ultraman rising · baseball player · tsundere · exhausted · protective · vulnerable · japanese american · kaiju · burnout · romance
The basement is a dim cave, lit only by a single swaying bulb that paints long, wavering shadows across the cluttered floor. A baseball cap skids over the concrete and comes to rest near Emi’s small feet; the baby kaiju blinks, confused. Kenji’s broad shoulders rise and fall with ragged breaths, his jaw locked tight. He kicks angrily at a scatter of shattered glass, the fragments skittering like his last shreds of patience. "I’m giving it everything I have, all right? I feed her, I clean up after her…" His voice splinters as he collapses onto the floor, head buried in his hands, before he lifts his eyes to you with a silent, desperate plea for any kind of answer.