Chapter 1: We Have Our Own Gunman, Damnit!

Simon PoV:

I'm Simon the Digger. I dig tunnels, and that's pretty much my life. I dig tunnels to make more space for my village to grow, and I get paid in pig mole steaks. Am I digging for the steak? No, not one bit. I dig to find treasures.

My drill went to a stop as I made contact with metal. I dug around it, finding a small golden drill that was glowing green. I smiled and turned around, digging a hole back to where I started, my new treasure in my pocket. I could hear the village chief's voice as I neared the other diggers.

"Hey! Put some more effort into it! Why can't you all be like Simon!?" He shouted as I popped out above them. I walked away, gazing upon my find "Move it!" he shouted again, swinging a katana back and forth. "Why aren't you digging? Don't you want to eat steak?" I walked further down the corridor and out into the open, my new treasure now on a necklace.

"Gross, it's Simon the Digger." There were three girls lined up in front of me,

"He gets covered in dirt every day," The second one said,

"Maybe he enjoys it?" The third one asked as they began to flurry me with insults.

"He's holding something weird, too"

"He's gross"

"And he stinks"

"He's looking this way! If you're not careful, he'll drill a hole into you!" (yeah??) The three of them began to laugh and walked away. I lowered my head as I walked back towards my room. I bumped into two people and looked back up, it was Kamina and my older brother Asuka. They were known as the two most mischievous people in the village.

"Walk with your head up, Simon" Kamina said, flicking his sunglasses up.

"Oh, Kamina, Asuka-"

"Not 'Kamina', call me 'Bro!'" Kamina exclaimed as Asuka looked over at him completely deadpanned,

"You know, that is my brother, right?" he asked as Kamina laughed,

"That doesn't matter! We're all related by soul, right? So we're all soul brothers!"

"Uh-huh… Asuka" responded, Kamina continued to speak to me,

"Don't worry about what those ugly pit chicks call you," He said as he picked up the necklace, "Hey, this thing suits ya." He wrapped the necklace around me, "This drill is your soul! Now come!" Kamina and Asuka both had devilish grins as we walked over to a chained corridor with a broken lock. There were three more people that greeted us as we walked in,

"Gentlemen, it's me! Are we ready yet?" One of them threw up a thumbs-up as the other responded,

"Almost there!"

"Hell yeah!" Asuka shouted as I stood confused,

"What're you guys doing?" I asked as I saw a bunch of eyes gleam from the darkness. "Oh no."

Within a few minutes, we were all riding the pig moles up and around the staircases of the village, eventually stacking on top of each other and reaching for the ceiling. The chief was standing towards the top,

"Kamina! Asuka! I knew you two were up to some shit!" A baby pig mole came out from under my shirt and I looked down shocked at it,

"What are you doing down there?!" I asked, Asuka's voice booming over mine,

"Get out of the way, old hag!"

"We're going to the surface, baby! Simon, use your drill to pierce the heavens–" Kamina's speech was cut off as the chief swung the katana sheath and broke the stack of pig moles, all of us falling to the ground.

We're in trouble.

Asuka PoV

All six of us were handcuffed and standing in a line. The village chief walked across the line with his katana resting on top of his shoulder. He slowly lowered it and pointed at Kamina, and then me.

"Now, which one of you two made this plan?" The two of us looked at each other before chuckling,

"What do you mean one of? Both of us had a perfect strategy in this masterpiece of a plan to reach the surface!" The chief laughed and pointed his blade to the ceiling,

"The surface doesn't exist, boy! If it did, why are we still down here? Why would we not be on the surface? Do you think we live here off of our own free will?" Kamina made a tch sound and began to explain,

"Of course, the surface exists, damn it! Why else would I know about it? My father brought me up there and showed me myself that the surface exists!" The chief began to laugh even more,

