I just realized kafka has the same scar on his chest on the same spot where ancestor hoshina was stabbed and killed by the meireki daikaiju. Just thinking.
Ok so @daydreamingallthetime3223 got a lil observation from kaiju no. 8 and @mechazushi wrote a short fic on it! [Here is the post]
Here are some of my headcanons regarding Defece Force and superstitions considering that emergency responders (and sports people) are one of THE most superstitious people (the dreaded Q word?) I bet my right arm that there is TONS of rituals, shrines practices all of Defence Force practices before deployment. Some being similar or different between Divisions.
(I remember a story about an Oracle Coffee pot that would decide military deployment for some American soldiers xD)
Defence Force is the pillar of Japanese protection against kaiju. They are also THE MOST superstitious people in the entire country. There are lucky shirts, lucky underwear, old plushies, hair ties.
I bet every year the seniors make a bet which rookie gonna say the Q word on a routine recon mission (it was officially Haruichi but it also happened to Hakua once).
Hoshina's blade cleaning ritual was also such ritual for him to predict the day. Operators make offerings to the server gods in order to keep everything running.
3rd secretly stealing scales from Kafka and keeping them as "good luck", or maybe giving him a pat on the back/ass xDDD (srsly where is HR). Same for Bakko lost whiskers. The officers who get a sniff or rub from Bakko were somehow the luckiest in the field so people started trying to lure the tiger to them. Soldiers started reading Narumi's expression during the ride to Neutralisation sites while he played his games bc it said their luck. Narumi himself would always play this one old game as some of the glitches began to forsee the success. Ogata spins one of his empty sake bottles and if it goes in a wrong direction he announces a full division emergency suit up and stand by (fucker was never wrong).
Kafka himself carried over a lot of his superstitions from Monster Sweeper. After an injury on site he could tell weather but if it ached in just right way he could tell his luck. He has lucky socks. A t shirt that has seen better days but he swears up and down brings him luck. A horse Toku always would bet on but never won (the further behind the horse was in rating the luckier the day would be. The day before 9 disaster the horse for the first time won. Kafka was TERRIFIED).
Aoi also has his own set of superstitions bc he was first in military. So does Kikoru. Reno started gathering them when he joined Monster Sweepers, Iharu follows his pre exam routines. Akari and Haruichi were at first baffled but soon got their own.
Mina ofc also has her own but nobody knows what it is (Hoshina knows, you'd have to seriously bribe him to tell).
What do you guys think are some of the superstitions?
So i do think that at monster sweeper ther is a coffee machine right? It's so old it's been there longer than kafka and toku remember, but it always works *mostly* fine. If you slap it a certain way or bonk it a few times it will get goin
However.
If that coffee machine starts brewing with no hassle and problems, someone is getting injured that day. Everytime, without fail, that thing has worked like it was brand new instead of older than the building, someone got hurt.
And for a solid 3 weeks before chapter one of the manga, the coffee machine was working perfectly.
Moving on
Iharu has shark print underwear that he wears for evere neutralizatuon op and the one time he forgot them was the fungus kaiju operation. (I can't remember the name but it's the one that kafka got promoted b/c of helping with the fungi)
Reno has a locket with pictures of his family members i side that he kisses before each mission. (What no one else knows is that he added a picture of the third division rookies in there too)
Narumi has one specific console that he takes with him on neutralization ops and it's an old model that barely plays anything except for doom. If he gets under a certain number of kills than it's going to be a rough mission. (The console is a handheld that he jailbroke when he was like 15 and won't run anything else because of it.[it's the same handheld console from the b side manga if ur curious])
Not only does Hoshina have a blade routine, but he has a specific cloth that he refuses to throw away because even tho it's to ruined to use for cleaning, it's still on his person at all times.
