Chapter 86

—Some time later… “This all used to be apartment blocks. We were talking about making it a residential area again, maybe bringing down that office building and putting a park there instead…” “I would advise against it. The Rust Flow here is too violent for human habitation. It will only rile up the Imihama citizenry, disturb public order, and turn the people against the bureau.” “Th-the Rust Flow…?” Milo scrambled to keep up with the skipping Amli, running for his blueprints after the strong wind tore them from his hands. “I believe you should build a casino here, Mr. Milo, sir. It is the perfect spot to encourage a bit of fast-and-loose living.” “Whaaat? This whole lot? It’ll be huge!” “So I should hope. All the better to capture the hearts of your customers and keep them at the tables.” Amli watched Milo as he hurriedly scribbled across the plans and gave a light chuckle. “Rest assured, Mr. Milo, sir. I am the high priestess of the Kusabira sect, after all. No one possesses greater cunning for sniffing out the whims of the land than I.” “O-oh, I trust you, of course!” replied Milo. “I just don’t know how I’m going to explain this to Pawoo…” “Come along, Mr. Milo, sir. We have much surveying to do before sunset. Now, let us think about these shrines to the Mushroom Keepers’ eighteen gods…” Once the threat of Tokyo passed, Pawoo herself took control of the efforts to repair the war-torn city of Imihama. Halfway through the schedule, however, she was approached by none other than the mother-and-child pair, Amli and Raskeni, who happened to be staying at Imihama a little longer. “Pawoo,” Raskeni said. “Since we have the chance to rebuild, how about spiritualizing the place a bit? Let a little Buddha into the lives of the people?” “Hmm?” The fierce governor folded her arms over her loosened suit and nodded in understanding. “In other words, you want me to build some extra shrines and temples, is that it?” “Ha-ha!” Raskeni chortled at the directness of Pawoo’s suggestion. “Well, that’s certainly part of it, but it’s not all that simple. You have to be careful. You can’t allow one creed to become better represented than another, or it’ll tip the balance of power, and before long you’ll have an insurrection on your hands. After all, it’s not uncommon for one tribe’s god to be another tribe’s demon, you understand?” “Hmm. Well, I suppose you must know what you’re talking about, to have kept the peace in Six Towers all this time.” But even as she said this, Pawoo frowned at the design blueprints on her desk and brushed her long black hair aside in frustration. “However, it puts me in a rather difficult position. No matter which theologian I employ to advise me in such an endeavor, they will inevitably be biased toward their own particular sect. How should I proceed, I wonder…?” “Ms. Pawoo, ma’am. I assure you we did not make our suggestions lightly.” “Amli…what exactly does that…?” “It means we’re gonna lend a hand, of course,” said Raskeni, scooping up her excitable daughter into her arms. “We’ve been listening to the heartbeat of the land around Imihama over the last few days. Figured we might as well pitch in while getting some sightseeing done. What do you say?” And so, in order to better understand the needs of the worshipers, the two Kusabira sect leaders had been brought onto the reconstruction efforts. But what’s all this got to do with me? thought Milo as he struggled to keep his eyes open. The whole thing had been thrust upon him quite suddenly, and initially it was supposed to have been his sister babysitting Amli on her tour of the city. But this morning… …Bang! The door of Milo’s bedroom at Panda Clinic flew open, and in marched Pawoo. “Wake up, Milo! There’s been a change of plans. Could you fill in for me during the inspections today?” “…Pawoo… What the…? It’s the middle of the night…” “Please! I’ll buy you your favorite honeycomb crackers… Oh, shoot, my hair’s a mess… There we go. Thanks a ton, Milo. I’ll see you tonight!” “…” Milo sat up in bed, watching his sister depart as abruptly as she had arrived. It was the unholy hour of four o’clock in the morning that Milo thus awoke and went to meet with Amli, without even having time to brush his hair. “Mr. Milo, sir. I believe a shrine to Yatanaten would work best over there!” “Hwaaaaahhh…?” “…Dear brother! Does a walk with me truly bore you so?” “Haah…?! N-no! Not at all!” “…Well, I shan’t press any further. It is evident that you lack sleep. You really do look like a panda with those bags under