4

They were probably around five stories up by now. Milo carried Bisco on his back, as Amli led them across an old, beaten-up walkway that jutted out from one of the towers and had no guardrail.

“Oh, please don’t touch the goldfish lanterns. They may not look it, but they are, in fact, divine beasts, you know.”

“Th-they are? Oh, I…I’m sorry!”

Milo pulled his hand away from one of the fish. They were rather large and drifted through the air like paper lanterns.

“Heaven would strike you down most swiftly if you were to end up hurting one. More than that, though, they are the only source of light around here, so please do not scare them away.”

“Th-this walkway looks like it’s going to collapse, light or no light. Aren’t you worried, Amli?”

“I was born here. I could navigate these walkways blindfolded if I had to. Everyone could. It’s only about once every three days that somebody falls off.”

Milo didn’t look too impressed. Meanwhile, Amli seemed quite excited about the two outsiders, and she spun around to face them, her silver hair bobbing.

“I’m quite surprised, though, that you were able to land a hit on Kelshinha,” she said, smiling sweetly. Her glass eye gleamed. “I’ve heard of you two. Akaboshi and Nekoyanagi, the Man-Eating Mushroom Keepers. To be honest, I despise mundane matters…but the power of the Mushroom Keeper arts is no lie. Take care, though. Here, at the Six Towers of Izumo, you must cast aside what you think you know about this world. If you have any questions, I will answer.”

Before Milo could respond, Bisco yelled, “Who the hell are you? Let’s start there. How come you can use all these crazy powers when you’re just a kid?”

“Like I said, my name is Amli… Oh, you want to know what I do here?” A cheery smile crossed the girl’s pretty face. “I may not look like much, but I’m a healer, along with my master. Our specialty is in dispelling curses and mantras. You were lucky we happened to be passing by. If we had not saved you, your insides would have been completely consumed by rust, Mr. Bisco, sir.”

“D-dispelling…?”

“Can you fix him, Amli? I’m a doctor, myself, but to be totally honest, I’ve never seen anything like what’s happening to Bisco. I’m not sure what to do. Please, Amli,” he begged, “there’s no one else I can turn to.”

Amli brought her hand to her chin, pondering as she walked. “Please watch your step,” she said as she hopped over a gap in the walkway. Looking down, Milo could see they were already so high up that a fall would mean certain death. Precisely how high was hard to say, as the ground below was shrouded in darkness.

“I cannot say for sure,” she said, answering Milo’s question at last. “He is the first human ever to survive having their stomach stolen by Kelshinha… I must ask my master for guidance.”

“Kelshinha. Is that the name of that old dude?” asked Bisco.

“We are here,” said Amli, ignoring him and slipping into a back alley. There, in neon writing, were the words AMRIT HEALING. Amli stopped and twirled on the spot for no reason. “Master can tell you more about Kelshinha, but our priority right now is your stomach, Mr. Bisco, sir… I suppose you must be hungry, are you not?”

At Amli’s words, Bisco remembered his hunger pangs, and he rubbed his belly, groaning. Amli giggled and led the two of them inside. As she shut the creaking door behind her, she muttered a spell, and in place of a lock, a slip of paper glued itself to the frame and held it shut.

Inside was a place that looked like a cross between a doctor’s clinic, a research laboratory, and a Buddhist temple. Bonecoal lamps littered the room, lighting up the gloomy interior. There were shelves packed with books written in various languages, cages wherein strange creatures writhed, and jars containing what appeared to be eyeballs suspended in a mysterious liquid.

“Oh, Amli. You back?” came a voice from within.

“I am, Master. Erm, in fact…”

“I know. I watched you climb. Dear me, what a rare thing indeed.”

The person Amli called her master stepped out of the shadows. She was a tall woman, with a cloth tied around her chest but the rest of her muscular upper body left bare. Across her skin was tattooed a mandala, an arrangement of circles representing the path to enlightenment, and in each of her ears she wore a large, hoop-shaped earring.

Her blond hair looked tough as needles and was tied up behind her in a long braid. She was clearly strong, but the look on her face as she stood before the two Mushroom Keepers was gentle and kind. No doubt it was she whom the pair had seen facing off against Kelshinha earlier.

“H-hello,” Milo began meekly. “We’re—”

“I know who you are. Or at the very least, I know the two of you together are worth five million sols. My name is Raskeni Jau… Call me Raskeni.”

