We Are Not Our Friends, We Are Ourselves
TENGEN TOPPA GURREN LAGANN: KOUMA-HEN
by Arcainum
Excerpt: We Are Not Our Friends, We Are Ourselves
Simon once more reached up, burning every scrap of energy his body could find to keep climbing. The Core Drill, tiny and inert in his hands, dug into the metal body of Shuzack. His arms burned with fatigue as the wind whipped at his jacket, threatening to throw him loose at any moment. The battle had been long and hard, Nia was in the clutches of the enemy, and Fluttershy was nowhere to be found. Everything in him screamed at him to just give in, to let the beastmen win. They had struggled on this far, but how could they win without Kamina or Rainbow Dash to lead them? He gritted his teeth, and brought his other arm up.
Fluttershy lay in the darkness of the hangar, curled up between the two lifeless Lagann. Tears ran down her face as she sobbed quietly, head tucked beneath her wings like she had done when hiding from the bullies in Cloudsdale. Back then, Rainbow Dash would come to save her. But there was no one to save her now. Rainbow was dead, along with Kamina. Both her and Simon’s best friends were dead, and the Dai-Gurren Brigade’s rebellion seemed likely to fall any moment now. She cowered as the sound of explosions filtered through the walking battleship’s hull. She had tried to fight, tried to help Simon and Rossiu protect them all... but she had failed. Neither her nor Simon’s Lagann would even accept their commands now. Alone in the darkness as those she loved fought to survive, she cried for absent friends.
Simon continued his climb. Above him, silhouetted against the glaring sun, he could see the claw that held Nia. Cytomander’s shrill cries echoed around him as the other swiped at him, trying to dislodge his grasp on the flying Gunmen.
“How dare you defile my beautiful Shuzack with your filthy ape hands!”
The rushing wind caused by the massive claws swung Simon about his handhold, flinging him away from the surface of the robot. He held on tightly, however, and for the briefest moment his position allowed him to see Nia’s face. What he saw almost stopped his heart.
There was no trace of fear, not a hint of submission to the metal beast that held her in its grasp. The only thing in her beautiful eyes was faith. Faith in him. She believed in him. From deep within the recesses of his soul, words arose, words that he had almost forgotten in the despair that had so crushed him these past weeks. He growled to himself, feeling determination well up within him.
“Believe in the you that believes in yourself...”
The Core Drill hummed and, faintly, began to glow.
Fluttershy jumped as something began to hum. Leaping to her hooves and looking around wildly in fear, she could see nothing. Had the beastmen infiltrated? Had the rest of the Dai-Gurren Brigade been killed? She couldn’t remember the last time in the battle she had seen anyone. Was she truly alone? A green glow appeared in the corner of her vision and she slowly turned around, unable to believe what she was seeing.
The Lagann, both humanoid and equine, were active. Their eyes glowed with the green light that had carried them through so many battles. Slowly, with a quiet grinding of metal, they stood. Simon’s looked upward, staring at the ceiling as if it could see what was happening in the war-torn skies above. Her own fixed her with its empty gaze and just stood there, its intent unfathomable. Fluttershy turned away, unable to look her mechanical comrade in the eye.
“I... I can’t do it, Lagann. I’m so weak and helpless. Please, don’t try to make me fight. I’m no Rainbow Dash. I’m just..."
She bowed her head in despair.
"... Fluttershy.”
Her quiet voice echoed in the silence. Her Lagann did nothing. It merely stood, and waited.
Simon’s mouth fell open as he felt the Core Drill’s reaction in his hand. Could it be...? Before he could react, Shuzack’s huge leg caught him with a tremendous kick that knocked the wind out of him and sent him flying into the air, Core Drill still clutched tightly in his battered and calloused hands. He cried out in pain and frustration. He was so close to saving Nia! So close! As he sailed into the open sky, the kick’s power carried him up, bringing him level with the screaming Nia. For a moment, he was close enough to touch her. He looked deep into her eyes, and she into his. He reached out his hand.
“Nia!”
Caught fast in Shuzack’s grip, Nia could only look on in horror as he flew out of reach, his hand catching nothing but air. With a terrible inevitability, his trajectory arched downwards and he fell, fell away from her, jacking flapping behind him as he plummeted.
“Simon!”
Cytomander cackled shrilly, shrieking like the birds that provided his genetic template.
