A mysterious entity sent to this world...
Fushi, a being with eternal life.
The emotions, pain, and deaths of those he meets cause Fushi to grow,
and to acquire.
Fushi's travels continue.
I can only hope that his travels are to his own benefit.
Infatuation Reborn
Good.
Thanks.
It's still fresh!
Come get a look up close!
Hey.
What's that?
What's wrong?
Run!
Dad!
Hurry!
Hey, how long has it been since I came to this island?
Almost forty years.
What the hell have I been doing all these years?
You are tasked with preserving all of creation.
I get that.
But how long do I have to keep it up?
Let's say, when you're able to replicate that ocean, you're complete.
Is this not good enough?
You need awareness.
Awareness that it belongs to you.
It'll be another thousand years.
Are you lonely?
I'm bored.
Why not go back in the water and play with your buddies in the sea?
Quit it.
That was a horrible experience.
I can't even eat fish anymore.
That was another time I tried to fight back against it.
No...
What is your dream, Fushi?
Do what you want to do, like I did!
So I'm not going to see anyone anymore.
That was what I decided to do.
That I would live my life as a crab.
Fantastic.
I see that you're trying to obtain things that you couldn't in human form.
What the heck is this?!
Why?!
That species had no eyesight.
My memory after that becomes hazy.
I took on all sorts of forms.
The black thing tells me I traveled the ocean for about two years.
I've been buddies with this guy the whole time.
It's nice to me, even though I can't see well.
Once I quit being human, I didn't have to think too hard about anything.
I'd just picture the foods and scents that I liked,
and I'd occasionally have to be alert.
That was it.
But if this guy died, I'd be lonely again.
And just as I was thinking that...
It abandoned me.
The Nokkers are here.
I immediately remembered Pioran and the others again.
I remembered that I couldn't defeat my enemies, the Nokkers, by myself.
These exploding arrows are useful!
There are still more Nokkers!
Longer bows seem to work better with Uroy's body.
I'd suddenly be wracked with guilt.
I hated living my life on top of everyone's deaths.
At the same time, I didn't want to lose everyone, either.
The Nokkers kept coming.
I fought them, defeated them, and ate.
Forty years...
I wonder how everyone's doing.
Rean and Tonari must be pretty old now.
I'm sure they're fine.
Sorry to interrupt your sulking.
Not again. Where are they now?
They're already rampaging.
Off this island.
Why aren't they coming here?
Maybe they've given up on you.
Either they're trying to clear out everyone around you, or they're trying to lure you out.
Are you telling me they're attacking people?
Take me there!
It'll take you at least a month to get there.
Are you going to fall for their provocations?
People might die!
People are already dying. It's too late.
Damn it!
Worthless Nokkers!
Freaking cowards!
Try being smarter!
We're going. We're leaving the island.
All right.
I don't know if I can make it alone, though.
No, that's not my concern right now.
I've finally found you, Fushi.
Nice to meet you. I'm Hisame.
My grandmother, Hayase, was in your debt.
Grandmother? You're Hayase's grandchild?
Yes. I've been tasked with leading the Guardians, who are here to protect you.
So I came to—
Stop! How did you find...
I looked for you all over!
I came here eager to finally meet you.
Get away.
You kinda smell.
Are you washing yourself?
Wait, what brought that on?
I'm sorry. My mother taught me to do that.
Your mother? You mean Hayase's daughter?
What happened to Hayase?
She passed away before I was born.
Oh, really? She's dead, huh?
The way you say that...
It said in my grandmother's autobiography that you're a kind person who values life.
Does it say anywhere that she killed two people that I cared about?
Yes, it was an appropriate action.
Appropriate?
How old are you?
Nine.
You don't understand anything, then.
Poor kid...
The grown-ups have got you brainwashed.
It's a good thing not to know.
It means I get to have new surprises and moving experiences for the first time.
About what's right and wrong, about you, and about love...
Yeah, you're right.
Can I go now?
I have to be somewhere.
