"You…saw what?" Mami asked, shocked. The next morning, Kamina told Mami everything that he saw in Homura's memories. Needless to say, she was horrified by the fact that she had suffered a breakdown and was killed by Madoka.
"I didn't believe at first either blondie!" Kamina retorted, eating another piece of Mami's pancakes. "But I saw it with my own two eyes! That's not even all of it! Apparently she saw into my past too!"
"This happened as soon as you placed your Soul Drill next to her Soul Gem?" Mami asked. Kamina nodded. Mami then took out her own Soul Gem, and stared at the green light inside it with a concerned look on her face. She discovered the strange light after she was told that her Soul Gem housed her actual soul. Ever since then, she was mystified by it. As time went on, it continued to keep getting brighter and brighter. She had considered asking Kyubey what it was all about, but she didn't want anything to do with him anymore. But setting that aside, she got back to the original topic. "If what you saw is true Kamina-san, t-then that's all the more reason for us to team up and defeat Walpurgisnacht together!"
"I know that!" Kamina shot back. "I don't care what she says. She can't tell team Dai-Gurren to back down from a fight!" He added as he pumped his fist in the air. "But there's something about what I saw bugging me blondie." He put his fist down as the expression on his face turned serious. "The more that kid went back in time, the more that damn fuzzball tried to get Madoka to make her contract! It was like it was mocking her the harder she tried!"
"That is strange." Mami replied. "How could that be possible if she was reliving the same chain of events over and over again? Shouldn't everything have reset?"
"Unfortunately for her, Mami Tomoe, not everything resets to zero when she goes back in time." Said a familiar disgustingly cheerful voice. Mami and Kamina both looked to find Kyubey sitting on her open windowsill. The room seemed to get darker as soon as he entered. Kamina simply put his glasses on, frowned, and looked away. At this point, he was too pissed off at the damn fuzzball he couldn't even stand to look at it. Mami, controlling her anger as much as she could, kept her eyes on it.
"I thought Kamina told you that you're not welcome around any of us?" Mami replied with no emotion in her voice as she tried to look as stern as possible.
"I just figured I should share some information with you. After all, it's because of Homura Akemi that Madoka has such a vast amount of potential in her." Mami looked at him, shocked. Even Kamina turned around and looked at him after hearing that. "I was there when your Soul Drill exposed itself to Homura's Soul Gem Kamina. I saw Homura's and your past as well. Every time Homura Akemi went back in time to protect Madoka, she was unwittingly ended up causing her magical potential to continue increasing. You see, the potential of a magical girl is determined by the amount of karmic destiny attached to them."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean fuzzball?" Kamina replied through clenched teeth.
"Simply speaking, it is determined by who they are in life. If she was a queen, or a great warrior, then she would have a lot of potential on her own. Every time Homura went back in time, it was centered on the sole purpose of protecting Madoka. But by doing that, she had tied more threads of fate around her each time." Mami's fists shook more and more as she heard this. The room also seemed to continue getting darker as well as the sky started to be filled with gray clouds.
"So you're saying that…"
"Yes. Homura Akemi is the one responsible for creating Madoka Kaname, the ultimate magical girl, and then the ultimate witch."
"That's not going to happen." Kamina bluntly stated, with his back turned. He put on his cape that was hanging on the couch. "Team Dai-Gurren is going to be the ones taking Walpurgisnacht down. It can be done if we pull our strength with Gurren Lagann." He made sure Kyubey would see the flaming skull with glasses that was on the cape on his back.
"Then you'd best get a move on." Kyubey responded. "Because it's already here, Man of the Spiral." Kyubey then quickly hopped away from them as those words sunk into their heads. Both Mami and Kamina looked shocked at that. Walpurgisnacht couldn't be here already! They looked outside. Dark clouds had occupied the morning sky. They were circling in on a certain part of the city.
"I don't believe it..." Mami uttered. "H-How could it be here already?!" She looked in her pockets; there were only two Grief Seeds. She remembered that Kyoko had used up hers in the battle to save Sayaka last night, so those two was all that they had left. They were nowhere near prepared for this.