“Do you see, Nia?!That’s the fate of those that challenge the beastmen! See how your pony friend doesn’t even come to save him!”
Tears in her eyes, Nia squirmed in the confines of Shuzack’s fist to face the cockpit and cried out defiantly.
“No! In the same way that Simon believed in his ‘Bro’, and Fluttershy believed in Rainbow Dash, I will believe in them both!”
Cytomander laughed again, eyes wide. With every word, he sounded more and more insane, far more than Viral or Thymilph ever had, and despite the strength of her conviction Nia felt fear deep inside her.
“How foolish!”
Simon fell. Throwing his weight forward, he desperately tried to grab ahold of Shuzack. He threw his faithful drill on its rope, smiling as it embedded itself in Shuzack’s metal hide. His smile faded instantly as the speed of his descent yanked the rope from its tether around his waist and he continued to fall. He slammed into the robot’s waist and rolled down it, scrabbling for a handhold. If only Fluttershy was here, she could catch him, and together they could save Nia!
He continued to tumble down Shuzack, every impact setting his nerves on fire. Before long, he had scraped down the flight sphere clutched in its talons and fallen in empty space, the vast wasteland of the surface stretching out beneath him. Far below, he could see the explosions surrounding the wrestling Dai-Gurren and Dai-Gankai. Above him, Nia and Shuzack grew smaller and smaller, Nia’s screams and Cytomander’s crazed laughter growing fainter by the second. He gritted his teeth and willed something, anything, to happen.
“Nia... Nia is waiting for me!”
He felt something on his chest.
In his crashing descent down the body of Cytomander’s Gunmen, the Core Drill had fallen from his hand and now hung in its usual place around his neck. It was pulsing with the green energy that had first drawn him to it, those months ago in Giha. Even now, with Kamina gone, there was something he and only he could do. He grasped it in his hand and closed his eyes. Now, at last, he truly understood. He opened his eyes again and shouted to the open air, knowing that, somehow, his friend would hear.
“Fluttershy! We are ourselves, and ourselves alone!”
A burst of energy made Fluttershy whirl to face the Lagann again, backing away. Simon’s Lagann was flaring with energy, green spirals whirling about it fiercely. She gazed wide-eyed at the coruscating green flames that surrounded it. As if from nowhere, Simon’s voice emerged from its mouth, the metal face moving in time with his words as if he were piloting it that very moment.
“Fluttershy! We are ourselves, and ourselves alone!”
She gasped. For a moment, she stood still and silent, unable to breathe as the epiphany boiled within her. Her mind raced.
Simon... Simon was right. She was herself. She was Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash had been her protector, her best friend, and the co-founder of the Dai-Gurren Brigade. Kamina, too, had been a leader, a warrior, a hero. But that was them. For too long, she and Simon had been trying to live up to their lost friends’ names, rather than living up to their own names.
What did it matter if she wasn’t the mare that Rainbow Dash was? Rainbow Dash was Rainbow Dash. But she... she was herself.
She let out the breath she had been holding slowly. Her movement filled with purpose, she turned to face her own Lagann, which was now blazing with the same green fire as Simon’s. They nodded to her, and she nodded back.
At last, after all these years... it was time for Fluttershy to fight back.
A vast explosion of green light erupted from the deck of the Dai-Gurren. Two balls of green flame rocketed into the sky, the metal within them gleaming in the bright sun. At the apex of their ascent, they sharply changed direction, arcing towards another shining green spark in the sky.
Simon felt Lagann approach before he saw it, the tiny robot flying at phenomenal speed to hover beneath him and catch him. As he landed in the cushioned cockpit, Simon gripped the controls fervently and let all of his determination flow into the machine, slamming the Core Drill into place. As the burst of energy that accompanied its full activation flared around him, he cried out its name in joy and relief.
“Lagann... Lagann!”
A voice reached him over the roar of the wind.
“Simon! I heard you!”
The equine Lagann was hovering beside his, its timid pilot smiling widely at him. He grinned back at her, feeling a fierce confidence bubble up within him. Was this what Kamina had felt like all the time?
“Are you ready, Fluttershy?”
The determined pegasus gave a sharp nod, and the two of them both yanked at their controls. The two robots and their pilots shot through the sky towards the distant Shuzack.
Cytomander shrieked with laughter and brought the whirring saw that Shuzack’s claw had become closer to Nia’s face.
