Disclaimer: I didn't invent Trigun, but I sure do appreciate the one who did. I do this with all respect to him and all the Trigun fans. Enjoy!

Ryoko watched as Vash walked towards the girls a few more steps. The blue haired demon strained her hearing a bit more to listen to their conversation.

"And what if I was Vash the Stampede?" he asked the blonde.

"Then I'd have to arrest you." She answered quaintly.

She then moved in closer to Millie and Maryl.

"I guess this means your job is done as well." She asked.

They both laughed nervously as Maryl waved off the question.

"Actually this means we're back to square one." She said with discontent.

As this was occurring Vash took this time to walk away.

"Hey! Why are you leaving?" the blonde asked with disappointment in her eyes and voice.

"My job here is done." He said, not turning back, but gave a small wave.

"There goes the body guard with no name; I could really fall for a guy like that." The blond said.

Maryl stared back in shock as she realized she was talking about the lanky man, with the upside-down hair cut, droopy eyes, whose nuts for donuts and gorges them like a starved hog in heat; the man with the red trench coat in thousand degrees weather and goofy sunglasses.

Ryoko needed to hear no more because her target was on the move. It took her a few seconds to realize he was talking. At first she thought he was talking to her, but the tone was too low and she then realized he was talking to himself.

"I was so sure it was going to work out this time, she was such a cutie. Well, I guess it wouldn't have worked out anyways. I don't want to get arrested. And this'll probably be blamed on me too! Aw man!" he said and then gave a big sigh.

Ryoko looked back and noticed because of the water factory exploding, that almost the entire town was submerged in water. She gave a slight smirk on Vash's behalf and was going to continue her pursuit when she realized he had suddenly stopped. He raised a closed fist to his mouth and then cleared his throat.

"You know, since we're both obviously going in the same direction, we could walk together." He said in a toneless voice.

At first Ryoko was shocked and a bit surprised; then she smiled, disappeared and then reappeared beside him on the lone desert grounds.

"You know, you've got to show me how to do that trick sometime Ryoko." He said in almost a child like manner.

She gave a sigh and commenced to walk with Vash. Silence prevailed as she chose to walk in silence as she watched the sands be whisked away by the prevailing Westerly Winds.



They arrived into a small town the next morning. They had walked several blocks before Vash finally stopped and looked at Ryoko.

"You're not gonna follow me, are you?" he asked nervously.

The blue haired demon gave him a disgusted look and looked away.

"What makes you think I'd want to follow your stupid tail around all day?" she asked.

When she looked back at him he was already ten feet ahead of her. He waved happily back.

"Well, it was great seeing you again. Take care of your self!" he called back.

His voice was just a little too cheery for her liking. Her brows flattened.

'That was quick.' She thought to herself with a frown.

She followed him and he only slowed down once, and that was so he could reply to someone calling his name. It was the tall chick from the insurance company, and the short one was still with her.

'What was her name again? Martha? Miranda?' she was thinking so intently for the girl's name that she hardly noticed the man being thrown from the bar.

He was being thrown from the bar just as Vash was walking past. She didn't even see that the lush was thrown right into Vash and that Vash was knocked into a feeding trough. She looked back in time to see him pull him self out. The seemed distraught as he sat covered in a clumpy food substance. The man who ran into Vash called to him. He was complaining about being hurt when ever Vash plowed into him. Then he said Vash could make it up to him by buying him a drink. Ryoko's eyes lit up.

'Drinks!' she thought happily.

Vash tried to get away from the obviously drunk man, but the man proceeded to pursue him and finally ended Vash's get-away by wrapping his body around him. Vash struggled to get away from the wino's drunken embrace. The insurance chicks walked by and observed the scene.

"Hey, Maryl? Aren't we gonna help him?" the tall one asked.

"That's just sick Millie, let's go." Maryl said, ignoring her friend's question.

"But Maryl." she pressed.

"Let him work out his own problems." Maryl said and began walking away.

Millie reluctantly followed as she gave Vash one last wave goodbye.

"Hey! Insurance girls! Wait up! HELP ME! Awww! How can you just leave me like this? GIRLS!!?" he cried after them.

Ryoko then stood just above his head. No one in the crowd forming around them saw her appear. Vash then looked very slowly up and then gave a high-pitched scream at seeing her.

"Ryoko! You've gotta help me!" he said in a shamefully pathetic tone, one only found in the desperate.

She then gave him a smile.

"Only on one condition..." The smile grew wider and looked slightly sinister from his point of view.

