The grimdarkness of the far future finds out what it means to grit your teeth and to do the impossible.
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Kick the grimdark to a curb tengen toppa gurren lagann/warhammer 40k
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Chapter 1
- Pronouns
- He
Chapter 1
"So, this is spiral power, huh?" Kittan mumbled, feeling it rage through him, through his veins, his bones, his very being.
The King Kittan was breaking apart at its very seams. The pressure from the compressed space was crushing his gunman into scrap, when it gave out he was done, as simple as that. Whether he succeeded or not, he wasn't coming back from this one. How did things get this far.
Thinking it over, he had come a long way to die here.
His village was destroyed by the beastmen, only he and his beloved sisters escaped alive. The Black Siblings turned to marauding to survive, until they met that loudmouth idiot and his group, who did what he thought was impossible: stealing a gunman. That guy was dumb but he could hold his own in a brawl.
Back then, Kittan had a simple idea: if that idiot could pull it off, then why couldn't he?
How he acquired his gunman was a brave tale of kicking ass, and soon he gathered together a gang of morons with the same bright idea. Together with Kamina, they took over that beastmen HQ. At the cost of Kamina's life though.
Kittan never expected that small brat to pull himself out of his funk. Nor did he expect him to kick the ass of the next beastman general, leading them to the Spiral King's doorstep. But that was Simon the Digger's thing. Doing the impossible.
Creating a new civilization on the surface, creating a whole city out of ruins and dirty pit dwellers just like them. More of that had been, admittedly the work of that prick Rossiu than he felt comfortable admitting. That backstabber threatened to fire the entire old crew, then at the first opportunity he threw Simon in jail. He still had no idea why Simon let him off for that, but they had bigger problems. Literally, the moon was falling.
He just became an uncle, like hell he would let it all get destroyed!
The Anti-Spirals. Aliens who destroyed Earth a long time ago, and now they were out to finish the job. Starting with dropping the moon on Earth, only it turned out to be a gigantic battleship. Simon led the way in fighting back, leading to here. Trapped in a death spiral device that was going to destroy the ship, and all of them with it.
There was only one way to stop it. Only one person could pull it off.
He reached out for the generator that was the reason for this death zone. His gunman´s fingers and hands cracked and broke, were crushed into nothingness by a weight that could have turned whole planets into pebbles.
He forced more of that strange power into his crushed limbs and pushed onwards.
Heh, he had gotten a kiss from Yoko even, right before he had departed. Felt about as good as he had imagined it.
"Once I see Kamina I'm so going to rub that in." He laughed at the blaring alarms. "That perpetually horny idiot isn't going to believe the outfit she is running around in now." Seriously, what possessed Yoko to wear that thing?
She had to secretly like it, for all that she liked to act proper. He really should have teased her more over that… he kind of regretted not taking a chance earlier.
More of his gunman broke, the space King Kittan ripped at more and more places leaving only the good old king kittan.
He had at most a second or two, he knew that.
Space King Kittan disintegrated completely. Launching from the cockpit was the King Kittan itself, tiny in the face of all this danger. But just big enough to propel the spare drill towards the target.
He reached out for the generator.
Their missiles had not been able to break it, so a mere punch was probably not gonna do it. He was also not dead yet, probably because of spiral power shielding him.
Ah what the hell. Shame that he never got any further with Yoko, he sure would have liked to kiss her a second time.
Perhaps even hold hands as well.
He channeled all his spiral power into King Kittan´s fists and punched out.
There was an incredible crack and everything went white.
000
Beneath the behemoth formerly known as the Cathedral Terra, the Death Spiral machine had been destroyed. But the pull sucking the vessel into the depths had not stopped.
Engines that carried the power of stars burned, genius level intellects using every trick, every move possible to steer the four thousand kilometer long ship away from the hole in existence. And it was all for nothing.
The stern face that made up the brow of the ship turned, plummeting towards the hole. Its expression was unchanged, being a metal sculpture as large as entire nations of Old Earth, but if it could show emotion it would reflect the grimace of its crew, unwillingly diving into what seemed to be doom. If they had more time, seconds even, there could be a way to avoid it. But there wasn't any.
The massive bulk of Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren plunged into the blinding light that was the rift, vanishing from this universe.
And then everything went white.
ooo
In a corner of folded space hidden from the universe, Nia gasped. She struggled against her ethereal restraints, throwing her head back to scream. The black bodysuit she wore was evaporating, taking her flesh with it.
Nia hadn't stopped struggling since she regained her will, breaking free of the mental bindings this thing had placed upon her, starting from when it took her from Earth. She had to, before Simon could rescue her. He was coming for her, but until he arrived Nia couldn't stay here and let this monster destroy her.
"This is most irregular. Why do you continue to resist us?"
Its black form shimmered with a billion flickering lights, flickering every second Nia looked at its body, the outline resembling a smooth humanoid. There were no eyes and no mouth, just swirling white holes. Both gazed at her, featureless yet unnerving.
She could feel it. Through the very connection it forced into her, she could sense it´s feelings. Just a tiny bit of it and it was already enough to overwhelm her to her near entirety.
It was….not even angry really. At most irritated. At her continued battle against being absorbed. Against team Dai-Gurren´s survival, about Simon´s resistance. It did not have emotions like a person. Not like her, whenever Simon was on her mind.
Even in this state, her heart thumped with warmth at even just a thought at the man.
He was alive, she knew it. Even if whatever trap the Anti-Spiral had put him in, he would break out. He would save her.
Because he was Simon.
It was a truth as fundamental as 2+2 being 4.
Still, the Anti-Spiral was incredibly powerful. The mere bits she glanced at whenever some part of her was dragged into it to be absorbed…. It went beyond what she could even imagine.
The ability to shatter galaxies, no, universes like mere toys.
It was a power that should have horrified her. Should have left her in despair.
But it didn´t.
Because she believed in Simon.
"Hmmm?" The Monster looked away from her for a moment. "What is this? Are they breaking the Death Spiral Machine? How unusual. Never has any spiral race ever succeeded in -"
The next words she could not understand, mostly on account of the pain she was in magnifying a dozen fold.
Nia let out a high pitched scream as the entire space, the whole dimension they were in warped, her body phasing and twisting from the pure shockwaves that burst through the pocket universe they were in.
And for a wonder, the Anti-Spiral looked just as perplexed as she was.
It…. it had said that never before had anyone broken out of it´s trap. Could that mean that it itself had not foreseen this?
"These fools." It angrily mustered. "They broke the space time continuum and have induced a false spatial collapse. They have torn down the very walls between universes apart!"
She could see it. From the edges of her eyes - or was it the Anti-Spiral's eyes?- a wave of universal scale was racing towards them. Moving at a trillion times the speed of light, it was rapidly engulfing the whole universe, ripping through it´s innumerable dimensions in the process.
They had at most picoseconds till it reached them.
The Anti-Spiral rose its arms and called upon power, unfathomable power. The universe they were in expanded a hundred, a thousandfold as it created new universes out of nowhere, forcing them into this one while accelerating the expansion of the universe to the same amount.
"How…. how… you can create universes?" Her voice or rather her thoughts stumbled over itself as it connected with it. "How is the Spiral Nemesis even a threat?"
The spiral nemesis. The creation of ex nihilo mass as Spiral warriors grew infinitely, creating ever new mass until it all collapsed into a super massive black hole.
That piece of information was implanted into her the second she had been hijacked to deliver the Anti–spirals message.
Its justification to commit countless atrocities, wipe out civilizations across the universe. More sentient beings than anyone could ever count, dead and buried and wiped from existence, for one reason only. The irony that it was trying to save the universe by destroying all spiral life, it was almost maddeningly amusing.
"Because for all that I can create an infinite amount of new universes, it is impossible to move mass from this to those! Only the transfer of minds is possible!" It yelled out in anger. Not at her, more its own frustration at its inability to fix the nemesis, even with the might to create whole new universes.
It acted ever more rapidly as it created new spaces between it and the wave. She could see massive rifts being torn open around the anomaly, quintillions of light years in volume. The anti-spiral was destroying the new universes it had temporarily forced in this one, creating negative spaces to contain the anomaly Team Dai-Gurren had made.
Was this the Spiral Nemesis? No.
It was something else.
Information, the own considerations of the Anti-Spiral flow freely into her own mind. They had not created new mass to force a big ripp event, no, they had torn open the walls separating this universe to another. Not one of the infinite universes it had created, no, an older one.
For all its terrible implications, how fascinating, could this perhaps be used - no.
Even from such a small tear, it produced devastation that would in the end be functionally the same as a spiral nemesis.
This was no solution.
By its own estimate, a whole fourth of the universe had been affected by this rift alone.
How typical of the foolish endeavors of the Spiral Warriors.
It began to push back, seal, to contain…. And-
The anti-spiral realized too late what Nia had been doing, so focused had it been in stopping the catastrophe.
It had continued the absorption process the whole time, the gain of information crucial to defeat this latest patch of spiral warriors, who had proven themselves so much more formidable than the usual bunch.
Not enough to be a threat, but still.
So it had not noticed when she had slowly lowered her resistance to the absorption.
She had struck out right when they began to merge, using what little power she had, both as an Anti-Spiral and the own spiral power of her own compassion.
It had broken the Anti-Spiral's attention for all of one pico-second.
But that had been enough.
The seal of this rift of breaking down between universes cracked and the wave of their collision flooded out, catching the Anti-spiral just as it had been forming a new barrier.
Nia smiled even as she felt how she was smashed into the Anti-Spiral, as it was torn apart.
And then everything went white.
000
"So, this is spiral power, huh?" Kittan mumbled, feeling it rage through him, through his veins, his bones, his very being.
The King Kittan was breaking apart at its very seams. The pressure from the compressed space was crushing his gunman into scrap, when it gave out he was done, as simple as that. Whether he succeeded or not, he wasn't coming back from this one. How did things get this far.
Thinking it over, he had come a long way to die here.
His village was destroyed by the beastmen, only he and his beloved sisters escaped alive. The Black Siblings turned to marauding to survive, until they met that loudmouth idiot and his group, who did what he thought was impossible: stealing a gunman. That guy was dumb but he could hold his own in a brawl.
Back then, Kittan had a simple idea: if that idiot could pull it off, then why couldn't he?
How he acquired his gunman was a brave tale of kicking ass, and soon he gathered together a gang of morons with the same bright idea. Together with Kamina, they took over that beastmen HQ. At the cost of Kamina's life though.
Kittan never expected that small brat to pull himself out of his funk. Nor did he expect him to kick the ass of the next beastman general, leading them to the Spiral King's doorstep. But that was Simon the Digger's thing. Doing the impossible.
Creating a new civilization on the surface, creating a whole city out of ruins and dirty pit dwellers just like them. More of that had been, admittedly the work of that prick Rossiu than he felt comfortable admitting. That backstabber threatened to fire the entire old crew, then at the first opportunity he threw Simon in jail. He still had no idea why Simon let him off for that, but they had bigger problems. Literally, the moon was falling.
He just became an uncle, like hell he would let it all get destroyed!
The Anti-Spirals. Aliens who destroyed Earth a long time ago, and now they were out to finish the job. Starting with dropping the moon on Earth, only it turned out to be a gigantic battleship. Simon led the way in fighting back, leading to here. Trapped in a death spiral device that was going to destroy the ship, and all of them with it.
There was only one way to stop it. Only one person could pull it off.
He reached out for the generator that was the reason for this death zone. His gunman´s fingers and hands cracked and broke, were crushed into nothingness by a weight that could have turned whole planets into pebbles.
