Mushi-Shi (2005–2006): Season 1, Episode 21 - The Cotton Spore - full transcript
Ginko must urge the parents of shapeless mass taking on the form of a human child to put an end to its short life.
When I was to be wed, I passed
through the forest to the north.
I think... it was probably then
that it had attached itself to me.
Without my noticing... there was a
small green stain upon my headwear.
It wasn't until after the
ceremony that I noticed it...
1 thought it was quite ominous.
The following year,
I bore my first child...
This is him, our eldest son, Watahiko.
Since these spots appeared,
he has continued to grow weaker...
and whenever I see them,
I remember that stain.
IF... 1 am mistaken, please forgive me...
Did this child have a
human shape when he was born?
No.
He was not even a beast.
Not even three months had passed...
I never thought ll would be
invited back to that house again.
Ginko!
Thank you for coming.
I read your letter. Is there still time?
Yes... Let's hurry, to the house.
I'm sorry. I was going to...
do as you told us, but...
No, that's fine.
Thanks for letting me know.
But, to be honest, I never thought
it would come to this so soon.
Yeah...
He has been growing
disturbingly quickly lately!
Did this child have a human
shape when he was born?
Aki... are you all right?
I'll explain the rest.
Yes, he was not even a beast.
He didn't even give a cry.
He was a strange green mass.
Aki!
It's getting away!
Damn it.
Before we knew it, it had slipped
below the house... and disappeared.
My wife desperately wanted a child but...
thinking it to be impossible now,
spent her days shut inside the house.
Then... a year later...
What's that sound? Is it coming
from beneath the house?
I wonder if someone abandoned him?
No. He is that child... our child.
He does look a lot like Aki...
He's grown to be a human since then.
Il was afraid deep down,
but ll decided to believe that it was so.
That child... Watahiko grew fast.
He liked to eat fresh
small fish and fruits from trees,
and in a little over half a year, he grew
to be the size of a three-year-old child.
However... his mind was
that of an infant.
He didn't show any feelings
or utter any words.
Despite that, with his face
increasingly resembling our own,
I, too, became attached.
Then, one night...
A cat? How noisy...
Shoo... shoo...
Yet another child was under our house.
Why, he looks like Watahiko in every way.
We should raise him in the same way.
I wonder if we'll have more.
Don't say scary things like that.
That premonition was proved correct.
Watahiko continued to multiply,
sprouting up every half a year.
No matter how many times I dug up
the ground beneath the house,
I could never find anything strange.
Then... from the beginning of this year,
our eldest son's health
began to deteriorate.
He would sleep most of the day...
and his green eruptions would increase.
Doctors threw in the towel...
Then, I heard about people like yourself...
Unfortunately... even we, mushi-shi,
have no way to save this child.
He's reached the end of his lifespan.
There is a mushi called Watahaki.
It has a green form that looks
like cotton and floats in the air.
It enters the body of a pregnant woman
and becomes parasitic upon the ovum.
When it's born,
it's in the form of slime,
and quickly escapes below
the floors or into the ceiling.
After a year, it sends a hitotake
in the shape of a baby to its parents...
That and the rate of his multiplying
exactly match the records of it.
However, just to be sure,
would it be all right to take
a look beneath your house?
No thanks, I don't need any lighting...
It's here, and it's grown quite large.
There's no mistake. It's a Watahaki.
That can't be! There's nothing there!
Take a good look at
this soil in the sunlight.
The hitotake are connected
to the main body of this mushi
by thread-like things.
They're all nothing more
than a part of the mushi
to send the main body nourishment.
No...
That child will soon
end his purpose, and will die.
At the moment he dies,
he will cough up a lot of seeds.
Before that happens, we must kill him.
--Wha...
--What're you saying?!
Why do you think we called you here?
That child... please save him from
that mushi or whatever it's called.
There is no longer
any "child" I can save.
Those “children” are mushi
wearing the skin of your child.
And they are the very ones who killed
your child who was supposed to be born.
Please... understand.
I'm sorry. It's... all right to hate me.
Thanks for persuading your wife.
She still won't talk to me, though...
We raised him for more than three years...
It can't be helped.
But she wants to keep the
other children with us at any cost.
I'm begging you, too.
Please leave them alone.
Until they show symptoms,
they're of no harm.
In exchange... I'll be sure
to kill the second eldest
and the next born
before they cough up seeds...
The lifespan of a Watahaki
spans anywhere from ten to thirty years.
I cannot tell how many
mote years it will continue
or how many more "children”
you'll have to kill.
Even still, are you okay with that?
Yes... I promise!
You told me that you were afraid of them.
And yet you're saying
you wish to raise them?
I just don't want to make my wife sad.
Aki calls the remaining four
Watahiko and adores them.
If we lose all of them,
1 don't know what will happen.
