Second chapter of the week, as promised!

Thanks to nicopop for the Follow!

Chapter 2 – History Lesson

Meryl stared at Maria, flabbergasted.

"Vash?" Millie repeated. "How would a Plant down here be able to talk to other Plants about him?"

"It's a hive mind thing, I think," Maria replied. "So, you've heard of him?"

"Well—"

"We are not taking you to him," Meryl said quickly, talking over Millie. "He's a dangerous man – the first natural human disaster in the history of the planet! No, in the history of the entire human race! Why would that Plant tell you to go to him when he's the reason there's a hole in a moon and a whole city has been wiped out?!"

"Meryl!" Millie exclaimed sharply as Maria's eyebrows shot up. Millie looked over at Maria and said quickly, "Vash-san didn't mean for those things to happen – he can't have. He is a kind man who would never kill anyone no matter what he had to do!"

Meryl looked like she was about to add on to Millie's words with an equally angry rant, but Maria held up a hand first.

"Can you tell me what's happened?" Maria asked. "I'm getting the feeling that I'm missing large chunks of a story. Millie and Belle said I can trust him, but you say that he's dangerous, Meryl. What's happened on this planet since the colony ships crashed? What is it about Vash that makes him dangerous enough that he can destroy a city and put a hole in a moon?"

Meryl blinked at the question, then looked over at Millie before looking back at the woman sitting on the ground in front of them.

She found it odd that Maria wasn't visibly bothered by the sandstorm that was going on outside, and she didn't seem to be all that bothered by the heat coming in from outside, either.

Maybe she would be able to get some answers from Maria if she explained what was happening on the planet's surface.

"Vash got onto our radar when July was wiped off the map," Meryl said. "People who lived in the towns between July and its neighbors reported that there was only one survivor in the wreckage. Since that day 22 years ago, he's been known as Vash the Stampede, because wherever he goes it looks like something stampeded through town and destroyed everything in sight without killing anyone."

"Has he killed anyone?" Maria frowned.

"No!" Millie exclaimed.

"If you don't count July, no," Meryl corrected. "Which is…strange, for a wanted man. Normally they're known for killing swaths of men, but Vash is only known for the destruction he's caused."

"I see." Maria frowned, leaning forward a little. She pulled her knees up and rest her arm against one of them, frowning in thought. "So the only reason he's wanted at all is because he's a klutz?"

"That's not – I mean – He's got bounty hunters and all sorts of people after him that like to cause all sorts of trouble for him, too, so he isn't just a klutz!"

Maria smirked a little, as though she had been expecting that. The smirk dropped, however. "So where do you two come into all this?"

"We're part of the Bernadelli Insurance Company!" Millie replied cheerily. "Mr. Bernadelli sent us after Vash-san to see if we could make an assessment of the damages he caused. Because we were losing money fast because of all the repairs and replacing of lost items that we had to take care of."

"I see. If an insurance company wants to get involved, then that means that he really must be causing a lot of damage, then." Maria tilted her head slightly. "There are some insurance companies on Earth who did something similar sometimes. Were you two hired to do something like this?"

"Oh, no! We're normally working in the office."

"Millie! You didn't need to tell her that!" Meryl felt flabbergasted at how much she was telling Maria. "Telling her why they're worried about Vash is okay, but you don't need to tell her that we're not normally supposed to do this kind of thing!"

"You're talking to someone who knows absolutely nothing about this planet and who is living on it, much less what's going on," Maria pointed out. "I'm still trying to make sense of it all – it…kinda feels like I fell into another dimension in transit, instead of just ending up on a desert planet in some distant point of the galaxy."

The two women looked at each other at Maria's comment, then back at her.

"Well, we're…what we're doing hasn't exactly had to have been done before," Meryl said carefully. "Vash is the first time we've had to go out and do something like this. We haven't had anyone cause this much damage to anything before."

"And whose fault is that, if Vash doesn't kill anyone – even the people chasing after him? He sounds like a pacifist."

"Well, his friend certainly isn't," Meryl grumbled.

"What, Pastor-san?" Millie shook her head. "No, no, he's nice! Although he does smoke a lot."

"A pastor?" Maria's eyebrows rose again. "A pastor of what?"

"He never told us." Millie shrugged.

Meryl sighed irritably, remembering skinny, black-haired man with his suit and his cross. "Nicholas D. Wolfwood. He is the most annoying man that I've ever come across – second only to Vash because he still has a level head on his shoulders. I'm not sure I can entirely trust him, though…it seems almost like his secrets has secrets."

"Pastor-san is trustworthy to me," Millie said with certainty. "I'm looking forward to being able to see him again."

Meryl grumbled something that neither Millie nor Maria was able to catch. Then she sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Well, with our luck, we're probably going to run into Vash and Wolfwood when they're in trouble. Again." She groaned at the thought.

Maria snorted, smirking. "Sounds like you two have been up to a lot. So, what happened when you met up with Vash? How did he change your perspective of him from seeing him as a bounty to hunt down to someone that you would be willing to trust?"

That was a loaded question – one loaded with history, at least.

"I hope you know what you're asking for," Meryl said. "Because we're going to be sitting here for a long time."

Maria motioned to the sandstorm still roaring outside of the crashed ship. "I think it's safe to say we've got time, until the sandstorm either dies down or stops entirely."

