

There is a break in the story of both the manga and the anime that fans will
be familiar with: chapter 15 ("The Fish Gaze") in the manga and episode 12
("One eyed fish") in the anime. In it, the "youth" of Ginko is shown, and the
origin of his missing eye and white hair is explained.

One thing which has bugged me a bit is the ominous prophecy attached to it.
Nui, Ginko's de facto mentor/rescuer tells him that the fish in a local pond
(and she herself) only have one eye since they got exposed too much to the
silver light created by a very powerful mushi, which she calls
[Ginko](http://mushi-shi.wikia.com/wiki/Ginko_%28Mushi%29) (a huge, silver
fish). Nui notes that those who lose both eyes to it get turned into a mushi
themselves, called [Tokoyami](http://mushi-shi.wikia.com/wiki/Tokoyami). Nui
also mentions that she performed experiments on fish that had already lost an
eye, which showed that once they had lost an eye, they would invariably lose
the other and turn into Tokoyami, even if they were never exposed to the
silver light again.

Later in the story, Ginko (the main character, not the Mushi) loses an eye as
well. **Does this mean that Ginko's death is certain and unavoidable?**


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mushishi
Is Ginko's death a foregone conclusion (in the Mushishi storyline)?


Given the variety of events that happened in first season, it is safer to
conclude that a Great Mushi-Master can live as long as he want. Though I agree
with your view that as per Nui, anyone who lost one of its eyes to Tokoyami is
bound to become Tokoyami sooner or later.

As far as I understand from the death of Nui in episode 12, Tokoyami is more
like a mushi that colonizes the host from inside, seeing as it came out from
Nui's second eye to devour her from outside, and the same happened to the one-
eyed fish which Yoki saw in the pond during daybreak.

However, there are cases where people were able to avoid death.

In episode 20, Ginko went to meet [Tanyuu Karibusa](http://mushi-
shi.wikia.com/wiki/Tanyuu_Karibusa), who happened to have a Mushi inside her,
but she was able to slowly "get rid of it" by writing the stories of Mushi's
being killed. The ink used was the caged Mushi, which thereby got sealed into
the writings.

In episode 9, Ginko met a head priest of a village who happened to use a seed
having Kouki (the life pulse of all the Mushis) inside of it. The head priest
was dead by the end, but Ginko revived him by injecting the same seed into
priest's mouth, and then, he became immortal. Though such is a forbidden
practice, it is always possible.

Based on these three episodes, I'm completely certain that he can live as long
as he want. He is no ordinary man who can be engulfed by Tokoyami easily. I'm
certain that Ginko, being a Mushi-Master, can find a way to cure himself.


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answer