“Cower and die! Majestic Big Cho-”
His cackling was cut off by the impact of two drill-tipped Lagann crashing simultaneously through the saw, demolishing both it and the limb it was attached to. The force of their attack rippled through the enemy robot and ripped its other arm to shreds, and Nia found herself hanging in the sky. The cockpits of the two robots opened up and, before Nia could begin to fall, Fluttershy had swooped beneath her and caught her. Flapping as hard as she could to compensate for the extra weight, she carried Nia up to Simon. His upside down face shone with delight.
“Nia! We’ve come to save you!”
Nia’s eyes brimmed with tears again. In a single motion, she stood up on Fluttershy and jumped from her back into Simon’s waiting arms. The cockpit closed behind them, and Fluttershy smiled to herself, blushing slightly at the obvious strong feelings between the two. She flew back to her own Lagann and readied herself.
With another burst of green light, the two robots spiralled into the sky, to their next destination.
Inside the cockpit of Simon’s Lagann, the princess and the digger gazed into each other’s eyes. Simon smiled warmly.
“Sorry we were late.”
Nia giggled and shook her head. Simon continued.
“I finally understand. Lagann told me, and I told Fluttershy. I finally understand!”
Nia looked Simon, at the fire in his eyes and the truth in his smile. She thought back across the weeks she had spent with the Dai-Gurren Brigade. Laughing, crying, fighting, she had learnt so many things in her time with the humans and ponies of the Brigade. She had learned of her father’s oppression of both species, how he and Celestia had used human science and pony magic to create the unstoppable fusion of both known as the beastmen. And she had learned of the tragedy of loss, and the wonder of love.
“I understand too. Thank you, Simon.”
On the foredeck of the Dai-Gurren, the fight was going badly. Yoko and Twilight stood back to back, pony and human ready to fight to the last. The hordes of leering beastmen surrounding them jeered and shouted insults as the two comrades gasped for breath. The crowd surged forward again, and battle resumed. Yoko whirled her rifle like a staff, driving the barrel and stock into the bodies of beastmen and throwing them back as they rushed into the melee. Twilight, meanwhile, was using her telekinesis to full effect, hurling attackers at each other with bone-cracking strength. Her own rifle flew above the crush of enemies in the purple glow of her power, firing randomly into the crowd. She called over her shoulder to Yoko, ducking as her friend’s weapon sailed over her head to slam into an ill-placed beastman’s face.
“This is impossible! The odds are against us!”
Yoko gritted her teeth as the beastmen waved their swords menacingly.
“We have to believe in Simon and Fluttershy! We have to keep figh-”
She caught her breath as, from the smoke the clogged the battlefield, the faintest sound reached her ears. Sensing rather than seeing the incoming blow, she pushed Twilight away from her, sending the pony rolling across the deck. A segmented tail whipped from the smoke and slammed into Yoko’s side, throwing her to the deck by Twilight. They both leapt to their feet and whirled to face the grey cloud from which the strike had originated.
Stepping from the crowded smoke was the lithe figure of Adiane, tail writhing behind her as her minions cheered her arrival. A cruel smile played about her lips, and bitterness tinged her words.
“I see you’ve been doing as you pleased with Thymilph’s Dai-Gunzan. You’re far too primitive to be toying with a beastman ship.”
As the member of the Four Generals spoke, Yoko was rapidly making adjustments to her rifle, disconnecting part of the barrel, slotting in a different clip, flicking switches. Twilight brought her own rifle back to herself and, with a swift nod to Yoko, teleported away to reappear at the tip of the Dai-Gurren’s deck blade. She settled into position and trained her sights on Adiane.
Adiane was still talking.
“Adiane the Elegant is going to kill you both personally, so be honoured!”
She spat the last, striding towards Yoko purposefully. Yoko herself pulled the trigger on her modified weapon, and a hail of bullets tore into the beastman horde. Twilight added her own fire to the barrage, magic crackling from her rifle with every bolt of energy it discharged. Adiane, however, effortlessly deflected both bullet and bolt with her blurring tail, continuing her steady walk towards the crouching Yoko. Without warning, the General leapt ferociously at Yoko, jabbing lightning-fast with her tail and hands. Yoko tried to dodge, throwing herself beneath Adiane’s strikes, but the General was too fast. She stomped her foot onto Yoko’s trailing ponytail, bringing her up short.