"Okay!" Millie plopped down on the floor, grinning.

"Millie!" Meryl said in alarm.

"What? If the Plant said that Maria had to look for Vash-san, she might as well know everything about him!" Millie looked up at Meryl. "Besides, if she decides to go looking for him anyway, she's going to have to know everything about what's going on outside."

Meryl looked at Millie for a moment, then sighed and shook her head before sitting down on the metal floor as well. It felt unusually cool despite the heat of the planet. Maybe something from the Plant's power was still affecting this place?

Or maybe it was just because they were technically in the shade right now. Meryl decided not to think about it.

"We first ran into Vash in a town where he was rumored to be," Meryl said.

Millie giggled. "Meryl didn't know who he was when we first saw him!"

"Millie!"

"Does he really look that ordinary?" Maria tilted her head slightly, considering. "If he's got that high of a bounty, I'd think he'd want to stay hidden, I guess."

Meryl snorted. "That's part of his problem. He sticks out like a sore thumb. He's got this bright red coat that you could spot from a mile off, and on top of that his hair sticks up—"

"Like the bristles of a broom!" Millie finished. "All bright yellow and everything!"

Maria blinked a couple times, then snorted. "So he stands in a crowd and he gets mobbed?"

"No, no! He stands out in a crowd, but he doesn't get noticed unless he starts waving a gun around!" Millie corrected cheerily. "Otherwise he plays with kids and talks to folks and buys things and gets things repaired, and no one pays any attention to him!"

"Huh." Maria blinked a couple times, looking somewhere between surprised and confused, then shook her head and snickered. "Such a strange people we've become…." Her smile faded. She shook her head. "So – what sort of people have been after Vash? What's happened on this world?"

It seemed to Meryl that Maria was trying to focus on Vash and what he was doing and what had happened to him instead of thinking about herself and her new situation. She wasn't sure if that was a good idea for a young woman to be doing, but if it helped her adjust…

…well, No Man's Land was her home now, whether she liked it or not.

Meryl quickly launched herself into the story of how they'd found out that the blond buffoon was Vash because of a series of events involving an entire town hunting for him, and a wanted man coming after his head as well on top of that.

From there, things only got darker much more quickly: Vash quickly throwing them away from him as often and as quickly as he could because he had to fight a group of people and didn't want either one of them involved. Nicholas Wolfwood.

And then the blowing up of the fifth moon, and Vash's disappearance for two years.

And now, Vash had been spotted again, traveling with Wolfwood. They'd already saved his life from a man who was planning on killing him, and now they were planning on tracking his movements and maybe – just maybe – running into him again.

"So, you're basically following his movements?" Maria guessed after a moment.

"Somewhat." Millie shrugged. "We're technically on vacation, but that doesn't mean that we can't do our jobs." She grinned brightly.

"But we're not going to be getting paid for it," Meryl grumbled in reply. She sighed. "But that's to be expected when we're going after a man who's been labeled as the world's first human natural disaster."

"I wonder what it would take to get up to that point – without causing all the damage that Vash seems to cause wherever he goes," Maria added quickly when she saw the wide-eyed look that Meryl sent in her direction.

"Please don't do that, Maria-san," Millie said. "The planet is a dangerous enough place to be already!"

"She doesn't even have a weapon on her," Meryl pointed out to Millie. "And I'm not planning on giving you one." She gave Maria a pointed look.

Maria blinked, then shrugged. "Fine. Like I need one anyway."

"What – what kind of talk is that?!" Meryl stared at Maria. "Don't tell me you're like that samurai guy that Vash fought before—"

"No, not really. I'm not crazy enough to bring a sword to a gunfight." Maria waved a hand. "I've fought against people with swords with nothing but what I am, though, so I know how dangerous they can be."

Nothing but what I am…?

"What kind of an answer is—"

"If we ever end up running into trouble and I have to do something, you'll find out." Maria shrugged, appearing indifferent.

Meryl frowned at that. "That's not all that much of an answer."

"Well, it's all you're going to get now, I'm afraid. I don't have much reason to trust you besides the fact that you know Vash and that you are the first people who I have met on this planet. You may have shown me kindness, but from what you've described you make it sound like there's a chance that anyone I might run into could stab me in the back over one thing or another."

Maria shifted slightly, looking away from the two of them and out at the sandstorm that was rushing past them.

"That doesn't look like it's letting up anytime soon," she commented. "I'm going to rest up. I still feel groggy after being in cyrosleep for several centuries."

With that, Maria closed her eyes without another word.

Meryl and Millie exchanged looks worriedly.

"I mean, she does have a valid point," Millie said.

"But it sounds like we should be more cautious of her," Meryl pointed out. "I mean, 'what I am'? What kind of a statement is that?"

Millie shrugged. "Earth was probably a really strange place. Maybe she isn't even human?"

"Don't be ridiculous! She looks human!" Meryl paused at her own words.

"She can talk to Plants, like Vash-san can," Millie pointed out, unusually serious. Her expression brightened a moment later. "We might be overthinking things, though! So let's wait until Maria-san decides if she wants to tell us." She leaned back against the metal wall behind her. "I'm going to sleep too."

"Millie wai—"

It was too late, she was already asleep.

Meryl sighed irritably and shook her head. She would have to puzzle this out by herself for now.