Lovely to meet you guys! Here I am with another SI after breaking down at how my licensure exams are 2 months away. I need to get my composure back but what I did instead was binge watch Kaiju No.8 lmaooooo ( ̄▽ ̄||) and then 1 day later started to write this instead.

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Mina checked the paper sheet twice to correct any mistakes she might have made. Taking a quick glance at the clock, Mina had ten more minutes left before Momo-sensei announced that the exams were finished. Their teacher paced around the room, peeking at her students papers. Some of Mina's classmates had their eyebrows furrowed, others anxiously bit the eraser off atop the pencil. One was Kafka who had his tongue stuck out as he frantically wrote answers, and another was Motoki massaging his forehead. The redhead boy had obvious difficulties with academics, that was a common knowledge here. Mina can still recall the first day she had with Motoki. At the start of the school year, his scarlet long locks caught the interest of almost everyone in the school where he would be all what they talk about. He was introduced by the Momo-sensei, presenting the boy like a gift to their class and cheerfully said "Sasaki Motoki-kun is going to be our new friend here, he is quite shy. Please take care of him.". Motoki, instead of bowing, proceeded straight to an empty seat far from the window seat Momo-sensei pointed out for him.

Whether it was the lack of politeness or extreme introversion that lead Motoki to ignore their teacher remained to be unknown, however, for Mina she was leaning for the latter option.

Today seemed to be especially tough for the boy, she noted. Even Kafka, who struggled with paying attention and memorization, had an easier time compared to Motoki. By now, he gave up as he dropped the pencil and glared at everybody's heads.

Mina just had to drop her gaze, not wanting to make eye contact with how angry he looked. Knowing her friend's temperament, Mina doesn't want to be the receiving end of it. She wondered if he's going to miss them, Kafka and her, as they would often band after school playing with the cats before heading home. Well, in reality, it was Kafka who run around chasing strays, Mina tried to hug all cats that she could fit in her arms, and Motoki feed them with treats.

The three of them adopted Motoki the second Momo-sensei asked to form into groups, and while both were initially clueless on how to approach the said boy. Kafka just used his endless bundle of energy to persuade him into talking, and Mina instantly agreed coaxing him to answer her childish questions – "what's your favorite color? I bet it's red, you can tell me I'm wrong". But as far as anyone knows, Motoki spoke… in broken Nihongo, mixed in with English words and another language her mind couldn't pinpoint. He didn't end up correcting her.

For Mina, the tone used sounded offensive and she was frozen on her spot unable to formulate a reply. For Kafka, the older boy looked back in amazement, completely disregarding Motoki's stance and exclaimed "You're multilingual! That's so cool! Teach us!" obliviously to the rising blood pressure of the other boy that his face turned cherry.

She remembered Motoki grasping for Kafka's hair and shouting "Teme!" before dragging him away. Kafka didn't explain to her what happened next but somehow, Mina saw the start of their beautiful friendship.

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"─district, Japanese military succeeded with the annihilation of another kaiju wrecking approximately two hundred million yen worth of establishments in the process. Citizens were immediately evacuated at the sight of the kaiju however it still took the lives of four hundred people, most were from the attacks of the kaiju and some crushed from the debris."

Motoki eyed the 200,000,000¥ flashed in blue. He was lucky enough Hideyoshi seemed distracted cooking dinner, a recipe from an ancient text he found in bargain sale. The old man paid for that shit which looked to be as wrinkled as his skin, and that was a testament of how old his grandfather lived. Said person grumbled away from behind Motoki, scratching his bald head, the television provided a soft background noise to their dingy home.

"People were urged to follow evacuation protocols and to remain at home was ill-advised. Fights like this involve a wide area and experts agree that more attacks would result in the same scenario if the military didn't show progress with their methods."

