[I]
Vash glared at Nicholas.
“Must you do that?” He waved his arms widely. "Shoot at the first thing you meet?"
Nicholas looked at his friend in disbelief, before shaking his head. This was the horror whose 60 billion dollar bounty everyone was after? He sighed.
“Vash, it was a chicken I shot. We eat chickens when we are hungry. We are hungry. Therefore we shoot chicken to eat it.” He explained slowly as if to someone backward. He scowled as the rest of the brood ran for cover and disappeared over the horizon. “Look what you’ve done. You’ve scared the rest of our dinner away.”
Vash crosses his arms and sulks. “Doesn’t matter. You shouldn’t have shot it in the first place. Even a chicken deserves… LOVE AND PEACE!”
Nicholas can only sweatdrop as he watches Vash go through his standard movements. Sighing, he grabs the chicken and starts pulling out feathers.
[ II ]
Evening.
Nicholas sat back against his cross-shaped gun and stared off into the distance, his stomach replete with chicken and some plants Vash had managed to dig up in the desert. Although it was two chickens shy from what his stomach had originally intended, it would have to suffice since Vash refused to let any more chickens die a foul and unwarranted death.
A fond exasperated smile crept to Nicholas’ lips.
The things that the Stampede would pull.
And all for what?
A chicken???
“Even a chicken deserves… LOVE AND PEACE!”
Even a chicken…
He glanced at Vash who had finished his meal and was now against a rock, resting before the long journey to Saturn Town.
“Vash?”
“Aa?”
“You really believe in this love and peace stuff, don’t you?”
Vash grinned, forming a V-sign with his right hand. “But of course, love and peace – ”
“No really.”
Vash glanced at his friend whose face was once again turned toward the setting sun.
“I believe that that is the way we have to live,” he replied slowly. “That too many innocent lives have been shed as a result of violence and hate.” He thought back to the time when Knives killed the spider in order to save the butterfly. Was that a right move? Even after so long, Vash wasn’t sure.
“No matter how the situation seems, there is always a peaceful way out. There is a way to solve the world’s problems if we just look beyond our differences and love each other instead.” Vash’s hand cradled his gun as he spoke this. “We don’t always need a gun to solve our problems.”
[Gunshots. The sound of screaming. A quick pattering of footsteps.]
“Father!!! Mother!!! Brother!! Sister!!”
“You want to get stronger don’t you? Then pick up the gun and fight!!”
“Only the strongest will survive.”
“Who are you?”
“I am your executioner.”
[Bang! Bang! Bang!]
[more gunshots. A clatter of a pistol falling onto the ground. Strangled sobs.]
“Why are you crying, boy? You’ve avenged your family! Crying is for losers! Only the strongest will survive!”
“Only the strongest will survive…”
“ Only the strongest will survive…”
Nicholas bit his lip.
“You really believe that, don’t you?”
Vash turned to his friend and gave him a smile. “Yes, I do.”
Nicholas stood up. “Yeah well, but life does not always turn out the way you want it to be.”
He walked off to load his things onto the motorbike and mounted before looking back at Vash.
“You coming?”
Vash kicked some sand over the petering flames and watched the fires as they went out. Nodding silently, he reached for his own bag and walked towards the motorbike.
[III]
"I have affairs to take care of. So I’ll take my leave of you first.”
“Will I ever see you again?”
“Heh, I don’t know. Having cactus roots for dinner isn’t exactly my idea of a fun time.”
Vash looked at his friend.
“But seriously, I have to get back. Besides, the more I look at you, the more I hate myself. How bothersome.”
Vash watched in silence, as he watched his friend ride off through the dusty plains.
Nicholas –
[IV]
I am riding on my motorbike, crossing through the desert as I am always wont to. The sun beats down on my black suit, but I am used to it. It reminds me of the guilt that will be always by my side. But it also reminds me that while I still feel discomfort, I still live.
Even though it has been a couple of hours, I feel my thoughts straying back to him.
I can’t believe myself. To have given him such an answer.
That sort of answer.
Angrily, I crushed these thoughts in my mind. Foolishness. I am an assassin, a murderer, through and through.
I am not like him. I am not like Vash the Stampede.
I tightened my hand on the throttle.
[V]
People always ask. Why do the things you do?
And I ask them, what things?
Do they mean the killing? I do plenty of that. Do they mean the shooting? I’ve done that too. And hurting. Mustn’t forget the hurting.
And someone laughs and shakes his head. No. You know what I mean. Why do you protect the children?
I shrug it off. I’m a priest. I’m supposed to do it. Answers flow trippingly off the tongue and they go off, satisfied. I watch their backs and I shake my head.
My real answer… because they won’t do it.
And because someone must. Must protect the children. And if not me, who?
They say the angels will do it. But I haven’t seen many angels rallying against the likes of Chapel or Legato as they gun down people, both the young and old.
I haven’t seen angels hovering around the children who pull at their dead parents’ clothing.
And yet…. I’m still wrong. Because, there is Vash.
Vash.
A strange person who believes in love and peace. Who believes in a world without guns where everyone lives happily ever after. A world where everyone loves one another and innocence is lost, not stolen. A world where angels still walk the earth, in the light and preach love and peace. Where people believe in peaceful solutions to everything. Where everything can be solved by love, not hate.
Where nobody kills. Where people who kill for pleasure don’t exist. Where people who kill for sport don’t exist. Where people who kill because they can don’t exist. Where people who kill because of power and greed and hate don’t exist.
Where people who kill to protect don’t exist.
Where people who kill don’t exist.
Where I don’t exist.
Where do the devils who protect, lurk, when all the shadows are gone?
Do they become angels in the light?
Can they become angels in the light?
Notes: Chickens in a desert.
Yes, my friends. For all intents and purposes, there are chickens in this desert. Nice big plump ones which wander around in flocks waiting for people like Nicholas to pick them off. And where do they come from? Well, probably from the same hat where fanfic authors mysteriously pull out XX number of bad guys, invincible weapons, and Vash’s nearly indestructible “hit me!!!” red coat. Hey, you guys like to pull ammo, cannons… we just like to pull chickens. What’s so wrong with that? *grin*