Disclaimer: I do not own the copyrights to Gundam Wing, Endless Waltz, Sailor Moon, Trigun, Evangelion, Lupin the Third, Outlaw Star, Rurouni Kenshin, G-Gundam, any other Gundam Series, Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, any movies, books, or any songs that are used in this story. All copyrights belong to their respective owners.
Notice to Readers: To understand certain parts of this story, you'll have to read the other stories before this one. It is recommended by not required.
The DarkTower:
Anime's Unite
Chapter 6: The Western Group
Guns and Swords
It had already been half a day since the Kenshin Gumi had faced that three headed warrior in the woods. The one whose heads began to argue with each other about what they should do with the Kenshin Gumi. They got so deeply into it that they had forgotten about the Kenshin Gumi for a moment, and they made quickly with their escape.
They had already arrived at the River Sting which the sign had directed them to. It was such a beautiful place, the river wide and blue with the green thick forest around it. Meeting the dirt road that they were traveling upon they found a small wooden bridge that spanned the rivers width. Inside the river were dozens and dozens of fish, all of them swimming and jumping out of the river.
With the sight of the fish, Sanosuke's stomach was beginning to rumble.
"Hey Missy, let's get some of those fish and make some dinner."
Looking up, Kenshin knew that it would be nightfall soon, "I think we should make camp." He said, "Sano, Yahiko. Try to find some firewood, while Kaoru and I will try to make some fishing poles."
Sanosuke and Yahiko did as Kenshin said and went into the forest to gather some firewood while Kaoru and Kenshin sat at the side of the river making fishing poles out of twigs. As for fishing string and bait, they soon figured out that there was no string or any bait anywhere that they could use. That was when Kenshin had a brilliant idea of his own and without saying anything to Kaoru, he took off his shoes and pulled up the legs of his Hakama and the sleeves of his Kimono. He stepped into the river feeling it shiver him right to the bone. He took out his reverse blade sword and looked down into the river seeing all the fish wiggle and swim all around his legs. With the Hiten Mitsurugi style, he used his sword like a shish kabob and his sword had four big fat fish wriggling on the blade. He waddled back to land with his prize in his hand.
Kaoru and Kenshin set about on cleaning the fish while Yahiko and Sanosuke came back with the firewood in their arms. It was only a matter of fifteen minutes until the fire was started and that the fish were already starting to cook.
"That's quite a catch Kenshin" Sano complemented as he leaned against a nearby tree with the fire blazing, "how did you and the missy catch so many?"
"Kenshin actually went into the river and caught them with his sword." Kaoru reported
"Well, it was nothing special." Kenshin smiled, "After all we had no string or bait for fishing poles."
All of them laughed about it, but still the sobering reality came back upon them.
"What do we do now?" Yahiko asked, "I mean we're in this strange place and we have no idea where we are or what we're doing here in the first place."
Kenshin sat back in thought, "It is a problem. That it is" He said, "Hopefully if this place is inhabited, we will find other people who can give us the right information."
A few miles away the Peace Guns (Vash the Stampede, Meryl Strife, Millie Thompson, Nicholas D. Wolfwood, and Millions Knives) had come into the forest and they had already made their journey northward. All of them still trying to grasp onto what they had just experienced, all of them mentally recapping it. First they are brought to a great desert inhabited by enormous worms, then meeting people who have blue within blue eyes, and being told that they were brought to this land to help free a king.
"I tell ya" Wolfwood moaned, "If this day gets any weirder I'm gonna have to get drunk."
"You said it." Knives agreed, "Nothing makes any sense in this place."
"Let's just hope we'll find out sooner or later what exactly is going on."
"Didn't any of you hear what Paul told us?" Vash asked, "Their king is in trouble and we have to save him."
"Save him from what?" Knives asked, "For all we know whatever is holding the king prisoner is worse than anything I've ever sent against you."
"You do have a point there Knives." Vash agreed, "But I don't think we're the only ones who have been brought here."
"What do you mean, Vash?" Meryl asked
"It's hard to explain, it's as if we think we're the only guests who had been invited to the party, when in fact they're more."
