App for onepassingnight
Your name: Fox
Your journal: mercenaryfoxit
Contact: AIM - BatsuUmino
Other characters played at Passing: N/A
Character name: Kamina
Character fandom: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
Version: V1
Canon point: Post-Death, Episode 8
Importing development from old game? No
Background:
This is the story of a great man, whose life would be to set an example -to show a path to that of a man that would turn out just as great. But his story begins well before his own birth on a world populated by a species to which the gift of evolution; progress and endless determination would mark them for destruction by the enigmatic Anti-Spirals. And though the species that stood against them would put up a valiant struggle, they would fall and the man among their ranks that had betrayed them would be placed as the keeper of that world. Will warped by despair, he stood as the tyrant that ruled over his people; forcing them underground where their numbers would be greatly diminished, but not gone. And on the surface, his brutal rule would be enforced on those that managed to emerge from their caves by his creations: the Beastmen.
And so after what had been at least a thousand years, in the underground village of Jiiha, a boy would be born. A boy whose father would lead him to the surface at a young age. Yet being small and so young, he was afraid and unwilling to follow his father's path. Bearing the child no ill will, the father said that he would go on ahead to see the world and that he would await the day that the courage in his son's heart grew strong enough to allow him to progress. Much would happen back in the village in the years that would pass. That boy would grow into a proud and strong young man, one that would make his own rules, his own path and find strength in belief. As he grew, his destiny would become intertwined with an orphan boy, a digger by the name of Simon. With a proud bond forged between brothers, Kamina would always be encouraging his younger protégé to join him in his bid to return to the surface. It was an act that would be in direct defiance of the village elder who wanted only to keep Simon doing what he did best: digging tunnels.
This all changed one day after yet another of Kamina's plans to escape had landed him again, in the village equivalent to jail. Hardly a first time for him, he was surprised that evening when Simon would break into his cell with intent to show him something that he'd found while digging. While the initial escape had been thwarted by the elder, what shocked everyone in the village was when an earthquake shook the entire cavern. The roof buckled, crumbled and gave as a massive object crashed through the ceiling, allowing the sunlight from above to flood the cavern. Astounded with this development, he took to the center of town, proclaiming to everyone that the surface -a world without a ceiling did exist, despite the insistence of the elder to the otherwise. The townspeople, already frightened by the violent quake and the collapse of the ceiling became absolutely terrified when the massive object that literally came crashing into their lives got up and spoke. Undaunted and viewing this as a challenge, Kamina took the elder's nodachi and confidently challenged the invader.
In a shocking turn of events, yet something -rather, someone would descend from the surface. Armed with weaponry not seen, at least not commonly, by either Kamina or Simon, the young lady engaged the titanic foe with unwavering courage. Intrigued both by her looks and her practiced cool, the discipline of a soldier, the two boys follow along as she tries to find a way to defeat their common foe, informing them that it's called a Ganmen. Unable to inflict serious damage on it, Simon leads both the stranger and Kamina to his find earlier, a much smaller Ganmen which is immediately christened as the Lagann. New weapon in tow, the trio fight a pitched battle against the Ganmen, eventually destroying it as they rocket out to the surface. Free of the village and now countless hundreds of feet in the air, for the first time in years, Kamina once more saw the sky and Simon saw it for his first time. As they lazily drifted about in a cloudless sky, their new friend introduced herself as Yoko.
After a rough landing, the trio were set upon by more Ganmen -though it was an encounter almost immediately broken up by an ambush of fighters from the village Yoko hailed from. After meeting up with the village, the boys are told how the village, Ritona, originally was situated in a cave like Jiiha, but theirs had a weapons vault within it. While for the most part, they'd been contented to stay where they were, something within that vault began to leak and made that area uninhabitable, forcing the entire village to struggle to stay alive in the face of repeated Ganmen attacks on the surface. With no intention of returning to Jiiha, Kamina agrees to help the fighters of the Ritona village wage their war for survival against the Beastmen.
True to his over the top and far out of the box thinking, on his second day -with the aid of Simon and the Lagann, he does what had never been done before: he hijacked a Ganmen. While it was severely damaged in the ensuing battle, the chief mechanic at the village, a peculiar fellow by the name of Leeron, managed to use the parts from the other damaged Gamnen to repair the machine which Kamina christened the Gurren. The next day while out hunting for supplies with Yoko and Simon, he would happen across a Beastman officer by the name of Viral. After a brutal close-quarters skirmish, the fight escalates into a Ganmen battle. Though in the end, the first round against Viral and his Enki goes rather poorly, the pair manage to survive until sunset when the Beastman returns to base because his solar-powered machine would be inoperable if their battle continued. So vowing to return the next day, the Beastman withdraws while the trio assess just what went wrong in all of that incident.
