Work Text:
“Are you sure, Okonogi?” Hoshina asked, his arms crossing, looking down at the prototype of a new weapon with one of the most disturbed expressions ever recorded in his whole damn lifetime.
“Yes, Hoshina-san. These are the most modest features we could be working with. I can assure you it looked way worse in the first design.” Okonogi said as she was silently praying for the best to come as her palms were sweating more than ever.
“Are you really sure? Okonogi?” The man finally took his eyes off the display table, adverting to the two ladies standing beside him.
“I told you it would look better with fur.” Mina huffed, shoving the picture of Bakko’s tail in their faces. “Look at this!”
“I’m afraid I’ll have to disagree with you on this, Captain.” Hoshina sighed, trying to ignore his thoughts and imagination relating to the original design. “Sorry Okonogi, this is really better.”
Ignoring Mina’s stutters explaining her vision, Hoshina focused on the new features that would be added to his normal combat suit. It was derived and adjusted from a part of Kaiju No.10, so technically this could be considered a numbered weapon. However, this was just a prototype that could be used later on for some other armour, and it must be tested thoroughly before being applied to the battlefield.
And of course, given that he was the user of Kaiju No.10 armour as well as the only one who it would talk to, Hoshina Soushiro was chosen specifically for this experiment (He was assured of some further advantages, but not that he needed. He’d just go straight to the asylum.)
The said weapon was a set of backbone-connected weapons, designed to be a whipping rod with mechanical features yet still look delicate enough to be worn around and could move almost independently based on the movement of the user’s shoulder muscles and hips. Another part of it was a set of earphones that could detect Kaijus from a distance due to its material and the Lab’s development.
In short, it was a set of cat ears and tail.
Hoshina was so damn ready to be buried six feet under, rather than actually wear this, especially on the battlefield.
“W-well, you see, the earphones are designed with that shape to increase hearing abilities! Many animals have this type of ear too, like wolves! Yeah, wolves are super cool! And the whipping rod is sampled after dinosaurs and Kaiju No.10, like the one you had in your armour! It’s super convenient and suitable in combat, imagine wielding two swords yet still having another arm to destroy monsters…Haha…” Okonogi carefully picked her words and tried her best to phrase them properly. Hoshina in his serious mood is already horrifying, she wouldn’t risk dealing with an extra-pissed-off Hoshina at all cost
“Tigers. Tigers are cooler.” Mina nodded along. “Regardless of the shape, despite how cool it could be being a tiger-themed weapon, the higher-ups did point at you and you only for this job. You are the only one who had experience with living armour and has a tail attached to it, so all of them figured out. And this needs to be done as soon as possible too.”
“Yes! You will be the first and only one to try this prototype! And it’s super important, the higher-ups did stress that you must be the one to try it too…” Okonogi trailed, sounding almost convincing (Lies, the papers said that it would be best to have Hoshina trying them or any other soldiers who are capable, but “the best” is always better than “the capable ones”, isn’t it?)
“You guys are aware that we will be having a training camp with other divisions, are you not? Especially when that You-know-who will be ‘working’ with us?” Hoshina asked, steering at the two ladies, Mina and Okonogi could not see his face properly, and they were quite scared too, but if they succeeded in convincing him…
“But! There-there will be just some familiar faces, most of them are previous members of our division! We promise it will last only for a day! ”
“Yeah, so it’s totally okay. You can see how much they have improved too.” Mina patted Hoshina’s shoulder, who still had his eyes fixed on the table. “I’ll give you the permission to fight anyone who dares to question. And you are definitely promised special day-offs! Remember that author you said you liked, he was having a fan meeting for the newest release, we will get you that too, you knew how hard it was last time you tried to book that limited edition online.” It was surely working, as she felt Hoshina finally let out a reaction.
“Fine…Since they pointed me out anyway.” Hoshina said, relenting to the two smiling ladies as the whole lab quietly celebrated and cried inside. “But I’ll request some special treatment after that. Ya got it?”
He would never speak his thoughts out loud but in the case where that person did arrive, he would burn the hell out of the operation room then that person.
___
The first thirty minutes of wearing the new features and Hoshina had already felt like an early retirement.
He agreed that the features were perfectly fine as they did not feel like anything on his body, not much weight was added and his motions were not restricted, if not more effectively complimented by the new features. It gave him a strange yet sturdy balance and a good sense of hearing, helping his reacting speed to rise.
But the thing is, it sold him out too much than he signed up for.
“Hoshina, are you interested in this weapon?” Okonogi asked after showing him a few blueprints and plans for new improvements. As she was shuffling the whole paper piles, she kept showing him one model that he thought was impressive enough, yet he did not say that out loud.
“Just a little, it would work well for some members in our division, how’d ya know?” Hoshina smirked a little, maybe he had been staring and being too obvious.
“Not really, it’s your tail, uh, uhm, the rod feature and the earphones, they move a little, like a cat, so yeah…? I guess.” Okonogi said slowly, not finding the exact thing to describe it. But Hoshina’s tail (?) moved and curved into a hook and the ears perched toward her attentively when Okonogi started to explain about it. It was indeed painfully obvious.