Kamina looked at the scene with a cold stern look on his face. The look in his eyes was hidden by his glasses. His cape blew as small gust of wind came through the window. This fight was going to be a tough one, he could tell. The fight for the Dai-Gunzan was carried out with careful planning with Simon and the other past members of team Dai-Gurren. But even so…it only pumped him up.
"Let's go. Blondie." Kamina stated with a smile on his face. "Let's go get the others."
"Kamina-san! I don't think we can-" Mami replied back, unsure of whether they would be able to take Walpurgisnacht down unprepared.
"It's not a matter of can or can't blondie." Kamina replied as he began to walk out the door. "It's about that one goal, and how we're gonna force our way down our own path no matter how what the hell stands in our way. We can't let ourselves be distracted by the what-if's, maybe's, and if-only's distract us. Now let's go find the others." He finished as he turned around and grinned at her. Mami then smiled in response as Kamina enlarged Lagann outside. The only thing that broke the silence between them was an announcement coming from a loudspeaker for everyone to evacuate to a shelter for an upcoming storm.
"Right. Kamina-san. I'll believe in the you who believes in me, and the rest of our team." She replied, the expression on her face turning from scared to fierce with determination. "Let's go." She uttered as she ran outside with Kamina.
"How…how is this possible?" Homura uttered as she ran outside in the middle of the city. When the public service announcement came on, she immediately knew what was coming. So why had Walpurgisnacht arrived so early? She continued to think this as she ran past the small familiars. There was no doubt about it. Up in the sky, as fearsome as ever, the mega witch queen was there. Its gears began spinning on its upside-down skirt. Its monstrous laughter began from its face. She looked at the monstrosity with fear in her eyes for a moment, before that fear quickly turned into determination. "I don't care how early it arrived. This time, I will definitely stop it." She said to herself as she transformed.
Instantly, she brought out almost every single RPG rocket launcher she could from her shield. There had to be at least fifty there. She would have had more had she had been more prepared. She stopped time and fired every single one of them at the massive witch. She looked at it with disappointment as Walpurgisnacht only seemed amused by her efforts and continued its monstrous female laughter.
Not letting that get the better of her, she fired mortars at the witch as it continued to laugh at her. Homura cursed under her breath. Had she had been more prepared, she would have been able to set the bombs under the giant towers. Going to the next best option, she ran to a nearby fuel-tanker truck and began to control it with her magic. She drove it up a bridge and rammed it into Walpurgisnacht's upside-down face. But it continued to laugh, not fazed at it at all as she fell into the water below the bridge. She wasn't finished there. She picked up more fuel-tankers with her magic and continued to ram it into Walpurgisnacht. As each one exploded on it, the witch's laughter only seemed to get louder. That's when it counter-attacked.
Suddenly, buildings lifted off of the ground from a massive whirlwind. The witch began to throw them everywhere, causing destruction in its wake. Homura knew she had to stop it at all costs, because if it reached the shelter where Madoka was, it would be all over. Mustering all the magic she could, she leapt from building to building, shooting down the small humanoid familiars. They laughed along with Walpurgisnacht, as if they mocked her as well. Another whirlwind whipped up. More buildings took to the sky, one of them closing in on Homura. She readied her shield to stop time.
Nothing happened. Homura took a quick look at her Soul Gem and found that it had grown dark.
"No…Not now!" She thought before the massive skyscraper collided with her. When she came to, she found herself trapped. Part of the rubble had landed on top of her right leg, and she couldn't pull it out. "Why? Why can't I beat it no matter how many times I try?" She then readied herself to go back in time for another chance. But then she stopped, remembering Kyubey's words to her after Kamina left that night. "If I go back again…Madoka's destiny will be even worse. Then…everything I've done was…" She said to herself as she realized she couldn't do anything to save Madoka in the end. In the end it was because of her that she would suffer. Her Soul Gem started to become darker as that thought lingered in her head. She closed her eyes as tears began to form in them. She prepared for her end a smaller building was closing in on her. "I'm sorry…Madoka."