your— Er, I mean…” “I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that. Yatanaten’s shrine near the west gate…” Milo scribbled on his blueprints. “Come to think of it, I wonder what Ms. Pawoo’s business was that was so important she could not accompany me? That woman wouldn’t miss a day of work in her life!” Amli took out a drawstring pouch from which she popped a candy into her mouth and offered one to Milo. Milo munched on it, scribbled something on the plans, and gave a huge stretch before replying. “She’s on a date.” “…A what?” “There are only two things more important to Pawoo than the office. Me, and her husband.” Milo opened his mouth as if to ask for more, so Amli tossed him another of her sweets. “She’s out shopping with Bisco today. I mean, I’ve been nagging Bisco to spend more time with her, so I suppose I got what I asked for.” “Shopping, you say?” Amli blinked a few times to fix her straying glass eye. “At four o’clock in the morning?! What store is even open at that hour?” “No, she’s taking him on a practice run first. That’ll take them about five hours. When Pawoo sets her heart on something, she likes to be thorough. She’s always been this way, for as long as I can remember.” “…I-in any case,” stammered Amli, attempting to force a smile, “nobody can say that they aren’t getting on well enough, can they? To tell you the truth, I was a little worried at the prospect of Mr. Bisco getting married. Ms. Pawoo and Mr. Bisco are both formidable people, and I suppose to us mere mortals their married life must appear quite strange. But as long as they are living a happy and fulfilling life together, then who am I to complain?” “I’m with you on that one, Amli,” replied Milo. “But I think there’s something you’re failing to consider.” “Mr. Milo, sir? Whatever might you mean by that?” She cocked her head and looked over at Milo, who scratched his head in displeasure. Just then… …Bang! Crash! A certain red-haired Mushroom Keeper came crashing through the wall of a recently constructed shopping mall and into the morning sky. He proceeded to fall through the roof of the bar next door, landed skillfully on his feet, and shouted back up through the hole: “Hey! What’s wrong with you? Don’t you have the brains to talk things out?!” “My words are lost on a man who has no concern for how I feel!” Then from the hole in the wall came a woman with long black hair, wearing a floor-length dress. She was beautiful, but the one thing that might give an admirer pause was the fierce-looking staff she held in one hand. “As the wife of a Mushroom Keeper, I know full well that logic will not persuade you. Thus, I hoped as warriors we might reach an understanding through battle! Now take up your staff, Bisco!” The Mushroom Keeper caught the iron bar the woman threw him with a look of pure terror on his face. “What the hell?! You really gonna throw down right here?! Okay, look, you win! We can—!” “Less talking, more fighting!” The woman in the dress fell toward the Mushroom Keeper below like a meteoric whirlwind of black, and a lightning-fast exchange of staff swings followed. Klang! Klang! Kling! Kling! Each blow caused a flash of sparks, and the echoing noise of crossed steel filled the streets. Very soon, a large crowd of people had gathered to watch. “Look, it’s the governor! They’re having a lover’s spat!” “They’re really at each other’s throats this time. I think that’s the fifth fight today!” As the bystanders gawked, Milo and Amli climbed up onto a rooftop across the street and watched the two mighty warriors do battle. “My! I have never seen a husband and wife so eager to kill each other! There must be some misunderstanding between the two, Mr. Milo, sir! We must go and stop them!” “It’s fine. They’re always like this.” “Whaaat?!” Amli turned to Milo in surprise. “It always comes down to a fight with those two,” he said, shrugging. “It’s all they know. I hope it doesn’t cause issues in their relationship. I’ve never seen a couple like them before.” Still, Milo was unable to take his eyes off Bisco. His warrior’s senses, honed and drilled by his partner and mentor, would not allow a second of the extraordinary battle taking place to go unseen. There were zero openings in Pawoo’s staff technique, and even upside down and in the air, she always swung with power and precision, wasting not a single movement. Her attacks rained down on Bisco from all angles: head, side, wrist, legs, whittling down his defensive opportunities. On the other hand, Bisco’s technique was nothing short