Those Who Inhale the Dew (Episode 6)

Those Who Inhale the Dew is the sixth episode of the anime series.

Synopsis
Ginko's services are requested by a boy named Nagi, who lives on a distant island, to investigate the case of Akoya, a girl revered by the people as a "Living God".

Plot
Nagi takes Ginko to a distant island that can be accessed once a month during tides and its rocky nature. He tells they must remain hidden and asks him to investigate the "living god" that people worship on the island, explaining she was just a girl not long ago, but now can't even speak. As they observe, Ginko sees the girl Akoya becoming older at night and as she dies, spores come out as he last breath and in the morning she is alive and young. Nagi explains that her father, the headman of the village had made her "living god" and that his family had reached this island years ago and started that "living god" belief, which could heal any illness, making people wanting to come to the island. One day he overheard her father saying her healing abilities aren't real and he went to look out for outside help.

Next night, Ginko and Nagi go to Akoya and Ginko examine her while she grows old. He looks into her nostril and sees a mushi bursting and dying and an offspring taking its place. Nagi takes him to a part of the island, where they are other people like Akoya, but Ginko can't find any new information from them. Nagi tells Ginko that Akoya became like this during a spring tide and a cave entrance that is revealed during that tide. Ginko manages to find some rodents affected by the same mushi and takes them for examination. He manages to find a cure and using his mushi needle, he taps the forehead of Akoya, making the mushi come out as spiral worm. Akoya come to her senses and explains that the last thing she remembers is how her father gave her a flower and she smelled it. Since there are three more days until spring tide, they tell her to keep acting as living god and not tell her father. Later Akoya reveals she had a sense of satisfaction while being the living god, but now feel unease. Ginko tells her the mushi has a short lifespan, and syncs its hosts biological clock with its own. After it dies, a new mushi is born, returning the host back to normal and she experienced the dying and birth of the mushi each day.

On the day of the spring tide, Ginko and Nagi head into the cave. Akoya's father found her out and she reveals where Nagi is. Her father heads into the cave, ordering his men to kill Nagi and Ginko, who start running. Meanwhile Akoya runs around trying to find the cave and explains the situation to some villagers, who later find her father and kill him as he deceived them. The villagers rescue Ginko and Nagi, who then see Akoya crying over her dead father and blaming herself. She smells the flower again, taking in a mushi who embeds itself more firmly so that Ginko won't be able to remove it. Before loosing sense, she apologizes to Nagi, telling him she can live that way.

Ginko misses the spring tide and stays for another month on the island, curing the rest of the "living god" people. He tells Nagi that some won't be able to accept it like Akoya. During spring tides some people one by one reinfect themselves.