19

The colossus lazily swung its arms, swatting at the fighter jets that swarmed around its body like flies. They scrambled as the huge arm tore through the air, leaving in its wake a cloud of rust that caused the fighters to lose control and crash into the giant’s body. As the planes helplessly sank deeper and deeper into its thick skin of viscous rust, the monstrous engine of ruin merely stared at them, its face devoid of emotion.

“…Aka…boshi…”

Then several military helicopters arrived on the scene, dispatched from the military base, and fired their machine guns in unison upon the giant’s back. The rounds shattered the scrap metal wrapped around its body, but they were all swallowed up when they hit its skin, leaving the colossus without so much as a scratch.

“Aka…bo…shiii…”

The giant turned and unleashed its rust breath, spewing forth destruction. The wind and land alike were tainted with rust, and helicopters plummeted to earth in a flaming pile of wreckage. The giant simply watched, until it determined the threat was no more and returned to its lifeless advance.

As red dust clouds scoured the barren land, the giant descended into a deep valley, until only its top half was visible. There the traders of Shimobuki had set up camps in the rock face, clinging to the valley walls. With each step, another settlement was splintered to pieces by the giant’s frame, and the air was filled with the inhabitants’ screams as they fled in terror, some clutching their livestock, others their children.

Then, up on the cliff, they saw it. At about the height of the giant’s chest, a solitary figure standing atop a hill, cloak flapping in the wind. In his hand was a bow that glittered like emerald, and his eyes burned with azure flames. Without a single shred of fear, he stood in defiance of the colossal titan.

The giant paused. Somewhere within its hazed mind, a memory stirred.

“Ain’t that nice, Kurokawa? Looks like you went and got yourself a slightly bigger body.”

“Uuuuuh… Oooooh.”

“What, ya thought I was dead? Thought you managed to drag me down with ya?”

Milo’s sky-blue hair flared up, dancing like a candle in the wind.

“Say my name, Kurokawa. If death ain’t enough for you, I’ll drag you down to Hell myself!”

“A…ka…bo…shiii.”

The giant suddenly shook with rage and slammed its right arm down on the hilltop, crushing rocks and sending clouds of dust into the air. Out of that cloud sprang Milo, rising into the air and firing an arrow back down at the giant’s fingers. The arrow ripped through the air and pierced its knuckle, exploding with a Gaboom! into a flurry of bright-red capped mushrooms and pinning its hand to the cliff. The giant swung its other arm at Milo, but he landed and bounced off the full-grown mushrooms, evading the blow and landing two more arrows in its elbow and shoulder.

“Oooooh… Rrrrrrr.”

Gaboom! Gaboom! The giant groaned as the mushrooms’ explosive growth pushed it back. It swung its arm once more, but Milo flitted left and right, springing across the rocky mountain, while his fourth and fifth arrows found their marks, blasting pieces off the giant’s body. As the shrapnel sliced Milo’s skin, he showed not the slightest sign of pain, but instead, his expression was fixed in steely determination.

Life against death. Nature versus ruin. Tetsujin wailed as the mushrooms spread across its body, eating away at the Rust. In apparent panic, it scratched at itself, plucking the mushrooms like weeds. Then it started shaking ominously and opened its mouth. Unleashing a mighty breath, it engulfed Milo in a stream of corroding rust.

Gale-force winds shook his body. Rust particles swamped his lungs, and his entire body disappeared in a thick sulfuric-yellow cloud. Then, from out of the storm there came a flash of light, and a single arrow pierced the wind, landing deep in the back of the giant’s throat. The titan’s decaying breath found its path blocked by giant mushrooms and, with no other place to go, burst through the giant’s neck like a ruptured steam valve.

The storm of rust subsided. Milo staggered and gasped for breath, before finally dropping to one knee. Blood and tears dripped from the corners of his eyes, but his pale-white skin was pristine. The Rust-Eater had proved its power.

“What a drama queen… Do my mushrooms hurt so much?” Milo gave a toothy grin, just as Bisco always did when he fought against the unbeatable. “Mushrooms are life. They are the will to live incarnate. They will devour a being of senseless destruction like you!”

Tetsujin let out a moan as its breath tore up its throat and jaw, then reached inside its own mouth and pulled out the obstructing mushrooms. Without giving it a chance to recover, Milo drew his bow once more, but then he noticed a group of Shimobuki arms dealers setting up on a hill nearby, aiming their bazookas at the giant. They bravely launched shot after shot in defense of the women and children of their village. One of them waved his hand toward Milo, who called out to them across the great distance.

“No, it’s too dangerous! Get out of here!”

