I do not own Gurren Lagann or any material in the show/manga. Gainax does. Kirei Bachika and Illustrious Kazenami belong to me.

Fortune smiled on the Black Siblings for several days following their acceptance of Kirei as a member of the family. They had managed to liberate a hoverbarge from a ganman patrol, and they made good time across the desert, with the Illustrious pulling them along at a slight jog. What was more, the hovercraft was big enough to carry all of their supplies, including the loot from the outpost.

During this time they tried hard to communicate with their new sibling, despite the fact that he could not speak. At the very least he was able to nod for yes and shake his head for no, and was capable of getting across simple messages via expressive motions. Communication became a strange version of charades, providing a kind of game to play whenever they stopped for the night. At first they had eagerly asked questions about the newcomer's past, but had been stymied at his refusal to respond. At first they had thought his reluctance to stem from the horrors that had left him with the wound on his neck. But eventually he made them understand his true problem.

Kirei had no memory whatsoever. No matter what they asked him, it came out blank. This had saddened them at first, but they soon forgot as they made new memories, teaching him how to use the various equipment and other survival skills, and playing games with him around the campfire. This made Kirei happy; his missing memories slowly ceased to pain him.

Eventually they found themselves wandering aimlessly, uncertain of where to go next. Finally, after the fifth day, Kittan made a suggestion.

"Why don't we head back southeast? The beastmen there don't know about Illustrious. What's more," he grinned enthusiastically, "we can show Kamina he's not the only one with a two-faced ganman that can beat the ever-living shit out of the beastmen!"

The siblings all agreed, and thus they headed southeast, the girls riding in the hoverbarge while Kittan cruised alongside on a hoverbike.

As they continued their journey, something began to itch at Kinon's brain. When she and her siblings had been held as captives, they had heard the beastmen mention a General named Guame and another named Thymilph. The beastmen were clearly organized; that had been obvious from the beginning. But the more she thought about it, the more she believed that there was some sort of hierarchy to the beastman forces. Every hierarchy has its top, and she found it somehow hard to believe that a race like the beastmen was led by a council of generals. Thus, she theorized that somebody else sat at the top, somebody beyond the generals they had already heard about.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a whooping sound. It was Kittan doing tricks, slewing back and forth, darting in between the Illustrious' striding legs. The two new brothers would often challenge each other to races, Kittan on the hovercraft and Kirei in the Illustrious. They seemed to enjoy their contests enormously, but their pleasure subjected the sisters to bumps and clouds of dust. The brothers ceased their merrymaking only when confronted by a fuming Kiyoh, her blonde hair in a dirty and tangled mess.

Kinon decided to check the map, fearing that her brothers' antics had taken them off course. As she looked down on the right side of the map, she saw it marked with tiny hills and a body of water with clouds, or steam, around it. Intrigued, she walked over to the side of the barge and yelled at Kittan. "I think I found something!"

Kittan turned his head, gave her an acknowledging wave, and honked the horn a few times. The ganman looked down at the hovercraft and nodded, slowly coming to a stop. Kittan hopped off the bike and walked over to the side of the hover barge.

"What's up, Kinon?"

"I found something weird on this map. Check it out." She gave the map to Kittan and pointed at the strange feature. Kiyoh and Kiyal wandered over, and the Illustrious knelt down to look.

"I think that's a hot spring," said Kiyoh.

"You mean like those baths we had at Bachika Village, right?" Kiyal asked, turning to her older sister.

"More or less. I guess the beastmen need to keep clean like us humans as well," mused Kiyoh. She craned her head to address the looming Shingann. "Does this look like a hot spring to you, Kirei?"

Kirei adjusted his optical visors, zooming down to where Kinon had her finger placed on the map. He recognized the feature immediately as a location his guardian had often frequented.

Kirei had gradually come to understand that Kiyoh was not his guardian, despite the amazing similarities. The only features that marked the two apart were his guardian's cat-like ears and her furry black tail, which he remembered more clearly as he began to shrug off the effects of his artificially induced sleep. Other than those two features, Kiyoh Bachika was the spitting image of his guardian.

