11

The Weeping Child Ravine. The Ravine part of the name came from the deep valleys carved into the land like scratches from a giant’s fingernails, hidden by the long grass. As for the Weeping Child part, it was believed that this came from the sound of the wind as it swept through the valleys, which was said to be similar to crying children.

Occasionally, a pale-blue mist emerged from the valleys, blanketing the land and rendering it ever more mysterious to the onlooking duo.

“…It’s such a beautiful place,” said Milo. “But also, kind of lonely.”

“You think? Hey, let’s try looking in the valleys.”

Bisco brought Actagawa to a halt and peered over the side of one of the chasms. There he saw beautiful blue mushrooms growing out of the sheer walls glowing slightly in the darkness that extended down and down to untold depths.

“Ah! M-mushrooms!” Milo exclaimed. “Then, this blue smoke…”

“Spores. The Mushroom Keepers came here, once, in search of the Rust-Eater… That was fifty years ago.”

“And Jabi was with them?”

“Well, yeah, unless he made the whole thing up,” said Bisco, grinning his usual cheeky smile. While at first glance he seemed the very picture of health, Milo could see the slight paling of his skin. Trying not to let his worry show too much, he forced a grin.

Bisco’s wounds were grave. Milo had attempted to treat his wounds after they escaped the cave, but he had broken more than a few bones and taken quite a bit of damage to his internal organs. No ordinary person could survive such an ordeal, and there was no way even Bisco would be able to move about like he normally did.

“The Rust-Eater is so strong that no matter what you mix it with, you’ll always end up with a Rust-Eater arrow,” said Bisco. “All we have to do is find it. And we’ve got the ‘large prey’ that it talked about in the book, too.”

“Hey, Bisco. Are you sure we have to do this today? Shouldn’t we wait for your wounds to heal…?”

“Don’t be silly. We don’t want our bait to go bad. All right, Actagawa, this is the spot.”

Saying this, Bisco dumped the huge carcass of the giant oilsquid (which he had gone back and dragged out of the tunnel) on the ground. The smell of grilled octopus filled the air, very out of place amid the lush vegetation.

“Now, we wait,” he said. “If it doesn’t show up in fifteen minutes, we’ll try someplace else.”

Milo had been holding back his concern over fears of dampening Bisco’s good spirits, but unable to do so any longer, he gave a gentle tug on Bisco’s cloak.

“…Bisco, I’m worried. You’ve lost a lot of blood. Can we at least perform a transfusion? We can use my blood if it matches… What blood type are you?”

“…? Blood type? What are you talking about? Blood has types?”

“You’re kidding! How can you not know your own blood type…?!”

Then Milo thought back to the time he tended to Jabi in the sewers of Imihama. Back then, Milo had supplemented the old man’s lost blood using some blood bags he happened to keep in the pockets of his lab coat. The curious thing had been that it didn’t seem to matter which blood he used—Jabi’s body accepted it without issue. Even Jabi himself seemed to have no idea what his own blood type was.

…Do Mushroom Keepers not know about blood types? Or does their blood itself not even—?

“…Milo, behind you!”

Milo had let down his guard. As Bisco leaped to protect him, a huge vermillion bird with black markings flew up out of a nearby ravine and shot into the air, just grazing the pair.

“Wow, what is that, a bird?!” said Milo.

“Uh-oh! It’s coming for the octopus!”

Indeed, the bird didn’t so much as register the two insignificant specks below and instead snatched up the oilsquid’s body, gripping it so tightly between its powerful talons that not even Actagawa was able to stop it.

“Dammit, not on my watch!”

Bisco’s emerald eyes glimmered as he readied his bow and sent an arrow flying directly toward the bird’s head.

Just then, there was a low groan and a gust of air as something else, long and white, rose out of the ravine and extended far up into the sky. All along its sides, hundreds of legs that looked exactly like human fingers jutted out of its white, glistening skin. Like a whirlpool, the creature twisted in the air, before clamping its white, pillar-like teeth down on the bird midflight. With no way to escape, the bird was crunched by the monster’s powerful jaw and swallowed, with the carcass of the oilsquid following it down the creature’s gullet not long after.

As the two watched on in shock, the titanic, long, white creature let out another low cry, before turning in the air and diving down into a different chasm in the ground, with a rumble like a clap of thunder. The wind kicked up by the thing made Milo’s and Bisco’s hair stand on end, and all they could do was stare in disbelief, before, at last, Bisco shook his head and pointed after the beast.

“That’s the Pipe Snake!”

“I-it’s so big…”

Just as the book had described, it was a colossal snake with two heads and no eyes or nose. However, compared to the childish drawing found in the book, the real thing was of such an unimaginable size as to leave them paralyzed with fear.

“Th-that’s not a snake; that’s a dragon!” shouted Milo.

“I don’t care what it is; an arrow pierces it all the same. Let’s go.”

