Hiya! This is Gunslinger Angel bringing you Chapter 4! This one is pretty boring but I do hope y'all enjoy!
P.S. Yasuhiro Nightow created Trigun and some of the characters that you are about to see.
Trigun: The Raven
Chapter 4: The "Beautiful" Conversation
What should I say to her? How can I explain to her about what had happened to me? To Knives? I don't know…I just don't know…All that I can say to her is "Please, please hear me out Meryl and maybe then you might know what had happened to me during this last year."
There was a moment of silence after the old man introduced Vash to her. During that moment she was recollecting her thoughts, "Vash is a kid? How could this be? Is it possible? There must be some mistake!"
"It's no mistake Meryl, the boy you see now is the actualwanted outlaw who created a crater on the fifth moon and turned two major cities into rubble, Vash the Stampede, " said Vash as he forced a smile upon his face. He hated making false smiles, it hurt him so much and deep down inside he knew that it also hurt the ones close to him.
"Did he just read my thoughts?" Meryl thought.
"Yep, really sorry about that. I haven't quite controlled this mind reading ability of mine after I went through the process," said Vash in his mind.
"Process? What process? And what happened to Knives!...Wha…WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?" Meryl demanded as she stood up from her chair.
"All will be explained if you just calm down, "said Vash in his little childish voice.
"And why do you sound like a boy when in my head you sound like yourself!" asked Meryl.
"Please Meryl…Please would you just hear me out?" begged Vash. Meryl looked into his eyes and saw the sincerity in them. Even though they were the eyes of a child, they were still Vash's eyes.
Meryl gave out a sigh and said, "Alright…I'll hear your story."
Vash gave her a smile and said, "Thank you." He was coming closer to her and was about to take her hand but Meryl jerked away from him, just like what she did with Doc. "I'm going to have to ask her why she is so afraid of people touching her," he thought as he sat down on the floor. Meryl sat back down on her chair and looked at Vash. He took in a deep breath and began his story.
"It all started when I left you and Millie with Knives on my shoulder. I was trying to figure out a way to take care of Knives while he was unconscious and unable to hurt anyone. So I decided to go to Doc, the man you met earlier," Vash said and pointed to the old man who was leaning against the wall.
Doc took off his hat and bowed at Meryl, "I'm sorry that I didn't introduce myself earlier, I completely forgot. I'm afraid that my old age is getting to me."
"It's alright," said Meryl and looked back at Vash, "please continue."
Vash nodded and continued, "The journey to get to Doc was long and strenuous. I didn't go to any town or city because I feared that Knives might wake up and start a massacre if I went to one. And because of that fear, I didn't even stop to rest. I traveled for three weeks until one day when I was so close to the ship I…collapsed from exhaustion. I didn't how long I was unconscious but when I woke up and rose I was pushed back down to the ground with a sharp pain in my shoulder. Looked up and saw that Knives had awakened. I then looked to my shoulder and saw that Knives used his Angel Arm blade to pin me down to the ground. He gave me an evil grin and said, 'You once told me that you will survive. Well, look at you now. It doesn't look like you're going to survive for very long…once I'm done with you.' It was then after that, he started stabbing me with his blade. After three minutes, he stopped and left me there to bleed to death…I had lain there unconscious, again, for three hours until a scavenging group from the ship came and found me. When I woke I found Doc standing beside me. He told me that my wounds were too severe for me to heal by myself. That was when he told me about Re-growth."
"Re-growth? It that the process you mentioned earlier?" asked Meryl.
Vash nodded and said, "Yes, Re-growth is a process that a Plant can go through in order to replenish and strengthen its energy. Doc told me that it was the only way to save me."
"And it did. Not only did it heal his wounds but it also healed all of his scars and increased his power, but the drawback of the process is what you are seeing before you. Vash's physical body regressed backed to the age appearance of eight and it will take at least four to five months for him to grow back to his original age appearance," said Doc while he was still leaning on the wall, "and that is where you come in Miss Raven because during those months Vash is likely to come across dangers in which his small body will not be able to handle such as criminals and, possibly, Knives' assassins. So will you still help us?"
Meryl took a moment to think about this and then she looked at Vash and his small, fragile body. She didn't want him to get hurt again, she didn't want him have any more scars on his body, she preferred that it was her body getting the scars than Vash's. She gave Vash a smile and said, "My answer is still the same. Vash protected me, now I'll be protecting him."
Vash was overjoyed, in fact too overjoyed that he had completely forgotten about Meryl's dislike of people touching her. He sprang to his feet with a smile on his face and leaped toward Meryl. Meryl tried to back away from him but it was too late, he wrapped his small arms around her waist and gave her a hug. It didn't take too long for Vash to figure out why Meryl didn't let anybody touch her. He slowly released his grasp from Meryl's waist and looked up with no longer a smile on his face but a concerned and worried look. Meryl looked down and met his aqua eyes with her sad gray eyes. There was a long moment of silence before Vash finally asked something that struck Meryl's heart.
