Original subtitles

"Mushi-shi"

Hmm...

So when "Ah", the mushi that eats silence, becomes a parasite,

these horns sprout on its host?

Yes indeed, this is very rare...

And, what's that one?

A sake cup drawn by a young man with a god-like left hand.

What?

His dislike for mushi-shi is well-known.

Come up with a better story than that, Ginko.

Nah...

I don't want to force you to buy it, Dr. Adashino.

This item is too good for the likes of an ordinary collector.

Well, let me have a close look...

I'd be willing to sell it to you... if you'll help me.

On my way here, I ran into something odd...

I want to capture it.

Something odd?

Yes... Have you heard of what became of liquid mushi?

A "living swamp"...

"The Traveling Swamp"

As I was crossing the mountains,

I came across many swamps.

Another swamp...

But every time I went around one and looked back from the mountainside,

the swamp would be completely gone.

Then, after I had crossed the next mountain,

a new swamp would appear.

I wonder if the foxes and badgers are playing tricks on me...

I saw you at the previous swamp, didn't I?

Do you know a shortcut through the mountains or something?

For a moment, I doubted my eyes...

Her hair was so eerily green.

It seemed dyed to its roots by the waters of the swamp.

Uhm...

Is there something beyond here in that direction?

Hmm?

Well, then can I ask you a question, too?

This is no ordinary swamp, is it?

This swamp is... traveling...

as it repeatedly comes up and sinks down below the ground.

Like you, I think it's trying to get beyond these mountains.

Oh? That's incredible. A living swamp?

Then are you moving together with it?

Why?

Anyway, if you go straight ahead, you'll come to the sea.

My destination is the fishing village there.

Once you reach the sea, you won't be able to travel with the swamp.

By the way, I'd like to study the swamp water tomorrow morning.

Be my guest.

It's too dark right now.

Seems like a new type...

I thought you wouldn't believe me when I said the swamp is traveling.

Oh that? Because of my work, I'm open to most phenomena.

Your work?

I'm a mushi-shi.

Mushi-induced phenomena are all strange.

Take the Suiko for example. Liquid mushi.

It's a clear and colorless liquid, but alive.

It prefers living in old water veins,

and sometimes stays in ponds and wells.

If one keeps drinking Suiko, mistakenly thinking it's water,

he becomes unable to breathe without constant contact with water,

and his body begins turning transparent.

If left alone, he turns to liquid and flows away.

As for the mushi itself, it is gone by that time.

There are things like that...

So maybe a traveling swamp could exist, as well... You start to think like that.

What about you? Didn't you think it was creepy?

I...

...never once thought it was frightening...

...since when I saw it for the first time, it was so powerful and solemn...

Powerful... How did it look?

It was swimming...

at the bottom of the raging river...

I was swallowed by the currents and unable to make it to the surface.

Then...

I saw something huge and green...

...calmly rising from the bottom of the current...

When I came to, I was on the shores of the swamp in a mountain valley.

This color...

Then I realized...

...the swamp was actually the green thing that I saw earlier.

By then, my hair had become this color.

I probably had died once...

But the swamp said, "You may live."

That's why this swamp is the only place I feel I belong.

At least...

...wear this when you go.

Think of it as becoming the bride of the water god.

All of us will look after your mother.

So don't worry.

Your name will become legend...

...as the honorable girl who saved our village from the flood...

If one keeps drinking it, his body becomes transparent...

...and eventually flows away.

So it's time to go?

It's going underground...

Hey, you're leaving so soon? Make it wait a little!

Damn, I want to study it!

Thank you for teaching me about many things.

I'm going to become part of this swamp now...

Wait! Hey!

It's gone...

Damn! Why didn't I realize it earlier?

That was what became of the Suiko...

After the Suiko disappeared from the well,

it was traveling...

I'm going to become part of this swamp now...

That fool! Does she realize what that means!?

The swamp said, "You may live."

You...

...wanted to live, didn't you?

The swamp was... heading for the sea, wasn't it?

A swamp heading toward the sea?

Know anything about that?

I've heard something like that from an old fisherman.

He said that, at times, something "green," larger than a whale, comes down the river,

and once it reaches the sea, it dies as if it disintegrated into the water.

He said he never saw it himself,

but he said it's as though it were looking for a place to die...

Anyway, we should hurry...

Judging by the fact that the fishermen aren't making a ruckus,

it hasn't reached the sea, yet.

Here it is!