The next morning, Viral indeed returns with intent to completely eradicate the Ritona village. Despite being constantly knocked down and battered, Kamina's determination was unbreakable, serving as an inspiration that prompted a frightened Simon to join in the battle at the last moment -saving the Gurren and it's pilot from the Enki's particle canon attack. With both brothers in spirit fighting against the Beastman, Kamina haphazardly tries combining the Lagann with the Gurren, believing that having 'two-faces' like the Enki would even the odds. The surprise was that when Viral fired his particle beam canon again, the Lagann reacted with the energy; charging itself and better combining the two machines into a fearsome combined Ganmen that was immediately dubbed as the Gurren Lagann by Kamina himself. With this new power, the pair immediately turned the tide against their invader, forcing him to retreat after smashing the Enki's head unit and taking its helmet as a trophy that immediately became an easily-recognizable addition to the Gurren Lagann's armor.
In wake of the Beastman's retreat, Leeron announces that after a search of the Gurren's system, he'd located the regional base for the Beastmen in the area. With this in mind, Kamina wastes no time in deciding that he would assault this stronghold to free the humans in the area. To his dismay, Leeron joins the team and while the fellow honestly unsettled the living daylights out of Kamina, he couldn't ignore the necessity of having a proper mechanic along for the trip. Also volunteering for the trip was Yoko, who at first seemed indecisive, but it was suggested that she follow at her village leader, Dayakka's behest -who along with the rest of the village seemed amused with how she clearly demonstrated a certain degree of infatuation with Kamina.
It's difficult to say how long their travel toward the Beastman fortress had taken. Along the way they were introduced to the Black Brotherhood; another group of rebels led by Kittan Bachika who was supported by his sisters Kiyoh, Kinon and Kiyal. After defeating a Ganman that the Black Brotherhood had been hunting, the two groups part ways with Kittan admitting a grudging respect for Kamina -parting by saying that if he ever wanted to join their group, he could start from the bottom. The next worthwhile encounter was a chance plummet into another underground village, where through a contorted series of events involving yet another village elder that got on Kamina's nerves, the group acquired three new members, a pair of toddling children by the name of Gimmy and Darry Adai as well as Rossiu Adai.
Proceeding onward, the Gurren Dan, as dubbed by Kamina, happened across an onsen operated by an odd elderly woman and a pleathora of buxom young ladies wearing some delightfully revealing attire that at least Kamina was exceptionally enthused to be taken in by. Of further surprise was that Kiyoh, Kinon and Kiyal were also there enjoying themselves. Despite the welcoming signs presented, Rossiu was unwilling to trust things and separated from the group to keep an eye on the Ganmen. After enjoying themselves and after some reflection on the events that brought them where they were, Kamina and Simon found out the hard way that the whole operation was a Beastman-laid trap. The entire onsen turned out to be a rather large, disguised Ganmen that operated off geothermal power. After an awkward, big-screen exchange between Kamina and Yoko, the girls escaped from their imprisonment and the entire group sans Rossiu fled in some extremely cramped conditions aboard the Lagann. Outside they found Rossiu, who'd taken control of the Gurren to defend it from being stolen by the rabbit-type Ganmen employed by the elderly Beastwoman that was running the operation. After turning control of the Gurren back over to Kamina, the two machines combined to become the Gurren Lagann and destroyed the onsen-Ganmen without incident.
Unfortunately, the real trouble would follow after that. As they celebrated their defeat of the onsen-Ganmen, a massive explosion from a long-range artillery shell blew the entire group off their feet and even managed to eject both Kamina and Simon from their combined machine. Standing nearby to taunt them was Viral aboard his newly repaired Enkidu. After waiting for his foes to dress themselves and board their machine again, the Gurren Lagann engaged in a pitched back and forth battle with the Enkidu for a short while. Afterward, another barrage of artillery shells rocked the area as Viral retreated to the mobile Beastman fortress, the massive Ganmen called the Dai Gunzan. While their allies urged him to retreat, Kamina insisted on fighting the foe, reasoning that with the amount of firepower the mobile fortress demonstrated, they would all be killed if they tried to run. Despite a few steps forward in the battle, it eventually pushes the Gurren Lagann to the brink of defeat where upon salvation came from an unexpected source. During the travels of the Gurren Dan, other humans including Dayakka and Kittan had been inspired to hijack their own Ganmen, which all fortunately arrived to the aid of the Gurren Lagann. With the support of their allies, Simon's sense of innovation is renewed and Kamina turned control over to him, who usesda series of explosive drill bits to collapse the ground below the Dai Gunzen and cripple its ability to move.
