Original subtitles

"Mushi-shi"

Say, Fuki...

Yes?

Your contract with us was through next year, right?

Yes...

What are your plans after that? Do you have a job waiting for you back home?

Nothing... yet...

Then... would you...

Uhm... Well, I'll discuss it with you some other time. Oh, there's the first star.

Seijiro-san... What is that?

Where?

There's a string hanging from the sky.

A string?

Where could this string have come from?

"String From The Sky"

There... there... stop crying... We can't go home until you stop.

Look, the sky is filled with stars. Ah, I wonder what happened to that star?

The one with the long tail...

Say, did you really see one?

The long-tailed star? Yes, last night.

Whereabouts?

Around there...

Which way was it headed?

Um... that way. It was zigzagging as it blinked on and off...

I wonder if such a comet exits... But if it did, it'd be a great discovery...

All right, I'm definitely going to find it. Your name was Fuki, right? Well done!

In the end... I never found such a star.

Fuki came to us to care for my fretful youngest sister.

Because she would sometimes say such mysterious things,

some people in the village looked upon Fuki with disdain.

Fuki!

Fuki!

Ah, Master, she's not around here, either.

We've looked enough. She must've grown tired of babysitting and ran off.

That ingrate.

Father, Fuki would never abandon her responsibility.

She attempted to grasp a string on the riverbank

and then disappeared right before my eyes.

Master Seijiro, if you want to help her,

you really should come up with a better excuse for her...

It's the truth...

Fuki...

Where in heaven's name have you gone?

Hm?

What's going on?

Huh?

Where am I?

Who is this person?

Why am I... walking with him in the mountains?

Here, drink this.

Drink it and get better quickly. I can't be looking after you forever.

You want to return to the way you were, don't you?

The way I was?

You don't remember anything?

That's going to be a problem.

You've been affected by a powerful mushi influence

and have become extremely ambiguous.

Other people probably can't even see you.

That white string growing out of your hand...

Touching it was probably the cause.

Left as-is, you'll drift farther and farther away from being a human...

Are you... trying to help me?

Well... I'm just doing what I want to do.

Oh... well, you'll just have to bear it.

Yes. Your color is looking a little better...

- Really? - Come on, let's go.

Where are we going?

We'll look for a village.

You'll recover faster if you're around people.

If your memory doesn't come back,

stay at a nearby village for the time being.

Now, which way should we go?

There's something glowing inside the ground...

Yes... In your current condition, you can probably see it very well...

It seems that we're on the path of the light vein.

What is it that's glowing?

It's called Kouki.

Schools of embryonic mushi swimming together...

Mushi... you mean those tiny things that lay quietly in the shadows

or float about in the air?

That's right.

I see... They're lovely...

Don't stare at them so much.

That glow is poison to the eyes...

If you become too accustomed to it, you'll become unable to see sunlight.

There's a river of light in the sky, as well.

Even at night, it glows by the light of the sun.

Look at that river instead.

Wow... you're right...

It's as though I were looking at a reflection.

They're similar, but not the same.

Make sure you don't look at the wrong one by mistake.

I slept well...

The little mistress didn't cry last night...

Thank goodness...

What's wrong?

I... I have to go back...

Your memory returned?

It's over there... My village is at the foot of that mountain.

You're... Fuki, aren't you? The one who disappeared...

Oh, it is...

- It's Fuki! - Where have you been?

In the mountains all this time...

We all searched the mountains thoroughly. Where were you hiding?

I wasn't hiding...

When I pulled a string dangling from the sky on the riverbank,

everything around me went black.

When I came to, I was in the mountains...

There you go with that nonsense again...

Did you run away but come back because you were frightened?

But it's too late now...

Master already hired someone to replace you.

Oh no...

Fuki!

Seijiro-san!

You're all right!

Yes!

Are you hurt?

I'm fine... That man helped me...

How can I thank you? Please come to my place...

Let's go home, Fuki.

But... you already have a replacement...

I can't go back.

Then come back as my bride.

I was determined to ask you when you came back...

Is that okay?

That's absurd! I won't allow it!

I'm sorry to keep you waiting...

Don't you have to go talk to him? Sounded like you two were arguing.

It's okay. I didn't expect him to approve right away.

So, what did you want to talk to me about?

I want to hear how Fuki disappeared.

I don't know if you'll believe me...

That day, Fuki said she saw a string dangling from the sky

and motioned as though she were grasping at the sky.

In that instant...

Fuki whisked upwards into the sky...

...and disappeared into the sky.

No one believes me...

Until I saw it happen, even I thought that the things Fuki claimed to see

were just figments of her imagination...

