TriMax 8 Chapter 5

[tiggymalvern]

Chapter Five - 'Sorezore no Michi' (Each Road)


Sumire benefits us all once more.

Brad's ship finds the bent and shattered Punisher, and they keep on searching.

Page 156  (Sumire's p136). The desert night. Vash and Wolfwood sheltering beneath a rock, Vash examining the unconscious Wolfwood. "He's bleeding badly. A few of the bullets have gone through internal organs." He closes his eyes, thinking, 'It's hopeless, isn't it?' Vash gets a hell of a shock when Wolfwood wakes up and objects to being written off XD.


Page 157. Vash watches in surprise as Wolfwood fishes a vial out of his jacket and drinks the liquid. And Wolfwood starts to explain about the Eye of Michael.


Page 159 (Sumire's p139). Teenaged Wolfwood at target practice. A man who is probably younger Chapel shoots Wolfwood a couple of times to demonstrate just how easy it is to make him useless.


Page 160. Wolfwood in an operating theatre as his body is strengthened, his healing accelerated, his senses sharpened. He looks pretty wrecked from that one eye we can see.


Page 162 (Sumire's p142). And he doesn't look much better as he tells Vash that he's aging fast, that the people who knew him before won't recognise him now. Vash has gone kind of bug-eyed at all this.


Page 163. Vash wants to know why the people who obviously knew Wolfwood were now trying to kill him. Wolfwood explains how he shot Chapel and impersonated him to get a chance at killing Knives.


Page 165 (Sumire's p145). The first line of Wolfwood's dialogue has changed: "The gun barrel will be pointed at your friends. Don't let the intentions in your heart cool down." And then it's the same from 'I'm begging you, Tongari', except that he repeats 'I'm begging you' at the end, rather than 'I'm counting on you.' Wolfwood is reaching out towards Vash again as he passes out, just like last time, and Vash gets very stressed. "Wolfwood? Hey! Wolfwood!"


Page 166. "DON'T DIIIIIIE!" Wolfwood wakes up again to bitch, "Can't I sleep, huh?"


Daylight, and Brad's ship finds them.

Page 168 (Sumire's p148). Vash wrapped up in a blanket and wearing slippers XD Last chapter we had tripping on the edge Vash and now we're back to the fuzzy version - I love Nightow :-)
Brad's line to Vash has become 'I knew you didn't have ordinary weaknesses' as opposed to Sumire's translation of 'superhuman strength'.


Brad and Vash discuss the Ark, which has slowed since it was damaged by the attack, and Vash explains what he felt when Knives' feather touched him - that Knives risks being swallowed up in the gestalt (all as Sumire).

Page 170. Wolfwood, also wrapped in a blanket, and lying curled on a sofa, wants to know where the Ark is headed next. He's told it has now passed Carcasses (the place Wolfwood warned Livio it was headed) and is approaching east December.


Page 173. The Earth ships are coming soon, and Vash explains that Knives is now powerful and skilled enough to be able to affect the Plants on the ships when they arrive.


Page 175 (Sumire's p155). Vash (still in blanket and slippers XD) is dropped off to find Marlon. Marlon explains how a girl came to see him, and bullied him into making another gun.


Marlon throws Vash one of his custom revolvers, and Vash looks completely floored, both by the gun and Marlon's story. I don't think he expected Meryl to ever come back on side.

Page 177. Marlon offers to fix the totalled Punisher too, and Vash smiles as Marlon boasts he can have it done in two days. (I love the way Vash still looks like shit here - he's happy that things are looking up, that they get another chance to stop Knives, but then there are all the lines round his eyes and the shadows. He hasn't somehow miraculously recovered from being locked up and brain-zapped all that time, and I really adore Nightow!)


Page 178. Knives is standing above a row of broken Plant bulbs. Elendira yells at him to stop, that he's harming himself.


Knives jumps down to one of the broken bulbs. (Obviously Elendira only has the magic touch with one Plant brother.)