"In that case, let's keep moving." Wolfwood said, "Let's not just stand around, I prefer to face whatever it is that's out there before they find us."
With that, the Peace Guns had made their way to a river that was wide and deep. They each looked left and right and then they headed northward. Hoping that either the river will become shallow or that they'll find a bridge to cross.
"Why don't we just swim across?" Wolfwood asked
"Are you kidding?" Vash asked, "Not very many of us know how to swim."
"Good point."
A short distance up the river, the Kenshin Gumi were enjoying the best cooked fish that they ever had in their lives. Perhaps it was because Kaoru didn't cook it and that Kenshin did most of the handling. Except, Sanosuke and Yahiko weren't going to let it out especially in such a fragile situation as they're in, but why would they? They were enjoying the fish too much to even complain the slightest. Though the fish was very different from what they were used to.
"This fish does have a rather odd taste to it." Kenshin observed, "It seems to be a little sweeter than the first we have back home."
"Whatever it is, it's good." Yahiko said as he continued to chomp down each piece of the fish making sure not to swallow the bones. "And if we want more we can always jump in the river and get more."
"Yeah" Sanosuke agreed with a mouthful of fish, "I think I'll just do that after I get done with this one."
"Honestly you two." Kaoru shook her head, "You really are pigs sometimes."
Sano stewed in the insult but as he swallowed his fish, he heard something. He stood up quickly as if there were attackers in the trees ready to come down upon them. He clenched his fists getting to ready any and all the techniques that he had at his disposal upon the enemy.
"What is it Sano?" Kenshin asked
"Someone's coming." Sano explained
Kaoru, Kenshin, and Yahiko all stood up ready to face what was coming. They stood still only hearing the wind in the trees, the water in the river, and the crackling within the fire. Kenshin was ready to draw his sword, while Yahiko already had his wooden one already out. Kaoru on the other hand wanted to fight and so she took out her wooden sword and took the same position as Yahiko.
Seconds passed…
Minutes passed…
Soon, they heard voices, first starting out faint but then worked their way up to being loud and clear.
"I think we should stop and make camp somewhere." One voice said, "I'm starving."
"You said it." Another voice agreed, "I hope the food those guys gave us is good."
"When you're hungry I think you're mouth will cooperate with anything."
"Hey, look over there! There's a bridge."
The Kenshin Gumi then heard foot steps coming closer and closer to where they were. Very soon, they saw the ones who were coming closer to them. There were only five of them. Already Kenshin and Sano were thinking that one of them is going to have to take on two of them. They looked and saw how they were dressed. One was dressed in a long red coat and had blonde spiked hair…much like that man from the Juupongatana, the Sword Hunter. Then there was another man who had a black suit on and carried a huge cross on his back. Then there were two women behind him, and another man who was dressed in something skin-tight that the Kenshin Gumi failed to think of a way to describe it if they got back to their own world and told this story to Miss Megumi.
"Hey you there!" Sano called out, "Who the hell are you people?"
On the other side of the bridge, the Peace Guns had been walking for hours on end and were hoping to set up came somewhere on the banks of the river. At least until Vash had found the bridge. They knew that once they crossed the bridge they could probably set up camp somewhere on its banks or somewhere in the forest. They all felt so excited when the crossed the bridge, until they encountered a group of people who were armed with swords and fists. And then one of them asked Who the hell are you people.
"My name is Meryl Strife of the Bernardelli Insurance Society, but in some places I happen to be known as Derringer Meryl." Meryl introduced, "And this is my assistant and friend, Millie Thompson who happens to be known as Stun-gun Millie. This is Nicholas D. Wolfwood. This is Millions Knives and Vash the Stampede…there we've all been introduced, could you tell us who you are?"
Kaoru saw the two women and how they smiled at her and the rest of the Kenshin Gumi; she brought down her wooden sword and approached them.
"My name is Kaoru Himura, Assistant Headmaster of the Kamiya-Kasshin Dojo. This is my husband, Kenshin Himura. My only student Yahiko Myoujin and the one behind me is Sanosuke Sagara."