With the setting of the sun, both sides seemed to accept the situation as a stalemate and the rebel group withdrew to regroup. After introductions, the newly re-dubbed Dai Gurren Dan made their plans to finish the battle that had been started. Whether late into the evening or early into the morning hours, Yoko searched out Kamina, taking that moment to express her concern for the recklessness of his actions, as well as somewhat subtly expressing her fondness for him with a kiss. While the two took a moment to share a longer, nicer kiss, Simon happens to see the whole thing and because of his own fondness for Yoko, is quite rattled by the whole thing.
As the sun rose above the horizon, the group began their operation to use the Lagann to hijack the Dai Gunzan. As the attackers crest the lip of the crater that marked the resting place of the mobile fortress, its defenders emerged from cover on its deck -immediately attacking the would-be assailants with a host of munitions. Unfortunately, they didn't expect to literally be stoned as the Dai Gurren Dan showered them with a hail of boulders. Their position not working, the defenders used the Dai Gunzan's catapult to more directly engage in a counter offensive. Once again, Kamina would engage Viral with just the Gurren; demonstrating an amazing level of improvement in not only holding his own, but beating back Viral's Enkidu without the Lagann's help. At that point, Simon emerged from a nearby section of the crater, using the Lagann's docking drill to crash into the bridge of the fortress. However, his will was lacking and the rattled sensation left by seeing Kamina and Yoko earlier kept him from mustering the drive needed to allow the Lagann to take over the enemy Ganmen's system.
Deciding to fix the matter himself, the Dai Gurren Dan covered for Kamina as he landed the Gurren nearby, ejecting himself from the cockpit and landing on the Lagann's head. After a swift punch to Simon's jaw and a quick pep talk, the younger of the two brothers got his head together and successfully took control of the massive fortress-type Ganmen. Contented for the moment, Kamina returned to the Gurren, only to be ambushed from below as the commander of the Dai Gunzan. Thymilph blasted his way from below aboard his personal Ganmen, the Byakou, and launched the Gurren into the air where Viral followed up, inflicting serious damage before guiding it down to be impaled the the Byakou's spear. With Kamina apparently dead, Simon was crushed by overwhelming despair as he watches the heavily damaged remains of the Gurren get tossed aside like a rag doll.
The loss marks a turn for the worse in the battle as the defending Ganmen begin to overwhelm the rebels, Simon's own despair driving the Dai Gunzan to surface from its crater and begin a slow ascent toward the lip of an adjacent and erupting volcano. In the semi-berserk operation of the massive mobile weapon, Viral's Enkidu is swatted like a fly far off into the horizon. With the radio abuzz with so much chatter, a battered and bloody Kamina regains his senses long enough to hurl the Gurren's fist at Simon to snap him out of things. Another brief heart to heart with his younger brother in spirit is concluded as the elder of the two suggest them forming the Gurren Lagann. Their new prize officially taken, the two machines combine and with a surge of power that surpasses everything that had been seen prior, the Gurren Lagann defeats a majority of the Beastman's machines. Unwilling to let his fortress fall into human hands, Thymilph begins firing upon the Dai Gunzan. As he tells Simon to believe in himself above all else, Kamina becomes the first among the Dai Gurren Dan to unleash the devestating Giga Drill Breaker attack, killing Thymilph in the process.
Finally content with the path that his friends stand on, Kamina allows himself to succumb to his fatal injuries and passes on, uttering a farewell to all his friends with his last breath.
Changes from canon, if AU: N/A
Personality:
Immediately upon meeting him, the most easily noticeable trait that Kamina has is that he tends to be loud and outgoing -at least for the most part. He's very much a social person, his natural charisma allowing him to draw people to him through an earned sense of self-confidence. Though often bordering on arrogant at times, his confidence is no mere act -every boast he makes is something he's actually done or is at least completely willing to throw himself into with the entirety of his nearly unstoppable drive behind it. He's the sort of person that doesn't believe in barriers, boundaries or limitations. From his stand point, everything is limitless. The only thing defining how far a person can go is just about how far they're willing to push themselves to seize it.
Stemming largely from the kind of authority figure that the elder of the Jiiha village represented, he almost instinctively resists most authority figures, often going out of his way to upset whatever is the established status quo. This is especially true when he considers that the rules presented for everyone to play by are exceptionally restrictive or unfair. Kamina has a very strong sense of right and wrong or more accurately, a very strong sense of what he believes is right and what he believes is wrong. To this extent, he will pursue that belief of what's right despite opposition from anyone around him.