The sweet embrace of death never came. The only thing she heard after that, was the sound of spinning metal. Opening her eyes, she looked at her savior. A giant red mecha was in front of her, the drill in its hands spinning as it shattered through the building, protecting Homura from the rubble. It turned around, and Homura knew what it was as soon as she saw the two faces.
Gurren Lagann. Suddenly, three figures jumped out of Lagann. Homura knew them too well. Sayaka, Kyoko, and Mami were standing in front of her, with Mami giving Homura a Grief Seed.
"I thought I said that once you gave up, it's over kid?" She heard Kamina's voice speak from inside Gurren.
"Y-you…" Homura uttered.
"Now that sure as hell ain't like you!" Kyoko smirked, as Kamina lifted the rubble off of Homura's leg. "What happened to miss mysterious?"
"If you think I'm just going to sit on the sidelines right after I find my own path, think again transfer-student." Sayaka added with a smile.
"Walpurgisnacht is witch that cannot be defeated by one magical girl alone." Mami added with a soft smile. "That is why we must work together as one now."
"The big one finally shows up!" Kamina shouted as he marveled at Walpurgisnacht's size up close. "Blondie, Sayaka, Kyoko, Homura! You ready to do this?!" He added as he turned around. Before Homura could react, she had been grabbed by him and thrown into the sky to end up landing inside Lagann. She could see the other magical girls in front of her, their weapons brandished in their hands. "The reputation of team Dai-Gurren echoes far and wide! We embark on the path leading towards tomorrow!"
"Even when confronted by despair, we continue digging until we find our way through!" Sayaka shouted.
"Our will to continue living is the candle that burns the flames within our hearts!" Mami shouted as well.
"This is so gonna cramp my style…" Kyoko softly uttered under her breath, taking a bite out of a cracker before continuing. "Joining with yesterday's enemy to smash through destiny's pathetic wall!" Homura looked at the other magical girls with awe. Never before had each of them showed that enthusiasm and determination in their voices before. What really caught her attention wasn't shown in their voices. There no doubt, no fear, and no hesitation. Just pure determination through and through. As her Soul Gem softly sparked with a green light, she knew she had no choice at this point. All that was left was to fight with her fellow magical girls.
"MAGICAL COMBINING! GURREN LAGANN! JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE?!"
Madoka stayed in the shelter with her family as the lights above them shook. A million thoughts were ringing in her head at that point. When she looked out the window, she saw a massive witch. It could only have been Walpurgisnacht. But soon after she saw it, she Gurren Lagann began to fight against it. It was scary, but she had faith in Kamina and all her friends. Her friends telepathically told her to stay in the shelter no matter what happened.
"Madoka. Could I have a word with you?" Kyubey's voice rang through her mind. Madoka turned her head and found him sitting at the doorway. She turned around and ignored him. After everything that's happened, she didn't want to even think about him anymore. Walpurgisnacht would be defeated, and then that would be it. All the suffering could finally stop.
"You'd best listen to him." Said another voice in her mind. This voice was much deeper and had an echoing boom to its voice. Madoka's head shot up. Whose voice was that? "Should you even want a sliver of hope for your companions to get what they desire, you will listen to what he has to say." Madoka suddenly got nervous. The voice had a very commanding tone to it. She turned to her family and said she was going to the bathroom to hear what Kyubey had to say.
"They weren't prepared for this fight." Kyubey stated. Madoka looked outside and had found that Gurren Lagann was holding its own, along with the other magical girls, but Walpurgisnacht wasn't taking much damage. "Eventually, they will run out of strength, and that will be the end of it."
"You're wrong." Madoka replied back, making her tone as stern as possible. "They can definitely win. If Sayaka-chan could be saved, then I have faith they can defeat Walpurgisnacht."
"Perhaps they can, but do you think they can win without any casualties?" Madoka turned to Kyubey and turned back at the fight. There were a lot of giant buildings being thrown around. It was possible that not everyone would make it out alive. "Unpreparedness is a terrible foe in of itself. The loss of a comrade because of that would lower their morale, and they may end up losing in the end."