of prodigal. Despite only ever having been trained in the bow and dagger, he was able to hold his own against Pawoo, perhaps the most feared staff user in all of Japan, using nothing more than his own self-taught style and his wits. It was enough to convince a master of the art to pack it all in and take up pottery instead. Only Milo and Jabi would have understood that Bisco’s divine talent was not based on any weapon style at all, but was instead rooted in the very act of fighting itself. He heard Pawoo’s every breath, every twitch of her muscles, and instinctively worked out what her next move would be. Though the Rust-Eater spores may have left him, Bisco’s innate battle senses had not gone rusty in the slightest. Even Amli, though worried at first, had quickly become engrossed in the high-speed battle taking place before her eyes. “Wh-who is going to win, I wonder?!” “Rrraaaargh!” Pawoo swung her staff with all her might, nearly bending Bisco’s weapon into an L-shape with the force of her blow. “Grrr!” “Time to finish you off, Bisco!” she yelled as Bisco backed up to the edge of the rooftop. Then, just as the crowd thought she perhaps ought not to finish off her husband, she swung her heavy staff down toward his skull. “I suppose that’s it,” said Milo. “Ms. Pawoo has won! We should hurry over and—” “Not yet, Amli. Just watch.” Even at a distance, Milo could pick out the jade-green spark in Bisco’s eyes. Like a flash, he disappeared under Pawoo’s legs at the last minute and evaded the blow. “What?! Wh-whaaa?!” A shock ran through Pawoo’s arms. Her staff had kept going and struck a neon sign behind Bisco, sending an electric current through her body. “Grrr…! What a foolish error…!” growled Pawoo as her staff fell from her hands. “It’s over, Pawoo!” said Bisco, turning around and wiping the sweat from his brow. “You’re always gettin’ too carried away! I know I said if you won we’d do things your way, but do you hafta act like you’re tryin’ to kill me every time?” “Heh. Now why are you acting like you’ve already won, my love?” “Huh? Well, ’cause I—” Pawoo tidied her hair and walked briskly over to Bisco, flashing him a grin and flicking the staff in his hands with her finger. Immediately, a crack ran along the length of it, and the staff let out a metallic creak before shattering into pieces. “Whoa!” “I’ve told you before. My staff doesn’t kill. I’ve been wearing yours down this entire time. The moment you blocked my last attack, you had already lost.” Pawoo gave a fearless smile, and the crowded street erupted into cheers. “Woo-hoo! Pawoo won! She beat Akaboshi!” Pawoo waved at the admiring crowd, while Bisco stared at his empty hands in astonishment. “Dammit. I can’t believe… Hmm? Wait, then why did you say, ‘Time to finish you off!’ as you attacked? Hadn’t you already won by then?” Ignoring him, Pawoo turned to her husband and smiled. “Now I’ve finally gotten you back for the defeat I suffered at your hands the first time we met. And since I won, the honeymoon is going to be ten days, nine nights! I’d like to say I don’t particularly mind where we go… But I have to make sure you learn how to be a good husband, so I’ll be looking forward to double-checking your plans when they’re done.” “Whaaat?!” asked Milo later that night, after dragging Bisco to the steamed bun stall. “That fight was about your honeymoon plans?!” “Don’t get mad at me! She just went off the rails all of a sudden. Besides, I woulda won if we’d been using bows or daggers. Why’d I have to use a staff? It ain’t fair.” “That’s not the point! Tell me everything that happened, from the beginning!” Milo listened to Bisco’s tale as he chewed on an alligator bun. His interpretation went something like this: As Pawoo had been in a sullen mood over her husband’s indifference lately, Bisco had turned to page twenty-one of the Pawoo User Guide (written by Milo Nekoyanagi) and said to her, in a voice Milo could only imagine being completely devoid of emotion, “Hey, how about we go shopping today and maybe catch a movie?” This had cheered up Pawoo so much that she took the day off work, foisting Amli onto Milo, in order to plan her date down to the exact minute. However, when the time came for them to meet, Bisco had been distracted by a woodworking workshop at the Imihama department store and had spent a total of three hours creating a marvelous, if unorthodox, effigy of the god Enbiten. “So did Pawoo get mad that you stood her up and ruined her plans?” “Nah. In fact, she loved the statue.” That setback was