Dai Gurren

@undyingparagxn, prepare to meet your biggest fan.

She’d only heard legends about this man.

Okay, maybe the statue of him right in the middle of Kamina City counted as having seen what he looked like, but this… this was totally different.

This was the man himself.

Right there…

How, again, was someone supposed to act around their hero?

Whether she realized it or not, Lagann was staring at him, probably hoping he would notice.

It had never concerned Kamina when people stopped to gaze at him with some sense of awe. Now by no means did he think himself divinity, simply a man that all men should aspire to be. But even the paragon knew that the things he had done were impossible, his survival alone was enough to prove that. 

Without even mentioning the fact that he’d even made it back to this world, across countless others.

“...Uh kid. You’ve been standing there for a while now.”

But even the paragon had his own limits. And when a certain set of unknown eyes had locked upon him, first Kamina had chalked it up to a fan of some kind, gazing in wonder at his masculine self. That was a while ago, long enough that the sun was starting to set in the sky. It was then that the paragon grew a little concerned. “Are you broken or something? Rossiu would stare at that book like you’re starin’ at me now, and we all know anyone who thinks a Gunman is a god is busted somewhere in their head.”

“Gh- Aniki I said I only have ONE girl!!” he huffs, pulling out his phone and flipping to the photos stored within, bringing up a picture of Robin and a baby with dark blue hair not unlike his own that he’d taken recently before turning and showing it to him. “There, that’s her and our son Morgan- …oh, yeah, kinda forgot to mention that, guess i got caught up in all the excitement of piloting again. You’re an uncle now.”

“It sounded a lot like you had two”

“Worried I’ll spill the secret? Don’t sweat it buddy, the Mighty Kamina would never sell out his brother like that!” He peered at the device curiously, pondering how much it looked like that wordy thing Leeron use to have back in the day. As far as he could recall, they only had words and the occasional picture of the moon, never full fledged people crammed into it. Reaching over to pluck the device and examine the scene closer, Kamina tilted his head in thought. “Nice one, Simon! Found love after all, the simon in the pits would’ve been too scared of girls to even think about having a kid! Where’d you meet up? One of those fancy ‘Universe’ things?” The man was proud however, that Simon was moving forward at such a rapid pace. And the kid in the picture...

“Uncle, huh? Want me to teach this kid to jump?”

“Haha! You have a point there.” he chuckles, then when the topic of his height came up, he put a finger to his chin in thought. “I honestly have no idea- I guess being so small had it’s advantages, but you remember my dad, right? even a little? He was like the tallest guy in the village next to your old man.” he smiles, the thought was quite nostalgic, and he wound up reminiscing for a few before slipping his hands into his pockets.

“Sorta brings to light just how far we’ve come…. been about ten years since then.”

“I guess where you got the height I got the muscle...” His thoughts trailed off with his words, pondering the memories of Jeeha. Simon’s father was a tall man, and as far as fathers went he wasn’t all that bad. “Who knows. More details  that’ll just get in the way, right? No matter which one of us is taller, we both tower over anyone who steps into our path!”

Own hands folded across his chest, head tilting as his soul bound brother begun to recall the past, Kamina beamed a smile back at the other. “And I don’t know about you, but I ain’t stopping here. Stayin’ in one place never suited me, I’d rather see everything life has to offer and more. Still, more then one girl? If anyone tried that on Yoko, she’d blow them apart, how’d you pull it off?”

Evidently he’d already forgotten the others explanation. 

requested by anonymous

“I’ve made a few improvements to it since you last saw it” he nods, turning and starting to head toward the mech hangar inside the capitol building, signalling the other to follow him. “Come on, you’re still not gonna believe this but I wanna show you anyway” he chuckles- was that excitement in his step? He hadn’t felt this giddy since Morgan started crawling.

“That ain’t a surprise, Simon. A man gets stronger the more he fights, ain’t no reason that Gurren Lagann wouldn’t work the same way.” Not that he had any knowledge of spiral energy, or the finer details of the mechanical union. Cloak flowing behind him, the steps carried Kamina behind his now taller brother, laughing to himself at the thought. “Still can’t figure out how you got taller then me. You didn’t eat nearly as much as I did.” Though, that wasn’t what had brought laughter forward. It was simply the idea, that after all this time, Simon’s back was still driving on ahead of him. They were older, stronger, and maybe even wiser. But some things just never changed.

“Agh, yeah, you’re right- Sorry about that” he huffs, then a thought dawns on him, and he smiles, grabbing his core drill. 

“i’ll explain the Anti-spirals later, but how about I just SHOW you what I’m talking about? Wanna take Gurren Lagann out for a Joyride?”

“Don’t sweat it. Just ease up on the long confusing explanations, get wrapped up in the details and you’ll start thinking about things that don’t matter.”