"I won't…believe that." Madoka uttered, fear becoming evident in her voice. "They can win! Kamina-san, Sayaka-chan, Kyoko-chan, Mami-san, Homura-chan, they can all win with Gurren Lagann!"
"Is that so? Perhaps you should take a closer look and see for yourself how they are doing." Kyubey added as a white light appeared in between his soulless eyes. Suddenly, Madoka had a front-and-center view of the fight. But as Madoka lost her vision from her current surroundings, she didn't notice that someone had entered the room she was in, hearing everything she and the small Incubator said.
"Gurren Boomerang!" Kamina shouted. He grabbed the giant triangular glasses on his mecha and threw them at the witch. It spun at the speed of a buzz saw, slicing through some familiars, unfortunately, Walpurgisnacht dodged it as they came back to Gurren Lagann. The giant witch then threw more buildings at the mecha. Mustering all her remaining strength inside Lagann, Homura made Gurren Lagann dodge every building thrown at them.
While the witch was busy attacking Gurren Lagann, Sayaka and Kyoko went in for their attacks. They hopped from building to building and used their sharp weapons to slice through the familiars that tried to stop him. But they grew in number, and they found themselves unable to advance further towards Walpurgisnacht as they surrounded them on top of a mid-air building.
"Still think we should let the familiars live?" Sayaka smirked at Kyoko. Kyoko grinned back at her.
"Nah, these things are starting to get on my nerves." She replied as she transformed her spear into its chain-link mode. She waved it in front of her as the familiars closed in. She sliced through every single one of them. Sayaka in turn, summoned many cutlasses from the ground, simultaneously stabbing them as well. However more and more came from Walpurgisnacht. They both grit their teeth as the mega witch began to get out of their sight. It headed towards the ground level. "Mami!" Kyoko telepathically cried. "It's heading towards you!"
"Right. I'm ready." Mami replied. She summoned every single musket she possibly could, and fired them all at once at Walpurgisnacht. None of her bullets even scratched it as it charged towards her. Nonetheless, she continued firing even as the laughing witch closed in on her.
"Blondie! Look out!" Kamina shouted. Gurren Lagann ran up and grabbed her as the witch shot through the road where Mami was a second ago.
"Tomoe Mami!" Homura cried. "Get to a safer position! Focus on firing at a distance!" Mami quickly complied and used her ribbons to get to higher ground on one of the buildings.
"Damn this thing!" Kamina grit his teeth. Fighting this on the ground was getting really annoying. The witch kept throwing things at it that prevented them from getting many hits on it. On the few occasions when they did get hits on it, it sure had a damn hard shell of a body! It appeared to keep shrugging its attacks off like they were nothing. Walpurgisnacht then rose into the sky once again. An idea then popped into Kamina's head as he saw the damaged buildings in the sky. "Homura! Use that time-stopping move of yours! I got an idea!" Homura softly nodded and did what he said. He leapt into the air and jumped from the buildings in mid-air. He kept jumping until he reached the highest one. Then he jumped off of the tallest one, and shot down towards Walpurgisnacht as time unfroze. Walpurgisnacht threw a massive truck towards Gurren Lagann, but the giant mecha smashed through it and closed in on the witch.
"MAN ON FIRE…" Kamina shouted as Gurren Lagann burst into flames from smashing into the car. "GRAND CHARIOT…." Gurren Lagann flipped in mid-air and stretched its leg towards the witch. "KIIIIIIIIIIIIICK!" The flaming mecha rammed into Walpurgisnacht, knocking it back and slamming it into the water where the bridge was. Gurren Lagann jumped out of the ocean, landing near a dock.
"Is…it over?" Homura wondered as it stared into the water where Walpurgisnacht fell.
"Hey!" Kyoko's voice rang through their minds. "The familiars all disappeared after that! I think we finally took this bitch down!"
"Great work you two! It's over!" Sayaka's voice rang through their minds as well. Mami ran up to Gurren Lagann, and looked out towards the water. The entire battlefield city was completely silent. Mami looked into the water, and noticed bubbles rising out of it. Before they knew it, Walpurgisnacht arose from the water, looking as strong as ever. Another whirlwind whipped up as more skyscrapers were forced out of the ground. They all shot towards Gurren Lagann. The giant mecha quickly grabbed Mami and frantically ran to avoid the massive buildings.