Page 180 (Sumire's p160). Knives holds the body of the dead Plant Angel, then crushes the corpse until it flies apart.


Knives repeats his intention of taking Vash down next time.

Page 184. Once he has the newly rebuilt Punisher, Wolfwood goes sneaking off into the dawn, saying goodbye to Vash once he's well out of range. For which stupid piece of decision-making, he deserves to have his head kicked in. Oh, wait....
(I'm relying on Sumire's translation for the rest of what Wolfwood says, because what he literally says is something about eating a badger - there's obviously some Japanese expression there that I'm unaware of!)


And here endeth the main plot of TriMax 8. Still to come is the Wolfwood side story 'Freed Bird'.

Comments

[glass-bullet.livejournal.com]

I love you. ♥

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Declarations always welcome XD

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

Vash-in-slippers is adorable. I think I need that for an icon. :-)

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

It's one of those brain-schism moments. I mean, my mum wears slippers like that. And someone put them on Vash!!! But somehow he just looks incredibly cute instead of bloody silly.

[sara-tsuzuki.livejournal.com]

I love Wolfwood's eyes....In the beggining of the manga his eyes were black, but now they have always a light of rage or determination. And love too the eyes of Vash when he's in shock XDDDD . He's so cute in the blanket *__* But he needs to rest!! Is interesting how he catch the look of Wolfwood when they talk about the Ark's route.
Now , is Wolfwood's Time! >___<

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Wolfwood is in some ways driven even more than Vash, because Wolfwood just wants to get Knives, and has no conflicting emotions there. Of course, he's had other conflicts going on for much of the time we've seen him, but once he gets rid of those conflicts and makes a decision, he's pretty much the ultimate nothing-to-lose obsessive.

Yeah, Vash catches there's something going on when Wolfwood asks about where the Ark's going. But he's really not firing on all cylinders still, because he doesn't put it together.

[jaina.livejournal.com]

I love Vash in slippers almost as much as I love Vash in a hoodie. Both so incredibly cute. I also find the "gee let's show the back of Meryl but not her face" thing to be very cute. And I like...all the stuff you pointed out. But the cute stuff is nice because it's so rare!

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

We don't need to see Meryl's face or have her name spelled out to know who she is. Nightow does that a fair few times with various characters along the way, and it's effective because of its subtlety.

After the ball of misery that this volume is overall, it's nice to have things lift up a bit at the end there, to give poor Vash a slight breather before the next mess. Not that Vash is having it entirely easy here, though - I really feel for him in the desert, when he's just got away from seven months in a cell, and suddenly there's Wolfwood giving him the 'Oh, and BTW I'm an assassin who used to be in with those thugs who work for your brother' bit. No wonder the poor sod's got those big, buggy eyes at that point.

[jaina.livejournal.com]

I agree, subtlely is a nice thing, especially when compared with the in-your-face actions sequences. Those are nice too.

I like the way Nightow detail's Vash's dark eye circles. He's getting a break, but it's no vacation.

[ravenclaw42.livejournal.com]

May I just join Glass Bullet in declaring my undying love? Thanks muchly.

Hm... teenage Wolfwood in a tight black shirt is a good thing, but would look much better if he were not in the process of having several holes shot in him. That's okay, there's injured mature Wolfwood hotness to make up for it. Although his strange need to do a sexy pose on every page seems to be wearing off slightly (other than pg 162, anyway...).

Um. I would really like to like Knives, I do try to garner him a bit of sympathy in fics and all, but he's really losing me here. The dead Plant-squishing is... gack.

Poor Vash. And I do so appreciate Nightow for his continuity. People do not recover from months-long mental torture and forced inactivity in mere moments, even people like Vash.

I love Vash screaming "Don't diiiiie!" and Wolfwood yelling at him to shut up so he can sleep. So very, very them. I love their relationship (and not all in a slashy sense) -- their chemistry, even platonic fighter-friends chemistry, is so unbelievably perfect.