He forced more of that strange power into his crushed limbs and pushed onwards.
Heh, he had gotten a kiss from Yoko even, right before he had departed. Felt about as good as he had imagined it.
"Once I see Kamina I'm so going to rub that in." He laughed at the blaring alarms. "That perpetually horny idiot isn't going to believe the outfit she is running around in now." Seriously, what possessed Yoko to wear that thing?
She had to secretly like it, for all that she liked to act proper. He really should have teased her more over that… he kind of regretted not taking a chance earlier.
More of his gunman broke, the space King Kittan ripped at more and more places leaving only the good old king kittan.
He had at most a second or two, he knew that.
Space King Kittan disintegrated completely. Launching from the cockpit was the King Kittan itself, tiny in the face of all this danger. But just big enough to propel the spare drill towards the target.
He reached out for the generator.
Their missiles had not been able to break it, so a mere punch was probably not gonna do it. He was also not dead yet, probably because of spiral power shielding him.
Ah what the hell. Shame that he never got any further with Yoko, he sure would have liked to kiss her a second time.
Perhaps even hold hands as well.
He channeled all his spiral power into King Kittan´s fists and punched out.
There was an incredible crack and everything went white.
000
Beneath the behemoth formerly known as the Cathedral Terra, the Death Spiral machine had been destroyed. But the pull sucking the vessel into the depths had not stopped.
Engines that carried the power of stars burned, genius level intellects using every trick, every move possible to steer the four thousand kilometer long ship away from the hole in existence. And it was all for nothing.
The stern face that made up the brow of the ship turned, plummeting towards the hole. Its expression was unchanged, being a metal sculpture as large as entire nations of Old Earth, but if it could show emotion it would reflect the grimace of its crew, unwillingly diving into what seemed to be doom. If they had more time, seconds even, there could be a way to avoid it. But there wasn't any.
The massive bulk of Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren plunged into the blinding light that was the rift, vanishing from this universe.
And then everything went white.
ooo
In a corner of folded space hidden from the universe, Nia gasped. She struggled against her ethereal restraints, throwing her head back to scream. The black bodysuit she wore was evaporating, taking her flesh with it.
Nia hadn't stopped struggling since she regained her will, breaking free of the mental bindings this thing had placed upon her, starting from when it took her from Earth. She had to, before Simon could rescue her. He was coming for her, but until he arrived Nia couldn't stay here and let this monster destroy her.
"This is most irregular. Why do you continue to resist us?"
Its black form shimmered with a billion flickering lights, flickering every second Nia looked at its body, the outline resembling a smooth humanoid. There were no eyes and no mouth, just swirling white holes. Both gazed at her, featureless yet unnerving.
She could feel it. Through the very connection it forced into her, she could sense it´s feelings. Just a tiny bit of it and it was already enough to overwhelm her to her near entirety.
It was….not even angry really. At most irritated. At her continued battle against being absorbed. Against team Dai-Gurren´s survival, about Simon´s resistance. It did not have emotions like a person. Not like her, whenever Simon was on her mind.
Even in this state, her heart thumped with warmth at even just a thought at the man.
He was alive, she knew it. Even if whatever trap the Anti-Spiral had put him in, he would break out. He would save her.
Because he was Simon.
It was a truth as fundamental as 2+2 being 4.
Still, the Anti-Spiral was incredibly powerful. The mere bits she glanced at whenever some part of her was dragged into it to be absorbed…. It went beyond what she could even imagine.
The ability to shatter galaxies, no, universes like mere toys.
It was a power that should have horrified her. Should have left her in despair.
But it didn´t.
Because she believed in Simon.
"Hmmm?" The Monster looked away from her for a moment. "What is this? Are they breaking the Death Spiral Machine? How unusual. Never has any spiral race ever succeeded in -"
The next words she could not understand, mostly on account of the pain she was in magnifying a dozen fold.
Nia let out a high pitched scream as the entire space, the whole dimension they were in warped, her body phasing and twisting from the pure shockwaves that burst through the pocket universe they were in.
And for a wonder, the Anti-Spiral looked just as perplexed as she was.
It…. it had said that never before had anyone broken out of it´s trap. Could that mean that it itself had not foreseen this?
"These fools." It angrily mustered. "They broke the space time continuum and have induced a false spatial collapse. They have torn down the very walls between universes apart!"
She could see it. From the edges of her eyes - or was it the Anti-Spiral's eyes?- a wave of universal scale was racing towards them. Moving at a trillion times the speed of light, it was rapidly engulfing the whole universe, ripping through it´s innumerable dimensions in the process.
They had at most picoseconds till it reached them.
The Anti-Spiral rose its arms and called upon power, unfathomable power. The universe they were in expanded a hundred, a thousandfold as it created new universes out of nowhere, forcing them into this one while accelerating the expansion of the universe to the same amount.
"How…. how… you can create universes?" Her voice or rather her thoughts stumbled over itself as it connected with it. "How is the Spiral Nemesis even a threat?"
The spiral nemesis. The creation of ex nihilo mass as Spiral warriors grew infinitely, creating ever new mass until it all collapsed into a super massive black hole.
That piece of information was implanted into her the second she had been hijacked to deliver the Anti–spirals message.
Its justification to commit countless atrocities, wipe out civilizations across the universe. More sentient beings than anyone could ever count, dead and buried and wiped from existence, for one reason only. The irony that it was trying to save the universe by destroying all spiral life, it was almost maddeningly amusing.
"Because for all that I can create an infinite amount of new universes, it is impossible to move mass from this to those! Only the transfer of minds is possible!" It yelled out in anger. Not at her, more its own frustration at its inability to fix the nemesis, even with the might to create whole new universes.
It acted ever more rapidly as it created new spaces between it and the wave. She could see massive rifts being torn open around the anomaly, quintillions of light years in volume. The anti-spiral was destroying the new universes it had temporarily forced in this one, creating negative spaces to contain the anomaly Team Dai-Gurren had made.
Was this the Spiral Nemesis? No.
It was something else.
Information, the own considerations of the Anti-Spiral flow freely into her own mind. They had not created new mass to force a big ripp event, no, they had torn open the walls separating this universe to another. Not one of the infinite universes it had created, no, an older one.
For all its terrible implications, how fascinating, could this perhaps be used - no.
Even from such a small tear, it produced devastation that would in the end be functionally the same as a spiral nemesis.
This was no solution.
By its own estimate, a whole fourth of the universe had been affected by this rift alone.
How typical of the foolish endeavors of the Spiral Warriors.
It began to push back, seal, to contain…. And-
The anti-spiral realized too late what Nia had been doing, so focused had it been in stopping the catastrophe.
It had continued the absorption process the whole time, the gain of information crucial to defeat this latest patch of spiral warriors, who had proven themselves so much more formidable than the usual bunch.
Not enough to be a threat, but still.
So it had not noticed when she had slowly lowered her resistance to the absorption.
She had struck out right when they began to merge, using what little power she had, both as an Anti-Spiral and the own spiral power of her own compassion.
It had broken the Anti-Spiral's attention for all of one pico-second.
But that had been enough.
The seal of this rift of breaking down between universes cracked and the wave of their collision flooded out, catching the Anti-spiral just as it had been forming a new barrier.
Nia smiled even as she felt how she was smashed into the Anti-Spiral, as it was torn apart.
And then everything went white.
000
This is where the fun begins and the universe of Warhammer 40k will never be the same when our heroes of Gurren Lagann do the impossible and make it possible.
A promising story that I'll be watching this with great interest.
- Pronouns
- He
Thank you!
I hoped i managed to capture the proper gurren lagann feel to it
I hoped i managed to capture the proper gurren lagann feel to it
You're welcome.
Oh yes you did. 40k factions beware the heroes of Gurren Lagann! Not even Chaos is safe from them!
And that I'm enjoying it like your other stories. Such as the Fairy Queen of Tilea, it's really fun to binge read it from the start to finish.
- Pronouns
- He
On sb?You're welcome.
Oh yes you did. 40k factions beware the heroes of Gurren Lagann! Not even Chaos is safe from them!
And that I'm enjoying it like your other stories. Such as the Fairy Queen of Tilea, it's really fun to binge read it from the start to finish.
I think i did not update the SV version for quite a while.
Fairy queen of tilea btw will be continued once a new kind of fairy queen is done.
Which i hope will be this month
Yes, at SB.
I look forward for your updating of Fairy Queen of Tilea here.
Cool and that's awesome.
- Location
- Here there and everywhere inbetween
Hmm, interesting. You've got my attention, Sir Walker, let see where the impossibility of Team Gurren Lagann takes this story
Chapter 2
- Pronouns
- He
Chapter 2
Well, Kittan certainly had imagined that the afterlife would look different.
Like he was no expert or something, but he'd say his death was a fairly good one. No painful agonizing mess, nope. He had only punched the big death thing and then had blinked out of life, saving all his comrades in the process, and making sure that Simon would be able to save the girl he was sweet for.
Man, he was no master of love - not that he'd ever admit that to literally anyone - but even to him the whole dance these two had going on was quite painful. He took this long just to pop the question, when he should have made a move right away. More than once he was going to force things along, but Kiyoh always stopped him, saying crap like they would take the plunge when they were ready.
Shame it had to happen right when aliens came knocking.
Still his death was a good one. Heroic self sacrifice, saving the human race et cetera, et cetera! He had even died a virgin! Yes it hurt a little to find out that Yoko had scored while she was away. Enough to have multiple kids even! And he had saved himself up for his one! Damn, the world was unjust!
So he had at least expected something nice as a reward after death! Hah, he knew! Maybe a harem of a hundred women? All with big boobs, nice round butts, some who could cook, some who he could tell stories to and some who could hug real nice, some to hold hands with and some who would admire him as a hero and grade one badass -!
The King Kittan's hull creaks rudely interrupted his melodramatic daydreams.
Sighing, his eyes glid over the systems of the gunman he had cared and flown for 7 years, with which he had archieved ace status mere days after getting it.
Yup, everything was red, which equaled bad, which meant he was probably screwed.
He poked around at the controls for a couple seconds, only to confirm his suspicious.
Yes, all dead.
On one hand, finding out that the bullshit he had been saying about the Space King Kittans armors being tough enough to survive busting that damn thing up was.... strangely satisfying. He had been talking entirely out of his ass with that one!
On the other hand.... dying in some drifting hulk in space also sucked. At least some giant explosion would have been quick!
Well, maybe he could get the outside camera's to work !?-
Kicking didn't work. His boot hit the panel again and again, nothing. He growled and tried again. It creaked.
"Okay…" percussive maintenance was his go to strategy, so what if…?
Kittan slapped the panel. Still dark.
"Fine, I'll take the hint."
Ripping open a panel, he grimaced at the wires. This part went there, but that part went over in this spot…
Kittan did not know what he did, but he still whooped in victory when it flickered to life. The display cleared up, letting him… observe…
There was a planet in his view, a gray and blue orb in the cosmos. He blinked, peering at the fuzz encompassing much of the world's surface, seeing that… it was moving. Zooming in, he saw shapes in the void, as well as fires littering the ground. Huge fires that burned across entire continents, swallowed by a tide of matter. Almost like a bug infestation.
"Oh shit…"
Then flashes caught his gaze. Far above the planet he spied burning chunks of ships littering the orbitals, lit by flashes of light that stabbed towards a cloud nearby, a cloud in space. Things that looked like massive beetles swarmed in the void, taking hits in place of a much larger squid thing, ensuring that its tentacles, each limb easily dozens of kilometers long, could envelop a ram shaped ship to drag it towards itself.