Long ago, she married into the
family of a prominent merchant
from a town beyond the mountains.
There, she gave birth to the awaited heir,
but before he was even a year old,
it seems he died of something trivial.
That was why they got divorced.
Why, why must these cruel things
happen to her...
Until now, it seems that
"Watahaki children”
were all immediately killed as soon
as it was understood what they were.
This dried up the Watahaki
down to their roots.
There's no record of
letting its offspring live,
since they will become dangerous later on.
We cannot say for sure that they
will not pose a threat in the future.
B-but...
Then again...
they may not.
Exterminating the ones I'm not sure of
is brash and I don't like it.
I have reasons I can't
continue to keep watch here,
but ll will return in three months
to see how things are.
If anything happens,
send me a letter to that address.
Yes. I'm indebted to you.
The letter arrived before
even three months had passed.
There... He came. It's him.
We're going to be killed.
It'll be all right. Don't worry.
Hm? Watahiko?
He's coming.
Yes... It seems my wife has consented.
We're raising something unnatural.
We must at least follow our agreement.
Aki, Ginko has arrived.
Thank you for coming.
Sure.
Ginko, this way.
Okay.
Ow...
Ginko?
Ginko!
--You've come to.
--Owowowowow...
You should stay in bed...
Darn... I want to go home...
I really have no way to make up for this.
I'll keep her in the sleeping room
until everything is over.
Yeah... please do that.
1 thought... she'd understood.
It seems that the situation
has changed quite a bit.
Yes. I was going to tell you sooner,
but those children...
it's not only that
their growth has sped up.
One time, my fourth son
was peeling a chestnut,
which is something I taught
only to my second son.
Although my second son finally
learned it after much effort,
my fourth son might've learned it
by watching him do it...
It seemed that they were
gradually getting smarter.
My, you've gotten soaked
by the rain haven't you?
I'll get you a change of clothes, okay?
Daddy...
Hm?
Daddy... I'm hungry.
Aki... He... He talked!
I see! I see! I'll get
you something right away.
Then our second son began
to show those symptoms.
It's still too early...
It was just recently that
this happened to our eldest...
We have to do this.
This... is our duty.
Daddy, I'm afraid of dying.
Don't kill me... Save me...
I still want to live.
It's already become like a person.
Even though they're responsible for
our child's death, we can no longer...
How can this be?
It's now gained the ability to think.
No, it's always had this function.
Could it be that it sensed danger
because of the eldest son's death?
Not only that, but the information gained
by one is circulated among all of them.
Each one is part of the main body and
connected to the others at the base.
They all receive information
for five people at once.
They learn quickly.
But... they're "human-like things"?
No.
What lives within them...
is a fungus that thinks.
We've failed. We're going to be killed.
We're going to be killed.
We have to protect the seeds.
I think there was a way...
We've forgotten. We've forgotten.
When we learned how to speak,
we lost our memory of...
how to... how to protect our seeds...
How do you feel?
Yeah... well, ll can somehow get up.
I see... thank goodness.
Your second son is in the back room, right?
Yes.
I'll go take care of him.
Afterwards, I'm going to remove the roots
and take the remaining children with me.
I can no longer leave them with you.
Save me, don't kill me.
I don't want to die.
It's useless.
Why must you kill us?
Because you eat human children.
It's not our fault.
It's not our fault either...
but we're stronger.
That's why you are going
to die without leaving seeds.
I see... well then...
It can't be helped...
Let's do it... Let's do it...
Are they trying to burn the house
along with the roots under the house?!
1 get it, could it be that you...
It was written in the scrolls
that you brought.
Normally, we'd be able
to do this unconsciously.
This is the only way
to protect our seeds.
We win.
Ginko!
Don't come this way. Get out!
Watahiko! Where are they?!
They're the ones who set the fire!
Get out of the way!
They'll do anything for their seeds!
That's the kind of mushi they are!
They're already my children!
Aki!
Watahiko... Watahiko!
Watahiko...
Watahiko...
The roots have completely disappeared.
Hm?
When a Watahaki plunges
into a crisis, such as a disaster,
it cuts its hitotake off from its roots and
tries to at least let the seeds escape.
The hitotake change their form
and go into a long hibernation.
Is this... it?
1 don't know when they'll be reborn...
It could be after you both pass away.
Whatever the case, until that time comes,
I'll leave it with both of you.
I understand.
We'll always carry it with us...
What did you give them?
A mineral. It was part of
my livelihood's provisions.
A complete loss...
Why did you do that?
You sure are a mysterious creature.
Look who's talking.
Weren't you supposed to hibernate?
That's what all the records
said you would do.
I don't care, I'm not tired.
What about you? Why aren't you killing me
now while you have the chance?
Because the end of your life
hasn't come yet.
