21. Doubt
The second that Vash decided to shoot Legato Bluesummers instead of allowing those damned spiders to suffer, Knives felt it. It was as if someone had smacked him on the inside of his head, the power of his brother's anguish almost causing him to lose consciousness. Gripping the edges of his high-backed chair, Knives had to work more than he liked to admit to regain his composure. Vash had long since blocked Knives from reading his mental presence, but that broadcast had been so loud, the older twin was certain most of Gunsmoke had heard it.
It was a piercing scream, one that carried with it all the suffering those cursed creatures had made his younger brother to endure over the last century. Knives blinked in rapid succession, the magnitude of the emotion making his eyes sting, even though LR Town was over 2,000 iles away.
Then, silence.
Knives furrowed his brows and tented his fingers, allowing his weight to cause his chair to recline slightly. That pain, if he had been able to sense it from that distance, even through Vash's normal mental shields, must have been much, much worse than anything Knives had felt. He could only imagine the agony his twin was in, and that disturbed him. It made his heart ache in places that had long before gone cold.
And for one moment, before his rational mind came running with reassurances and explanations, before he could convince himself otherwise, Knives felt that maybe, just maybe, he couldn't justify this latest cruelty against his brother.