“I’m taking this shit off” The man gripped the tail with all his strength and pulled it out with no hesitation. “H-huh? What? It’s not coming off! Okonogi!” Hoshina’s eyes went wide open, trying to tug it but no budge was found. He started to panic and turned around chasing the tail, trying to look properly at the base to detach it from himself.
“About that…We’d have to have it on for at least 24 hours to get enough data, so the programming department went a little… overboard with it” Okonogi adverted her eyes, trying her best not to look at the Vice-captain, who was drilling holes into her. (Once again, lies, they just wanted to see him with cat tails.) “A-And please, it took a lot of work and money just to make this one and only prototype! Really! S-so please try to cooperate with it!” She almost died saying that to him, desperately finding more important reasons to convince him not to just rip it out, because she knew, he could, and he would.
Nevertheless, Hoshina just walked out of the room with the features intact, his earphones were droopy with some parts of the outer shell perked up like ruffled cat ears and his tail was almost pointed up to the sky, moving around as if he was going to stab anyone crossing his path at that point.
“Ah! Vice-captain, we bought some Mont Blanc and coffee for you in the office’s fridge, please try them!” Okonogi yelled after him and she was soon relieved seeing his reaction.
The tail was once again curled up into a hook and the ears were back to the normal state, yet still looked quite ruffled. Well, at least millions of Yens would not be wasted in a mere second very soon.
___
The next hour wearing the set of features was…more bearable.
He had a short report with his captain, Ashiro Mina, in the office and it was impressively unproductive. The reason was quite simple, Mina was a cat person, but she somehow managed to resist the desire to pet the space between the two ears on Hoshina’s head. Lucky for them the other officers were occupied with the training proceeding in another area. The platoon leaders were particularly excited and rowdy today, he wondered why.
“Ahahah! The great Narumi Gen, captain of The First Division is here! Heard that you losers wanted my help in this tiny problem. I know, I know, nothing here could cause me any issue! Let me take care of ‘em-”. A loud voice blasted their ears from the door.
Of course, of all people on the planet, it would be Narumi Gen. Now Hoshina would rip this rod out (He wished, Mina stopped him right away while mouthing “Sorry” to him. He wouldn’t forgive her doing this to him, in front of Narumi Gen, no.).
The said man blasted through the door without a knock, wearing the usual uniform which looked a little crooked and messed up. But as Hoshina recalled it when it wasn’t? The man loomed in the room with the most delinquent attitude possible that Hoshina would mistake him for a rebellious teenager in the backyard of a middle school, except for the height.
“Heh, I heard that some loser over here had to try out a prototype. What a problem, I would only use the finished edition, adjusted and modified and tailored for me only. How about you, Hoshina?”
Hoshina sighed, he’d rather hear his armour yapping about fighting rather than dealing with this menace (Menace #2 of the day) wearing another equally annoying menace.
“I’ll have you pay for my therapy at this rate, Captain.”
“I hope the best for your mental health. This is a serious problem, but think I’ll need to be introduced to one too.”
Just right when Hoshina had just finished whispering and stood up to greet Menace #2, he could hear the yapping stop. The first Division captain stood there with a gaping mouth, and twitching eyes that were pinned strictly on the vice-captain, he was frozen on the spot and looked impressively idiotic with the exaggerated shock on his face, not that he wasn’t always looked impressively idiotic. But still.
“Well, greetings to you too, Narumi. Would you like to come in and finally do something with your job, I think it’s called neglected responsibilities?” Hoshina tilted his head, he could feel the fabric of his uniform moving because of the rod. Hopefully, it wouldn’t go straight for Narumi’s throat and cut him into pieces, but no promises today.
“Ugh,...” Hoshina noted that Narumi shook his head awfully a lot and looked around constantly, probably trying to hide his anger and embarrassment from not having finished his job.
“Now that you are here, let’s fill in these forms and files, as well as some reports in your area. Hasegawa had sent me some documents that were required for the next meetings, please have a look too.” Mina calmly chimed in their little quarrel, putting a few massive towers of paper and files on the empty table facing hers and Hoshina’s. It would be as easy as ever to escape from Hasegawa for a couple of hours, but it was always impossible to do that under Mina’s nose. No one had ever dared to do that, and Narumi wasn’t planning to break the record that day.
The working process started out normal with banters and reminders to keep doing the work without distraction, but the First Division captain was getting more and more distracted with how the tail was moving slightly every time Hoshina wanted to stress a matter, or when he swayed to get another pile of documents. Sometimes when he tried to whip out his Nintendo and call it a day, the tail would straighten and start to smack on the floor impatiently. But when he put the gaming gear down and grabbed his pen and papers again, the tail immediately relaxed and moved around in a pleased manner. He did that a few times before getting questioned by Mina. He had never known that those slit eyes would observe so much, especially observing him. Narumi couldn’t help but feel smug about it, but he wouldn’t risk losing his view as Hoshina would rip the tail out with no hesitation as soon as he knew what was going on.