Twilight looked up from her scope in concern, but was interrupted by the group of beastmen that had snuck up on her while she was occupied with covering Yoko. A grinning dolphin-like creature sliced at her with a cutlass and she was forced to teleport from her cornered position, materialising closer to the fight. Adiane’s tail seemed to stretch, reaching the tens of feet between them to attack Twilight, who desperately dodged as the sharp stinger stabbed at her.
Adiane laughed as she single-handedly toyed with the two snipers, throwing crushing punches into the deck as Yoko squirmed beneath her. She’d never imagined her revenge would be this easy.
“There’s nothing you can do to me, wenches! Thymilph is already dead!”
Closer to the hangar, Gurren was faring no better. Enkidu’s blade sliced down at Gurren’s face, but Rossiu was able to catch it between Gurren’s palms with panicked finesse, struggling to hold it in place as Viral’s hatred forced it towards the cockpit.
“This is pathetic! I can’t believe how pathetic this is! Is that all you have, Kamina?!”
Rossiu gritted his teeth, wrestling with the controls. He wasn’t the pilot Kamina had been, and he could feel his defeat nearing. He muttered to himself wryly as his life between leaving Adai and this moment flashed before his eyes.
“Am I going to die over a misunderstanding...?”
As the image of the Adai high priest smiled at him from the past, he heard a voice, a voice that filled him with surprise and hope.
“Rossiu! Let’s combine!”
Gasping, Rossiu was freed from his reverie.
“Simon?! Okay!”
With an almighty effort, he put all of his strength into breaking free, and Gurren used the leverage of the blade it held between its hands to throw Enkidu away. Viral’s robot span in the air and crashed to the deck face first. Viral cried out in rage as he brought Enkidu swiftly to its feet and swung again. As he turned to face Gurren, however, something in its stance made him hesitate. It was ready for something, and it had surprised him before. Blade still held above his head, he warily questioned his opponent.
“What are you playing at?”
To his horror, a green glow began to emanate from Gurren’s cockpit. His eyes widened in shock.
“Don’t tell me... It can’t be! No!”
[ This is where you play this song on loop. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijTVHp0LVQ0 ]
Like twin bolts of lightning, the Lagann descended from the heavens. A rainbow of multi-coloured energy filled the sky as the drill of Simon’s Lagann slammed into Gurren’s head, sending waves of green light through the two machines. Within seconds, they had reconfigured themselves to form the mighty Gurren Lagann. The invincible robot stood before Viral, arms folded and radiating Spiral Energy.
Fluttershy’s Lagann swiftly followed, screaming downwards only to stop just above Gurren Lagann’s shoulder, softly alighting. The two cockpits opened, and the pilots emerged.
Human, pony and beastman all gazed in abject wonder at the scene before them. The entire battle screeched to a halt as the vast blanket of energy illuminated the twin pilots.
Simon stood on the rim of Gurren Lagann’s cockpit, legs wide and arms arms folded. The raw power of his mount whipped his jacket and hair into a frenzy, but he stood perfectly still in the torrent of force that engulfed him. Fluttershy stood in the same pose, adopting the hindlegs-only, forelegs-crossed stance Rainbow Dash had so often taken in her more dramatic moments. She too was buffeted by the raging winds, mane and tail flying about her, and she too stood firm. Both their eyes were closed tightly, struggling to hold back tears.
Then, as one, they spoke, their voices echoing across the battlefield so that all could hear them. Their tandem voices trembled with both power and emotion wracking their every word.
“Our friends are dead! They are no longer here.”
“Our friends are dead! They are no longer here.”
Their eyes opened.
“But!”
“But!”
The blazing skull of the Dai-Gurren Brigade on Simon’s jacket seemed truly aflame as it flapped in the wind.
“On my back!”
Fluttershy thumped her chest with her forehoof.
“And in our hearts!”
Their voices joined again.
“They are still with us, and live on!”
Both boy and pony thrust their arm and foreleg skywards, their every copied movement a loving tribute to their fallen friends. The sunlight, filtered through the swirling energy around them, shone from their finger and hoof like twin supernovas.
“If you’re going to dig, dig to pierce the heavens! Even if it’s my own grave I’m digging, I keep going!”
“If you’re going to fly, fly further than you’ve ever flown! Even if I fly too high and burn away, I keep going!”
Their faces shone with determination, a clear and powerful conviction that seemed to be almost physical in strength. Viral shrank back from the fire in their eyes.
“When we break that barrier, it’s our victory!”