There was a moment of silence between the Kenshin Gumi and the Peace Guns. In that silence, Vash the Stampede noticed something about Kenshin Himura. He noticed how Kenshin never fully drew out his sword, he only took the position. He had only seen that same kind of position when he faced one of the Gung-Ho Guns. One that wanted to experience full spiritual awareness in the face of death in battle, a man known as Rei-Dei the Blade, but in the end he found only death. Yet, Vash was sensing something about Kenshin, especially from that scar on his face. Something that said to him that Kenshin Himura was carrying a terrible burden with that scar, much like how Vash was carrying around the burdens of his life with the scars on his body from all those fights he had without killing his opponents.
Vash went for his gun, and pulled out the barrel and allowed his bullets to fall into his hand. With the bullets in his hand he pushed the barrel back into his gun as he holstered it. He came down from the bridge and approached only Kenshin Himura who also had taken a more relaxed pose when Vash drew closer in his peaceful posture.
Kenshin himself saw or at least felt something in the air about this man in the red coat called Vash the Stampede, a connection between two warriors that he had not felt since the days of the revolution. He stepped away from his drawing posture as Vash approached with the bullets of his gun in his hand.
The Peace Guns and the Kenshin Gumi watched as the peace loving gunman and swordsman stood face to face. Or at least somewhat face to face since Vash towered over the swordsman.
"Let us talk." Vash had said with a smile on his face
Kenshin smiled back, "We will talk. That we will."
At first the Peace Guns and the Kenshin Gumi were very jumpy about one another. At least everyone except for Vash the Stampede and Kenshin Himura, most of the time those two sat next to each other and did most of the talking for each of their groups. As if the two of them were ambassadors for the two very different worlds that they came from.
"So" Kenshin connected, "You came here in the same way we did, by way of a tear."
"Yeah" Vash confirmed, "and it wasn't the first time that this has happened to us."
Miss Kaoru was the next person to speak for the Kenshin Gumi, "It's the same with us."
"This has happened to you before too?" Meryl asked
"Yes, we came to this world were there were things that we couldn't understand. The ones who took care of us and helped us get back were these people called…"
"The Preventers." Wolfwood picked up from where Kaoru was speaking
"Exactly." Kaoru said sounding almost shocked and stupefied at the same time.
Vash placed his hand on his forehead, "This really is getting strange." He said
"It seems to me" Kenshin observed like a detective trying to make sense out of a messy crime scene, "that something is controlling the tears. With both of our groups, we all came into the company of the Preventers."
"Do you think that we might meet them all again?" Millie asked like a child asking if Santa Claus would be coming on Christmas Eve.
"I am very certain that we will. That I am." Kenshin said the seriousness in his tone was very sobering to the Peace Guns and the Kenshin Gumi, "I wouldn't be at all surprised if we found others who had come into the Preventers company."
"That's right." Meryl remembered, "I do recall them telling us that it happened to them several times."
"That already says that someone is controlling the tears." Kenshin said his seriousness growing even deeper. It was much like that time when he was pushed to the point of death by Sito a man who was sent to test his abilities as the Manslayer. Kenshin had sunk deeper and deeper into becoming the manslayer like he had several times before. Everything changed, the look in his eyes, the way he handled the sword, and even his voice. It was that tone that seemed to chill Kaoru to the bone. "The real question we're going to have to figure out is who is controlling them and why?"
"And how." Sanso said as he curled up into a ball as he chewed on the fish bones from his left over dinner, "I'd hate to think what kind of monstrous force is controlling them."
"Figures Sanosuke." Kaoru said sarcastically, "Anything you don't understand you think it's a tool of the devil."
"Are you stupid missy?" Sano asked, "You're still so naïve about the camera and that train!"
As Sano and Kaoru argued, Vash leaned over to Kenshin, "What's his deal?" He asked
"Sano is a little superstitious." Kenshin explained, "He thinks that steam trains are controlled by ghosts."
The moment that Wolfwood got wind of this he began to laugh, "Oh my god!" He cackled
"Hey, wanna make something of it pal!" Sano stood up with the fish bones sticking out of his mouth and his fists standing ready.
"If you wanna fight me kid" Wolfwood gave his ultimatum, "then expect no mercy." He was about to reach for the strap of his Cross Punisher when Miss Kaoru and Meryl intervened.
