Hoshina's POV

I couldn't t do it. I couldn't form long-term relationships. But when I walked into that bar, I felt like I was selling my soul. Her smell was intoxicating, and the touch of her skin made me feel as if I was on cloud nine. While watching my cadets train through the plethora of screens, my shoulders shuddered just at the thought of how she....handled me.

I frowned. I don't know what came over me. I wasn't supposed to allow myself to make outside connections, let alone give her my number.

"Are you alright, captain?"

I snapped back into it.

"Don't ask me questions like that, of course I'm alright." I pressed the intercom, "Kafka, that's 5 more laps for taking an unauthorized break."

Over the speaker, I heard a large groan of exhaustion while I chuckled to myself. Oh, how fun this job was. Pushing people to their limits

I walked away confidently from the overseeing room. "My officers will not leave the ground until every person is done. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Vice Captain Hoshina." The overseers saluted me as I walked out of the room.

It was time for my training. After all, I could never be fast enough. All it is, is a matter of time to save someone's life.

The training room was quiet. Just me and the blade.
I stepped onto the mat, barefoot, unsheathing the sword in one smooth motion. The metal flashed once under the overhead lights. No need to warm up—I was already focused. I moved.
Each strike cut through the still air with sharp precision. Horizontal. Diagonal. Lunge. My feet pivoted, shoulders loose, wrists locked tight at the end of each arc. Every motion was muscle memory, clean and practiced—no wasted movement.
Breathe steady. Blade steady. Mind empty. Strike. Reset. Repeat.
I pushed harder. Faster. The blade whistled with each pass, slicing through invisible enemies that only I could see.
One final slash cut the air in front of me. I held the position, still, heart pounding once before slowing.
Then I sheathed the sword. The room echoed with silence again.
Still not enough. But close.
I sighed in dissatisfaction, wiping the sweat away from my forehead.

"Kaiju laert. Kaiju alert." And by then, I was already out of the room.
_______

My swords lay on my sides as I oversee my Cadets from a distance, watching their performance.

Orders were simple: eliminate, minimize civilian damage.

Except this one had already broken protocol. A Kaiju had escaped from the view of many soldiers, while the ones who could have seen it were preoccupied with the others.  It wasn't heading for a crowd or an open street. It was burrowing into a building.

It was a strong indicator that someone was still inside.

I clicked my earpiece. "Hoshina reporting, I thought the area was evacuated already?" I asked, jumping off the ledge of the roof.

"That's what the motion sensors indicated?" HQ responded. The landing was smooth. Quiet. I slipped in the hole it had made, blade drawn. Suddenly, the sound of a woman's scream filled the air.

I moved faster, turned the corner, and there she was.

On the floor. Hair a mess. Pajama shorts. Glazed in powdered sugar. Crawling backward on her elbows, trying to get away from a kaiju the size of a city bus that was seconds away from devouring her.

But I wasn't looking at the kaiju. I was looking at her. My body froze mid-step. No way. It was her.
The one who kept popping back into my head when I really should have been focusing. The one whose voice I remembered, whose laugh stuck with me. Who'd surprised me with how loud she could get in bed and how soft she got after. She was here.

One clean slice. Centered. I rotated mid-air, blade angled with intent. I hit the kaiju right as its jaw opened, knocking its massive skull sideways before my blade cut clean through its faceplate. The thing shrieked and flailed, crashing into the hallway behind us. Debris rained down. Dust everywhere.

And her? Still on the ground. Trembling. Staring at me like she'd just seen a ghost.
I stood between her and the beast, blade dripping black ichor, heart pounding just a little too hard for my liking.

It wasn't the kaiju. I'd killed a hundred like this one. It was her. Seeing her again, like this, unlocked something feral and something fond at the same time.

I turned slowly, taking her in. She hadn't changed. Still gorgeous. Still wild-eyed. Still had that don't-mess-with-me energy even while covered in donut jelly. My gaze swept down, a little longer than necessary. Pajama shorts. Bare legs. Glazed sugar on her thighs. Her shirt was slipping off one shoulder. Her chest was rising and falling in panicked breaths. Her hands were jelly-stained.

She was a mess. She was perfect.

I chuckled, couldn't help it. "Well," I said, "I told you I'd leave you my number the next time I saw you. But turns out I'm a little busy." I gestured to the hunk of kaiju still twitching behind me. "And I see you're a little busy too." I glanced at the ruined plate of donuts next to her. One was still intact, like a tragic survivor in a war zone.
I turned back to the kaiju. It was trying to regenerate. Too slow. I moved in, slicing through the core without even blinking. No hesitation. No mercy. But as I cut it down, I wasn't focused on the monster. I was focused on her. On every movement. Every tremble. Every second of silence between us.

The kaiju started to disintegrate. Glowing flecks of dust rose through the hallway like embers. She was framed in the light, stunned, beautiful, and somehow still glaring at me like I'd kicked her cat.
I scratched the back of my head. "I can meet you at the bar, if you're interested."

Her breath caught. "You're a Defense Force officer?"

I smirked. "Didn't know we were getting personal like this," I teased, glancing away. The truth? I hadn't expected this conversation to happen ever. And not barefoot in someone's apartment post-kaiju battle."Well, something like that.."

"Vice captain, more Kaiju spotted!" I hear on my earpiece.

I tapped my earpiece. My focus snapped back into place. "I'm on the way," I told HQ.

Then I looked back at her, sideways. Just enough to catch her expression before I left.

"Wait! Stop—!" I smiled at the desperation in her voice.

"Sorry, princess," I said smoothly, stepping toward the hole in the wall. "I've got things to do."
She flinched at the nickname.

I saw it. A full-body shiver. Good to know some things hadn't changed. "I don't even know your name!" she called after me.

That stopped me for half a beat. I turned my head just enough to throw her one last grin. "I see," I said. "Well, my official title is Vice-Captain Hoshina Soshiro, at your service."

And with that, I launched off the side of the building.
___________

"All kaiju and Honju neutralized. Mission successful. Good job, everyone!" the voice rang in my earpiece. I exhaled hard through my nose, chest rising and falling as sweat ran down my temple.

'Finally,' I thought to myself. Every bit of my body wanted to run back to her apartment, but I knew better. Too much time had passed for her to be most definitely gone from the apartment to allow the clean-up crew to rebuild the area.

Back at Division 3, I went straight to the training hall with no rest and no pause. I ran through every movement again, focusing on form and reaction timing. Sword arcs, core rotation, wrist discipline. The precision of it grounded me. This was control.

But even with all that focus, my mind kept slipping. Sliding somewhere else. Back to her. It'd only been three days since that night, but it haunted me deliciously. The warmth of her skin. Her laugh. Her hips under my hands. The way she looked up at me like I was both trouble and the solution to it.

My form broke.

I clicked my tongue, frustrated, and adjusted my jacket while resolved with the idea that I was too distracted to continue training for the evening, but the adjustment just made it worse. My body reacted before my brain could clamp it down.

I was hard.