“When we break that barrier, it’s our victory!”
The whirlwind of Spiral Energy grew fiercer as their voices rose even higher.
“Who the hell do you think I am? I’m Simon! I’m not Kamina’s brother!”
“Who the hay do you think I am? I am Fluttershy! I am not Rainbow Dash’s ward!”
Simon and Fluttershy roared at the sky, all their grief and love and loss and friendship and hope finding form in the maelstrom of power that engulfed their machines.
“I am me! SIMON THE DIGGER!”
“I am me! FLUTTERSHY THE FLIER!”
As one, they leapt backwards into their cockpits. Gurren Lagann leapt into the sky, and Fluttershy’s Lagann detached itself from its shoulder. The Spiral gauge in the centre of her controls bulged as the metal strained to contain the power flowing through the machine, filling in an instant. Her Lagann was engulfed in green energy and, as the gathered forces watched, began to grow. Within seconds, the light winked out to reveal a huge robotic pony, the same size, colour and design as Gurren Lagann. Angular black wings lay folded against its sides, and the sun glinted from the tip of the vast pair of sunglasses, identical to those Rainbow Dash had used to wear, that graced its face. Fluttershy cried out the name of her robot’s latest form.
“Spiral Evolution! Kouma Lagann!”
Gurren Lagann reached the apex of its leap and fell back to earth, landing deftly across Kouma Lagann’s back and folding its arms. As they came into contact, they visibly fused, Gurren Lagann’s legs locking to its mount’s sides as Kouma Lagann’s wings unfolded. Layers of armour sprang into existence across the combined body of the two robots, and the damage to Gurren’s parts healed before the very eyes of the stunned onlookers. Kouma Lagann reared, and another jolt of energy pounded the air around them. The awesome forces at work ran through the Dai-Gurren, through the earth around them, and, as if the world itself was paying its respects to Kamina and Rainbow Dash, to the base of a nearby volcano, which erupted spectacularly behind them. The combined robots of human and pony stood silhouetted against the colossal explosion, rearing pony carrying stalwart human. The twin voices of the pilots joined once more.
“FOR FALLEN FRIENDS! BROTHERHOOD OF SPECIES COMBINATION! JINBA ITTAI LAGANN!”
Every human, pony, and beastman could say nothing in the face of the intense display. Cytomander was the first to recover, his mounting insanity bringing him quickly back to the fight. Shuzack transformed, changing from its slender humanoid mode to a more bestial form, nothing more than a face with claws and wings. Screaming wildly, Cytomander swooped towards Jinba Ittai Lagann with reckless abandon. Calmly, the heroic machine reached for the glasses that adorned both Gurren’s chest and Kouma’s face, grasping one in either hand. As Shuzack rocketed towards pony and rider, wicked spikes emerged from every crevice on its body, and its claws spread wide in an attempt to spear Jinba Ittai Lagann with its myriad blades. Cytomander’s crazed shrieks managed to form words as he called his attack.
“Demolition Driii-!”
Quicker than the eye could see, Jinba Ittai Lagann sliced once with each pair of glasses, and Cytomander squealed in confusion as the two great blades instantly halted Shuzack’s assault, somehow pinning its wings and talons in place against the sky itself.
In their respective cockpits, tears flowed freely down the faces of both Simon and Fluttershy. A thousand images of their lives up to this moment raced through their minds.
Twilight and Yoko breaking through the clouds and ground respectively to free them from their lifelong imprisonment.
Meeting Applejack, Dayaka, Leeron, Rarity... all the friends they had made in Littner Village.
Viral’s attack, and the first time they had discovered the awesome power of the two Lagann.
Meeting Kittan, the Black Siblings, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders, reuniting the latter with their lost sisters.
Discovering Adai Village and exposing the dark secret secret that would’ve sent Rossiu, Gimmy, and Darry to their deaths.
The moment they had replayed over and over in their heads, unable to let go until now, when Rainbow Dash and Kamina had used the last of their strength to combine and destroy Thymilph the Raging Bellows.
The day they had buried their dead, when the sky itself had wept.
Letting the tears flow, they spoke calmly in tandem.
“Certain finish.”
Gurren Lagann thrust its arm skywards as Kouma Lagann did the same with its head. Gurren Lagann’s fist was replaced with a gleaming drill that instantly expanded to equal the combined Jinba Ittai Lagann in size. Simultaneously, a panel on Kouma Lagann’s head opened and a horn emerged, growing to an equally impressive size. Simon and Fluttershy’s voices joined for a final time as they put everything that had into this attack.
