Akai tenjikuaoi - chapter 1

The boy and his pack landed softly on the hard, hot stone. The boy grimaced at the burning in his hands as they supported him, pushing against the rock to stand up. He blew on them, trying to cool the burning, and then looked around.

That’s when he saw the giant boomerang coming at his head.

"ACK!" he yelped, and was about to jump out of the way, when something hit his side and knocked him flat to the burning stone. He looked up just in time to see swirling red fabric as a tall blond man in a red coat jumped over the boomerang, and behind the huge man who had thrown it.

Oh, thought the boy, that’s what must have hit me, his coat. "Dangerous toys are fun, but you could get hurt!" quipped the man in the red coat, a mischievous grin on his face.

The boy, knowing what came next, flung himself over the edge of the cliff, grabbing onto the edge of the rock and dangling off the edge. Sure enough, mere seconds after he had dived down, the boomerang came back, low enough that it would have crushed him if he’d been where he was laying a moment ago. ...He hoped his pack was all right, all his water was in there, and he was going to need his water.

As he hung there he heard loud pained noises that he knew came from the huge man that had thrown the boomerang. The boy gritted his teeth. He hated the sounds people made when they were in pain. As good a reason as any to keep people from being in pain. Still, this man deserved it more so than some.

"Are you alright there?" a black-gloved hand hung down over the edge of the cliff. The boy looked up, and there was the man in the red coat.

"Yeah. I’m fine. I just didn’t want to get hit by the boomerang when it came back." the boy smiled and swung himself up and onto the rock, ignoring the hand.

"That’s good. I almost thought you were going to kill yourself, jumping off the cliff like that. You know, I disapprove of suicide-"

"More than anything." the boy finished for him "I heard you say that earlier."

"Ah, well..."

"What’s that noise?" the boy blinked for a second, head cocked to the side, then dived for his backpack, pulling it on and running away.

"Where are you going?!" the man in the red coat chased after the boy.

"Safety! Get the girls!" the boy yelled, just before an explosion sounded, and rocks flew everywhere, starting an avalanche that rumbled over the cliff behind them, onto the town below.

"What’s going on?!"

The boy and the man looked up to see a black-haired woman on a thomas keeping pace with them. Behind her a brunette rode another of the beasts. The black-haired woman was holding a box of donuts.

"Sugoi! Score!" the boy grabbed the box and started munching on a donut.

"Donuts!" the man in the red coat grabbed the box from the boy and took one.

"Hey!" the boy grabbed them back.

The women stared at the wrestling match that erupted over the donuts.

"They’re mine!" the fight froze, the boy holding a gun to the man’s forehead.

"What are you doing!?" the black-haired woman yelled. The man simply crossed his eyes, staring up at the gun the boy was threatening him with.

"But-"

The boy pulled the trigger. The man fell backwards, the box he had been holding quickly grabbed by the boy.

"What did you kill him for!?" the woman yelled.

"Stop yelling. I didn’t kill him." the boy said, before finishing the donuts off.

"Ow..." the man sat up, rubbing a huge red mark on his forehead.

"I used a rubber-tipped bullet." the boy explained.

"That stung you know!" the man whined.

"Ah, shut up. Here, have the crumbs." The boy tossed the box over his shoulder at the man’s head. The man’s hand darted up and deftly caught the box before it hit him. The boy, watching this out of the corner of his eye, smirked.

"Nice catch." The boy nodded, and started walking away "We’ll meet again later." "Hey! Who are you and where do you think you’re going!?" the black-haired woman shouted. The boy groaned.

"Call me Nazo."

"Nazo?" the man in the red coat blinked, then smiled "Nice to meet you, my name’s Vash."

Nazo stopped walking. "As in ‘the stampede’?"

"This moron?" the woman with the black hair rolled her eyes "This guy, Vash the stampede? No way can he be Vash the stampede."

Nazo shrugged. "Well, it takes someone of real skill and intelligence to fake being a bumbling moron. ...But then, some people don’t have to fake, I suppose. I really must be going now miss...?" Nazo looked over his shoulder expectantly.

"Meryl Strife. Of the Bernardelli Insurance Company. This is Milly Thompson."

"Hi!" Milly waved.

"Nice to meet both of you, Meryl Strife, Milly Thompson, and Vash, last name currently in debate." Nazo pulled a pair of sunglasses out of his pocket and slipped them on, glancing over the rims at Vash "Ja ne."

Nazo resumed walking away from the others, disappearing over a sand dune.

"What did he say?" Meryl blinked.

"He said ‘ja ne’." Milly replied helpfully, "It means ‘goodbye’ in Japanese."

"I thought that was ‘sayonara’." Meryl commented.

"Oh, sayonara means goodbye, too, but ja ne is less polite and more temporary, like ‘see you’." Milly explained.

Meryl nodded for a second, then stared at Milly. "How do you know Japanese?"

"Oh, I only know a little. One of my little little brother’s friends was Japanese and I picked up a few words here and there." Milly explained with a smile.

The girls rode quietly on their thomases for a while.

Milly turned to Meryl. "Where did mister Vash go?"