Chapter 11

7 The sound of hurried footsteps rang out against the linoleum floor of the prefectural bureau. One of the beefy rabbit-headed men in black rushed down the corridor and pushed aside an intern holding a stack of papers, scattering the sheets in the air. There was no busier place in all of Imihama right now than the prefectural bureau, as builders, scientists, vigilantes, and clerks all scrambled to exterminate Akaboshi’s mushrooms and repair the damage to the town. Even so, this man seemed in a particular hurry as he stopped in front of a single black door and knocked. “Come in,” came a deep, calm, yet strangely agitated voice. The rabbit-headed man collected himself, then slowly opened the door. The room beyond was vast and dark. The light of a movie projector flickered, casting a low-quality image onto a screen on one wall. On it, a black man wearing a suit and tie indulged in a tasty-looking burger and preached religion while shooting a bunch of terrified white guys. At a desk a short distance from the screen, a man sat playing with a fruit of some kind, not paying much attention to the movie. “Do you know what an Angel’s Kiss is? If you take a yezu mango and pickle it in seal dung, it ferments and turns into alcohol. Apparently, the entire country is enamored with its sweetness, so I sent for some from Ibaraki. Indeed, you may call me a simple man, influenced by the fashions of the day, but as prefectural governor, I ought to keep my finger on the pulse of what entertains the enlightened classes these days, no?” Governor Kurokawa took a spoon and scooped out some of the mango’s flesh. He sniffed it a few times, gave a not entirely repulsed look, and then took a bite. “Mmm…mm…” Kurokawa turned the fruit over in his mouth, savoring the taste, as the rabbit-headed man looked on with a fixed smile. “How to describe it? It tastes a bit like mashed giraffe brains.” Then Kurokawa threw the Angel’s Kiss, spoon and all, at the wall, shattering a glass shelf and sending mango bits dripping off the walls and nearby furniture, filling the room with a cloyingly sweet scent. “They play me for a fool. Ibaraki can forget about their financial support in the future.” “Governor. I have news you’ll want to hear. We believe that Akaboshi is—” “—Still alive?” Kurokawa opened a drawer and took out a Mentos mint, popping it in his mouth to remove the mango taste. “Even after our little explosion at the Ashio Bonecoal Mines, he lives. Rising from the flames, like the Terminator… I see. So that’s how it’s going to be. I look forward to seeing how things pan out in the sequel.” “Excuse me, sir, but…that explosion was not carried out by our men.” A torrent of sweat dripped down the man’s neck. “We observed fungal growths on a large animal artillery platform that was defeated in the area. We believe the creature may have—” “—caused the explosion by mistake?” Kurokawa roared with laughter, accidentally toppling a cola bottle and ruining the documents on his desk. “Ha! Ha! Ha-ha! Whew… I see. In other words, the squad we sent to roast the Akaboshi party alive…were themselves roasted alive. A squad of nearly fifty men.” “This was outside even our wildest expectations. I am truly sorry we have suffered such a great loss in the midst of a personnel shortage…!” “Well, those fifty men would have died in the explosion either way. That part doesn’t bother me. Hmm. Looks like I was right to keep an eye on the mines after all.” Kurokawa paused for a moment and righted the bottle on his desk before taking a swig. “Is he simply lucky? No… I feel strange powers at work, Akaboshi.” Kurokawa stared into empty space with his deep, dark eyes. Then, crash! The door to the room was blown off its hinges, and in stepped the silver-haired warrior woman, her coat billowing behind. Kurokawa, on the other hand, seemed almost amused by the woman’s rude behavior. “Please do remember to knock. You vigilante types are always so violent. What would you have done if the bunny gentleman here and I had been having an affair, locked in passionate embrace upon the table? You’d have looked quite the fool then.” “Apologies. But protecting the governor from this town’s miscreants is also one of my duties.” The captain of the Vigilante Corps, Pawoo, glared at Kurokawa with eyes of burning sapphire. The rabbit-headed man had moved to seize her as she