A month passed. Vash was almost finished with the recreation room now that he
and the agents could devote their full time to it. Vash had just finished
transplanting some flowers from a hydroponics garden when Doc called him through
his new earring.
"Vash, the head of the planet's government investigations department is here and they
want to see you and Knives immediately."
Vash went to his room.
"Knives, the government's here. You know what to do. If you don't we're both
dead."
"Don't worry, Vash. I'll behave."
Knives turned off the encyclopedia article on brown recluse spiders. For along
time Knives had enjoyed the thought of his brother constantly fleeing for his
life from the humans he loved so much but Vash didn't deserve to build up any
more terrible scars. Even Knives had cringed when he saw them. Vash took his
brother by the hand and quickly walked through the hallways of the ship with him to a meeting room near the control center. Everybody had their story ready. Of course it wasn't just that the head of investigations was here. Positioned around the ship were several trucks filled with well armed soldiers. This was the best lead they had gotten
on Vash the Stampede and they weren't going leave any option open for him
getting away.
The head investigator was a red-haired middle-aged women with a short stocky
build. She wore a black Stetson hat , dark gray frock coat, steal blue shirt, and
blank pants. She had a stiff poker face and a static gaze that even made Knives
uneasy. Doc was seated at the table. The woman was accompanied by two
large male soldiers. She gestured that Knives and Vash take a seat at the table.
"I'm detective Carson and these are detectives Anderson and Saunders." The two
assistants sat down at the table but the broad-shouldered woman put her hands on
the edge of the table and remained standing. The two men could see the two
six-shooters on either side of her belt.
"We're here investigating a report that Vash the Stampede and his brother are
being housed here."
She looked at the two men coldly through her gray eyes, keeping track of every
muscle on their faces for any sign of fright or doubt. Vash could tell that
either of her black gloved hands could fire either one of those guns in an
instant.
"The mayor of this city told me that you are Kawaru and Yasai and you are
brothers. Is that correct?"
"That's correct ma'am," said Vash. "I'm Kawaru and this is my brother,
Yasai."
The investigator looked at the two brothers closely.
"I'm going to have to ask you two to remove your shirts."
The two men obediently took off their garment. She walked over and looked at the
burn scar on Vash's arm and the unusual copper bands on Knives arms.
"What are those arm bands you're wearing?" she asked Knives.
"I have a painful joint condition in my arms and since copper bracelets helped
my wrists so much I thought I'd try copper bands to help my elbows and
shoulders. They work great. I haven't had any pain for weeks," he said not
moving any extra muscle in his face.
"Its a folk remedy from the old planet. Doc said I should try it. It really works."
"And how did you get this scar on your arm, Mr. Kawaru?"
"It was during the plant transfer a few months ago. A technician was working on
a section of wall, he wasn't looking where he was going and I was stabbed with a
soldering iron."
She scanned the two men again, took a clean rag out of her pocket and dipped it
in a glass of water on the table. She walked over to Vash and rubbed his
shoulder with the cloth. She looked at the cloth. There was no sign of makeup.
"Stand up, please, " she asked him.
She looked at Vash's back and examined his hands closely. The creases in his
hands were the same.
"And you."
Knives stood up. She looked at the man briefly and examined his hands. "You both
can sit down and put your shirts on." They did. The woman set the cloth down and
crossed her arms.
"What's your story as to how you got here."
Vash spoke, "We've been told that we were found in the desert outside of Inepril
twenty four years ago. Some crew people found our parents killed by bandits. The
bandits had taken everything except for us. Apparently they weren't into the
slave trade. We don't know how old we are. Doc thought we might have been two
years old at the time. We don't remember anything except this ship."
She kept trying to stare through to the other side of their faces. Both of them
were the exact image of the man reported to be Vash the Stampede by the
residents of Kasted City. Many people had seen the outlaw. Huge scars, metal bolts in
his back; he looked terrible. The same man was reported to be Vash the Stampede
by that doctor from Stansberg. The doctor had been furious. He had had to send his
letter twice before he'd gotten any response. There were two agents helping Vash
the Stampede in that city. Vash had brought his brother back from the desert
with over a dozen bullet wounds between them, the doctor had said. The men were
declared dead from an allergic reaction (she didn't believe that for an
instant), and the agents and the bodies had disappeared that evening. The same
agents were now residents of this city, living next to these two men. These men
fit the description of Vash the Stampede exactly except for the fact that they were both almost completely uninjured. Huge scars and bullet wounds just don't go away after a
few months. Plastic surgery can only do so much. Someone with a mechanical arm
doesn't just grow their arm back. The residents of the ship hadn't gained any
new technologies, they'd just retained the old ones. Growing organs was beyond
them. This man called Kawaru showed no signs of injury beyond that burn scar, no
bullet wounds at all. The informant said he had shot Vash several times in an
attempt to apprehend him two months ago after Vash had beaten his brother close
to death. She thought this was going to be easy. Identify them by their wounds
and arrest them. Her men had a whole array of weapons underneath their coats
just waiting to be used.
