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The Meireki Kaiju has been defeated. The destruction and deaths uncountable but they did it. Japan will need to rebuild and lift itself from the rubble but it survived. The celebration was huge.
As soon as the majority of kaiju carcass was removed and some rubble pushed off to the side and the heroes had time to recover parades were thrown. Everyone who had direct hand in the final battle were made to participate. That meant Captain Ashiro and Narumi, Vice-Captain Hoshina, Kikoru Shinomiya, Reno Ichikawa and most importantly - Kaiju no. 8.
Kafka didn't want to go. He still struggled with accepting the fact he would never be human again and still had troubles maintaining human form. Most important - he just didn't feel like he deserved as much attention as everyone wanted him to get.
"You deserve it, sir!" Reno argued.
They all gathered in Hoshina's and Narumi's hospital room to discuss the upcoming event.
"Yeah, you dum-dum, you were the one who punched through that core!" Kikoru reminded him.
"I don't know guys, it was everyone's effort, if it wasn't for all the troop members–" Kafka tried to defend himself but then got interrupted by Hoshina.
"It's not just a vanity project," he said. "The more you show up as a part of Defence Force, the harder it will be for the Brass to eliminate you."
"Late Director General Shinomiya believed in you," Mina added. "While Director Itami plans on honouring that I'm not sure if he would fight as hard for you if HQ changes their minds."
"They are trying to protect you with the power of public opinion!" Narumi threw in. He barely said anything until now, scrolling social media and at the same time testing the special glasses the R&D department made for him to offset the damage to his eyes. "You better strike that iron while it's hot. People are going nuts on SNS over you."
That was a hard argument to beat.
"Alright, I'll go." Kafka had no choice but to give in.
And so the parade was held as soon as everyone recovered. Afterwards the victors were invited to a party in their name. Kikoru was sulking because she was still not old enough to drink with everyone. It wasn't really a problem until later in the evening when all the adults were slowly going over the 'tipsy' stage.
Hoshina and number 10 were bickering (yes, the suit came with Hoshina as it wouldn't stop yapping to the techs and everyone decided to let the Vice-Captain babysit it), Mina was going off on karaoke machine with Shinonome singing 'Pink Pony Club'.
"Heeeeyy, Izumooooo," Kafka rolled over to Haruichi. "Can't you seriously talk to your folks and make me a better suit? Why is my release force a fucking 2%. I'm the strongest kaiju in all history man!"
"Didn't we have this conversation before? It's still skill issue!" Haruichi replied, trying to push Kafka's face away. Seriously, strongest kaiju in history was a light weight apparently.
"But what if it isn't?" Aoi suddenly spoke up. He had his usual stoic expression on but those who knew him could tell he was close to wasted.
Both men looked at him. "What do you mean?" Haruichi asked.
"What if because Kafka is a kaiju… he can't wear other kaiju?" Aoi said slowly.
His companions slowly processed his words and ended up still confused.
"That makes sense!" Hoshina suddenly spoke up, approaching the table.
"It does?" Kafka slurred out.
"If you think about it, you're the most powerful monster on Earth and you hide behind a disproportionately weaker kaiju turned into a suit," Okonogi joined him. "On some subconscious level your body must be rejecting it."
"Exactly that!" Hoshina nodded along.
"Huh." Kafka stared at his beer.
"I guess, if we could use something from your body… we could make you a fitting suit," Okonogi thought out loud.
The men exchanged a look. Immediately, Kafka had his kaiju arm on the table.
"Okay, just hold still, Hibino," Hoshina was already unsheathing his katana.
"Wait, whoa, hold on a second!!" Okonogi yelled.
"Cut it off!!" 10 yelled.
Haruichi and Aoi were on Kafka's side holding onto him just in case.
"Captain!" Okonogi called for Mina.
Captain Ashiro looked up from the next song selection and approached the group. "What's going on?"
"We're trying to get a sample of Kafka to see if we can make a suit for him and have his battle release force higher!" Hoshina explained.
"Oh, I see." Mina nodded in understanding.
Okonogi was about to sigh in relief to have someone take control of the officers but then Mina reached for her pistol. This time everyone jumped back.
"Captain?!"
"Whoa!"
"What?" Mina asked confused.
"We don't want Hibino to explode, Captain," Hoshina explained kindly, using 10's tail to take the gun away from her.
She sulked.
"Let's just get back to karaoke, Mina," Shinonome suggested gently dragging her away.
When she left everyone sighed with relief.
"Now, where were we?" Hoshina turned to the remaining officers. Everyone got into position again. "Suck it in, Hibino!" The blade reflected a spark of light as the Vice-Captain raised it up. "On three! One! Tw–"
Suddenly everything got covered in ice. "What the hell is going on, sir?!" Ichikawa appeared in the door way back from the toilet with Shinomiya behind him. "Are you all insane!?"
"Boo! Killjoy!" Iharu hollered, he was one of the few spared from the ice. Immediately, he got bonked in the head by one of Ichikawa's floating frost guns.
"I left for five minutes!" Reno scolded everyone.
"You tell him, Reno!" Kikoru joined in.
"This is so irresponsible! You have to first secure the limb before you cut it out so you don't bleed out!" The ice around people began to melt, while Reno encased Kafka's arm in ice. Appreciative chorus of 'ooohs' responded to him.
"Yea—, wait what?" Kikoru blinked confused. "WHAT?!"
Before she could give up a shadow loomed over her and then precise blows have been delivered to all by one and only Vice-Captain Hasegawa. Kikoru looked up at him. When did he—
Her eyes fell on Narumi who was holding his phone up, with a wide, shit-eating grin on his face. No doubt he recorded everything. He gave her a thumb-up.
She sighed. Adults were so stupid after alcohol. She swore she wouldn't be drinking any of it in the future. None.