Trigun: Meryl Missing Vash part 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Trigun / Vash, Wolfwood, Milly or Meryl. They belong to the fabulous Mr. Yasuhiro Nightow.

Mangaverse. Huge spoilers for Trigun Maximum volumes 4 and 5.





Still Missing Vash


Year 113, approximately month 7 day 6

You… I can't begin to say how furious I was with you, when I learned that you and Wolfwood had run off again.

We'd underestimated your physical and mental strength. I don't plan to make that mistake any more!

We were just getting ready to go after you, when something happened. Milly sensed something, and was looking around nervously. I asked her what was wrong.

The next thing I knew, I was waking up in a cage.

Somehow, I had been taken - but not Milly. I was alone in that cage. No, wait... it wasn't a cage. It was an industrial-style elevator car, with the front fastened so they could use it as a cage. Some odd-looking people, all strangers to me, were gathered outside.

One tried to mock me, by accusing me of being too stupid to understand what was happening. He thought I believed myself a hostage.

But I knew better. Though I had ignored your advice and warnings, I'd heard enough of what you said to guess a little bit about how these people's minds might work.

"I'm the bait!" I said.

They seemed surprised that I understood this.

You were serious about trying to get away from us, to protect us, weren't you? I had only half-believed you before. Well, maybe not quite half...

Because of that, I had not allowed you to get far enough away, or fast enough. Your enemies had come after me, to get at you.

They mocked me further, calling me "birdbrain" of all things!

If I ever get my hands on them, I'll make them sorry for that!

That reminded me… I quickly and surreptitiously checked. Unfortunately, they had completely disarmed me. I'd thought some of my derringers were sufficiently well concealed to evade the average search. It seems I was mistaken.

I'm not sure how long I've been in the cage. I don't know how long I was unconscious, before I found myself here.

The other two left, but a boy stayed behind. He said a flare of fire in the distance meant that you were coming, and risking your life for me.

You risk your life too often. Most times that bugs me, more or less. However, I must admit – I was very glad to know that you were coming for me!

Then he said something that shook me more deeply than I had thought possible. He said that you and your brother were nothing alike.

Brother? You have a brother? Why didn't you ever tell me? Why did I have to learn this from your enemy?

When I see you again, you will answer for that!

He told me other things, too. Some of what he said… it's too incredible to possibly be true. How could you be a Plant? Those all look female, and they can only live in glass bulbs. Most people say they can't even think or feel, but that they only look human coincidentally. I've always been taught that Plants had neither consciousness nor sentience.

You may not be the brightest man I've ever met, but you do think and feel. He must have been talking nonsense. You're as human as Wolfwood, but even more annoying. Right?

But then he mentioned lost July… and I remembered something.

You had said that something similar to lost July might happen again, if you faced a certain enemy. Someone that you expected to find at Juneora Rock. And then you ran out to find that person. You called over your shoulder that you wanted us to run away, as far and as fast as possible.

Later that day, a bright beam struck the fifth moon and carved a deep crater into it.

I don't understand… I don't know what to believe.

I hear sounds of battle. The man in the suit comes and goes. So does the other, stranger one. One time when they came, they killed the boy who was telling me stories about you. He'd gotten his revolver into his hand, but that gloved hand was severed and lying on the ground just beyond where I could reach.

I quickly took off a shoe and undid most of the lace. Holding the lace, I threw the shoe through the bars. When it landed beyond the hand, I used my shoe to pull the weapon (and its grisly holder) into my elevator car cage. I pried open the gloved fingers (feeling very thankful for that glove), and claimed the revolver for myself. Using the foot that still wore a shoe, I kicked the now-empty hand down the shaft with a shudder.

The boy's revolver is small enough to fit in the concealed holster where I normally keep my main derringer. That's convenient. I restore all of my clothing back to normal, and continue waiting in my cage. What else can I do?

Then I see you come up the stairs.

I yell that it's a trap, and you should stop, but you only wink at me. Why did you do that?

The odd one drops behind you, and hits you. You disappear, and my cage is shaken.

Bright feathers appear, and then the cable suspending my cage over an elevator shaft snaps. I scream as it begins to fall… and suddenly those strange feathers completely surround me. I don't know what's happening, but I'm no longer falling.

I could hear their voices, while I was surrounded by the feathers. Their words were sometimes unclear. When I did hear words clearly, they seldom made any sense. For a few seconds, I think I see things… like waking dreams of people in streets and a terrible explosion. But, surely, that must have been merely my imagination?

I recognized Wolfwood's voice. I drew the revolver I'd so recently claimed from its former owner. I didn't know what would happen, but I tried to be ready.

The feathers begin to part, and I see a blue-haired man in some kind of a case. I see that Wolfwood is aiming a gun at him. I shoot at the blue-haired man, and I think I hit the back of his skull. After that, I'm not sure where to fire. I hold up my revolver, and wait.

I realize that the feathers are between me and you. I don't know where they came from, but some are tangled around my legs. I'm stuck!

I can't run when Wolfwood tells me to. I can't do anything.

Something explodes. I can't tell for sure what or where or why. The feathers begin to withdraw. It looked almost like they receded into… your arm?

Another person has come, and talks about Knives. That's what the boy called your twin brother, like it was his name.

Something in the way that newcomer speaks convinces me. What the boy said, somehow, at least part of it was true.

You have a twin brother, and he wants to destroy everyone. You are fighting to stop him.

I thought I knew you. But I didn't. You were standing right beside me, and yet, at the same time, you were a million iles away… if not farther!

I tried to ask you about your arm.

You said it was all right now.

I hope you're correct about that.





Note: this is my effort to portray Meryl's perspective on events that are also described in "Unwritten Letters, chapter 32: Dragon's Nest Fortress" (which attempts to portray Vash's perspective).