There's no way I can pinpoint Gotou
from the sound of his breathing alone, when it's pitch dark.
I have no chance of winning.
Strangely enough, all my emotions...
My will to live, my fear of death, anger and grief...
They're all numb.
But I'm heading straight back there,
as if something urges me along.
Right now, what's motivating me isn't courage,
nor any sense of duty telling me to fight as a champion of the human race.
It's just that by tomorrow,
I may have to witness even more deaths
caused by the monster I brought with me.
It's about time my turn came.
It's not right that I've managed to stay alive for so long.
I should try to finish this,
even if it might mean certain death.
I don't care anymore.
I'm tired.
I guess I'm trying to escape reality,
but why do I feel optimistic?
I don't even know why, myself.
I just feel like things might somehow work out, if I just go.
I know it'll never work that way, but...
What a strange feeling.
My senses are razor sharp.
And then, I found him.
Parasyte
The Maxim
Life and Oath
Is he asleep?
I guess even they sleep.
Migi slept often, too.
That's right.
I should've just attacked him when he was asleep.
Because I'm not a parasite...
Because Migi's gone, I could get this close without him noticing me.
Maybe this is why I've been feeling like things would work out somehow.
No, there's one more reason.
Migi...
Could you be alive in his body?
If I call out to you now, will you answer me?
Migi!
No way!
I know that's too good to be true.
Shit!
It didn't work!
Where are you?!
Show yourself!
A mere human dares to challenge me?
That's right...
Yeah, I'll fight you!
I know I can't possibly win,
but I can at least do some damage.
I'll make him bleed!
Even if I can't win in terms of power or speed, I have keener senses.
I can fight him!
As long as I have a plan, I can fight him!
What should I do?
How can I hurt him?
Tell me how, Migi!
Give some thought to as many things, as many ideas, as you can come up with.
Don't give up, no matter what,
and be flexible.
That's right.
Don't give up!
Think!
The back of his neck...
Yes! When he's controlling the rest of his body,
that should be his weak spot.
Even if I can't win, I can hurt him.
Deal as deep a blow as possible...
Deep?
The organs most vital to him are packed in his torso.
I don't know where the chinks in his armor would be if struck from the side,
but if I strike downwards...
His digestive tract forms an opening from his neck down to the organs in his torso.
If I put all of my weight behind this weapon and strike...
The angle of attack is critical.
Now!
The cleaver's still lodged there?!
It's in the way!
Brat...
Last time, you scurried away like a lizard that had lost its tail.
Are you trying to pick up the fight where we left off?
What do you think a lone human can do?
Monster...
That appearance suits you a lot better than a human face did!
Here, there's no need for me to look human.
I'd decided to stay here a while, since the air is clean and I feel great,
but I've been a bit bored.
I would welcome a fight,
but when you're the only opponent...
Migi!
Hey, Migi!
Are you in there?!
You're talking about your right hand?
Sorry to disappoint you. There's only me.
Damn you!
How...
How dare you kill Migi?!
I don't understand the way you fight at all.
This little tool, for one.
I've seen humans engage in fistfights, but...
That wouldn't...
What is this place?!
The trash heap I saw the other day?
This is where I'm going to die?
How disappointing.
I couldn't even call this a fight.
It could've been more interesting if I were fighting Tamura Reiko, who created me,
but she's apparently dead.
Do you know anything about that?
T-Tamura Reiko?
He is indeed one of our "fragile" kind that I created through experimentation,
but he is invincible.
Fragile?
How is he fragile if he's invincible?
Well, no matter.
Die and become one with the trash around you.
...to as many things...
There's no time to think!
Don't give up...
I have only seconds left, if any!
I'm going to die!
It's okay.
I should've died back then...
Back then...
Let's finish this later.
There is too much interference,
and I am rather tired today.
We can't lose.
That blood...
What was that blood?
Could that have been the chink in his armor?
Should I try to pierce that gap with this?
No way.
Not with a stick like this.
Would I even manage, given Gotou's speed?
The second I try to get up, Gotou will attack, ripping me to shreds.
I have next to no chance at all!
But if I don't try,
I definitely won't have a chance!
It went in!
I did it!
Damn human...
You'll pay for this!
He's here!
But I'm at my limit...
I can't run from him.
But I did pretty good.
It may not amount to much damage,
but I did land a hit.
How did you know where the gap in my armor was?
I saw blood there before!
That's all you had to go on?
But you bet everything on that...
Fine. I applaud your effort.
But I can't stand the thought that a lone human managed to hurt me!
Die!
I guess this is really the end, then.
Who's that? Miki?
Don't resist me! We can discuss this later!
What is he doing?
