his face. He knew that Ichikawa really liked sweets and since it’s been getting hotter out, he thought it would be best to bring him here. As they walked inside, Ichikawa tried his best to hide his excitement but his twitching face gave it away.

“So, what flavour do you want to get?”

“Two scoops of vanilla with chocolate syrup and almond nuts on top!” Ichikawa hastily said before becoming a bit embarrassed at himself acting so childish, “I-if you could, please sir…”
Hibino laughed a little and gave Ichikawa a big shining smile.

“It’s alright Ichikawa, loosen up,” He said as he patted Ichikawa on the shoulder, “Two scoops of vanilla with chocolate syrup and almond nuts on top and a scoop of the coffee flavour please!”

They grab their ice cream and head outside to a park bench to sit down. As soon as their tired bodies hit the bench, both of them let out a tired sigh.

“Thank you for the ice cream sir.”

“You’re welcome! It’s a senpai’s duty to make sure his kouhai is happy after all!”

They both enjoyed their desserts in a comfortable silence, letting the peaceful background noise fill in the air. The sounds of the birds happily chirping, cars passing by, and the rustling of the leaves from the gentle breeze. It had taken a while, but this lovely serene moment was worth the wait. Even after they finished their cold treats, they stayed quiet to not disturb the peace they had created. As well as the fact that they are both absolutely exhausted from the harrowing week that they don’t even have the energy to speak. All of the fatigue from this week crashed down on them as they relaxed.

“Hey, Ichikawa.”

“Huh? Yes sir?”

“The test is about less than a month away, are you nervous?” Hibino asked as he turned his head to face Ichikawa.

“No, sir.” Ichikawa said with a determined look on his face.

Hibino grinned. “Good, I’m sure you’ll rock it.”

They took another pause before starting up their conversation again, but this silence wasn’t uncomfortable. It was warm and cozy like a gentle hug; it made them feel a bit sentimental though none of them would let it show on their faces. After two months of struggles it seems that their work has finally paid off just for this one moment of peace. They know that this won’t be the last time they get to share a moment like this, but it’s always good to cherish what you have in the present. After all, who knows what will happen in the future.

“AGH!”

“Sir?!”

‘What is this? I feel… something coming! It’s heading our way and fast! Shit!’ Hibino panicked, his breathing and heart rate sped up. Hibino frantically swerved his head around trying desperately to locate the approaching danger.

“Sir! Sir!! What’s going o-!”
Ichikawa didn’t get to finish his sentence before something popped out of the ground and snatched him by the waist.

“AGH!!”

“Ichikawa!” Hibino exclaimed but Hibino couldn’t even move a muscle, it seemed as if he was frozen in place from shock.

“Sen-!”

And just like that he was gone; disappeared without a trace.

Chapter Text

Hibino was stuck in place, he tried to will his body to move; to do anything but it just wouldn’t budge. His jaw remained gaping and his breathing started becoming uneven: heavily panting as if he just ran a marathon. His eyes were bulging out of his head, twitching as his pupils were shaking like an earthquake. The man could feel his body pulsing , the blood rushing through his veins as his heart went into overtime. He could feel the kaiju inside of him stir, awakening as it felt the other kajiu’s presence for that split moment. The world around him seemed to blur as he tried to process what he just let happen in front of him; the pleasant noises from before disappear as a growing buzzing sound replaces it. 

Hibino grinds his teeth together as takes a deep breath to try and calm his overwhelming emotions. His hands clenched as he felt his muscles tense; veins popping up all over his body. 

‘This kaiju is dead.’

With that thought, Hibino’s body finally found the strength to move again as he transformed into his kaiju form. A bright green glow radiated off of his figure, the air cackled and snapped as he let out an infuriated roar before taking off.

Leaping over buildings, he quickly made his way across the city in an almost animalistic frenzied method. His senses were clearer than ever before as he could exactly pin-point the exact direction the kaiju ran off to. He could smell the traces of the reeking scent left behind by the monster lingering in the air and he could hear the loud thumps of the monster slapping against the ground. 

‘Jeez, where is this guy going?! We’re practically out of the city now!’ Hibino thinks as he sees the forest of trees that are fast approaching.

Suddenly, the monster drops down from one of the rooftops and out of Hibino’s view, a dust cloud appears a second later. Hibino quickly charges in right after it, jumping down from the same building but immediately regrets it as dust gets in his eyes making it hard for him to see. The blinded kaiju could only hear a slight buzzing noise coming from his left before he’s knocked off his feet and thrown to the ground.

“Agh! What the fuck was that?!” Hibino cursed. 

He felt a heavy weight settle on top of him as the dust slowly clears, revealing a kaiju that looks like someone mashed a dragonfly and a bird together. The talons of the kaiju were holding Hibino’s torso and arms down, its beady eyes staring into Hibino’s and wings twitching every now and again. The trapped kaiju looks around at his surroundings, noting that they are on an empty street. Row of small houses to his left, a forest to his right. A few small cars lining the street, a truck close by.

“So you care for humans enough to run across the city to save one… why I wonder?” A curious and grainy voice asks.