As the four of them exchanged greetings, the two Mushroom Keepers looked at each other uneasily. Raskeni laughed. “Don’t look at me like that. I know, I know, this place is a bit of a mess.” She swept a table free of clutter. “I’m afraid all our beds are full at the moment, so lie down here. Let’s take a look at you…”

Bisco grimaced in hunger and glanced at Milo. It was clear he was unwilling to let his guard down around these two women after their unfavorable first impression. Milo understood how he felt—painfully so—but the pair had no other option. Milo gave a tentative nod, and Bisco laid himself out on the table.

“…”

Raskeni peered into the hole in Bisco’s abdomen, then stood back up and pondered, biting her thumb.

“…Well?” asked Milo. “Did you figure anything out?”

“He’s dead.”

“Whaaat?!”

“Ha-ha, sorry. I guess I should say he ought to be dead. Normally when Kelshinha steals an organ, the rust contaminates the surrounding body and kills them. That’s if they even survive having their insides ripped out in the first place. However, in this case, there seems to be some sort of fungus keeping the rust from spreading.”

“That’s the Rust-Eater. It’s a mushroom that feeds off the rust…,” said Milo.

“A mushroom that feeds off the rust…?” Amli repeated. “But why is that inside a person’s body…?”

“Let’s hear him out,” said Raskeni. “The fact remains that, one way or another, the gentleman lives. Our good friend Milo here seems to be telling the truth.”

Milo heaved a sigh of relief at her words and continued.

“It’s true that the Rust-Eater saved Bisco’s life. But now it’s putting him in danger. The rust keeps coming out of nowhere, and the Rust-Eater keeps feeding on it relentlessly. And while this is going on…”

“…The big mushrooms keep going Boom!” answered Amli gleefully. At Milo’s cold stare, Raskeni chided her and turned back to Milo.

“Okay, I understand now. First things first—we need to remove the rust that’s building up inside him… Amli?”

“Yes, Master?” answered the young girl.

“We need the rust-extracting mantra. Can you handle it?”

“It’s been a while since I last used it, but I can give it a try.”

Amli flung off her robe, stripping down to only the bandages around her chest, and cracked her neck. Then she leaped into the air, landing on the table above Bisco. Bringing her face close to his, she stared deeply into his emerald eyes.

Bisco had been mostly keeping quiet until now, putting up with the discomfort, but at Amli’s invasion of his personal space, he suddenly yelled, “Whoa, what the hell are you doing?!”

“…You have such pretty eyes. Like gemstones…,” she whispered as her violet eye gazed, transfixed. “Mr. Bisco, sir. This is a dangerous procedure. I will do my utmost to keep you alive, of course, but…on the off chance…”

Amli seemed to pause there for a moment before her face broadened into a smile that sent a chill down Bisco’s spine.

“On the off chance I should fail, would it be okay for me to keep your eyes?”

“…I don’t mind,” Bisco replied. “But I should warn you, people always call me shortsighted.”

“Don’t humor her!” yelled Milo. “Forget it, I’ll do it myself!”

Amli flinched at Milo’s sudden advance when Raskeni called out, “Come on, Amli! Don’t scare the poor folks.” Then, to Milo, she added, “Sorry, that’s just a bad habit of hers.”

Amli pouted. Then she shook her head, and the glass eye fell from her socket and onto the floor. With her empty cavity, she stared into Bisco’s stomach hole.

“’Twas only a joke,” she said. “Please hold still, Mr. Bisco, sir…”

“Milo, what the hell are these freaks doin’ to me? Can I afford to just stay still?”

“Raskeni, please explain!” yelled Milo.

Raskeni placed a hand on Milo’s shoulder and lowered her voice slightly. “We’re extracting the rust, just like I said. This is a special technique only Amli can perform. If you still want to back out, then go ahead, but you must have come here for a reason. Don’t you want us to help your partner?”

Amli, in contrast, paid no heed to the boys’ concern. With her empty socket plunged deeply into the hole, she began muttering under her breath.

“…Ule…shad-amrit. Ule-amrit-shad…snew.”

“Get off! What the hell are you d—?!”

But as Bisco tried to sit up, he felt strange, as if something inside him was trying to get out. The unpleasantness made him hurl up more blood, and Milo ran over to his side.

Shlllllorp!

