HIGH ROLLER ! [TRIGUN STAMPEDE]

Misanthropy

I can smell oil. Metal. Lingering propane and burning. It's definitely a shed where Hoppered kept his work, but the place is barely letting in light through the cracks, and I'm layng down on the ground, struggling to open my eyes.

I cough hoarsely, my throat dry as hell. I can feel the bruising, and the lump growing on my head too. Given how much I had to use my power after JuLai to heal, I need to draw this out a few hours before I'll be perfectly right. I don't know if I have that time though.

Why not kill me? Or maybe he thought I was dead. Someone as "guiltless" as me. Right... that's the way I've been living, I can't blame anyone for perceiving me that way. That's how I wanted to be known, to know that I couldn't be hurt.

He must have lost someone beloved in Ju Lai. But why keep Vash alive? And why, with him getting the better of me, didn't he take the opportunity to get rid of me?

I clutch my head as I get up, the pain throbbing. My sense have dulled big time, to get ambushed like that. Stupid girl I am. I wasn't listening to anything in my mind, or my body. I've let myself become too numb, suppressing emotions I haven't had to deal with in a long time. Confusion, anger, guilt, remorse, fear, sadness— these are all things I haven't been accustomed to. So I was trying to wade through them, pathologize them to be effective when I need to now, but turns out not dealing with that head on leads to a stupid fucking migraine like this. "That motherfucker..."

Distant, but unmistakable, I can hear the sound of fighting. It's thunderous, it is echoing through the hills.

I kick the door down, off its hinges.

I stumble out and fall over myself. I crawl on my knees then, back around to the house to grab my case. It has my rifle after all. I don't know where he's thrown my gun or sword, so it's pointless to look for those. Assembling it as fast as I can while I still feel out of it from the asphyxiation. I can smell them. I can hear them, up on the hill. I sling the strap over my shoulder when it's assembled and run.

The air stings, my throat burns, but I climb through the rocks as fast as possible. I can feel only the bite of the wind, and know when he threw me my skin must have split, dried blood reigniting on my forehead.

Maybe I had wanted to believe he was good. Believe humans were not all the terrible things I had decided they were, that I was, for all these years. Assume that the people around Vash could be changed. That I could be wrong. I was just trying something new, giving someone a chance. And yet, I've still messed up again, and Vash will pay for my mistakes.

"Hoppered! Stop it!" I cry, reaching the top and slinging the rifle around to aim it. Through the sight, I can see Hoppered maskless. An eye, some teeth missing. Scarred. Obviously nothing new, with his mask meant to hide that. Machinery is broken and littered on the ground. His hand is firmly clasped around Vash's. Vash's hand holds a gun. Jessica is stood witness with fear.

"Please, stop!" cries Vash. No sooner does a gunshot ring out.

Well. My gun, my run is useless now. I lower it with the misfortune I was too late.
"You... Live to suffer," spits Hoppered. "You must survive in this cesspool of a world, all while coughing... Her sins. You'll answer for them too."

His hand reaches forward-- reaching for someone beyond the veil. "Eriks..."

Vash holds his hand, even though Hoppered is beyond where we are seeing. "Rem..." he breathes. "Would everything be better if I had not existed?"

I drop my gun, panting. My feet are rooted to the spot now, watching Vash hand his head. Watching Jessica wrap her arms around him from behind.

We burry him, but Vash and I don't glance towards each other once. I hang my head, hopefully to hide the dried blood, the split under my bangs. The bruising around my neck. The strap of my dress dirtied and red. "I should have the ammo for an old pistol like that. I have all the food I bought anyways. I brought my bike today too, we can squish. Gather your things. One of his is there."