He hunted enough to recognize a predator when he saw one.
There were other rams in space, a lot less. Outnumbered at least a thousand to one, they were grouping up around a single big sucker, who was sending little craft in a constant stream towards the planet surface. Looking at how much of the planet was on fire, they were trying to stop a forest blaze with a garden hose. Whoever was down there was getting hammered.
"What the hell…"
Then Kittan noticed something else. That he was floating pretty close to the space bugs. In the kind of swarms that were impossible to ward off by slapping, if they were just small, annoying regular bugs, not these gigantic ones who could catch spaceships. And looking at the tentacled one tearing that ship apart, they could eat them too.
And one of the smaller ones was coming closer to his gunman, small being relative. He couldn't exactly tell how big it was without something to compare it to, but for it to be even visible at this distance it had to be Kilometers long at the very least.
Something he fancied he could take on easily enough in the Space King Kittan, but in the regular old King Kittan with most of its systems offline?
Hah, no chance! Only shot he got was trying to pretend to be space debri- what was that?
A squat brick of a ship was zipping its way nearby him, it sort of looked like the rams but it was way smaller, and he didn't see any weapons. There were others nearby, those were being swarmed by monsters like the one sizing up him. Or it was, that thing turned away from him towards the transport.
Wait, was that thing hunting those folks in that ugly ass ship? Seriously, it didn't even have a face!
His face scrunched up as he saw how the monster caught up more and more to the ship, the later being obviously damaged. Somewhat hard to miss, that later bit, it looked like something had taken a wholeass bite out of it. How was it still flying anyway?
Bah! BAH! Chances were the people inside there were ugly aliens anyway!
Hands shooting out he began to fiddle with his controls again. It wasn´t hard to imagine, the fear and panic on the minds of whatever gross bug people were trying to flee the destruction of their world by monsters as it closed in.
Kittan was a spiral warrior! A member of team Dai - Gurren! He wasn't gonna allow some stupid machine damage to take away his chance of being a Grade A badass!
Nothing happened, King Kittan for some reason betraying his intent for an heroic entry, only for him to kick it again out of frustration than anything else. A spark of something jumped and made him whelp as his lance shot out a beam of pure power.
It had the desired effect, the bug that was zipping towards the shuttle ate the beam. And lost about of a tenth of its body, charred into barbecue with a spray of gore flying into the void, the entire monster listing in what looked like terrible pain.
"Woohoo!" He jumped in place, only barely keeping from thumping his head on the roof. He did it! One bug down, the rest would…
His arms froze when he saw the giant roach correct itself, turning a really, really big mouth towards him. Kittan didn't know space bug body language very well, but he had the distinct impression that it was kind of, sorta, very pissed off. The crackles of lightning around its mouth were a sign.
And then he saw more movement, in every direction. Creatures like the one he just shot, slightly smaller ones, and a whole lot of bigger ones all changed course. The whole swarm moving at once looked almost like a star nebula, or a school of fish. It would have been pretty if they weren't all turning towards him. To him specifically, he could see how many mouths were aimed his way.
He did not scream like a little girl when it came within a couple hundred meters of him, it´s immense maw about to chump down on him and crush him into paste. No, he awaited his death like a man, with raised fists, ready to sock the thing!
Not that that stance kept him from being launched to the back of his cabin when a multi kilometer thick laser beam scraped past him by less than a singular meter, slamming into the monster and atomizing it entirely.
00000
"Got em!" The gesture to reset the entire laser battery Yoko used to blast the giant insectoid to molecules, was not strictly necessary, what with her using a computer to utilize one of the Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann's literal millions of weapon systems, but it was a force of habit for her.
Not to mention that hitting a goddamn bullseye in the middle of space was still a pretty sweet sniper shot, all things considered, even if she had some computer help.
"Lifesignal detected in the King Kittan! He´s still alive!" Cybella was usually a rather stoic woman. If Yoko had to be mean, she´d say that she became something of a bitch what with her whole backing of Rossiu in his coup and all and wow, did she need to smack her for that at some point. As well as him for that matter!
But here, right now? Yoko did not care.
Kittan lived! He lived! He lived! He lived! HE LIVED!
She had wept when he had left knowing that his words had been a lie. That he was sacrificing himself to save him all.
Behind her Dayakka and Leeron were speaking to Lordgenome -the fact that his resurrected head was here still threw her for a loop- about what was happening, making sure before the former spoke louder.
"Alright everyone, we're facing a lot of foes. They're not Anti-Spirals but they're threatening the planet below. None of us know who these people are, we just know they need help pronto." He outlined with a grimace.
"I'm getting some weird readings from those ships, it's not spiral power or anything similar. I don't know what it is, yet. As for these creatures, you can see what they're up to. Don't let your guard down is my advice." Leeron added while his hands danced over the holographic display.
Lordgenome said nothing, his tank bubbled and that was all. The glow from his pedestal grew brighter, for a moment the comm line flicked on.
Yoko didn't recognize the words coming from the display, it sounded weird and kind of off, but she could tell how terrified the voice sounded. And then another overlaid it, then another, and another-
"Signal count is increasing. Individual transmissions are at one point three million and rising. The entire planet is under threat." Lordgenome sounded slightly angered.
She ordered the computer to track the swarms instead of trying to make sense of it, seeing the hundreds of thousands of creatures zipping their way originating from large ships that were waiting just above the planet. The radar was spitting out an accurate reading, but she didn't bother seeing the specifics. This was like when they challenged the Anti-Spiral's forces, at some point the number of enemies was just a counter.
Then again, even with that in mind, numerically and in terms of size, the enemy was nothing like the Anti-Spiral's fleets.
If she had to guess, the total amount of mass of these living ships in the system together didn't even come close to that of the Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann.
Then again, they didn't need to in order to be a threat.
Keeping an eye on Kittan, she noticed how one of the alien ships approached him, the one he had saved beforehand.
"Lordgenome." God, she hated talking directly to that thing. "Decode their language and send the ship that's picking Kittan up a message. If they do not treat the Pilot well, we'll make them wish they never were born!"
"We" in this case very much being an "I". A bit overboard, but it was hardly the first time Yoko used an overblown threat.
Either way, she took a new target: a thing shaped like a leech but as big as a skyscraper. Hitting with a low power beam cleaved it open, bleeding gore into space. Yet it was still moving, either too angry or too crazed to flee.
The entire planet-sized ship shook as more and more of its weapon systems began to engage.
AN:
And so the imperium makes first contact with team dai gurren. Over the skies of a burning imperial world.
Well, Kittan certainly had imagined that the afterlife would look different.
Like he was no expert or something, but he'd say his death was a fairly good one. No painful agonizing mess, nope. He had only punched the big death thing and then had blinked out of life, saving all his comrades in the process, and making sure that Simon would be able to save the girl he was sweet for.
Man, he was no master of love - not that he'd ever admit that to literally anyone - but even to him the whole dance these two had going on was quite painful. He took this long just to pop the question, when he should have made a move right away. More than once he was going to force things along, but Kiyoh always stopped him, saying crap like they would take the plunge when they were ready.
Shame it had to happen right when aliens came knocking.
Still his death was a good one. Heroic self sacrifice, saving the human race et cetera, et cetera! He had even died a virgin! Yes it hurt a little to find out that Yoko had scored while she was away. Enough to have multiple kids even! And he had saved himself up for his one! Damn, the world was unjust!
So he had at least expected something nice as a reward after death! Hah, he knew! Maybe a harem of a hundred women? All with big boobs, nice round butts, some who could cook, some who he could tell stories to and some who could hug real nice, some to hold hands with and some who would admire him as a hero and grade one badass -!
The King Kittan's hull creaks rudely interrupted his melodramatic daydreams.
Sighing, his eyes glid over the systems of the gunman he had cared and flown for 7 years, with which he had archieved ace status mere days after getting it.
Yup, everything was red, which equaled bad, which meant he was probably screwed.
He poked around at the controls for a couple seconds, only to confirm his suspicious.
Yes, all dead.
On one hand, finding out that the bullshit he had been saying about the Space King Kittans armors being tough enough to survive busting that damn thing up was.... strangely satisfying. He had been talking entirely out of his ass with that one!
On the other hand.... dying in some drifting hulk in space also sucked. At least some giant explosion would have been quick!
Well, maybe he could get the outside camera's to work !?-
Kicking didn't work. His boot hit the panel again and again, nothing. He growled and tried again. It creaked.
"Okay…" percussive maintenance was his go to strategy, so what if…?
Kittan slapped the panel. Still dark.
"Fine, I'll take the hint."
Ripping open a panel, he grimaced at the wires. This part went there, but that part went over in this spot…
Kittan did not know what he did, but he still whooped in victory when it flickered to life. The display cleared up, letting him… observe…
There was a planet in his view, a gray and blue orb in the cosmos. He blinked, peering at the fuzz encompassing much of the world's surface, seeing that… it was moving. Zooming in, he saw shapes in the void, as well as fires littering the ground. Huge fires that burned across entire continents, swallowed by a tide of matter. Almost like a bug infestation.
"Oh shit…"
Then flashes caught his gaze. Far above the planet he spied burning chunks of ships littering the orbitals, lit by flashes of light that stabbed towards a cloud nearby, a cloud in space. Things that looked like massive beetles swarmed in the void, taking hits in place of a much larger squid thing, ensuring that its tentacles, each limb easily dozens of kilometers long, could envelop a ram shaped ship to drag it towards itself.
He hunted enough to recognize a predator when he saw one.
There were other rams in space, a lot less. Outnumbered at least a thousand to one, they were grouping up around a single big sucker, who was sending little craft in a constant stream towards the planet surface. Looking at how much of the planet was on fire, they were trying to stop a forest blaze with a garden hose. Whoever was down there was getting hammered.
"What the hell…"
Then Kittan noticed something else. That he was floating pretty close to the space bugs. In the kind of swarms that were impossible to ward off by slapping, if they were just small, annoying regular bugs, not these gigantic ones who could catch spaceships. And looking at the tentacled one tearing that ship apart, they could eat them too.
And one of the smaller ones was coming closer to his gunman, small being relative. He couldn't exactly tell how big it was without something to compare it to, but for it to be even visible at this distance it had to be Kilometers long at the very least.
Something he fancied he could take on easily enough in the Space King Kittan, but in the regular old King Kittan with most of its systems offline?
Hah, no chance! Only shot he got was trying to pretend to be space debri- what was that?
A squat brick of a ship was zipping its way nearby him, it sort of looked like the rams but it was way smaller, and he didn't see any weapons. There were others nearby, those were being swarmed by monsters like the one sizing up him. Or it was, that thing turned away from him towards the transport.
Wait, was that thing hunting those folks in that ugly ass ship? Seriously, it didn't even have a face!
His face scrunched up as he saw how the monster caught up more and more to the ship, the later being obviously damaged. Somewhat hard to miss, that later bit, it looked like something had taken a wholeass bite out of it. How was it still flying anyway?
Bah! BAH! Chances were the people inside there were ugly aliens anyway!
Hands shooting out he began to fiddle with his controls again. It wasn´t hard to imagine, the fear and panic on the minds of whatever gross bug people were trying to flee the destruction of their world by monsters as it closed in.
Kittan was a spiral warrior! A member of team Dai - Gurren! He wasn't gonna allow some stupid machine damage to take away his chance of being a Grade A badass!
