21

The official stance from the national government was that the mysterious explosion at the North Miyagi Military Base, as well as the nearby emergence of a new mushroom forest, were both the doing of the country’s most wanted, the notorious criminal, the Man-Eating Redcap, Bisco Akaboshi.

Following this incident, the new prefectural governor of Imihama, Pawoo, declared the region’s independence from the Japanese government. She denounced the persecution of the Mushroom Keepers that occurred all across the country and announced that her prefecture would be open for all Mushroom Keepers to seek refuge from oppression.

Though the Mushroom Keepers were skeptical at first, any disbelief was washed away when they saw the figure of their hero standing beside her, stroking his white beard. Imihama became a marvelous city unlike any other, where its citizens lived side by side with the Mushroom Keepers, and its prosperity continued well into the current day.

The improved Rust-Eater vaccine, developed under the supervision of the newly rebuilt Panda Clinic, was not sold for massive profits like the old medicine but instead given away for next to nothing, not only to all citizens of Imihama but exported to neutral prefectures such as Shimobuki, Iwate, and Akita, freeing countless people from the weighty specter of the Rust. However, the whereabouts of the miracle-worker physician, Dr. Panda himself, were never made public, dashing the hopes and dreams of all the bright young medical apprentices across the land who flocked to Imihama in the hopes of receiving his tutelage.

While Imihama’s declaration of independence shook the nation, there was another small incident going on around the same time that ended up relegated to obscurity. At the southern edge of Gunma Prefecture, at a checkpoint on the border of the Saitama Iron Desert. Let’s wrap up our story with the details of this particular event.

THE MAN-EATING REDCAP, BISCO AKABOSHI, read the wanted poster hanging on the checkpoint wall. It showed a man with spiky red hair, a cracked pair of cat-eye goggles, and a bright-red tattoo around his right eye. Below, where it once said REWARD: 800,000 SOLS, there were now several red lines drawn through the eight hundred thousand, and below were scribbled the words ABOUT 2,000,000. It was a piece of paper you could find almost anywhere in Japan, an incredibly familiar sight to anyone who hadn’t been living under a rock.

But beside that poster was a second one, relatively new and clean, neatly held in place with a thumbtack. Blue hair as clear as a cloudless sky. Childlike yet well-structured features and a pair of bright, wide eyes. He was easily mistakable for a woman, and the dark-black mark around his left eye gave him all the appearances of a friendly panda.

A pair of pilgrims stared at the posters as they lingered by the checkpoint. A tired-looking border official stuck his head out the window and called to them.

“What’s the matter, never seen one of Akaboshi’s posters before?”

“…No, I’m looking at this one,” replied one of the pilgrims, holding back the tremor in his voice. He regained his composure and turned to the guard. “The Man-Eating Panda, they call him. Why do you suppose that is?”

“Can’t ya tell just by lookin’ at ’im?” replied the hairy guard, looking very pleased at the chance to talk about the poster. He grinned as he took a swig of brandy from a bottle. “’e’s the doctor of the Panda Clinic, Milo Nekoyanagi. Apparently ’e used to work in Imihama, but truth was ’e would kill ’is patients and eat ’em. Look at ’is face, too. Wouldn’t hurt a fly, or so you’d think… Guess you can’t even trust a doctor these days.”

As the bearded guard waxed on and on, the other pilgrim tried to stifle a laugh. His partner jabbed him in the stomach with his elbow and coughed politely before replying.

“…Like you say, he really doesn’t look evil at all,” he said, astonished.

“Gah-ha-ha-ha! …Yer not alone! Perhaps I shouldn’t be sayin’ this, as a government official an’ all, but most people think the same way you do. I heard ’e was a good doctor, who went against the government and healed people for free, an’ this was how the government repaid ’im.”

He spoke with a smile, finished stamping the paperwork, and handed it back to the first monk, staring longingly at the sky as he did so.

“Akaboshi… I don’t think ’e was such a bad guy, neither. Sure, ’e looked like ’e’d eat you given ’alf the chance, but I think ’e just ’ad ’is own way o’ doin’ things…”

When he saw the guard’s expression, gazing gently into space as if daydreaming, the first monk looked over at his partner and smiled. Though, partner was perhaps an overly familiar term for the second monk, who merely shrugged without any particular show of emotion.