Bisco raced Actagawa toward the ravine the snake disappeared down. Taking a wire-laden arrow from his hip, he fired it across to the far cliff.

“Huuuh?! Bisco, what are you doing?!”

“We don’t know where it’s gonna pop up next! You two stay on this side; I’ll check over there!”

Before Bisco even finished, the arrow was already reeling him across the chasm. Milo was about to call out his protests, but then suddenly his vision went white as the creature rose between them and gently curved into the air, sending Milo’s cloak aflutter. It was indeed as majestic as a dragon. It spent a surprisingly long time in the air before disappearing back the way it came, its hundreds of appendages scraping messily at the valley walls. Milo squeezed his own body to suppress the rising fear… Then he remembered his sister’s arms around him—and Bisco’s face as he talked about his dying master.

We’ll take that thing down. Bisco can… We can do anything!

Milo looked up with determination in his eyes. Perhaps Actagawa felt it, too, for, eager to partake in the big-game hunt, he let out a war cry and raced furiously after the strange white creature.

“It’s huge…!”

Bisco was no stranger to hunting large game, but it was safe to say this was his biggest target yet by far. He had already tried firing a couple arrows at it as it passed, but that only resulted in a smattering of tiny mushrooms that didn’t even register to the huge snake.

“Its scales are too thick… Maybe its mouth or its belly… Dammit, how am I supposed to damage it?”

As Bisco pondered this, he suddenly heard something. The sound of an object scraping against the ground. Bisco had his back to the cliff face, so there was nowhere to hide, and yet the sound gradually became louder, like the growling of some fierce beast. It seemed to be coming straight toward him.

What is that? It’s not the Pipe Snake. It sounds like…a motorcycle…?

As soon as the thought occurred to him, Bisco was struck with terror. He looked directly overhead just in time to see…

“Aaakaaaboooshiii!”

With a banshee screech, a woman on a white motorcycle was shooting down the near-vertical cliff toward him. The black hair that flowed from the silver skullcap on her head was drawn straight up behind her like a comet’s tail. It was the captain of the Imihama Vigilante Corps, Pawoo, brandishing her iron staff with murder in her eyes.

“Swift is Heaven’s vengeance!”

“Where the hell did you come from?!”

The speeding motorcycle collided with the earth like a meteorite, tearing up the grass and throwing clouds of dust into the air. Bisco leaped away at the last second, narrowly avoiding the bike and loosing an arrow in retaliation. Pawoo deflected it effortlessly with her staff, and not a second later, she tore through the dust cloud on her motorcycle, coming right for Bisco.

Bisco fired a couple more shots, but Pawoo blocked them all with a twirl of her staff, before swinging the heavy metal weapon toward him. As she passed by Bisco again and again, he used his bow as a shield to block her strikes, then, on the third, he swung his bow at her head, hitting her solidly in the face.

But Pawoo didn’t fall off her vehicle, instead stopping to wipe the blood from her mouth and glare at Bisco as the wind howled across the meadow.

“Hey, you’re a lot better than before,” said Bisco. He wasn’t lying. His forehead was uncharacteristically slick with sweat. “Good work following me this far out. I’m surprised you made it here by motorcycle. How did you know where I was?”

“Milo’s ring contains a tracking device. I gave it to him when he was fourteen and told him never to take it off.”

Pawoo answered with bold resolution in her beautiful voice. She then swept her iron staff through the air and pointed it right between Bisco’s eyes.

“Your fate is sealed, Man-Eating Redcap. Hand over my brother.”

“…Listen here, lady. Bein’ there for family is great ’n’ all, but it’s Milo who asked to come out here with me.” Bisco seemed to be trying his best to explain himself as the woman burned hot like a glowing slab of metal. “An’ it was all because he wanted to find the Rust-Eater and save your life! Isn’t that a nice story? Why’ve you gotta beat me to death with that metal stick of yours? I’m trying to help him, y’know?!”

“How dare you… How dare you lead him astray, filling his head with lies!” Pawoo brandished her staff. “Enough talk, Akaboshi. I am my brother’s shield, not the other way around. Prepare yourself!”

“Listen to me! You’re not his shield; you’re his cage! You’ve gotta give him a little space! Have you never heard the term helicopter parent?”

“…Milo’s my brother.”

“…Oh, right… Sorry, your face is kinda old-looking.”

“I’ll kill you!”

Pawoo revved the bike’s engine and shot toward Bisco, when all of a sudden, the huge white snake leaped up out of a deep ravine just beside the two of them. One of its feelers struck Pawoo with such force as to render her unconscious before even giving her the chance to scream, then swept her up along with her motorcycle into the clear, blue sky.

“Dammit, why did you have to pick such a weird spot to have a fight?!” cried Bisco, but before he could draw his bow, something orange glinted in the sun as it jumped from the cliff above.

