Inside the Cage (Episode 14)

Inside the Cage is the fourteenth episode of the anime series.

Synopsis
While traveling through a bamboo forest, Ginko encounters a man who somehow can't leave the forest, no matter how much he tries. Curiously, the man's wife and child also share the same issue.

Plot
While Ginko was resting in the bamboo forest, a person whom he describes as "odd", approaches him. The person asks him whether he was a traveler, and was moving down the mountain, heading west. Ginko replies positively. Then he asks if he could accompany Ginko, as he couldn't find his way out of the bamboo forest. The man explains that he originally belongs to the village at the foot of the mountain, and that that they didn't have a traveler for about three years.

However, when Ginko starts off on his journey back, he finds that he is moving in a circle, trapped in the same spot. Worse still, the direction shown by the compass (carried by Ginko) is correct. Finding that the exercise is futile, they sit, conversing. The man tells him that that is what is happening, that one cannot control where one is going. He then offers, jokingly, if he wanted to live there. He then explains that a mother and a daughter used to live there. The mother passed away, while the daughter was the childhood friend of the man, and hence started living together. They have a child together. The man's name is Kisuke, while the wife's name is Setsu. The couple offer him to stay at their home. Ginko refuses. The couple then leave, telling him to take care, which Ginko remarks as being odd.

Ginko then tries to come out of the bamboo forest, and succeeds. While he rests in the said village, he finds two old local women whispering to each other. When he confronts them, they ask if he came out of the bamboo forest, and if he saw a man. Ginko replies that he had indeed seen him. He then asks about the man. One of the women reply that the man was captivated by a monster, and that there is a white bamboo growing when the other woman snaps her off, saying that she "shouldn't tell stories that would taint their village to outsiders".

Ginko then re-enters the forest. There he meets Kisuke who asks him whether he wasn't able to get outside the forest. Ginko replies that he was able to get out of the forest, but has returned to see something in the forest. He also says that he had heard rumors about Kisuke and Setsu. Kisuke then asks what he intends to do after seeing the white bamboo. Ginko replies that if it was within the scope of his work, he would ask Kisuke the details, and if there was a way to get him out of the forest, but if he refused, he would work alone. Taking his decision, Kisuke then leads him to the way.

When they reach the white bamboo shoots, Kisuke informs Ginko that there are four such others. Ginko then identifies the shoot as a Mushi, Magari-dake. He then asks Kisuke to tell him everything that happened in the bamboo forest.

Kisuke then tells him the following story:

"A young married couple used to live in this bamboo forest. For many years, they could not conceive a child. The husband began to spend time away from his depressing home. His wife was a strange woman who talked to plants. Eventually she used to wander about the bamboo forest night after night.

''Then one day, she said she thought she was pregnant. The husband became suspicious of his wife, so one night, he followed her. He found his wife enthralled, clinging to a white bamboo. The husband was frightened out of his wits and ran off, but he returned home after the villagers admonished him. There, he found his wife carrying a bamboo shoot as if it were a baby.''"

Ginko then asks him whether she had given birth to a bamboo shoot, to which, Kisuke replied that that was what the villagers say she said. Ginko then asks whether she was just trying to annoy the husband. Kisuke responds, saying that the husband ran away from the village, so that must have been what had happened.

Kisuke then informs that the bamboo child was Setsu, and that as children, they used to play with Setsu, as she might feel lonely. But as he explained, she never ate, or drank anything, except water, and never left the bamboo forest. Even then, they all liked Setsu. But then one day they (Setsu, Kisuke and friends) were unable to leave the forest. They disappeared, one by one, eventually leaving him alone. Those who made it back to the said village, came back to search for Kisuke, and found that they were unable to leave the forest once they were with Kisuke. So he started living with Setsu, while his little sister remained in the village. At first, the villagers were very kind to Kisuke and Setsu. But after a while, the visits started decreasing, one by one. Eventually, Setsu became pregnant. But when the midwife completed the delivery, they found a baby inside of the bamboo shoot. The midwife ran back off to the village, and after that, no one went to the bamboo forest.

Kisuke then asks him about his story, whether it was believable, to which Ginko replies that it did surprise him. He then asks about Magari-dake, to which Ginko reponds by saying that it is a bamboo in name only, but it isn't a plant, and eventually telling him the following:

"Bamboos in a bamboo forest, all share the same roots. Together, they are one, or a family of successive generations. Magari-dake are mushi that live off these roots, posing as one of the family. They grow by sucking nutrients from the roots of the bamboo, and in turn, return elements to the roots that make the forests green, growing the forest, and increasing its own numbers.

''Your wife was born from mushi and a human. We Mushi-shi call them oniko. An extremely rare mazari-mono.''"

Ginko then asks if it was a bit of a shock. Kisuke responds by saying that it was not, after what his daughter looked like. He says that the people of the village will accept them, and might even start living in the village itself.