I'll go with you.
As a Guardian, I must protect you from the monsters.
You? A nine-year-old?
Don't come to me for help if it attacks you.
I know.
Suit yourself.
I will!
Hey! What is your deal? You're creeping me out.
Give me, like, five meters of space.
I apologize.
Come eat with us. It's delicious.
I'll pass. I have this.
What is that?
Nokker jerky.
Don't eat such a strange thing!
Have some of this, please.
No, thanks.
I'm going now.
Goodnight.
I've made some tea. Here.
There's a hole here. Shall I sew it up?
May I help?
Shall I scrub your back?
Good. I'm far enough away.
If I go to where the Nokkers are attacking, I might just attract even more of them.
But I might be able to help people if I make good use of Hisame's group.
Hisame...
She may be Hayase's granddaughter, but she doesn't seem like a threat.
No!
What?!
I'm sorry. I just wanted to sleep next to you.
This pain...
Let me see!
What a surprise.
So this is the Nokkers' idea of a clever plan.
He's been keeping it from me on purpose!
I'm sorry.
I didn't mean to surprise you.
My hand just moved on its own.
Did you try to attack me?
"Guardians," my ass.
I'll cut it off.
Don't do that!
This Nokker was passed down from my grandmother to my mother,
and from my mother to me.
It's the very will of the Guardians!
Huh?
It lives by drinking my blood.
It does as I say.
There, there.
See? It's okay now.
You can speak with it?
No.
But it understands what I'm saying.
It understands who I am.
I am Hayase's reincarnation.
What?
My grandmother had told my mother that she would be born into my mother's womb.
I'm truly sorry.
I'll sleep over there.
Uh-huh...
To think the Nokkers and Hayase had come up with such a crazy relationship...
No matter how far you go, until you crush it, it will keep coming back to you.
I don't care. It's for my peace of mind.
Humans do come up with some remarkable methods to avoid dying.
It's true that, as long as the will is passed down, their existence is continued.
Cut it out with the reincarnation stuff!
You're going to mess up my mind.
What the hell is that thing?
To animate an animal, you need a vessel in the form of flesh, and the fye to fill it.
To move fye from one vessel to another may be what you call "reincarnation."
Hang on.
Wh-What's fye?
Fye is the energy that moves a vessel.
Humans call it "souls" and "spirits."
You can sense it, I'm sure...
The moment all the sensation coming from a living thing
is completely erased and becomes empty.
When the vessel breaks, the fye is released.
It becomes free to do as it wants and go where it pleases.
So... Pioran and Gugu and March...
And everyone else who died...
They've each gone somewhere of their own will.
It wouldn't be surprising if Hayase had died with such strong intent
that her fye would carry into the vessel known as Hisame.
Though her memories are erased,
so she would live life as an almost entirely different person.
Th-Then...
Hisame is Hisame, right?
She isn't Hayase, is she?
That's right. Is something bothering you?
It's not as if she was the one who killed March and Parona,
but I don't feel comfortable around her.
And it doesn't feel right hating a nine-year-old girl when she has nothing against me.
You were tormented by Hayase for a long time.
It's nothing that shouldn't be expected.
It's a common human defense mechanism.
If you're upset by the current situation, you ought to build up some immunity.
Immunity?
Approach her a little at a time.
It'll be painful in the beginning, but you'll soon overcome it.
It's arduous because you don't know her well.
What do you want to do, Fushi?
There he is!
I was worried about you!
Please don't wander off like that!
I woke up early to make boats.
Gotta row to the next island, after all.
Thank you, Fushi.
I'm sitting here.
Yay! I got one!
Let's have it for dinner, Fushi.
No, thanks.
But I caught it for us...
Hey, Hisame...
You should go somewhere to have a doctor get rid of that creepy thing.
I said I don't want to.
You're young.
You don't need to have someone controlling you yet.
I knew you'd be a kind person.
Over there?
Yeah.
It was attacked a month ago.
I'll go take a look, if you'd like.