"Underground Water Veins"

"Underground Water Veins" This is a map of the underground water veins in this area.

This is a map of the underground water veins in this area.

It's a rare item.

It was apparently based on dowsing rod vibrations.

I hope it's reliable.

When test wells were dug, the probability was fifty-fifty.

The locations of the swamps I saw match this water vein.

So Suiko does move along the underground water veins...

But it forks here.

Can't predict which way it's going like this...

Hey Ginko,

I have this map, too.

It's a map of where the rivers may have been tens of thousands of years ago.

Although the nearby river has its estuary in the same place as those times,

it's interesting to see that it ran in quite different places back then.

Look, you...

I don't have time to hear you boasting about your collecti...

Let me see that.

They match... What's it mean?

These water veins were once a river.

When a river becomes no longer a river and gets buried underground,

it often remains as a layer of stones.

Rainwater seeps toward that layer...

When a location where a river used to be is buried underground,

it becomes a river for subterranean water.

Maybe that swamp remembers this old river and is following it...

After deciding where to die?

It's like salmon, or sweetfish.

Anyhow, it should eventually come to this estuary.

If it reaches the sea, there's nothing we can do.

Adashino!

Could you gather some people?

We're putting up a net near the estuary.

Okay! That's it! Pull!

- Right! - Right! - Right!

We appreciate so many of you turning out. You sure it was okay?

No problem. We fishermen have all the time on our hands right now.

There're so few fish these days, you'd think the sea was dead.

And this is a request from you, Dr. Adashino, so...

Being a doctor comes with perks, doesn't it?

No, it's my wonderful personality.

But, Ginko,

you don't know if the girl can still be caught by this net, right?

Right, but it's our only hope.

Why do you want to save her so much?

I suppose you probably have a guilty conscience, but...

If the girl said she wanted desperately to live, I'd understand.

But she wanted to become part of the swamp, right?

That might be her happiness...

Sometimes that's the way it is in this world,

though it sounds cruel...

About that green sake cup...

Huh?

It originally belonged to that young man's grandmother.

Because she was no longer either mushi or human,

her only way to appear before the young man

was to restore that sake cup given to her by mushi.

Although by doing so, she could never return to being human again...

I made her mushi because that was what she wanted.

But I'm not sure if that was for the best.

Becoming mushi is different from a normal death.

Mushi exist between the living and the dead.

They are "living", like people, and inanimate, like objects.

They're dead, but yet alive.

Don't you think that's an unimaginable hell compared to "a moment of death"?

The heart that makes one human is erased little by little.

That was where she was headed...

But when I saw her that final time, she was wearing her finest kimono with care.

There aren't many situations more cruel than that, right?

Nothing's coming...

I just heard something...

It's here!

Wh- what the!?

Slow it down! Don't lose the net!

Don't stab it! There's a woman inside!

What!?

Hang in there!

l- it slipped past...

I saw a person... in a red kimono...

Were we... too late?

Hey! What's up with this huge school of fish!?

Same here!

What the hell is this!?

Ginko, they found the girl. She's alive!

But...

they said she looked like gelatin...

Doctor!

How's the girl?

Looks like the seawater washed out that green stuff...

Well, she's like dough now I guess...

The fish are gathering to feed on the carcass of that green stuff.

The ocean is black with fish!

Let's me take a look at her.

That girl brought a wonderful thing.

Hey!

Can you hear me?

When we reached the sea,

I could tell... the swamp... was dying.

I was so... so terrified of dissolving into the swamp...

But... I was so sad about the swamp dying...

It lived for tens of thousands of years, if not more.

You accompanied it on its final journey.

You were fortunate to have met it.

Yes.

Hi there, Io.

Dr. Adashino...

Oh, looks like another large catch today.

Yes, fish are coming from far away, too.

They grow this big by feeding on the swamp's carcass.

Your hair's jet black now.

Yes, so I can't breathe underwater anymore,

but that's okay.

I want to live independently here by the sea where the swamp died.

Swamps again...

One, two, three, four...

The reason it surfaced as it was moving forward...

...was to leave behind its offspring, I guess...

Swamps are born and eventually become stagnant...

When the world nurtured in their bosom comes to an end,

they put on their own feet...

and begin to move...

"The Traveling Swamp"

"The Traveling Swamp" Those Who Inhale the Dew

"Those Who Inhale the Dew" Those Who Inhale the Dew

"Those Who Inhale the Dew"