Ryoko and the drunk led Vash through the double doors of a bar. She sat them both down before taking a seat for herself. Vash looked at her through narrowed eyes, one of them twitched ever so often.

"How very kind of you to find us a seat." He said in a low, flat tone.

"My pleasure." She said with a devious smile.

"She's beautiful, man!" the wino said to Vash before looking to the heavy set woman who working behind the bar.

"Bring us the best booze ya got!" he called to her in drawl happiness.

"Ya got money?" she asked, her voice filled with irritancy and malice.

"Yeah! My boy here's a son-of-a-millionaire!" he replied.

Vash held up his hands and waved furiously; his face flushed and tinted red along his cheeks.

"Don't listen to him ma'am! Just bring us the cheapest you've got!" the humanoid typhoon called to her urgently.

Ryoko sat back in her seat as glasses came and a bottle was sitting in the center. The wino reached in quickly and began the filling of his glass. Then woman stood next to Vash, her features pulled together with distrust and already a disliking of the stranger and his bimbo looking friend with the blue hair.

"Mister, we don't like to have trouble around here. I'm gonna have to hold your piece for you." She said to Vash in regards to his gun.

Vash didn't seem to be bothered at all by the request and pulled out his gun easily. He released the barrel's opening, causing the bullets to fly into the air. In one swift movement he caught the bullets midair, stuck them in his pocket, closed the chamber and then handed it solemnly to the woman. The woman looked at the gun for a moment.

"That's a mighty fine gun you got there? Where'd you get it?" she asked.

Vash smiled sheepishly.

"It sure is; it was given to me." He said just as sheepishly.

Ryoko had seen the wino's face, for the first time, grow serous.

"No it's not." He said simply, his voice unhindered by the alcohol's influence.

Vash's cheeks reddened slightly.

"You're right! It's off by about three inches at only ten yards. You really must know your guns!" he said, his voice filled with admiration.

The wino said nothing as he took another drink.

"Hey Grandma!" Vash called to the woman, but then quickly realized his error and changed his approach.

".I mean. Nice young lady.Have you heard of a Frank Marlin? I heard he was famous around these parts." He asked a sweetly as possible.

"Yeah? He was a local hero. A bunch a bandits terrorized this town until he made us all guns and showed us how to use them and how the fight. Ran them right out. What's it to you?" she asked in her usual tone of distaste.

"Well, I heard he was a master gun-smith and I was kinda hoping he could fix my old heap." He said with a smile.

"I wouldn't trust him with it, his liable to sell it to buy booze." before she could finish her sentience the wino had threw his glass at the bar.

Vash watched as the man before him looked away in shame and the woman had a similar look about her. Ryoko only looked on in wonder. Ryoko looked off somewhere into space as the lush took away Vash's glass and said something about not needing to find him; he was a 'nobody'. Ryoko looked back in time to see Vash smile kindly and pore the man another drink. The man looked on with astonishment and silence was once more at the table. Every once and a while Ryoko would glance at the man's nails: which were un- kept and unclean. She noticed Vash had noticed it too, but she doubted that he was feeling the same as she did about it.

It was several hours and six bottles later. Vash, the wino with the dirty fingernails, and Ryoko sat on the table singing old songs when the woman finally threw them out. All three were lined up in a row as they walked out and Vash insisted on turning the crowd around.

"Hey! Hey Grandma! Gimmie. gimmie back my gun!" Vash stuttered to the bar- tender.

The gun then came whizzing out the door and smacked him in the forehead before ricocheting into the air. Vash's head had snapped back from the blow.

"Bro, what happened?" the wino asked and Ryoko looked on with lazy eyes.

"Gee, I donno. My head all-a-sudden started hurtin'." He said slurred.

"That's not good." The wino replied.

At that point Vash twisted his wrist so that his hand was palm up as he caught his gun.

"Nope it's not." He said and the whole line turned once again to head back to his house.

"Want some more? I got some at my house. You're more then welcome to come." He said looking at Ryoko.

She shook her head.

"I'm not into spendin' da night at weird guys' houses, know what I'm sayin'?" she asked as she pulled away from Vash.

A flash of concern went through his eyes and she gave him a smile, a wink and then a thumbs-up.

"Don't worry bout me fellas, I'm gonna be just dandy!" she said turning and leaving for a hotel.

"Okay! Bye-bye!" the lush waved happily after her.

Vash said his goodbyes and they were soon out of hearing distance.



