#16

daylight.
all the noise of a busy construction site fills the town, everyone lending a hand to clear away the results of the shootout between Monev and Vash.  the amount of rubble is rather impressive.
Meryl and Millie are busy as well, though far from the site of all the destruction.  this is when their real job kicks in, after all.  the Humanoid Typhoon has struck, and someone needs to tally up what it’s going to cost to fix the mess.  Meryl sits at a desk in the hotel room she shares with Millie, fingers clacking away at her typewriter.
Meryl- //typing//  Two days have passed since the incident.  Large scale reconstruction in a town accustomed to small things has predictably kept many from calming down.  Extended association with Vash the Stampede himself makes one forget, but this event forcibly reminded me that he earned the title “Humanoid Typhoon”.

-76-
Meryl- //typing//  But why does disaster seek him out so avidly?  Does Fate have anything other than misery in store for him?

#16 Scars
TRIGUN

-77-
two days ago, dawn.  a half-disbelieving, half-hopeful Monev stares up at Vash, the Longshot slowly pulling away from the ruin of his left eye.
Monev- Y-- you’re not gonna kill me?
a rhetorical question.  Vash ignores it.
Vash- Twenty years spent training to kill me?  Hn.  Who’s your boss and where is he?
Monev- Boss?  Owner.  I was bought.  My “parents” weren’t nothing more than middlemen, either.  There are a whole bunch more like me coming after you now, too, and ain’t a one of them normal.  So watch your back.
Vash says nothing, simply getting up and walking away.

-78-
Monev sits up, blood drying and caking down the left side of his face, and watches the other man go.
Monev- … well ain’t you the trusting sort.  I could shoot you in the back right now, y’know.
Vash- Go ahead and try.  My finger is still on the trigger.
voice perfectly bland, he doesn’t even bother turning around.  the confused, off-balance rage of just a short while ago is nowhere to be seen.  Monev pauses for a moment, considering something.  then he snaps open a pocket in his wide belt and flips something at Vash.

-79-
Our Badass Hero, with his nerves of steel and reflexes of lightning, ever alert and aware of his entire surroundings--- is so out of it that the Whatever-It-Is bounces off his head.  -_-;;;;  he catches it on the rebound, though.
it’s half a coin.
Vash stares at it for a long moment before walking away.

-80-
back to the Now.
in the hotel, Meryl takes a break from typing, instead replaying the last minutes of the encounter two days ago.
Meryl- //thinking//  What’s the deal with that coin?  Neither side of that exchange acted as if it were at all strange…
Millie- …’n the sum total of the damage is… a whole lot.  Everything about this incident makes a body worry, doesn’t it.
that wasn’t really a question, and Meryl doesn’t really answer.  instead both girls have their attention snagged by a sudden increase in the ruckus downstairs.  the hotel is apparently built such that the lobby is a inner courtyard of sorts, the upper floor hallways being balconies.  thence it’s a simple matter for Meryl and Millie to poke their heads out their room door and peek down on the fuss.  some townspeople have the hotel manager cornered.
Town Worrywort- You see where we’re coming from, right?  Anxiety levels are through the roof!  People can’t sleep, they’re so scared.  We’re trying to do something to fix that.  Could we ask one of you to tell him to, well, “get out.”

-81-
you can guess who the “him” is that they’re referring to, I hope.  Meryl and Millie can as well.  they head off to his room, the bearers of unpleasant news.  his door’s open, but he’s not in the main room.  from the little side bathroom comes the sound of a running shower.  so the two girls wait, hanging out in the doorway.  after a little while, the water stops with the squeak of an old faucet handle.  a shower door bangs shut and there’s the rustle of clothing being donned.  bare feet pad across a tiled floor, and Our Squeaky Clean Hero comes putzing out.
Meryl- uhm… Mr. Vas---
she stops, her jaw too busy gaping to finish the word.

-82-83-
well, seeing Vash in nothing but his PJs could be expected to be a bit of a jaw-dropping moment.  I mean, he is in extremely good shape, and there’s nothing to complain about the figure he cuts in a trench coat.  now all he’s got on is a pair of well-broken-in sweatpants.  his left arm still ends in a mechanical stump and his right’s ruffling his hair with a towel, so there’s a really nice view from shoulders down.
it’s not what you’d expect.
there’s hardly a straight inch of flesh on his entire torso.  scars of any and every description rip ugly patterns every which way.  across his left pectoral and right flank there are even thick metal bands bolted into place, for what reason I don’t want to know.
mutual surprise stretches out into one of those really uncomfortable silences where neither side is quite sure how to break it…
Vash- eek!
o_O;;
…until Our Drama-queen Hero pulls a stunt, squealing like a high-school prima-donna.