Tetsujin let out an irritated groan as the explosions blasted the area around its throat. It slowly twisted its upper body toward them and swung its right arm down with monstrous strength. Milo couldn’t bear to watch as the giant’s fist slammed into the ground. But when the smoke cleared, there was something orange gripping the arm by the wrist, holding it up and just barely protecting the merchants.

“Actagawa!”

“Fire away, boy! Let him have it!” shouted Jabi from atop the giant crab, and Milo quickly drew his bow tight, letting loose an arrow toward Tetsujin’s wrist. The arrow hit its mark, and a mushroom exploded into being, causing the giant to recoil in pain, and Actagawa used his mighty claws to toss the arm aside.

“Keep on shooting, my boy!” shouted Jabi as he drew his own bow. “It might look like the Rust is winning, but he’s being eaten up inside by the fungus! We just have to keep the pressure on, and victory is ours!”

The two Mushroom Keepers fired at Tetsujin from both sides of the valley. As it frantically tried to scrape off the mushrooms growing all across its body, it let out a blast of rust breath in Actagawa’s direction.

“Jabi!”

Actagawa leaped around trying to evade the Rust, but it was only a matter of time before the giant’s persistent attack would catch up with him. The scouring wind crept closer and closer, until…

“Haiiiiyaaaaahhh!”

A streak of black hair zipped through the sky, swooping down from above like a falcon. The silver warrior’s staff sliced the air and connected with the side of Tetsujin’s face, stopping the giant’s terrifying Rust breath.

“Pawoo!”

“Milo! The Imihama Vigilantes are here! They’ll take care of the townspeople!”

Leaping off Tetsujin’s shoulder, she arrived at Milo’s side and readied her staff once more. While Milo drew his bow, she knocked aside all the fragments of Tetsujin’s body that were raining down on them from above.

To the south, Milo could see a squad of Escargot Planes approaching in Imihama’s colors, and across the land rode a platoon of iguana cavalry. They rescued the panicking Shimobuki villagers and led them safely out of the valley. Just as Tetsujin attempted to crush them underfoot, the Escargot bombers halted its movements with a barrage of rocket fire.

All of humanity’s power was assembling on that plain, united in grand battle against the lone harbinger of destruction. Without pause, the Mushroom Keeper’s arrows and the waves of modern weaponry left Tetsujin unable to do a single thing but protect its own body by flailing its arms like a baby.

“Have we got it…?!” asked Pawoo. “Just a little more, Milo!”

“Wait, something’s wrong…!” he replied, grabbing onto his sister’s arm and pulling her back.

Milo could feel, somewhere in his basest instincts, that something dark swirled within Tetsujin’s body, yearning to break free.

Tetsujin began to quake. The armor plating on its chest slid open, revealing what appeared to be a pair of giant fans. As the smoke from the blasts whirled around it, the propellers slowly spun up…

For a second, all was silent. Then a sudden gale assaulted the land, accompanied by an earsplitting roar. An unbelievable volume of rust spilled forth from the giant’s chest, eating away even its own skin. The wind swirled, picking up speed, until it became an unstoppable tornado, and the very rock walls of the valley began to crumble and break away.

The whole land was suddenly transformed by a storm of death. The final bastions of humanity, just a minute away from victory, were obliterated in the blink of an eye. The Escargot Planes became lumps of iron and fell out of the sky, and even the iguana cavalry, who had just returned after freeing the villagers, were turned to rust and shattered to pieces without even having the chance to scream.

Milo pushed Pawoo down to the ground, trying as best he could to protect her from the wind’s harmful influence. Actagawa leaped from the opposite valley, cutting through the storm, and wrapped them all up, including Jabi, inside his protective embrace.

“Aahh…! Stay with me, Milo!” said Pawoo.

“Is this as far as I go?!” cried Jabi. “We’re nearly there!”

As the two languished in despair, Milo slowly rose to his feet. He staggered, leaned against Actagawa for support, and gently stroked the smooth shell of his belly.

“Milo…?!”

Not responding to his sister’s voice behind him, Milo took out a bright-red vial from the pouch at his belt and injected the strength potion into his own neck. He grimaced in pain as the powerful liquid flowed into his veins.

“A red vial… No, it can’t be… A Bishamon mushroom potion?! Your body won’t be able to take it!”

“I’m sorry, Jabi… Look after Pawoo for me.”

“Can’t you see this rust storm?! You won’t come back alive this time, my boy!”

“If Bisco were here, would you try to stop him?”

“Mmrh…!”

“I’m off.”

“No, stop! Don’t go! Milo!” Pawoo pleaded.

The only ones who could survive within the incessant gale were Actagawa, whose natural resistance protected him from the Rust, and Milo, who had taken the Rust-Eater vaccine. That much was simple fact.

