Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann X: So this is the Heavens.

Chapter Three: Gods of Death are the Good Guys?

The elder was a raisin of a man with both too many wrinkles and too much hair that seemed to grow from every orifice. He looked upon the brash, blue haired man with a steady gaze, his eyes half hidden by overgrown eyebrows.

"So you still retain all of your life's memories?" he asked.

"Yes." replied Kamina irritably. He'd already been asked that several times now.

"Interesting. You sir, are an anomaly." stated the elder with no trace of sarcasm or humour.

Kamina's eye began to twitch. "Look, can you just tell me how to get back, or maybe show me something to pass the time. An eternity of living everyday life sounds too boring to contemplate."

"There is no way back. As for entertainment, I am afraid that the Soul Society has become too grim a place for enjoyment. When the Anti-Spirals waged war with humans, the Soul Society became vastly over crowded. When souls are killed they are reborn as humans. Due to the imprisonment of humanity underground though, few humans were born compared to the number of souls dying. Souls began to fall out of the chain, leaving both humans and souls dangerously close to extinction."

"The Shinigami did all that they could but it quickly became apparent that they could do little but regulate the problem. As the decades passed, the Seiretei became more and more isolated from the rest of the Soul Society.

"Shinigami… Death Gods? Are they some kind of tyrannical demons or something?" mused Kamina.

"No. The Shinigami were our protectors and our leaders. Our government I suppose you could say. They fought against the evil spirits and guided souls here."

Kamina looked confused. "Let me get this right. Gods of Death are the good guys? It seems a bit of a dark name for a government if you ask me."

The elder sat in silent contemplation for several minutes before addressing Kamina again. "May I see your sword?"

"Sure." complied Kamina. "Like I said, it's not mine, it just happened to be next to me when I got here."

"Hmm. Very interesting." murmured the elder. This isn't any old sword. This is a zanpakuto."

"Impossible!" cried Lokly. "It takes intensive training for the Shinigami to unlock their zanpakuto. For this man to gain one instantly upon death… it's unheard of."

"Whoa whoa whoa. What the hell is a zanpakuto? It looks like a sword to me." said Kamina.

The elder ignored him. "It does fit with the fact that he was able to defeat all of our guards and the Black Tigers so soon after his death. You know as much as anybody that souls are weak for the first few days of death."

"I do feel a bit groggy." injected Kamina but was again ignored.

"This is a matter for the Shinigami."

"They won't listen. Hell, I don't even know how to contact them anymore. The gates to the Seiretei haven't even opened since I was a child." pointed out Lokly.

"Hey!" bellowed Kamina as he smashed his fist into the small table that they sat around. "Answer me. What is so special about this sword? What the hell is going on? This is not how I expected to be spending my afterlife damn it!"

"How rude." croaked the elder. "To answer you, a zanpakuto is a person's soul; it is connected to them by an unbreakable bond. As your soul becomes more powerful, so too does your sword. It is exclusively a Shinigami weapon though."

"Sooo…this sword is a symbol of my manly, burning soul?"

"Essentially yes. Each has its own name that you need to learn to unlock their true powers."

"Gurren!"

"Pardon?"

"My sword's name is Gurren."

"Young man, I don't think it works like that."

"And you say these 'gods of death' control everything up here?"

"Mostly…"

Kamina sprang to his feet. "Alright! I'm gonna go force them to help me."

"Boy, you don't even know what you want. One minute you want to return to those that you left behind on earth while the next you want them to move on without you and lead happy lives. You need to find what it is that you desire before you can choose any path."

"I always lived by doing what felt best at the time. First it was simply to break out from underground and live above on the surface. Then it was to wipe out the beastmen so that people could live happily without threat of gunmen attacks. Now…" He fell silent.

"Got it!" Kamina shouted triumphantly, startling the elder and chief. "Simon's gonna burst through to the heavens eventually and this is no place to welcome him. After all of the fighting, he and the others will all want green grass, blue skies and peace. I guess that once again it's up to me to take the lead and prepare the welcome mat."

"That made no sense." muttered Lokly.

"Which way to this Seiretei then?"

"You're still going on about that? Look the only way inside would be to defeat one of the four gate keepers, and that is impossible for someone without great power."

"I've got my zanpakuto. What could go wrong?"

"Er, the guardians have ones too."