-84-
still, the ice got broken.  Vash grabs something to drink while the girls recover and everyone takes a seat.
Meryl- Those scars… they’re the price you paid for subduing, not killing, your opponents, aren’t they.
Vash- They aren’t really something I like ladies seeing.  I’d lose my popularity…
Meryl- No you wouldn’t!!  Not with…well…
her brain then catches up with what her mouth just said, and she turns a fairly vibrant shade of red.
Vash- ^_^;;;;
Meryl- Anyway… What in the world is going on here, Mr. Vash?  That Mr. Monev was clearly after you and you alone.  The bounty on you’re head’s gone, so why?
Vash grins sheepishly and turns a little pink across the cheekbones, but says nothing.

-85-
Millie- We were so worried!  I had no idea you’re arm was mechanical.  I was so shocked I thought my arms would get stuck in my chest!
::Meryl- that’s heart in your throat, Millie…::
…... -_-;;
okay, back to serious conversation…
Meryl- You don’t do a thing and still trouble comes and finds you, townsfolk look at you sidelong and hurry away…  I’m only watching and it’s so frustrating, so disheartening…  Won’t you just quit this lifestyle?  Throw away your gun, throw away everything and find a quiet life.
Vash- No.
there’s steel in that word.  all the bashful politeness of earlier disappears completely in that one word.
Vash- I won’t.  I… can’t.  I failed to save someone very important to me, once.

-86-
Vash- To go and “live peacefully” without paying for that failure…  I’d be lower than slime.
the lights of Vash’s hotel room glow brightly out onto the night-dark street.  it reaches far out enough to light the nearby building, and the tails of a white trench coat and boots…

the next morning.  everyone is still busy with repairs, hurrying about this way and that, though they all pause to slide a glare at the one-armed man in a red trench coat heading for the edge of town.  the Sheriff leans nonchalantly against the doorpost of his office, his glance only a little less unfriendly.
Sheriff- You’re leaving?
Vash- Yeah.
he nods, duffle slung over his right shoulder, and a white handkerchief tied neatly around the stump of his left arm. Meryl and Millie stand quietly in the background.

-87-
Vash- I owe you one, letting me go ‘n all…
Sheriff- I just don’t want you in my jail any more.  If you really want to thank me, leave.  …still, I respect the skill it takes to bring a guy like that down without killing anyone.  Speaking of that man-mountain, he left just after dawn.  What he’ll do with the life you gave back to him, who knows.
Vash says nothing.  he simply starts walking out into the desert.
kathunk.
Meryl’s suitcase bounces over a rock, her path pulling it directly along Vash‘s footsteps.
Millie- So… you’re still going to follow him, Sempai?
Meryl- Of course!  It’s my job.

-88-
Millie- Okay.  Well, I can hardly leave the two of you alone together, so I guess I’ll come too.
Meryl- Gah!  Mi~~lli~~e!!!  Don’t be so darn docilely cunning!
the dark events of the night before left behind with the new dawn, the two insurance girls set off after their assigned ward.  the town rumbles on, back to regular business now that the troublemakers are gone.  standing on metalwork high, high above it all is a single man, a white trench coat fluttering about his ankles. what he’s watching, only he knows.

-89-
only a short while later, both girls are huffing and puffing and teeter tottering in exhaustion.  far in the distance, Vash strides on untiring, for all appearances ignoring the two tailing him.
Millie- Haah haah haaah…. Sempai, we’re getting left in the dust already!  Huh..?
off ahead, a bunch of standing stones can be vaguely seen.  at the center is a huge, cross-like one.
Millie- Sempai… Whazzat?
neither girl noticed, but Vash came to a dead halt.
Vash- You two don‘t move!  Stay right where you are!
after being completely ignored for who knows how long, the harshly given order takes them by surprise. Millie just blinks, but Meryl seems on the verge of arguing.  a second later, she thinks better of it.

-90-
Vash steps up to the cluster of stones and the huge cross that dominates the middle of it.  pinned to that cross by at least two dozen huge metal spikes is Monev.  he is very clearly quite dead.  most of one leg is missing, and there are so many spikes in each wrist that there can’t be that much muscle left.  a not inconsiderable number of spikes dot across his chest, and a still-drying river of blood paints a broad streak across the lower half of the cross.

-91-
for a very long moment Vash is speechless, his eyes wide and disbelieving.  a single drop of blood gets caught in the wind, landing with a soft plip on his cheek.
Voice- You like it?
Vash spins around.