Nothing happened, King Kittan for some reason betraying his intent for an heroic entry, only for him to kick it again out of frustration than anything else. A spark of something jumped and made him whelp as his lance shot out a beam of pure power.
It had the desired effect, the bug that was zipping towards the shuttle ate the beam. And lost about of a tenth of its body, charred into barbecue with a spray of gore flying into the void, the entire monster listing in what looked like terrible pain.
"Woohoo!" He jumped in place, only barely keeping from thumping his head on the roof. He did it! One bug down, the rest would…
His arms froze when he saw the giant roach correct itself, turning a really, really big mouth towards him. Kittan didn't know space bug body language very well, but he had the distinct impression that it was kind of, sorta, very pissed off. The crackles of lightning around its mouth were a sign.
And then he saw more movement, in every direction. Creatures like the one he just shot, slightly smaller ones, and a whole lot of bigger ones all changed course. The whole swarm moving at once looked almost like a star nebula, or a school of fish. It would have been pretty if they weren't all turning towards him. To him specifically, he could see how many mouths were aimed his way.
He did not scream like a little girl when it came within a couple hundred meters of him, it´s immense maw about to chump down on him and crush him into paste. No, he awaited his death like a man, with raised fists, ready to sock the thing!
Not that that stance kept him from being launched to the back of his cabin when a multi kilometer thick laser beam scraped past him by less than a singular meter, slamming into the monster and atomizing it entirely.
00000
"Got em!" The gesture to reset the entire laser battery Yoko used to blast the giant insectoid to molecules, was not strictly necessary, what with her using a computer to utilize one of the Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann's literal millions of weapon systems, but it was a force of habit for her.
Not to mention that hitting a goddamn bullseye in the middle of space was still a pretty sweet sniper shot, all things considered, even if she had some computer help.
"Lifesignal detected in the King Kittan! He´s still alive!" Cybella was usually a rather stoic woman. If Yoko had to be mean, she´d say that she became something of a bitch what with her whole backing of Rossiu in his coup and all and wow, did she need to smack her for that at some point. As well as him for that matter!
But here, right now? Yoko did not care.
Kittan lived! He lived! He lived! He lived! HE LIVED!
She had wept when he had left knowing that his words had been a lie. That he was sacrificing himself to save him all.
Behind her Dayakka and Leeron were speaking to Lordgenome -the fact that his resurrected head was here still threw her for a loop- about what was happening, making sure before the former spoke louder.
"Alright everyone, we're facing a lot of foes. They're not Anti-Spirals but they're threatening the planet below. None of us know who these people are, we just know they need help pronto." He outlined with a grimace.
"I'm getting some weird readings from those ships, it's not spiral power or anything similar. I don't know what it is, yet. As for these creatures, you can see what they're up to. Don't let your guard down is my advice." Leeron added while his hands danced over the holographic display.
Lordgenome said nothing, his tank bubbled and that was all. The glow from his pedestal grew brighter, for a moment the comm line flicked on.
Yoko didn't recognize the words coming from the display, it sounded weird and kind of off, but she could tell how terrified the voice sounded. And then another overlaid it, then another, and another-
"Signal count is increasing. Individual transmissions are at one point three million and rising. The entire planet is under threat." Lordgenome sounded slightly angered.
She ordered the computer to track the swarms instead of trying to make sense of it, seeing the hundreds of thousands of creatures zipping their way originating from large ships that were waiting just above the planet. The radar was spitting out an accurate reading, but she didn't bother seeing the specifics. This was like when they challenged the Anti-Spiral's forces, at some point the number of enemies was just a counter.
Then again, even with that in mind, numerically and in terms of size, the enemy was nothing like the Anti-Spiral's fleets.
If she had to guess, the total amount of mass of these living ships in the system together didn't even come close to that of the Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann.
Then again, they didn't need to in order to be a threat.
Keeping an eye on Kittan, she noticed how one of the alien ships approached him, the one he had saved beforehand.
"Lordgenome." God, she hated talking directly to that thing. "Decode their language and send the ship that's picking Kittan up a message. If they do not treat the Pilot well, we'll make them wish they never were born!"
"We" in this case very much being an "I". A bit overboard, but it was hardly the first time Yoko used an overblown threat.
Either way, she took a new target: a thing shaped like a leech but as big as a skyscraper. Hitting with a low power beam cleaved it open, bleeding gore into space. Yet it was still moving, either too angry or too crazed to flee.
The entire planet-sized ship shook as more and more of its weapon systems began to engage.
AN:
And so the imperium makes first contact with team dai gurren. Over the skies of a burning imperial world.
- Location
- Here there and everywhere inbetween
I see, a rather fitting first introduction to the 40k galaxy, nothing like fighting off a couple million space bugs
That will leave quite a huge impression on the 40k galaxy who didn't see it coming.
- Pronouns
- He
He sits on his giant
TTS Throne Emperor: "Mood Kindred."
Sidestory: Valentines Day
- Pronouns
- He
Sidestory: Valentines Day
A chill had descended over Kamina City, a light cold that called for extra layers without risking a freeze. It was seen as appropriate for the new holiday coming up, recovered from the ruins of Teppelin and adapted by the numerous pits who had come to the surface. A holiday celebrating love.
Which was why Simon, Supreme Commander of Team Dai-Gurren and effectively the leader of both mankind and the beastmen, found himself standing outside of the home of his dear friend and comrade Kittan.
His hands were shaking a little, unfamiliar anxiety wracking his body. Simon was a little… okay, he was very nervous. Doubts warred within him, driving him to ask his old friend for help. But the determination that led him to punch through the ceiling of his village, culminating in fighting the Spiral King in hand to hand while being little more than a child, made him knock. This was going to be fine. This was going to be okay. Kittan was an expert in this, he bragged often enough about his "conquests", usually before being beaten by one of his sisters. He just hoped he wasn't bus-
There was a crash of something, before the door swung open.
"What do you want bozo… oh, Simon. Sup?" Kittan was leaning on the frame in a dirty shirt, an open bottle in hand that he quickly set aside.
"Hey Kittan, are you busy?" Simon was having second thoughts.
"Nah, I'm good. Just ah… got stood up anyway! Cmon, get in here!" Kittan snatched his arm, dragging him inside.
Kittan's pad was actually remarkably clean, no dust or stains that Simon could see. Instead there were rows of photos of his family, he and his sisters having fun everywhere from the ruins of Teppelin to inaugurating the statue of Kamina, enjoying the new world he helped build.
There weren't many photos of Kiyoh's wedding, weird. Oh right, Kittan had made so much stress about that only to bawl his eyes out when it had actually happened. A grin forced itself on Simon's face at the memory, despite his nervosity. Weddings like that.... it was the realization of his dream, of that of all humanity to be free and prosper. A sign that all the bloodshed and sacrifices had been worth it.
"So, Simon, my man, whatchu need?" Kittan jabbed his hands in his pockets. Unlike his place he was looking a little ragged, and the bottle implied he wasn't staying sober for long, and incidentally also shaking him out of his musings on Kiyoh's marriage.
"Well…" Simon turned his gaze, bringing up his hands to nervously rub them. "You know… Valentine's Day is coming up, and… I was hoping you would have some advice…" It had been admittedly only a couple years since they had re-adopted the holiday, but it had found much popularity. After all the horrors and death of the millennia of humanities oppression by the beastmen and lordgenome, love had been a welcome new sight. Especially since, according to Leeron, many of the cave villages they had been living in had not the largest of diverse gene pools. Something like having finally dating options beyond some measure of cousin or other relative lead to a veritable explosion of relationships and pregnancies.
The very city he had walked through to get here being one of the foremost examples of just that.
Kittan blinked, for a second looking shocked beyond measure.
Then he grinned. "Then you've come to the right place."
"Really? Do you know any good places to-" Simon leaned when Kittan jumped up to him.
"I've been reeling in babes for years, if anybody can help you bag a gal I'm the guy!" Kittan struck a pose, slamming a fist against his chest while raising his other hand stretched out towards the sky. It looked a bit like the poses Kamina had liked to make. "First off, babes love confidence!"
"You're being loud-"
"Practice your swagger, walk like you own the joint. Then you gotta shower them with love, make 'em think they're the most important thing in the world, and if some jerk tried making a move you knock his teeth out!" Kittan punched his palm. "You crack for a second they'll leave, and then…anyway! You get me! Stand up straight dammit! You're way too tall to be moping around!"
"Yeah, sure, but I'm not sure if that´s what Nia really looks for." He awkwardly rubbed his hands together. It wasn't like he hadn't been, well, getting offers. Time and again, women, some barely adults, some mature beauties, fought for his attention. And he meant fought. More than once a couple of the ladies had outright thrown hands because he had given someone a hello or something. Simon had chuckled a little because he was sure that his old brother would have killed to be in his shoes. But one could only have bare chests flashed at someone so many times - in a futile attempt to convince him to have this or that woman ́s babies - for it to no longer be sexy.
There were only two women who Simon had ever felt love for and even he didn't know where Yoko was. Eh, the red haired sniper could hold her own wherever she was, of that Simon was convinced. And even with her - and how hot her body had made him feel back in the day whenever he saw her - that still was not quite what he was feeling for Nia.
He wanted everything to be perfect when he asked her out on a date, so that was why he was here.
"Hmmm, nonsense!" With a comically exaggerated stagger Kittan swung around, grabbing a bottle and taking a deep gulp out of it. "Girls, all girls, they simply love badasses!" He laughed, his eyes flashing in the way that usually indicated that he got an idea. "I know, some bozo, some real dangerous fella, he gotta attack you while you are on your date! You whoop his ass and Nia´s gonna be swooning for you. And then...." He wiggled his eyebrows-
"And then what?" What a hair brained idea. Who was gonna pick a fight with him? Simon was, without a doubt and without wanting to sound too prideful, the most powerful human on the planet. He had killed the Spiral King with his bare hands and a drill and that guy could fist fight gunmen!
"Well...." Kittan stopped in his tracks, his face growing red for some reason. "Couple stuff.... you know. Kissing, holding hands, lovey dovey faces and all that."
"Ahu, well, yes that would be very nice." Hmm, now his own face was getting really warm. Lovey dovey stuff? Kissing? Maybe..... m-maybe even cuddle some?
He wiped some sweat away.
"But the chance of anyone coming along looking for trouble, I don't think that's particularly likely." The truth was cruel, cold and hard, but Simon had to look at this logically.
And not think about how wonderfully soft Nia's fingers would be.
"Hmmmm." Kittan took another swig of his beer. And then another one. And another one. "You -" He burped. "You don't worry about that. I'm sure some nasty piece of work is going to show up, with someone as pretty and innocent as Nia. Then you can be the hero to save her." He gave Simon a wink and a slap on the back. "Now, get out there and see about getting yourself all fixed up for your girl. After all..." A sly smile entered his face as stared at him. "You want her to have just as much eye candy as you get, now do you?"
He nodded after a moment, fair was fair after all.
Waving his goodbye, he stepped out of the house and into Kamina City. He guessed he could trust Kittan and his experience with women. Still, it felt insufficient... somehow. Maybe he could ask someone else?
In the suburbs Simon knocked on the door, taking a second to admire the house. It was very well tended, it was no wonder considering who called this place home. He had heard strange creaking noises as he had come closer, plus what clearly was someone crying out repeatedly. Were Dayakka and Kiyoh having a fight? He half considered if he should leave or intervene - planned date or not, you didn't leave your friends helpless, no matter the challenge! - but the door opened before he could make a decision.