Guided largely by feeling over thought, his actions reflect more of his attitude of doing rather than thinking, though by the end of his life, he seemed more than capable of understanding that thinking too had its place. By upbringing, he's not horrendously well-educated, but possesses at least the minimum of skills needed to get by in things. He proves a fast and able learner, demonstrating the ability to pick up the use of firearms with good proficiency in a short order, despite having very minimal -if any prior experience with them. Furthermore, with an explanation that showed that even Simon had only the barest of ideas for how to operate the Lagann, he was able with at least an initially heavy struggle on his part, to override the Gunzar's control systems and piloting it until it was rebuilt into the Gurren. Then over the progression of the series, his skill improves to the point where even against multiple enemies and with just the Gurren, he can hold his own in combat.
The rough and tumble side of his personality is tempered by a very strong 'big brother' instinct. Though not always intentional, he exhibits great diligence in making sure that those that are close to him are cared for. It's most frequently noted in his interactions with Simon. He takes care to ensure that his friend learns to make his own path in life and by his own hand instead of just letting things happen to him. It's demonstrated with the Ritona villagers when he uses the Gurren to block a salvo of munitions fired by Viral's Enki at them. And then his particular relationship with Yoko is interesting in the fact that he gives the impression that he trusts her most to look out for herself without his intervention. This often comes out as childish bickering between the two, though his actions -usually some manner of harassment, demonstrate quite loudly the interest he has in her.
On a downward note, his boundless confidence that often borders on arrogance gives him a great deal of pride, something relatively easy to trip on and get on his bad side. While he does his best with people that are willing to set things aside and follow the example he leads by, a similar charismatic force is demonstrated to almost always be in conflict with him. This degree of conflict can range from mere insults and taunting, to stubbornness and refusal to cooperate, to his usual and exceptionally loud tirades. However it's worth noting that he's never been shown to physically attack an authority figure unless it's clear that the gloves are off and that a fight is the way out. His best shows of defiance usually goad the offending figure into striking him while with not more than a dirty look on his face, he takes the abuse without flinching, as if to show that his belief in his ideals make him stronger than anything the opposing party can dish out. Of course, if it's a situation where he considers the gloves to be off, he's not merely going to stand there and take hits.
Abilities:
Sheer unrelenting determination and self-confidence aside, Kamina doesn't demonstrate himself to being anything more than a human being. That being said and done, while he lacks any special powers, magic, martial arts techniques or really big guns, he gets a surprising lot done with sheer force of will and a little bit of thinking on his part. His determination seems to grant him odd feats of super-human ability at times, giving him the constitution to stand unflinchingly in the face of virtually any kind of abuse. It also allows him to push himself harder and longer than people more lacking in their resolve.
By far this doesn't make him invulnerable. He takes his lumps, bruises and cuts -just with the best of them, rarely even flinching unless the injury inflicts some exceptionally severe trauma. But through strength of will alone, he's able to push himself to continue performing whatever task he's dedicated to even while sustaining the most vicious injuries. The pinnacle of this ability is observed when despite giving an entirely negative vital reading to the Gurren's onboard sensor, he not only gets up to fight when he should be dead, but he even demonstrates turning aside the most powerful of his enemy's attacks without batting an eye. Of course this act seems to be something performed on borrowed time, it was quite exceptional and worth noting.
His swordsmanship is average at best -more a rudimentary understanding of forceful, brutal swings meant to overwhelm defenses with little ability to mind his own, a matter he makes up for at least modestly with good instincts and being quick on his feet. Though all of it more just meant he suffered minor to modest lacerations against Viral instead of taking potentially fatal strike.
Though more part of his personality, his charisma is quite exceptional. Partly through action, partly through an uncanny ability to deliver inspiring speeches, Kamina has the ability to draw people to his side and tends to appear naturally as a leader figure. Especially when in a crisis, he proves to be exceptional when it comes to maintaining morale of a group and his fiery passion to getting things done is often contagious, able to spur his companions to push the boundaries defined by logic to the curb and make the impossible possible. Again though, this is a double-edge sword, as when he falters, his failures tend to bring the morale down with him as easily as he raises it.
Odd traits and ability to pilot the Gurren aside, Kamina is a powerfully built young man in his late teens. Though not stocky or hugely built, his frame is quite apparently strong and in remarkably good shape despite the abuses he's put it through. He possess slightly above average agility and can throw an exceptionally mean punch.