“We have to trust the kid…!” said Jabi, holding Pawoo back, though the very thought of losing two sons in a single day left him trembling in fear.

Engulfed in a storm of rust, the threats to Tetsujin’s being had disappeared in the blink of an eye, and the iron giant slowly turned its head to survey the battlefield. When it spotted the last of the Shimobuki traders about to reach the safety of the blizzard, it opened its mouth wide and prepared to unleash another blast of its corrosive breath.

Suddenly, from the side, a cataclysmic shot pierced the giant’s jaw, and there was a great Gaboom! as a blue mushroom filled its throat. Its airways blocked, Tetsujin cried out in a low groan.

“…Is your brain too small to remember?” yelled Milo through gritted teeth, his face drenched in blood. “I told you, Kurokawa. Your opponent here is me!”

As Milo railed against the wind atop a rocky mountain, Tetsujin swung his arm toward him. While Milo normally would have been able to dodge such an attack with ease, this time he was surrounded on all sides by the harsh winds of the rust storm, and to evade would have meant getting caught up in them. The huge lump of rusted iron struck Milo with such force that he was sent flying into the rock face, colliding with it in a cloud of dust.

“Milooo!” Pawoo screamed, twisting her body to try to break free from Actagawa’s legs. Meanwhile, Tetsujin brought his colossal left arm down upon them.

Just then, there was another Gaboom! An arrow flew from the cliff where the dust cloud had not yet cleared, striking the giant’s wrist and tearing it away from Actagawa. There Milo strode, dragging his body toward the enormous iron giant, even as the blood cascaded down his body, his blue eyes open wide.

As Tetsujin’s arm stretched toward him, he fired again. The hand snatched up Milo’s body and began to squeeze, but when the arrow exploded, the pain caused the giant to release its grip. Milo fired another shot as he fell through the air, before crashing clumsily into the ground.

“Let me go! Milo’s going to die! I have to… I have to…”

“My boy…!”

Jabi and Actagawa desperately tried to restrain Pawoo. It was such a gruesome scene that even the old man had difficulty preventing himself from jumping in to help. Still, as the blood-soaked Milo rose to his feet yet again, there was no trace of resignation or despair on his face. He stood and faced Tetsujin with sheer determination in his heart, his blue eyes blazing, as if swearing an oath to his dead partner.

Jabi studied his face. He never looked so much like Bisco until now. The only thing keeping Jabi from intervening was a vague feeling, somewhere inside his heart, that it was too soon to give up.

Why am I still standing?

Milo had been struck by the Rust so many times, fired so many arrows in return, that it didn’t feel like he was the one doing the fighting anymore. He could see clearly that his body had been broken far beyond anything he should have been able to endure. And yet his arms continued to pull the bowstring, his legs continued to support his body, as if that’s simply what they were made to do. And from somewhere deep inside him, he could feel limitless courage issuing forth.

This must be how Bisco felt.

He stood where his partner once did and drew his bow as he had done.

That made Milo very happy.

As he leaped away from Tetsujin’s mighty swing, he took a deep breath.

Now…

He drew Bisco’s emerald bow tight.

…I can shoot just like him.

His face stained with blood, his sapphire eyes glinted. Pchew! His arrow penetrated the armor on Tetsujin’s chest and pierced its skin, and a mushroom burst into being, blasting the armor plating off its body and exposing the wiring around the fans.

Tetsujin gave a wail of anguish and nearly toppled over. Milo seized the chance, running up to the giant and leaping toward it, clinging onto its skin and climbing up toward its breast. Then, with a yell, he drew his knife and drove it deeply into the mass of exposed cabling, tearing it up as he slid down the titan’s body.

“Take thiiiis!”

“Ooooh… Ooooh… AAAAAAAAAH!”

The giant let out a wail of pain greater than any before. Without its wiring, the twin fans embedded in Tetsujin’s chest ground to a halt, throwing out sparks and clouds of black smoke.

It worked!

The storm of rust that coated the land stopped and cleared away. With misty eyes, Milo barely managed to hang on using his blade. For a moment, his focus slackened, and he found himself unable to move a single muscle. The blood poured into his eyes, mixed with his tears, and streamed down his face, as if he had forgotten how to even blink.

No… I can’t die yet…!

That thought was the only thing tying his broken mind together. It took all of his efforts simply to fend off the encroaching darkness. Milo kept his eyes wide open, for he knew that if he closed them, they would never open again.

Then he spotted something glinting in the corner of his vision. There, in the torn-out chest cavity of the giant, a sparkling diamond lay amid the dull gleam of Tetsujin’s rusted skin.

It was a pair of goggles.

