Trigun Maximum 8-11 by Yasuhiro Nightow

Millions Knives is ready to enact his revenge against the humans, hating them for enslaving the plants, as Trigun Maximum #8 starts. He has his brother Vash the Stampede, prisoner, and is torturing him with the aid of Legato Bluesummers, who is still in his iron-lung type device. Knives has constructed a ship, an airship that can contain the many plants who he is going to abuct or free, and which looks like one of the ships that the humans travelled to this planet in. Vash tries to get Knives to leave the humans alone, citing Rem as an example, but Knives will not be dissuaded. He imprisons Vash in the same place the other plants will soon occupy and goes to stand on the bow, calling the other plants to him.

The plants come and fill the ship, abandoning the glass light-bulb-like containment centers they live in and flocking to the ship like clouds of angels. Their passage leaves the human cities and towns dark and powerless, and they are then destroyed by the remaining Gung-Ho Guns and Cybernetic mercenaries that Knives employs. As the ship passes, thousands of humans are killed, wiping areas of the planet free of their (to Knives' eyes) polluting presence. Vash has a dream of a child and a woman thanking a plant for providing them with power and everything they have, while a man (the woman's husband) looks on proudly in the background. Vash is rescued from the barge by Wolfwood, who manages to free him under the nose of one of the Gung-Ho Guns, Elendira the Crimsonnail and also Legato Bluesummers. Wolfwood is opposed by the man who taught him how to be a killer and assassin, the Head of the Eye of Michael, and his new assassin, Livio. They escape, but Wolfwood reveals that he has been aged faster by his training, that only a few years ago he was still a child. He returns Vash to the people from the ship.

Meanwhile, Wolfwood goes off on his own, where he encounters a woman whose father has a Plant, but it required expensive maintenance. To get the money, he dealt with a shady man who now wants the daughter for his bride. Either that, or the plant. And now that her father is dead, she doesn't like either of those two options. Wolfwood calls her childish, but his very presence makes the man attack them, accusing Wolfwood of sleeping with her. Wolfwood defeats the man's tank, does the service for her dead father, tells off the girl again, and is about to leave when she gives him a carving of a bird, and says she is now free. Wolfwood is dismissive, but keeps the carving.

The next issue has Wolfwood remembering his life at the orphanage and "Crybaby Livio", who was something of a friend to him. But when one of the orphans lost a precious pet, and Livio was found with bloody hands, everyone blamed him, even though he claimed he hadn't done it. Shortly afterwards, Livio ran away, and then Wolfwood left, to eventually become an assassin. Since the orphanage he grew up in is in the path of Knives' gunship, he goes to save them. But his mentor from the Eye of Michael is there, along with a bunch of Cybernetic mercenaries, the Tiger Clan. Wolfwood defeats the Tiger Clan without killing them, which they consider the height of shame, and Wolfwood's mentor kills them, then reveals the true person who will defeat Wolfwood, Razlo, the Tri-Punisher of Death. Like Wolfwood, he carries a Punisher Cross, but unlike Wolfwood, he carries three of them. And he can regenerate any wound to his body that doesn't immediately kill him.

He and Wolfwood fight for part of issue nine and most of issue ten. Wolfwood carries three vials that can also bring him back from near-death and heal him, but using them accelerates his aging. He is nearly defeated by Razlo, but in the fight, he grabs his mentor's vials and drinks two of them at once, which allows him to finish the fight and beat up Razlo/Livio. However, the damage from drinking the last two vials allows him to share a last drink with Vash before he dies. Vash is almost broken by Wolfwood's death, but Razlo comes back to his true personality as "Crybaby Livio" and accompanies Vash back to the ship. Vash uses some of his power as a plant and buries Wolfwood, setting up his Cross Punisher as a memorial for him.

All the remaining humans have gathered in one city, and a ship from Earth is on its way to rescue them. On board is a being who seems to be the spokesman for the Plants on the ship and Earth, a beautiful woman. The humans on planet Trigun are determined to fight against Knives, even though the leader of the ship-based humans, Luida, warns them not to. The humans have salvaged a huge Ion Cannon that they hope will knock Knives' ship out of the sky, but when they try to fire it, the remaining plants refuse to supply the power. Meanwhile, Vash meets Millie and Meryl again, and they return to him some of his property from the remains of the Bernardelli Insurance Agency. Millie asks after Wolfwood, but Brad, one of the ship humans who know Wolfwood is dead, says he is off on a mission of his own and they don't know when he will return. Millie seems to catch on right away, bursting into tears.

Livio and Vash go after Knives, but Zazie the Beast makes her own play, attempting to kill Knives with a poison that will affect his brain. Zazie fails when Legato reveals he is completely healed and saves Knives' life. Livio fights Elendira, and she reveals how she got her name when her weapon shoots humungous Crimson Nails at Livio, pinning him in place. She thinks he is defeated and walks off, but he gets better, and goes after her, with a bunch of children and their mother gifting him with a cloak and a cowboy-style hat. The earth ship arrives in the atmosphere, and Knives goes to destroy both it and the last human city on the planet.

Some of the fight scenes in this group of manga are a little hard to interpret. I mean, it's hard to tell what is going on in the drawings, but the tension gets higher with each one. Will Knives and his Gung-Ho Guns be able to kill all the remaining humans, or will Vash be able to defeat him and save the humans? I will definitely be looking forward to the remaining volumes of the series, however many there are. At this point, it is easy to see the story drawing towards the end. Wolfwood's death was both shocking and saddening, and the story of his life was also sad and unusual. I would never have guessed that he was artificially aged from a thirteen year old child (apparently. It's hard to tell exactly how old he is supposed to be). I always found his death in the anime sad, but this was equally sad, in a different way. It's definitely a series with a high degree of pathos, and has made me look at the characters in a much different way from the anime.