Instead of a screaming greeting Simon was met by a tired looking friend in pants and a shirt that was flapping open, with no top underneath to cover his chest. Or socks Simon noticed.
"Oh... hello Simon? What.... ah, what do you want?" The older - relatively - man looked and sounded completely exhausted. Like he had just fought a dozen beastmen or something. In general, there was a smell to him that Simon.... couldn't quite recognize. He was red faced and sweaty, taking shallow gulps every couple seconds.
"Well..." He groaned a little inside him. It was embarrassing to admit to Dayakka, for whatever reason more than with Kittan. "I wanted to ask if you had any advice for help? Like.... romantic advice for me and Nia?" He held his eyes steady. Screw it, this was to make things nicer for Nia. Simon, be a damn Man and endure the embarrassment!
"Oh.... well." Dayakka coughed a little. "I'd really like to help Simon, but you are coming at a very inopportune time and -"
"We would be glad to help." A hand laid itself on his shoulder and pulled him gently back, revealing his wife. Kiyoh, the beauty that had once tried to kidnap him in the desert, who was just as roughed up by the looks of it. Her hair was a frayed mess, she was just as red faced and sweaty, and huh, she was smiling like she just hit her head.
"Well… if something is going on I can come back later…" Simon rubbed the back of his neck. This wasn't a fight, that was all he was sure about. So while he was determined to push through his embarrassment, he wasn't sure sticking around was the best idea…
"Actually-"
"Nonsense, we are taking a breather. Need some fluids anyway. Come on inside." Kiyoh giggled, causing Dayakka to cough awkwardly.
That weird smell was much stronger indoors, and it looked like a storm passed through the place. Furniture was knocked over, a vase was busted and swept up yet left in a dustpan, several of the pictures on the wall were crooked with no obvious pattern, and why were there bathrobes tossed on the stairs? Kiyal wasn't the most orderly person, but this was bad even for her.
Entering the kitchen after them, Simon did a double take at the mess. The table was a disaster zone, with cream and jelly all over the place, not just left in bowls with serving spoons in them but smeared over the surface. And the floor too, his shoe stuck to a patch when he walked over it.
"Ah, sorry about the mess. We uh… were… celebrating?" Dayakka tried to clear his throat and instead coughed.
"We were having a snack. A girl needs her protein." Kiyoh snickered, offering a water bottle.
"I'm alright." Simon looked around, there was no meat. And was Dayakka sick? He was even more red than before.
"So then, ah, what's up? It must be important, I was uh… about to do some gardening. You know, plow a field." Dayakka coughed. A second later Kiyoh slapped her face, lurching in place and snorting.
Was she sick? Regardless Simon cleared his throat, tactfully deciding not to point out the mess in the kitchen. It was their home, he could save the lecture about cleaning up before starting a new job.
"Okay, so, any pointers for Nia would be appreciated. Like, where did you go for your dates? Things like that." Right to the point was the way to go.
"Mm… well, the best thing you can do is tell her how you feel. She's crazy about you, and you love her. Just say what you mean and go from there, that's step one." Kiyoh nodded, placing a thick brew of what looked like an egg shake by Dayakka, who groaned when she patted his shoulder. "Don't overthink it, doing that is why Kinon hasn't made a move on Rossiu yet. Oh, and don't wear anything mega fancy or whatever. Dress comfortably, both of you. If you want to give her something, you can't go wrong with flowers. Or that new chocolate stuff, it's my second favorite snack."
Dayakka coughed again, straightening up as Kiyoh brewed up another thick drink. "Best thing I can advise is to do what you both enjoy. Go for a walk in the park, visit somewhere, whatever you and her like to do. If you want to do something exciting, you can take her flying in Lagann. That's what we did."
"Makes sense." Simon noticed how Kiyoh was grinning sappily, both of them were.
"That was a great time. It was shortly after Parliament Tower opened for business, Dayakka took me on an outing with the Dayakkaiser. We didn't really go anywhere, just flew around outside of the city for the whole day. Let the wind whip around my hair, see some nice little oases, stuff like that. It was a great day to just get away from everything."
Kiyoh smiled, taking Dayakka's hand. They both got red at the same time, but the sappy grins they had were a good sign, they sounded like they had fun seeing the sights.
Simon stood up, this time avoiding the sticky patch. "Thanks you guys, that really helps."
"No problem Simon. Glad to help." Dayakka smiled.
"Glad to lend a hand-oh wait." Kiyoh scurried to the fridge, yanking it open to grab something, then rushed to press a little bag into his hand. "Here, it's an old herbal remedy my village used to make. It'll help out."
"Thanks, but I'm fine." Simon nonetheless accepted the bag, giving it a small sniff. Peppermint?
"It's for Nia, silly. Even she will understand what it's for." Kiyoh patted him on the shoulder, sparing a hungry glance at Dayakka.
"…okay, thanks guys. I'll let you get back to your gardening." Simon bade them farewell.
Once outside he pocketed the stuff, quietly wondering if it was meant for a fever. Nia was as healthy as they come, so it probably wasn't necessary.
"This is a pretty small yard for farming." Simon glanced around, shaking his head. He had a better grasp on what to do, but maybe a couple more opinions couldn't hurt. For a second he thought he heard a squeal from inside the house, probably from spilling some more jam on the floor.
Now who else…
Simon's wandering took him to Makken and Leyte's repair shop; those two were happily married and had several kids. Clearly they were doing something right. But one glance at the garages full of cars and quite a few angry customers had him decide they had enough on their plate.
The Giha restaurant was still tacky, but it was where his old friends like to eat on their lunch breaks. Unfortunately when he stepped inside, he found that only Jorgen and Balinbow were in today, likely the rest of them were busy. Those two had been around, maybe they knew something?
"N-N-Nia pretty." "Vury p-p-pretty."
"Uh, I know, but do you two know any-"
"Good meat for Nia!" "Best meat, for best girl!" The twins roared and pounded the table simultaneously, scaring a few customers.
Simon left quickly. He knew he was procrastinating, but still, maybe there was some magic trick out there he could find. Some secret to love that could make this date wonderful.
And come to think of it, Simon knew someone who was a master of love.
There was a new space center being built outside of the city, the facility itself was actually much further away but the control room was close. He could walk there in a short while, flying took even less time. When he landed workers were busy putting up structures or building foundations, with the foreman calling out instructions.
Simon searched around, looking for the one in charge. He had to be… there! Going to his side, he smiled and waved. "Hey Ron, do you have a minute?
"~Oh boy, what brings you to my humble home?" In the middle of the site Leeron cozied up to Simon's side, nudging a hard hat out of his vision to show the biggest grin possible, ignoring the organized chaos around them. "Ooh, I know that look. The day of love is coming up soon, and after all these years you know what your heart truly desires."
"Actually-" Simon was silenced by fingers on his lips.
"Come into my office, I'll share with you all the secrets of love a man could ever…" Leeron lost his smile when Simon hurried off, visibly deflating. "And I went to all that trouble to book a cruise. Nia loved that day on the beach, it would have been perfect for them."
Despite the… helpfulness of his comrades, Simon did appreciate the advice. He felt more prepared for this than he did before, like he could handle a real, non-pretend, actually happening date with the girl of his dreams. He was still anxious, there was no denying that, but now he felt he could pull it off.
The one thing he did before he went home that night was check up on local flowers, finding several great options. These would do nicely.
Although he still had his worries, the next day he felt ready. Ready to enjoy a date with Nia, ready to have a great day, ready to do something really out there. Like… kissing? Were they ready for that? Was he?
They had held hands before, but would she be upset if he did kiss her? Or maybe she wouldn't, would he be too pushy if he tried? But what if she initiated things? Or what if there was a misunderstanding? He often struggled to understand what she was talking about, the things that could come from her mouth could be downright baffling. What if she said something nonsensical and he took it the wrong way, or he expressed his feelings and it flew over her head? What if-
Simon stopped himself outside the park, taking a breath and tightening the grip on the bouquet. He could do this. Determination hadn't failed him yet, it wouldn't now. So upon squaring his shoulders, he mustered his confidence… and felt his heart skip a beat when he saw her arriving on the sidewalk.
She was so beautiful, walking up to the meeting place with her simple pink dress looking impeccable, and her long blonde hair with blue latches flowing in the light breeze. Although the day was sunny and clear there currently wasn't much pedestrian traffic, allowing him to gaze upon her without trouble.
Simon gulped, then again when she did a double take and smiled. "Hail Simon, well met."
"Uh, hi Nia." Simon steadied himself as she came to his side, clutching a small basket. She brought lunch too, her home cooking by the smell of it. He never understood why nobody else liked it, he enjoyed her meals.
"Today is a lovely day. You have flowers." She cocked her head at an angle when she saw the bouquet.
"Oh, yeah, these are for you." He offered them, wondering if he should keep a hold for now or if she would take them.
"Thank you so much. I am grateful." Unexpectedly she frowned, his heart seizing. Did he make a mistake? "I apologize, I did not bring a gift for you."
"Oh! Oh no, it's fine!" He wildly shook his hands, though he immediately stopped when he saw how many petals he was shaking free. "Do you wanna take them?" Holding them was kinda.... awkward.
"Of course. I had not realized that I should." Giving him a tiny curtsy, the sheer adorableness of the display almost made his heart miss a beat, she gingerly reached out and took them, turning them around to observe them from every side and angle. "Again, thank you. These are most wonderful. Where did you find them? The seem to be different sorts." She raised an eyebrow before looking around, clearly not seeing too much.
There was plenty of greenery in Kamina City, but he had of course not taken them from there. That would've been cheap.
"Well, from a flower field, outside of the city...." It had been a bit of a bother to find them. Much of Earth's biosphere was still devastated, and especially the area around Kamina City still bore the scars of the rebellion against Lordgenome. As far as he remembered, Rossiu had some plans in that direction, the old storages of information and technologies of ancient humanity having included apparently extensive designs of what once had been the flora and fauna of Earth.
He was pretty sure Rossiu would probably have gone as far as to clone him these flowers if he had asked, but no.
Plucking them simply was more honest and heartfelt in his opinion.
"Well, may I see that flower field?" Nia's voice interrupted his thoughts and he couldn't help but smile. He had intended other things for the date. A whole list in fact.
"Of course." But saying no to these shining and amazed eyes? He'd rather fight a dozen Spiral kings and a hundred of their generals before he allowed them to water.
Turning around, he gazed in the distance..... now where was that field again? He had swerved right from Jakob's car shop and -
His body moved more on instinct than conscious thought, an arm shooting out to grab Nia and to pull her against him while he himself jumped back, his arm bursting in between them to intercept the projectile thrown their way, smacking the ball into the ground as it exploded into black smoke. He whirled around, pressing the comparatively small woman against his body to form a living shield around his love.... only for the expected wave of fire and death to roll over him without as much as charring a single hair.
Was.... was this only smoke? Pushing Nia behind him he turned around, his arm brushing away the smoke cloud with a single powerful swipe of his left arm revealing - oh god.
"BWAHAWAHAHAHAAHAHAH! BEHOLD!"
Kittan, wearing an obviously fake beard as well as a monocle that looked like he had glued it around his eyes - undoubtedly after numerous attempts at wearing it the normal way had failed - as well as various other things that made him look like some weird savage - including a preposterous amount of spikes and very big shoulder pauldrons - stood before them, holding yet another smoke bomb in his hands. A smoke bomb he had crudely drawn upon a couple of skulls and bones, probably to make the toy look more threatening.