Bisco’s favorite pair of cat-eye goggles, the ones he never parted with. The ones that always rested on his forehead. They lay there, half buried in the rust, rattling helplessly in the wind.

“…Bisco!”

Just as Milo’s mind was about to sink into oblivion, he came to his senses. Summoning the last few ounces of strength that resided deep within his body, he began scaling Tetsujin once more and plucked Bisco’s goggles out from where they lay buried in the rust.

“…Bisco…are you there…?” Milo cried weakly toward the spot where the goggles had been. There was no logical thought left in his mind. Only the thought that, below the rust, his partner’s body might still be buried. With his bare hands, he clawed away at the metal dust.

“Bisco… I knew it. You’re gone…and I’m all alone…in this cold place…

“Let’s go back, Bisco. Together. Everyone’s waiting for us. Let’s go…!”

No matter how much Milo scraped away the rust, it seemed to come endlessly, like falling sand, and he couldn’t get through the thick skin. Yet still he persisted, even as his fingernails ran red with blood.

“Give him back… Give him back…! Give Bisco back to meeee!” he screamed, until blood nearly erupted from his throat. In response, the giant gripped him in its hand and threw him toward a distant cliff face. Lacking the energy to resist, Milo collided with the hard rock wall.

He opened his mouth to speak, but all that came out was blood. He tried to ready his bow, but he couldn’t even lift his arms. At the very least, he wanted to look his death in the eye, and so with the last of his strength, he craned his neck upward. His sapphire eyes watched the giant’s arm slowly descend upon him, until the very last moment.

It felt itself drifting in a sea of white, swaddled in something clear, thick, and warm.

It felt as though it were sitting next to its own soul, watching it dissolve. It felt itself bathed in strange tranquility.

In that silent world of infinite peace, it struggled in discomfort, a single ripple on the surface of an endless sea, before that, too, dispersed into nothing.

Sweet whispers in its mind told it that every last piece of its heart, every last drop of hesitation, was being stripped away and absorbed into this white world, and soon it would be one with eternity.

It had no reason to resist. But deep within its heart, there was one last emotion that refused to dissolve into the boundless ocean.

Yet gradually, like sand, even that final piece of its heart began to splinter.

“Bisco.”

And then, it stopped.

It heard a soft noise, a rift in the perfect silence. Something that meant something. Something that was very important.

It was something it should have known. It was something more valuable than anything. It pulsed and struggled, drawing that meaning toward it.

“Bisco…!”

The second time it heard it, it recognized that the sound was its own name, and the eye that dwelled deep within its mind opened wide.

Power flowed back in from outside. Its eyes. Its arms. Its legs. Its disintegrated body began to reform, and with all its heart, it fought against the slumber enveloping it.

“Bisco!”

The third time it heard it, it recognized whose voice was calling its name.

Its body brimmed with energy, and it let out a yell that shook the air. Cracks started forming in the infinite white, the sweet release of death was rejected, and Bisco was ejected from that place back into a world of darkness.

“!!!”

He emerged, as if from deep underwater, gasping for breath. Sensation returned to his body all at once, and he felt the Rust clinging to him all over. Clenching his teeth, he focused his full power and started to tear his way out of the rusted hide.

He let out a bestial howl and ripped through the shell of his cage with unrivaled strength, emerging into bright daylight. Even after being locked up in a prison of rust for so long, his body, and even his clothes and cloak, had not rusted. His flesh was as unmarred as roaring flames. Bisco was confused, but he focused on trying to reach the owner of the voice he had heard.

“Milo! Milooo!”

As if in response, the sunlight glittered off a head of sky-blue hair over on the mountain, and Bisco saw his partner on the verge of death. He sprang from Tetsujin like a bullet, and with his monstrous strength, caught the giant’s fist as it was swinging down toward Milo.

“Rrrrrggggaaaaahhh!”

With a yell, Bisco executed a roundhouse kick, breaking the fist clean off as if it were no more than a toy and sending it crashing into a distant mountaintop.

“Oooh… Oooooh?!”

While Tetsujin gave an anguished roar, Bisco was unable to control his newfound power and spun helplessly in the air before crashing into the ground. As he rose to his feet, his gaze fell upon the countless remains of mushrooms all across Tetsujin’s body. They shone in praise of his partner’s efforts and bravery, and the very sight warmed Bisco’s heart.

“…Did Milo…do all this…?”

“…Bis…co…?”

Hearing a shaky voice behind him, Bisco whirled around and was met with his partner’s stunned look of surprise.

“Hey,” he called out.

There was no way for Milo to know what he had just done. That he had scraped together the dying fragments of Bisco’s mind and brought him back to life. The sight of his friend standing in front of him seemed so unreal that he could only stare wide-eyed in shock, afraid of believing too soon.