There came a sound oddly similar to that of a weed being pulled from the ground, roots and all, as the rust rose out of Bisco’s body and into Amli’s eye socket in one long stream, like a waterfall in reverse. The two boys could only stare in shock, dumbfounded. It must have lasted about twenty seconds in total before the stream finally slowed, and at last only a few vestiges still lay scattered about Bisco’s abdomen, which Amli sucked up like a dog licking its bowl clean. At the end of it all, she appeared quite dizzy, and she slapped her cheeks a few times and let out a burp.

“Wh-whoa… What was that…?” asked Milo with wonder.

“She sucked up the rust…into her own head?!”

The two simply stared with mouths agape at the scene they had just witnessed.

“That was Amli’s Mantra of Rust Extraction. I suppose it must be quite the show for a pair of outsiders not familiar with our methods.”

Milo and Bisco had heard tales of the magic the practitioners at the Six Towers commanded, but to see it firsthand was another matter entirely. It was a bizarre, inexplicable art.

“…Hey, Milo. Why can’t you do that? Didn’t you go to school?”

“Th-they don’t teach anything like that at school! That’s impossible…! It’s basically a miracle!”

“…That sure was a lot of rust,” Raskeni mused as she fished out a new glass eye from one of the many jars. Then she noticed her student was acting strange and rushed over to her side. “…Amli, what’s wrong? Does it hurt?”

Her pale cheeks were completely flushed, and every so often she would tremble, hugging her shoulders and panting with a strange look on her face.

“Hahh… Hahh…! Th-that was…so good…!”

“Was it, now? Perhaps the Rust-Eater spores are having an effect on you. I think you should rest…”

“Mr. Bisco, sir…” Amli squatted on all fours over her immobile patient, running her finger along the edge of his wound. “What…powerful life force you possess. It burns…no, blazes like the sun. I was almost burned to a crisp…”

“Gwaaagh! Stop! Don’t put your finger in… Gaaagh!”

Amli’s youthful face was flushed with passion, and she ignored Bisco’s screams as if they were little more than background music. She stroked her fingers up his muscles and caressed his chin before Milo cut in and yelled, “Hooold it, hold it! You’re done, aren’t you? Get off Bisco already! I’ll take it from here!”

“Don’t worry, this is part of his treatment…”

“What a lie! Get off Bisco! H-he’s engaged, you know!”

“…Oh, is that right? I apologize. It was just so amazing…”

Amli looked disappointed as she clambered off Bisco. She staggered, as though the weight of her head was too much for her, before refusing the eye in her master’s hand and picking out a green one from a jar on a shelf. She placed it in her socket and smiled, her fingers to her lips.

“What do you mean, I’m engaged?” asked Bisco.

“I had to say something… Hasn’t anything happened between you and Pawoo?”

“With that gorilla? You mean like a banana-eating contest?”

“I wouldn’t talk behind her back if I were you. She can hear everything we’re saying through the listening device in my ring.”

“What?!”

“Just kidding.”

“You piece of shit! You’ll really look like a panda when I’m done with you!”

As strange and unsettling as the process had been, Bisco did indeed seem to be back to his usual self, fresh-faced and cracking jokes. Milo breathed a sigh of relief while Amli gave the pair a rather jealous look and whispered into Raskeni’s ear.

“Master, I removed all the rust I could, but the roots are still in there. His stomach cavity will be infected again soon enough.”

Raskeni nodded in understanding and peered into Bisco’s belly once more. Inside, the golden spores seemed to have clumped together to form some sort of small organ where Bisco’s stomach had once been.

“Is it trying to re-create it? Just what sort of superhuman is he…? …But this is no good; soon the rust will come back and cause it to collapse.”

She pondered for a moment, putting her thoughts in order, then turned to the two boys and spoke.

“That was the easy part… You should be able to eat now, from what I can see, so let’s get some food in you as soon as possible.”

Bisco and Milo were led up to the second floor into Amli’s room and seated around a dining table. All around them were jars of eyes, an unimaginable number. Amli twirled merrily as she filled the boys’ bowls with a thick red soup, like blood.

“I’m so glad, Master. It’s been so long since we’ve had guests.”

“I just wish we could offer you something more than this,” said Raskeni, “but that stomach of yours doesn’t look like it’ll last very long. Gruel is probably all you can tolerate for now. Just bear with it. It shouldn’t taste too bad, at least.”

Milo peered into Bisco’s bowl. Floating in the thick crimson sludge, Milo could make out scraps of an unknown meat and mushy grains of rice. That wasn’t so bad by itself, but it didn’t just look like blood; it smelled like it, too, as Milo could attest from his time at Panda Clinic.