There was this special time when they were having some snacks in the afternoon, as the three of them were discussing his subordinates (Kikoru was doing well, and Kafka was starstruck as always.), Narumi could see Hoshina’s tail waving and curling happily at the taste of the little dessert he was having and when he (reluctantly) said that they had made some brief progress. The ears were perking up and his tail was moving around with entertainment and satisfaction at the new update, and Narumi was extremely fascinated by the movements.
It was tempting. Really tempting. And it was bizarre that he had not jumped up at any chance to actually pet the space between Hoshina’s ears.
Even though Narumi swore up and down that he could finish all of the remaining papers during their work hours, he failed miserably and he blamed the set of cat ears and tail for it. Mina had gone out to submit some documents, and they were left alone. As the peacemaker was gone, all the fun began.
“So Hoshina, what’s with this fan service thing on your head? Didn’t know you were so up for the media attention?” Narumi quirked his eyebrows, looking at Hoshina with curiosity before standing up and moving to Hoshina’s desk, resting his arm on a massive paper tower.
“Well excuse me, I wouldn’t wear this if possible, at all. Unlike ya, maybe ya will have to get a hundred sets and wear them every day for the same effect.” Hoshina retorted, still looking through another set of records yet still ready to kick Narumi in the knees any moment possible.
“Tch…You’re lucky you look good in that” The voice of the person in front of him said, the volume was so tiny that it was only caught because the room was too silent. The vice-captain finally looked up, trying to search and rehearse if he had missed any mockery from the captain.
“Excuse me?” He leaned forward, leaning on his hand trying to get the sentence again, not sure of what he had heard.
“I said you look good in that, wear it every day,” Narumi said, almost screaming while frowning. His face was maddeningly red and filled with hesitation, he was surely reluctant to say that again, but Hoshina would invest in this rather than trying to comply with it and return the favour.
“Hm…Is the great captain Narumi complimenting me for once?”. He smirked, even the vice-captain himself could catch the tone of his voice being so teasing and arrogant that it could sound like a traditional drama character. He was sure that it was fondly, but he wouldn’t decide firmly if he was fond of the entertainment only, or of the man sitting across him at that time.
“Shut up” Narumi stood up, and immediately headed back to his temporary station “I take that back, you’re the worst I swear.”
“Why thank you, sir. Atta honour! What do ya think would set ya way above me? The answer is, ding ding ding! Finally, finish your job this noon” Hoshina beamed, trying to get the captain away before he could feel his ears and cheeks burning from pure embarrassment. But before Narumi could go as they both wanted to, he was stopped mid-way and tripped on his own foot. Something was wrapped around his thigh, stopping him from straying farther than its grip and pulled Hoshina to the ground with him, making them lie on each other on the office floor, behind Hoshina’s desk, just by themselves.
It was the tail. It was the damn tail.
Hoshina’s eyes widened, and his mouth gaped at the surprising crash. He was lying on top of Narumi, their face was so close to making a kiss happen that the position was unconventional enough to make an HR complaint file. Narumi’s forehead was out in the air, exposing his intensely wide-opened eyes and flushing red face, wearing a bewildered complex expression. Hoshina guessed that his face was just the same, if not redder, given the heat had now cached up to the tip of his ears.
“Wow, won’t you look at that? Someone’s trying his best to not let me go, hm?” Narumi asked with the smuggest expression, still blushing like a madman, but his voice was low and slow in contrast to his face, so low and joyous it sounded like purring.
“It was trying to slice through ya legs because it thought ya were a Kaiju, idiot.” Hoshina huffed, trying to get up but was held down by a big hand reaching for his face. The hands cupped his face, moving upward to the mechanical ears and stopped at the space between them, that hand gave him some pats and caressed his cheeks so dedicatedly he doubted it would ever come off him.
“Maybe it had detected the Kaiju in my pants, wanna check it out?-” Narumi’s exposed forehead was flicked before he could finish the sentence, but the expression of dubious mixed with mildly smug on Hoshina’s face was completely worth it.
“Maybe ya have forgotten, but no one can be better than me at neutralizing medium-sized Kaiju, remember?” Hoshina leaned down, mischievously whispering just enough for Narumi to hear, and he was already gulping way too loudly.
“C’mon silly, this Kaiju can never be enlisted to that size, and I can show you how wrong you were saying that…”
“We’ll see about that,...” But before Narumi could sneak his way into the vice captain’s pants to check up on the tail’s connection with the body, Hoshina suddenly stood up, releasing the captain’s thigh from the tail’s grip and sat back into his chair so properly it felt like a daydream. But just like how daydreams were always meant to be, they were interrupted.
“Huh- What the fuck? Hoshina-”
“Get up, quick, someone’s coming” Hoshina warned, silently thanking the sensitive hearing features, cracking an eye open to look at the captain who was lying down with the most flushed face ever. He banged his head on the side, pulling a chuckle out of Hoshina right before Hasegawa and Mina stormed back into the office with some more papers looking ridiculously determined and passionate about the piles. The Kaiju inspection might have been delayed a little too late. But Narumi would never forget the feeling of a metal rod lingering on his inner thighs, ever.