If you're going to kill me, get it over with already.
I don't want to suffer for too long.
The strike will enter through my right shoulder
and exit my left side.
I'll die instantly.
Migi?!
Hey.
M-Migi?
Impossible...
Why do you defy me?
What's going on?
Silence!
Shinichi...
Migi...
Quite an impressive power struggle.
I will kill you both, right now!
Give it up!
I tore up several vital organs on my way back here.
You'll have to repair them before you can fight.
Damn you...
What's going on?
A rebellion.
The parasitic cells that don't belong to the main leader
have instinctively sensed a threat to themselves and wish to flee.
There's a tremendous power struggle going on between the "head" and the "rest."
But why now?
It was you, wasn't it?
You drove toxins deep into his body.
Toxins?
Poison!
Silence!
You'll pay...
You'll pay for this!
How dare you?!
What fury.
The underlying source of his anger
does not exist within me, since I never took control of a brain.
It is the drive to devour the human species.
That emotion was amassed and amplified
until a bloodthirsty, war-crazed machine was created.
But even that is now...
A single cut in the taut rope being pulled in the struggle
was enough to make his entire body explode.
Until toxins were lodged deep within his body,
he was one complete organism.
The dominion of his head was absolute,
allowing him to instantaneously put other parasites to sleep and control them.
Were you his slave, too?
Well, it was actually very pleasant.
Though asleep,
it was as though there was a constant flow of information streaming through my mind.
And it felt wonderful.
I didn't think I'd mind staying a part of this invincible life form, Gotou, forever.
Do you know how sad I was,
thinking you were dead?
I see.
This is where you picked up the stick you stabbed him with?
Yeah, but what's this toxin you're talking about?
There's burnt trash...
I am not entirely certain,
but it could've contained hydrogen cyanide
from the combustion of acrylic products.
That's toxic?
Lethally so.
I can't believe they'd just dump something like that here.
But that's why you won, right?
In other words,
no one can win against humans.
Shinichi!
Go back to where we were!
This is unexpected...
Gotou is trying to revive himself.
What?!
Look!
The earlier explosion expelled the toxin from his body.
The head's desperately trying to call the others back together.
But since they were scattered in such small fragments, the response is slow.
The possibility of regeneration is 50-50.
And if he succeeds?
Nothing will change.
He might be somewhat less powerful,
but as long as he stays alive, he'll want to kill.
Then we have to kill him.
Yeah...
Migi?
I changed my mind.
From my perspective, he's one of my own kind,
even one I temporarily shared the same host with.
If I were to kill him,
from a human perspective, it'd amount to murder.
I'll let you handle it.
You can finish him, if you use that cleaver to destroy his exposed organs.
Y-You want me to do it?
Do what you want.
If you don't, we can just run far away while we have the chance.
But that would mean more people will die.
You're right.
Then what's there to think about?
It's kind of pitiful.
We are fragile.
We are merely a life form that cannot survive on its own.
So don't bully us.
But what can I do?
Why were they born?
To kill humans now that there are too many of us?
To decrease our numbers after we've polluted the Earth?
I know the toxins we produce are driving other species close to extinction.
This is proof of that.
Gotou was so powerful,
yet look how easily toxins on a stick brought him down...
We are two halves of the same whole.
We and humans are one family.
So from the ecosystem's perspective,
we're the poison, and they're the cure?
Who decides that?
Who decides the relative value of human and non-human lives?
Hurry up and decide.
We can't hang around forever.
I don't want to kill him.
To end a life that's trying so hard to survive...
That's right, I don't want to kill!
Isn't that unwillingness to kill
the last remaining treasure left in humanity?
What's the matter?
I changed my mind.
You might think that strange,
given all we went through to fight him,
but if his chances of survival are 50-50,
the powers that be should decide, not me.
He's not human.
I don't want to impose human values on him.
I see.
If that's your decision, that's fine by me.
Let's go, then.
I might be about to commit an irredeemable sin as a human being,
but can I say that an organism has no right to live just because it's harmful?
Even if it is not beneficial to humans,
to Earth, it may actually be...
Shinichi, do you believe Earth is beautiful?
I don't know.
I despise humans who brazenly say
they're doing something "for Earth."
After all, Earth has no emotion.
The first life on Earth was apparently born
in a boiling hot pool of hydrogen sulfide.
Let the powers that be decide,
huh...
I'm just one human being.
I can only hope to protect my own small family.
I'm sorry.
You aren't at fault.
But... Sorry.
What is it?
What happened?
The monster!
They found the monster's corpse!
What?!
Its corpse?!
Did you do it, Shinichi?
Let's go home.
Next time:
Parasyte
"Parasyte."