Rogue-Repair-Ship

Forbidden Art

Hey.

There is no major plot development here, just Kohaku in his natural habitat. Sort of.

Warning: Slight mentions of Yaoi, but no actual Yaoi, though!

Not that type of fic.

Let's get back to it.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Scuse me, mister?"

Kohaku looked to the side and saw a small boy looking at him curiously.

"Yes?"

"Are they real?" The boy points to his large fox ears.

Kohaku blinks confusedly at him before smiling. He makes a back-and-forth motion with his fox ears and finds amusement in the young child's delight. The boy quickly dashes off to where his parents and sisters are sitting, watching the interaction with smiles.

"Huh... I just thought you were one of those Furry cosplayers..."

He looked away from the restaurant where the boy's family was and back towards the small bar area, facing the man who had given him a drink a few minutes earlier and was cleaning some already clean glasses.

"Furry cosplayers? People do stuff like that?" Kohaku snorted in amusement.

"You'd be surprised, just don't ask how they attached their fake tails..."

"Some sort of harness, I'd assume."

"Ha! More like a plug," The bartender smirked at Kohaku's naivety but laughed when his eyes widened in surprised disturbance.

 "Oh... Oh! That's ummm... Dedication."

"That's one way to put it, Kid."

"Hmmm, well, I assure you, my tails aren't attached in such a manner. All genuine fox fluff," Kohaku revealed his four tails and stroked one of them in front of the humans for good measure. 

The appearance of the fluffy tails caught everyone's attention in the decently busy restaurant. The kids around looked at them hypnotically and had stars in their eyes, while the adults were intrigued and genuinely curious about him. 

It's not every day people get to meet a real-life Kitsune.

Usually, Kohaku would be more reluctant to reveal such things to the general human population, but being in the heart of Japan and Tokyo. The humans here are familiar with Kitsunes and fully understand that the Kansen on the Sakura Empire Island have a few fox girls running around.

Thinking back before entering this normal-looking restaurant.

This had been made painfully clear as walking through Tokyo; every other billboard or advertisement shows one of the Kansen girls promoting some product or fashion line even though they have never done any photo shoots or campaigns to such a degree.

Kohaku is aware the Admiralty of the Kansen will do everything to promote the Kansens to make the general populace trust them more and fund the Azur Lane programme. Still, he wonders if the Kansens know how much publicity they get.

It felt like a completely different world to him; the faces of the Shipgirls he knew, spoke to, and worked beside were plastered everywhere, not just on advertisement boards above their heads but in the form of Plushies in claw machines, figures and all sorts of merchandise in the shops and even cosplay stores, Kohaku could have sworn he saw a girl dressed up as Atago.

He even passed an Azur Lane-themed cafe with waitresses dressed as Royal Navy maids.

Kohaku wished he could say he was utterly unknown to the humans, but unfortunately, he wasn't. While looking around the shops for souvenirs for Akashi, he found a large poster of him standing in the middle of the ocean with blurred Sirens in the background, carrying a wounded Shikikan in his arms.