What a mysterious creature you are...
That's enough. Go to sleep already.
"Shrine In The Sea."
-
through the forest to the north.
I think... it was probably then
that it had attached itself to me.
Without my noticing... there was a
small green stain upon my headwear.
It wasn't until after the
ceremony that I noticed it...
1 thought it was quite ominous.
The following year,
I bore my first child...
This is him, our eldest son, Watahiko.
Since these spots appeared,
he has continued to grow weaker...
and whenever I see them,
I remember that stain.
IF... 1 am mistaken, please forgive me...
Did this child have a
human shape when he was born?
No.
He was not even a beast.
Not even three months had passed...
I never thought ll would be
invited back to that house again.
Ginko!
Thank you for coming.
I read your letter. Is there still time?
Yes... Let's hurry, to the house.
I'm sorry. I was going to...
do as you told us, but...
No, that's fine.
Thanks for letting me know.
But, to be honest, I never thought
it would come to this so soon.
Yeah...
He has been growing
disturbingly quickly lately!
Did this child have a human
shape when he was born?
Aki... are you all right?
I'll explain the rest.
Yes, he was not even a beast.
He didn't even give a cry.
He was a strange green mass.
Aki!
It's getting away!
Damn it.
Before we knew it, it had slipped
below the house... and disappeared.
My wife desperately wanted a child but...
thinking it to be impossible now,
spent her days shut inside the house.
Then... a year later...
What's that sound? Is it coming
from beneath the house?
I wonder if someone abandoned him?
No. He is that child... our child.
He does look a lot like Aki...
He's grown to be a human since then.
Il was afraid deep down,
but ll decided to believe that it was so.
That child... Watahiko grew fast.
He liked to eat fresh
small fish and fruits from trees,
and in a little over half a year, he grew
to be the size of a three-year-old child.
However... his mind was
that of an infant.
He didn't show any feelings
or utter any words.
Despite that, with his face
increasingly resembling our own,
I, too, became attached.
Then, one night...
A cat? How noisy...
Shoo... shoo...
Yet another child was under our house.
Why, he looks like Watahiko in every way.
We should raise him in the same way.
I wonder if we'll have more.
Don't say scary things like that.
That premonition was proved correct.
Watahiko continued to multiply,
sprouting up every half a year.
No matter how many times I dug up
the ground beneath the house,
I could never find anything strange.
Then... from the beginning of this year,
our eldest son's health
began to deteriorate.
He would sleep most of the day...
and his green eruptions would increase.
Doctors threw in the towel...
Then, I heard about people like yourself...
Unfortunately... even we, mushi-shi,
have no way to save this child.
He's reached the end of his lifespan.
There is a mushi called Watahaki.
It has a green form that looks
like cotton and floats in the air.
It enters the body of a pregnant woman
and becomes parasitic upon the ovum.
When it's born,
it's in the form of slime,
and quickly escapes below
the floors or into the ceiling.
After a year, it sends a hitotake
in the shape of a baby to its parents...
That and the rate of his multiplying
exactly match the records of it.
However, just to be sure,
would it be all right to take
a look beneath your house?
No thanks, I don't need any lighting...
It's here, and it's grown quite large.
There's no mistake. It's a Watahaki.
That can't be! There's nothing there!
Take a good look at
this soil in the sunlight.
The hitotake are connected
to the main body of this mushi
by thread-like things.
They're all nothing more
than a part of the mushi
to send the main body nourishment.
No...
That child will soon
end his purpose, and will die.
At the moment he dies,
he will cough up a lot of seeds.
Before that happens, we must kill him.
--Wha...
--What're you saying?!
Why do you think we called you here?
That child... please save him from
that mushi or whatever it's called.
There is no longer
any "child" I can save.
Those “children” are mushi
wearing the skin of your child.
And they are the very ones who killed
your child who was supposed to be born.
Please... understand.
I'm sorry. It's... all right to hate me.
Thanks for persuading your wife.
She still won't talk to me, though...
We raised him for more than three years...
It can't be helped.
But she wants to keep the
other children with us at any cost.
I'm begging you, too.
Please leave them alone.
Until they show symptoms,
they're of no harm.
In exchange... I'll be sure
to kill the second eldest
and the next born
before they cough up seeds...
The lifespan of a Watahaki
spans anywhere from ten to thirty years.
I cannot tell how many
mote years it will continue
or how many more "children”
you'll have to kill.
Even still, are you okay with that?
Yes... I promise!
You told me that you were afraid of them.
And yet you're saying
you wish to raise them?
I just don't want to make my wife sad.
Aki calls the remaining four
Watahiko and adores them.
If we lose all of them,
1 don't know what will happen.
Long ago, she married into the
family of a prominent merchant
from a town beyond the mountains.
