Chapter Text
The unforgiving suns's rays laid on the planet nicknamed No man's land by many. Everything about this planet was a mystery, how the great fall happened, how giant worms swam through the never-ending desert, how the few creatures inhabiting the planet before humans could survive, how these same humans walked through the scorching heat in protective clothes like it was nothing, only being able to survive thanks to Plants.
Plants, the very existence of these balls of energy contained in lightbulbs was incomprehensible, but we all try to survive by draining the energy of these Plants without regard for the future.
In all of that, Kirav sat in his office chair, feet on the desk in front of him, papers laying on the crook of his belly.
He didn't like to think about the grand scheme of things, knowing they were all doomed from the start. All he could do was try to survive on this godforsaken planet, waking up to the two suns, working, eating, working some more, eating again, and going to sleep as the many moons drifted through the sky. Sometimes he would go eat out something with his friends, breaking the routine.
Meryl and Milly helped make it bearable. They all worked for the Bernardelli Insurance Society, and currently, it was boring him out of his mind.
But being bored didn't mean he was slacking. The dark brown-haired man was completing files after files, making phone calls after phone calls, trying to sound as friendly as he could to the people on the other line.
"Kirav!"
He turned his head toward the person calling him, it was Meryl. He raised an eyebrow, re-adjusting his glasses.
"Get your feet off this desk! This is so unprofessional!" She said, outraged as the man whined, sinking into his chair.
"But it helps with my blood flow!" Even though he complained, he complied and put his papers on his messy desk.
"So you are willing to sacrifice your back and neck for that? That position didn't look comfortable." Meryl crossed her arms, staring sternly at the man.
Kirav smirked and huffed a chuckle. "You're saying that as if my back was still salvageable."
He snorted when his colleague let an outraged noise out. The seated man shook his head with an easy smile.
"Is that all you wanted to say to me?" He said, going back to filling his paperwork.
Raising an eyebrow at the woman when she shook her head, putting his attention back on her.
"The boss called for us." She pointed behind her with her thumb, toward the boss' office.
"Us?" The man said, standing up. He was around 4 inches taller than Meryl.
"Milly, you and me." She said as she nodded and began to lead the way.
"Seems pretty serious."
Meryl winced. "It's making me nervous."
The other snorted. "Can't be me."
"Ugh, I know." She said, rolling her eyes while sulking before opening the boss' office door. Milly was already in there, sitting in one of the three comfy chairs on the far right, smiling warmly at the two.
"Take a seat." Their boss says, seeing Kirav hesitate.
He let Meryl take the seat next to Milly, sitting next to Meryl. He looked at the man in front of him with his hands clasped together, waiting.
"Sorry for the short notice, but the government informed us that they removed the bounty on the SS-Class criminal, Vash The Stampede." He said, pulling out three thin files from his desk drawer, and handing them out to us. "And classified him as a natural disaster, assigning us with the job of clearing up after him and preventing disasters."
I furrowed my eyebrows, opening the file.
"So I put you three on this case. Your skills will come in handy, you're the best in this domain. You'll need to find and follow him, and write a report when something does occur. All of the information we could gather are in these files, I'll let you do the rest."
The three employees nodded at the same time, looking at the man in front of them.
"Any questions?"
"Uh- yeah. A few." Kirav said. "Do we still have to do all the work assigned to us before this? It might be hard with an SS-Class criminal hanging around us all the time."
He slipped in a smile to not seem rude or accusatory.
"No, I'll give those to someone else. You'll have to gather everything though." The boss replied. "What's the other question?"
"Is there going to be extra on our pay since I assume we'll have to move around a lot?"
Milly and Meryl turned to the man sitting on their left with an incredulous look.
"Well- we already have a lot on our hands. We can't-"
"Then I'm not going, sorry." Kirav cut him off, tossing the file back on the desk.
"Kirav?!" The two women yelled at the same time, making him look back at them.
"What? I just don't want to die of thirst or starvation. Or having to sleep outside in the cold. Or be stuck in a town because of money problems. It cost a lot to travel around like that." The other answered, nonchalantly raising a finger with every point.
The women looked at each other and furrowed their eyebrows, before looking at the man behind the desk. Meryl crossed her arms, staring at him sternly.
"Kirav's right, sir. This is a very dangerous assignment, we could also get injured and not have enough money to pay for the hospital fee." Kirav raised another finger at Meryl's words. "I'm also not going if we do not have extra."
"Yeah! I won't be going too, we need extra!" Milly added nervously.
The boss exhaled nervously and shook his head, throwing his hands up.
"Alright, Alright! I'll give you extra money..." He exclaimed in defeat. "Anything else...?"
"Nah, that's all. Thank you, chief." Kirav smirked triumphantly at the man, taking the file again. The others shook their heads too.
"Then you're dismissed..."
"We won't disappoint you, boss!"
They all stood up, walking out the door, Kirav trailing behind the woman, looking at the documents. Milly turned her head to him with a smile.
"You really are our savior, Sir! I didn't even think of that!" She said, her voice dripping with sweet happiness and gratitude.
He couldn't help the smile tugging at his lips and chuckled with a shrug.
"A savior? This man is a menace! He had the boss warped up in his strings the moment he walked in!" The shorter woman protested, holding the door of her office open so her colleagues could step in.
"Yeah! Isn't that so cool, Ma'am?!" The other said excitedly.
"Aww, are you upset, Meryl? I can just take your extra money if you don't want it." Kirav teased with a grin, sitting on the sofa in the room with a huff.
"That's not what I meant and you know it!"
"Do I?" He raised an eyebrow at her, trying to feign ignorance, his small smile failing him.
She shook her head in desperation and sat down on her office chair, while the other women decided to sit next to Kirav on the sofa as he opened the file.
"I can't believe they sent us out to babysit an SS-Class criminal..." He heard Meryl mutter. "Are they trying to kill us?!"
Kirav smiled and shook his head. "Let's just read the documents first, and then we'll establish a plan."
The two nodded, opening their files.
Scanning through the first document, he picked up some pieces of information. This man was suspected of murdering Count Revenant Vasquez, whoever that was, and blowing up July.
There were reports on other minor incidents, most of them involving a lot of other people and the town's destruction. He glanced at the witness' names, deciding to look through who they were later.
What surprised him was the description of his personality, Vash was said to be a staunch pacifist. No other word. At least his physical appearance seemed to have more information, Kirav read carefully and quickly became disappointed.
His physical appearance seemed unclear. From what they had gathered, it was commonly said that he had blond hair, had a long red coat, and was around 6 feet tall.
The other pieces of information were only speculation or things that weren't brought up often.
He let out a long agonizing groan, throwing his head back. "So we're looking for a tall guy with blond hair and a red coat? It could be literally anyone! There isn't even anything about where he hangs out the most! There are no pictures, not even a drawing! We're so fucked..."
The man complained, faking a cry while dragging his hands down his face, before slapping his cheek a few times.
"...Don't worry so much, Sir, I'm sure we'll be able to find him eventually!" Milly tried to cheer him up with a strained smile, but her words seemed to be directed at herself more than anything.
It was Meryl's turn to sigh in exasperation. "Guess our only option is to rely on rumors of where he's at..."
Her voice was slightly muffled by her hand resting on her cheek, and elbow on the desk as she stared at the very few documents.
"We better get to work right away then!" Kirav said with a cheerful smile, standing up. "Let's start with this town! I'll get our weapons and everything else while you two go around town, we'll meet again at dusk at the doors of this building."
The two nodded, Milly with a big, fierce smile, Meryl with a shy one, feeling pumped up from Kirav's sudden cheerfulness.
"Let's go then!”