"Stop this! Both of you." They said as if they were absolutely synchronized like skilled swimmers.
At the same time, Vash and Kenshin looked to each others wives. Vash looked to Kaoru and there he saw a little bit of Meryl in her. While simultaneously, Kenshin saw a little bit of Kaoru in Meryl. They both had that same type of bossiness over anyone and damn near everyone that came into their sights. It was just so eerie and hilarious that both Vash the Stampede and Kenshin Himura began to laugh. They laughed and laughed like two kids who had heard the greatest joke that they would ever hear.
Both the Kenshin Gumi and the Peace Guns looked at each other and to their leaders.
"What's so funny?" Kaoru asked
"Yes, please fill us in on it." Meryl demanded
Vash tried to calm himself down, "All of us seem to be so much alike!" He only calmed down to get that much out of his mouth before he continued to laugh.
Kenshin agreed full-heartedly, "He's quite right!"
"Idiots." Meryl and Kaoru both muttered together, but then looked at one another and made the same connection as Kenshin and Vash. They both realized what was so funny between them, it was like meeting someone whose a mirror image of yourself. That it seems to defy all logic, reason, statistics, and numbers that something like it could have happened purely by chance, and Kaoru along with Meryl gave a slight womanish giggle about it.
Meanwhile across from the laughing and giggling couple Wolfwood pulled out his best bottle of Jack Daniels. He spun the cap off of the bottle neck and said to Sanosuke Sagara who was just in as much shock as Wolfwood was.
"Hey, do you want a drink?" He asked
"Sure." Sano said as he took a swig of the bottle and it wasn't too long before he quickly took the bottle away from his mouth to cough and wheeze out the liquor in his system. "Damn! What the hell is this stuff?"
"Whiskey" Wolfwood explained and took a huge swig as if the bottle was filled with water. Then pulled away to wipe his lips with the sleeve of his coat, "You know you shouldn't cough up the liquor. It's disrespectful to it."
"Yeah." Sano said as he laid back against the tree chewing more upon his fish bones while the Peace Guns and the Kenshin Gumi got to know each other more and more as the night went on.
As the discussion went on, Vash had to ask something about Kenshin. "That scar on your cheek." He asked, "It's about a painful memory from a long time ago, wasn't it?"
Kenshin looked down into the fire and instinctively reached up to touch that part of his face where his scar lay. Everything about that time in his life was well engrained into his memory, heart, and soul…deeper than that scar on his face.
He told them everything, both his close family the Kenshin Gumi as well as the Peace Guns.
He remembered how he was an assassin and how one night the first cut of that scar was laid by a man who was fighting to stay alive. Kenshin didn't know who he was nor did he care at the time. Yet, little did Kenshin know that the man he killed had a woman he was about to marry. A woman named Tomoe Yukishiro who would then become Kenshin's first wife. Unfortunately because of the trusts and betrayals Kenshin became saddened when he found out that his wife Tomoe was being used to make him weak in his sword techniques, which would hopefully make him easier to kill by his enemies. Yet, in the ambush, Kenshin had made a mistake…a terrible mistake. He thought of sacrificing himself, but in the last blow he made against his opponent…Tomoe got in the way. Watching the woman that he loved die in his arms gave such pain in his heart, but Tomoe left one last impression. She took her dagger and reached up to Kenshin's face and made the last cut in his cross-shaped scar.
"Terrible…" Vash said in sympathy as he laid his hand on Kenshin shoulder, while Kaoru nuzzled Kenshin's side. This man was now her husband, she only knew of his past that it was written in blood, but she never knew that it was also written upon his face as well as in the sorrows of his first love.
"You may have that scar on your face, Kenshin." Vash said as he stood up and began to unbutton his red coat, "But I also share something else in common with you."
Kenshin and the others watched in confusion while the Peace Guns knew what Vash was going to reveal. Vash had already taken off his red coat which was in a pile at his feet and they saw the brown leather jumpsuit he wore underneath. Then in one motion, Vash had unzipped it and pulled away from his body and by the fire's glow he allowed the Kenshin Gumi to see the marks on his body.
