-1i.
Yoko's
up to her elbows in the machine-guts of the Gurren, saying, "I
don't know very much about ganmen, but this butterfly valve is
totally shot." Her voice echoing off the grease and sheet metal,
Yoko, she bends in farther, until her ass is the only thing sticking
out. Saying, "Leeron can probably fix this, but it looks like
you guys won't be doing your brotherly fusion any time soon."
Simon, on his back in the sand, he sighs.
ii.
"What
the hell are you talking about?" Kamina, his hands on his hips,
he's swearing. Yoko's only giving him her ass-end, but Kamina's
saying, "Come on! Simon and I can't do anything without
Gurren-Lagann! You're kidding me--there's gotta be some way to fix
that by tonight. Can't spirit energy just make up for a few broken
parts?"
"Like I said, I don't know a lot about fixing these things. Wouldn't you rather have Gurren fixed right, then have it fixed fast and fall apart in battle?" She reaches her hand back behind her, her trigger finger twitching. "Stop trying to get us all killed and hand me a crescent wrench, okay?"
Passing the wrench, Kamina spits, "As if the great Kamina could really be killed! Sometimes, I think your ass is bigger than your brain, Yoko."
iii.
Simon,
he can't help but feel that nights above ground, they're darker than
the ones he's used to.
"Bro?" He reaches his hand out, groping in the dark, Boota nuzzling his neck. Simon, he can hear Yoko yawning and polishing her gun, but Kamina, he's not replying.
"Bro? Are you out here?" Simon's voice is swallowed whole by the night; his feet, they sink deep into the sand. He can see Kamina hunched over Gurren, the muscles of his arms working up and down inside the machine. "Hey, Ron said he was going to fix it tomorrow--"
Kamina looks up, his face stained with grease, and he says, "Listen." He says, "I'm going to get this thing to work by tomorrow morning, and you're going to help me. I was thinking ganmen just ran on spirit energy, but it looks like there's more to it than that. There's not a thing in hell that we can't fix, though, right?"
Simon nods. In the dark, in this new aboveground blackness, Simon plants his elbows on the ganmen's top, and reaches in.