entered, only for Pawoo to effortlessly brush him aside, sending him crashing into Kurokawa’s manga collection, where he now sat with his head hung in defeat. “You know where Akaboshi is!” cried Pawoo. Her cold voice froze the room. “Why haven’t you authorized a squad to go after him?! That man should not be allowed to walk free!” “Now, where did you hear that? Have you been menacing my poor rabbits?” Kurokawa walked over to a small refrigerator and pulled out his favorite, Fanta Grape, offering one to Pawoo. When she didn’t take it, he gave a small shrug and continued. “No matter. In any case, I’m afraid I can’t do that. We need as many men as possible to stay here and aid the repair efforts. Supposedly there’s one more Mushroom Keeper here in the city, too. Am I supposed to send men outside the city walls before we’ve even taken care of ourselves?” “That’s no reason to—” “Nekoyanagi, please. I tire of this banal affair.” It was as if the air in the room suddenly grew stale and heavy. Kurokawa’s deep voice caused Pawoo to freeze, and his sullen, pitch-black eyes pierced her very soul. “Why won’t you just admit it?” he said. “You want to save him. Your dear, sweet prince who was carried away from you.” Kurokawa pressed a button in his hand, and the image on the screen changed. Now it showed a redheaded man escaping over the city walls with another man who had sky-blue hair. It was an image captured by a security camera on the wall as the pair launched themselves out of the city on a mushroom. Pawoo’s breath stopped in her throat, and Kurokawa gave her a sidelong glance as he sipped his Fanta. “I’ve told him this many times before, but your brother really is a thing of beauty.” Kurokawa tapped the button again, and the image zoomed in on Milo’s face. “If he didn’t have this birthmark, he would truly be perfection. What a shame. Still… Heh. It just doesn’t strike me as the face of a captured princess, don’t you think?” Pawoo had noticed it, too. Milo’s expression as Bisco carried him over the walls was not entirely one of fear. Instead, he looked peaceful, as though he trusted the man-eating terrorist beside him with his life. Milo… Why?! Kurokawa lowered his voice and delivered a stern warning. “It may very well be the case that your little brother has been aiding and abetting a terrorist. What happens to him now is none of my concern. You coming here will not change that.” “Sir, please!” “Relax, we’ll find him…eventually. Perhaps his body will be riddled with fungi. Now wouldn’t that be a sight to behold?” Pawoo struggled to contain her rage, holding down her fists, biting back her anger, until her lip bled crimson and stained the ground with droplets. Up until this point, Kurokawa had not shown so much as a smile despite his wisecracks. However, now his lips creaked up into a grin. A bone-chilling, diabolical smile for all who gazed upon it. “Excuse…me…” As Pawoo unsteadily exited the room, Kurokawa called out mockingly, “Nekoyanagi! I do hope our warrior princess isn’t thinking of chasing after him alone! If you do, I might have to charge you both with the same crime. Am I clear?” As the door slammed behind her, Kurokawa chuckled to himself, choking back his voice. When he stopped, his breath ragged, he pressed his button again and focused the image on Bisco’s face. He walked up close to it and gazed almost lovingly at the sight. “That little ankle biter is all grown up. Akaboshi… Just look at your face. Such a strong face… But you are strong, aren’t you? Far stronger than any of us. Far stronger than me.” Deep within their blackened sockets, Kurokawa’s eyes were glued to Bisco’s face, which burst with youthful charm. He muttered to himself, neither hatred nor ecstasy in his voice. “The Mushroom Keepers’ finest. At last, you appear before me. Akaboshi. I will kill you. I will remove your head from your body. I will tickle you under the armpits and see if you laugh. And then…” With trembling hands, Kurokawa took a jar of pills from his desk and threw his head back, rattling them into his mouth and crunching them between his teeth. “And then, I will sleep soundly, without the help of these pills that turn my piss red.” For a while, Kurokawa put all that had just happened out of his mind and simply gazed upon Bisco’s visage. “Just you wait, Akaboshi…” As if he were a young boy looking at a photo of his crush.