I love Mushi-shi and i couldn't help but write a fic about it! So i hope you all like it

Disclaimer: I do not own Mushi-shi!

(in case you've never seen Mushi-shi or have NO clue what i'm writing about...or both...)

Mushi- the creatures between life and death

Ginko- the main character, he is a mushi-shi who travels all over the place due to the fact that mushi tend to gather where he stays for too long, he constantly smokes cigarettes to keep the mushi from gathering.

There's just a bit of common knowledge for you to better understand the story! Soooooo...

Enjoy :)

The leaves crunched beneath Ginko's feet as he slowly walked through the forest following a dirt path that led to a nearby town

The leaves crunched beneath Ginko's feet as he slowly walked through the forest following a dirt path that led to a nearby town. He slid his hand in his pocket and pulled out a thin cigarette, lighting it he let out a stream of pale smoke that dissipated into the cool autumn air. "guess I should look at this now" he mumbled to himself as he unfolded a frail piece of paper that he had been given by a local from the village.

Mushi-shi-san

My village needs your help, our children are dieing off faster than flies, I fear for my son's life…my wife and I can't bear to loose another child to this disease. I beg of you Mushi-shi-san, …please help us…

-Kero Okaku

"I can't think of what kind of mushi would cause such an effect at the moment" Ginko sat down on a large flat rock and messaged his temples with his fingers. "No pressure huh?" he said trying to reassure himself. He looked up and saw a group of butterfly looking mushi fluttering about in the wind. The soft pale light that reflected off their bodies was somewhat comforting to the mushi master. The forest was quieting down for the night, birds were settling into their nests, crickets were beginning to chirp, and groups of fireflies could be seen in the distance their lights flickering on and off. Small clusters of dull mushrooms sat at the base of a towering oak.

"hmm, what is this?" he remarked, raising an eyebrow, he slid the box off his back and opened a small drawer. "This should do it" he said as he screwed off the cap of a jar and scooped the specimen up.

"Gotcha" a tiny smile escaped from his lips as he looked at his new treasure, "now now…what do we have here?" Ginko sat down in the dirt and held the jar up to the sunlight; the mushi inside the jar was a soft translucent white and shaped like a cross between a caterpillar and a spider. It slowly floated around the jar, looking for a way to escape its prison.

"Sorry there little mushi, but you're now part of my research…how unfortunate for you." He slowly stood up and brushed the dirt off his pants, blowing another stream of smoke out of the corner of his mouth, he started down the path again.

The village was small, only about a total of 20 houses were scattered across the clearing in the forest. Ginko stepped into the clearing "it's quiet" he thought as he bent down and rubbed the dirt between his fingers. "Soil's not very good either." He stood up and walked up to a young woman dressed in a traditional housewife kimono

"excuse me" he began "do you know where I can find Kero Okaku?"

The woman raised her head "Kero-san? ... he's the second to last house on the very end" she hesitated for a moment "although if you're visiting, now might not be the best time…"

"Huh?"

"One of Kero-san's sons passed yesterday."

Ginko sighed in disappointment "I was too late" he muttered feeling a pang of guilt for taking his time getting there.

"Too late for what?" she asked

Ginko gave her a puzzled look

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry or anything." She quickly said waving her hands frantically.

"Oh no it's fine" he replied as he pulled out the note "I met Kero in the town before this one, he gave me this." Ginko handed the woman Kero's note, once she finished reading it her hands were trembling.

"Y-you're a Mushi-shi?" she stuttered giving him a dumbfounded look

"Yeah" he replied "I came here to try and fix your problem"

The woman sank to her knees and began sobbing "thank you…thank you" she whispered between sobs "my daughter, she is sick, just like all the ones before her."

Ginko looked down to the woman and helped her up "I'll have a look at her once I talk to Kero ok?"

"T-thank you" tears were streaming down her cheeks and stained her kimono

He stretched out his hand, "I'm Ginko"

"Kono Asawara" she replied "I'm the house with the red floor mat outside the door. Please hurry Ginko-san."

"Don't worry Kono-san, I'll be there as soon as I can" he began to walk away "oh, and if there are anymore sick children, could you please gather them at your house?" he asked "It makes it a lot easier to compare symptoms"

"Yes, I'll fetch them right away Ginko-san" Kono turned around and ran to a neighboring house.

"Aii" she yelled "Aii-chan please open up, I need you to bring Tunotu to my house right away"

Ginko smiled at the woman's determination and followed the dirt path to the very last house on the end. "This looks like the place" he said peering around the corner to make sure it was the last house. Once he was sure that he had the right residence he knocked on the wood of the door. "Hello?" he said "It's me … Ginko"

The door slid open and a weary middle aged man stood in the door way "thank you for coming Ginko-san, please come in."

