Sabikui Bisco (Episode 7) - The Stolen Rust Eater

They’ve found the Pipe Snake where the legendary Rust Eater mushroom grows, but it’s massive. Pawoo has just arrived to save Milo from Bisco too, so it’s not about to get any easier.

Sabikui Bisco (Episode 7) – The Stolen Rust Eater

What happened?

The Pipe Snake is monstrous, however, Pawoo doesn’t notice it until it’s too late. It grabs her a couple of its many fingers. Milo is determined to save her and leaps on top of it with Actagawa. They attack freeing Pawoo who is caught by Bisco as she falls. Actagawa tries to jump down, but the Pipe Snake has a tongue mile a chameleon and catches him by the claw. Milo tries to make the Pipe Snake’s tongue numb but it has no impact. There’s only one thing left to do.

Milo shoots through Actagawa’s claw, freeing him from the Pipe Snake’s grasp. However, it swoops in to eat Milo instead. He fights back as he falls, but it’s not enough. Bisco arrives to back him up thanks to Pawoo’s help, but they both are swallowed by the other end of the Pipe Snake. Now, we know why it’s called the Pipe Snake. They attack from within one of its heads and eventually bring the Pipe Snake down.

The mushrooms growing on the Pipe Snake are no different to any other mushroom. Bisco is frustrated and goes to find another Pipe Snake. Milo tries to stop him but can’t hold on. He falls to the ground, placing his hand covered with Bisco’s blood on the mushroom and something happens. Could Mushroom Keeper’s blood hold the key?

Kurokawa arrives with a giant fish blimp and steals the remains of the Pipe Snake. Bisco tries to stop him but is shot with a Rust bullet. Once Kurokawa’s gone and Milo has synthesized the only Rust Eater they had with Bisco’s blood, he gives the medicine to Pawoo who is heading back to Imihama, however, she finds Kurokawa at an outpost and her men have been turned to zombies. He also has Jabi and is planning on using them as bait!

Sabikui Bisco Episode 7 Milo Nekoyanagi determined

What did you think?

So, that fight with the Pipe Snake was great. The sheer size of it made it impossible to be anything else, however, when the second head swooped in and swallowed Milo and Bisco my jaw hit the floor. It looked like they were going to be safe because the head was far away, but the Pipe Snake lives up to its name having a head at both ends and presumably a digestive system that runs from end to end.

We knew Kurokawa was a villain and I’ve said that I think he could be an evil Mushroom Keeper who is using his knowledge and power to shape the world to his thinking. Now that he has the Rust Eater, his influence is only going to grow. I’m assuming he doesn’t know how to activate it though since he clearly sent a message to Milo and Bisco.

To top all of this, it would appear that Kurokawa has the ability to zombify people. Given that this happens in the natural world where a fungi-based parasite takes over an ant’s brain and forces it to march into the higher branches, it’s not entirely unbelievable. I love it when stories take existing elements from the world around us and use them in new and weird ways. Nature really is a crazy beast. You wouldn’t believe half the stuff that goes on out there.