“I heard you, just before I crossed over to the other side.”

“…Ah…!”

“You called for me, didn’t you?”

His white canines gleamed. Bisco’s cheeky smile that Milo had seen so many times before.

The tears started to well up in Milo’s eyes. He stood, as if forgetting all the injuries he had suffered, and leaped into his arms. But Bisco’s skin was searing to the touch, and he only held that position for about four seconds before jumping back in shock.

“Ow! That’s hot! You meanie!” he shouted.

“Hot? What is?”

“Bisco… Your body…”

Then Bisco looked down at his right arm—the one previously destroyed by the Rust. The new arm that took its place glowed with an orange light, and Bisco gulped in fear. The skin was not fully formed, and he could see through to the pulsing red muscle fiber within. The same was true of his shattered legs. Bisco’s body appeared to be regenerating at an alarming rate.

“What the hell?!”

“Bisco, watch out!”

Tetsujin had recovered and swung its other arm down upon them. Bisco grabbed Milo in his arms and hopped sideways out of the way. Then Milo handed Bisco his emerald bow, and Bisco took it and drew the bowstring with all his might. It scared Bisco to think of the unknown, seemingly infinite power surging through his body, so instead he focused all his energy on the task at hand.

Sparks flew from his breath and twinkled in the air.

“Kaaah!”

A vermillion streak shot from his bow. The small arrow became like a meteor and blasted an enormous hole in the giant’s side. Soon, from where it hit, a brilliant golden mushroom burst forth, shining like the sun.

Soon after, Bisco’s second arrow struck the giant on its other side, blasting another huge chunk out of its body. Tetsujin cried out as the two mushrooms ate away at its torso.

“Wow… Amazing…!”

Milo felt as if he were dreaming. It was all too good to be true. His dead partner, returning from Hell, danced through the air, his crimson hair billowing in the wind, his eyes with their emerald gleam, and his body glittering with tiny orange sparks. It was as though the sun itself had taken human form.

“Rrraaarghhh!”

Jumping off from the giant’s left arm, Bisco approached and let loose an arrow right through its heart. The arrow tore off Tetsujin’s entire upper half, which flew backward, skimmed the ground, and crashed into another distant mountain in a great cloud of dust, sending a resounding echo of twisting metal across the land.

“Milo…!”

“Pawoo! Jabi!” Milo called out as the pair rode up on Actagawa. When they spotted Bisco, shining like flames, standing at the bottom of the valley, their eyes went wide with shock.

“Is that…Akaboshi…?!” said Pawoo.

The lower half of Tetsujin collapsed at Bisco’s feet, and with a Gaboom! Gaboom! shining orange mushrooms began exploding all over its body, scattering the Rust as they unfurled their radiant caps and swelled to full size.

“Rust-Eaters!” Milo gasped. “…And they’re already in their awakened form…!”

“He’s a mushroom god!” cried Jabi. His eyes sparkling like those of a young boy, he let out a dreamlike sigh. “I didn’t think it possible! He’s become a god and returned to us!”

Bisco then leaped up the valley using the Rust-Eater’s caps and landed beside the other three in a cloud of glittering dust.

“…What’s happened to me?” he said. “Whatever arrow I fire, it turns into a Rust-Eater. And I feel stronger… I can’t stop it; it’s like I’m burning up…”

“Those things coming off Bisco…they’re spores! Then, that means…Bisco is…!”

Milo’s thought was interrupted by a great roar coming from the distant mountain. Tetsujin’s top half screamed.

“How is that bastard still alive?” said Bisco. “Get over here, Actagawa!”

“Bisco!” said Milo. “I’m coming with you!”

“Damn right, you are!”

Actagawa sprang into the air with Bisco and Milo atop his back.

“Use this, Bisco!”

Jabi tossed Bisco his own bow. Bisco caught it in one hand and passed his emerald bow over to Milo, grinning.

“That Kurokawa bastard’s a tough one to kill. Let’s put the final nail in his coffin, Milo!”

“Bisco, I think you’ve become half mushroom! When you died from the Pipe Snake’s venom, the Rust-Eater sprouted inside you, and it fed off the Rust inside Tetsujin. Now, it’s—”

“Look, I’m not gonna understand anything if you tell me all at once! Let’s just deal with that oversized action figure first!”

“Don’t you want to know what’s happening to your own body?!”

“As long as you know, that’s good enough for me!”

Bisco flashed the smile Milo knew all too well. Milo watched him, troubled…

“Okay, Bisco!” He grinned.

“All right, Actagawa! We can reach him from here!”

