Tears were running down his cheeks as he looked at the dead body. Vash attended to it like he expected to still find signs of life.
"You search in vain," Wolfwood said calmly, lighting his cigarette. "I hit him fully in the head one time, and a second time through the heart, as I have been taught." In fact the corpse was barely recognizable because there was not enough left of the face to identify the man.
Wolfwood suppressed his anger when he saw Vash grieve for the man who had tortured and tried to kill him before.
"Why? Why did you kill him?" Vash eyed him, his face full of resentment.
The priest couldn´t believe it. "Because he was about to shoot you?," he shouted in the pale face of his partner.
"But there had to be another way to save me than murdering the guy," Vash answered reproachfully.
He still looked withdrawn from his injuries, though Wolfwood had removed the bullets and treated the injuries the best he could while Vash had been unconscious.
The fact that Vash was seriously injured was the only reason Wolfwood did not punch him in the face for calling him a murderer.
"You dare to judge me? You of all people on this planet? Do you think I like to do this?Do you think killing is fun for me?", he hissed instead, a dangerous glint in his eyes.
"N-n-no, not exactly, but-", Vash stuttered.
„I´m doing my best to help you, to protect you, to keep you safe. I stain my hands with blood - FOR YOU - But all you do is staring at me with those mournful eyes afterwards, telling me I did wrong!" Wolfwood was yelling now, clenching his fists.
"But there are plenty of ways to save everyone without killing if you take a little time to think of it..." This was a sentence he had said so often that it sounded like Vash rehearsed and forgot the meaning, and he knew it.
The priest came closer. "Yeah, Spikey, you´re such an angel! Sometimes you just don´t have enough time to think of it, for example when they´re aiming at your head!
Take a look around when you´re going through this world. You have lived here for over 100 years and you still don´t get it. We live in a world that works according to the law of the gun. The ones who have better arms and don´t hesitate to use them will survive. The ones who have the bigger guns are the law. So using your abilities, even killing people, is necessary to survive, and I´m doing my best to stay alive, and to keep you alive."
"But I managed to survive very long without killing my opponents...", Vash whispered weakly. It was hard to say it, Wolfwood´s face just inches away from his own.
"Yeah, Saint Vash, but you´re not a normal human and normal humans are not able to cope with major injuries like you do. Besides, today you would have died if it was not for me.
With your advice to stay out of the conflict you doomed this bounty hunter to death right at the beginning. I could´ve immobilized the guy with some well-aimed bullets, but you wanted to do this on your own.
With your refusal to kill, no matter what the circumstances are, with your desperate effort to keep your own hands clean, you forced me to do the job for you. So what kind of saint are you? A slick one, blaming others for the things which would´ve been your deed to do, Spikey.
You´re holding me back, burdening me with your way of life. How do you think that makes me feel?" Wolfwood stared into the green eyes of his friend angrily, recognizing that Vash was on the verge of tears again.
The conclusion that his peaceful way of life forced the priest to kill hit Vash harder than any fist could have. His heart ached while he gazed into dark, angry eyes.
Suddenly he wished the ground would swallow him, anything that would bring a distance between Wolfwood and himself.