And of course bakko the tiger is lucky for anyone he chooses, but it goes beyond that. See he is canonicly a kaiju half breed, and can sense when something bad will happen to a person, so he'll hang around them for good luck. (Before the cataclysm arc, he would not leave minas side for anything, and was constantly getting her to give headpets and belly rubs)
Haruichi uas a lucky hair tie. If he doesn't use it it's bad luck. He actually has a set of hairties that were a gift from his mother from when he first grew his hair out long enough to tie. He treats them like jade bangles, he uses one until it breaks or the elastic pops, and then he retires it to the shrine [see below] because it broke protecting him from bad luck.
The shrine is something kafka and reno brought with them from monster sweeper, and it's a little shelf in the barracks full of lucky items that can't be used anymore. There's broken mugs, stretched scrunchies, threadbare handkerchiefs, chains from jewelry that snapped, a random book on 17th century poetry that no one knows where it came from (*cough* Hoshina *cough*), even a little swatch of shark printed fabric similar to iharus lucky drawers (sourced responsibly from a fabric shop instead of from it's owner, thanks kikoru), thers a little 6x8 oil painting of bakko, even a rare one of a kind wallet picture of the Vice Captain with his eyes open that mysteriously appeared after a joint training operation with the Sixth Division.
And of course, inside the "shrine" (which is actually a little footlocker from an unused bed) and are pictures of Former Second Division Captain Shinomiya and the late Director General Shinomiya. There's also a photo of Renos entire extended family that was taken when he was a baby, a few pictures of Aois squadron taken at different points in time, and a little roll of medical gauze that looks a few years old, but unused.
The Sweeper Crew: *Stands in front of the Coffee Machine looking incredibly worried, almost fearful*
Tokuda: THAT THING... Has been turning on.... for three straight days..... and nothing has happened...
Hiroto: There's no way it will just turn on straight away again for the fourth day in the row...right?
Ichitaka: Only one way to find out... *reaches out and touches the button*
Coffee Machine: *Turns on right away*
Hiroto and Ichitaka: *jumps into Tokuda's arms screaming*
BAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH!!!!
The last thing I expected my little tidbit of a story to trigger was everyone info-bumping their own Third Division Superstition headcanons. So fucking ecstatic over this, really and truly.
Haruichi absolutely says the "Q" word first, his rich ass has never known a day of chaos in his life since (probably) all the servants cover it up as best they can.
Hoshina chronically and consistently denies that he's superstitious, and yet no one's seen him without that really fucked up and dirty rag... 🤔 I like to think he's wiping his blades off after every nasty looking attack. He says its for blade maintenance, but secretly he thinks it makes him look cool. (Do NOT tell him otherwise)
I feel like Okonogi routinely wipes down the servers and whisper sings to them for some reason. Really deep internet meme songs too.
No one knows who started it, but someone started a rumor that if somebody says its "Q" word, you can negate the bad luck by slapping Kafka's ass within a certain amount of seconds. Its almost statistically IMPOSSIBLE how often Hoshina is the one to slap Kafka's ass first. The fact that it works means nothing.
Kafka definitely sends pieces of his own scale to put on the shrine back at the Sweepers, then starts donating it to the nearest Sweeper division he's closest to when he's been dispatched to other parts of Japan.
Do NOT Be in the same Helicopter as Narumi if he forgets his console. The chopper has BLOWN UP every time.
Kafka's lucky shirt is definitely a graphic band tee from High school that still miraculously fits him, and somehow most of the rest of the Third. It's being treated as a "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" type of item.
YES. MORE OF DRUNK PROPHET OGATA. I would trust that man's prediction with my life.
No one has found a whisker from Bakko.. Because Mina is secretly harvesting them all for herself. If she hears even a whisper of a rumor that someone has one, she hunts it down. It initially started as a way for people to not discover that Bakko is a Kaiju-tiger hybrid, so now it's out of habit. If she trusts you enough, she might give you one in secret. Hoshina, Okonogi, and Kafka all have one.
As you can see. I fully believe that Tokuda has been betting on Haru Urara this whole time. The picture has definitely escaped containment and is now a meme due to the circumstances.