nothing that Pawoo hadn’t been prepared to accept when she married a Mushroom Keeper, and she could handle it, knowing it made her husband happy. What she couldn’t handle was what happened next, when the pair went to meet with a travel agent. “She said I didn’t understand why we were travelin’,” Bisco explained, chewing his steamed bun, then asked the shopkeeper for seconds while Milo sat unable to respond. “Which is true. I mean, us two went all over the place and we didn’t have to pay a single sol or follow some stupid schedule. I just didn’t see the point.” “Erm… Well… I mean… Yes, that’s true for us, but…” “So I told her I wasn’t goin’ on any damn trip, and let me tell you, she lost her freakin’ mind. ‘How can we be newlyweds and not go on a trip?’ she said. ‘You should have been ready for this when we got married!’ she said. ‘We’re taking this outside!’ But I didn’t have any time to take it outside, ’cause she threw me out herself, through the damn wall.” “And then? The usual?” “Yeah.” A couple whose first resort was to settle arguments with a brawl was a very odd arrangement indeed, but it was certainly a fair way of putting to rest any disputes that would surely arise along the troubled road of married life. By now, even Milo had accepted it was just the way things had to be. “I ain’t mad that I lost; that’s fair play to her. So I said, ‘Fine, we’ll go somewhere, wherever you want.’ But she just said, ‘Well, there’s no point if you’re not going to enjoy it,’ so now she’s asked me to come up with suggestions.” “Well, that’s good, then, isn’t it? You can go somewhere you want to go.” “Yeah, but us two and Actagawa have traveled the country top to bottom. There ain’t nowhere left I wanna go.” Milo knew he had to convince Bisco somehow, in order to protect the enthusiasm of his big sister, but it was starting to look like an insurmountable task. The only things that got Bisco excited were mushrooms, bows, and manga, and though he was a red-blooded man, he seemed to have no interest in sex or anything of that nature. He certainly hadn’t the sense to navigate the subtle workings of an intimate relationship. And Milo doubted that the couple’s bedsprings had seen any action at all after Pawoo once came home complaining, “That man only thinks of a wife as a sparring partner!” “B-Bisco, it’s a little weird for me to say this as her brother, but have you ever thought about…you know…?” “This is an urgent news report.” Milo’s words were cut off by the voice on the TV. “The Tenmangu shrine in Houfu, Yamaguchi Prefecture, has come under attack. Aerial shots reveal pillars of smoke and flame visible from far away.” “Argh, that’s messed up. Holy crap…,” muttered the steamed bun merchant, seeing the devastation on the screen. My family’s from there… Sorry, boys, mind if I turn up the volume?” “Sure. Whoa, look at that… The whole forest is up in flames.” Bisco’s attention quickly shifted to the news report, and Milo felt he had missed his chance to comment. Instead, he watched the TV as well. “The terrorist is supposedly a large man wearing red plate armor and a red cape. According to eyewitnesses, the man attempted to enter the temple when he was stopped by the head priest and asked to remove his armor. This caused the man to become enraged, and he began firing high-tech weaponry…” “Tenmangu shrine…that’s where Yatanaten is worshiped. That psycho’s gonna get some real payback for that one. Probably gonna curse his entire family.” “Um, Bisco, hold on. Red plate armor and a red cape? You don’t think…?” “The suspect has been spotted fleeing westward, possibly in the direction of Kyushu. Residents in the area are advised to take caution, and to… Hold on, I’m just receiving word that we have a photograph of the criminal taken at the scene. Here it is. Can you see him? I’ll enlarge the picture a little…” “We ain’t gonna be able to see him anyway if he’s in full plate armor,” said the shopkeeper. “Well, whatever, the important thing is, he’s dangerous. Looks like I’ll be steerin’ clear of that neck o’ the woods for a while.” “…” “Um, boys?” Bisco and Milo stared at the screen in horror. There on the screen, his steel body glinting from head to toe, glaring toward the camera while framed in the light of the burning temple, was none other than the one born of Bisco’s blood, the vainglorious rogue robot, Akaboshi Mark I himself! “What’s wrong, boys? Got a bit of raw meat in your buns? I’ll make you new ones, just sit tight.” “N-no, everything’s fine. Thanks a lot. The meal was lovely. Here, keep