Jiko-Bou's Quest for the Shishi-gami
The night is silent. The forest is hushed in the calm right before dawn. In the distant western sky, in front of the moon and mountains, a giant transparent figure appears. The body is a deep blue with translucent patterns all over it. Stems of what look like tentacles protrude from the head. It walks slowly, as if taking a stroll.
The tiny kodama have gathered on the tree tops now. They stare at the giant approaching.
One kodama rattles its head. The clicking echoes through the air. All around, the thousands of other kodama answer the call, until the entire forest is clicking and rattling.
The kodama greet the transparent giant, heralding their lord with their strange singing.
In the trees close by, Jiko-Bou the monk keeps watch with drooping eyes. He is clad in a bear's pelt, half asleep. But as the spectacle of the kodama and the giant plays before him, he gasps and grows wide-awake. "There he is! The Didarabotchi!"
He turns to his companions, dressed also in bear pelts. "Quickly, come and look! This is why we are sitting in these stinking bearskins!"
One of them, huddled on the ground, warns Jiko-Bou. "Don't look at the Shishi-gami. You'll go blind!"
"And you call yourselves the West's best hunters?" The monk is incredulous. "This document…" he lifts the bear costume and produces a piece of rolled-up paper, presented to him by the Japanese emperor. "…is from the Mikado, who has approved of the extermination of the Shishi-gami!"
The Didarabotchi strolls towards an opening in the thick foliage.
"The Didarabotchi is the Shishi-gami's night form. Soon it will be morning, and it will transform." Jiko-Bou explains as they peer timidly over the tree. "He's vanishing. Over there!"
The long tentacles shimmer in the young rays of sun. The Didarabotchi bends into the opening and submerges within the trees, sending powerful winds through them. The kodama hang on, their tiny white bodies waving in the gusts.
The upper canopies shake violently. Below the break in the foliage, the tree of the island with the unconscious Ashitaka wave, its slender trunk bending. The wind sends ripples across the lake. Yakkuru stands, still watching over his master.
The Didarabotchi transforms back into the giant deer and walks across the mossy island. His body is orange, with a white underbelly. His hooves are large, with three toes. The deer has antlers with so many points they look like the branches of an ancient tree. Most startling of all is the deer's face. It is red, something between that of an old man's and a deer's, with black stripes on the side, and a white nose. His eyes, red also, give a feeling of wisdom. White fur grows down his chest, like a long beard.
The Shishi-gami walks slowly, and as he does, flowers bloom from his hooves. But as he lifts them, the blossoms wither and die.
The god stops in front of Ashitaka, who is fighting for his life, a torturous internal struggle. He stares at him, considering. The Shishi-gami lowers his head, and breathes on the sapling at the boy's head. It turns brown and crackly, and the leaves drop on Ashitaka's face.
Outside, the sun is bright and the day is clear. The monk, Jiko-Bou; and the two hunters descend a narrow and tedious mountain pass. The three are all still wearing bear pelts. They enter a small hunter's shed disguised with leaves and branches on the side of the mountains. Another hunter is keeping watch through an opening.
"Jiko-Bou-sama," the hunter in the shed says respectfully, and the monk pushes off his bear head hood.
"I know," he replies and seats himself at the peep opening.
"Over there," the hunter murmurs. Jiko-Bou squints at the distant rocks. Birds swarm around in the air. Something is happening.
He blinks. In the opposite pass, boars are working their ways up to the summit, squealing and climbing up.
"There are hundreds of them…" Jiko-Bou mutters.
"These aren't boars of this forest; they are lords of some other mountain," the hunter watching by him says.
At the top of the mountain, a giant grey boar appears. His tusks are huge and his hairs are silvery in the sunlight. This boar god is magnificent.
The hunter gasps. "It's Okkoto-nushi of Chinzei!"
"From the south island?" Jiko-Bou asks.
"There's no mistaking those tusks," his companion tells him. "He came here leading his entire clan!"
The silver boar turns his head towards the shed. His eyes are pale blue, an unusual color.
"He's seen us! Fall back!" The two scramble in panic.
Okkoto-nushi lets out a commanding squeal into the air. The smaller boars below echo his cry. Their screams echo in the early morning.
Jiko-Bou leads the hunters down the ravine to a swift river. They jump through the boulders. The monk is incredibly nimble in his sandals with wooden soles inches high. He whirls around.
"Hurry up! Jump, jump!" He waves his hands frantically, and continues leaping from rock to rock.
In the forest, Ashitaka sleeps in deep slumber. A drop of water falls on his face, making a plink sound and creating ripples. Is he underwater?
It is silent. A light shines. The vision of the deer with tree-like antlers. Blood flows out of his abdomen. The hooves of some great animal by him. Flowers bloom as the hooves touch the ground, and wither as they are lifted up.
The golden face of a deer touches his wound. The blood flow stops, like a candle snuffed out. Then the boy slips back into a dreamless sleep.