And again you have provided me with excuses for sleep-avoidance! I applaude you. ^_^.
-Rave

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

his strange need to do a sexy pose on every page seems to be wearing off slightly

Well, he is feeling kind of rough, poor guy, and there's nobody around to look all tough and defiant for now. He doesn't have to act sexy for Vash, because he knows Vash loves him anyway XD.

The dead Plant-squishing is... gack.

Yeah, I mean, all that gloop goes everywhere, and he must be covered in it. Sane people try and avoid that kind of experience! But as Knives and Vash have both said, the Plant fusion is messing with Knives' head, and he's not the same person now that he originally was. He's creeping more and more OTT.

their chemistry, even platonic fighter-friends chemistry, is so unbelievably perfect.

I just adore the way these two interact, the way they talk to one another and behave with one another. Writing dialogue for them is such a joy XD.

[sara-tsuzuki.livejournal.com]

Wolfwood Sexy poses?? I hate Nightow for that!! This man ruined my life drawing this two hot mens and, overall, the sexy-hottest-cool-and-wild-gun-killer ever!!See him in action is an addictive pleasure, even he's hurt >__< But, talking about friendship, I saw Gungrave's first eleven chapters and I can say that is full of that kind of male friendship always in the bounds of love -Geez, I didn't need my imagination, all the mens in that anime have a friend to care, to love and protect. And I dont talk about women. But, in the second chapter, appears a boy, a friend of the protagonists, who looks like...Vash!! He has his pretty bigs eyes, his face and his smile...and an apron with the word "peace" on it!! But the thriller thing is just, another character, a guy who smokes and dress a black suit...Kills the Vash-alike-chara!! I ask me if that was a Nightow' bad joke...°__°

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

I don't hate Nightow for anything! I'm sure without fandom I'd find something else to fill my time, but I'm never going to complain at being sucked into something fascinating and fun and that makes me write. I had no creative side at all before fandom happened to me.

Ah, yeah, the guy in the bar/diner they hang out in was such a Vash look-alike! He didnt act at all like Vash, though, or it would have been a very different story XD.

[sara-tsuzuki.livejournal.com]

Yeah!! But when Jollyce gasp...Ouch!! Give me the creeps!! Was frightening see him die (I think in Vashito<----spanish name XD) And I hate Nightow for make me love Vash and Wolfie so much, and of course for love his work. You know, I have -at last!!-the magazine with his interview...ALL in japanese. But I'm happy. There's a poster of Vash, pictures of the Nightow´s tablework and other good stuff...*__*

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Ah, your magazine came finally! Are you going to share? XD

[sara-tsuzuki.livejournal.com]

Of course!!! But, tell me how, I dont know how to post images in my journal u///////u

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

First you need to upload scans to an image-hosting site. Photobucket.com is one of the biggest, but their free accounts have limited bandwidth and a 'no nudity' stipulation in their terms of service. No good for me and my doujinshi!

I use picaroni.com - it's free, unless you want to donate, and the only rule they have is nothing illegal.

Once you have your pics uploaded at a hosting site, the LJ FAQ tells you how to link images into your LJ entries:
http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=6

[sara-tsuzuki.livejournal.com]

I'm bring back to life after to die seeing your Wolfie's images of a past post...Geez...Well!! Thanks so much, I'll do all of that, I promise!! Today, a little later, cos is 01.39 am, here, in Peru XD. Thanks!!!

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

The first post takes a bit of time playing with the HTML options. It gets much faster after that! Ah, I'd been wondering exactly where you lived. The fact that you speak Spanish isn't in itself terribly revealing!