Writing sample:
Route 29 Logs -
Here
Here
And here
Voice sample:
Journal entries from R29 -
Here
Here
Also here
Your journal: mercenaryfoxit
Contact: AIM - BatsuUmino
Other characters played at Passing: N/A
Character name: Kamina
Character fandom: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
Version: V1
Canon point: Post-Death, Episode 8
Importing development from old game? No
Background:
This is the story of a great man, whose life would be to set an example -to show a path to that of a man that would turn out just as great. But his story begins well before his own birth on a world populated by a species to which the gift of evolution; progress and endless determination would mark them for destruction by the enigmatic Anti-Spirals. And though the species that stood against them would put up a valiant struggle, they would fall and the man among their ranks that had betrayed them would be placed as the keeper of that world. Will warped by despair, he stood as the tyrant that ruled over his people; forcing them underground where their numbers would be greatly diminished, but not gone. And on the surface, his brutal rule would be enforced on those that managed to emerge from their caves by his creations: the Beastmen.
And so after what had been at least a thousand years, in the underground village of Jiiha, a boy would be born. A boy whose father would lead him to the surface at a young age. Yet being small and so young, he was afraid and unwilling to follow his father's path. Bearing the child no ill will, the father said that he would go on ahead to see the world and that he would await the day that the courage in his son's heart grew strong enough to allow him to progress. Much would happen back in the village in the years that would pass. That boy would grow into a proud and strong young man, one that would make his own rules, his own path and find strength in belief. As he grew, his destiny would become intertwined with an orphan boy, a digger by the name of Simon. With a proud bond forged between brothers, Kamina would always be encouraging his younger protégé to join him in his bid to return to the surface. It was an act that would be in direct defiance of the village elder who wanted only to keep Simon doing what he did best: digging tunnels.
This all changed one day after yet another of Kamina's plans to escape had landed him again, in the village equivalent to jail. Hardly a first time for him, he was surprised that evening when Simon would break into his cell with intent to show him something that he'd found while digging. While the initial escape had been thwarted by the elder, what shocked everyone in the village was when an earthquake shook the entire cavern. The roof buckled, crumbled and gave as a massive object crashed through the ceiling, allowing the sunlight from above to flood the cavern. Astounded with this development, he took to the center of town, proclaiming to everyone that the surface -a world without a ceiling did exist, despite the insistence of the elder to the otherwise. The townspeople, already frightened by the violent quake and the collapse of the ceiling became absolutely terrified when the massive object that literally came crashing into their lives got up and spoke. Undaunted and viewing this as a challenge, Kamina took the elder's nodachi and confidently challenged the invader.
In a shocking turn of events, yet something -rather, someone would descend from the surface. Armed with weaponry not seen, at least not commonly, by either Kamina or Simon, the young lady engaged the titanic foe with unwavering courage. Intrigued both by her looks and her practiced cool, the discipline of a soldier, the two boys follow along as she tries to find a way to defeat their common foe, informing them that it's called a Ganmen. Unable to inflict serious damage on it, Simon leads both the stranger and Kamina to his find earlier, a much smaller Ganmen which is immediately christened as the Lagann. New weapon in tow, the trio fight a pitched battle against the Ganmen, eventually destroying it as they rocket out to the surface. Free of the village and now countless hundreds of feet in the air, for the first time in years, Kamina once more saw the sky and Simon saw it for his first time. As they lazily drifted about in a cloudless sky, their new friend introduced herself as Yoko.
After a rough landing, the trio were set upon by more Ganmen -though it was an encounter almost immediately broken up by an ambush of fighters from the village Yoko hailed from. After meeting up with the village, the boys are told how the village, Ritona, originally was situated in a cave like Jiiha, but theirs had a weapons vault within it. While for the most part, they'd been contented to stay where they were, something within that vault began to leak and made that area uninhabitable, forcing the entire village to struggle to stay alive in the face of repeated Ganmen attacks on the surface. With no intention of returning to Jiiha, Kamina agrees to help the fighters of the Ritona village wage their war for survival against the Beastmen.
True to his over the top and far out of the box thinking, on his second day -with the aid of Simon and the Lagann, he does what had never been done before: he hijacked a Ganmen. While it was severely damaged in the ensuing battle, the chief mechanic at the village, a peculiar fellow by the name of Leeron, managed to use the parts from the other damaged Gamnen to repair the machine which Kamina christened the Gurren. The next day while out hunting for supplies with Yoko and Simon, he would happen across a Beastman officer by the name of Viral. After a brutal close-quarters skirmish, the fight escalates into a Ganmen battle. Though in the end, the first round against Viral and his Enki goes rather poorly, the pair manage to survive until sunset when the Beastman returns to base because his solar-powered machine would be inoperable if their battle continued. So vowing to return the next day, the Beastman withdraws while the trio assess just what went wrong in all of that incident.
