Trigun Fan Fiction ❯ Incompatible ❯ Chapter 0023 ( Chapter 23 )

Trigun Fanfic

Trigun © Yasuhiro Nightow * Shonen Gaho-sha * Tokuma Shoten * JVC * Pioneer Entertainment (USA) Inc.

The following fanfiction was written by me (Chiruken) and is intended for the sole purpose of shared entertainment and not intended for publication or sale.

--Incompatible-

Trigun Fanfic Featuring Knives and Meryl. Knives hates all humans. Meryl just hates Knives. It's a match ideal for the promise of Eden.

By Chiruken

Chapter 23

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Knives glanced up at the sky to check the position of the suns and sighed. He had plenty of daylight left, yet he was beginning to feel the strain of months of travel through the endless sea of sand. He was getting to the point where he no longer felt the need to continue on his journey of discovery. He felt that he had learned all that he could and could now form an opinion, yet something in him kept pushing him to continue walking, to move from town to town, city to city. He didn't know what was now driving him, but he was hard pressed to just stop and stay in one place.

He felt a small twinge of guilt when he thought of Emily, but only a small twinge. She was more than capable of taking care of herself…he'd seen to it. After they'd managed to reroute the power and connected the wiring for the solar receptors, he'd discovered that the ship's computers remained amazingly intact, including the memory banks and all the information on Earth and the human's origins. Emily's insatiable curiosity had led her to absorbing as much of the information available as she could. He'd also learned something very interesting. Emily hadn't been a normal Plant. He frowned and shook his head. She'd been free-born, just like Vash and himself, before the humans had placed her in the bulb. His discovery explained how it had been possible to free her in the first place as well as her human-like appearance.

Reaching for his canteen he pondered all that he'd learned from the ship's computers. It appeared the humans had experimented with Plant DNA, splicing it with their own and creating something altogether different in the end. He was fascinated by the discovery while at the same time repulsed. From what he'd learned, Emily, Vash and himself were hybrid Plants…unique and extremely adaptable. Of course, he knew that part already. What bothered him, however, was the fact that they appeared to be 'failed' experiments. He wondered if Rem had known the truth and if she had, why hadn't she told them about it?

He wasn't sure how he felt about being part human, if only in his genetic structure. Two years ago he would've been appalled. Now, he was merely curious. If they contained human genes, did that mean Vash and himself would eventually grow old and die like the humans? If so…when? How long could they expect to live? He didn't even know how long Plants lived so he couldn't form a theory with the new information he now had. He knew Vash would be delighted with the discovery that they had more in common with the humans, yet he was reluctant to inform his brother of his recent discovery. He had a feeling there was something he was missing, something very important, but he was unable to grasp what it could be. He decided that he wouldn't worry about it at the moment. He'd discovered over the course of his lifetime that when there was a problem that seemed impossible to decipher that it was often best to turn his mind to something else. More often than not the answers would come to him when he least expected it.

He squinted against the glare of the suns on the nearly white sand and raised his hand to shield his eyes. Through the shimmering heat waves he thought he could see clusters of buildings in the distance. He judged the distance to be an ile, two at most. He needed to replenish his supplies and that appeared to be as good a place as any to do it. He only hoped it wasn't one of the 'unfriendly' human settlements. He'd discovered in recent weeks that this particular part of the planet held many of the venomous humans he disliked so much interspersed with the odd few that were industrious and admirable. He would have to take his chances and discover for himself which dwelled in the distant town.

It took nearly an hour of steady walking to finally reach the outskirts of the town he'd spotted. The heat waves had created an illusion of nearness that left him feeling frustrated and grumpy. All he wanted was to find an inn and have a bath to rid himself of the past few days travel grime that had accumulated followed by a decent meal and a good night's sleep. Of course, if there was anything he'd learned over the last hundred and thirty-two years, it was that things seldom went the way he wanted and this was, obviously, no different.

