Date: 2009-02-24 21:08 Subject: DVD commentary 4 Security: Public Tags: meme, mushishi

Commentary requested by ambientlight for double, double, toil and trouble:

The idea actually came from xsmoonshine's riff off a prompt: q's idea, I suppose, was that Adashino had just dispatched a Ginko-doppelganger!mushi (or was it actually Ginko? Ambiguous last line alert!); mine is a remix (riff?)of that. And then some...

Adashino has never seen Ginko so cheerful before; he attributes it to a combination of food, alcohol and the fee that the mushishi has secreted carefully into the inner pocket of his jacket, giving it a satisfied pat before settling down to Adashino’s dinner. Ginko does not speak for the rest of the meal, and Adashino lets him finish eating before bringing up the subject.

“You didn’t tell them the whole truth, did you?”

Ginko shrugs, pours himself another cup of sake and downs it in one swallow.

“How would you know, Adashino-sensei? You can’t see mushi, the villagers wouldn’t believe you if you claimed that the river was still infested.”

“I worked with you once in a similar situation.”

Said situation being episode 5 of the anime with the 水蠱 (green-haired girl in the swamp). IIRC Ginko correctly identified the swamp!mushi, but it was Adashino who was able to mobilise the villagers against it, using his status as the village doctor.

“Don’t recall it. Maybe you heard the story or bought an artefact.(Touche, Ginko.) You should write these down, Sensei, it’ll help your memory, and even generate some income. I hear such stories can get published nowadays. Wouldn’t you like to see your name in print? I know someone who records such things, but she doesn’t get out much and hers aren’t for sale, more’s the pity.(Would Ginko be speaking of Tanyuu in this way?)

He laughs, a grating sound quite unlike the chuckle that Adashino is accustomed to (hint), hitching up his trousers as he gets up unsteadily. When Adashino finishes clearing the table and looks in on him, Ginko is already snoring. The doctor watches him for a while before turning into his own room where he takes out several books from a dusty shelf and starts to turn the pages, muttering to himself until sleep overtakes him.

The room is pitch black when he wakes with a start, the light having burned out some time ago. He fumbles his way towards the lamp, letting out a yelp as he tumbles over something solid. Ginko’s eye gleams at him; even in the dark, he can tell that the mushishi is smiling, and there is no time to utter a sound when Ginko’s lips close on his ferociously and suck the breath from him, Ginko’s arms clinging to him for dear life as his head whirls and descends into the nothingness.

My, not!Ginko, what big teeth you have. Dedicated to all the Ginko/Adashino shippers!

When he returns to himself, it is as though he had drunk too much wine, and he draws in a deep breath of the sharp winter air, coughing and trying to shift his unresponsive limbs. Far away, a voice calls a name which he does not recognize (removal of mushi = removal of Tokoyami as well, hence Ginko thinks/remembers he is Yoki); he tries to answer. Pale smoke rises from his lips, or perhaps it is steam: his vision blurs around the edges, then refocuses with a clarity unknown since the moment he awoke with no recollection of his name, and the last thing he sees is Adashino lunging at him, scalpel in hand.

Yes, village doctors may not have had scalpels in whatever era (Meiji?Taisho?) Mushishi is set, but I needed a technical name for the blades they must have used to lance boils and excise superficial tumours. This is where the plot diverges from the original - this is Ginko!POV. In the original, the solid doppelganger!mushi has been safely dispatched by Adashino's scalpel; in this one, the entity (mushi? something else?) survived its transfer from the mushishi to the doctor, who then removed the evidence.

(Extract from a letter from Dr.J.izabel Disraeli (late of Godchild London, England, now residing in Tokyo, where he can pursue his research on into the natives) to Dr. Adashino, dated some months after the preceding events:

...it is most gratifying to hear from you again, sir, now that the difficulties with obtaining a translator (not PMK!Sakamoto Ryoma, thankfully) have been resolved. I have received the sample you so kindly sent, and my organization understands perfectly your need for secrecy as to the means of its procurement. Rest assured that the funds are on their way to your account in Tokio (Victorian spelling?) even as I write.
Our scientists in Delilah are still working on your last specimen of mushishi-tissue/mushi-hybrid (take your pick); it is perfect for our purposes of creating deadly dolls aka zombies/clones/even weirder stuff, even if its inherent impurities render the effects a trifle - unpredictable (should have thought of that before injecting it into certain characters), shall we say? Although some of the abilities manifested, such as prescience (Meridianna) and the manipulation of insects (Michaela), have proven most useful. I find the latter circumstance an even more piquant coincidence in view of the fact that the name of the raw material is a homonym of "bug" i.e. mushi in your native tongue - please excuse my presumption, I have been doing a little reading and hope to be proficient enough to enclose a simple note of thanks in Japanese with my next letter...)