"Meryl…Why do you feel so cold? It's not possible for someone to feel so cold on this planet…It's...too hot to feel icy cold. Meryl is there something wrong with you?" asked Vash in a concerned tone.
Meryl's eyes began to wander around the floor; she was searching for an answer. How could she explain to him? What could she say? "I…I don't know…I just don't know," said Meryl.
"I see," said Vash and looked down.
"Well this certainly is depressing," thought the Doc, "Let's brighten things up a bit!"
"Huh?" thought Vash in response to Doc's idea. He had forgotten about Meryl's "cold condition" and was busily thinking about what the Doc was going to do.
Doc looked at his watch and said," Oh look at the time! I've got to get going, but before I go I have something for you Vash." Doc dragged the suitcase from its previous position and placed it in between Vash and Meryl. "In here will be the clothes you will need while you are growing in the next few months and speaking of growing," said Doc, "once a month, you will be going through a growing phase in which your body grows in appearances that are 4 years apart."
"So now that I am around the age of eight, I'll look like a twelve year old after my first growing phase," said Vash.
"Yes but during the growing phase you will experience intense pain," said Doc, "plus, you will have to be in your boxers in order to avoid any damage to your clothes and body."
Vash's eyes widen and his face reddens. Meryl gave a smirk and started to giggle. Vash quickly turned his head to Meryl and said, "Don't you even start!"
Meryl then stood up straight and said with a salute, "Yes sir!"
"Hey wait a minute," said Vash and quickly turned his head to the Doc, "I've got to go through intense pain!"
Doc nodded and started to walk back to the door…very slowly. "Oh now look at the time! I've got to head back home. I'll just leave you two alone now. Bye!"
There was a moment a silence before Meryl said while scratching her head, "Well, I guess that's that then." She looked down and saw that Vash was shaking with fear.
"Intense pain! What if it's worse than any other pain that I have been through? But it's not only the pain I'm afraid of; it's going through it with my nothing but my UNDERPANTS! AND MERYL'S GOING TO BE WITH ME! What am I going to do!" Vash thought until he felt a slap on his back. He looked up and saw Meryl smiling.
"Hey it's going to be okay. I'll protect you and when you are going through your growing phases, I'll just hide in the bathroom or the closet until the close is clear," Meryl said with a smile.
Vash felt like as if a load has been lifted off his shoulders. He gave out a sigh and said, "Thanks Meryl." Just then an idea came to his head. "Hey! Can we see Millie? It's been a while since I've seen her and if she wants to come with us it would be like the old times!" he said with a smile.
Meryl's smile faded for a second but she replaced it with another smile, a fake one. "Yeah, we can go see her. Let me just get something in my room," she said and headed to her room. When she came back she carried a grocery bag that was filled with pudding cups and fake flowers.
Vash looked at the bag confusingly and asked, "What's the bag for? Is Millie sick or something?"
"Oh no, it's something I thought she might like," said Meryl and headed toward the door.
It took a while for them to get to their destination which also confused Vash because it was a cemetery. "Are we meeting Millie here?" asked Vash.
"Yeah, something like that," replied Meryl. Suddenly, Meryl stopped, turned towards a tombstone, and said, "It's been a while Millie." She knelt down and started to place the contents in the bag around the tombstone. Vash stood behind her, his eyes began to flow with tears as he read the letters on the tombstone:
HERE LIES MILLIE THOMPSON
A LOVING DAUGTHER AND CARING SISTER
And below the engraving were four words that looked like as if they were carved with a knife:
WILL NEVER FORGIVE MYSELF
He was about to ask who carved those words when he found a long knife strapped to the back of Meryl's black leather belt. He paused for a moment and then asked, "When did she die?"
Merly stopped what she was doing and lowered her head. "She died about a year ago. Today is the anniversary of her death," she said, stood up, and turned to Vash," she was killed by three members of the Dust Rat Gang. They were going to rob her but when things got difficult, one of them pulled out their gun and shot her three times." She tried to give Vash a warm smile but he already knew that it was a fake. He knew that she was fighting back tears and was trying to show a smile to bear it. It was the smiles that he had given to Millie and her.
"So is that why you hunted down the Dust Rat Gang? For revenge?" asked Vash.
Meryl nodded and said," But I also did it in order to keep my vow."
"Your vow?" asked Vash with a confused looked on his face.
"That's right," said Meryl, "on the night of Millie's death I made a vow to myself."
I hope you guys liked this even though there was a lot of talking in it. Please don't stop reading, the future chapters will start getting interesting ((hopefully )). I'll have chapter 5 up as soon as possible and please review! Thank you!