the change.” “?? What’s gotten into you boys? Come back again, y’hear?” Bisco and Milo hurriedly exited the establishment and ducked into a back alley, their faces dripping with sweat. After watching to make sure nobody was around, Milo grabbed his partner by the throat and shook him back and forth. “I told you something like this would happen! Why did you let him go?! He’s a loose arrow; he hasn’t got a teacher like you! How do you think you would’ve turned out if you didn’t have Jabi?!” “Uhhh…” Milo’s sound logic was like a spike in Bisco’s ribs, and he couldn’t utter a single word to defend himself. “I mean, sure, I felt sorry for him, too,” said Milo. “He shouldn’t have needed to die just because he wasn’t useful. I just wish we could have talked to him… Not that I’ve ever talked to a robot before…” “I-it’s…” Sweating even harder than usual, Bisco finally managed to squeeze out what was on his mind. “It’s…my blood that created him, so doesn’t that mean he’s like my son? Shit, the Eighteen Gods are gonna kick my ass in hell for this…” “Y-your son, Bisco? I think that’s a bit of a stretch…” “Wait, didn’t he say he was heading to Kyushu?!” Bisco suddenly realized something. His eyes went wide, and he immediately ran back out into the streets, as if he had somewhere to be. “Bisco! Where are you going?!” “We have to stop him! He’s headed to Oita, where Hatohoten’s shrine is!” “Hatohoten?” “The god of marriage!” Bisco yelled behind him as his partner tried desperately to keep up. “It’s Hatohoten who watched over and permitted our wedding in the first place! If my son destroys his shrine, I’ll have to get a divorce!” “Whaaat?!” “Where’s Actagawa? Actagawaaa!” Bisco let out a yell in the cold night streets of Imihama, and before long his trusty steelcrab landed in the town square. “Actagawa! Sorry to disturb you on your day off, but we gotta go…!” But just as Bisco was about to leap up into the saddle, he found it was already occupied. “Well, hello there, Bisco, Milo! I wondered where Actagawa was off to all of a sudden. Did you call him?” “Erk!” “Pawoo!” “Lately, I’ve been practicing my crabriding after work. I shouldn’t leave my husband to do all the driving, after all.” Pawoo laughed, her raven hair fluttering in the cool night breeze. “Just finished supper, have we? How about we go someplace, like…?” “Er, no… We have to, erm…,” stammered Milo, when suddenly Bisco spoke up. “Hey, Pawoo!” he shouted, leaping up into the saddle beside her. “We’re goin’ on a trip. Right now. To Oita, to see the shrine of Hatohoten.” “A trip…? Right now?! Wh-what do you mean?!” “I’ve decided what we’re doing for our honeymoon!” He turned to Pawoo with a fierce gaze. “We’re goin’ on a pilgrimage. To make sure our kids grow up big and strong, we’re gonna pray to all five gods in Kyushu.” “…Our…our children…?!” The shocked look on Pawoo’s face slowly shifted to one of delight. “Of course I’ll accompany you, my love…” Pawoo was rendered completely demure by Bisco’s suggestion. Meanwhile, Bisco looked over at Milo, sweating almost as much as he was, and the two boys nodded to each other. Though Bisco had managed to kill two birds with one stone, Milo knew it was more good luck and Bisco’s impatience that had accomplished it. Still, he kept that fact to himself and climbed into the pack on Actagawa’s back. “It is not the time for me to be thinking of work,” said Pawoo. “Come, let us begin our journey of love at once!” “By the way,” Bisco asked, “you got your staff? We, er…we could run into anything out there.” “Of course,” she replied. “My staff is the one thing I couldn’t possibly leave behind on our honeymoon.” “Why…?” Milo muttered in confusion, but fortunately no one heard him over the noise of the moving crab. And so, in order to put a stop to the villainous deeds of the rampaging Akaboshi Mark I, Bisco, his new wife, and his worried partner set out on Actagawa, who harbored no particular worries of any kind, and crossed the gates of Imihama. At the same time, in a dark room, within a cylindrical container filled with a strange blue liquid… Aka…boshi… …a small organism, like an unborn fetus, suddenly twitched. “…It did it again. No. Not yet. Don’t wake up…,” whispered a man in a lab coat, face cloaked in shadow. “Your vengeance is not yet fully grown. Sleep, for now…” He loosened a nearby valve, and the liquid slowly grew cloudy before the tiny organism soon became completely hidden. A…ka…boshi… Only its eyes, unclosing, gleamed black. A pure dark flame of mad intent. To be continued…