Bisco’s eyes twinkled. He drew his bow, his finishing arrow, about to loose it at the giant’s chest…when both of them noticed something strange.

“Bisco, wait!”

“…What the hell?!”

Tetsujin’s upper half rose and turned to the sky, glowing red-hot, steam belching forth, and bubbling rust filtering from every orifice. It spasmed, as though something was growing inside it, ready to burst.

“What is he doing…?”

“Akaboshiii! Wait, wait, wait! Don’t shooooot!”

A van drove up at full throttle and stopped beside them. The door opened, and out stumbled a short pink-haired girl, coughing up soot.

““Tirol!”” they both cried.

“I took a look at the blueprints. Found ’em at the military base in Miyagi.” The girl choked out her words and flicked through the thick document in her hand. “To put it in layman’s terms, that thing’s a tickin’ time bomb! If you shoot it now, this whole place’ll be nothin’ but a smokin’ crater, just like Tokyo!”

A rusted motorcycle screeched to a halt behind her, and Pawoo came over and looked at the plans. Jabi hopped off the back seat and atop Actagawa, where he sat quietly.

“I can see that!” cried Bisco. “But what the hell are we supposed to do if we can’t shoot it?!”

Suddenly, Jabi called out. “Watch out! It’s preparin’ its rust breath again!”

The five people and one crab turned to look and saw the bulging red Tetsujin open its mouth and belch forth a burning stream of molten rust like fire.

“Bisco!” Milo cried.

“Got it!”

Bisco scooped up a handful of arrows and fired them into the ground before them. Gaboom! Gaboom! Glorious Rust-Eaters blossomed into being, forming a mushroom wall that protected them from the blast.

“It worked! What amazing power, Bisco!”

“I… I can’t control it…! It just grows so powerfully no matter what I do!”

But Tetsujin’s breath did not stop. The Rust sprayed forth like vomit, crashing against the Rust-Eater mushrooms and coating even the Rust’s natural enemy with a thin layer of brown metal.

“Dammit, at this rate…! Tirol! Don’t you know how to stop it?!”

“I’m tryin’, I’m tryin’! It’s my life on the line, too, ya know!” Tirol flipped through the pages in a frenzy, complaining. “These are all the connections to the core, so where do the commands come from? It ain’t got a fancy computer brain or nothin’, so how can we stop it from blowin’ us all up…?”

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck her.

“Wait, I know! The self-destruct is tied to the pilot’s brain! And the device that connects it is hidden inside his noggin! If you hit that and kill the pilot, you can stop the countdown!”

“So we just gotta blow his brains out, huh? Easy.”

“Bisco, no!” said Milo. “The head’s huge, and you don’t know where Kurokawa is! If you miss, the shock from your arrow will cause the whole thing to explode!”

Everyone stole a look toward Tetsujin’s face as its corroding breath continued to blow. Pawoo closed her eyes, gave a sigh, and then turned to Tirol, her perfect features casting an icy glare.

“Then, I just need to break it open first,” she said.

“Pawoo, you can’t!” cried Milo.

“It’s suicide!” said Jabi. “I’ll go with Actagawa!”

“No,” said Pawoo. “You can’t control the crab’s power well enough.” She swung her iron staff and stood there, resolute. “I’m trained in nonlethal takedowns. That’s the purpose of this staff. Only I can shatter the armor without triggering the explosion. It’s as if I’ve been training my whole life for this moment.”

“Nonlethal takedowns?!” Bisco nearly tripped over himself with shock, and he jabbed his elbow at Milo. “That thing’s a killing machine! Milo, how can your sister spout such bullshit with a straight face?”

“That’s not a very nice thing to say to someone who’s sacrificing her life for you,” Pawoo said, appearing at Bisco’s side. “I don’t ask for much, but I’d appreciate at least a shred of gratitude…”

“Wh-what’s gotten into you all of a sudden?” Pawoo’s uncharacteristic meekness caught Bisco off guard. “Fine, if you come back alive, I’ll give you whatever you want! So don’t make that face; show me the strength of the Vigilante Corps’ captain!”

“…Hmm.” For a second, there was a devilish twinkle in Pawoo’s eyes, and she smiled. “Whatever I want, you say…?”

Suddenly, Pawoo gripped Bisco by the collar with her fearsome strength, drew him in close, and pressed her lips to his. While Bisco struggled to comprehend what was happening, she feasted upon him like a carnivore with its prey caught between its fangs.

“Mmmmmmmmph!!!”

Bisco’s nerves of steel failed him for the first time in his life, and he thrashed about in panic, flapping his arms like a caught pigeon. It was a long time before he managed to break free of her viselike grip, as though barely escaping with his life.

“Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

Pawoo gently wiped a thread of saliva from her mouth and laughed from the bottom of her heart. It was a pure, gentle, beautiful laugh, the likes of which even Milo had never heard his sister utter.

“I’m taking my payment in advance, Akaboshi!” she said, wheeling around, casting a flirtatious glance over her shoulder. Milo turned to Bisco with bright, gleeful eyes, but Bisco could do nothing but stand there trembling in fright, like a frightened puppy.

“She’ll make a great wife!” he said. “She’s pretty—and faithful…”

“She’s a beast!”

“With E-cup breasts!”

“Shut up already!” Bisco roared. Milo laughed. Here in this place of despair, somehow his heart was filled with hope. They were not going to die here. Each of them believed in themselves, in the future, with a calm, unconditional resolution.

“Welp, I’ve done all I can. Don’t come back to haunt me if you guys all die here!” said Tirol as she turned to get in her van and leave.

“Tirol! Thank you! You risked your life to help us!” Milo called out. Tirol turned back at him and timidly twirled her hair in her finger. “I-I’m just payin’ ya back for savin’ my life twice! B-besides…”

She gulped, and her face turned bright red.

“Wh-what kinda gal doesn’t help a f-friend in need?”

After she got the words out, she slammed the door shut and drove off. As a stray blob of molten rust fell her way, Jabi leaped up and knocked it away aside a swing of Actagawa’s giant claw.

“Bisco!” he yelled. “We’re finally here! This is what we’ve all been fighting for!”

“Don’t ease up now, old man! If you kick the bucket right at the finish line, I’ll bust into Hell just so I can beat the shit outta you!”

“Enough talk about the afterlife! I’ve had enough of that to last me a lifetime!”

Jabi brimmed with newfound youth, and his eyes twinkled once more.

“Now, let’s put an end to this! Hop aboard, lass!”

“On my way!”

Pawoo leaped atop Actagawa, and Jabi whipped the reins. The giant crab bounded over the wall of Rust-Eaters and circled around to the side of Tetsujin’s face. The iron giant, in anticipation of the sneak attack, halted its rust breath and swiveled its head around to face them.

“We don’t have much time! It’s fixin’ to blow!”

“Master Jabi. Please throw me!”

“What?!”

“If that thing unleashes its fire breath, it’ll explode. Launch me at its head! Use Actagawa to throw me over there!”

“…Wah-ha-ha-ha! Yer a feisty lass, ain’tcha?” Jabi laughed, then tightened his expression and whipped Actagawa’s reins. “Very well! You want me to send you off with a prayer?”

“No need. I just kissed a god.”

“Then fire away, Actagawa!”

The steelcrab leaped up at Jabi’s signal, gripping Pawoo in his claw, somersaulting through the air like a whirlwind. Then, with his mighty strength, he tossed Pawoo high into the sky. Pawoo’s long hair trailed behind her like the tail of a black comet, and her iron staff shimmered in the bright sunlight.

My staff…

Tetsujin aimed its mouth at Pawoo. The simmering red rust built up in its throat, steaming, ready to burst forth at any moment.

My life… For this moment…!

Her eyes flew open. In that instant, she was wrath incarnate, the warrior woman once more. She spun in midair, swinging her staff down.

“Haaaaaiyaaaaaah!”

Her staff sliced the air twice, cutting the giant’s face in a cross pattern. A pair of clean breaks ran across Tetsujin’s iron mask, before the armor plating simply fell away. Tetsujin let out a cry and shook its head, but it showed no signs of exploding. It appeared Pawoo really had avoided letting the impact carry through to the giant’s flesh.

“Bullshit. She actually did it!” Bisco called over to Milo, unable to hide his shock. “…Wait. She didn’t think about how she was gonna land, did she?!”

But Milo was already drawing his bow and fired a shot toward his sister as she fell. Pchew! The arrow lodged itself in Pawoo’s staff and grew immediately into a balloonshroom. When Pawoo came to, she found it carrying her gently down through the air like a parachute and aimed herself toward Actagawa. Tetsujin writhed and belched forth flames, but the next of Milo’s arrows struck the ground before Actagawa and put up an anchorshroom wall to protect them.

“Hey, that was pretty clean!” said Bisco in admiration at Milo’s efforts.

“You could stand to treat me like that more often!” Milo called back in response. “Bisco, look!”

Bisco followed his partner’s gaze and looked up at Tetsujin. There, in the titan’s exposed face, was a familiar sight. Locked within the area of the giant’s brow was a single human figure. It was almost entirely skeletal, flesh eaten away by rust, but for a pair of deep, dark eyes, a testament to the man’s obsession that persisted even in death.

“Kurokawa!”