"Have you ever been on the outside since you were brought here?"
"Yes, right after the fall we went to L.R. Town. That's where we got the copper
for those bands. Those insurance agents latched onto us there," said Knives.
"Why did you bring them here?"
"They were bored and we thought they were cute," said Knives.
"One's pregnant already," added Doc. The woman looked at the doctor.
"When's she due?"
"About 5 months."
That fit. Every bit of data on board the ship fit their story.
"When you were out there, what did you hear about Vash the Stampede?"
"The agents told us he looked a lot like us but he got away from them outside
L.R. Town. They thought we were cuter than him, so they decided to follow us for
a while. They're not exactly the most dedicated people if you know what I mean,
so if it weren't for Yasai's blunder with the big one we'd probably have left
them there."
Knives glared at his brother.
"You're still blundering with that small one aren't you?"
Vash didn't reply.
"They had brought the ladies back with them," detective Carson thought. So they
weren't womanizers of the worst kind. Maybe they were just unfortunate idiots. She still wondered if scars could lie.
"I'd like to see the two agents now," she announced.
"They're waiting in the next room," said Doc.
"You two wait here. Don't let them leave," said the detective to her two assistants. Doc showed her to the next room and accompanied her inside. Two very
different women were seated at the table. There was a small one with dark black
hair wearing a tight, red, short-sleeved top and a tiny black skirt. The large
one had her brown hair tied up into a pony tail with a large white bow. Her dark
blue dress hung closely to her ample frame and showed off her rounding belly.
"You are the insurance agents Meryl Strife and Milly Thompson?"
"Yes! We are!" said Milly smiling broadly at the detective.
"I'm Meryl and this is my partner Milly," said the smaller one as she took out a
brush and started to brush her short hair.
"We're detectives just like you, kind of," said Milly folding her hands on the
table.
"Where did you meet Kawaru and Yasai?" she asked. Meryl sighed loudly and set
her elbow on the table propping up her head in her hand.
"Well it was like this: we had just lost that idiot Vash and his even more of a
dork brother in Stansberg. It mean it was, like, so awful, we had just gotten
those two patched up in the hospital they just ditched us!"
"It was so totally awful," added Milly.
"And, like, they never said thanks, like not once, so we just decided to ditch
their dumb depressing lousy butts in return and have a nice party in L.R. Town
where we picked up those two hunky chunks I bet you've already met! Man they
really just drove me wild when I saw them! Like, okay, Yasai is really into
herbal remedies and stuff which is really dumb since this is a desert planet but
Milly here thought he was a stud and she's proved he is so here we are."
Milly spoke up, "This is a way nifty place to be. It's niftily air conditioned
and you don't need money for anything and there are all these pretty things with
colored lights that glow and the food is good too. They have kiniwinwis and
cantalantolope and all kinds of stuff we've never seen before! Are you going to
stay for dinner?"
Inside the detective, her guts turned at the thought of all the money Bernardelli was wasting on these two nitwits.
"Bernardelli said you two hadn't written a new report for about three months.
Why am I supposed to believe that you two didn't run away with Vash the Stampede
and his brother?"
"Because, like, did you read our reports? Man that guy has all this freaky crap
happening to him every where and, like, I was just getting Sick. Of. It. I
needed some SPACE."
Meryl stood up and spread her arms out demonstrating space to the detective.
"There's lots of SPACE here."
Meryl set her hands down on her hips.
"And so, like, when they took off, we took off and we just ended up here. Pretty
nifty, eh?"
Meryl sat down as Milly cocked her head and leaned forward looking at the
detective.
"Oh, wow, that is a really cute shirt. Where did you get it? It really makes you
look powerful, yet feminine. It's really nifty."
"I think we've made a mistake coming here, Doctor," said detective Carson. "I
wish you the best of luck with these two; I really do feel for you. I strongly
suggest that those two men don't go back outside this ship until we've captured
Vash the Stampede. With a sixty billion double dollar bounty mistakes are easy
to make."