The next morning, Viral indeed returns with intent to completely eradicate the Ritona village. Despite being constantly knocked down and battered, Kamina's determination was unbreakable, serving as an inspiration that prompted a frightened Simon to join in the battle at the last moment -saving the Gurren and it's pilot from the Enki's particle canon attack. With both brothers in spirit fighting against the Beastman, Kamina haphazardly tries combining the Lagann with the Gurren, believing that having 'two-faces' like the Enki would even the odds. The surprise was that when Viral fired his particle beam canon again, the Lagann reacted with the energy; charging itself and better combining the two machines into a fearsome combined Ganmen that was immediately dubbed as the Gurren Lagann by Kamina himself. With this new power, the pair immediately turned the tide against their invader, forcing him to retreat after smashing the Enki's head unit and taking its helmet as a trophy that immediately became an easily-recognizable addition to the Gurren Lagann's armor.
In wake of the Beastman's retreat, Leeron announces that after a search of the Gurren's system, he'd located the regional base for the Beastmen in the area. With this in mind, Kamina wastes no time in deciding that he would assault this stronghold to free the humans in the area. To his dismay, Leeron joins the team and while the fellow honestly unsettled the living daylights out of Kamina, he couldn't ignore the necessity of having a proper mechanic along for the trip. Also volunteering for the trip was Yoko, who at first seemed indecisive, but it was suggested that she follow at her village leader, Dayakka's behest -who along with the rest of the village seemed amused with how she clearly demonstrated a certain degree of infatuation with Kamina.
It's difficult to say how long their travel toward the Beastman fortress had taken. Along the way they were introduced to the Black Brotherhood; another group of rebels led by Kittan Bachika who was supported by his sisters Kiyoh, Kinon and Kiyal. After defeating a Ganman that the Black Brotherhood had been hunting, the two groups part ways with Kittan admitting a grudging respect for Kamina -parting by saying that if he ever wanted to join their group, he could start from the bottom. The next worthwhile encounter was a chance plummet into another underground village, where through a contorted series of events involving yet another village elder that got on Kamina's nerves, the group acquired three new members, a pair of toddling children by the name of Gimmy and Darry Adai as well as Rossiu Adai.
Proceeding onward, the Gurren Dan, as dubbed by Kamina, happened across an onsen operated by an odd elderly woman and a pleathora of buxom young ladies wearing some delightfully revealing attire that at least Kamina was exceptionally enthused to be taken in by. Of further surprise was that Kiyoh, Kinon and Kiyal were also there enjoying themselves. Despite the welcoming signs presented, Rossiu was unwilling to trust things and separated from the group to keep an eye on the Ganmen. After enjoying themselves and after some reflection on the events that brought them where they were, Kamina and Simon found out the hard way that the whole operation was a Beastman-laid trap. The entire onsen turned out to be a rather large, disguised Ganmen that operated off geothermal power. After an awkward, big-screen exchange between Kamina and Yoko, the girls escaped from their imprisonment and the entire group sans Rossiu fled in some extremely cramped conditions aboard the Lagann. Outside they found Rossiu, who'd taken control of the Gurren to defend it from being stolen by the rabbit-type Ganmen employed by the elderly Beastwoman that was running the operation. After turning control of the Gurren back over to Kamina, the two machines combined to become the Gurren Lagann and destroyed the onsen-Ganmen without incident.
Unfortunately, the real trouble would follow after that. As they celebrated their defeat of the onsen-Ganmen, a massive explosion from a long-range artillery shell blew the entire group off their feet and even managed to eject both Kamina and Simon from their combined machine. Standing nearby to taunt them was Viral aboard his newly repaired Enkidu. After waiting for his foes to dress themselves and board their machine again, the Gurren Lagann engaged in a pitched back and forth battle with the Enkidu for a short while. Afterward, another barrage of artillery shells rocked the area as Viral retreated to the mobile Beastman fortress, the massive Ganmen called the Dai Gunzan. While their allies urged him to retreat, Kamina insisted on fighting the foe, reasoning that with the amount of firepower the mobile fortress demonstrated, they would all be killed if they tried to run. Despite a few steps forward in the battle, it eventually pushes the Gurren Lagann to the brink of defeat where upon salvation came from an unexpected source. During the travels of the Gurren Dan, other humans including Dayakka and Kittan had been inspired to hijack their own Ganmen, which all fortunately arrived to the aid of the Gurren Lagann. With the support of their allies, Simon's sense of innovation is renewed and Kamina turned control over to him, who usesda series of explosive drill bits to collapse the ground below the Dai Gunzen and cripple its ability to move.