But that wasn't important. Kiyoh was kind, beautiful, and always understood him, despite the muteness caused by his injuries. Kiyal and Kinon often had to guess at his meaning, deciphering his expressions and body language only with difficulty, but for Kiyoh, it was as if she were psychic. For this and the tender care she showed him, he had vowed to protect her, and all his new family, no matter where they went. He still wanted to know the fate of his guardian, whether she was alive or dead, and why she had left him, but he knew in his heart that she wanted him to be happy.

And he was happiest with his new family.

The Illustrious nodded.

"Well, you guys can go find more beastmen to beat up, or whatever you wanna do" replied Kittan, walking back towards the hoverbike.

"You're not coming with us, big-brother?" Kiyal asked, surprised.

"We might meet Kamina and his group again!" Kinon reminded him.

"I'm well aware of that," Kittan replied, determination in his eyes. "But there's something I need to do first!" He climbed onto the bike.

"Do what big-brother?" asked Kiyoh.

"I'll meet you at that hot spring tomorrow!" yelled Kittan as he fired up the hoverbike. "Also, it's a surprise!" He roared off in a cloud of dust. The Illustrious turned towards Kiyoh, as if asking for permission to stop his new brother before he did something rash. Kiyoh shook her head and smiled up at the Shingann.

"Don't worry about Kittan," she assured him. "He'll be fine. He always comes back to us." Kirei nodded in understanding. Indicating for the girls to hold on, he set Illustrious running, Kinon sending him the directions via communicator.

It was late in the afternoon when the Siblings minus Kittan reached the mountain. All around it hovered a thick layer of fog, indicating a wet climate; a rarity in the East. Visibility was reduced to almost nil, and the hoverbarge became unusable due to all of the trees. Thus, the three sisters had opted to ride along on the Illustrious' shoulders, while the hoverbarge was strapped the mecha's back.

They strode along like this for a while, when the Illustrious suddenly came to a dead stop. Kiyoh leaned in towards the mecha' optical sensors.

"Why'd ya stop Kirei?"

Kirei averted his eyes, embarrassed by the view down, or rather up, Kiyoh's top. A quick tug of the controls made the Illustrious point straight ahead. The sisters looked, and saw an old man standing where the ganman was pointing.

The meeting proved fortuitous, for the old man was able to provide directions to the Hot Spring that was their destination. He seemed amused, almost excited by their request, to the point where the Siblings began to wonder just what sort of place it was.

They found out not long after their arrival, when they were greeted by an old woman, who was the proprietor, and her staff, a bevy of young women in bunny-girl outfits.

Having been shown to their rooms, a task complicated by Kirei's insistence on covering his eyes and tripping over the door frames, they changed into clean yukata, the girls bearing their clothes away to be laundered. The sisters then spent a few minutes reassuring Kirei that he didn't need to cover his eyes around the scantily-clad maids. This done, they made their way to the dining room, only to find it occupied.

Already seated at the table was a mishmash group of people. Seated at the head like a king was a tall, well-muscled, tattooed man with blue hair wearing nothing but a pair of nondescript dark pants fastened at his waist with a belt. Seated near him were a young man with similar blue hair, a blue jacket and a pair of goggles, and a well-endowed young woman with red hair who wore a bikini and a very short pair of shorts. Others seated at the table were a brown-haired kid in a brown cloak and a very large forehead, and two children, a rather loud boy with orange hair and a quiet girl with pink hair.

Kirei was about to have his first meeting with the Gurren Brigade.

"Kamina!" The three girls ran past the bunny-girl servants and grouped themselves around Kamina. He stammered a bit in surprise.

"Don't you remember us? We're the Black Siblings!" informed Kiyoh cheerfuly. They then draped themselves around him, Kiyoh in particular wrapping her arms around his shoulders, her assets squeezing against the back of his head. Kirei felt…some kind of negative emotion swell up in him. He forced it back down, however, and sat down next to the forehead-boy, who was staring with distrust at a strange fish with sharp teeth and alarmingly-colored scales.

"Friends of yours?" he asked, not looking up from the fish.

"Uh-huh" replied the boy with the goggles from across the table. His own gaze was locked on the girls' antics with Kamina.

Kirei, recognizing the breed of fish, took a knife and quickly sliced it into portions of meat, completely deboning it and removing the unappetizing parts in the process. The forehead boy turned and bowed to him.

"Thank you for your assistance."

