I do not own Vash the Stampede, Rem Saverem, Nicholas D. Wolfwood, Milly Thompson, Meryl Stryfe, etc: they all belong to the incomparable Mr. Yasuhiro Nightow.

It occurs to me that Vash -might- compose letters in his mind as the way that he re-examines his day, unwinds, and learns any lessons he can from it.

This is an attempt to blend the tales in both manga and anime. Anywhere there is contradicting information, the manga's will be used. I use manga dates where they are given. Where dates are not given, I'm using my best guesstimate.

As the various "Unwritten Letters" accumulate, there will be more and more spoilers.

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Escape

Year 113, month 4, day 28, evening

Dear Rem,

I had dozed off, sitting in that prison cell.

It hurt, Rem. Thankfully, as Doc promised, none of the bullets had gone into my body. However, the impact still hurt. I will probably have quite the collection of bruises for the next few days.

The beating the father of the dead girl gave me wasn't fun, either.

Since I had not yet determined a course of action, regarding how I would escape, I was resting a little.

An explosion woke me.

Quite a bit of debris landed on me, which didn't feel good with the many bruises I already had. I thought I heard Wolfwood's voice calling me an idiot, bonehead, moron, buffoon, and so forth.

Then there was a yank on my ankle, and he pulled me out from under the debris.

Now that I could see him clearly, there was no mistake. This was definitely young Wolfwood. He was riding a motorcycle, and yelling insults at me as fast as he could.

When he paused for breath, he saw the Fris man from the sand steamer. "You probably have family waiting for you, huh?" he said. "Go on."

I began to compliment Wolfwood, to say that he really is a nice person. But he clapped his hand over my mouth before I could get the words out.

"Idiot!" he said. "Don't misunderstand me! You're way too optimistic about how you view the world. It's like you're wearing rose-colored glasses. Keep pushing your luck, like you did today, and one of these times it won't work."

He added, "A day will come when you will have to choose."

We'd had this conversation before. He meant that, one day, I would be compelled to kill someone.

I hope he's mistaken. If I do that, I'll be no different from Knives.

I don't want to be that kind of a person, Rem.

I learned this evening that Wolfwood cares, even though he really doesn't like to admit it.

It's so nice to have a friend who understands me, even if it's only for a little while.

I miss you, Rem.

- Vash "the Stampede"