Bisco, however, wolfed down the food, desperate to get any sort of nutrition into himself, as Milo watched, his eye twitching.

“Oh, look, Master! Mr. Bisco loves my food! Won’t you have some, too, Mr. Milo, sir? This here’s kidney stew…”

“O-oh? And what kind of kidney, may I ask?”

“…? A healthy one, of course! It helps digestion and gives you strength!”

Milo suddenly found he had no appetite, so he waited until Amli had left, then he passed his bowl to Bisco. She returned with a bunch of charts, which Raskeni spread out on the tabletop and studied carefully.

“So you two know that old guy, huh?” said Bisco. After polishing off Milo’s portion, he finally looked himself again. “We heard he can give and take away immortality. Do you guys have crazy magic powers like that, too?”

“…You heal scary fast, you know. Oh well, I suppose that’s better for us.” Raskeni asked Amli to clear away the bowls, at which the young girl puffed up her cheeks reluctantly but did as her master had requested. As she went downstairs, Raskeni addressed the others. “No offense, but there’s a lot going on that you two don’t understand. It’s going to take a while to bring you up to speed. I hope you don’t mind.”

“You tryin’ to say I don’t have the patience to sit through a long explanation?” Bisco scowled.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Is that not the case?”

“Grr…”

“Hee-hee-hee…”

Raskeni narrowed her bewitching eyes ever so slightly and scrutinized the two young men for a moment…before opening her lips and beginning to speak.

“Let me introduce myself again. My name’s Raskeni, and I’m one of the six disciples who first fought Kelshinha the Immortal and expelled him from the Towers. I’ve since withdrawn from the public eye, and now I make it my mission to keep the peace around here.”

“Kelshinha the Immortal…”

“That’s right. It was once he who controlled the Six Towers and ruled over the Rust Speakers. But his ambition was too great, and so we six conspired to take him down. We banished him from the Six Towers and restored peace to the land…until now, that is.”

Bisco and Milo recalled the stories they’d heard from the caravan elder and the rest stop landlady, and they nodded to each other.

“S-so then… Raskeni, you’re worried because Kelshinha is back after you left him for dead?”

“That’s the long and short of it, I guess. It’s obvious he wants revenge against the six who betrayed him. If he stands atop the Six Towers once more, the peace we’ve worked so hard to obtain will be gone, and we’ll go back to the Dark Ages.”

As Milo trembled in a cold sweat at the disaster the two of them had awakened, Bisco folded his arms defiantly. “Then it’s simple,” he said. “All we gotta do is take down that old bastard, right?”

Raskeni paused for a moment and nodded. “Well, that’s certainly one way of putting it, but yes.”

“Perfect. He has something of mine anyway, and until I get it back, I can’t have any tasty grub. I’ll make him regret messing with me.”

“…While I appreciate your support, there’s something I must ask. Why were you looking for Kelshinha in the first place? I can’t imagine there’s much here in Izumo that would interest a couple of Mushroom Keepers like yourselves.”

While Raskeni was talking, Bisco got up from his seat and wandered over to the cylindrical pot containing the gruel. Peering inside, he scraped the last remaining dregs from the bottom of the pot and scooped them into his bowl.

“You’ve seen for yourself what my body can do. We’re looking for a way to cure my immortality. We were thinking we’d nab that old man and force him to do it for us.”

“Cure…immortality? While all others here seek it? Ha-ha, how very noble of you…” Raskeni gave a mysterious chuckle, while Bisco glared at her. “…Oh, I’m sorry. I understand how you feel, but…”

“Come on, Bisco! Now’s not the time! We have to get your stomach back! We can deal with the immortality stuff afterward!”

“Calm down,” said Bisco, “I can eat, can’t I? It’s not like it’s going to kill me right away.”

“Actually, it is.” Raskeni laughed as the two boys argued. “It’s supposed to kill you instantly. It takes about a day for the rust to consume one of your vital organs, so…I’d say you’ve got five days before the rust spreads to all of them.”

““F-five days?!”” the two cried in shock.

“Crackkk!”

An enormous Rust-Eater mushroom shot through Bisco’s neck.

“Aaarggghhh?!”

“Waaah! Bisco!”

As the two boys panicked, Raskeni raised her voice.

“Five days… And that’s if the Rust-Eater doesn’t kill you first.”

“Th-then what are we waiting for?” said Milo. “Let’s go capture Kelshinha at once!”