"Listen. If you never try then you will never know what is possible. You could grope your way through the dark seeking safety and never get anywhere or you could charge forward until you find a light. Sure you could get hurt, even die, but if the alternate is to sit cowering and never discover your destiny, then I'm willing to put my faith in luck and determination like I always have done before."

"CoughcrazyCough!"

"I don't care what you think. I'm gonna keep moving forward and not looking back. That's the only way we can keep on living. If you've got nothing else to say then I'm off." Kamina strode toward the door.

"But you don't even know where the Seiretei is!"

"That's never stood in my way before." stated the young man before exiting the small shack, his cape billowing behind him.

Kamina wandered through the ramshackle village, climbing up the hills and villages in an attempt to see anything that looked like a fortress or city. All that he could see though were fields and forests and mountains.

"Mr Kamina! Mr Kamina!" came a shout from his side after half an hour of crisscrossing the village. Skitter appeared at his side, unable to keep still.

"What's up, squirt?" asked Kamina, placing his large hand onto the child's head.

"The men around they village, they're all saying that you're gonna fight the Shinigami."

"Yep, that's right!"

"They say that you're gonna die!"

"Ha ha ha ha! Who the hell do you think I am! It'll take more than some old gate keeper to end my reign of manliness. Don't worry kid. If only I could find that damn city." Kamina scoured around him again as though if he looked hard enough then the city would suddenly reveal itself.

"You mean the Seiretei?" asked Skitter excitedly.

"Yeah, that's the one. Why?"

"I know where it is! I could show you! It's about time someone knocked some sense into those Shinigami." shouted Skitter as he jumped up and down on the spot.

"Now that's the spirit! With a burning soul like that, how can we lose! Lead the way, honorary Team Dai-Gurren member."

"Really? You mean it? That's so cool. Come on, follow me!" Skitter ran off west out of the village towards the largest forest area that Kamina had seen.

The trees were dark, brooding and twisted, their branches and roots forming a difficult obstacle course for the two travellers. Kamina swatted at the branches with his blade but Skitter seemed to know the least difficult path through the darkness. It turned out that there was another village within the forest that Skitter had visited with his father for trade a few times. From there the boy was confident that the Seiretei was only a day's walk west.

It was hard to tell the time of day within the leafy abyss but as the temperature plummeted, it was obviously becoming night. They arrived at the village not long after night and were allowed in after some smooth talking from both Skitter and Kamina.

The houses here were completely different to in Skitter's village, Oomin, as Kamina recalled. All of the structures were built high up in the trees with rope ladders to get people from the leaf strewn ground to the shelter of the trees. Vines crept along the wooden buildings, seamlessly melding man and nature into one.

They slept there until morning when they were hastened from the village. Skitter was less sure of path from that point on but some well used speeches on believing in himself was enough to keep him going. The boy didn't suffer from Simon's anxieties but Kamina just didn't get the same deeper vibe. With Simon, Kamina sensed great things, Skitter was a good Kid but deep down, he just didn't have Simon's raging spirit.

The forest grew more dense, the light becoming even less bright through the thickening foliage. There were sounds of birds and mammals around them and Kamina thought longingly of Yoko's gun. One well aimed shot and dinner would be ready. His stomach growled dejectedly.

Then, without any forewarning, the trees ended. The light blinded them but Kamina quickly slipped on his orange shades.

"Ha! I knew that shades would come in use for more than awesome manliness. And they called me crazy for making shades underground-Whoa…"

A pearly white city sat on the landscape in the distance, dominating all of its surroundings like a god. A huge wall surrounded it, blocking off view of the lower levels of the city but the upper levels and the mountain near its centre were clear for the eyes to see.

"So this is where the gods of death hang then? Pretty sweet pad, ain't it? Well, no point stopping now." Kamina stepped down from the crest of the hill and slid to its base, his cape billowing behind him. "Time to go take on the gate keeper and bust through any obstacles that stand in my way!

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AN/ Sorry that it was a bit of a short, uneventful chapter but I wanted Kamina to get to the Seiretei as quick as possible so that the real story could get started so again, sorry if it felt rushed in any way.

Next chapter Kamina meets his first Shinigami, wonder how he reacts eh? And just so you know, Skitter isn't going to be some kind of replacement for Simon; I just needed a guide for Kamina and a support character.

Hope you enjoyed. Please review, I look forward to hearing from you.

-FWF