I see... That's Tenpengusa...

What?

They're mushi that live high up in the sky.

Mushi?

Yes.

Born from yin, they gather at the border with yang.

Fuki described them as tiny things

that lay quietly in the shadows or float about in the air...

Few people can see them, but they exist in every corner of our world.

You can see what Fuki sees?

Well, I make my living from them.

I... envy you...

Fuki is a lucky woman... But watch out for her.

She still is not completely free of the mushi's influence...

Tenpengusa normally appear as balloon-like objects with a tail

and move about in the skies above special ground

called the path of the light vein.

They live by feeding on feebly luminescent mushi in the air.

So, at night, they also appear like stars weaving through the sky.

That's why they're also known as wayward stars.

That way... It was zigzagging as it blinked on and off...

This rarely happens, but when there isn't enough food in the sky,

they extend their tentacles down near the ground like dropping a fishing line.

It looks like a string.

When an animal makes contact, it reels the animal skyward,

but then spits it out high in the sky because it is unable to swallow it...

Most times, the prey falls to the ground and dies,

but Fuki was fortunate to get caught in a tree, so she survived.

But perhaps because she was partially swallowed,

Fuki became greatly affected by the mushi.

That was why you couldn't find her when you searched the mountains.

Fuki had turned into something human eyes could not see...

This medicine has helped her recover considerably,

but she's still not completely cured.

She's still connected to the sky by the string on her hand

and remains in an unstable condition.

So if things go wrong, she'll have a relapse.

Fuki requires more than just this medicine to return to being human again.

She also needs to feel that she wants to remain a human being.

You must make her feel that way.

Well, maybe it's none of my business...

I'll take your words to heart...

Why not stay a bit longer?

I can't stay any longer than I already have.

Well, we'll be holding our wedding in the near future for sure...

Please be sure to attend.

Hmm? You don't have to bother.

But we owe you our thanks for everything, Ginko-san...

Okay then, I'll drop by again.

However...

I later received a letter...

It said Fuki had disappeared once again.

What in the world happened?

Ginko-san...

My old man just wouldn't give us his blessings.

Day after day, I tried to change his mind...

And Fuki felt miserable the entire time.

As that went on, Fuki's body gradually became lighter.

So light that the breeze would send her floating up into the air.

And as the days went by, she became unable to stay on the ground.

Fuki, please come on down.

I don't know how to come down...

I've almost got Father convinced, but if he sees you like this...

I'm sorry... My body floats up by itself...

Okay, stay right there. You have to take your medicine as well.

Okay...

But then one day...

Fuki!

Fuki?!

I've looked everywhere, but...

I thought I told you... that you had to keep her tie to this world.

I did try. I tried to get others to accept Fuki.

But with her the way she was...

More than anyone else...

you are unable to accept Fuki.

Because you rejected her, she became unable to maintain human form.

Unable to... maintain?

You can't see her, but Fuki is still here...

That's ridiculous!

If you don't want to lose Fuki, accept who she is.

You say to accept her...

But how, when I can't even see or touch her?

You're the only one who can save her.

You're probably the reason why she's barely still around here even now...

What... what should I do... Fuki?

Master Seijiro... Why do you always gaze at the stars?

Hmm... I wonder myself...

Even when unpleasant things happen during the day,

the stars never fail to appear at night...

When I see that, I feel calm for some reason...

Me, too... When I feel sad because the little mistress won't stop crying...

I take my mind off of it by counting the stars.

So when dawn's light appears, I somehow feel lonely...

The number of stars gets smaller and smaller...

Before you know it, there isn't a single one left.

Where do they all go during the daytime?

You're so silly, Fuki... The stars are still there in the sky even during the day.

Really?

Yes. The sunlight is too strong for us to see them,

but they're actually still up in the sky.

So they don't go anywhere...

...even if we can't see them...

...they're still up in the sky...

Fuki...

They said it was the strangest of sights...

A wedding was hastily held without the bride being present.

- Despite that... - Now, Fuki, it's your turn to drink.

...the groom behaved as though his bride were there...

Maybe this way is better...

Seeing him act that way, people whispered that the groom, too, had lost his mind...

In time, he took up his residence alone on the outskirts of the village.

As always, he conversed with his wife who wasn't there...

Eventually, the villagers stopped coming around.

But as time passed...

Seijiro-san...

Oh? Isn't that...

That's Fuki. When did she come back?

People began to see Fuki.

They say that ever since then,

Fuki's habit of disappearing never returned.

"String From The Sky"

"String From The Sky" "A Sea Of Writings"

"A Sea Of Writings" "A Sea Of Writings"

"A Sea Of Writings"