Edit: Ok, added some censorship, not that most people would notice.
Disclaimer: I don't own Gurren Lagann. If I did, I would be able to find out why Rossiu's forehead is so shiny.
Viral inhaled the stench of the city; sweaty humans and rotting garbage. It wasn't as though he did it intentionally, but with such a keen sense of smell he couldn't help it. Unless, of course, he wanted to breathe through his mouth. That was even less appealing because then he would be able to taste the filth, and he had little interest in experiencing the flavor of rotten grapehippo. So he tried to ignore the scent as best he could as he continued his walk through the city, and instead focused on the loud honks drowning out the gentle hum of the vehicles hovering overhead. The sound hurt his ears, but a headache was preferable to vomiting.
He disliked the city in the evenings. In fact, he disliked this noisy, filthy city at all times of the day. At least it wasn't as bad as The City, the one that was named after that bastard naked ape. Viral had only visited Kamina City once, three years after the fall of Teppelin, and once had been one time too many. He had high tailed it out of there as fast as he could and had arrived in West City, taking up residence in the slums for the past three years. And by taking up residence he meant moving form uninhabited apartment to uninhabited apartment with no intention of paying.
He kept to himself mostly, and had no friends despite the length of his stay. It wasn't as though he was hiding, or else he never would have gone to Kamina City, but he didn't really feel a need to be social. He didn't really feel a need to cut his hair or buy some new clothes either. His hair had just recently passed his shoulders, and he had taken to wearing plain brown pants, a plain brown poncho, and a reddish-brown scarf. When he had been a Commander in the Human Eradication Squad, he would never have allowed himself to live like this. Viral had taken pride in his appearance. That was when his appearance had mattered though. Now he kept himself clean, but other than that didn't really care; there wasn't anyone he needed to impress.
His ears perked up as he heard sirens in the distance. They seemed to be getting louder, and he wondered vaguely what was happening. Viral was bored most of the time, having no true need to sleep and thus having far too much free time, plus he no longer had a job, only making the matter worse. An accident or bank robbery would have been just what he needed to entertain him, for a while at least.
Picking up his pace slightly, he turned a corner and headed toward the sound, when it suddenly stopped. The issue must have been resolved. He gave a disappointed sigh. He knew he would be able to steal a paper and read about it the next day, but it wasn't the same as being there and seeing the chaos firsthand.
Viral turned around and was about to head home when he saw two Grapearl officers out of the corner of his eye. They ran past the intersection and away from where he was standing, glancing around as though looking for something. He turned again to go back to where he thought he had last heard the sirens. Something interesting was happening. More interesting than usual, at least. Perhaps a fugitive had crashed the car and that was why the noise had stopped, and why the officers were running around on foot now.
He turned another corner, hugging the overly tall building tightly. Perhaps if he hadn't been so close, if he had left just enough room for another person to pass by, his life wouldn't have been turned upside down.
But Viral stayed close to the building, and was consequently knocked over by another body moving at a much higher velocity than his. He closed his eyes as he felt his regenerative abilities kick in, healing both his bitten tongue and split skull. Whatever moron had run into him had better be grateful he landed on bottom!
He opened his eyes again to see what pathetic excuse for a creature had bumped into the wrong beastman, and to yell at said creature to get the f**k off of him. Instead he found himself staring into a pair of big blue eyes while having a flashback. He was surprised, but not by the fact that he was having a flashback. That tended to happen every now and again, and usually the memory was of that sunglasses-wearing bastard and the pipsqueak handing Viral's ass to him on a silver platter. No, it wasn't the fact that he was having a flashback, but the content of the flashback that surprised him. He remembered a hideous white sundress, with big, loud, disgusting pink and orange polka dots, as well as the scent of watermelonpuma (A/N: I have no idea. Don't ask.), which was a whole lot more pleasant to his senses than the ugly dress that made his eyes water.
Then he went from surprised to out of his mind shocked. It wasn't possible…
He was brought back to reality by a shout of "Hey, you there! You are under arrest!" The human woman on top of him gasped and turned her head to see the two officers that had passed by Viral just a few moments earlier. She jumped off of Viral and bolted, the beastman following close behind thanks to the quick reflexes that instinct gave him. The officers had apparently been expecting Viral to catch her for them, so they were surprised when he pulled level with her, then grabbed her shirt sleeve and took the lead.
Viral had the advantage; not only was it obvious that the woman was faster than the officers and could keep up with him relatively well, but he also knew the slums much better than the two morons in uniform. The odd pair soon lost their pursuers, and Viral was about to stop running when he turned a corner. Unfortunately, there were several Grapearl officers at the end of the street and they were quickly spotted. Viral dragged the woman down a side street, then another, but it was obvious that these officers were in better shape than the first two.
Just as he was running out of options inspiration struck Viral, and he leapt into a window on one of the side streets, literally yanking the woman in after him and nearly tearing her shirt off and dislocated her arm. He silenced her yelp with a hand over her mouth as he took in his surroundings. He knew that as soon as the officers realized they weren't in sight, the group would split up to carefully investigate potential hiding places, so Viral needed to make sure he could properly "hide" here. A smirk crossed his face as he saw exactly what he needed to pull off his plan; a bed sitting in the middle of the room. Creepy in a suggestive way, yet convenient.