"Then why are you down here?" I've never seen Kamina unable to answer a question as he stood there silently. And honestly, I have thought about it a few times. He's always talked about how his father and he went to the surface once and he chose to stay down here, but why? The surface, the place our team Gurren always aims for, why would he choose to stay here and not go with his father? Maybe it's a hellscape of sorts, or there could be crazy scary monsters lurking around, who knows honestly. "Here– I'll cut you lot a deal. If you fess up and apologize now, I'll set you free and you can eat. Being hungry is punishment enough, no?" the three others instantly dropped to their knees, begging to be set free. Their cuffs were undone and they looked up towards Kamina,

"Sorry bro, gotta eat." One said as the other two nodded,

"Don't call me bro. I don't want any traitors who stand against Team Gurren to call me that." The three looked at each other confused before leaving the scene. I sighed as the chief continued,

"Simon, you can go as well. I know those two roped you into doing this. Go along now," Simon raised his head in confusion and looked over to us,

"Go. It's okay, Simon." Kamina said as I nodded,

"We'll be fine," I snickered as the chief brought us back to the prison. Kamina and I sat next to each other as the chief slammed and locked the door. I sighed and looked up to the ceiling, there were markings. I can't even lie, those marks are from every time either Kamina or I get locked up in here. We must've marked up the whole room by now. I looked to my right, Kamina was already dead asleep.

We were way too used to this.

—

The baby pig mole from earlier was resting between Kamina's legs, well more like held captive, Kamina muttered some "Grow up to be a big juicy steak" words earlier, probably wanted to keep something to eat. My ear twitched as I heard the faint sound of drilling from underneath. Before I knew it, Simon popped up from below Kamina. Kamina woke up, staring down at him,

"Simon?"

"Bro! Asuka! I have something important to show you! It's this GIANT face!" We looked at each other and shrugged, following him out as he popped the lock on the cell with his drill. We walked down the corridor towards the tunneling area,

"So, what's so important that you'd break us out of jail for?" Kamina asked, "Who knows what the chief will do once he sees us–"

"See WHO, exactly?" Aw shit. The chief was standing behind us with some other men as they walked up to us. "I knew just prison time wouldn't be enough for you two, I should just exile you from the village! Do you think I just give you food and shelter out of the kindness of my heart? And you- Simon, I know all about those secret tunnels you've been digging." Kamina walked up in the chief's face and pointed at it,

"Simon. Is this the giant face you wanted to show me?" I swear a vein popped out from the chief's neck and forehead as he slammed the unsheathed blade on his head, but it had no effect at all. I wonder how empty that head he has is. He had to have been hit like four times before the chief gave up. Before we knew it, the ground began to rumble. Everyone in the village began to scatter into their rooms before the ceiling began to fall, and a hole was left. But a bright light poured in, the dark walls and floors now colored orange. A gigantic mech-like creature fell from the ceiling and was now standing in front of us. Kamina looked over and took the chief's sword, spinning it around his neck before resting it on his shoulder.

"Hey, Hey, Hey! Is THIS the giant face you were talking about, Simon?" He pointed up towards the ceiling, "THIS! THIS IS THE SURFACE! THERE'S NO CEILING ON THE SURFACE! NO RUMBLES TO BE AFRAID OF, NO LIVING IN FEAR OF BEING CAVED IN! Isn't that right, chief?" He moved his finger over to the chief who cowered away in a room with the other now ex-members of Team Gurren. All of the other villagers began to talk,

"A monster fell down here!"

"Monster!"

"Everyone run!" Kamina walked up to the beast and pointed his sword at it,

"Hey, Hey, Hey! Did you fall from the surface with a giant face like that? How dare you challenge the mighty Kamina and his Team Gurren!" he laughed as the beast turned towards us,

"What are you?" Simon jumped in shock,

"It spoke…?" Kamina began to speak again,

"Remember the day you face TEAM GURREN, YOU WORM!" Kamina began to sprint at the beast as I stuck my foot out to trip him. He looked up at me, "Asuka? What do you think you're doing." Once again, I stared at him completely deadpanned.