-92-
when Monev said the assassins after Vash weren’t normal, he meant it.  this guy is wearing one of the weirdest get-ups I’ve ever seen.  from just above the top of his spiked black hair all the way down to his waist, the guy has what looks to be a giant black ball, split down the middle for his body to fit, wrapped around him.  sharp metal points stick out from it at all angles.  insanely long arms stretch out and down, rings around each finger.  attached to each ring is a string, all of which disappear into the ball-like shell.
E.G. Mine- Where losers go afterwards ain’t home-sweet-home… it’s Hell!!

-93-
Vash is… less than entertained.
Vash- Did you do this?
E.G. Mine- Gung-Ho Guns #2.  My name’s E.G. Mine.
Vash- I asked you a question.
E.G. Mine- All right all right, I hear ya already.  So what if I did, chicken-wuss?  I hear you don’t kill your enemies.  That’s bad follow-through, man!  Ya gotta put a nice period on things at the end.
you can guess what his idea of a “period” is, I should hope.

-94-
E.G. Mine- Oh, by the by, you’re smack in the middle of my crosshairs, y’know.  I twitch my fingers and you’re nothing but a neat pile of mincemeat.
this whole time, Vash has remained spectacularly unimpressed by all of E.G Mine’s posing.  actually… he’s starting to get a little ticked off.
Vash- I am getting so. damn. sick of this kind of scenario.  Either I kill or I get killed, but whichever way you cut it somebody's got to die?  Is that what you’re saying?  Rem didn’t give her life for things to end up like this!

-95-
E.G. Mine- Geez, don’t get so worked up over it, man.  I mean, c’mon… only one more person’s gonna die here.  It’ll all be over in a sec … right after I KILL YOU!!!
E.G. Mine’s face twists and his fingers begin to curl…
Our Tee’d-Off Hero is still less than impressed.
Vash- You’re slow.

-96-97-
at this point, I’d like to remind you of a couple things: 1) Vash’s left arm, well, isn’t.  it still ends in a hanky-tied stump above the elbow.  2) his right arm is busy holding the cords of the duffle, slung over his shoulder.
nothing for it but to drop the bag, right?   right. …sorta.  Vash lets go of the duffle cord and draws.  three shots echo before gravity pulls the duffle cord more than a centimeter.  re-holstering the Longshot, Vash reaches for the duffle cord.
somewhere in the middle of that giant, spiked ball are straps holding it to E.G. Mine’s body.  in that one second most of them split, bullet-gouges taking just enough strength out of them that they can’t hold together any more.

-98-
vash’s grip tightens around the duffle cord.  less than a second later, the two spiked-ball halves thud to the ground.
…now E.G. Mine finishes curling his fingers.
he blinks at the utter lack of resistance.
E.G. Mine- …huh?
::wiggle wiggle::
waa~~aitaminute… not only are the strings cut, the whole bloody weapon is rolling on the ground rather pathetically.
E.G. Mine- ...Wha--?
eyes bigger around than ping-pong balls, he whips his head this way and that, still not quite sure about what he’s seeing.
a sudden shadow blocks the sunlight over his head.  looking up…
E.G. Mine- Uh-o---

-99-
WHOMP ::splat::
…I don’t know if you know this, but ammo is heavy.  really heavy.  I mean, the bullet itself is a hunk of lead, then there’s the steel casing and the gunpowder… given the large caliber of the Longshot, a single 50-round box of bullets probably weighs 3-4 pounds. and I’d bet Vash’s got a lot more than a single box in that duffle.  heck, I bet his non-functional left arm is probably in there…
in other words, that bag of his is HEAVY. …and it just came crashing down over E.G. Mine’s head in a rather nice swing.  the ::splat:: above was his face getting mashed into the dirt. ^_^
Vash- ……humph.
a second spent giving a comatose E.G. Mine one nasty stare, then he whips around.
…who knows how he knows, but Vash knew the girls weren’t the only spectators of this little tussle.  a vein in his temple ticks.
Vash- LEGATO!!!!!

-100-
letting the duffle drop completely this time, Vash draws and fires one single shot.  the bullet flies, arrow straight on it’s path.  Vash himself dwindles into a little black speck before a huge mass of mangled metal comes into view.  someone is standing at that pile’s peak.

-101-
Still the bullet speeds on, it’s trajectory zinging it within inches of Legato’s cheek.  …two or three black-blue hairs drift down in it’s passing.  Legato neither moves nor speaks, but Vash most certainly has his attention.
…I doubt either of them can actually see the other, though.
Vash- I know you can hear me, Legato.  The rules just changed.  Offense and defense are switching.

-102-
Vash- You can forget about spare time to go pick off the wounded.  From this second on, I am coming after you!!

Scars/ END

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