Behind the TV screen, the news displayed a thirty meter octopus moments before its death. Its thick tentacles were of the color red like the shell of a crab doused in boiling water. Internally, Motoki compared it to the same octopus Hideyoshi introduced, tiny and delicious with the wasabi. Looking back at the picture, this… kaiju… appeared the same yet he couldn't help but think how challenging would it be to chew it.

There was a video taken from a helicopter's point of view. Tentacles swept through buildings, toppling it like dominoes and the Defence Force were nothing but ants with lasers.

Monsters. Kaiju.

As a child, Motoki understood how Hideyoshi tried to shield him from the giant beasts that seemed to target Japan on a daily basis. The sixty-something man thought himself as uncaring however his act of providing for him said otherwise. And he might appear cold to everyone, yet Motoki knew his rule of no watching television the moment clock strike six was a testament how he wished for him to remain innocent.

Him. Motoki. Innocent?!

How thoughtful, Hideyoshi. But Motoki was also a senior citizen with back problems in another life! Death claimed him at the age of sixty-nine were he was supposed to be sleeping… and then woke the next day bathe in viscous, foul-smelling fluid. Motoki lived another day, a new body made in a new world that certainly wasn't the year 2024. Definitely in a another universe too due to the presence of dangerous pokemons! While Motoki despises god where instead of heaven, a reincarnation pass was gifted, he was pleased god chose Japan as his birth place.

Until he learned about kaiju.

If he could give go a huge "fuck you" he would have already done that and slapped the deity. Of course he couldn't. Motoki had the body of an elementary kid, he could run again tirelessly, walk off with scrapped knees, and jump around like a monkey but he wasn't the next Superman.

This reincarnation scenario would have been enjoyable if his memories were erased. His previous life put a damper in… well, everything. His bleak prospect in life, his negative and ill-tempered personality ruined his day to day activities. Even his brain was short-circuiting. His supposedly sponge of a brain just can't take up any more information and this was evidence of the struggles in Japanese language. Motoki once threw the alphabet book at Hideyoshi upon discovering not one, but three different types of script!

But tonight… Motoki was dying of boredom. There was only so much he could do in this house and he wasn't fond of reading all of Hideyoshi's books. Books he couldn't read because the Japanese alphabet looked similar. This window of opportunity to extend watching was becoming a common happenstance as Hideyoshi aged, the old man tend to forget most things, and he would sometimes peer at Motoki from the corner of his eye wondering if he's a stranger or not.

The news report mentioned another attack, this time in Yokohama, where Captain Shinomiya slaughtered a tree-looking kaiju with his bare fists. A feat no normal human could possibly do, yet, this monster of a man exhibited the markings of hero. The journalist even gave him the title as the strongest warrior and in no time the public would put him in a pedestal. Ever the pessimist, Motoki asked himself how many years this man has before death claimed the hero as well.

Dying in line of duty.

Wonderful.

And now the news switched to interview a military personnel delivering the devastation today's events caused, the lives it took before kaiju were slain. It showed Shinomiya captured on a random civilian's phone, gripping the kaiju's core until it broke off and the lights dimmed.

Apparently, the Defence Force was low in numbers and were starting recruitments that the end of this week.

"Oy! Turn that off you brat!" Hideyoshi cried with that crackly voice of his. His head peaked from the corner, glaring at Motoki who stared back and pointed at the screen.

"This is interesting."

Hideyoshi scoffed, "What's interesting in the news? What are you an old man?"

If only he knew how correct he was.

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I'm sorry I just love the though of SI struggling with Japanese language and customs, and here we have an old man resistant to change who just wants to retire and go to heaven as peaceful as he can.

What he got instead is a second chance at life. And it's nowhere peaceful. Poor Motoki.

Note that I just finished the anime and haven't had the time to start the manga, so all my knowledge is based on the show and didn't put SI's specific age. They're childhood friends and this story will have jumps on different ages depending on what scene I want to write next. Honestly, I'm exciting to reach the season 1's timeline but I feel like I need to build more on their friendship. Thank you for reading! Would immensely appreciate the kudos and comment!