Chapter 6
Vash awoke with a splitting headache. "Ohh," he moaned, raising a hand to his head. Or, he tried to raise his hand anyway. For some reason it wasn't responding. "Now listen, you," Vash told his arm silently but sternly. "You better do what I tell you to or there'll be trouble!" The arm still refused to respond. Vash risked opening his eyes and was rewarded by a fresh stab of pain in his head. He quickly squeezed his eyes closed again.
"Well, that was a bad idea. But where the hell am I?" He carefully opened his eyes again, this time going very slowly, and managed to take in a few of his surroundings before the pain forced him to close his eyes. He was in a small room with stone walls, and there was a dim light bulb hanging from the ceiling. There were no windows and no furniture, apart from the cot he was lying on, and the door was heavy and barred. "Well, this is a fine mess," Vash thought sadly. "Guess I'm just too trusting sometimes, just like Wolfwood always told me. Ah well, I suppose it's probably bounty hunters who have me, and they haven't killed me yet, so that's a good sign... If I go to jail maybe the Insurance Girls can get me out!" Vash paused in his train of thought. "Wait, they'd never do that. I'm sure that the authorities wouldn't post bail, I'm too 'dangerous' for that, and there's no way they'd spring me from jail, it's illegal! I guess I'll just end up sitting in a cell for the rest of my life. Or, maybe I can escape when whoever captured me tries to move me! Yeah! That's a great idea!" Vash grinned and began formulating plans.
Strategy 1 - Fake a stomach ache and butt the guard in the head... No, that'd never work, no one ever fell for that anymore...
Strategy 2 - Use his left arm gun to break through the wall... Vash experimentally flexed his left arm, feeling the familiar gears and machinery responding, and then it stopped. His face fell. Apparently they had bound up his arm. Plan 2, out the window...
Strategy 3 - Jump around screaming and try to make the guards think he'd gone crazy...
The door creaked open. Vash stealthily opened one eye a slit, and bore the pain long enough to see two men walk purposefully into the room. The first was a heavily built man clad in leather, his arms so thick they were nearly bursting from his sleeves. He had short blond hair and a goatee, and wore a scowl. There were several weapons hanging from his belt, but no guns - most seemed to be rounded sticks with blades set into them at angles. This man, Big Brawny as Vash decided to call him, entered and checked the room's corners, then walked over and began to fiddle around with something below Vash's line of sight on the cot. Vash felt cords tighten around his midsection, legs, arms, neck, wrists and ankles. "So that's why I can't move," he thought as the second man approached the doorway.
"Everything is secure, Master Kiyoi," Big Brawny said in a gravelly voice. Vash suspected that he had been drinking too much whiskey. The man known as Kiyoi strode into the room elegantly, and Vash's eyes opened a bit wider. He forgot about his pain as he watched his strange visitor. Kiyoi was dressed entirely in white, from slacks and a loose-fitting shirt to a cape which billowed behind him as he walked. Even his hair was white, but his eyes were midnight black. It seemed as if the man's pupils had swallowed his irises, leaving only inky blackness.
"Bring me a chair, Rile," Kiyoi said smoothly, his voice smooth but with an edge as sharp as a razor. "I would speak with our guest." The man turned his blank eyes on Vash, who immediately squeezed his eyes shut and feigned sleep. He heard a rasping, and assumed that Big Brawny had dragged in a chair, and then he heard the door swing softly shut. "I know that you are awake, Vash the Stampede," Kiyoi whispered. Vash could feel his breath on his face. He must be sitting very close.
"Hmm. Perhaps you need a little incentive to open your eyes," the man said coolly, and Vash heard the sound of metal being freed from a sheath.
"Ok! Ok! I'm awake!" Vash snapped open his eyes and grinned at his captor, who was holding a knife with a wickedly curved blade over his face. "You're uh, not going to use that thing, are you?" Vash asked nervously, watching the knife as it swayed back and forth. Kiyoi paused for a moment, then slid the knife into a sheath at his side.
"No, I can't kill you, Vash the Stampede. I have... uses for you."