[sara-tsuzuki.livejournal.com]

XDDDDD, yes! Sorry, and where do you live? ...errr..Today I was late at home, and can't make scans of the magazine...My internet conection falls dawn, and is just working >___

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

I'm English, but I've been living in the US for the last year - Seattle, to be precise. One of the sensible places in the US XD

[r-chan.livejournal.com]

Just... aww~ X3 Its so hard not to love them - Its little OTT moments like when Vash yells at him not ot die (only to have Wolfwood snap back) which makes me love them even more ^_^

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

This kind of relationship just suckers me, every time. Looking back at all the fandoms I've written in, and the guys I've written, snark and deliberate teasing features heavily in almost all of them. It makes everything so much more fun!

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

I just love them. Both of them. Put them together, and it's more than double the goodness, because they behave completely differently with each other than they do with anyone else.

he wouldn't want Vash getting all emotional over him leaving.

If Vash knew he was leaving, he'd start wondering *why*, and then he'd figure it out, and no way in hell would he let Wolfwood get more than five feet away. Wolfwood can only pull this off by keeping it low key. And it's still a shitty piece of decision-making.

Yeah, I'm posting Freed Bird. I imagine the Dark Horse release will publish it as part of TriMax 8, same as the Japanese tankubon, even though it doesn't really belong there. But more bitching on that with the scans!

[stickmarionette.livejournal.com]

I <3 this chapter and I <3 you for scanning it XD

That first frame of blanket!Vash is just too cute for words. Hard to imagine exactly how psycho someone so...warm and fuzzy looking can get, and yet we've just seen it in the last chapter. *Nightow love*

That last page with Wolfwood - wah. There's something about the way the whole thing is put together that just strikes me as really sad. Maybe it has something to do with that shot of him, with his usual trademark stance and equipment and looking just so totally cool and collected and Wolfwood, and knowing that we're not ever going to see him like that again.

(or maybe it's just me and 2 hours of sleep ^^)

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

I love this whole book. It's just about Tiggy-perfect XD

Oh, you'll see him looking like that again yet. Not exactly that way, but we've got Wolfwood kicking ass on a motorbike to come yet :-)

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Fluffy slippers!Vash seems to get the vote from just about everybody, doesn't he? XD

Don't worry, Vash will have been fixed up with a new gun-arm the next time he shows up. You don't imagine he's going anywhere much without his arsenal, do you?

[yma2.livejournal.com]

Oh there's some wonderful stuff here! I love Vash in the blanket and slippers! (Especially when he visits Marlon, he sort of just... leaps out at him wearing only them and... yeah... very cute!) And that picture of Vash all happy but still with the circles round his eyes... aw....!
Love the part where Vash screams at Wolfwood not to die and Wolfwood screams back he's only trying to sleep. That is so sweet. I love that kind of interplay between them. Also, the pictures of young Wolfwood are cool.
I'm interested in finding out the link between Elendira and Knives. In one panel she's crying, so she obviously cares for Plants on some level, or for Knives at least. She seems to be the only Gung-ho-Gun who seems to have a personal stake in this. All the others, (from what I've seen) act very much as servants or slaves. Yeah, I suppose there's Legato, but he's just psychopathic. But Elendira, whilst certainly a servant seems to... well... care. I can't think of any Gun short of Legato who'd warn Knives or try to really save him... so I'm wondering what's up with that relationship, hummm?
Really good anyway. Does Vash get his REAL gun back ever?

[yma2.livejournal.com]

EDIT: Nope, that's Knives crying... (awww....) but my point still stands.

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Elendira does seem to have a pretty large commitment to Knives, but then there's that one bit towards the end of TriMax 6 where she's definitely discussing the situation like she's playing the odds. I think maybe she wants to be where the winner is. Is she warning Knives because of concern for Knives or because she just doesn't want him to go any crazier than he already has? She does, after all, have to work with him.

Or maybe Knives pays for all her classy clothes XD

I'd say the only one with genuine personal devotion to Knives is Legato. I work on the principle that Knives got hold of Legato when he was still a kid and completely twisted him, because nothing else makes sense.