Chapter Text
The reaction was immediate, Kafka turns to look at the kaiju Mina was pointing to, Mina bolts out the door to the nearest phone and reports the mysterious monster, both of them scream in terror but for different reasons. For Mina: there was a kaiju in their house; standing in the room of her newly missing friend. She can't bear the thought of losing her best friend to one of those monsters, so she does the sensible thing and calls the intruder into the defense force. At one point the monster started chasing her (although very clumsily.)
For Kafka: there was in fact a kaiju standing behind him. Specifically there was one in the reflection of his bedroom window. He did what anyone reasonable would have done in that situation; he screamed and tried to escape the monster in the window. His screaming was brought to a halt when he realized that Mina had run (away from him. It hurts to think that she's screaming and running away because of him.) When running after Mina he tried not to focus on how wrong his body felt (or how he got stuck in their narrow hallway at one point.) he instead focused on how he could possibly calm Mina down. Catching up to her around the corner he sees her, near hysterical, and tries to reach out to her (Claws. He has claws. Don't look at them.) "Mina!" his voice is rough and filled with reverb. Unnatural. WRONG.
"S-Stay back!" She's got no weapons, no armor, no training. Oh God she's gonna die. This monster killed Kafka and now it's going to kill her.
"Mina! It's me!" How does it know her name?!
"Please Mina! It's me, I swear!" It looks her in the eye. It looks sad, terrified, desperate, human.
"It's Kafka! You gotta believe me." No! This thing clearly-
She's wrapped in a warm, scaly embrace; it's so utterly familiar and full of love. There's no denying. This monster was Kafka Hibino.
"Kafka?" She sniffs. "I-I'm so sorry." His shoulder is rough and textured (inhuman) He's also noticeably taller (not that he wasn't tall before. Before? Before what?)
"It's okay Mina, I'm here. I got you." It's not okay, Kafka was utterly terrified. He's a monster. What the hell was going on.
They hold each other for what feels like forever. The world comes to a stop around them.
Suddenly Mina perks up with an exclamation "Shit!" Kafka looks at her worried he possibly hurt her. "I called the force! They're coming here, I'm so sorry Kafka. I didn't know. I'm so sorry." Her voice breaks with the last sentence and tears welled in her eyes. She messed up. "Calm down Mina, we'll figure something out. You did the right thing." His voice was solid but internally Kafka was shaking, what's gonna happen to him? He hugs Mina again. "I need your help finding somewhere to hide, I don't think I'll fit inside the house like this." He laughs sheepishly. Here he was trapped in suburbia as a monster, geez he already trashed his room, he really doesn't want to trash the house. Mina seemed to think for a second "We need to get going, the longer we wait; the more likely we are to be surrounded." She grabs Kafka by the hand, chooses a direction, and runs.
They run through the street together; hand in hand. Behind them Kafka leaves a trail of destruction. "Sorry..." His spine tightens as he tries to gain control of his tail. "Now's not the time to worry about that Kafka, we just gotta keep moving." "Right."
It continues on like that for a while, running. It feels endless. Mina begins to slow down her; chest was heaving desperately for breath. She lets go of Kafka's hand and leans on a wall. Kafka turns around and runs to support her. "Kafka- just go. Please- you need to keep going." "But Mina-" "Please- it's not safe for you here! I already thought I lost you once tonight, please don't make me lose you for real!" Kafka stiffens visibly "Oh Mina, I'm so sorry-" "No! Stop apologizing for things that aren't your fault! Stop putting me first! I love you so much and it hurts to see you treating yourself like this!" She sobs "If anything- you should blame me. I called the force, I ran away, the only reason you got so many was to support me, and worst of all I couldn't recognize how much you needed help!" She walks over to a frozen Kafka and engulfs him in a warm hug of her own. tears stream down her face as his eyes well with tears of his own. "I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you, you deserve so much better." The dam breaks as her much taller friend sobs into her hair. Mina's arms are wrapped around his thick scaly neck, she's standing on her tippy toes just trying to hug her friend as he sniffles. Kafka begins to shrink and his scales smooth to skin, gradually his large kaiju features shrink and soften into smaller human ones. His human nose sighs into her hair.
"I'm scared Mina." The reverb is gone from his voice.
"I know."
"So fucking scared."
"I know."
Kafka scoffs, still very obviously crying. "And here I thought I hid it better."
"You suck at lying."
"So do you!"
"I don't lie in the first place."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah. That's why I need you to hear this from me." She pulls away from the hug and looks Kafka directly in the eyes.
"You are not alone. We'll get through this together."
"Together?"
"Together."