"BEFORE YOU STANDS KITTOLON! DEFILER OF ALL THAT IS GOOD, CUTE AND SWEET!" And he was loud as all hell. Simon could see a couple of people giving them curious stares from where they themselves were walking through the park, when before they had thankfully given him and Nia their privacy.
Unlike a certain someone else.
"I HAVE GONE OUT ON 12 DARK EXPEDITIONS TO CLAIM THOSE TOO BEAUTIFUL FOR THIS WORLD, AND NOW, ON MY 13TH DARK EXPEDITION, I AM HERE TO CLAIM YOU NIA TEPPELIN!" He melodramatically pointed the arm that wasn 't holding a bomb at Nia, an effect somewhat undercut by half of the claws and ridiculous accessories he tacked on falling off right then and there.
"Hail Kittolon, defiler of all that is good, cute and sweet, well met!" Nia.... did not recognize Kittan.... "I'm Nia Teppelin, I am most pleased to make your acquaintance!" She made another tiny curtsy. "May I inquire why you threw a bomb at us? This was most rude."
Gods, did he love her.
"Nia! The time for talking is later! Stand back!" With an iron expression he stepped forward, walking towards Kittan. The man who had interrupted their perfect magical moment. Who had disturbed his very first date with Nia - he was sure that even she recognized this as something romantic.
Kittan.....
YOU WERE TRULY THE TRUEST OF BROS!
Simon had to fight with all his might to not weep as he punched his best friend, no, his brother by another mother in the face, launching him half a dozen meters back. The man was giving up his Valentine's day, his own romantic times with whatever ladies he was close to, presenting himself to get beaten to a pulp just so that he could look cool before Nia!
"Ow, wow, that kinda hur-" Another strike sent him straight through a whole set of bushes which Simon realized too late from his friends howls were of the thorned variety.
He half minded to apologize, before the latter pelted him with the smoke bomb right in his face, evidently no longer holding back with his throw.
He had to be careful not to laugh and inhale the fumes at that as he turned around to hurry back to Nia.
Message received, he was going to buy him some drinks later.
Fair was fair after all.
Nia was looking worried, but more importantly unharmed. Not that Kittan would harm her even by accident, but Simon still had to check her over.
"Is mister Kittolon alright? He looked like he took a bad fall." Nia frowned.
"Oh, he'll be fine." Simon owed him big, but for now he had a date to enjoy. And seeing a few pedestrians summoning a cop, he thought it was time to head out.
The park itself was lovely, as expected. Some areas were still under construction, they passed a fenced off section where workers were laying down a pathway while others were planting trees, but the majority was pleasant, vibrantly green. A new fountain was sprinkling water in a calming way, providing an extra boost to the park's natural beauty.
Simon could have toured around the Kamina statue he carved, but he could manage skipping that today. This outing was for Nia, smiling, carefree Nia beside him, walking with no doubt and no worries. The most beautiful girl in the world was with him, carrying a basket while he held the flowers. There was a close arrival admittedly, he chased that thought from his mind however.
Sucking in a breath, Simon took the leap: he carefully reached to take Nia's hand. For a second she stiffened, nearly making him retreat from uncertainty, but she didn't stop him. Nia smiled, squeezing her delicate fingers around his rough palm, applying a surprising degree of strength around his grip.
On the outskirts of the park was something Simon didn't remember being on the map, a copse sporting a wild growth of foliage, all kinds of flowers around a short yet stout tree. He didn't remember these being here, but he drafted a mental order to stop any renovation work from destroying it.
"This is amazing Simon, its so beautiful." Nia gazed in wonder. And there wasn't anyone around either, they had it all to themselves.
"It is." Simon smiled sappily.
She laid out a cloth beside the flowers, close enough to enjoy the fragrance without being at risk of harming them. They ate without much talking, speaking about the weather or local news, such as the plans for the moon rocket. And of course-
"Do you think mister Kittolon's other collectibles are in good condition? He seems like such a dedicated fellow, helping things too beautiful for this world." Nia asked.
Simon coughed.
Hours flew by in the blink of an eye, time he speng enjoying her company, and sneaking in small touches on her hand. Her skin was so amazingly soft, and her smile… it was absolutely breathtaking.
"Simon, I like this place. Its beautiful. I… I wish there were more places like this around the world. Places of flowers where there was just desert before." For the first time some melancholy filtered into her tone, and with it an edge of determination.
Much of the world was desert, a consequence of the Spiral King's reign. Her father had scoured the surface, leaving enough patches of plant life to support a functioning biosphere, but at large much of the planet was a rocky wasteland. Bit by bit they were changing that, initiatives organized by Rossiu were planting forests in suitable locations, and grasslands where it was less forgiving.
That was functional growth however, not what she was asking.
"We'll make them. There's going to be way more flower fields all over the world, I promise. You and I will plant them together." Simon squeezed her hand. "We'll make the whole Earth just as beautiful as this. I promise."
"Thank you Simon." Nia gazed upon the flowers rustling in the breeze, drifting such a wonderful scent upon them. The perfect scene for a woman as pure and beautiful as Nia.
For a second Simon considered taking the next step. He could do it, just lean in and plant a kiss on her lips. Her cheek even. But the moment was too good, and the way she closed her eyes and tipped her head back, basking in the warmth of the spot, kept him rooted in place.
Her hand was so nice anyway. This would be enough for now, they had time.
…
Simon slowly opened his eyes before cracking his neck, for a moment looking down to observe the wounds that he had torn himself in his effort to head off the star crushing compression of the Death Spiral Machine had closed.
He snorted, before shrugging it off as yet another thing Spiral energy had done.
Not the weirdest thing he had seen it do.
Still… had he been knocked unconscious? He had had a strange dream, but he couldn't quite remember it.
Given that he was still alive and the Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann still in one piece, they had obviously made it out of there, and even within the thousands of miles within the ship that he was, he had felt the ripple of them being thrown somewhere else, even if he had been on the edges of unconsciousness.
It was hard to picture in his mind, but for a moment, he, no, the whole ship, they had been somewhere else. Things, miniscule compared to the planet sized vessel had swarmed it, clashing against it only to be squashed, his spiral power that had powered it all denying them entry.
Hmmm, perhaps it had been just a figment of his imagination, but these things all had been awfully gross and disease stricken…. at least that had been the short impression he got while his spiral power obliterated them.
Before he could think more on that however, his comms sprung to life.
"Hey, Simon, done with your beauty nap?" The voice, acidic and biting as always, was Viral, the beastman sounding vaguely annoyed.
To be fair, he probably had good reason to.
"Yeah…. I'm fine. Is everyone else alright?" He leaned back on his throne, readying himself to once again project his spiral power to the ship's powercore and through them the entire ship.
"Yeah, everyones peachy. Even Kittan looks like he made it." There was…. a hint of respect in Viral's voice? How unusual. Plus he used Kittan's name instead of some insult…. well.
Simon couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. "Was he in danger?" More than any of them, that was.
"Yeah, he busted up the machine behind the death field. The one that wiped out the millions of civilizations who tried before us." His grunt was audible even through the communications relay. "Had been thinking about going out myself to deal with it, but he was quicker."
"Hah, seems that way! And he is okay? Gotta give him some props for that later!" A quiet sigh of relief escaped his mouth. Kittan had come along to help save Nia when he could have stayed back. If he had died like this….. Simon swallowed that lump before it could even form. He had to thank him properly.
"Hmmm. You'd have to hurry, because from the smell, I'm pretty sure the redheaded one will drag him to the nearest closet once he comes back on board." Simon couldn't help but grin at that. There had been some tension between Kittan and Yoko….
"At least we think he's alright. He fired at once of the space bugs that ate the world before us before they could get the refugee ship they´ve been chasing."
"..... Excuse me what now?" Had Viral been hit in the head? Wait no, if there was anyone impervious that mental damage via head bashings it be Viral, given how much everyone had batted him around.
"Yeah…. that's why I'm calling you. You better come up here and…. deal with this, Mr. Supreme Leader."
That caused his eyebrows to rise even higher. Viral almost never used his actual title, not even somewhat ironically like now.
Well, that only meant he had to get going then.
He had a promise to fulfill after all.
AN:
Have a sweet sidestory about Nia and Simon celebrating their valentine's day to valentine´s day
A chill had descended over Kamina City, a light cold that called for extra layers without risking a freeze. It was seen as appropriate for the new holiday coming up, recovered from the ruins of Teppelin and adapted by the numerous pits who had come to the surface. A holiday celebrating love.
Which was why Simon, Supreme Commander of Team Dai-Gurren and effectively the leader of both mankind and the beastmen, found himself standing outside of the home of his dear friend and comrade Kittan.
His hands were shaking a little, unfamiliar anxiety wracking his body. Simon was a little… okay, he was very nervous. Doubts warred within him, driving him to ask his old friend for help. But the determination that led him to punch through the ceiling of his village, culminating in fighting the Spiral King in hand to hand while being little more than a child, made him knock. This was going to be fine. This was going to be okay. Kittan was an expert in this, he bragged often enough about his "conquests", usually before being beaten by one of his sisters. He just hoped he wasn't bus-
There was a crash of something, before the door swung open.
"What do you want bozo… oh, Simon. Sup?" Kittan was leaning on the frame in a dirty shirt, an open bottle in hand that he quickly set aside.
"Hey Kittan, are you busy?" Simon was having second thoughts.
"Nah, I'm good. Just ah… got stood up anyway! Cmon, get in here!" Kittan snatched his arm, dragging him inside.
Kittan's pad was actually remarkably clean, no dust or stains that Simon could see. Instead there were rows of photos of his family, he and his sisters having fun everywhere from the ruins of Teppelin to inaugurating the statue of Kamina, enjoying the new world he helped build.
There weren't many photos of Kiyoh's wedding, weird. Oh right, Kittan had made so much stress about that only to bawl his eyes out when it had actually happened. A grin forced itself on Simon's face at the memory, despite his nervosity. Weddings like that.... it was the realization of his dream, of that of all humanity to be free and prosper. A sign that all the bloodshed and sacrifices had been worth it.
"So, Simon, my man, whatchu need?" Kittan jabbed his hands in his pockets. Unlike his place he was looking a little ragged, and the bottle implied he wasn't staying sober for long, and incidentally also shaking him out of his musings on Kiyoh's marriage.
"Well…" Simon turned his gaze, bringing up his hands to nervously rub them. "You know… Valentine's Day is coming up, and… I was hoping you would have some advice…" It had been admittedly only a couple years since they had re-adopted the holiday, but it had found much popularity. After all the horrors and death of the millennia of humanities oppression by the beastmen and lordgenome, love had been a welcome new sight. Especially since, according to Leeron, many of the cave villages they had been living in had not the largest of diverse gene pools. Something like having finally dating options beyond some measure of cousin or other relative lead to a veritable explosion of relationships and pregnancies.
The very city he had walked through to get here being one of the foremost examples of just that.
Kittan blinked, for a second looking shocked beyond measure.
Then he grinned. "Then you've come to the right place."
"Really? Do you know any good places to-" Simon leaned when Kittan jumped up to him.
"I've been reeling in babes for years, if anybody can help you bag a gal I'm the guy!" Kittan struck a pose, slamming a fist against his chest while raising his other hand stretched out towards the sky. It looked a bit like the poses Kamina had liked to make. "First off, babes love confidence!"
"You're being loud-"
"Practice your swagger, walk like you own the joint. Then you gotta shower them with love, make 'em think they're the most important thing in the world, and if some jerk tried making a move you knock his teeth out!" Kittan punched his palm. "You crack for a second they'll leave, and then…anyway! You get me! Stand up straight dammit! You're way too tall to be moping around!"