“Open the gate!” bellowed the guard.

As the gate slowly ground open, it revealed a cluster of small ferns and thinning grass covering the desert and the walls. It was astonishing to think that life was gradually returning to this place that, just one year ago, had seemed like an entrance into death itself, a land devoid of all life, ruled by rust and sand. However, given that months at a time could pass without seeing a single visitor to this checkpoint, it was likely that the hairy guard and his companion, Ota, were the only ones who knew that.

With a bow of thanks, the first monk quickly hopped atop their dog-drawn cart and disappeared through the gate, while the other approached the window, pulled out a pair of orange vials from inside his pocket, and placed them on the counter.

“What’re these?” said the guard.

“Rust-Eater vaccines from Imihama,” said the monk, his green eyes catching the official off guard. “Consider them a gift. One for you and one for your friend.”

“H-how did you get these…?!” stammered the border guard before gruffly shooting back, “I—I can’t take bribes from monks! I work for the government!”

“I see you gave that King Trumpet mushroom hippo dung once a week,” the pilgrim said, grinning and casting a glance at the signs of nature returning to the border. “Call this your reward for doing as I asked—and quit complaining, pork chop.”

“…Ah. Ah… Ah!” The hairy guard’s eyes widened three times in succession. That unforgettable, indomitable smile. That gleaming tooth. “Y-y-you! It’s you!”

The monk ran away cackling, leaped atop the roof of his dog-drawn cart, and gave the cloth-covered load in the back a poke. A second later, the cloth hurtled into the air and out popped a giant steelcrab who grabbed the two pilgrims in his claws and landed on the ground with a thud.

“Ota! Ota! It’s Akaboshi! Akaboshi’s here!”

The two pilgrims looked back at the noisy checkpoint, where it was impossible to say if the guard was shouting in anger or excitement, and tore off their bandages, revealing heads of scarlet and sky-blue hair. Bisco turned to Milo and said:

“Man-Eating Panda.”

“Stop it! I don’t eat people…”

Milo sat in the front saddle, holding the reins, puffing his cheeks, when suddenly his face brightened, and he leaned over to Bisco, slapping him on the back repeatedly.

“Bisco! Look, he’s taking a picture! Say cheese!”

“Huh?!”

“Hurry!”

Just as the two turned to face Ota’s camera far off behind them, Actagawa sprang over a small hill, and the three of them disappeared from view.

“Hey, Bisco? Do you really want to cure that?”

“Of course I do. I don’t remember askin’ to be immortal. If Jabi ain’t got a clue what’s causin’ it, we’ll just have to check all the Mushroom Keeper settlements one by one until we find someone who does.”

“But you’re a super-duper Rust-Eater man! It’d be such a shame to cure it!”

“Think about how I feel! It’s weird bein’ half mushroom! It creeps me out. Besides, I keep findin’ mushrooms in my hair… Ah, there’s another one.”

“Wait, don’t take it out! It makes you look really cute!”

“…The hell?”

“Well, okay then. I don’t really want to grow old without you, either. But it’s not going to be an easy journey.”

“Maybe. But it’ll all work out in the end. Because…”

“Because…?”

“…Because when the two of us team up, we’re invincible.”

“…Heh… Right you are!”

“You set me up for that one. How many times are you gonna make me say it today? That’s enough, isn’t it?”

“No, it’s not! You never normally say anything nice about me, so I’m saving them up!”

“…Does it work like that? Wait, no, don’t save them up! That can’t be good for you!”

The young border guard, Ota, had used his hidden talent to capture a once-in-a-lifetime shot of the two Man-Eaters, side by side. Nekoyanagi’s innocent smiling face was accompanied by a pair of bent fingers, throwing up a lazy peace sign, and by his side, the mad dog Akaboshi scowled, raising his middle finger to the camera. The photo was perfect for a new set of wanted posters, but it was never submitted to the prefectural bureau. Instead, it was set in a nice white frame and stayed at the border checkpoint in a corner of Ota’s desk.