"Bang, Bang, Bang", said Nicholas D. Wolfwood as he sat on a bench pointing at some little children. The children looked at him blankly. Nicholas looked at them for a second then fell backwards off the bench. The children giggled at him falling off the bench. He smiled, took out a cigarette and lit it. "Children these days, they laugh at the strangest things", he said with a sigh as he blew out a ring of smoke. He closed his eyes and sighed again, inhaling. He blew out some smoke and felt the wind against his face. Suddenly he heard laughter. He quickly opened his eyes and saw a tall, blond man wearing a black trench coat. "Vash?" Vash smiled and gave the love and peace sign. "What are you doing in Raymond's trench coat?" asked Nicholas as he and Vash sat at an outside table with an ice cream cone in each hand. All the children were running around them, eating ice cream. "Well you see they are looking for a tall man in a black trench coat with black hair and a tall man with blond hair in a red trench coat. So Raymond came up with this idea to switch coats for a little while and lay low", replied Vash as he smiled at Wolfwood. "What?" asked Wolfwood, "Is there something on my face?" Vash fell down laughing, "Oops", he said as the ice cream fell onto the yellow sand, he looked at it then back at Nicholas and burst out laughing again. Nicholas ran over to a tub of water and looked into it. "VASH!" he screamed as he saw that Vash and the children had drawn glasses and a mustache on his face.
Meanwhile across the city, looking into a small bakery stood a tall man in a red trench coat with short, spiky, black hair. He yawned and ran his fingers through his hair. Suddenly there was the sound of a gun being cocked. "Ok Mr. Stampede, we have you surrounded so if you try anything funny, well let us just say that the reward is dead or alive", said an old man with a shotgun. Raymond fell backwards onto the ground and after the dust settled he looked up at the old man. "Who do you think I am?" asked Raymond. "Why you are none other then the infamous Vash the Stampede, the Humanoid Typhoon, and I am going to take you in for the reward and for revenge of my son who was found dead in the desert", said the old man, holding the gun steady. "Two things, one, I am not Vash the Stampede. Vash has blond hair and a different looking face then mine. Two Vash did not kill your son and his three friends", said Raymond coolly. "How, how did you know he was killed with his three friends?" asked the man now scared as Raymond slowly rose and reached out, taking hold of the barrel of the gun. The man gasped as Raymond's other hand gripped the back of his head and forced the barrel of the shotgun into the old timer's mouth. Raymond smiled as his red eyes twinkled, the man cried and cried out the best he could.
Sweat slowly dripped off of Vash's brow, the hot afternoon sun beat down on him and his opponent. He closed his eyes and tried to focus on something else, his muscles aching from the stress and pain. He was running out of strength and breath fast. He groaned as he pushed with all of his might but he just could not handle it, he was losing and losing it fast. Finally he just could not take it anymore and fell with a slam. Nicholas laughed. "It seems that I have won Mr. Stampede", he said victoriously. Vash rubbed his wrist. "Yeah, yeah you are the better arm wrestler", said Vash disappointed with himself. Suddenly something slammed into Vash and he went crashing backwards. Wolfwood jumped up quickly, knocking over his chair. He looked at Vash who's hands were locked in place against his side as Milly's stunbullet was holding him closed.
"There you are!" shouted an angry Meryl as Milly lowered her stungun. "Hey girls", said Wolfwood as he rubbed his head. "Mr. Preacher!" shouted out Milly as she ran over to him. Meryl walked over to a dizzy Vash. "Where did you run off to? you left Milly and I in January and then came over 1000 miles to February just to play around with Mr. Wolfwood? Who do you think you are?" asked Meryl, really pissed off.. Vash shook the surprise attack off and sighed. "I did not mean to abandon you two I did not even know if you two were still alive or dead", said Vash, trying to explain. "So you left us for dead and left creating a huge hole in the surrounding maze?" asked Meryl interrupting. "Well actually I met the person that caused all the chaos, the infamous Raymond the Mankiller and we left together", finished Vash, "He is not a bad guy and does not like killing" "What happened to your red coat?" asked Milly. "Oh well since both Raymond and I are wanted we decided to switch coats and… what the heck?", said Vash as he pulled out two boxes of bullets. "Where did those come from?" asked Wolfwood. "I do not know", replied Vash, "There seems to be a lot of pockets with bullets in them here. so this is where all his bullets comes from. The evil part of him must be keeping this secret from the good part of him", said Vash out loud as a body flew, crashing into the table.