"Oh, you're after that silly reward too?" Vash said, smiling. "They really should recall that, I'm certainly not worth $$60 billion!"
"Oh, and modest to boot!" Kiyoi said sarcastically. "It seems that all the things I have heard about you are true. I am not, as you put it, 'after that silly reward.' I have a proposition of sorts for you."
"Oh? Well you know, I might be a little more willing to help you if you'd untie me, Mr. Kiyoi," Vash said hopefully. "These ropes or whatever are really annoying, and I've got this headache..."
"Ah yes. That would be from the anesthesia I had my young apprentice administer to you. It will fade... in time. Unfortunately I cannot release you from your bonds, not yet, at any rate. You see, if you decide not to take me up on my generous offer, I am afraid that we will need to use other methods to persuade you. You WILL be helping me, Vash the Stampede, whether you choose to do so of your own free will or not. The choice is up to you."
"Umm... ok? Well, I guess I would kinda need to know what this offer is before I could make a decision..." Vash was starting to feel more and more uneasy. Kiyoi hadn't taken his blank eyes from Vash's once, and their inky depths were starting to seriously disturb him. There was something about them that reminded him of Knives.
"It's rather simple, Vash the Stampede," Kiyoi said as he leaned back in his chair and folded his hands in front of his face. "I want you to kill."
* * *
Four hours later, Ano Kiyoi walked out of the dungeons wiping blood from his hands and smirking. Rile bowed to him as he passed, then followed in his master's footsteps. "Did it work, Master Kiyoi?" Rile asked after a moment, and the man dressed in white laughed horribly.
"Oh yes, the machine worked exactly as it was supposed to. I shall have to give Dr. Kamiyui a raise when all this is over." Kiyoi chuckled, and Rile gripped one of his shatas nervously. It was rare to see his master in so fine a mood. It made him feel uneasy.
"I now have the ultimate weapon in my hands, and nothing shall stop me from achieving my goals. Vash the Stampede is on our side, and all the towns of Gunsmoke shall tremble in fear of our coming!" Kiyoi laughed evilly as he pulled the doors to the great chamber closed between himself and his bodyguard. Rile stood in front of the door and tossed a shata from hand to hand nervously. It would begin soon... He hoped he was on the right side.
* * *
Wolfwood paced back and forth in the kitchen, muttering curses to himself and throwing occasional dark glances at Knives, who sat looking out the window. Meryl and Millie were both standing in front of the door with their arms crossed.
"We're not letting you leave without us, Wolfwood, and that's that!" Meryl exclaimed for the hundredth time that morning. "There's no telling what trouble that pea-brained idiot had gotten himself into this time, and we can't just sit here knowing that he might be in trouble!"
"That's exactly why I can't take you!" Wolfwood yelled, slamming his hand down on the table. "I don't want you to be in danger, and if Vash is involved, you know there's bound to be trouble!"
"We've been around Vash a lot longer than you have," Meryl said stubbornly. "And we're still alive. Besides, you don't even have a gun, Wolfwood! Millie and I are both armed, so we'd be much better candidates to go after him than you. You should be happy that we're even allowing you to tag along," she added with a satisfied smirk. Wolfwood's eye twitched. He had to restrain himself from reaching across the table to strangle her.
"I agree," Millie said vehemently. "If Mr. Vash is in trouble, I want to help him! It's what my big sister told me to do. And besides..." Here she paused a moment and glanced at him. "I don't want to lose you again, Mr. Priest! If you go wandering around after Mr. Vash, you might get yourself killed again- er, almost killed, or, well, injured at least, and I don't want that!" Wolfwood sighed and looked up at the ceiling.
"Give me patience," he muttered.
"I don't see the harm in bringing them, so long as they can keep up," Knives interjected smoothly. Wolfwood turned to him with a scathing look.
"And who asked you?" He snarled. Knives responded with a grin. Wolfwood threw up his hands in frustration and turned his back on the lot of them.
"Fine. Whatever. Come along if you like, but I can't guarantee that I can protect you all." He threw another glare at Knives. "And I'm telling you right now that I won't even TRY to protect YOU!" Knives shrugged. Millie jumped up and down and clapped her hands.