"Damn it all! That bitch was just playing with us this whole time!" Kamina shouted.
"Well it won't be long now Anti-Spiral." The Incubators stated. "Walpurgisnacht shall now begin its counterattack, and that will be the end of it." They received no answer. The Incubators were surprised. They were so preoccupied with watching the fight they didn't notice the Anti-Spiral leave. But as it was thinking it, the said black and white entity had reappeared, and it wasn't in a good mood.
"What is happening right now?" The entity spoke.
"The magical girls and the Spiral warrior are fighting a losing battle. They used up quite a bit of magic in their attacks, and Walpurgisnacht is becoming more and more relentless. It's only a matter of time now before they fall into despair and die." The Incubators looked at the Anti-Spirals in the eyes. "But with that being said, where did you go off to just now?"
"A certain incident has happened in our universe while we tried to fend off the rebelling Spirals. The Spirals gained an advantage and we had to end up taking drastic measures against them. But now your universe is at an even greater risk because of the Spirals!"
"Is that so? What is it this time Anti-Spiral?"
Kamina grit his teeth as Gurren Lagann was forced to dodge yet again. The witch had suddenly got more and more powerful. They couldn't even attack it that much as building after building was thrown at them. Kamina jumped from building to building in the dark sky as Homura activated Gurren Lagann's drills and drilled through the ones coming for them. The fight was getting more and more difficult.
Sayaka, Kyoko, and Mami were quickly running out of magic. They too were being put on the defense very hard. They needed a spot to recover to use the last Grief Seed. But it was getting harder and harder. The familiars that had reappeared in greater numbers continued to close in as they looked for a safe zone. But the more they closed in, the more magic they were forced to use. They ended up using less and less magic until the familiars finally got some attacks in, knowing them further away, causing them to land on some rubble hard.
"Dammit…" Kyoko uttered as she tried to get up. "Those guys were practically faking it before…"
"Hang on Kyoko…let me heal you…" Sayaka replied, also struggling. She was going to activate her healing magic, but then she saw her Soul Gem getting darker. She quickly remembered what would happen if it got too dark. "Mami! Where's the last Grief Seed?!" Sayaka cried out with all of her remaining strength. Mami was frantically searching her pockets.
"It's…no good. I can't find it anywhere! It must have fallen out when we got knocked back!" Mami cried. All of a sudden, Gurren Lagann ended up getting knocked towards where they were as well. They used every bit of strength they could to get out of the way.
"Dammit…" Kamina uttered. "This thing got real strong all of a sudden! But that's just the beginning! It ain't over yet! Right Homura?!" He shouted as he activated his screen. But Homura's expression said otherwise as she was looking up. Kamina looked up as well to find what wasn't a pretty sight. Another whirlwind whipped up as the sky began to be filled with skyscrapers, rubble, cars, and other giant objects. The dark grey sky continued to fill with them when it seemed there more of them than there were the clouds! They merged together to form a gargantuan-sized ball of debris, and Walpurgisnacht prepared itself to bring it down. "So that's that thing's finishing move eh? Homura! Let's go and-" Kamina stopped speaking when he saw the stunned state of the other magical girls. They were all lying on the ground, staring at that giant ball of death staring towards them. Kamina started yelling at them to not give up, when Walpurgisnacht then began to fire its final attack that would finish them.
What happened next couldn't have been predicted by anyone. A giant blue laser shot through the giant ball of debris, causing it to quickly incinerate to ashes. Then, at an amazingly fast speed, something rammed into Walpurgisnacht, sending it flying away. From where they were sitting, Kamina and the others could only barely make out what had stopped the attack. Al they could see was something in the shape of a strange looking star. But they could definitely hear the loud, masculine, rowdy voice that came from what saved them.
"Kamina, what the hell have you gotten yourself into now ya bozo?!"
Next Chapter: King V.S. Queen!