The old man's body twitched as it slowly finished dying, his brains were blown out as was most of his upper face. Meryl screamed. On top of a nearby building stood Raymond in Vash's red trench coat. "Look it is Vash the Stampede! Up there on the roof", shouted a young man. People started screaming and running around. "Maybe switching coats was not the greatest idea", said Wolfwood, "Now everyone thinks you don't just destroy towns but you kill innocent people too". Vash growled then ran over to the building, going inside. A few minutes later he was on the roof staring across it looking at Raymond who had his back towards him. Vash pulled out his handgun and aimed it at Raymond. He took off the safety as Raymond spoke. "So Vash are you going to attack me while my back is turned? That is pretty cowardly", said Raymond with a laugh. "You are not Raymond, you are the Mankiller and you must be stopped", said Vash, "Now come with me, we will leave this place so that you wont kill anyone else". "Vash I don't plan on killing anyone today", said Raymond as he turned around, "For it is you that will be doing the killing!" With that he charged towards Vash. Vash stumbled back but prepared to fire into Raymond's arm, hoping to stop him with suddenly, two blades tore out of both of Raymond's forearms. Raymond swung around so his was backwards and swung the blade. He ended up behind Vash smiling as the top of his gun fell onto the ground with a soft clink.
Vash was horrified as he saw that Raymond had activated his Angel Arms attack. The same attack that destroyed both August and July. "You want to destroy the Mankiller so much Vash, well here I am. All you have to do is use Angel Arms on me and I will die. But I will also be taking Raymond with me", shouted Raymond as he laughed. The energy was building up fast and there was nothing Vash could do to prevent it from firing. His eyes went wide as he roared and aimed towards the sky.
The light was so blinding as the legendary weapon known as Angel Arms was being released right in front of Wolfwood's eyes. The first thought that went into his head was, "Oh shit, the children, that attack could kill all the children". Vash was on his back, his feet were up against the bottom of the Angel Arms, trying to make sure that the blast went up into the air and not towards anyone else. "How did he know about my Angel Arms attack?" thought Vash panicked, "He has to have met Knives at least once before meeting me otherwise there is no possible way". Vash's thoughts were suddenly interrupted as Raymond slowly walked over to him. He sighed and knelt down next to Vash. He closed his eyes, sat down and opened his eyes again. "You know what Vash? You have a lot of guts, first you try to stop me, then you try to make sure no one gets hurt by aiming towards the sky and finally you think you can avoid Knives by running away from him. This is so insane of you".
Some Town on the other side of the planet, 200 years ago
A younger Raymond the Mankiller walked into a large hanger. "An airport hanger? What an interesting place to have a meeting, Knives", said Raymond quietly as he was looking at the ground. "All of these stuff is outdated, old, worth nothing. Like the filthy humans that roam this planet, destroying everything in their path", said Knives, "I used to think that I was all alone on this planet with my brother. That it was just him and I and all those filthy humans, but then I learned about you, the infamous Mankiller. You are the one person with the most kills in their lifetime but yet you have not bounty on your head like my brother. But that is only because you have killed all those that have witnessed your power". "What do you want with me? You said you knew how I can control my body again, is that true?" asked Raymond a little louder then before. "Yes but first I want you to.."
February
"How do you know Knives? Answer me!" shouted Vash angrily. "Well you could say that Knives hired me to take care of you", replied Raymond as he lay back, resting his head on his hands. "The light is actually quite beautiful if you take a moment to stop and watch", said Raymond quietly. "What are you talking about you fool? This light is able to bring town entire towns, kill thousands more then you will ever!" That caused Raymond to snap, he jumped up and pulled out a gun that looked exactly like Vash's handgun except it was black. "Knives", muttered Vash as he saw what Raymond was doing. Raymond roared, "No Vash I am the Mankiller and I alone will slay everyone in this town". With that he threw off Vash's red trench coat ran over to the side of the building and aimed Knives' gun down at the large gathered crowd, including Milly, Nicholas and Meryl.
