Another month passed before Knives was ready to come out of the plant, but one evening Suzume descended from the center of the bulb with Knives and tapped on the glass. Vash, Knives, and Meryl turned up from their card game and
saw the large plant being holding Knives. He was completely healed. A few weeks before, Vash had finished refurbishing another room to hold Knives. He also had started to work on fixing the recreation room after it was left to grow wild for 80 years. Meryl and Milly had been very willing helpers but there was much more work to be done before the recreation room would be ready for a plant being.
Knives was unconscious as Suzume handed him out to Vash. Vash had asked her to
leave him unconscious when he was ready to be taken out so he could wake up in
familiar surroundings. Vash wrapped his brother in a blue sheet, leaving his
head uncovered. He picked his brother up in his arms and quickly left the room.
Knives' new room was located on the plant floor. The hallway to the storage area
had many people busily walking through even at this late hour. Meryl and Milly
cleared a passage while Vash followed with his brother. Knives' hair had grown
out and to many people who saw his face he was imperceptibly different from Vash.
Vash carried Knives to a room that had been used to store spare inter-ship
communication equipment. Doc had decided to sell and trade a lot of their
unneeded equipment to the outside and now several of the equipment rooms were
emptied. Much of Doc's time was now spent in negotiations with the planet government
for various kinds of lost technology.
Vash placed his brother on a real bed. It had a pillow, burgundy sheets and a
blanket with a kip-kip bird that Milly had sewn. There was also a table in the room with three chairs and the walls had been painted a light cream color. On one side of the room was an electronic encyclopedia set and a computerized display device. A bed with dark
blue bedding was on the other side of the room. Vash sat with Knives on his bed
while Meryl and Milly waited at the table. Knives woke up in a few minutes and
stared at his brother.
"Where were you?" he asked telepathicaly.
Vash rolled up the sleeve on his left arm and responded in the telepathic plant speech.
"I was shot seven times in the plant room. Suzume pulled me into her plant. She
healed me. I didn't know anything had happened to you. The man who shot me ..."
"... was human of course."
" ... was one of the men who got to you. They drugged Milly and used her to get
to your room. James, Kevin, and Meryl found you."
"I remember them. They came too late."
"You didn't let them help you."
"I was beyond help."
"Meryl told me about you when I came out of the plant. Suzume agreed to help
you. She said she'd help any friend of mine. You're healed now Knives."
Knives sat up in his bed, looked at his arms and flexed his fingers and toes.
Several of his toes had been missing the last time he looked. Knives glanced
around the room and saw Meryl and Milly exchanging wary glances at the table.
Vash hadn't fastened Knives down this time.
"You've done a lot with the place. How long has it been?"
"About two months. We're on a different floor. The girls helped me set it up."
"Why aren't they saying anything?" Milly whispered to Meryl.
"Shhh," whispered Meryl.
Knives smiled at the two hopeless humans. He really couldn't take such pathetic
people seriously.
"Where is the scum that beat me?"
"They've been banished to the outside."
"Of course you wouldn't kill them."
"I almost killed everybody."
"Vash?"
Vash pushed up his other sleeve. There was a fist sized red burn scar
surrounding a puncture scar on his upper arm.
"I made an extra dampener. Meryl put it on my arm before I could fire."
"That must have hurt."
"YES IT DID."
"Why did you do it? What happened to love and peace?"
"You were beaten to shreds. I lost control. I wanted to die. Meryl tried to stop
me from killing myself after the angel arm effect went away."
"My opinion of the little one is beginning to improve Vash. Maybe she is a
useful spider."
Knives looked over at Meryl. For a human she really seemed feeble. The other one
didn't seem as wretched except when you tried to talk to her.
"Did Meryl have that Mr. Happy Coffee apron on?"
"I don't remember."
"Probably not."
"Knives, I don't want to have to tie you down again. We have to declare a truce.
You wont hurt or kill any more humans and I wont lock you down to your bed."
