SOME AUTHOR BABBLE: Hey! I just want to say thanks to everyone who's enjoyed this story so far. I get a kick out of the happy reviews. If I've amused even one Trigunner, then that's pretty cool. Also, I've decided I want Wolfwood to actually be Chapel like he is in the manga. I know this is a bit of a contradiction since I've mainly been following the anime timeline...but I think it's more degrading to be the lackey of a Gung-Ho Gun rather than just being a Gung-Ho Gun. What I'm going to do when I get around to the paradise part of the story, I'm not really sure. Who knows, it's a fan fic. It's not like I haven't bent the rules already. Anyway...more story!

The insurance girls relaxed on a bench beside the monument in the center of town. Children ran back and forth laughing and the sun shown bright over head.

Milly leaned her head back with a smile. "It feels so good."

Meryl agreed. "It almost makes you wish we were in New Miami doesn't it?

"That's the city with the swimming pools right?"

"Yeh, you never been?"

"I passed through once, but I didn't even stay the night."

"We'll have to go there someday."

A herd of terrified children ran by, closely followed by a crazed Typhoon. "I AM THE INFAMOUS BASKETBALL HEAD! OBSERVE HOW I KEEP THE BALL IN PLACE WITH EXTREME SUCTION!"

Meryl twitched. "And he will not be joining us..."

Milly smiled. "I'm really sorry I scared yall on the caravan."

She suddenly got way too happy. "Oh it's no problem!"

Milly tipped her hat up. Meryl's fake smile was almost scary.

A soccer ball rolled to the girls' feet and they looked down. The boys mumbled among themselves before shoving an unwilling volunteer out to go retrieve it. "Um...Misses, can one of you toss us our ball back?"

Milly slid her foot under it, bounced it up, and balanced it on her knee. She smirked. "But what if we want to play too?"

All the boys blushed and Vash got confused. He thumped one of them on the head. "What's the big deal? Those are just the insurance girls! I thought you guys were tough!"

The boy glared up at him. "In case you didn't notice, dufus...those girls are really cute."

"You're not supposed to like girls yet!"

He punched Vash in the stomach. "I'm 12, not 4 ya idiot!"

"OW! MY SPLEEN!"

The kid hung his head as the man went on to whine about various internal damages. "You're such a wuss..."

Milly caught up with the ball and kicked it back in Meryl's direction right before it could pass the monument. All the boys moaned and Milly laughed. "You guys almost made it!" They'd been playing for half an hour. She paused to catch her breath and noticed a man staring at her. He was sitting on one of the benches with a paper bag in his lap. He smiled and Milly's heart went cold. Her memories of the priest suddenly surfaced in her mind without her requesting them. A thought that wasn't her own, presented a one word question. Chapel?

Vash called out to her. "HEY MILLY! GET BACK IN THERE AND HELP MERYL! SHE'S PATHETIC!"

She snapped out of it and looked to the grinning Vash. His face was pale and his smile was forced. Why did she feel like she'd just been rescued? Milly ran back to where the group was playing, but looked over her shoulder with a fear she couldn't place.

"THIS IS INSANE, YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO KEEP HIM HERE!"

The sheriff glared at the hysterical woman. "LOOK, LADY...THE SHOEMAKER WAS FOUND DECAPITATED IN HIS SHOP! YOU TELLING ME HE DID THAT TO HIMSELF?"

Meryl took a step back. The details were too horrible. But that was all the more reason that it couldn't be Vash. The man she knew could NOT have done this. She lowered her voice. "You have no physical evidence. Everything is circumstantial. Please let him go."

Milly knew it was hopeless. Vash could get arrested on any given day for his reputation alone. Why would they let him off now?

He sat alone in the dark jail cell. He couldn't make sense of any of it. That man...Legato. What was his reason for all this? He said he wanted his life, so why hadn't he just killed him on the spot? Vash got the feeling he could have. But Legato was stringing him along, making him suffer first...like Knives would. He felt hatred seething up at just the thought of him. The things he had done...

The girls walked in and Vash looked up with that emotion still fresh in his eyes. Milly leapt back almost taking Meryl out.

Meryl stumbled. "MILLY, WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM?"

She stood behind Meryl. "You...you didn't see that?"

"What are you talking about?"

"NOTHING!" Milly stared at him. He looked like an angel now. Maybe she'd been mistaken.

Meryl waited but Milly refused to explain herself any further. She sighed, turning to look at the chained up Vash. Why did these horrible things always happen to this poor man? "I'm sorry we can't get you out tonight. We know you didn't do it though." She leaned against the bars. "Please don't look that way. We won't let them keep you here."

Vash smiled up at her. "Thank you for your kindness. But don't worry over me, okay..."

There she was with that heart-wrenching look again. "Vash..." She just couldn't stand his blatant selflessness for one more second. "YOU DESERVE TO HAVE PEOPLE WORRY ABOUT YOU!...MORE THAN MOST! So stop acting like you don't! It hurts to watch you do that!"

He stared. "Meryl..."

"Um...guys?" Milly backed up as a shadow overtook the front door. "Sorry to interrupt, but..."

Meryl slowly lifted herself off the ground. The gunfire had finally ceased, and its source stepped through the ruins of the jailhouse wall. He introduced himself as Gung-Ho Gun #1...Monev The Gale.

Through all the destruction, somehow his chains had remained intact. Vash jerked forward, screaming at the girls. "HURRY, RUN!" Why weren't they listening to him?

Milly painfully sat up as the giant man walked past. She stared at him. A gung ho what?

Monev grabbed the Typhoon by the throat and slammed him against the wall. Blood shot from Vash's mouth and Meryl cried out.

She leveled a Derringer. "PUT HIM DOWN!"

Milly knew she wouldn't pull the trigger. She jumped up. "MERYL DON'T!"

Vash could only watch as Monev knocked Meryl aside with ease. Shots rang out as she hit the floor. The bullets ricocheted, breaking Vash's chains. He kicked free of the surprised Monev and ran for the door. "MILLY, GET MERYL AND GET OUT OF HERE!"

Unbelievable, that other bitch had set him free. But it didn't matter...just made the hunt all the more interesting. What kind of coward had women defend him, then ran to save his own hide anyway?

Meryl opened her eyes. Milly was sitting next to her on a pile of concrete. "You okay?"

She sat up with a hand over her bruised face. "Where's Vash?"

"I don't know." She closed the chamber after reloading the last bullet. "But judging by the explosions...I doubt he's gone far."

"Who was that man?"

"A hitman?"

She stood up. "We have to help Vash."

"We'd just get in his way...Meryl?" Milly looked up, but she was already gone.