Aaaa I'm so sorry!!! I meant to ask about how Sayaka would fare in the situation in your ask box, so it gets a whole post to itself and isn't lost in the reblogs... so sorry if you got the wrong idea, I did see the reply I just wasn't able to respond to it at the time🥲 please keep rambling!!
Ooh, I see. I started writing my response pretty quick, but I ended up taking so long that it was super late when I was done (as usual lol). I just hit Post and went straight to bed instead of checking to see if anything had changed since I started writing... So when I woke up to see my Sayaka reblog no longer made sense in context I thought, oh no!! Better delete that >///<;;;
Lemme try this again... on the topic of next gen kaiju slayers and potential specialty programs discussed here, I'll go over how my OkoHoshi fankid Sayaka might fit in below the cut!
It's mostly just a lengthened repost of what I originally wrote though;;;
To start off, I'm not sure a high-potential program would be in place by the time Sayaka enlists - or at the very least, it might be in a more rudimentary phase? Would the kaiju population be more active following the Meireki kaiju's defeat, or less so?? I think that would affect the program's progress a lot!
On Sayaka's timeline in particular, I see her being born once Okonogi and Hoshina reach their 30's in just a few years.
Sayaka would train with her dad and uncle from a young age and probably even try out No.10 before enlisting proper, so she's got way more experience than most and jumps straight into kaiju slaying at eighteen. Hoshina encourages this, being the family business and all - though I think he'd be conflicted deep down, wanting to keep protecting her for a while longer. Okonogi is much more vocal about her concerns, but they both let Sayaka make her own decisions in the end.
She clears Kikoru's initial record at 52% during testing, and is even higher when using No. 10. She later proves to be highly compatible with No. 12 like her uncle Soichiro, and maybe one other Number. But having suit training prior to testing is at least partly responsible, and she is a Hoshina after all - so she probably wouldn't be scouted as an outlier either way? Or she'd simply decline in favor of her own family's support. (If anyone's scouted proper I think it'd be her love interest Hazuki, who enlists after attending college for a few years.)
When first enlisting, I always imagined Sayaka joining the 4th Division under Captain Ichikawa. On the surface it's because she admires him... but I also think she'd want to avoid working directly under her dad, at least until she feels more confident. Soshiro never intentionally makes Sayaka feel inadequate of course - he believes in her and expects great things... which puts some unspoken pressure on her in the end, however well-meaning.
Captain Ichikawa does his best to look out for Sayaka like Ogata did for him, but she still ends up going through a number of rough spots that he may feel partially responsible for (it's no one's fault!) I think watching Hoshina's daughter struggle with various dangers and trauma over the years would definitely add to Reno's disapproval of putting his own kids at risk later down the line in any case.
By the time Hikaru and Isaki are of age, Sayaka would probably be Vice Captain if not a Captain herself - maybe taking over for Soshiro once he leaves his position...? (In canon I do think he'd keep fighting 'till the very end, but having a wife and daughter changes things! He'd at least take a less active role similar to Isao, directing battles alongside Okonogi instead of being on the field nonstop.) Much like her mother, Sayaka would be against pushing others into danger just for the potential benefits... but not unlike her father, she'd do everything she could to prepare them if they chose on their own terms.
And... I think that's about it for now!!
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to talk about Sayaka and such a bit more ^^;;