Now this is what Kamina needed. Not to just hear about all this, but to go straight into the deep end and see it all himself.  “I haven’t sat in that chair for a while, Simon. If there really is a whole stack of posers pretending to be me, then I ain’t got no choice but to chase them all down and show them who the real Kamina is, right?”

“No- Aniki, another universe me. Yeah in this plane of existence there’s only one of us, but beyond that there’s countless universes each with their own Simon and Kamina… We found that out fairly recently after the Anti-spiral attack and…”

“…Well I kinda ripped a hole in the universe itself with Gurren lagann, ever since then we’ve been exploring and experimenting with it.”

“....Anti....existence...what?”

The blank gaze couldn’t have screamed his confusion more.  “You wanna try sayin’ that again, Simon? From the top, without all the big ass words and the confusing sounds. Cause you just sound like Leeron and Forehead boy fused together or something.”

「✧░ 蒸留し予測は ░ ✦」

“Wait wait hold on a sec—”

This wasn’t happening. This could not be happening.

She didn’t ask for much believe it or not. If there was anything the lush ever asked for, it was only because it could not be obtained by her own merit. All she ever asked of the gods that governed her grand design were simple things. You know, a roof over her head; a good fuck; her fridge stocked with beer. Maybe if she was feeling daring, she’d prey for a boyfriend to land on her lap for a good time- but that was only on a good day, mind you.

(Granted, these preyers were hardly ever answered, so she didn’t expect much from ambivilant beings, but still–)

Apparently, the grand design of her life today implemented the biggest headache ever conceived. Karma certainly came back with teeth, and this time it sought to caused nothing but being a collective and concise pain in her ass. And yet, the thing that confounded her the most was that she could hardly place all the blame on Kamina. 

 One day- just one day, was it too much to ask?- Cana implored the gods there and now for simplicity. She had just woke up for godsakes and already her body propelled forward to intercept the steadfast warrior. Right as Kamina made his stride towards the exit of her home, she had quickly cut his path short. Despite the state of dress, or rather lack thereof, she stood stock-still, implementing a commanding pose borrowed from the Titania herself. 

“Hey– stop, just hold on a sec, okay?”

”Y’mean to tell me that you brought this- this thing into my house, out of the blue, and you’re gonna go out and get  A N O T H E R one–?!”

A sigh hushed from her lips as her hand threaded through her locks to give her temple a brief alleviation from the pressure building upon her temple. Okay. It was a struggled for Cana not to thrash the shit out of Kamina, but with a great force of will and untapped patience, the lush managed to cling to the one thing that she had failed to conceive.

With this revelation realized, the silence that settled in the space between them lifted, giving Cana the voice to speak again. “Kamina listen, I was just kidding about the cake okay? When I said that it could be bigger, I was being sarcastic! And besides, I never thought you, let alone anyone else would get me cake.

Please don’t go and get another one- honestly, I’m pretty sure this one alone between the two of us could last us a month. I don’t need another one.

I just….honestly didn’t expect…well, you to get me anything at all, to be honest. So, y’know…thanks Kamina. This is pretty awesome of you to do.”

His mentality had been simple enough to follow, what with the briefest of explanations given as to what a birthday actually was. After all, at the core of his actions, insane or otherwise, Kamina simply did everything as impressively as possible. If he was drinking, then the man would drink in excess until he inevitably passed out before the woman, valiantly attempting with nothing but will power and tenacity to overwhelm her tolerance. If fighting, the man would never hold back, unleashing everything from the very moment his fist would first swing. Everything was taken to an extreme, as far as it could have possibly been taken, no matter the situation he would always consider it a requirement to go from zero to one hundred.

Which was why, when informed that this overwhelming cake, sitting in the center of the room, inconspicuous and intended to feed a minimum of thirty, was considered smaller then expected.  He had promptly stood and head to the doorway, intent on retrieving something greater, something far more impressive. And yet, his path had been blocked by the other with quick words intending to stop his advance.

“You said it coulda been bigger. Why wouldn’t we get the biggest one we could?”

Arms crossed to observe the other, paragon listening curiously to the words offered. She didn’t expect anything? What did sarcastic mean? Although the idea that he couldn’t devour the cake in a day tempted him to take on the challenge, Kamina perked an eyebrow at a particular sentence, opting that it seemed to be the most important thing he wanted to understand. “I thought this was what people did on birthdays...not even sure what it is, but its suppose to be some weird party with cake and booze, right? You didn’t think the mighty Kamina would just up and ignore it when he found out, did you?”

A smile formed, laced with self fulfilling pride at the compliment of being considered awesome. “Of course I’d do it, bozo. The hell do you think I am?”