With the setting of the sun, both sides seemed to accept the situation as a stalemate and the rebel group withdrew to regroup. After introductions, the newly re-dubbed Dai Gurren Dan made their plans to finish the battle that had been started. Whether late into the evening or early into the morning hours, Yoko searched out Kamina, taking that moment to express her concern for the recklessness of his actions, as well as somewhat subtly expressing her fondness for him with a kiss. While the two took a moment to share a longer, nicer kiss, Simon happens to see the whole thing and because of his own fondness for Yoko, is quite rattled by the whole thing.
As the sun rose above the horizon, the group began their operation to use the Lagann to hijack the Dai Gunzan. As the attackers crest the lip of the crater that marked the resting place of the mobile fortress, its defenders emerged from cover on its deck -immediately attacking the would-be assailants with a host of munitions. Unfortunately, they didn't expect to literally be stoned as the Dai Gurren Dan showered them with a hail of boulders. Their position not working, the defenders used the Dai Gunzan's catapult to more directly engage in a counter offensive. Once again, Kamina would engage Viral with just the Gurren; demonstrating an amazing level of improvement in not only holding his own, but beating back Viral's Enkidu without the Lagann's help. At that point, Simon emerged from a nearby section of the crater, using the Lagann's docking drill to crash into the bridge of the fortress. However, his will was lacking and the rattled sensation left by seeing Kamina and Yoko earlier kept him from mustering the drive needed to allow the Lagann to take over the enemy Ganmen's system.
Deciding to fix the matter himself, the Dai Gurren Dan covered for Kamina as he landed the Gurren nearby, ejecting himself from the cockpit and landing on the Lagann's head. After a swift punch to Simon's jaw and a quick pep talk, the younger of the two brothers got his head together and successfully took control of the massive fortress-type Ganmen. Contented for the moment, Kamina returned to the Gurren, only to be ambushed from below as the commander of the Dai Gunzan. Thymilph blasted his way from below aboard his personal Ganmen, the Byakou, and launched the Gurren into the air where Viral followed up, inflicting serious damage before guiding it down to be impaled the the Byakou's spear. With Kamina apparently dead, Simon was crushed by overwhelming despair as he watches the heavily damaged remains of the Gurren get tossed aside like a rag doll.
The loss marks a turn for the worse in the battle as the defending Ganmen begin to overwhelm the rebels, Simon's own despair driving the Dai Gunzan to surface from its crater and begin a slow ascent toward the lip of an adjacent and erupting volcano. In the semi-berserk operation of the massive mobile weapon, Viral's Enkidu is swatted like a fly far off into the horizon. With the radio abuzz with so much chatter, a battered and bloody Kamina regains his senses long enough to hurl the Gurren's fist at Simon to snap him out of things. Another brief heart to heart with his younger brother in spirit is concluded as the elder of the two suggest them forming the Gurren Lagann. Their new prize officially taken, the two machines combine and with a surge of power that surpasses everything that had been seen prior, the Gurren Lagann defeats a majority of the Beastman's machines. Unwilling to let his fortress fall into human hands, Thymilph begins firing upon the Dai Gunzan. As he tells Simon to believe in himself above all else, Kamina becomes the first among the Dai Gurren Dan to unleash the devestating Giga Drill Breaker attack, killing Thymilph in the process.
Finally content with the path that his friends stand on, Kamina allows himself to succumb to his fatal injuries and passes on, uttering a farewell to all his friends with his last breath.
Changes from canon, if AU: N/A
Personality:
Immediately upon meeting him, the most easily noticeable trait that Kamina has is that he tends to be loud and outgoing -at least for the most part. He's very much a social person, his natural charisma allowing him to draw people to him through an earned sense of self-confidence. Though often bordering on arrogant at times, his confidence is no mere act -every boast he makes is something he's actually done or is at least completely willing to throw himself into with the entirety of his nearly unstoppable drive behind it. He's the sort of person that doesn't believe in barriers, boundaries or limitations. From his stand point, everything is limitless. The only thing defining how far a person can go is just about how far they're willing to push themselves to seize it.
Stemming largely from the kind of authority figure that the elder of the Jiiha village represented, he almost instinctively resists most authority figures, often going out of his way to upset whatever is the established status quo. This is especially true when he considers that the rules presented for everyone to play by are exceptionally restrictive or unfair. Kamina has a very strong sense of right and wrong or more accurately, a very strong sense of what he believes is right and what he believes is wrong. To this extent, he will pursue that belief of what's right despite opposition from anyone around him.