No sooner had he stepped onto the boardwalk lining the front of the inn than he became aware of a disturbance just up the street. He frowned in the direction, thinking that it was another case of drunken disorderliness and blinked in surprise when he caught sight of a familiar tall form struggling in the center of the mob of angry people. "Damn…" He muttered and shook his head, hurrying across the street and pushing his way through the crowd. "Millie?" He pushed the angry townspeople aside and held them at bay by drawing his gun.

"M-Mr. Knives?!" She gasped and stared at him in shock. "Is that really you, Mr. Knives?"

"Who else would it be?" He scowled and searched the crowd for his brother. "Where is Vash?"

"I don't know! We got separated while searching for Meryl and then I came into this town and then I was accused of something I didn't do and then they…" The steady stream of words halted when he raised a hand. "I don't know where Vash is, Mr. Knives."

"I see." He turned his attention to the crowd again. "What did she do?"

"She stole my Thomas!" Came the immediate angry reply and Knives wrinkled his nose at the mention of the ugly overgrown chicken-like creature. "That's a hangin' offense, mister! If ya want to join the thievin' bitch, then by all means!" The crowd surged forward again.

Knives sighed and shook his head, raising the gun and cocking back the hammer. "Where is the evidence?" He asked in a deceptively mild tone after he gently squeezed the trigger, aiming the muzzle at the sky.

"Don't need no evidence! She's the only stranger to come into town in the last week, 'sides yerself, and that's all the proof I need."

"Has it occurred to you that maybe your beast wandered off on its own?" He watched as several of the angry expressions changed to bewilderment. He shook his head again. "Of course not. Why would I assume that you would use a modicum of intelligence in a situation when a woman's life was hanging in the balance?" His lip curled in disgust. "Ignorant swine…you're revolting. Are your lives so meaningless that you have to take out your pitiful insecurities on an innocent bystander whose only crime was accidentally wandering into your pathetic excuse for a town?"

Millie's eyes widened in a mixture of shock, admiration and fear. "Mr. Knives…" She whispered in a wavering tone and shifted closer to him as some of the men raised their weapons in a threatening manner, their faces reddening in fury. "I don't think you should say such things at a time like this…"

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill every one of you disgusting wastes of flesh." He ignored Millie's frightened whimper and glared at each of the men surrounding them. "If your brand of justice is to be served, wouldn't that do? If all you want is to see the color of blood and experience the thrill of violence, I'd be more than happy to oblige." He lowered the gun to aim at the men in the crowd randomly. "Who will be first?" He smirked when several backed up quickly, raising their hands in an obvious gesture of surrender. "You're all disgusting, parasitic organisms thriving on destroying everything surrounding you. Destroying you would rid this planet of a few more examples of why humans have no right to exist."

"Mr. Knives…please don't kill them!" Millie squeaked when his cold gaze settled on her briefly. "I mean…"

"You're willing to overlook their crimes against you? Stupid human…if I wouldn't have stepped in they would have killed you. Do you honestly believe they would have felt even a moment of guilt for that?" He snorted and squeezed the trigger again, sending a shot into the sandy ground at the feet of the men closest to them, causing them to leap back, faces pasty white in their terror. "Not so brave now that you have a 'victim' that will fight back are you." He sent three more shots into the dust at their feet. "Run. Make it more interesting." He laughed, a cold, humorless sound, and watched as they scattered. "I'll even give you a head start…just to be sporting and all." He lowered his gun and broke open the chamber, removing the spent casings and replacing them with new bullets before snapping it back into place. "And here all I wanted was a bath and a warm meal." He sighed and shook his head sadly as he slipped the black gun back into the holster at his hip. "Oh well. I suppose the next town might be a bit friendlier." He slowly began walking towards the desert again. "Are you coming, Millie?" He asked over his shoulder without stopping. "You can stay here if you like, but I doubt they'd welcome you with open arms, not after the trouble you've caused." He smiled when he heard her steps hurrying after him. "Smart choice."