Gurren Lagann: Second Gear

Chapter 9: The Truth behind The Drill

"Inoichi?" I heard a soft voice call my name. My eyes were still closed. (Yup. I'm dead. I am definitely dead.)

"Nope, I'm not ready!" I shouted back. "God, you can not TAKE me now!"

"Inoichi! Open your goddamn eyes!" My eyes shot open to see a girl around my age with bright red hair and glowing yellow eyes. She had a rather thin waist and, like, giant boobs. (Even weird teenage girls floating in a blue void have bigger boobs than me. ;-; But I did like the flaming bikini top that she was wearing.)

"Hey, my face is up here." The girl grabbed my chin and straightened my face so that I was looking her in the eye.

"Yeah...sorry."

"Hey, you're not the first one." She grabbed my face with both hands. "Oh Inoichi, It's good to be young again so that I can feel your skin."

My heart skipped a beat as I realized who I was talking to. "Grandmother Yoko?"

She laughed. "It's just Yoko now. I don't look like much of a grandmother anymore." She let go of my face. I floated back a few feet from her. I finally noticed that we were floating around in a light blue void with various dark green spiral patterns scattered all over the place. I nearly panicked, but Yoko grabbed my hand and calmed me down. I pulled my goggles back up to my forehead and tried to balance myself in the gravity-less space.

"Whe-Where are we?" I asked, still looking around. Yoko smiled as she answered me.

"We're in a place between where we live and where all Spiral Energy comes from."

"...O_O Spiral what now?"

"Wait, -_- You seriously don't know what Spiral Energy is?"

"Can't say that I do." I felt a bit stupid. I mean, we learned about this kind of stuff in school, but I never really paid any attention, so...

Yoko facepalmed. "Fine, I guess I'll have to tell you the story then." She crossed her legs and leaned back, as if she was in a recliner. "Get comfortable. This is gonna be one hell of a story. ;)."

I crossed my legs and just sat there (as in sitting, I mean trying to keep myself upright. I mean, we are floating in a void after all.)

Yoko took a deep breath in. "It all started over one thousand years ago. There was a great war over the existence of Spiral Energy. One culture loved it, using it to create a better empire for all living beings. Another culture loathed it and wanted it wiped out from the face of the universe. They called themselves The Anti-Spirals They were one their way to our planet to eradicate it, but a furious warrior known as Lordgenome fought them off, but not without paying a price. The Anti-Spirals warned him that if the population of the surface exceeded more than one million people, they would return and destroy the world. Because of this Lordgenome forced all of humanity underground by using Spiral Energy to create Beastmen: half human, half animal creatures."

"You mean like Viral?" I interrupted.

"Actually, yeah." she responded. "Just like Viral. The Beastmen created these machines known as Gunman to strike fear into us and drive us under the surface. For years, people lived underground. Until one day, it happened."

"It?"

"Just like today, A Gozu came crashing down into Jeeha Village. I was only fourteen at the time when it happened. I followed it in with my assault rifle and tried to fight him myself. I nearly died if it wasn't for Kamina and Simon." Yoko blushed a bit when she said Kamina. But I was more interested in something else.

"Wait, you mean the Simon, right? Like, the great commander Simon?"

"Yup, that's the one."

"No. Way."

"Yes way!" She laughed. "You should see the look on your face! You look so surprised!"

"Because I am!"

She shimmered down to a giggle. "Do you still have that pendent I gave you?"

"Of course!" I pulled it out of my shirt and held it up to show her. Yoko floated closer.

"This is the very drill that Simon used to pilot the ancient Gurren Lagann." She continued. "With it, Simon changed the way we look at hope. He truly used this drill to pierce the heavens. When the Anti-Spirals returned, he fought them off and they went away, never to return again..." She paused. "At least, that what we thought."

"Wait what?"

"Sixteen years ago, Simon came to me in the middle of the night and told me that he had a vision. That a new race of Anti-Spirals would return to destroy us all. A stronger race. He was reaching the end of his days, so he had to lend his power to someone he deemed worthy." She looked over at me. "This is where you come in Inoichi."

"M-Me?" I looked at the pendent and then quickly back at her. "What do you mean?"

"When your parents disappeared, I took you in and raised you as my own. Inoichi, I'm not really your grandmother. You were left at my doorstep one night and I couldn't just leave you there. When I brought you inside, Simon was already there telling me about his vision and when he looked at you, he knew that you would be the one who would save us."

I was speechless. Yoko looked ashamed about telling me all this, so I floated over and patted her on the back, giving her a reassuring smile.

She continued. "He had already given the core drill to Gimmy, who was another one of our friends and, at the time, the current pilot of Gurren Lagann. I pleaded with him to give it to me when we were finally at peace and he agreed to it. When it came the day that Simon was about to pass away, we brought his body here to Viral's Spiral Fusion chamber-"

"Back up." I interrupted her again. "Spiral Fusion Chamber?"

"It's where we are now. We place Simon in the bottom cylinder and we put you in the top. The product became a fusion between you and Simon. At least, some of him."

"Some?"

"If we put all of him inside of you, you wouldn't have been able to handle all of it. So we put some of his spirit inside of you and some of him inside of me."

"Wait, so we're being fused together right now?!" I was getting worried. "Does that mean you're disappear?!"

Yoko giggled. "Actually, the exact opposite. I've giving up both Simon's half and my older half of myself so that you can have our Spiral Energy powers and become a whole." She smiled wide. "And, as a result, I'll be turned back into my younger self to the age when I was first involved in all of this. The great old age of fourteen."

I smiled back. "So when do I become 'whole' exactly?"

"Well, you just have to relax. Everything is gonna be alright." She gave me a quick hug and ran her fingers through my hair. "Just close your eyes and relax. You'll know when it's done. I'll see you on the other side, okay?"

"Wait, other side?!" I tried shouting to her, but the sparkles had returned and now I was completely enveloped in them.