"Yay! Let's go and find Mr. Vash!" Wolfwood rolled his eyes.
"I'll need to stop in town and get a gun before we go anywhere," he said resignedly. "Do either of you have any money?"
"Now wait just a minute!" Meryl exclaimed angrily. "If you think that you're going to spend any of our hard-earned cash you're dead wrong, mister!" Wolfwood's eye twitched again. These girls were going to drive him insane. He just knew it.
"And how do you expect me to help you find Vash without a gun?! I certainly don't have any money, and I'll be damned before I go walking around in the desert without some protection!"
"Don't worry Meryl," Millie said happily. "We've got more than enough to buy Mr. Priest a new gun... It won't be quite as fancy as your old one, though," she added.
"I expected that," Wolfwood replied. "Just as long as it shoots lead bullets I'll be happy. Now we had better get a move on. Knowing Vash, he'll be damn near impossible to find, and I don't want you girls to be in any more danger than you have to be." Knives got to his feet.
"I'll need a gun as well," he said softly, and Wolfwood spun around.
"Ooh no, you don't," he hissed. "There's no way I'm letting you get your filthy paws on a gun! You'd shoot us all in the back before we even got out of the store!" Knives shrugged.
"Your loss. I suppose we should be going then." He paused for a moment, his ice blue eyes narrowed as he looked out the window. "Vash is somewhere to the west."
"How do you know that?" Meryl asked quietly, looking at Knives curiously. The man shrugged.
"I can feel it. I've always had a vague idea of where my brother is, but the closer I get, the less distinct the sense is. I suggest we hurry. We may be able to get some information from the humans along the way. The longer we wait, the less likely that prospect becomes." For once, Wolfwood agreed with Knives, but he didn't dare voice his assent. He wouldn't give him the pleasure.
"Let's get a move on," he said instead, and the girls obediently walked out the door. "I'm watching you, Knives," Wolfwood growled as he passed him. Knives just smiled in that condescending way of his and followed him out the door. 6
Vash awoke with a splitting headache. "Ohh," he moaned, raising a hand to his head. Or, he tried to raise his hand anyway. For some reason it wasn't responding. "Now listen, you," Vash told his arm silently but sternly. "You better do what I tell you to or there'll be trouble!" The arm still refused to respond. Vash risked opening his eyes and was rewarded by a fresh stab of pain in his head. He quickly squeezed his eyes closed again.
"Well, that was a bad idea. But where the hell am I?" He carefully opened his eyes again, this time going very slowly, and managed to take in a few of his surroundings before the pain forced him to close his eyes. He was in a small room with stone walls, and there was a dim light bulb hanging from the ceiling. There were no windows and no furniture, apart from the cot he was lying on, and the door was heavy and barred. "Well, this is a fine mess," Vash thought sadly. "Guess I'm just too trusting sometimes, just like Wolfwood always told me. Ah well, I suppose it's probably bounty hunters who have me, and they haven't killed me yet, so that's a good sign... If I go to jail maybe the Insurance Girls can get me out!" Vash paused in his train of thought. "Wait, they'd never do that. I'm sure that the authorities wouldn't post bail, I'm too 'dangerous' for that, and there's no way they'd spring me from jail, it's illegal! I guess I'll just end up sitting in a cell for the rest of my life. Or, maybe I can escape when whoever captured me tries to move me! Yeah! That's a great idea!" Vash grinned and began formulating plans.
Strategy 1 - Fake a stomach ache and butt the guard in the head... No, that'd never work, no one ever fell for that anymore...
Strategy 2 - Use his left arm gun to break through the wall... Vash experimentally flexed his left arm, feeling the familiar gears and machinery responding, and then it stopped. His face fell. Apparently they had bound up his arm. Plan 2, out the window...
Strategy 3 - Jump around screaming and try to make the guards think he'd gone crazy...