“GIGA...”
The twin drills began to spin, the air visibly whirling around them as they reached unfathomable speeds.
“DRILL...”
Jinba Ittai Lagann began to gallop along the deck of the Dai-Gurren, green streams of light trailing behind it as the sheer quantity of Spiral Energy within leaked into the surroundings.
“BREEEAAAKEEER!”
The galloping robot burst into rainbow flames, its form blurring into incoherence as it streaked towards the shrieking Cytomander. There was a single flash of impossibly bright light, and Jinba Ittai Lagann touched lightly down on the ground at the Dai-Gurren’s feet. The gaping hole in Shuzack sparked and crackled, until at last the robot exploded, Cytomander’s last frantic wail trailing into nothing as the flames quickly consumed him. As the secondary explosions continued to erupt through the sky, the giant sunglasses that had held Shuzack in place span through the air to slam back into place on Gurren- and Kouma Lagann’s faces.
Viral, gazing in awe at the awesome power of the combined power of man and pony, shook his head in disbelief.
“Kamina... Kamina is dead...? Rainbow Dash too?”
For a moment, he hung his head, fighting back the rage he felt at being unable to battle his nemeses one last time. There was only one thing left to do. Respected or not, he was still a member of the Four Generals, and this battle was lost.
“Retreat! All units, retreat!”
The beastman forces began to pull back, many having already begun to flee before the might of Jinba Ittai Lagann.
On deck, Adiane tutted as she heard Viral’s order. As little as she wanted to admit it, the worm was right. They could not win this here. In the corner of her eye, she saw Guame’s Dai-Gando drilling its way into the ground. Releasing her foothold on Yoko’s hair and retracting her tail, she glared at the two snipers, human and pony, that opposed her.
“I will avenge him.”
She nimbly ducked and dived across the deck back to Sayrune, dodging Yoko and Twilight’s fire before hopping into the cockpit and disengaging the Dai-Gankai from its wrestling match with the Dai-Gurren. Before the Dai-Gurren Brigade could respond, the beastmen had vanished into the desert as usual, whether underground or by simply outpacing them.
[ You can turn the song off now. ]
Cheers rose from their comrades, human and pony alike throwing their weapons in the air in victory. The dual cockpits of Jinba Ittai Lagann opened and Simon, Fluttershy and Nia stepped out into the sunshine. Simon had his arm around Nia, and she leaned into his shoulder as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Fluttershy smiled at the two of them, and let out a deep breath. Now the storm of emotions was subsiding, it was rapidly becoming clear to her how very much unlike herself she had acted. She shivered. Though she still believed everything she had believed during that moment of perfect clarity that Simon’s words had evoked, she was still shocked that she had been able to bring herself to kill a living being. It would take a long time for her to process this, if she ever would. Everything about it felt wrong.
But... they had done it. They had survived. Without Kamina or Rainbow Dash to lead them, they had survived. She looked across the desert to where the unimaginable mass of Teppelin, Canterlot visible at its peak, loomed over the mountains. She wondered what awaited them there, at Celestia and Lord Genome’s centre of power. She steeled herself. There was nothing that could not be solved without violence. She resolved then and there that the first death at her hooves would be the last. Though it seemed impossible, with all the battles so far, she would bring human, pony, and beastman alike into the bonds of friendship. And, in this hellish world ravaged by conflict...
They would all survive.
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BOY I SURE DO LOVE MY IN MEDIA RES ONE-SHOTS
I was watching Gurren-hen and I felt a need, an actual physical need, to write something. And then this happened.
I’m actually super proud of it, which is rare. I stumbled a bit once I was throwing around the names of four robots at once and you can tell I run out of nouns roundabout Jinba Ittai Lagann showing up.
It kind of fails as a one-shot because it requires prior knowledge of Gurren Lagann, but let’s face it, if you clicked on a story described “Gurren Lagann crossover”, you know your Gurren Lagann.
Also I think Jinba Ittai Lagann is a PRETTY CLEVER NAME.
Anyway, I hope you found this as TOTALLY RAD to read as I did to write it. I honest-to-Kamina listened to Happily Ever After for SEVEN STRAIGHT HOURS while writing this.
And yes, I probably will end up expanding this one day because GODDAMN