The events portrayed within this tale predate both anime and manga. Most of it comes from things portrayed or strongly implied in manga and / or anime.
Note: I do not own Vash "the Stampede," Rem Saverem, or Millions Knives: they all belong to the incomparable Mr. Yasuhiro Nightow.
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Trigun: Shipwrecked
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Chapter 3: Survival
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February 2415, exact date unknown
Year 15
I have seen these suns rise and set 5,543 times. An equal number of times, the stars have reclaimed the sky for the duration of the night. 7,982,220 minutes have formed 133,037 hours. Put differently, fifteen years, two months, one week, one day and five hours have passed since the escape pod containing my brother and I landed on this world.
In all that time, almost nothing has changed. We remain marooned on this vast, barren planet with its endless sands and equally endless skies. The winds still sound the same, except during sandstorms. Winters remain cold, and summers hot.
Knives and I have both grown a little taller. In fact, we will probably need larger jumpsuits before too much longer. The ones we put on before climbing into the escape pod are no longer overly long on us. They're finally beginning to fit about right, which means we'll need larger ones when they begin to feel uncomfortably snug.
Thankfully, the jumpsuits have detachable sleeves. On hot summer days, like today, that can make life slightly more bearable. The jumpsuits do have some insulation against extreme temperatures, but not always as much as this world's climate requires. Sometimes it's just more pleasant to have the air on one's skin... even if that air is uncomfortably hot during the hours while the suns are up.
Occasionally, where a ship landed reasonably intact, there may be a town of ordinary humans growing around the bulb-Plant(s) in the remains of the hull. I still try to keep Knives away from those towns, since he still talks constantly of killing every human there if he sees them.
If we pass a town late enough in the day, then after he goes to sleep I will quietly return. I talk to the Plant in the bulb, and tell her of love and peace.
That's also when I usually get supplies. Sometimes I can persuade Knives to wait while I go into a town. However, most times, it's best to distract him and keep him far away from towns. So I sneak in at night, and find what I can.
When I can, I will work a few hours doing whatever odd job I can find, to earn enough double dollars to buy the food and water we need. If there isn't time, or I'm too tired that day, I'll try bartering. Our bags from the escape pod contained an assortment of things that we don't need, but that others can use... or at least find sufficiently intriguing that they're willing to trade for them.
Unfortunately, the supply of things to trade is beginning to run low.
If nobody's willing to trade with me, sometimes I must steal what we need. I try to always leave something in return, and I never take much from any one store. I take a little from this store, and a little from that one, so that nobody will be put into any serious difficulties because of my pilfering.
I don't like stealing, but I dare not allow Knives near the town! I wish I knew a better way. I keep thinking. If I can find a better solution, I'll do that instead. So far, though, I have not thought of anything else that I can do.
I'm careful to get back to our campsite for the night, before I am missed. I also try to be careful to get enough sleep for the next day's travel.
If I'm not careful enough, and Knives either misses me, or else I am too weary, he beats me worse than usual. I have learned, partly courtesy of Knives' fists, to bury my emotions very deeply at all times. Like every other Plant, he can detect any strong emotion that I feel just as I can detect his feelings or the emotions of the Plants who live in those glasslike bulbs. Any time Knives detects that I feel an emotion he dislikes, he will attack with both fists swinging. He's uncomfortably adept at attacking with his words, too.
Maybe I am the worthless, pathetic, stupid sentimental wimp that he keeps calling me. I don't know anymore. What I do know is that he's wrong, and Rem was right, about the value of every person's life - including the lives of ordinary humans.
Actually, if really I am as useless a creature as Knives believes, then I must love Rem even more. She was a very smart woman - she had to be, to overcome Knives' sabotage to the ships in such a short time. She must have known what I am. Yet she loved me anyway. She accepted me with a gentleness that I've not seen in Knives, not since before he sabotaged the ships and caused them all to plummet toward this empty planet.
Rem is worth remembering, even if I am not. I am determined that her life and legacy shall not be forgotten. I will protect those she risked her life (and, probably, died) trying to save. I will not allow Knives to destroy what she spared at such great cost.
Knives used to know and believe that every life had value, even worthless lives like mine. If he were not so terribly embittered toward ordinary humans, he would surely have remembered this truth by now.
Maybe I'm just not smart enough to help him see it. Maybe what I need to do is shut up, and let him work it out for himself. Maybe I'll try that, and see if it helps. I've tried about everything else that I could think of.
It's just so difficult to be silent, when he says such terrible things!
I must try harder to be patient, as Rem was. If my imperfect efforts to champion the cause of ordinary humans have only fueled his hatred, then it may take (at least) another fifteen years for him to calm down and think more reasonably about them.
I'll need to do a better job of keeping my emotions buried, too. I need to avoid provoking him on any level, so that he can calm down and think more clearly.
If even that fails to help him recover, I'm not sure what to try next. I'll keep thinking though, as best I can between beatings, sleeping, and listening to him. If I think enough about what Rem said and did, then, surely, sooner or later, I should think of something that will help him.
Unfortunately, I know that all of his bitter talk is not merely venting. I was reminded of that truth around midday today.
Knives and I came upon a settlement of ordinary humans by accident. I would have steered him away from it, if I'd known it was there. Unfortunately, it was right at the bottom of a hill and it could not be seen until we'd reached the top of that hill.
We could see the people lined up, just inside the ship. They'd cut a large enough hole that we could see into the ship very easily. So we saw the pipe they had coming from under the Plant, and we saw that there was water coming out of it.
The line was long, containing every soul that lived there. Men, women, and little children each peacefully and patiently waited for their turn. I began to smile, seeing the reality of Rem's dream. Ordinary humans were working together with Plants to survive here.
Then a man, who was some distance back in the line, yelled and ran to the front. He pushed aside the people who were in front, took hold of the end of the pipe, and started trying to drink the water while it flowed over his face. He was wasting water, by doing that. Others protested, and struggled to make him let go and move out of the way.
Chaos erupted. Soon everyone was struggling against each other for the next turn at the water pipe. I think the sections of the water pipe may have come apart during the struggle, but I didn't have time to pay attention to that.
"See?" Knives said. "This is the true nature of the beasts called humans. They're selfish, arrogant, and imperfect organisms. They make me sick!"
He frowned and the Plant bulbs in the ship began to glow. There was a deep vibration that I could hear and feel from where we stood. The people within the hull began to draw back from the Plants, and make sounds of distress.
"What is that?" I asked Knives, nervously. "What did you do?"
Knives remained tense and frowning. I jostled his shoulder, and repeated, "What did you do?!"
When he turned to look at me, the vibrations and glow from the Plants inside the broken ship's hull began to fade.
"We have our own wills," he said. "We are not merely 'things' to be used."
He knocked aside my hand, which still gripped his shoulder. He turned and walked away.
I stayed behind, briefly, wondering what he meant by what he'd said.
Then I turned and followed.
Somehow, I must persuade him to stay away from there... or else, at least distract him from returning. If the only method that I can find to protect them is to earn another beating from Knives, then so be it.
I will not let Rem's sacrifice be in vain!