The door creaked open. Vash stealthily opened one eye a slit, and bore the pain long enough to see two men walk purposefully into the room. The first was a heavily built man clad in leather, his arms so thick they were nearly bursting from his sleeves. He had short blond hair and a goatee, and wore a scowl. There were several weapons hanging from his belt, but no guns - most seemed to be rounded sticks with blades set into them at angles. This man, Big Brawny as Vash decided to call him, entered and checked the room's corners, then walked over and began to fiddle around with something below Vash's line of sight on the cot. Vash felt cords tighten around his midsection, legs, arms, neck, wrists and ankles. "So that's why I can't move," he thought as the second man approached the doorway.
"Everything is secure, Master Kiyoi," Big Brawny said in a gravelly voice. Vash suspected that he had been drinking too much whiskey. The man known as Kiyoi strode into the room elegantly, and Vash's eyes opened a bit wider. He forgot about his pain as he watched his strange visitor. Kiyoi was dressed entirely in white, from slacks and a loose-fitting shirt to a cape which billowed behind him as he walked. Even his hair was white, but his eyes were midnight black. It seemed as if the man's pupils had swallowed his irises, leaving only inky blackness.
"Bring me a chair, Rile," Kiyoi said smoothly, his voice smooth but with an edge as sharp as a razor. "I would speak with our guest." The man turned his blank eyes on Vash, who immediately squeezed his eyes shut and feigned sleep. He heard a rasping, and assumed that Big Brawny had dragged in a chair, and then he heard the door swing softly shut. "I know that you are awake, Vash the Stampede," Kiyoi whispered. Vash could feel his breath on his face. He must be sitting very close.
"Hmm. Perhaps you need a little incentive to open your eyes," the man said coolly, and Vash heard the sound of metal being freed from a sheath.
"Ok! Ok! I'm awake!" Vash snapped open his eyes and grinned at his captor, who was holding a knife with a wickedly curved blade over his face. "You're uh, not going to use that thing, are you?" Vash asked nervously, watching the knife as it swayed back and forth. Kiyoi paused for a moment, then slid the knife into a sheath at his side.
"No, I can't kill you, Vash the Stampede. I have... uses for you."
"Oh, you're after that silly reward too?" Vash said, smiling. "They really should recall that, I'm certainly not worth $$60 billion!"
"Oh, and modest to boot!" Kiyoi said sarcastically. "It seems that all the things I have heard about you are true. I am not, as you put it, 'after that silly reward.' I have a proposition of sorts for you."
"Oh? Well you know, I might be a little more willing to help you if you'd untie me, Mr. Kiyoi," Vash said hopefully. "These ropes or whatever are really annoying, and I've got this headache..."
"Ah yes. That would be from the anesthesia I had my young apprentice administer to you. It will fade... in time. Unfortunately I cannot release you from your bonds, not yet, at any rate. You see, if you decide not to take me up on my generous offer, I am afraid that we will need to use other methods to persuade you. You WILL be helping me, Vash the Stampede, whether you choose to do so of your own free will or not. The choice is up to you."
"Umm... ok? Well, I guess I would kinda need to know what this offer is before I could make a decision..." Vash was starting to feel more and more uneasy. Kiyoi hadn't taken his blank eyes from Vash's once, and their inky depths were starting to seriously disturb him. There was something about them that reminded him of Knives.
"It's rather simple, Vash the Stampede," Kiyoi said as he leaned back in his chair and folded his hands in front of his face. "I want you to kill."
* * *
Four hours later, Ano Kiyoi walked out of the dungeons wiping blood from his hands and smirking. Rile bowed to him as he passed, then followed in his master's footsteps. "Did it work, Master Kiyoi?" Rile asked after a moment, and the man dressed in white laughed horribly.
"Oh yes, the machine worked exactly as it was supposed to. I shall have to give Dr. Kamiyui a raise when all this is over." Kiyoi chuckled, and Rile gripped one of his shatas nervously. It was rare to see his master in so fine a mood. It made him feel uneasy.
"I now have the ultimate weapon in my hands, and nothing shall stop me from achieving my goals. Vash the Stampede is on our side, and all the towns of Gunsmoke shall tremble in fear of our coming!" Kiyoi laughed evilly as he pulled the doors to the great chamber closed between himself and his bodyguard. Rile stood in front of the door and tossed a shata from hand to hand nervously. It would begin soon... He hoped he was on the right side.