The mushi master stepped into the small cottage and slid off his shoes "I'm sorry that I'm too late to save your boy." He said quietly "I heard that he passed yesterday…"

Kero gave him a weak smile "what's done is done" he said looking distraught "I can only hope that you can help my other son and all the other children."

"Yeah" Ginko muttered "you and me both"

"I'll take you to Yuki" the man said as he slid the door shut

Ginko followed Kero down the hall and into a small room, in the middle of the floor laid a small boy under a red blanket. Ginko squatted down next to him and studied his features, Yuki's face was pale and sunken in, his breath came in short raspy bursts that resulted in a fit of coughing, and his arms were thin and emancipated looking. He slowly rolled back the blanket, and lifted up his shirt "one two …three" Ginko counted the number of ribs that jutted out of his stomach. Small pink splotches were scattered helter skelter across his stomach.

Once he was done examining Ginko sat down and slid off his cargo, opening a long drawer on the bottom he pulled out a thick stack of papers and diagrams.

"I'll need some time to study him, but for now I need to look at the other children and find a pattern amongst them." He leafed through the papers till he came to one that caught his eye; putting that paper on the top of the stack he neatly placed the papers in the drawer.

"Kero" he said "I'll be over at Kono-san's house, if anything strange happens let me know."

The man nodded his head "I will"

Ginko gingerly stepped out into the night air and began walking back up the path towards Kono's house. A small lantern hung on the outside of the door, casting pale shadows onto the faces of concerned parents that had crowded outside of Kono's house.

"There he is that's the mushi-shi!" men and women frantically whispered and gossiped as he came closer.

"Ginko-san" Kono said waving "I'm glad you could come, please follow me" she pushed a lock of black hair behind her ear and led the Mushi-shi into a large room crowded with sickly children all sleeping in rows. The room was filled with the sounds of wheezing and coughing.

"one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine" he counted as he pointed to each child "is this all that's left?"

Kono nodded her head "yes, we used to have many children but up until a year ago they started to become sick. At first it was only one or two children who fell sick, but as time progressed, more and more became frail and began to cough, until it gets to the point where they can't even stand without help."

Ginko walked over to a small girl with dark brown hair tied in long pigtails "this one looks like you"

"She's my daughter" Kono replied holding back tears "she's been like this for a month now…"

He lifted up her shirt and saw the same pattern of pink spots on her stomach "hmmm" he said as he stroked his chin, Ginko stood up and walked over to the next child

"That's Tunotu, my sister's son, he's only been sick for a few weeks."

He repeated the process and found the same pattern on Tunotu's stomach as well "I think I've found my common pattern." He said aloud

"I-is that good?" she asked

Ginko looked at her through his one good eye "yes it's very good, now I can start analyzing information and piece it all together. For starters, you said this all began a year ago correct?"

Kono nodded her head "Chasku, the elder's son, came back from playing in the forest one day and complained that he didn't feel well."

"The forest huh…do you know where in the forest?"

"Well my Aki-chan came home one day after playing with her friends and said she didn't feel well. Of course I knew about the disease and when Aki-chan told me that she felt sick…I felt so hopeless…"

"Where do the children play?" he asked

"Well she did mention something about playing in a fort in the forest with her friends one time."

Ginko sat back and closed his eyes trying to piece together what information he had thus far. "Was she playing at the fort the day she became sick?"

Kono shook her head "…I don't know, although…" she paused to think "Yuki was with her that day, maybe Kero-san knows if they went there."

Ginko stood up and blankly stared at the wall "I'm going to go ask Kero-san a few questions, in the mean time, could you please find out if any of the parents know if their children played in that area?"

"You think their fort could be what's causing this?" she asked quizzically

"Well it's the only lead I have so far, if it proves to be wrong then I'll have to do a bit more searching, that's all."

"Ok then" Kono said "I'll make a list of who all has played there."

"Good, I'll see you in the morning then."

"Yeah"

Ginko walked out of the house and into the crowd of people

"How's my son?"

"Is my baby ok?"

"What's causing all of this?"

"Are they gunna be ok?"

"Please …tell us!"

The parents threw one question after another at the exhausted Mushi-shi

"Quiet" he said sternly "I don't have any answers yet, all I can ask is that you cooperate with me and with Kono-san until I can help you."

The crowd quieted down and everyone whispered their thanks as they returned to their houses for the night.

"Oi" Ginko thought as he rubbed his temples "that was hell"

The lanterns in front of the houses went out one by one until the landscape was pitch black and silent. Crickets chirped and the occasional owl hooted as Ginko made his way back to Kero's house so he could get a good night's rest and mull over what he had learned so far. "The way I see it" he thought "the lucky ones have at least a week left…"

Yeah...i'm not so great at making suspensfull cliffhangers ... or spelling :)

So now that you're finished reading...why don't you write a quick review and tell me how i'm doing? I'll try to update soon, i have three other fics going right now, so the next chapter will prolly be up sometime before saturday!

Thanks for reading :)