“These towers are complex. You will not be so lucky as to stumble upon him by chance. If you want to live, I suggest you follow my commands to the letter. Is that okay with you?”

“You want us to just shut up and do as you say, huh? Who do you think you are?”

“Leave it, Bisco! We’ll cooperate. Does that mean you know where he is, Raskeni?”

Raskeni nodded and rose to her feet. She beckoned the others to come stand with her by the upstairs window. A gentle breeze drifted into the room, and outside, the pair could see the other five towers. At their base, they were a jumbled mess much like this one, but following Raskeni’s finger to the upper reaches, they could see that the towers became much more refined and stately, and each tower was marked with its own distinctive color.

“It all began when the six of us defeated Kelshinha and gazed upon the source of his power: his five vital organs. Fearing his return, the other five each took an organ for themselves and withdrew to the tops of the five outer towers. That includes the Metal Tower, where we are now.”

“So right now, Kelshinha’s organs are stored at the five outer towers?”

“That’s right. We call them the Scriptures, and they are kept under heavy guard. Kelshinha will be seeking to take them back. If he regains his former power, he will be unstoppable. We must take the Scriptures for ourselves before that happens.”

“That’s too complicated!” said Bisco impatiently. “Why can’t we just go beat him up right now?”

“Because with the five Scriptures, Amli can also bring you back to full strength. It may be roundabout, but this is the fastest and surest way of beating him.”

Bisco stared out the window as he tore the mushroom from his neck. Raskeni pointed over to the neighboring tower. Its upper levels twinkled, the light bouncing off the highly reflective surface.

“You two should head to the Water Tower and—”

Raskeni’s words were interrupted as all of a sudden the top of the tower she was pointing at exploded into a torrent of rushing water, breaking off the ornaments of the temple and sending glittering rubble plummeting into the darkness below. The three could only watch in shock as the blue tower collapsed before their very eyes, sending a spray of water that misted up the windowpane.

“…What Water Tower?” asked Bisco.

“Shush. My messenger is returning.”

Raskeni frowned. As she placed her hand to the window, a large body came crashing through the glass and rolled along the floor.

“What happened?!” she yelled. “Are you the only one left? What happened to Kelshinha?”

“Rgh… Boss…”

“You’re hurt…!”

Raskeni had no words for the man’s pitiable state, his body riddled with holes. The inside of his mask became stained with blood as he struggled to cough up the words.

“Kelshinha has…taken the Water Tower. He has…killed the leader of the Mercurials and laid waste…to the shrine. He has likely…already taken…the pancreas…by now…”

“I understand. Rest now. May your soul pass in peace.”

Raskeni’s face contorted in grief. As her long eyelashes trembled…

“Gruuuh!”

Suddenly, the masked man rose from the floor. Blood still streaming from his mouth, he grabbed Raskeni by the neck.

“…?! Damn—! Necro…mancy—!”

The paper tag fell from her fingers as the masked man tightened his grip and lifted her up off the floor. Without an ounce of restraint, her former subordinate tightened his grip on her throat.

“Gr! Agh…!!”

Just then, there was a Gaboom!, and a King Trumpet mushroom burst out sideways from an arrow in the wall, knocking the masked man off his feet and into a nearby bookshelf. The heavy shelf wobbled and collapsed on the man, sending a spray of pitch-black blood and scattering pages into the air.

“…Damn, he can control dead guys? These mantras really let you do anything,” said Bisco as he put away Jabi’s bow and cracked his neck. Milo rushed over to Raskeni and injected a lurkershroom concoction into her swollen throat.

“…Cough, cough. This technique is a high-level necromancy only Kelshinha can perform. I didn’t think he’d regain the ability so quickly…”

“I don’t know much about this guy,” said Bisco, “but even I could tell he was desperate. He’ll destroy everything in his path. If he has you backed into a corner, you’ve already lost.”

“You’re quite right,” said Raskeni. As Milo finished wrapping up her bandages with a “There, all done!” she gave a self-deprecating smile. When Amli rushed into the room from downstairs, concerned, Raskeni simply smiled at her student and turned to address the boys.

“I’m sorry. Looks like the Water Tower fell sooner than I expected. We’ll have to advance the schedule. We need to secure the other Scriptures before Kelshinha gets his hands on them.”

Bisco nodded. Raskeni glanced at him, then whispered only to Milo, “However, it’s not just me who’s to blame. Your friend’s stomach has given Kelshinha more power than I could have predicted. Without it, he would never have made it this far.”