Nicholas was the first person to see the anger and pain in Raymond's eyes, he grabbed both the girl's hands and started running. "Where are we going Mr. Preacher?" asked a confused Milly. "Angel Arms", was Nicholas' two word response. The threesome ran as fast as they could to the outskirts of the town. When they got there Meryl freed herself from Nicholas' grasp. "Is this not far enough?" she asked out of breath. "You know what happened to July and August? Well it's about to happen here as well except people will die here!" shouted Nicholas. "By Mr. Vash?" asked Milly sadly. "No by Raymond the Mankiller", replied Nicholas as he grabbed both of the girls hands and continued running.
Back at the building where Vash and Raymond were it was as if the entire town was there watching the light given off by Vash's Angel Arms. Raymond grinned and shouted to all of them, "You like that light show? Well for your viewing pleasure here is the finale". Raymond laughed as the top of Knives' handgun flew off and the gun spread out along his arm creating a second Angel Arms attack. "No!" screamed Vash. "What can I do to make it so you do not kill all of them?" asked Vash pleadingly. "Not a damn thing", said Raymond as he prepared to fire. "NO!" roared Vash as he dropped his feet to the ground and lowered his Angel Arms, "I will not let you kill them!" Suddenly Vash's attack was ready to go and he fired. Raymond was only able to step back and open his mouth in an attempt to scream.
The people that were watching started running as the blast hit Raymond in his chest. The shot did not explode right there, it carried Raymond on it all the way across town, away from the people, away from Nicholas and the girls, into nothing but a few houses which shattered as his body flew through them, he ended up crashing into the western well. Tears ran down Vash's face as he screamed firing the second shot. The explosion was huge, one that could have easily wiped out the entire town instead of only destroying the empty part of the town. Vash was still crying as he slowly stood up and looked at the destruction that Angel Arms created. He reached up and wiped the tears away with his sleeve. He then looked at the arm of the black coat and remembered that this was Raymond's coat, he had just killed Raymond the Mankiller.
He wept quietly but stopped when he saw a flash of light. His eyes went wide as he saw black energy gathering in the rubble. "Raymond", he said quietly as he turned and tore out of there. He ran across the roof tops and jumped across a gap in the houses when the blast was fired. From across the town, Knives' Angel Arms attack was fired. While in the air going from one house to the next, Vash was hit and sent crashing into a house. He landed with a thud and skid across the ground till he hit the wall, but that did not matter since in a flash, the house was destroyed along with the rest of the town. When Raymond's attack hit a blast of light was shot out in all directions as houses around it were torn apart.
On the edge of town Nicholas and the girls watched each explosion in horror. "What, what just happened?" asked Meryl. "It seems like someone, the person who fired the first Angel Arms attack sent the second person flying across town, destroying that entire section. I believe that most of the towns people got out before the second shot was fired by the almost dead second guns man", explained Nicholas. "You mean those shots killed Mr. Vash?" asked Milly scared. "It is possible", replied Nicholas. "NO!" scream Meryl, "He has survived worse things then this, I mean he could not be dead", she said as she fell to her knees. She was crying. "This should be when Vash leaves the town of rubble with not a scratch on him and the other guns man in hands but this time I do not think our friend is so lucky". "Do not say that Mr. Wolfwood, please don't say that", said Meryl between tears. Milly hugged her as they all look at the destroyed town. "Knives are you happy now? Are you happy with your brother's death? I know you are crying but are they tears of joy, or sorrow?" thought Nicholas Wolfwood.
"Laying there in the rubble of another town, I saw many things. The worse thing I saw however was the image of the one known as the Mankiller in where he fought against a small army of bandits. How this image got into my head, I do not know but what happened to Raymond that day, well it explains a little bit about why he wants me…"
Raymond The Mankiller