You're scared that more Nokkers would come, aren't you?
I've heard something about that.
You'll do that?
It's the job of the Guardians to support you.
Wait here.
I'll be back by evening if I'm quick.
Thanks.
Of course!
She's late.
Could the village have been in a really bad state?
People are already dying. It's too late.
Shut up.
Hey, you there.
Are you here to check up on the village that's been attacked?
No, I...
We are, too.
Worrying, isn't it?
We're here to give aid to the village,
and we just got some time for a break.
Some corpses had emerged from a nearby graveyard.
Everyone's evacuated already, though. Only a few villagers remain.
How many died?
Six dead, 33 injured.
When did you get here?
This morning.
That's odd.
I thought the Nokkers always come for you, Fushi.
You know me?
The white-haired immortal.
You're famous. You didn't know?
We hear rumors about you all over.
No way...
I've been on my own for a really long time.
Oh, yeah! There was this silly little girl who blabbed about you all the time.
And those "Guardians" people are your fan club.
They go into the city daily to talk about you and gain more believers.
You'd best be careful.
They just want to own you.
I heard that.
Oh, my! Is it you?!
You'd better not badmouth the Guardians.
Who are you two?
Doctors.
We've been treating the wounded in the village.
I see! Thank you.
Um...
I told the village elder about you, and they insist that you use their room.
Let's stay there tonight.
Perfect!
Let's go out for dinner together.
Thank you so much for treating us.
If it'll make you like us, I'll provide as much as you'd like.
Should I, though? You already have plenty of believers, don't you?
Yes, thank you.
We've gathered a nation's worth of believers in the past forty years.
But we need even more people to learn of our goals and join us.
I don't know...
It looks to me like your organization's just obsessed
with showing off that Fushi belongs to you.
That's a misunderstanding.
This man has been hiding on an island because of the Nokkers.
Our duty is to free him from his emotional prison
and give him a place to belong.
But your work so far has involved capturing Fushi twice
and being frustrated when he got away both times.
You know a lot about the folklore.
We didn't capture him. We gave him shelter.
We protect him from the unknown,
and we protect the people from him, another unknown.
Those are our two goals.
It looks like there haven't been any grown-ups around to take care of you.
That's completely uncalled for!
May I?
I don't care about any of this.
Or about the past.
Not anymore, at least.
Anyway, doctor...
Could you remove this mass?
It's alive, isn't it?
I'm amazed you survived, Hisame-san.
I'm a bit thirsty.
Shall I make tea?
Yes.
For the others, as well.
Yes.
Hey, Fushi...
Have you heard of the silver bat?
No.
There were people who ate it long ago, not knowing it was poisonous.
Being the idiot I was, I wanted to try something.
First, I swallowed a sand grain's worth of it.
It made me nauseous and hurt my stomach so much, I thought I'd die.
But I did it once every two days, and eventually,
it stopped affecting me at all.
Next, I ate a whole morsel.
I felt like dying again.
But I kept it up for a month.
Then I ate a whole bat.
Once again, I felt like I'd die,
and I ate it for a month.
And you ended up all right?
Western morning glory.
That's a flavor that takes me back.
May I have more?
I became curious about other kinds of poisons, so I tried them out.
Seed frogs, sea keelback, bitter turnips...
I've put all kinds of things in my body over the past forty years.
What are you talking about?
The reason I did all that is because it reminded me of the past.
I've been poisoned several times.
Here you are.
But I'd always be the quickest to recover.
This tastes like bane lotus tea.
In half a minute, you lose your ability to speak, and in a few minutes, you're dead.
The Takunaha would often use it to kill Yanome.
It's been used against me, too.
That's about thirty seconds, right?
Hold her!
People who've been poisoned are strong against poison.
Tonari...
of Jananda!
Preview
After forty years, fate is set in motion.
Hisame, who pursues Fushi, and Tonari of Jananda, who opposes her...
What effect does Fushi's reunion with old friends have on him?
Beating Will