“Milo!”

Milo was riding Actagawa and sprang from the cliff face, out toward his captured sister. Flying through the air, he landed on the snake’s body.

“I’m gonna use Actagawa to cut her loose! Bisco, get ready to catch!”

“Okay!” cried Bisco up toward that tiny blue-haired figure.

At Milo’s command, Actagawa tore off the snake’s finger with a swing of his claw, and Pawoo and her motorcycle fell back down toward the rippling fields of grass. Bisco jumped toward them like an acrobat, catching them in midair and landing in the depths of the valley before shouting back up to Milo.

“Get away, Milo! Any higher and you won’t be able to come back down!”

“Okay!” Milo said, and Actagawa leaped from the snake’s white skin toward the ground. Just then, something huge, sticky, and pink snatched them from the air.

“Ah! Actagawa!”

Actagawa reacted instantly, catching the Pipe Snake’s tongue in his huge pincers. However, he only cut halfway through it before it closed around him.

“Miloooo!” screamed Bisco.

The two-headed snake shot even higher into the sky, far beyond the reach of Bisco’s voice, taking his partner and beloved crab far, far away.

“…! A-aaarghhh! No… No! Milo!”

Bisco turned to see Pawoo on the ground, shaking helplessly at the sight. She was so gripped by the fear of Milo being taken from her that she couldn’t even think.

“Get back on your bike, idiot!” shouted Bisco. “If he goes back underground, we’ve lost him!”

“Wh-what are we supposed to do against that…that monster?!”

“We’ve fought and beaten monsters in the past. This one’s no different,” he said. Then Bisco turned to her, opened both his eyes, and bellowed. “Hurry up! Or are you just gonna sit there and watch your brother die?”

Now was not the time to argue. Pawoo revved up her motorcycle, and Bisco hopped aboard as she accelerated to top speed in a flash. As the Pipe Snake flew through the air, she stormed after it, swerving left and right to dodge the boulders that fell down from above like snares.

“I’m gonna attempt to hit it with an anchor arrow! Can you try matching its speed?”

“I can do better than try! …You just make sure the anchor hits its mark!”

“You know what? You’re pretty— Look out, there’s a cliff ahead!”

“Got it!” said Pawoo, striking the ground with her staff. The large motorcycle flew up into the air, performing a somersault and landing safely on the far side of the gaping chasm.

“Blegh. I didn’t ask for the gymnastics.”

“Silence! Is this close enough?”

Bisco eyed the Pipe Snake, which was now well within striking range, and took a deep breath. As he watched its white body writhing across the sky, he hesitated. His earlier shots had failed to find purchase on the creature’s thick scales. Even Pawoo could see his right hand wavering as it clasped the drawstring.

“Akaboshi…!”

“What?!”

“I’m trusting you…!”

Pawoo turned around, and Bisco’s eyes met hers. Her trembling, helpless, tear-soaked eyes. They reminded him of Milo’s when he was scared.

They really do look alike, Bisco thought, and he lowered his bow. Then he felt a strange calmness pass over him and a mysterious focus take hold.

If an arrow won’t work…

Bisco exhaled and reached for the weapon on his back. Bisco’s idea was a risky one, but when had they ever not been? Bisco only ever believed in his own success.

Milo had lost track of how many times the gale-force winds had almost knocked him out. Desperately, he clung to the Pipe Snake’s side for dear life. Using his numbshroom arrows, he had tried to get Actagawa free from the creature’s grip, but the snake was merciless, and its huge tongue still wrapped tightly around Actagawa’s claw. By crawling along the surface of its colossal body, Milo had managed to get near the snake’s tongue and jabbed his knife into it with all his might. However, the thick appendage was completely unyielding to Milo’s blade.

Poor Actagawa’s going to be swallowed up if I don’t do something…!

Suddenly, an idea flashed into Milo’s mind. He pulled out a silvery vial from his belt and gulped. Then he turned to Actagawa.

“I’m sorry, Actagawa… This is going to be really scary. Can you trust me?”

Actagawa was a crab. His facial expression was inscrutable. But just as he always did when Milo hugged him, he let out a single bubble. Milo nodded and took a deep breath. He searched for the opening in Actagawa’s iron shell at the base of his claw and thrust the vial inside. Soon Actagawa’s arm began to sizzle, and a white smoke rose from the area as the liquid ate away at his flesh.

The silvery substance was a concentrated mixture of silveracid nameko and oilsquid mucus to make a powerful dissolving agent. Quickly, Milo drew his bow and shot an iron arrow right at the base of Actagawa’s claw. With a sickening crack, Actagawa’s limb was severed from his body. He fell, no longer restrained by the Pipe Snake’s tongue, and tumbled through the air before landing neatly on his feet in the grasslands below.

Phew…!