Kenshin's eyes went wide, so too did Yahiko's, while Kaoru covered her mouth as she gasps, but Sano was the most vocal.
"Oh…my…god…" He whispered as he looked at each scar on Vash's body
They all started to stare. There was the scar on his left peck, which looked like a fleshy crater that had a thick metal mesh covering it and rivets holding it into his skin. Then there was a very thick one that ran over his right shoulder and down his chest as if he had been cut into by some dull knife. At his side was dead scarred tissue that was a deep peachy brown unlike the rest of his fair Caucasian skin. The whole of that section of his side looked as if a shark had bitten into his side. As well as how his left arm below the shoulder was metallic. It had occurred to the Kenshin Gumi that his left arm was prosthetic, and then between all the major wounds were the countless cuts, scraps, and indentations of surgery and stitching in his skin.
"All these scars" Vash said as he pulled his clothes back on, "I got them all from facing my enemies without killing any of them. I've always lived my life on that idea of no one should have the right to kill another person."
Kenshin suddenly felt a jolt go through him, the image between himself and this gunman named Vash the Stampede was making greater sense like foggy mirror images of each other that were becoming clearer. Except, Kenshin developed his philosophy from the bloodshed he caused, but Vash developed his from another source.
Vash spoke of his life story, much like Kenshin did with his about how he got that scar on his face. He heard Vash speak about his and Knives beginnings, how the two of them were born upon a ship that was traveling among the stars like a ship among the waves. Yet, it was one woman who taught Vash his life's code…Rem Saverem. It was on that ship called "Seeds" that they lived, until one day when Vash and Knives got separate haircuts. Vash got his from Rem, while Knives did his on his own. Then things got worse when Knives killed a spider in order to save a butterfly. Vash only wanted to save them both, but Knives felt that saving them both would be pointless, because the spiders would die without food, and thus the rift between Vash and Knives began.
It grew even more violent when Knives used his powers to manipulate the crew of five to kill one another. That was when the Seeds ships began to crash onto the little planet of Gunsmoke. Then the fight between Vash and Knives grew and grew over the next one-hundred-twenty years.
The part that made the Kenshin Gumi shocked at Vash was that confrontation between he and his brother in the city of July. In that city, Vash had lost his left arm thanks to a gunshot from Knives. Then with the snap of his fingers, Vash's right arm had merged with his silver gun and became a terrible weapon known as the Angel Arm. With just one blast, the city of July was reduced to nothingness. Amazingly enough no one died in that city.
"Hmm," Kenshin scoffed a little, "I was a manslayer, the killer of men. During the revolution I was known as Hitokiri Battousai."
"And I was the destroyer of cities" Vash finished, "After that day I became known as the Humanoid Typhoon and thus the largest bounty on my world was placed on my head."
From that day in July, Vash wandered for the next twenty years searching for his brother. Much like Kenshin after the revolution, he became a wanderer, going from town to town in the blazing deserts of Gunsmoke. Just like Vash, Kenshin wandered all of Japan and for both of them they had tried to continue the philosophy of not killing, even in the face of the most perilous danger. In that time of his wandering, Vash came to know some wonderful people. Marshall Mary-Anne, who had learned to love once again from Vash, Frank Marlin the Gunsmith who learned to give up drinking and continue to live, Meryl Strife, Millie Thompson, and Nicholas D. Wolfwood.
The story of Vash's life came to the end when he talked about how Vash escaped to the world where the Preventers roamed and with their help they were able to bring thwart Knives plans. From that point on, the Peace Guns had made it their duty to try to make their world a peaceful and more inhabitable one.
"That about sums it up." Vash smiled
"Well Kenshin." Kaoru smiled to her husband, "It looks like you have a twin star."
"A twin star?" Wolfwood asked as he passed the bottle of Jack Daniels back to Sano who was starting to build up some resistance to its potency.
"That there is someone who is just like Kenshin in every single way." Kaoru explained
Vash, like a faucet switching from hot water to cold, threw his arm around Kenshin's neck and said, "In that case, let's celebrate!" He then laughed like a braying donkey
While Kenshin on the other hand laughed nervously but then decided to go with the flow.
To be continued…