"Agreed."
"You won't have to wait here long. Maybe another month. I'll have the recreation
room working by then. You can stay in there."
Knives looked back at Meryl.
"Vash, does that little one look a bit like Rem to you?"
"Yes, she does," Vash said out loud.
"Hunh? What? Did I do something wrong?" Meryl said, startled by the sudden
speech and the strange gaze of the two men.
They didn't reply. Knives' gaze turned to Milly.
"The large one comes in handy too, doesn't she?" he said in the plant language.
"Yes, she does," Vash said out loud looking at the larger agent.
Milly giggled slightly and gave Meryl a very confused look.
"What are you two doing?" asked Meryl.
"Nothing," said Vash.
"You're enjoying this aren't you Vash?" said Knives silently.
"They've been following me everywhere. A man needs a little privacy." Vash replied in the same fashion.
"What is it that we both do?" Meryl asked, looking over as the two men smiled at
her.
"Many things, many things," said Knives out loud.
"Like what?" said Meryl, her eyes widening. "What have you been telling him,
Vash?"
"Did you hear anything about them, Knives?" asked Vash.
"No, I didn't hear anything."
"You just said 'Yes she does'," said Meryl.
"Did I?"
"You did, Vash," said Knives, "Odd, I didn't hear anything before that though. Are you feeling okay, Vash?"
"Just fine, Knives."
"They are fun to play with aren't they, Vash?" said Knives silently to his brother.
"Yes, they are."
Meryl grabbed Vash's arm and hauled him up off the bed.
"What are you doing, Vash?" she demanded.
"Nothing at all. I'm just sitting with my brother."
"They have a way of making the rest of the world go away, don't they?" said Knives silently.
"Yes they do," said Vash to the room. Meryl screamed and Milly grabbed her before the little agent could land a prepared kick on Vash's leg.
"
I see why the large one is useful."
"Are you feeling better, Knives?" asked Milly as Meryl continued to flail her
appendages in Vash's direction.
"I'm feeling fine, Milly. I assume I'm quarantined here until you're done with
the recreation room?"
Meryl stopped flailing and Milly released her.
"What? How did you know about the recreation room? ARRG. I give up. Let's go to
bed, Milly."
"Vash, talking like this is fun but you should read their minds. I think you'd
be surprised to know what these two are really thinking."
The inner door to the room closed behind the two women and the outer door opened. The insurance agents had a room right next door. Between the two rooms they shared
an intercom that emitted a loud beep whenever the doors to the boys' room opened. The women walked back to the plant room, gathered their things and settled down in their new room for the evening. Back in the men's room, Vash sat down on his bed.
"Why don't you read their minds, Vash? It doesn't hurt your humans."
"Because I like them and I want them to keep liking me."
"Don't you want to know how the humans really feel?"
"I already know. These two aren't afraid of me. Meryl wasn't afraid of me even
when I was about to kill her. I don't want to talk about this any more."
"Fine, but the big one is pregnant. She thought about her baby a lot just now."
"It definitely wasn't me, Knives. You remember that Gung-Ho Gun you sent out to
chaperone me?"
"The priest? You're not kidding, are you?"
"No. I can hear him sometimes. Like he's still talking to me, just like you are
now. I don't know how."
"You had his cross."
"I left it there. You were more important."
"Her kid will be just like us, Vash, no father, and a pathetic human mother
living in a hunk of metal surrounded by people who will always regard it as an
outsider. Do you want that to happen, Vash?"
"What are you saying, Knives? When are you concerned about anyone's family?"
"They make you happy. I didn't want to kill Rem because you really loved her.
These two are like that, even that little one. Besides, they are fun to play
with."
"I love a lot of people Knives, a lot of people that were killed here because of
you. I don't want to hear about you getting concerned over some 'pathetic
insect's' baby. I don't know what you're really thinking, Knives, but I don't
want to hear it."
"Goodnight, Vash."