Hibino turns his attention to the new voice, seeing a tall skinny humanoid with a very pale grey complexion, two disc like structures above his face as if it was his head. Next to the humanoid, stood a creature with what seemed like 4 legs and two human-like arms that were holding onto the incapacitated Ichikawa.

‘A kaiju that can talk !? I thought I was the only one with that ability! Anyways, what’s his deal?”

“Can you not talk? Huh, I thought if you had emotional intelligence, you would also have logical intelligence but I suppose not…”

‘That’s a bit rude , assuming things about me.’ Hibino scoffs but it comes out as more of a grunt. ‘Whatever, I need to get Ichikawa to safety no matter what.’

“Oh well, it doesn’t matter in the end once I consume you, then you won’t speak at all.” The humanoid starts walking over to Hibino with one of his spindly arms outstretched.

‘Consume me!? Oh hell no!’ Hibino thinks as he gathers up energy into his arms, pushing outwards to break out of the Dragonbird’s talons. As the feet of the creature burst, Hibino redirects his energy to his legs and bends the lower half of his body up to kick the Dragonbird off of him. It flew through the air and crashed hard into a tree, snapping it in half causing the tree to fall on top of the Dragonbird. 

Hibino rolled to the side before getting up and dashing towards the four-legged creature, trying to pounce on it like a wild cat. Unfortunately the four-legged kaiju was able to jump out of the way before Hibino could land a hit on it causing Hibino to try and pivot his body in order to not just crash into the ground.

“You are stronger than I thought…” The humanoid says from behind Hibino as the pale figure lifts up one of his fingers. The finger swelled, a weird bubble seemed to travel through it before it popped. Small hard pieces of something flew through the air, Hibino didn’t even have time to react as searing hot pain coursed through his right leg.

“AGHHH!!” Hibino groans loudly, clenching his jaw to try and distract himself from the pain. ‘OUCH! That hurt like a motherfucker! What was that?!’

Hibino reaches down to his leg to the bullet-sized wound, patting around looking for the hole, ‘It didn’t go through my leg, which means whatever he shot is stuck in my leg. I need to get it out before I can regenerate.’

Finding where he got shot, Hibino shoves his two of his fingers inside to get the small piece of metal out. He could feel the disgusting squishy feeling of his muscles as he digs for the foreign object, blood dripping out onto the floor. 

“Any other kaiju would’ve just ran away to regenerate with my bullet inside of them, perhaps you’ve learned from the humans? So you do have some form of logical intelligence, hm…” The pale monster lifts up his entire hand this time as a balloon travels down his arm and stops at his hand.

‘Shit!’ Hibino generates some energy in his other hand before slamming it down, creating an effective enough smokescreen for him to run behind the white truck he saw earlier. Deciding that he really can’t be gentle about this anymore, he jams his fingers back in the hole and rips the foreign material out of him.

‘OWWW! Ow, ow, ow! That hurt sooo bad!’ Now that Hibino can clearly see what the tall skinny monster shot into him, he realises that the silver metal object started changing inside of him. Small roots of silver seemed to be shooting off of a round metal sphere. ‘I am so glad I got this thing out of me, I don’t want to be the start of the walking dead.’

Summoning some energy into his hand, he crushes the strange ball turning it into dust. His leg starts patching itself up, muscles regrowing and black skin covering up the hole. His ears pick up a shuffle behind him and peaks his head around the head of the truck. He sees the tall pale figure move towards Ichikawa with his hand stretched out. 

“What a shame, I thought Kaiju No. 8 would stick around longer. I suppose I don’t need this one anymore…”

‘NO!’

Hibino easily lifts up the truck he was hiding behind and throws it directly at the pale figure. It smashes into the tall kaiju, pushing it far away from Ichikawa. Forcing energy into his legs, he kicks off sprinting towards Ichikawa and the four-legged creature. The creature lets out a gargled cry and lowers its legs as if it’s getting ready to dodge but Hibino appears in front of it before it could react. Without losing momentum, Hibino yanks Ichikawa out of the four-legged creature’s arms, accidentally taking its arms with him and slides underneath it, through its many legs. 

‘Oops and ew.’ Hibino thinks, scrunching up his face. He lays Ichikawa on the floor for a moment as he grabs the arms and throws one of them at the creature’s head, the other at its torso with full strength causing the body parts to be blown through. The body of the kaiju falls pathetically to the floor as Hibino scoops up Ichikawa and rushes him to the nearest hospital, completely forgetting to check on the tall skinny kaiju that watches the two from under the white truck.

‘Please Ichikawa be okay…’ Hibino chants in his head.

Hibino Kafka lands in front of the hospital, scaring the people who were coming out of it. He rushes inside, head swivelling left and right searching for… ah there! He puts Ichikawa down on an empty stretcher as everyone stares at him in fear and curiosity. 

‘I’ll be back soon to check on you, please be okay.’ Hibino thinks as he leaves the hospital quietly.

As soon as Kaiju No. 8 left the hospital, chaos broke out.