Later, Ginko encounters Setsu retrieving water from the Magari-dake. He asks if he can have some of the water, but Setsu apologetically informs him that her mother forbade her from giving any to non-family members. Ginko jokingly asks if even Kisuke is not allowed any of the Magari-dake water, but Setsu then recounts a single instance where she did let Kisuke drink some of the water on a particularly hot day in the forest when they were still children.

Ginko, noticeably surprised by Setsu's confession, decides to return to the Magari-dake alone some time after his conversation with Setsu and uses his knife to collect some of the Magari-dake's water into his own bamboo container. Once the container is filled, he then attempts to exit the forest while carrying the Magari-dake's water with him. Unsurprisingly, he is unable to leave the forest while holding the water just like he was unable to leave it while being accompanied by Kisuke.

The episode then cuts to Kisuke holding his daughter in his arms while admiring the scenery of the forest together. He describes how beautiful the village is at this time of year and tells his daughter how badly he wishes he could take her out of the forest to see it. Unbeknownst to him however, Setsu had heard the entire conversation and solemnly retreats back to the Magari-dake.

While lamenting over Kisuke's words next to the Magari-dake, she is startled by Ginko and Kisuke as they approach the tree. Unsure of how to face Kisuke, she decides to hide behind a bush while listening to their conversation. She hears Ginko explain to Kisuke that the water that comes from the Magari-dake is different than regular water, and that the Magari-dake is able to exert its "will" on the forest as a whole because the Mushi's water comes into contact with every part of the forest thanks to its connection at the roots. Ginko also explains that while she wouldn't have known this, Setsu's allowing of Kisuke to drink the water means that he too is now susceptible to the Magari-dake's will and therefore isn't able to leave the forest. Kisuke asks what they can do to remedy this and Ginko only comes up with two options, either remove all of the water from Kisuke's body, or chop down the Magari-dake. However, neither of these are realistic solutions to the problem since Ginko is unsure of how to remove the water from Kisuke's body, and he is also not comfortable with chopping down Magari-dake since he doesn't know what kinds of adverse effects such an action would cause.

After hearing this conversation, Setsu decides to sneak out later that night while her family is sleeping in order to chop down the Magari-dake herself, and thus allow Kisuke to see his beloved village again. She is unsuccessful in chopping the mushi down however, since the hatchet she is using is intentionally avoiding contact with its trunk. Confused by this, Ginko arrives and explains to her that as its child, she herself is a part of the Magari-dake and is susceptible to its will, and therefore will not be able to chop it down. Setsu, refusing to acknowledge defeat and motivated by her desire to help her husband after he sacrificed so much for the sake of her happiness, picks up the hatchet once more and swings at the Magari-dake again, this time successfully making contact and surprising Ginko as a result. After a few swings, she brings the mushi down. Now laying on the forest floor, the Magari-dake begins to "crawl" away using its branches as legs, and leaves the area.

While this is going on, Kisuke had apparently woken up from his slumber, noticed Setsu's absence in their bed, and is now searching around the forest trying to locate her with his daughter on his back. While wondering around, Kisuke unintentionally reaches the forest border and sees his village for the first time in three years. Excited at finally being allowed to leave, Kisuke rushes to his sister's house and loudly knocks on the door to wake her up despite the late hour. His sister refuses to open the door however, and she tells Kisuke to leave and to not bring his "thing" of a daughter to the village because she doesn't want her own child to go through the same miserable experiences she herself went through. Although lost for words immediately after being shunned by his sister, a recomposed Kisuke soon after contentedly decides to return with his daughter to Setsu in the forest, where we are told that they lived happily together for some time afterwards.

Six months later, Ginko returns to the bamboo forest to visit Kisuke and observe the effects that chopping down the Magari-dake might have had on the area. He notes that not only has the main mushi not returned, but that the rest of the white "trees" around the forest are no longer present either. He then visits Kisuke who solemnly tells him that the remaining white bamboo trees withered away one by one until none remained, and that since they could not longer retrieve the water that was necessary for Setsu and their daughter to continue living, the two of them experienced a painful passing and had "crumbled like dead trees" by the time he buried them. While he and Ginko visit the two graves, Kisuke comments that Setsu shouldn't have chopped down the Magari-dake, and that it was his fault she did it since he couldn't just give up on the village.

An unspecified amount of time later, Kisuke is shown walking through the bamboo forest. While commenting to himself on how it's that time of the year when the village is especially beautiful, he is surprised to encounter a Magari-dake and wonders how long it has been there. Moments after discovering the tree, he also begins hearing the cries of two infants in the distance and notes that their coming from the direction of his wife and daughter's graves. The episode then ends with a closing shot of the the graves in question, each one now having a bamboo shoot next to its tombstone just like the bamboo shoots that Setsu and their daughter were born in.

Epilogue
In the special The Shadow That Devours the Sun, during the eclipse montage Kisuke can be seen standing in the bamboo forrest carrying two young toddlers, presumably offspring of the Magari-dake seen at the end of the episode.