*shining sound*

                                   「✧░ 蒸留し予測は ░ ✦」

A yawn was suppressed, the back of her hand acting as the shield to any unfortunate victim who was well within her ‘morning breath’ perimeter, her irritable blues blinking lazily at the lingering sands of sleep that clung to her eyes before she gave a great cat-like stretch. Gritty & unwashed,  her mane of earth toned tresses were in simple terms a ‘hot mess’; as was her sleep attire, a stained shirt of questionable color (it looked grey, or maybe it was mystery stain from long ago) falling just a little passed her knees & with boyshorts to couple her layabout ensemble, she was the epitome of a women who reveled her bachelorette lifestyle. Minus, of course, the hapless idiot of a roommate that so daringly interrupted her cat nap. With a groan of protest, the card mage arose from the disheveled confines of her bed and slowly trudged out towards the source of the booming voice that had awoke her.

Cana wasn’t exactly sure what to expect when she walked out into what could be laughably called a ‘livingroom’. Living with Kamina taught her that she shouldn’t expect the expected- meaning she shouldn’t expect anything normal to come from his actions (perhaps because he wasn’t normalhimself); she still seethed at his prior actions to having her mattress tossed outside her window (her kind and oh-so understanding landlord was really pleased about that), which forced her to take preemptive measures.

Needless to say, the tarot mage was not amused.

Though she ended up with a new mattress to sleep on, she was still apprehensive to any ventures that the man had garnered- wherever he managed to procure anything of interest (she used the term loosely thank you) it was often everyday objects or customs that were commonplace to her.

Yet it reaped a healthy enthusiasm that the tarot mage had rarely witnessed from Kamina, albeit a strange one; nevertheless, Cana reserved herself of any assessment until the last second. Which, up until the moment she heard his call to the moment she stood just at the threshold of their shared living space, any reservations held against denouncing what foolish schemes her overtly nettlesome roommate had wrought. 

Needless to say she wasn’t dissappointed. 

There, right smack dab in the middle of floor, was probably the largest cake Cana had ever witnessed. The only one she ever saw standing (being in the company of a cake enthusiast— especially strawberry cake— Cana never could admire the craftsmanship put into creating such a delicate dessert); with tiers of frosting and sugary confection of gentle swirls and designs that made her dizzy just to look at, her mind reeled as her sight finally caught the adorned figurines placed at the very tip-top of the cake— & while a jolt of alarm caused hues to widen, there was no haste to draw any misconceptions that would ensue further awkwardness.

"…………………”

Now what the hell was she supposed say to that? 

…hell no.

"Dunno—               —could be a little bigger, y’know?” Sarcasm had wittingly laced her words before she could hold them in check, as the corner of her mouth tipped in a wistful grin, the card mage gave her head a shake before fixating the man sitting on her floor a bemused look. “S’there some occasion I should know about?”

“Heard about that birthday thing, and I’m pretty sure you’ve gotta get a cake and a gift right? And what the hell are balloons?”

Nothing in this world of simple pleasures and common, everyday activities would be something Kamina had experience with. His childhood was one following about a father, who declared that the heavens were the endgame, and that a true man would follow his path into the open wastelands of the surface, to taste that endless battle. And his adolescence, had become nothing but creating a small town gang, that evolved into a resistance, an ended up as an army, wearing his symbol as they conquered the stars.

So cakes. Balloons. Even mattresses. Rare occurrences, oddities, things that the man neither needed nor understood. Why did Cana sleep in such a soft bed, when the ground was just as easy, and far less expensive. Why would Juvia spend so much on clothes, food, outfits, when Kamina and those around him had made do with nothing but what rested upon their backs. Erza would devour savory treats and desserts that burnt his mouth with sweetness, Lucy would leave enough on a plate after dinner to ration out enough supplies to last Rossiu’s village a year. Nothing in this soft, sweet, innocent world made any sense to him. And so when she spoke in the sarcastic lathered tone, jokingly suggesting it could be a little bigger. The stranger from a world of war pushed himself to his feet and sighed, before making his way around the monster of a cake and towards the door.

“Figured it could’ve been bigger, that baker was way too scared to give me the best one he could get. I’ll be back with a bigger birthday cake for you. Guess, just call mecha and tell her she can have this one.”

     ❝…Ya look a little lost there, need some help?❞

“Lost? Can’t get lost if I’m just moving forward. Though I guess I must look pretty confused. Just trying to figure out how you got a whole pit village above ground without the fuzzballs burning it back down”

         “Juvia does not approve of this idea— Please don’t kill Lyon-sama.”

“Well you got any better ideas? I ain’t gonna let any frosty wimp be with you, and you ain’t gonna stop liking this icey princess, so we gotta figure out some way to see if he’s a man. ......I say we kill him.”