"Yeah, sure, but I'm not sure if that´s what Nia really looks for." He awkwardly rubbed his hands together. It wasn't like he hadn't been, well, getting offers. Time and again, women, some barely adults, some mature beauties, fought for his attention. And he meant fought. More than once a couple of the ladies had outright thrown hands because he had given someone a hello or something. Simon had chuckled a little because he was sure that his old brother would have killed to be in his shoes. But one could only have bare chests flashed at someone so many times - in a futile attempt to convince him to have this or that woman ́s babies - for it to no longer be sexy.
There were only two women who Simon had ever felt love for and even he didn't know where Yoko was. Eh, the red haired sniper could hold her own wherever she was, of that Simon was convinced. And even with her - and how hot her body had made him feel back in the day whenever he saw her - that still was not quite what he was feeling for Nia.
He wanted everything to be perfect when he asked her out on a date, so that was why he was here.
"Hmmm, nonsense!" With a comically exaggerated stagger Kittan swung around, grabbing a bottle and taking a deep gulp out of it. "Girls, all girls, they simply love badasses!" He laughed, his eyes flashing in the way that usually indicated that he got an idea. "I know, some bozo, some real dangerous fella, he gotta attack you while you are on your date! You whoop his ass and Nia´s gonna be swooning for you. And then...." He wiggled his eyebrows-
"And then what?" What a hair brained idea. Who was gonna pick a fight with him? Simon was, without a doubt and without wanting to sound too prideful, the most powerful human on the planet. He had killed the Spiral King with his bare hands and a drill and that guy could fist fight gunmen!
"Well...." Kittan stopped in his tracks, his face growing red for some reason. "Couple stuff.... you know. Kissing, holding hands, lovey dovey faces and all that."
"Ahu, well, yes that would be very nice." Hmm, now his own face was getting really warm. Lovey dovey stuff? Kissing? Maybe..... m-maybe even cuddle some?
He wiped some sweat away.
"But the chance of anyone coming along looking for trouble, I don't think that's particularly likely." The truth was cruel, cold and hard, but Simon had to look at this logically.
And not think about how wonderfully soft Nia's fingers would be.
"Hmmmm." Kittan took another swig of his beer. And then another one. And another one. "You -" He burped. "You don't worry about that. I'm sure some nasty piece of work is going to show up, with someone as pretty and innocent as Nia. Then you can be the hero to save her." He gave Simon a wink and a slap on the back. "Now, get out there and see about getting yourself all fixed up for your girl. After all..." A sly smile entered his face as stared at him. "You want her to have just as much eye candy as you get, now do you?"
He nodded after a moment, fair was fair after all.
Waving his goodbye, he stepped out of the house and into Kamina City. He guessed he could trust Kittan and his experience with women. Still, it felt insufficient... somehow. Maybe he could ask someone else?
In the suburbs Simon knocked on the door, taking a second to admire the house. It was very well tended, it was no wonder considering who called this place home. He had heard strange creaking noises as he had come closer, plus what clearly was someone crying out repeatedly. Were Dayakka and Kiyoh having a fight? He half considered if he should leave or intervene - planned date or not, you didn't leave your friends helpless, no matter the challenge! - but the door opened before he could make a decision.
Instead of a screaming greeting Simon was met by a tired looking friend in pants and a shirt that was flapping open, with no top underneath to cover his chest. Or socks Simon noticed.
"Oh... hello Simon? What.... ah, what do you want?" The older - relatively - man looked and sounded completely exhausted. Like he had just fought a dozen beastmen or something. In general, there was a smell to him that Simon.... couldn't quite recognize. He was red faced and sweaty, taking shallow gulps every couple seconds.
"Well..." He groaned a little inside him. It was embarrassing to admit to Dayakka, for whatever reason more than with Kittan. "I wanted to ask if you had any advice for help? Like.... romantic advice for me and Nia?" He held his eyes steady. Screw it, this was to make things nicer for Nia. Simon, be a damn Man and endure the embarrassment!
"Oh.... well." Dayakka coughed a little. "I'd really like to help Simon, but you are coming at a very inopportune time and -"
"We would be glad to help." A hand laid itself on his shoulder and pulled him gently back, revealing his wife. Kiyoh, the beauty that had once tried to kidnap him in the desert, who was just as roughed up by the looks of it. Her hair was a frayed mess, she was just as red faced and sweaty, and huh, she was smiling like she just hit her head.
"Well… if something is going on I can come back later…" Simon rubbed the back of his neck. This wasn't a fight, that was all he was sure about. So while he was determined to push through his embarrassment, he wasn't sure sticking around was the best idea…
"Actually-"
"Nonsense, we are taking a breather. Need some fluids anyway. Come on inside." Kiyoh giggled, causing Dayakka to cough awkwardly.
That weird smell was much stronger indoors, and it looked like a storm passed through the place. Furniture was knocked over, a vase was busted and swept up yet left in a dustpan, several of the pictures on the wall were crooked with no obvious pattern, and why were there bathrobes tossed on the stairs? Kiyal wasn't the most orderly person, but this was bad even for her.
Entering the kitchen after them, Simon did a double take at the mess. The table was a disaster zone, with cream and jelly all over the place, not just left in bowls with serving spoons in them but smeared over the surface. And the floor too, his shoe stuck to a patch when he walked over it.
"Ah, sorry about the mess. We uh… were… celebrating?" Dayakka tried to clear his throat and instead coughed.
"We were having a snack. A girl needs her protein." Kiyoh snickered, offering a water bottle.
"I'm alright." Simon looked around, there was no meat. And was Dayakka sick? He was even more red than before.
"So then, ah, what's up? It must be important, I was uh… about to do some gardening. You know, plow a field." Dayakka coughed. A second later Kiyoh slapped her face, lurching in place and snorting.
Was she sick? Regardless Simon cleared his throat, tactfully deciding not to point out the mess in the kitchen. It was their home, he could save the lecture about cleaning up before starting a new job.
"Okay, so, any pointers for Nia would be appreciated. Like, where did you go for your dates? Things like that." Right to the point was the way to go.
"Mm… well, the best thing you can do is tell her how you feel. She's crazy about you, and you love her. Just say what you mean and go from there, that's step one." Kiyoh nodded, placing a thick brew of what looked like an egg shake by Dayakka, who groaned when she patted his shoulder. "Don't overthink it, doing that is why Kinon hasn't made a move on Rossiu yet. Oh, and don't wear anything mega fancy or whatever. Dress comfortably, both of you. If you want to give her something, you can't go wrong with flowers. Or that new chocolate stuff, it's my second favorite snack."
Dayakka coughed again, straightening up as Kiyoh brewed up another thick drink. "Best thing I can advise is to do what you both enjoy. Go for a walk in the park, visit somewhere, whatever you and her like to do. If you want to do something exciting, you can take her flying in Lagann. That's what we did."
"Makes sense." Simon noticed how Kiyoh was grinning sappily, both of them were.
"That was a great time. It was shortly after Parliament Tower opened for business, Dayakka took me on an outing with the Dayakkaiser. We didn't really go anywhere, just flew around outside of the city for the whole day. Let the wind whip around my hair, see some nice little oases, stuff like that. It was a great day to just get away from everything."
Kiyoh smiled, taking Dayakka's hand. They both got red at the same time, but the sappy grins they had were a good sign, they sounded like they had fun seeing the sights.
Simon stood up, this time avoiding the sticky patch. "Thanks you guys, that really helps."
"No problem Simon. Glad to help." Dayakka smiled.
"Glad to lend a hand-oh wait." Kiyoh scurried to the fridge, yanking it open to grab something, then rushed to press a little bag into his hand. "Here, it's an old herbal remedy my village used to make. It'll help out."
"Thanks, but I'm fine." Simon nonetheless accepted the bag, giving it a small sniff. Peppermint?
"It's for Nia, silly. Even she will understand what it's for." Kiyoh patted him on the shoulder, sparing a hungry glance at Dayakka.
"…okay, thanks guys. I'll let you get back to your gardening." Simon bade them farewell.
Once outside he pocketed the stuff, quietly wondering if it was meant for a fever. Nia was as healthy as they come, so it probably wasn't necessary.
"This is a pretty small yard for farming." Simon glanced around, shaking his head. He had a better grasp on what to do, but maybe a couple more opinions couldn't hurt. For a second he thought he heard a squeal from inside the house, probably from spilling some more jam on the floor.
Now who else…
Simon's wandering took him to Makken and Leyte's repair shop; those two were happily married and had several kids. Clearly they were doing something right. But one glance at the garages full of cars and quite a few angry customers had him decide they had enough on their plate.
The Giha restaurant was still tacky, but it was where his old friends like to eat on their lunch breaks. Unfortunately when he stepped inside, he found that only Jorgen and Balinbow were in today, likely the rest of them were busy. Those two had been around, maybe they knew something?
"N-N-Nia pretty." "Vury p-p-pretty."
"Uh, I know, but do you two know any-"
"Good meat for Nia!" "Best meat, for best girl!" The twins roared and pounded the table simultaneously, scaring a few customers.
Simon left quickly. He knew he was procrastinating, but still, maybe there was some magic trick out there he could find. Some secret to love that could make this date wonderful.
And come to think of it, Simon knew someone who was a master of love.
There was a new space center being built outside of the city, the facility itself was actually much further away but the control room was close. He could walk there in a short while, flying took even less time. When he landed workers were busy putting up structures or building foundations, with the foreman calling out instructions.
Simon searched around, looking for the one in charge. He had to be… there! Going to his side, he smiled and waved. "Hey Ron, do you have a minute?
"~Oh boy, what brings you to my humble home?" In the middle of the site Leeron cozied up to Simon's side, nudging a hard hat out of his vision to show the biggest grin possible, ignoring the organized chaos around them. "Ooh, I know that look. The day of love is coming up soon, and after all these years you know what your heart truly desires."
"Actually-" Simon was silenced by fingers on his lips.
"Come into my office, I'll share with you all the secrets of love a man could ever…" Leeron lost his smile when Simon hurried off, visibly deflating. "And I went to all that trouble to book a cruise. Nia loved that day on the beach, it would have been perfect for them."
Despite the… helpfulness of his comrades, Simon did appreciate the advice. He felt more prepared for this than he did before, like he could handle a real, non-pretend, actually happening date with the girl of his dreams. He was still anxious, there was no denying that, but now he felt he could pull it off.
The one thing he did before he went home that night was check up on local flowers, finding several great options. These would do nicely.
Although he still had his worries, the next day he felt ready. Ready to enjoy a date with Nia, ready to have a great day, ready to do something really out there. Like… kissing? Were they ready for that? Was he?
They had held hands before, but would she be upset if he did kiss her? Or maybe she wouldn't, would he be too pushy if he tried? But what if she initiated things? Or what if there was a misunderstanding? He often struggled to understand what she was talking about, the things that could come from her mouth could be downright baffling. What if she said something nonsensical and he took it the wrong way, or he expressed his feelings and it flew over her head? What if-
Simon stopped himself outside the park, taking a breath and tightening the grip on the bouquet. He could do this. Determination hadn't failed him yet, it wouldn't now. So upon squaring his shoulders, he mustered his confidence… and felt his heart skip a beat when he saw her arriving on the sidewalk.
She was so beautiful, walking up to the meeting place with her simple pink dress looking impeccable, and her long blonde hair with blue latches flowing in the light breeze. Although the day was sunny and clear there currently wasn't much pedestrian traffic, allowing him to gaze upon her without trouble.
