"Tachibana..." Tenpou gave a bemused nod and committed the name to somewhere in the vast, disorganized library of his mind. "Japanese, then? I'm quite fond of your anime and manga! I bought Shounen Jump every week when I was stationed at the Nagasaki Shatterdome."

He watched Sugane struggle into the hazmat suit as if he were observing some interesting alien organism being swallowed by a rubbery, neon yellow foe. The suits were safe enough, having been power-washed with disinfectant and heavy-duty surfactants after every use, but the boy's efforts to avoid touching the equipment were both amusing and probably a good survival trait. After all, if he did become a Ranger, he'd have to carefully avoid exposure to both Kaiju toxins and the radioactive dangers of the Jaegers themselves.

"I'll be manning the robotic arm from the workstation, so I should be fine," Tenpou continued, gesturing to a large mechanical apparatus next to the sample tank. "Your job is simply to make sure that none of the attached ganglia fall off. And, well, if they do, try to get them off the floor before a lab supervisor notices. They're still good. Five second rule, you know?"