--MANGA TRANSLATIONS--
--TRIGUN MAXIMUM CHAPTER 39--
Printed in Young King Ours, April 2001
Translation by sumire
Page 152
Knives, Elendira, and the doctor walk through a crowded marketplace.
Page 153
Various merchants and shoppers.
--Hey! Fresh meat, just in today! Chicken--Beef--Pork--You name it, we've got it--
--It's always a concern. That's why I recommend this powder--
--We use ingredients as close to the original as you can get--
--How about it? Doesn't that smell good? That's the very freshest tea--
--It's really good, ma'am--
--Oh, that is tasty--you don't skimp on the sugar--
--It's flammable, so be careful--no, you just have to handle it the same way as gasoline--
- Doctor (thinks): This is bad for my heart.
- It's like walking through town with an atomic bomb.
No--at least a bomb wouldn't actively bear ill will against the human race.Elendira: It must be like drowning in a sea of maggots... to Him.
Page 154
- Elendira: I wonder what would happen if He were to explode right now.
- I'm sorry, but I can't help being excited by the thought.
Doctor: .....
Doctor (thinks): We fell to this planet as we slept, and then went on exhausting the meager resources of the earth to live.
Page 155
- Doctor (thinks): And then one day he appeared before me.
- It was a quiet, moonlit night.
Flashback. The doctor sees a figure sitting in his darkened living room.
- Doctor: Who's there?
- What are you doing?
Doctor (calls out): Someone, come here--
He stops short.
Page 156
- Doctor (thinks): I recognized him at once.
- It was that boy! He had survived the Great Fall!
Doctor: You... You're all right--
Knives jerks away from the doctor's outstretched hand.
Page 157
- Knives: I've finally found you, Count Revnant Vasquez--
- --or should I say, crewman Bill Conrad!
- Knives: It seems that you've used your Plant expertise to make a fine life for yourself.
- Isn't that nice.
- Knives: But starting today, I'm having you throw all this away.
- I need your brain.
- Doctor (thinks): That look in his eyes...
- This was little Knives?
Page 158
The present. The three make their way to the town's Plant.
Page 159
- Doctor: Is this the first time you've seen so many of them?
- This would have been the central reactor of a Plant ship.
Now it's the lifeline of the people who live in this town.Page 160
- Knives: This way.
- Hurry.
Her pulse is getting weaker.
- Doctor (thinks): I felt an unspeakable fear.
- I also felt something like obligation.
But I must confess--more than anything else, it was my curiousity about this autonomous Plant that moved me.Flashback. Knives experiments with his arm and slices a wine glass in two.
Page 161
- Doctor (thinks): I was fascinated.
- The power of a Plant--the power to change the world...
...with a consciousness and will of its own.
But...
...that soon led to catastrophe.
- Doctor (thinks): There is no mistaking that the mass disappearances all over the planet were connected to that power.
- I had helped a monster.
Knives: This is it.
Page 162
They have reached the main Plant.
Page 163
Knives looks up at the angel inside.
- Doctor (thinks): It's on its last legs.
- To Knives, it must look like nothing less than pure exploitation.
Engineer: Hey! What are you doing there!? This is a restricted area!
Page 164
Knives: Can you heal her, Doctor?
Doctor: It won't be easy. From what I can tell, there's severe tissue damage.
Engineer: Who let you in here!? Get out at once! If you don't--
Knives glances at the engineer.
Engineer (thinks): I... I can't move!
Knives: Quiet. You're making her worse.
Page 165
- Engineer: ...Oh, I get it.
- You're with one of those Plant-worshipping cults, aren't you.
It's not that I don't I don't understand how you feel.
You feel kind of reverent when you see their inner form.
But on the other hand, there's a little something called "reality."
We can't survive without the power of "her kind."
And, of course, you can't either.
- Engineer: You'd better be going.
- The last run is starting.
It's not something you want to stick around and watch.Doctor: ...!!
Doctor: Knives, let's go!
Elendira: What's the matter, Doctor? What's got you so nervous?
Doctor: I'm begging you, please, come with me!
Elendira: The "last run"? That doesn't sound good. What is that?
- Engineer: It's going to be retired.
- So we'll have it put out one last effort.
- Page 166
Suddenly, the Plant emits a great burst of light.
Doctor (thinks): It's started... Damn!!
The Plant angel contorts in agony.
Doctor (thinks): The "last run"...
Page 167
- Doctor (thinks): For Plants in their final stages, when they can no longer be of use...
- ...they deliberately send it out of control.
For a final massive generation.There is a great rush of Plant product.
The screaming angel's hair turns black.Page 168
Knives stares wide-eyed as the angel shrivels up and dies.
Dark fluid spreads in the bulb.Page 169
The doctor falls to his knees.
- Doctor: Kni--Knives...
- ...Forgive us...
Pages 170-171
Knives' left arm erupts in a mass of giant blades.
Pages 172-173
The engineer is beheaded.
From where he is standing, Knives sends blades shooting through the facility, killing everyone.Page 174
Outside, people panic in the streets as a giant blade hangs over the town.
Page 175
Suddenly, there is a flash of light.
Doctor: So it's finally begun.
Page 176
Knives is doubled over, gasping for breath.
- Doctor: It seems that the darkening of your hair has begun.
- The tide has turned, Knives.
Knives: What are you talking about?
- Doctor: You've exhausted your strength. Your decline is progressing.
- Just like her.
Page 177
- Doctor: If you continue to use your "power," eventually all your hair will turn black.
- And then your body will break down.
- Doctor: In other words, you will die.
- Knives: You were calculating this...
- Damn you, Conrad!
- Doctor: If I didn't, I wouldn't be able to stop you, would I?
- It was the only way for a human like me.
- Doctor: If you abuse your power any more, you won't even be able to live like a normal person.
- I'll stay with you.
Why not end this already?- Knives: .....
- Elendira.
Tell me.Page 178
Knives: Has Vash's hair... begun... darkening?
Elendira is silent.
Page 179
In a mad rush, Knives impales the doctor on his blades.
Knives screams.Page 180
Far, far away, Vash looks up.
- Vash: .....!!
- Knives...
To be continued next issue...