Sunrise Serpent (Episode 16)

Sunrise Serpent is the sixteenth episode of the Mushishi anime series.

Synopsis
Ginko meets Kaji, a ferry-boy who is worried about his mother Sayo who is suffering from severe memory-loss.

Plot
On a ferry, Ginko meets Kaji, a boy who explains that his mother Sayo suffers from memory-loss and can't sleep. Ginko decides to help out and meeting Sayo, Kaji explains that she forgets basic things like distant relatives, what a sneeze is or what a crab is. Ginko tells Kaji to make a list of all the things she forgot, but looking at it he only figures its distant things that doesn't happen regularly, but she still remembers her away husband as she prepares food for him each day and thinks of him.

Ginko observes her the whole night as she works and in the morning, he notices she falls asleep, but wakes up few seconds later. As she gets up, he sees her shadow remaining and then leaving, making him realize is Kagedama Mushi. He explains that Kagedama is Mushi living in the shadows of old trees and enters through the ear of the host, where it eats its memories. It leaves the important and basic memories so the host won't die, but when it eats enough memories, it splits itself and releases an offspring. Ginko explains its weak to sunlight, but when its in the host is in the head and he doesn't know any other way to remove it. He tells her that if Sayo wants to keep her important memories, she needs to create new ones so the Mushi can eat them as if there are no other memories, it may eventually eat her important ones. Sayo then decides to go looking for her husband, guessing he may be in the western town he often spoke of.

A year later, Ginko passes through the same area and sees Kaji at the ferry. Kaji explains they found his father, but he had another family. Sayo then didn't say anything and started heading back and eventually passed out of exhaustion. She slept for days and before waking up, Kaji felt a large Kagedama leaving her body. As she woke up, she didn't remember much expect Kaji and few basic things, excluding her husband. They went back home, where she kept making new memories, but kept forgetting them on the next day.