Let Loose (Please Contain Me)

"Don't you get tired of bottling it all up, Vash the Stampede?"

~~~

Sand.

Reddened sand.

Clumped together and red from the blood of those killed by his brother.

From the people he couldn't save, again.

Why did it always end up like this?

Vash just wanted to have a normal conversation with his brother for once.

Millions Knives.

With a name like that, you'd expect a million knives. And that was exactly what you got.

Trying to reason with him was like trying to tell a spoiled kid they couldn't have chocolate bars for breakfast. It was nearly impossible.

But yet, Vash tried.

He tried and tried and he tried again, and every single time it resulted in blood.

Oh, never Vash's, never his brothers either. But many people got hurt, and many people died.

You would think Vash would be used to it, but he wasn't. Every time, it threw him off-kilter.

Millions Knives, or Nai, was always trying to think of ways to make Vash break.

Unfortunately, he wasn't the one to do so.

~~~

"Help!"

A cry from the distance. Perhaps from a child?

"Help! Please!"

Vash checked his surroundings and tried to find where the voice was coming from.

It was from the top of a roof.

How did they get up there?

Vash yelled out, "Hold on!" He then made his way to the building they were on top of, ignoring when Wolfwood wondered where he was going.

Inside, he asked if there was a roof entry.

"No, sorry. Why?"

"There's someone on the roof. I need to help them."

Vash exited the building and rounded it to the back. There, he found a tall step stool that someone must have brought back in order to access the rusted ladder that was several feet above the ground.

Ah, so that was how they had done it.

He quickly started his assent, climbing as fast as he could.

Once he reached the top, he found two teen-aged girls, one of which was crying.

The other girl was struggling to escape the crying girl's grasp.

"Let her go!" Vash quickly said.

"No! I can't! I followed her up here because I found her suicide note! I won't let her jump, I won't!"

Vash gaped, eyes wide. "Oh! ... Uh," he eyed the two girls, "why's that?"

He had wanted to die before, but he had his duty to protect as many people as he could. It was difficult for him to grasp why someone would act on that urge, why they would be both the killer and the killed.

Wolfwood finally caught up, and perfect timing, too, because the struggling girl started screaming.

Vash flinched. "Uh. I'm sorry!"

"Help! Why are you just standing there asking dumb questions?" The crying girl asked.

"Sorry!"

Vash and Wolfwood raced forward to help contain the thrashing girl.