The detective collected her two assistants from the other room and Doc showed
her out of the ship. Meryl, Milly, Vash, Knives, and Doc watched from an
observation window as the detective boarded one of the troop trucks and the
entire convoy of eleven trucks and six tanks drove away.
"It's finally over for you, Vash," said Doc as he patted Vash on the back. Tears
were in Vash's eyes. He pressed his hands to the glass as he saw the convoy
getting smaller and smaller in the distance.
"I think we should celebrate," said Doc.
"Vash, know how I'm going to celebrate?"
Vash's body froze into position. Doc's and Milly's did as well. Meryl fell to
the ground. Knives picked her up and carried her down the hall, speaking directly into Vash's mind.
"You took away my angel arms, Vash, but the plant told me how I could use my
telekinesis without any build up of power. You didn't think I was unconscious
the whole time in there, did you? You're free, Vash. I behaved. I gave you what
you wanted and now you'll give me mine. This little one's been useful for a human. Useful spiders can make useful webs. You don't deserve to have both of them. I'm going to be extra nice to you, Vash. I'm going to leave almost all of the other humans alone. I'm going to find the ones who beat me and kill them. You killed the man who threatened Meryl and Milly. It's only fair that I deliver retribution on my attackers. Don't come after me. I can keep you and everyone on this ship like this forever if I wanted to."
After a few minutes of silence Vash saw Knives walk out of the ship away over the rocky
landscape carrying a small bag on his back and holding Meryl unconscious in his arms. Knives released Vash and the others from their frozen position an hour later. Vash ran
to the ship entryway as fast as he could. Just before he reached the door he was
frozen again.
"I'm not going to let you try, Vash. Remember that cave we found about two
iles from here when we were in the desert. The one with the spring close to the
entrance? It'll make a cozy home."
Vash backed away from the entrance and tried to run to the control panel. He was
frozen every time he tried to get near it. The last time he ran towards the door
he was flung hard against the opposite wall.
"Stop fighting Vash. You can't win."
Vash went up one floor and looked outside of the ship. The guards on duty at the entrance gate were slumped over. Had Knives killed them?
"No, I didn't kill the slugs, you idiot. Those humans are yours. If you send any
of them out to find us they will die."
Vash radioed Doc.
"Doc can you open the entryway from the control room? I can't get to them down
here. Knives won't let me near the door."
"I'll check." A few moments later the doctor radioed back to him.
"Vash, I can't get near the controls either. I can't open the doors from here. Should I send someone down to help you?"
"Tell everyone to stay away, Doc. Knives will kill them if they try to leave."
"Understood, Vash."
Vash went back down to the entrance. Every time he tried to get out he was
thrown back against the wall.
"You took Rem away from me, Knives. I'm not going to let you get Meryl."
"Yes, you are, Vash, and just like before there's nothing you can do about it.
All the other humans except the ones who hurt me are yours. I'll kill them and
Meryl will help me. Legato agreed to help me exterminate the humans right away. He recognized my superior powers immediately. She'll call me her master eventually."
Vash could feel the anger growing in him again. He lay down on the ground and panted, tears welling up in his eyes. He tried to think of Rem, her voice, her laughter. He tried to get to the entrance again and was frozen in place just before he touched the control for the door.
"I won't hurt her, Vash. I'm being completely truthful."
Knives threw his brother across the hallway. The pain of hitting the wall brought out more of the anger in him. His nerves twitched with anticipation. It was hopeless. The more Vash tried, the madder he got. He couldn't do it; he couldn't risk doing that again. Vash lay down on against the far wall.
"I've given her her mind back Vash. She's very loyal to you."
Vash screamed, "Don't do this, Knives. Don't hurt her. Bring her back, please."
Vash trembled on the ground, his last shreds of sanity breaking.
"Stop it Knives, bring her back."
"You don't deserve someone as loyal as she is. She reminds me a lot of Legato."
Vash thought he could hear Meryl screaming.
"I'll come back with her once we're done killing those humans. After tonight it
won't be long before she'll help me. I'll tell you how the evening goes."
Meryl's screaming got louder and louder in Vash's head. Vash's connection with
reality snapped.
"What? You?" were the lasts words he heard from Knives.
All Vash could do was tremble on the floor curled up against the wall, his deadly aching arms tucked against his chest as he thought of Rem, and her song and her warm laughter. She was there in front of him. He was floating in the clouds now with Rem, wasn't he?