A look of relief spread across Milo’s face as he watched Actagawa land. Behind him, the huge tongue gradually recovered from its paralysis and swept Actagawa’s claw down the Pipe Snake’s unfathomable gullet. Then it approached Milo. Milo readied his next arrow and kept his chattering teeth in check. He was scared, but he didn’t let it overcome him. His face, once sweet and innocent, now gleamed with the fierce integrity of a warrior.

If Bisco were here…, he thought, tightening his bowstring. He thought back on his journey, so long and arduous, and yet it felt like they had been together such a short time.

…He wouldn’t give up! Not until the last shot!

The tongue whipped and flew toward Milo. Milo filled his arrow with everything he had.

But before he could fire, there was a flash of steel before his eyes and a ringing crash like an iron stake being driven through sheet metal. A long, metal spike came out of nowhere, pinning the tongue to the exterior of the Pipe Snake’s body. As Milo looked on in shock, the object continued on, piercing its thick scales and punching a hole clean through the monster’s body.

“Ah… Ah…!”

Milo froze, bow in hand. His skin went numb from the force of the impact. Then, from below, he heard the voice he so longed to hear at that moment.

“Milooo! I fired the harpoon! Come down on the wire!”

Indeed, it was no arrow Bisco fired, but Nuts’s treasured family heirloom. No arrow could bear Bisco’s monstrous strength faithfully into the scales of the beast. Only the harpoon was heavy enough to put all the power Bisco could impart behind its formidable point. And the resulting shot was unreal.

“Wh-what the hell was that…?” Pawoo looked on in utter disbelief from atop her motorcycle. “How did you even fire that thing with your bow?!”

“Because I believed it could be done. You’ve just got no imagination,” Bisco retorted, fastening the harpoon’s wire to his own body. “Milo, get down here before he goes back underground!”

“O-okay! I’m coming!”

Milo grabbed on to the wire and zip-lined down into the turbulent winds.

“Ah, Milo…!” Pawoo breathed a short sigh of relief. But just then, the Pipe Snake, deprived of one of its two heads, spun around in the air. Its other head came flying toward Milo, its maw like the entrance to some huge cave, threatening to close around him. The sheer scale of the beast meant that no mere human could do anything but flounder helplessly in the air.

“Don’t let go, Milo! Whatever you do!”

As the Pipe Snake’s twisting body jerked back onto the wire, Bisco was pulled from the motorcycle. Milo and Bisco tumbled through the air like toys as the whiplike tongue of the colossal creature closed in on them.

Pawoo leaped into the air to protect them, striking the snake’s tongue with her staff, but it was ripped from her hands and disappeared down into the beast’s mouth. With a shake of its head, the Pipe Snake sent Pawoo hurtling back to earth, then, returning to its original prey, it engulfed Milo and Bisco within its terrible jaw.

“Grh… Gagh…!” Pawoo coughed blood as she struck the ground, looking up at the snake’s peaceful form as it circled in the air. Then she turned her eyes away and choked out several wordless sobs.

At that moment, there was a sudden, rumbling bellow that shook the earth.

“Bwooooooaaahhh!”

Pawoo realized. The Pipe Snake was crying.

Gaboom! Gaboom! Giant mushrooms sprouted all across the snake’s body, punching through its skin. As it writhed across the sky in pain, it gradually started losing altitude. Then something long and thin burst out of the snake’s scalp and tore a straight line through the top of its head. It was Pawoo’s staff.

“Milo!” Pawoo cried.

From out of the hole climbed Milo and Bisco, covered head to toe in mucus. They both held on to Pawoo’s staff with one hand and supported each other with their other hands. Then they shouted in unison.

““Actagawaaa!””

In response to their voice, the giant crab leaped out of a nearby crevasse and shot across the plains with a ferocious gallop. The two jumped off into the air just as the dying Pipe Snake collided with the ground. Actagawa sprang up, caught them within his legs, and rolled along the ground, stopping just short of a crumbling cliff face. After narrowly avoiding falling down into the depths of the chasm, Actagawa collapsed, exhausted.

“Milooo!”

Pawoo staggered over to the giant crab and lifted her beloved brother into her arms. He was covered in the Pipe Snake’s viscous bodily fluids, but his heart was beating softly and steadily.

“Milo! Oh, Milo! Thank God you’re okay…!”

“Pawoo, look!”

Milo shrugged off any concern for his own well-being and pulled himself up, taking his sister’s hand and walking over to Bisco’s side. Bisco was gazing off into the distance at the Pipe Snake’s fallen body that stretched wide over the chasm like an enormous bridge.

“Bisco! Is that…?!”

“The Rust-Eater…!”

From the snake’s long, smooth body, a huge, dazzling cluster of orange mushrooms rose like the sunrise over a white, snowy plain. The three of them stood there, taking in the majestic sight, each of them struck with such awe that they forgot the pain of their injuries.