I'm using human names for this story, for my sense of neatness

Also Liechtenstein doesn't have a canon human name, so I'm just using the fan Lili for this one

Money, that's what makes the world go round. And money at times needs you to do anything for it, anything at all. At least, that's what Vash believes, and it's what he does. He never had a good skill set, or at least not by most people standards. He wasn't good at art, he was a shocker at manual labour, and he detests office work, not wanting to be close to other people. But he was good with weapons, and so that was what he made his living out of. He's been a mercenary, an assassin, a bodyguard, and even something's he would rather soon forget, calling himself a contractor, willing to take any contract. For he would do anything for money, and whatever money he did get he would hold onto as long as he could, save every single cent to the very end.

But that doesn't matter at the moment, for right now he had a job to do. He had been hired by the Nordics, a gang of people from the Scandinavian countries. They wanted him to take someone out, a routine assassination job, nothing he hadn't done before. He was lying on a windy roof top of a building, about thirty metres in the air, his rifle trained across the street into a small café. His target was low hanging fruit, a common mobster, but the Nordic's wanted him gone and they're willing to pay, and that's all that mattered to Vash.

When the man sat down at his table, Vash fired. The target flew back, blood spraying across the table and wall, showering the other patrons in a mist of red. Without missing a beat, Vash unloaded his rifle, stood up, and slinging the rifle over his back walked back to the stairs. He didn't worry about the police tracking him down; the Nordic's always assure that they would clean up after him.

Loading up his rifle into the trunk of his car, he disassembled his rifle has he did so, putting it back into its case. He quickly drove away from the building, the sirens growing louder behind him. He drove a few blocks, before parking again in a parking lot, getting out and swapping cars, driving off again. He headed towards his rendezvous point for the Nordics. His contact goes by the name of Norway, a man of average in a dark blue suit. He was his usual contact, a man of few words who only gives him the target and the money, and Vash was absolutely fine with that. His contact was standing at the pier, facing off into the cold the sea.

Vash parked his car, getting out and slinging his rifle bag over his back, having moved it to the front seat when he changed cars. He walked up and stood next to Norway, dropping his rifle down to his feet.

"The target has been eliminated?" Norway asked stoically.

"I wouldn't be here if he hadn't been, you have my money," Vash replied.

Norway turned and started to walk away from Vash, never looking at him in the face, "The money has been wired, thank you for your services."

Vash didn't bother to try and talk to Norway anymore. He didn't care for him, truth be told he really didn't for anyone. Well, there is one person. He walked away, ditching the car, being too easy to trace and expensive to run. With his rifle bag over his shoulder he walked back into the depths of the city. He walked the span of the city, not stopping once to take either bus or tram. Soon he was into the green forests surrounding the city, heading up into its growing mountains.

The sun was setting before he was able to reach his house. He lived a two story house in the mountains surrounding the city, inaccessible by cars, no roads leading to it. Vash knew that living in such a place limited access, and that's what he wanted. In the off chance that he is found out he wanted people getting here as difficult as possible.

He walked through the front door into the house, taking off his black coat, hanging it on the coat hanger. As he did so he could hear the shout of "Big Brother?" go through the house.

Before he could even say anything he could hear running coming down the hallway. Running into his arms was his younger sister, Lili, a girl with a short blonde bob like his own though it had a blue ribbon in it, wearing a light pink dress. "You're home big brother," she cried into his chest.

Vash put his arms around Lili's shoulders awkwardly, never fully used to hugging people. "I'll always be home, but I am sorry for being late."

"It's ok, I have dinner ready for you," she left his embraced, and taking his hand he began to lead him towards the dining room. He quietly slipped off his rifle bag before he followed her, slipping it behind the stand next to the front door.

She led him to the head seat at their dining table, leaving him at the table as she went off to the kitchen. Vash took off his green jacket, putting over it over his chair before sitting down. Lili was the one person in the world he cared about, the person that he would lay down his life for. It's for her that he does all of this, for her he became this contractor. On his own there was no way he would've been able to support his sister, not whilst still staying within the law. But he would never tell her of what he does; all she knows is that he goes into the city to work on contracts, but never what the contracts are.

Lili walked back into the dining room form the kitchen, carrying a plate of chicken schnitzel with steamed vegetables. She placed it before him, sitting down in the chair next to him. "Aren't you going to eat?" Vash asked Lili, turning to her.

"I already have, big brother. I ate whilst I was waiting for you," she replied.

Vash slowly cut into his meat, taking his time eating his dinner, washing down his food with a glass apple juice. "How did your classes with Mister Edelstein go today?" Vash said.

"Very good, he said I was getting a lot better at the piano, and that I might be able to do one of the harder pieces soon" Lili smiled at Vash.

Vash slowly nodded his head as Lili then continued, "He also continued my art lessons, and I did a painting of some of the roses in the garden."

"In the morning I should see it," he commented.

Lili clapped her hands together, "That would be great big brother!" Lili stopped for a second, putting her finger to her mouth in thought, "Elizabeta also come over with Mister Edelstine today, and she helped me with me sewing."