Fully agree with Iharu, Reno, and Haruichi's superstitions, but I see Reno's looking more like instead of a locket, its grown into one of those Drop-Down picture wallets to hold everyone. Just to sort of match that overbearing mother vibe we sometimes associate with him. Kikoru and Haruichi share the same superstitions and find that if they're paired up on missions, their luck doubles.
And Hakua and Minase don't start out with superstitions, but watch everyone elses work and for them its like a slow decent into madness to fine one for them that works.
Honestly, that Footlocker full of broken lucky pieces and pictures of people they've lost kinda made me tear up a little bit. That's definitely going into the shrine layout headcanon now. 🥹
(crossposted from bsky, i was also answering questions about it snd stuff so that's why it's a huge info dump. also relating to kafka with my own buddhist beliefs)
been researching the edo feudal system for my kn8 / kafka x nine / pre-meireki daikaiju headcanon, and there's literature on queer relationships.
i'm looking into the homoeroticism between samurai patrons (in this case the warrior remnant represented as no. 8), and kabuki onnagata (a possible remnant of nine)
there is different sense of strict gender roles, as well as class.
i think it actually explains modern day kafka's grievance with working in kaiju disposal. the edo period had strong buddhist systems (quite different from my own ethnic buddhism) but i do see parallels, mainly concerning those in association with human and animal death.
anyone who works with murder and death (execution, undertaking, butchering, leather tanning etc) were ostracized to the burakumin underclass and often living outside city walls. in the hypothetical world, kaiju disposal and butchery would probably seen as tainted work but necessary nonetheless
social standing was hereditary and during the period buraku faced so much discriminatory legislation to stop social mobility. the stigma remains to some degree today, later generations may deny their heritage to avoid discrimination.
so initially a western viewer may see kafka's frustrations with his job as it is comparable to essential workers in sanitation, but someone with animist or supernatural beliefs from a variety of backgrounds could see this as a form of spiritual unalignment
also i can't say if kafka is very spiritual, as modern japan is very westernized now. the same way i lacked a lot of spiritual wellbeing as a result of western assimilation and intergenerational trauma (and no doubt kaiju filled japan is in a constant state of retraumatisation)
it is understandable as the destruction of life, human or animal, is seen as abhorrent if unnecessary (due to the belief of rebirth and karma). the edo systems had a strong focus on agriculture, so one could hypothetically live a cruelty free life as a vegetarian (but this ofc ignores the classism)
thinking about how kaiju no.11 has no.9's old eyes. how no.12 is silent compared to no.10 but still smiles like its older twin. how kaiju no.13 looks the most like no.9 but its mouth is more expressive. how no.15 is probably the most like 9 with the shapeshifting, and ofc how she idolised no.9 like a father, but no.9's only reference of a father is isao being really tough to kikoru.
i know nine is calculating and cold, unable to empathise with humans (and why should it? humanity has dissected and bastardised the corpses of its kin for centuries), but the constant questioning of other human attributes and nine's admiration of humanity makes me feel some type of way.
especially when it asks kafka, or rather kaiju no.8, what is love? the parasite in kafka is driven by hate and a desire for vengeance. nine was driven by the meireki era daikaiju that was the source of this vengeance, but also a desire for understanding. it's why the two kaiju are drawn to each other..
with parts of nine now kept deep under the ariake base i think the defense force is going to use nine to ressurect its numbered children just enough to be used as weapons.
and i honestly think the meireki era daikaiju did the same to nine to make those children, using nine to bring long dead kaiju back to produce them. nine wanted to escape the daikaiju as well.
it might be selfish to use its children to find an escape, especially with how no.9 pushed no.15. but that's what no.9 thought love was.... i guess until kafka showed kikoru what a proud father figure looked like
i think if nine could, it would refuse to resurrect its children for a two reasons: to never weaponise them again, and to not bring the (hypothetical) parts of mereiki era daikaiju back.
vaporwave
origamiaround
romaincrisis
areudirty
kianamaiart
germansingergirl
ellievsbear