There, she gave birth to the awaited heir,
but before he was even a year old,
it seems he died of something trivial.
That was why they got divorced.
Why, why must these cruel things
happen to her...
Until now, it seems that
"Watahaki children”
were all immediately killed as soon
as it was understood what they were.
This dried up the Watahaki
down to their roots.
There's no record of
letting its offspring live,
since they will become dangerous later on.
We cannot say for sure that they
will not pose a threat in the future.
B-but...
Then again...
they may not.
Exterminating the ones I'm not sure of
is brash and I don't like it.
I have reasons I can't
continue to keep watch here,
but ll will return in three months
to see how things are.
If anything happens,
send me a letter to that address.
Yes. I'm indebted to you.
The letter arrived before
even three months had passed.
There... He came. It's him.
We're going to be killed.
It'll be all right. Don't worry.
Hm? Watahiko?
He's coming.
Yes... It seems my wife has consented.
We're raising something unnatural.
We must at least follow our agreement.
Aki, Ginko has arrived.
Thank you for coming.
Sure.
Ginko, this way.
Okay.
Ow...
Ginko?
Ginko!
--You've come to.
--Owowowowow...
You should stay in bed...
Darn... I want to go home...
I really have no way to make up for this.
I'll keep her in the sleeping room
until everything is over.
Yeah... please do that.
1 thought... she'd understood.
It seems that the situation
has changed quite a bit.
Yes. I was going to tell you sooner,
but those children...
it's not only that
their growth has sped up.
One time, my fourth son
was peeling a chestnut,
which is something I taught
only to my second son.
Although my second son finally
learned it after much effort,
my fourth son might've learned it
by watching him do it...
It seemed that they were
gradually getting smarter.
My, you've gotten soaked
by the rain haven't you?
I'll get you a change of clothes, okay?
Daddy...
Hm?
Daddy... I'm hungry.
Aki... He... He talked!
I see! I see! I'll get
you something right away.
Then our second son began
to show those symptoms.
It's still too early...
It was just recently that
this happened to our eldest...
We have to do this.
This... is our duty.
Daddy, I'm afraid of dying.
Don't kill me... Save me...
I still want to live.
It's already become like a person.
Even though they're responsible for
our child's death, we can no longer...
How can this be?
It's now gained the ability to think.
No, it's always had this function.
Could it be that it sensed danger
because of the eldest son's death?
Not only that, but the information gained
by one is circulated among all of them.
Each one is part of the main body and
connected to the others at the base.
They all receive information
for five people at once.
They learn quickly.
But... they're "human-like things"?
No.
What lives within them...
is a fungus that thinks.
We've failed. We're going to be killed.
We're going to be killed.
We have to protect the seeds.
I think there was a way...
We've forgotten. We've forgotten.
When we learned how to speak,
we lost our memory of...
how to... how to protect our seeds...
How do you feel?
Yeah... well, ll can somehow get up.
I see... thank goodness.
Your second son is in the back room, right?
Yes.
I'll go take care of him.
Afterwards, I'm going to remove the roots
and take the remaining children with me.
I can no longer leave them with you.
Save me, don't kill me.
I don't want to die.
It's useless.
Why must you kill us?
Because you eat human children.
It's not our fault.
It's not our fault either...
but we're stronger.
That's why you are going
to die without leaving seeds.
I see... well then...
It can't be helped...
Let's do it... Let's do it...
Are they trying to burn the house
along with the roots under the house?!
1 get it, could it be that you...
It was written in the scrolls
that you brought.
Normally, we'd be able
to do this unconsciously.
This is the only way
to protect our seeds.
We win.
Ginko!
Don't come this way. Get out!
Watahiko! Where are they?!
They're the ones who set the fire!
Get out of the way!
They'll do anything for their seeds!
That's the kind of mushi they are!
They're already my children!
Aki!
Watahiko... Watahiko!
Watahiko...
Watahiko...
The roots have completely disappeared.
Hm?
When a Watahaki plunges
into a crisis, such as a disaster,
it cuts its hitotake off from its roots and
tries to at least let the seeds escape.
The hitotake change their form
and go into a long hibernation.
Is this... it?
1 don't know when they'll be reborn...
It could be after you both pass away.
Whatever the case, until that time comes,
I'll leave it with both of you.
I understand.
We'll always carry it with us...
What did you give them?
A mineral. It was part of
my livelihood's provisions.
A complete loss...
Why did you do that?
You sure are a mysterious creature.
Look who's talking.
Weren't you supposed to hibernate?
That's what all the records
said you would do.
I don't care, I'm not tired.
What about you? Why aren't you killing me
now while you have the chance?
Because the end of your life
hasn't come yet.
What a mysterious creature you are...
That's enough. Go to sleep already.
"Shrine In The Sea."
-