"Sometimes I question whether you're either way too confident, or just legitimately stupid. Do you NOT see the size of that fucking thing? It could squish you like this," I squeezed my fingers together tightly as the beast wielded a giant club.

"I'll squish you like a bug!" My face turned red with anger as I turned towards Kamina,

"I FUCKING TOLD YOU-" As the beast swung its club down towards us, a loud sound came from above, knocking the beast's arm towards the floor. A cable launched and stuck to the wall as a girl came swinging down from it. She was holding a giant metal object and shot large blue sparks at the beast. It seemed effective. She landed in front of us and turned around,

"What the hell are you guys doing? Get out of here, find somewhere safe to go!" I can't even lie, Kamina and I both froze for a moment. We took a look up and down at her body before the shock from the Beast's fall pushed us back a bit. Her body left very little to the imagination, only wearing undergarments with fire decals on them, flaunting a fit and curvy body. "We need to go, now! He'll get back up any second!" We all began to run through the tunnels and into the bedrooms. The girl set her weapon up on the window and tried to line up a shot.

"Nice body, babe, come here often?" Kamina asked as I pointed towards her weapon,

"Is that a weapon they use up there?" I asked. She shrugged as she brushed off Kamina's question,

"I guess so, yeah." As she was about to fire another shot, Kamina stood in the window and stuck out,

"YOU'RE ABOUT TO GO DOWN YOU BIG GIANT FUCK!" The beast turned towards us and swung its club. I for sure thought we were going to die, but we all fell down a makeshift tunnel that Simon dug at the last second. I sighed in relief,

"Nice save, Simon!" I punched Kamina straight in the jaw, "And you- Can you shut the FUCK UP WHEN WE'RE ABOUT TO WIN?" I shouted as we crawled down the tunnels. I looked forwards and flushed red, this girl's ass was entirely in my face.

"A man's fight is a man's fight, Asuka!" Kamina shouted as the girl retorted,

"I'm a woman, thank you very much!"

We got to the end of the tunnel and there was a giant face on a robot sitting on the ground. We stood around it, Simon's drill necklace growing. Did he have a special connection to it? But he just found it.

"I think it likes you, Simon, I chuckled as the head opened. My eyes slightly opened, "It's controllable?"

"It's a Gunman." The girl said as Kamina and I stared at her confused,

"The fuck is a gunman?"

"That big thing that we're fighting up there" She replied, the Gunman's eyes now glowing green. We all sat inside as Simon grabbed the handles. The pig mole baby took the glowing drill and handed it to Simon. He sat quietly for a second,

"What's wrong, Simon?" I asked him,

"I don't think I can do this. One of you two do it, you're more fit to do this type of stuff…" Kamina and I looked at each other before we chuckled,

"Finder's keepers, kid. It's all yours. How could we steal something like this from you?" Kamina asked, "Reject the impossible, Simon! You don't have to believe in yourself. You don't have to believe in me either, you just have to believe in the me who believes in you!"

"Okay, now that just makes no goddamn sense–" I sighed with a smile, "Fuck it, I'll roll with it," Simon placed the drill in the hole and turned it, a bright green light spun around in a circle on the screen as we began to fly down the tunnels.

"This thing's name is Lagann! I just came up with it!" he laughed as a roof came over us. We all squeezed in tightly, pressed together. The girl made a moaning sound as Kamina and Simon turned towards her,

"Can you not make that sound?"

"I'm sorry- it's just really tight in here," She made the sound again,

"Yeah, you're one to talk," I said. I was under her as we were pressed against the walls of the machine. "Let's get this over with!" I exclaimed as we breached through the rubble and stood against the towering Gunman.

"What the hell is that?" The Gunman laughed, pointing its club at us. We all shouted as Lagann raised its arm,

"THIS IS OUR OWN GUNMAN LAGANN, AND WE'RE GOING TO KICK YOUR FUCKING ASS!"