As if hearing Bisco’s yell, Kurokawa’s hollow face stirred, and his jet-black eyes fell upon him. It could not be said for sure whether any part of the Imihama governor still remained that recognized his archnemesis, but nevertheless, his face twisted in rage.

“AKABOSHIII!”

Kurokawa’s scream came from the giant’s mouth, not his, and caused the air to shake. The deep void of his eyes collided with Bisco’s brilliant emerald, and fierce sparks flew between them.

Bisco’s arrow left his bow at the same time that Tetsujin unleashed a gout of flames. The hellish inferno torched even the giant’s own skin, but when Bisco’s realm-splitting arrow met it, it defied the flames like a missile hurtling through the atmosphere.

“We are the same, Akaboshi! You may be strong, you may be right, but just like you, I will never roll over and die!”

Kurokawa’s unending obsession rose from the pit of his stomach, and the inferno surged in intensity. His flesh was stripped, his bones became ash, and flames burst forth from his eyeballs, and yet still his insane fixation showed no signs of ceasing. As his body collapsed, so, too, did Tetsujin’s flesh tear open, and the magma-like rust erupted from the cracks. Right before Bisco’s unstoppable arrow connected with Kurokawa’s head, the infernal flames burned it completely to ash.

“Now, perish!”

The giant’s murderous breath picked up speed once more and fell upon the duo, but just before the inferno flayed the flesh from their bones, a King Trumpet mushroom appeared beneath their feet with a Gaboom! and launched them high into the air, saving them from the flames before crumbling to ash in their place.

“Go, Bisco!”

Hearing his partner’s voice behind him, Bisco took a deep breath and drew back his bowstring. Below him, Tetsujin appeared to have used up all its strength and hung forward lifelessly. This was Bisco’s one and only chance to destroy it for good.

However.

Kurokawa’s blasted face turned toward him with burned-out eyes. He swung both his melted arms, which tore apart and lashed at him like fiery whips and struck him in the eyes.

“Gah!”

In a moment, Bisco was stripped of his sight, an archer’s lifeline, and yet still he drew his bow. He knew that it was do-or-die here, and nothing could prevent him from landing his arrow in Kurokawa’s body. With that sole image burning in his mind, he clenched his teeth.

And then he felt a warm touch on his right hand, and the trembling stopped. Then his left hand, too. Though Bisco could see nothing but darkness, he could feel unwavering conviction returning to his heart.

“Archery is two things.

“First, watch closely.”

“And the second?”

“Believe.”

“I…,” whispered a clear voice. “I will be your eyes.”

Milo’s hand adjusted his aim ever so slightly. Bisco’s waning strength, his waning determination, flared back to life and set his heart ablaze.

“So: Believe.

“Pull.

“Tightly…”

In the darkness, Bisco held on to his arrow. In it, he felt their spirits shining brightly.

*    *    *

“You can hit it, Bisco.”

“Yeah.”

Pchew!

Milo watched as the arrow, clad in shimmering light, sailed gently through the air. It moved with a strange slowness toward Kurokawa’s chest as if being sucked there, and it stuck.

Then, with a tremendous noise, the arrow tore a perfect hole in the giant’s head, leaving no trace of Kurokawa. Scattering its spores, it flew on, boring clean through not only Tetsujin but the mountain behind.

Gaboom! Gaboom! A chorus of Rust-Eater mushrooms burst to life all across Tetsujin, the plain, the mountain, everything the arrow’s shock wave touched. Tetsujin struggled but was ultimately crushed beneath a pile of mushrooms.

“Oooooooh!”

Tetsujin gave a long, drawn-out death cry, but it, too, was gradually drowned out by the sounds of the exploding Rust-Eaters, until it could be heard no more. And thus, the engine of destruction that once laid waste to Japan met its end.

And the endless force of nature overcame the noxious Rust and used it to grow new life.

The pair landed gently atop the caps of the Rust-Eater mushrooms, badly beaten but still alive. As the mushrooms swelled ever larger, they knew they had to escape, but neither of them had the strength to do so any longer. They could barely even lift a single finger.

“Can you get up, Milo?”

“No!”

“Me neither!”

Despite their injuries, the two Mushroom Keepers laughed out loud in satisfaction at their victory.

“Bisco!”

“Yeah?”

“Did I help? You think I’m good enough to be your partner now?!”

Milo’s voice was barely audible over the growing rumble. Bisco gave one final grin and responded:

“I’m your arrow, and you’re my bow! Together, we’re unstoppable!”

The mushroom upon which the pair lay began to tremble, quaking in anticipation of its sudden growth. Milo used the last of his strength to roll over onto his side, nestled up to Bisco, and threw his arm around him.

Gaboom!