Most of the apartments in that section of the city consisted of two rooms: a bathroom and a bedroom/kitchen/storage room/living room, and the windows never had glass. The stove in the corner of the crammed room caught his eye for a brief moment, looking oddly clean in the dusty musty place, and he prayed that the bed was just as clean. Though they only needed a few moments he didn't want to catch fleas… again.
Ignoring her protests he pushed the woman onto the bed and straddled her hips, hissing in her ear, "Be quiet! Or do you want to go to jail?"
She stopped struggling immediately. Satisfied that he had her cooperation, he unwound his scarf and tied it around her eyes, and was pleased to find that there was just enough length for him to tie her hands to the iron bed frame as well. Hearing the quiet, steady footsteps of the officers approaching Viral quickly removed his poncho and set it on the floor. When he could tell the officers had nearly reached the window he leaned forward, placed his mouth on the side of her neck furthest from the window in order to hide his face, hesitated for a moment, and then bit her.
According to plan she shrieked just as the officer's shadows fell across the bedroom/kitchen/storage room/living room floor. The startled officers looked inside and Viral bit her again, making her yelp more loudly. Not according to plan the officers stayed where they were, forcing Viral to take a chance. The reason he had tied the scarf around her eyes first was because he had been afraid they would recognize her face. Now he prayed that they didn't recognize his.
"Do you mind?" he asked, turning to them with a vicious scowl on his face. The officers, a pair of fresh-out-of-the-newly-created-academy greenhorns whom Viral also assumed had absolutely zero sexual experience, jumped at being addressed so suddenly and scurried off to look for the fugitive woman elsewhere. Viral snorted. They didn't even have the decency to apologize.
Once he was confident that no one else would be coming this way to look for them he untied his scarf and moved off of the woman, and stood at the foot of the bed after he had retrieved his poncho from the inch of dirt on the floor. Absentmindedly brushing it clean, or as clean as it could get, he took a moment to observe her.
Her blue eyes looked at him angrily as she rubbed her neck. They stood out rather oddly against her slightly tanned skin and black hair. Said hair was barely longer than his, and short bangs curled into her forehead though the rest was relatively straight. He followed the length of it to the angry red mark on her neck. A little wave of guilt surfaced, but he squelched the wayward thought beneath a metaphorical boot. He had helped her escape from the officers; she should at least be grateful he hadn't broken the skin. Or that leather strip which he assumed held some sort of charm on the end, though it was tucked into her shirt, so he couldn't be sure. It would have been a shame to leave an open wound on such a long neck, especially one that tasted so spicy.
Viral mentally shook his head at the stray thought, rattling it so badly that it laid on the floor of his mind, concussed, and continued to use his eyes, not his tongue, to get a better impression of this human. She wore odd clothes; an earthy red t-shirt, an elbow length fingerless glove, and leggings, and a black skirt, another elbow length fingerless glove, and knee high boots with a low heel. As much as he liked red, he didn't care much for that shade, and thought the whole ensemble was less that attractive.
Not that it didn't flatter her figure. Everything hugged her body nicely and accentuated her thin waist and wide hips. She was pear-shaped and didn't have a whole lot of chest, but just enough to look good on her petite frame.
At least, that would be what someone else thought, because Viral would never look at a human in a lecherous manner. Never. Seriously.
Still, Viral decided he liked this outfit better than the painful-to-look-at sundress.
He checked her scent next since it might give him a better indication of what had happened, seeing as how nothing visible gave him a clue, unless she was on the run from the fashion police. The smell of sweat was the first thing he noticed. That didn't tell him anything, so he focused harder, and noticed something more subtle. It smelled almost like… the ocean? What the hell was that about? They were hundreds of miles from the ocean, so unless she was robbing one of those tropical fish stores and a tank had been dumped on her he had no idea as to what to make of that particular scent. Then he noticed the lack of watermelonpuma smell. Could it have been replaced by the ocean smell? That was most likely, he thought. So then, he refocused, why was she on the run?
More importantly, how was she still alive after all of these years?
In the very short amount of time it had taken him to make all of these observations the woman only had enough time to change her expression form angry to the one she had worn when she first bumped into him.
"Viral? Is that really you?" she asked, her voice filled with awe.
He didn't mind the sound of her voice. Most people's voices bothered him, but hers was alright. Much better than it had been 15 years ago anyway.
"It's been a long time hasn't it, Kimi?"
She didn't answer, but stood as he slipped his poncho over his head. He took note of her silence and said, "You have some explaining to do."
Kimi nodded. "Fine, but I think we ought to get away from here first. You know, before they come back with reinforcements," she added when Viral frowned.
The beastman snorted, "I doubt that those buffoons are that intelligent. You're giving them too much credit." Yet he hopped out the window anyway, not bothering to offer her a hand even though the window was quite high for such a small person. She managed to get out rather gracefully, though, and took the lead as they headed out of West City and toward the Guame Desert.