The ruckus of the next day hadn't wakened Ryoko till most of it had already started. She woke up with the usual hang-over and stumbled groggily over to the window. As she watched out the window she saw Vash walk towards a bunch of men that were robbing the bank. She blinked several times and tried to focus more.

'Is Vash wearing a trash-can lid on his head?' she asked herself in wonder.

Vash was wearing a trash can lid on his head.

Ryoko yawned and then leaned on the seal.

Vash hit his feet together, when he did a large blade snapped out of his boot. He then did a swift movement upward and sliced what looked like the get-away car the robbers were using. Vash looked at it sadly, as if just noticing it and then replied that they had a flat tire. The other guy claimed to be Vash the Stampede and Vash replied that Vash looked better.

Ryoko yawned again and when she looked back Vash and the ugly talk man with the goggles were in a stand off.

It was clearly a showdown between two gun slingers; him with his large rifle and Vash with the gun hidden and erected in his coat pocket.

Ryoko stretched and then absent-mindedly scratched at her side. She looked back to see all the village people with guns. She watched as the guy's gun mutated into a bigger gun, but then the man she supposed was Frank Marlin (the wino) appeared behind him and the ugly man ended up running away and tripping over his friends while he made idle threats to those he ran from.

The gun that he supposable held to the gunman's head was actually his index finger, and claimed it to be unloaded. Vash laughed and said the same as he pulled his index finger out from his coat pocket. They laughed and Ryoko decided it was time to get dressed and find breakfast.

There was a big party down at the bar that night and Ryoko couldn't turn down a free drink. She watched as Vash spun around in his chair, yelling happily towards the town's victory. He then stuck out his glass to the bar-tender and asked for "grandma" to fill-her-up. She brought the glass pitcher down on his head and he asked more politely the second time around.

'The gun smith and Vash seemed to get along fairly well.' She thought, even though she felt bad about not being able to establish that kind of relationship with people.

She was quick to shrug it off with another drink. She was quick to leave when she saw Vash had left the building. She was quick to down the drink as she jumped up and knocked over her chair. No one noticed, however, as she rushed to the door. She got a glimpse, as she ran towards the door as it swayed open and closed on its loose hinge, of Frank Marlin handing Vash a refurnished gun; Vash's refurnished gun. As Ryoko opened the door she heard Frank ask Vash his name. To her horror Vash's head seemed to swell, as his lips puckered, cheeks swelled and his entire features seemed to over exaggerate the need to relieve some type of pressure. Before the realization took hold of her, and before her brain could react with the message of warning from her realization, Vash turned to the wall of the bar and began vomiting. Ryoko's face flushed, and was riddled with blue tents. Her enlarged eyes twitched and her mouth dropped out of horror. She quickly turned and leaned one hand on one of the porches support beams and the other rested on her thigh as she began to feel a little queasy herself.

"You drink too much." Frank said.

"I'm sorry!" Vash cried.



The next day Vash was still walking the desert, his large nap-sack thrown over one shoulder and his large red trench coat blowing in the breeze. Maryl and Millie were not too far behind them on the weird animals they rode.

"I don't care what you say Millie, we're not following him! We just happen to be traveling in the same direction, that's all." Maryl said indignantly.

"Just admit it, you're worried about him aren't you Maryl." Millie smiled to her.

Maryl just frowned.

"I know of someone who's following him." She said and then turned to look at the Blue Haired Demon that was once walking beside them.

Ryoko was now hovering several feet above the ground and was eye level with Millie and Maryl on their strange creatures. Ryoko floated with her legs tucked lazily behind her, her shoulders hunched, with her arms dangling in front of her and head slightly lowered. Maryl uttered a gasp.

"Uh. uh. uh." she began to stutter.

Ryoko turned her weary glance to Maryl. A frown was set deep into her features, her eyes were droopy and bags seemed to be appearing below them.

"What?" she asked in a mixture of annoyance and drawl.

"You.why...how... you're floating!!?" Maryl managed to stammer.

"That's because I'm tired of walking!" Ryoko said in a tone that suggested that she should've known this by now.

Ryoko's eyes were narrowed towards her, then gave a sigh as she saw Maryl's facial expression didn't change in the slightest and continued to watch Vash's back.

"I wish we could fly, and then we wouldn't have to ride these smelly things any more. Right, Maryl?" Millie said in her usual child-like voice.

Maryl's disturbed gaze continued on Ryoko and never faltered.

How was that? I really enjoy making these fan-fics! But in order to make them better, I must have feed back, whither good or bad. Thanx to all those who are dedicated readers! The next chapter should be coming soon!