NOMAN'S LAND: Difference between revisions

At that moment, the July military police captain chimes in to inform them Vash is worth $$6,000,000, which is just about exactly the cost of a new Plant. They've tracked Vash to Jeneora Rock and though Vash surrenders to their custody without resistance, they restrain and beat him viciously. Rosa, though disturbed, says nothing, too desperate for the money to buy a new Plant. Meryl is appalled, but shrinks back behind Roberto when the July Captain pulls a gun. Roberto, however, steps up, goading the July MP Captain into a duel with Vash by calling him a coward and threatening to publish it as his legacy.   

Vash and the Captain face off atop a scarp of rock overlooking the town. It's a quick-draw duel, so the last man standing wins. Meryl is concerned that Vash will get killed, but Roberto is more confident, telling her to watch and see whether Vash's claim he's not a fighter is the truth. Vash tries to convince the Captain to stand down by refusing to draw his gun on command and pointing out the situation is dumb. It seems like he might be successful as the Captain agrees and holsters his gun, until he replaces it with a rocket launcher and fires a cluster bomb into the air. Meryl angrily moves to confront him but Roberto throws her back into cover and informs her sternly that they're here to observe, not run recklessly into danger, and she'll need to live a lot longer before being able to instigate confrontations like that. Meryl is crestfallen, but stays under cover.  

Everyone in town takes off running as Vash, dismayed but oddly calm, wearily sighs that the Captain is crazy and decides to finally draw his gun. He takes aim and pulls the trigger, but the gun is empty, and Vash realises he's completely out of bullets. He panics and calls for ammunition, wailing and crying theatrically. Rosa approaches Meryl and hands her a single bullet, which Mery runs and tosses up to Vash. The July MP Captain first knocks the bullet away before Vash can catch it, then when Vash does catch it and load his weapon, the Captain throws him off-target by firing on his pistol and rushes to shoot Vash point-blank before he can recover his aim. Vash dodges three such shots with impossible, inhumanly effortless grace, then grapples the Captain and flips him off his feet before knocking him out by hitting him in the back of the head with his pistol. He then uses a piston installed in his prosthetic to break a large rock out of the ground, throws it upwards into the oncoming cloud of missiles, and fires his single bullet after it. The rock shatters upon hit and its pieces are thrown outward, harmlessly detonating all the missiles before they can destroy the town. The police are thrown out.

The next day, Meryl admiringly tells Vash he has amazing skill, but Vash demurs, claiming that he just got really lucky. Neither Roberto nor Meryl are fooled and Roberto calls his bluff: Vash was not frightened by the military police, but he's scared of ''something'', and whatever it is, the red Plant has something to do with it. What is it? Vash drops his air of goofball incompetence and hesitantly reveals that he has a brother. A flashback shows the moment just after their pod crashed as children, where Vash finds Nai laughing maniacally atop a pillar of rubble while he watches burning SEEDS ships rain from the sky, and the pods with sleeping people still inside being consumed by the flames. Nai triumphantly declares that his work is successful, and names Vash his accomplice when Vash tells him in horror that he's committed murder with Rem among his victims. The flashback ends, and Vash tells them his brother is named "Millions Knives". A strange insect-bird creature, one of several that have lingered around the town and Vash when he was tied up, flies from Jeneora Rock to the city of July. It reports Vash's location to a robed man playing a complex piano piece under the gaze of twisted, snarling statue: Knives. He is glad to know Vash has been located, and declares that he will go to him and claim him before exterminating the parasites once and for all.

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