Guided largely by feeling over thought, his actions reflect more of his attitude of doing rather than thinking, though by the end of his life, he seemed more than capable of understanding that thinking too had its place. By upbringing, he's not horrendously well-educated, but possesses at least the minimum of skills needed to get by in things. He proves a fast and able learner, demonstrating the ability to pick up the use of firearms with good proficiency in a short order, despite having very minimal -if any prior experience with them. Furthermore, with an explanation that showed that even Simon had only the barest of ideas for how to operate the Lagann, he was able with at least an initially heavy struggle on his part, to override the Gunzar's control systems and piloting it until it was rebuilt into the Gurren. Then over the progression of the series, his skill improves to the point where even against multiple enemies and with just the Gurren, he can hold his own in combat.
The rough and tumble side of his personality is tempered by a very strong 'big brother' instinct. Though not always intentional, he exhibits great diligence in making sure that those that are close to him are cared for. It's most frequently noted in his interactions with Simon. He takes care to ensure that his friend learns to make his own path in life and by his own hand instead of just letting things happen to him. It's demonstrated with the Ritona villagers when he uses the Gurren to block a salvo of munitions fired by Viral's Enki at them. And then his particular relationship with Yoko is interesting in the fact that he gives the impression that he trusts her most to look out for herself without his intervention. This often comes out as childish bickering between the two, though his actions -usually some manner of harassment, demonstrate quite loudly the interest he has in her.
On a downward note, his boundless confidence that often borders on arrogance gives him a great deal of pride, something relatively easy to trip on and get on his bad side. While he does his best with people that are willing to set things aside and follow the example he leads by, a similar charismatic force is demonstrated to almost always be in conflict with him. This degree of conflict can range from mere insults and taunting, to stubbornness and refusal to cooperate, to his usual and exceptionally loud tirades. However it's worth noting that he's never been shown to physically attack an authority figure unless it's clear that the gloves are off and that a fight is the way out. His best shows of defiance usually goad the offending figure into striking him while with not more than a dirty look on his face, he takes the abuse without flinching, as if to show that his belief in his ideals make him stronger than anything the opposing party can dish out. Of course, if it's a situation where he considers the gloves to be off, he's not merely going to stand there and take hits.
Abilities:
Sheer unrelenting determination and self-confidence aside, Kamina doesn't demonstrate himself to being anything more than a human being. That being said and done, while he lacks any special powers, magic, martial arts techniques or really big guns, he gets a surprising lot done with sheer force of will and a little bit of thinking on his part. His determination seems to grant him odd feats of super-human ability at times, giving him the constitution to stand unflinchingly in the face of virtually any kind of abuse. It also allows him to push himself harder and longer than people more lacking in their resolve.
By far this doesn't make him invulnerable. He takes his lumps, bruises and cuts -just with the best of them, rarely even flinching unless the injury inflicts some exceptionally severe trauma. But through strength of will alone, he's able to push himself to continue performing whatever task he's dedicated to even while sustaining the most vicious injuries. The pinnacle of this ability is observed when despite giving an entirely negative vital reading to the Gurren's onboard sensor, he not only gets up to fight when he should be dead, but he even demonstrates turning aside the most powerful of his enemy's attacks without batting an eye. Of course this act seems to be something performed on borrowed time, it was quite exceptional and worth noting.
His swordsmanship is average at best -more a rudimentary understanding of forceful, brutal swings meant to overwhelm defenses with little ability to mind his own, a matter he makes up for at least modestly with good instincts and being quick on his feet. Though all of it more just meant he suffered minor to modest lacerations against Viral instead of taking potentially fatal strike.
Though more part of his personality, his charisma is quite exceptional. Partly through action, partly through an uncanny ability to deliver inspiring speeches, Kamina has the ability to draw people to his side and tends to appear naturally as a leader figure. Especially when in a crisis, he proves to be exceptional when it comes to maintaining morale of a group and his fiery passion to getting things done is often contagious, able to spur his companions to push the boundaries defined by logic to the curb and make the impossible possible. Again though, this is a double-edge sword, as when he falters, his failures tend to bring the morale down with him as easily as he raises it.
Odd traits and ability to pilot the Gurren aside, Kamina is a powerfully built young man in his late teens. Though not stocky or hugely built, his frame is quite apparently strong and in remarkably good shape despite the abuses he's put it through. He possess slightly above average agility and can throw an exceptionally mean punch.
Writing sample:
Route 29 Logs -
Here
Here
And here
Voice sample:
Journal entries from R29 -
Here
Here
Also here