* * *
Wolfwood paced back and forth in the kitchen, muttering curses to himself and throwing occasional dark glances at Knives, who sat looking out the window. Meryl and Millie were both standing in front of the door with their arms crossed.
"We're not letting you leave without us, Wolfwood, and that's that!" Meryl exclaimed for the hundredth time that morning. "There's no telling what trouble that pea-brained idiot had gotten himself into this time, and we can't just sit here knowing that he might be in trouble!"
"That's exactly why I can't take you!" Wolfwood yelled, slamming his hand down on the table. "I don't want you to be in danger, and if Vash is involved, you know there's bound to be trouble!"
"We've been around Vash a lot longer than you have," Meryl said stubbornly. "And we're still alive. Besides, you don't even have a gun, Wolfwood! Millie and I are both armed, so we'd be much better candidates to go after him than you. You should be happy that we're even allowing you to tag along," she added with a satisfied smirk. Wolfwood's eye twitched. He had to restrain himself from reaching across the table to strangle her.
"I agree," Millie said vehemently. "If Mr. Vash is in trouble, I want to help him! It's what my big sister told me to do. And besides..." Here she paused a moment and glanced at him. "I don't want to lose you again, Mr. Priest! If you go wandering around after Mr. Vash, you might get yourself killed again- er, almost killed, or, well, injured at least, and I don't want that!" Wolfwood sighed and looked up at the ceiling.
"Give me patience," he muttered.
"I don't see the harm in bringing them, so long as they can keep up," Knives interjected smoothly. Wolfwood turned to him with a scathing look.
"And who asked you?" He snarled. Knives responded with a grin. Wolfwood threw up his hands in frustration and turned his back on the lot of them.
"Fine. Whatever. Come along if you like, but I can't guarantee that I can protect you all." He threw another glare at Knives. "And I'm telling you right now that I won't even TRY to protect YOU!" Knives shrugged. Millie jumped up and down and clapped her hands.
"Yay! Let's go and find Mr. Vash!" Wolfwood rolled his eyes.
"I'll need to stop in town and get a gun before we go anywhere," he said resignedly. "Do either of you have any money?"
"Now wait just a minute!" Meryl exclaimed angrily. "If you think that you're going to spend any of our hard-earned cash you're dead wrong, mister!" Wolfwood's eye twitched again. These girls were going to drive him insane. He just knew it.
"And how do you expect me to help you find Vash without a gun?! I certainly don't have any money, and I'll be damned before I go walking around in the desert without some protection!"
"Don't worry Meryl," Millie said happily. "We've got more than enough to buy Mr. Priest a new gun... It won't be quite as fancy as your old one, though," she added.
"I expected that," Wolfwood replied. "Just as long as it shoots lead bullets I'll be happy. Now we had better get a move on. Knowing Vash, he'll be damn near impossible to find, and I don't want you girls to be in any more danger than you have to be." Knives got to his feet.
"I'll need a gun as well," he said softly, and Wolfwood spun around.
"Ooh no, you don't," he hissed. "There's no way I'm letting you get your filthy paws on a gun! You'd shoot us all in the back before we even got out of the store!" Knives shrugged.
"Your loss. I suppose we should be going then." He paused for a moment, his ice blue eyes narrowed as he looked out the window. "Vash is somewhere to the west."
"How do you know that?" Meryl asked quietly, looking at Knives curiously. The man shrugged.
"I can feel it. I've always had a vague idea of where my brother is, but the closer I get, the less distinct the sense is. I suggest we hurry. We may be able to get some information from the humans along the way. The longer we wait, the less likely that prospect becomes." For once, Wolfwood agreed with Knives, but he didn't dare voice his assent. He wouldn't give him the pleasure.
"Let's get a move on," he said instead, and the girls obediently walked out the door. "I'm watching you, Knives," Wolfwood growled as he passed him. Knives just smiled in that condescending way of his and followed him out the door. 6