Kirei smiled, giving the boy his 'no problem!' look. He then grabbed a plate and began filling it up with food. Meanwhile, two of the staff sidled up on cushions next to him. One had dark skin and purple hair, while the other had fair skin and short brown hair. He ignored them, even as they pressed themselves seductively against him, more interested in eating.

Then he suddenly felt as if someone was watching him. Mid-bite, he turned his head, and noticed that the man his sisters had named Kamina was watching him; not malevolently, necessarily, but…cautiously. Warily. Kirei wondered what he had done to deserve this kind of attention, but decided to ignore it. Kamina's look only deepened pensively.

Kirei looked away and focused his gaze on the redhead instead. She sipped her drink calmly, in an I'm-irritated-by-this-but-I'm-used-to-it-so-I'll-ignore-it kind of way. He marveled at her ability to control her frustration. He also thought the glass she was sipping from was strangely shaped.

Kiyoh was temporarily pushed away by her sisters. Deciding she'd had enough of trying to seduce Kamina for one day, she instead sat down next to the redhead, who was apparently an acquaintance by the name of Yoko.

"Huh? Yoko, I didn't know you had children this soon," Kiyoh quipped. Taken by surprise, Yoko spat out her drink, the contents landing on the boy with the large forehead, who sat across from her. The boy with the goggles kept on eating, while Kirei grabbed a napkin and wiped up the mess. The boy with the forehead muttered his thanks.

"So did you and Kamina…?"

Yoko only snorted in response, telling Kiyoh all she needed to know. Simon, who wore the goggles, finished his meat and moved on to the mashed potatoes. He happened to turn his head, noticing Kirei for the first time.

"Oh hey, who are you?" he asked the blue-haired youth amiably. His question drew the attention of most of the group, save the Siblings and the forehead boy.

"Yeah, who's the pipsqueak?" drawled Kamina, his manner somewhat detached, yet also pressing.

All eyes were on Kirei, who ignored Kamina and continued eating. Kamina himself stared down the silver-haired boy.

"Ah, his name is Kirei," said Kiyoh quickly. "He's our brother."

"Brother? When'd you get a new brother?" said Kamina disbelievingly.

"Well, actually we found him," explained Kiyal.

"In a beastman base," added Kinon.

"Is that so?" Kamina smiled with all his teeth. "Why won't he answer me?"

"He can't. See the scars on his neck?" Kiyoh pointed.

Kirei chewed angrily at his food. Kamina's attention was beginning to irritate him, especially now that his injuries had been brought up. Why couldn't the man leave him be? What was it that made him so…irritating?

"And how did he get those scars?" asked Kamina pressingly.

"He can't tell us. He's lost his memory, so we adopted him into our family."

Kamina snorted.

"It all sounds kind of fishy to me."

He stood and pointed down the table at the silver-haired boy.

"I don't know who you are or what you're up to, but you better not try anything funny!" He prodded his chest with his thumb. "I'm the Great Kamina, Slayer of Beastmen and Demon Leader of the Gurren Brigade! Even the sun itself fears my wrath! I can sniff out the scent of an enemy from a thousand miles away, and to me…"

He inhaled deeply with his nose, and let it out.

"You smell like a beastman!"

There was something that clicked in the silver haired teen's head the moment Kamina said those words. He saw a flash of red, an amused chuckle and a female moan, and the mantra of "I'm sorry" by a an incredibly distressed female…

And pain…

Lots and lots of pain…

Suddenly a knife flew past his head and embedded itself in the wall.

Kirei lowered the arm that had thrown the knife. He stood, ever calm, and turned to face the blue-haired man.

His red eyes burned in rage at the fact that Kamina could even suggest that he would ever hurt his siblings.

"Now calm down!" ordered Kiyoh to both men. "There's no need for this!"

Kamina found his sword and drew it. "He's just showing his true colors! I knew he reminded me of that Viral guy!"

Kirei growled, one of the few sounds that he could make, and found another knife.

This was now a matter of honor for him.

Nothing could stop them from clashing.

Big thanks to 1 over 0 for second beta. Props to Juubi-K for 1st beta.

As you can see, me and 1 over 0 have changed some things, such as having Kirei be a bit more jealous and Kamina having suspiscions that are in reasonable context(back then I was a Kaminahater, but my bashing spell has long since passed).