Shrine in the Sea (Episode 22)

Shrine in the Sea is the twenty-second episode of the anime series.

Synopsis
Ginko investigates a village with a shrine rumored to give people another life.

Plot
Ginko visits an island village after hearing rumors of people being reborn. The villagers are apprehensive but, in the night, he goes to the beach and sees some lights in the water off in the distance near a rock outcrop. He meets a woman named Mio who is also looking at the lights and he is surprised that she can see them also.

They are interrupted by a girl who is apparently Mio's child telling them dinner is ready, Mio invites Ginko to join them. When they get to the house the Mio’s father greets the girl as “Mana”, but Mio corrects him saying her name is Isana

After dinner, Ginko and Mio return to the beach where she tells him the lights will not appear now that the moon has risen. She then tells him that the rebirths are caused by people dying in a deep chasm referred to as the "Ryuuguu." The who die there are reborn exactly the same. She also reveals that Isana is actually her mother reborn.

In a flashback, Mio's father is shown taking Mana, Mio’s terminally ill mother, to the Ryuuguu. Mana is afraid of dying and wants to be reborn. Later, Mio’s father tells her that everyone expects Mana to return. It is also revealed that Mio's husband had died previously and he says it would be good for her to have a child. Mio agrees to give birth to her reborn mother but stresses that the child is not her mother and makes her father promise not to call her Mana. Small red eggs rise up from the Ryuuguu and consuming one makes one pregnant with the person that was submerged.

In the present, Mio wants to know exactly what Isana is and Ginko responds saying she seems like a normal human being and the child she gave birth to. Later Mio remembers her mother teaching her a trick to fall asleep by pretending she’s a fish and diving deep into the sea.

The next day Isana shows Ginko that there are many reborn people happily living in the village. Whe Ginko asks her if she is happy, she responds be saying she is bothered when people call her “Mana” but is happy that her mother calls her Isana. Ginko and Isana sail to the Ryuuguu but find nothing, Ginko decides to wait for the night of a full moon to investigate further.

Later Mio tells Ginko that Isana becomes more and more like her mother as she grows, she finds it hard to accept that the child she gave birth to is her daughter.

During a full moon Ginko sees the red eggs rising from the Ryuuguu, he looks at one under a microscope and learns that they are the product of a Mushi. Inside them are embryos of all animals and he determines that the mushi is able to restore an organism to its original embryological form. He tells Mio that Isana is physically identical to her mother, but because she was raised by her, she will never truly be her mother. Mio resolves to pull herself together for Isana's sake.

Ginko tells Isana he plans to leave the next day because he doesn't believe that the rebirth is natural but doesn't want to intrude on the villager's happiness. Isana halfheartedly says that she would rebirth her mother (Mio) if she died.

The next day a typhoon stops Ginko from leaving. That night, Isana recites for Mio her trick for sleeping which Mio is unable to accept. Mio goes out for a walk to clear her head and she notices a boat on the beach about to be washed away and goes to secure it but is caught up in a wave and washed to sea.

The villagers go searching for her and Ginko and Isana spot her in a boat above the Ryuuguu; she is about to be pulled in by the Mushi. The two sail out to retrieve her. As they approach Mio gets pulled in and Isana dives in without thinking. She gets Mio back to the boat but she and Ginko are pulled in by the Mushi. Before the mushi can return Ginko and Isana to their embryotic forms, the full moon comes out and drives it back. Mio pulls the two back to the boat.

The next day Ginko states that the mushi attracts prey with light, consumes them, then restores them to their basic forms. To simplify, the mushi "consumes the days of its prey's life." He resolves to let the village to make its own decisions.

Ginko reprimands Isana for diving in recklessly after Mio, then mentions that she could have simply rebirthed her if she was pulled in. Isana decides she would prefer her mother dying as the person she knew rather than losing all her experiences. This is a departure from Mana's choice to be reborn and more in line with Mio's philosophy.

Ginko sails away from the island.