Simon gulped, then again when she did a double take and smiled. "Hail Simon, well met."
"Uh, hi Nia." Simon steadied himself as she came to his side, clutching a small basket. She brought lunch too, her home cooking by the smell of it. He never understood why nobody else liked it, he enjoyed her meals.
"Today is a lovely day. You have flowers." She cocked her head at an angle when she saw the bouquet.
"Oh, yeah, these are for you." He offered them, wondering if he should keep a hold for now or if she would take them.
"Thank you so much. I am grateful." Unexpectedly she frowned, his heart seizing. Did he make a mistake? "I apologize, I did not bring a gift for you."
"Oh! Oh no, it's fine!" He wildly shook his hands, though he immediately stopped when he saw how many petals he was shaking free. "Do you wanna take them?" Holding them was kinda.... awkward.
"Of course. I had not realized that I should." Giving him a tiny curtsy, the sheer adorableness of the display almost made his heart miss a beat, she gingerly reached out and took them, turning them around to observe them from every side and angle. "Again, thank you. These are most wonderful. Where did you find them? The seem to be different sorts." She raised an eyebrow before looking around, clearly not seeing too much.
There was plenty of greenery in Kamina City, but he had of course not taken them from there. That would've been cheap.
"Well, from a flower field, outside of the city...." It had been a bit of a bother to find them. Much of Earth's biosphere was still devastated, and especially the area around Kamina City still bore the scars of the rebellion against Lordgenome. As far as he remembered, Rossiu had some plans in that direction, the old storages of information and technologies of ancient humanity having included apparently extensive designs of what once had been the flora and fauna of Earth.
He was pretty sure Rossiu would probably have gone as far as to clone him these flowers if he had asked, but no.
Plucking them simply was more honest and heartfelt in his opinion.
"Well, may I see that flower field?" Nia's voice interrupted his thoughts and he couldn't help but smile. He had intended other things for the date. A whole list in fact.
"Of course." But saying no to these shining and amazed eyes? He'd rather fight a dozen Spiral kings and a hundred of their generals before he allowed them to water.
Turning around, he gazed in the distance..... now where was that field again? He had swerved right from Jakob's car shop and -
His body moved more on instinct than conscious thought, an arm shooting out to grab Nia and to pull her against him while he himself jumped back, his arm bursting in between them to intercept the projectile thrown their way, smacking the ball into the ground as it exploded into black smoke. He whirled around, pressing the comparatively small woman against his body to form a living shield around his love.... only for the expected wave of fire and death to roll over him without as much as charring a single hair.
Was.... was this only smoke? Pushing Nia behind him he turned around, his arm brushing away the smoke cloud with a single powerful swipe of his left arm revealing - oh god.
"BWAHAWAHAHAHAAHAHAH! BEHOLD!"
Kittan, wearing an obviously fake beard as well as a monocle that looked like he had glued it around his eyes - undoubtedly after numerous attempts at wearing it the normal way had failed - as well as various other things that made him look like some weird savage - including a preposterous amount of spikes and very big shoulder pauldrons - stood before them, holding yet another smoke bomb in his hands. A smoke bomb he had crudely drawn upon a couple of skulls and bones, probably to make the toy look more threatening.
"BEFORE YOU STANDS KITTOLON! DEFILER OF ALL THAT IS GOOD, CUTE AND SWEET!" And he was loud as all hell. Simon could see a couple of people giving them curious stares from where they themselves were walking through the park, when before they had thankfully given him and Nia their privacy.
Unlike a certain someone else.
"I HAVE GONE OUT ON 12 DARK EXPEDITIONS TO CLAIM THOSE TOO BEAUTIFUL FOR THIS WORLD, AND NOW, ON MY 13TH DARK EXPEDITION, I AM HERE TO CLAIM YOU NIA TEPPELIN!" He melodramatically pointed the arm that wasn 't holding a bomb at Nia, an effect somewhat undercut by half of the claws and ridiculous accessories he tacked on falling off right then and there.
"Hail Kittolon, defiler of all that is good, cute and sweet, well met!" Nia.... did not recognize Kittan.... "I'm Nia Teppelin, I am most pleased to make your acquaintance!" She made another tiny curtsy. "May I inquire why you threw a bomb at us? This was most rude."
Gods, did he love her.
"Nia! The time for talking is later! Stand back!" With an iron expression he stepped forward, walking towards Kittan. The man who had interrupted their perfect magical moment. Who had disturbed his very first date with Nia - he was sure that even she recognized this as something romantic.
Kittan.....
YOU WERE TRULY THE TRUEST OF BROS!
Simon had to fight with all his might to not weep as he punched his best friend, no, his brother by another mother in the face, launching him half a dozen meters back. The man was giving up his Valentine's day, his own romantic times with whatever ladies he was close to, presenting himself to get beaten to a pulp just so that he could look cool before Nia!
"Ow, wow, that kinda hur-" Another strike sent him straight through a whole set of bushes which Simon realized too late from his friends howls were of the thorned variety.
He half minded to apologize, before the latter pelted him with the smoke bomb right in his face, evidently no longer holding back with his throw.
He had to be careful not to laugh and inhale the fumes at that as he turned around to hurry back to Nia.
Message received, he was going to buy him some drinks later.
Fair was fair after all.
Nia was looking worried, but more importantly unharmed. Not that Kittan would harm her even by accident, but Simon still had to check her over.
"Is mister Kittolon alright? He looked like he took a bad fall." Nia frowned.
"Oh, he'll be fine." Simon owed him big, but for now he had a date to enjoy. And seeing a few pedestrians summoning a cop, he thought it was time to head out.
The park itself was lovely, as expected. Some areas were still under construction, they passed a fenced off section where workers were laying down a pathway while others were planting trees, but the majority was pleasant, vibrantly green. A new fountain was sprinkling water in a calming way, providing an extra boost to the park's natural beauty.
Simon could have toured around the Kamina statue he carved, but he could manage skipping that today. This outing was for Nia, smiling, carefree Nia beside him, walking with no doubt and no worries. The most beautiful girl in the world was with him, carrying a basket while he held the flowers. There was a close arrival admittedly, he chased that thought from his mind however.
Sucking in a breath, Simon took the leap: he carefully reached to take Nia's hand. For a second she stiffened, nearly making him retreat from uncertainty, but she didn't stop him. Nia smiled, squeezing her delicate fingers around his rough palm, applying a surprising degree of strength around his grip.
On the outskirts of the park was something Simon didn't remember being on the map, a copse sporting a wild growth of foliage, all kinds of flowers around a short yet stout tree. He didn't remember these being here, but he drafted a mental order to stop any renovation work from destroying it.
"This is amazing Simon, its so beautiful." Nia gazed in wonder. And there wasn't anyone around either, they had it all to themselves.
"It is." Simon smiled sappily.
She laid out a cloth beside the flowers, close enough to enjoy the fragrance without being at risk of harming them. They ate without much talking, speaking about the weather or local news, such as the plans for the moon rocket. And of course-
"Do you think mister Kittolon's other collectibles are in good condition? He seems like such a dedicated fellow, helping things too beautiful for this world." Nia asked.
Simon coughed.
Hours flew by in the blink of an eye, time he speng enjoying her company, and sneaking in small touches on her hand. Her skin was so amazingly soft, and her smile… it was absolutely breathtaking.
"Simon, I like this place. Its beautiful. I… I wish there were more places like this around the world. Places of flowers where there was just desert before." For the first time some melancholy filtered into her tone, and with it an edge of determination.
Much of the world was desert, a consequence of the Spiral King's reign. Her father had scoured the surface, leaving enough patches of plant life to support a functioning biosphere, but at large much of the planet was a rocky wasteland. Bit by bit they were changing that, initiatives organized by Rossiu were planting forests in suitable locations, and grasslands where it was less forgiving.
That was functional growth however, not what she was asking.
"We'll make them. There's going to be way more flower fields all over the world, I promise. You and I will plant them together." Simon squeezed her hand. "We'll make the whole Earth just as beautiful as this. I promise."
"Thank you Simon." Nia gazed upon the flowers rustling in the breeze, drifting such a wonderful scent upon them. The perfect scene for a woman as pure and beautiful as Nia.
For a second Simon considered taking the next step. He could do it, just lean in and plant a kiss on her lips. Her cheek even. But the moment was too good, and the way she closed her eyes and tipped her head back, basking in the warmth of the spot, kept him rooted in place.
Her hand was so nice anyway. This would be enough for now, they had time.
…
Simon slowly opened his eyes before cracking his neck, for a moment looking down to observe the wounds that he had torn himself in his effort to head off the star crushing compression of the Death Spiral Machine had closed.
He snorted, before shrugging it off as yet another thing Spiral energy had done.
Not the weirdest thing he had seen it do.
Still… had he been knocked unconscious? He had had a strange dream, but he couldn't quite remember it.
Given that he was still alive and the Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann still in one piece, they had obviously made it out of there, and even within the thousands of miles within the ship that he was, he had felt the ripple of them being thrown somewhere else, even if he had been on the edges of unconsciousness.
It was hard to picture in his mind, but for a moment, he, no, the whole ship, they had been somewhere else. Things, miniscule compared to the planet sized vessel had swarmed it, clashing against it only to be squashed, his spiral power that had powered it all denying them entry.
Hmmm, perhaps it had been just a figment of his imagination, but these things all had been awfully gross and disease stricken…. at least that had been the short impression he got while his spiral power obliterated them.
Before he could think more on that however, his comms sprung to life.
"Hey, Simon, done with your beauty nap?" The voice, acidic and biting as always, was Viral, the beastman sounding vaguely annoyed.
To be fair, he probably had good reason to.
"Yeah…. I'm fine. Is everyone else alright?" He leaned back on his throne, readying himself to once again project his spiral power to the ship's powercore and through them the entire ship.
"Yeah, everyones peachy. Even Kittan looks like he made it." There was…. a hint of respect in Viral's voice? How unusual. Plus he used Kittan's name instead of some insult…. well.
Simon couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. "Was he in danger?" More than any of them, that was.
"Yeah, he busted up the machine behind the death field. The one that wiped out the millions of civilizations who tried before us." His grunt was audible even through the communications relay. "Had been thinking about going out myself to deal with it, but he was quicker."
"Hah, seems that way! And he is okay? Gotta give him some props for that later!" A quiet sigh of relief escaped his mouth. Kittan had come along to help save Nia when he could have stayed back. If he had died like this….. Simon swallowed that lump before it could even form. He had to thank him properly.
"Hmmm. You'd have to hurry, because from the smell, I'm pretty sure the redheaded one will drag him to the nearest closet once he comes back on board." Simon couldn't help but grin at that. There had been some tension between Kittan and Yoko….
"At least we think he's alright. He fired at once of the space bugs that ate the world before us before they could get the refugee ship they´ve been chasing."
"..... Excuse me what now?" Had Viral been hit in the head? Wait no, if there was anyone impervious that mental damage via head bashings it be Viral, given how much everyone had batted him around.
"Yeah…. that's why I'm calling you. You better come up here and…. deal with this, Mr. Supreme Leader."
That caused his eyebrows to rise even higher. Viral almost never used his actual title, not even somewhat ironically like now.
Well, that only meant he had to get going then.
He had a promise to fulfill after all.
AN:
Have a sweet sidestory about Nia and Simon celebrating their valentine's day to valentine´s day
And it is very wholesome. So bummed out about Nia disappearing at the end of Gurren Lagann.
- Pronouns
- He
We do not talk about that here