"That's good," Vash said, laying down his knife and fork as he finished his meal, "I think it's time for you to go to bed Lili."

"But you just got home big brother," Lili complained.

Vash got up from his seat, picking up his plate and cutlery as he did, "I don't have work tomorrow, so I'll spend it with you."

Lili smiled, her face brightening, "That would be great big brother. I'll go get changed right away."

Vash patted her on the head, "You do that, and in a few minutes I'll put you to bed." He headed towards the kitchen, leaving Lili to go up the stairs in the hallway up to her bedroom. The kitchen itself was clean, Lili having cleaned up her cooking from earlier while she was waiting for him. He smiled to himself lightly as he cleaned his plate, thankful that Lili was happy when he was away. He would prefer to spend more time at home with her, taking the role of her tutor himself. But he just doesn't have the time for it, the work being so time consuming, that the days he got off are few and far between.

He left his plate drying on the dish rack, heading towards the stairs to go put Lili to bed. He waited outside her bedroom door for a few seconds, before knocking and asking, "Are you ready?"

"Yes big brother," came from the opposite side of the door.

He opened it up and walked through the door. Lili was lying in her canopied bed, dressed in pink pyjamas, similar to the one she made for him. She was smiling lightly as he walked over to her, though he could see her eyes starting to droop with sleep. He pulled up her covers to her chin, tucking her in.

"Big brother?" she asked as she drifted to sleep.

"Yes Lili?"

She yawned, "Can we have a picnic tomorrow?"

Vash straightened his back, "Of course," but before he could talk Lili closed her eyes, her breathing slowing as she fell asleep.

He left her room, resting on the door outside of her room, sighing. He went back down stairs, to the front door. He gathered his gun bag at the front door and coat, slinging them over his shoulder as he walked towards his study on the first floor. He didn't stop at his desk when he walked into it, heading straight for the cupboard at the far side of the room. It opened down into a stair case, unlit as it drifted down into the earth. He didn't look back as walked down the dark staircase, heading towards his lair underground.

There was a steel door barring the entrance to the room at the end of the staircase. Vash quickly entered the entrance code at the keypad next to the doorway, beeping in the silent night. The door swung open as he entered the final code, leading into a room filled with cold blue steel. To say the room was sparse would be an understatement. It had the bare minimum to function as a base of operations for Vash as a contractor. The far wall of the room was covered in monitors, tracking everything from the surrounding forests, to bounties posted by the government and offers for work made by criminals like the Nordics. The wall to his left held his weapons rack, covered with top grade Swiss weapons, ranging from pistols to snipers and assault rifles. He had enough guns on the rack to wage a small war. The all on his right had his operation clothes and armour, including bullet proof vests and even a high tech bullet proof trench coat, able to withstand fire from a rifle.

He threw his coat near the right wall, landing in a mess near it. He walked over to the left wall, moving the bag strap from his shoulder to his hand, and began opening it up. When he reached the wall he began to pull out the guns he had used today, replacing the rifle and pistol to their places on the wall. After that he opened up secret drawers that lined the weapons rack, each filled with a different type of magazine and round, returning the unspent magazines and rounds from the day. As he left the wall though, he took down an old rifle, a K31, a favourite of Vash.

He sat down at the desk that was just before the monitors, laying the rifle out before him. He half consciously began to take apart and put back together the rifle as he scanned the information on the terminals. There had been no new bounties from the government, meaning that the Nordic's had done their job and had cleaned up for him. There was a report though on his assassination, but there was so little information other than that someone was killed to worry him. There was a mission for an assassin though, but it was for tonight and had appeared to have already to be taken by someone else. It didn't list the target though, but it said the target was both highly trained and viscous, and that would easily take down a dozen men without blinking. This peaked Vash's interest, wondering who this person could be. The money offered was astronomic to say the least, thirty million just for one person.

When Vash had finished pulling apart and putting back together the K31 he got up and returned it to the rifle to its place on the rack. As he was doing this he went and cleaned up his coat from earlier, hanging it up on the wall with the other clothes. Vash then returned to the desk, and started to look up on specific information rather than general information his system had picked up. He started off with his bank account, to check and see if the Nordic's had come on through with their side. They had. The fee had been at two hundred thousand, leading his account to stand at roughly thirteen million.

He leant back in his seat, relaxing, and slowly fell asleep.

The shadows were thick in the alleyway, as a man leant against the wall in the shadows. He was shrouded in a deep cloak, a grey scarf wrapped around his neck. His job often did not lend him to waiting for others, but tonight was special. Other man walked down the alley towards the other, shrouded in a black cloak. The man with the scarf didn't move as the other approached, but he did tighten his grip on the iron pipe at his side.

"You have hired me?" the cloaked man asked, with a Japanese accent.

"Da," he replied, smiling.

"Who do you require me to kill?"

The scarfed man handed him a paper, smiling again. As soon as the cloaked man had taken the paper he turned away, whistling into the night. The cloaked man look at the picture for a moment, reading what was written on it. He dropped the paper, letting it float to the ground as he disappeared into the night. As the paper floated to the ground a street lamp's light reflected off of it, Vash's face glowing in the night.