Chapter 175

## Cocoon

* Color
* Magazine

**Cocoon**, or **Cocoons** (繭, *Mayu*) is the 175th chapter of the Golden Kamuy manga

## Synopsis

On the frozen lake of Akan, Kadokura pulls Ushiyama out of the freezing water as Kirawus runs towards them. Kadokura asks Ushiyama where Sekiya was keeping him and wonders if Hijikata is in the same location but Ushiyama says he cannot remember anything before waking up with his head sticking out of the ice. Ushiyama thinks that Sekiya must've paid a prostitute to give him a drink that would provide him "energy" and that he cannot recollect anything afterwards.

As Ushiyama picks up his coat, a cocoon falls out of it and Kadokura notes that there were white shells like it around the area that Hijikata was last seen and believes that the mystery has gotten deeper. Kirawus tells him that it is a silkworm cocoon and that winter is not the season for silk farming, which means that the building used for producing them are empty. He then points out a couple of nearby silkworm farms and Kadokura runs to one, saying that they should split up to find Sekiya.

At the silkworm farm, as Sekiya walks out with a shovel, Kadokura catches up to him and demands he tell him where Hijikata is. Sekiya is impressed that Kadokura was able to find the farm and leads him inside to a contraption that he was in the middle of testing. He explains that it is a device that sorts silkworm cocoons based on their sex and that the farm they are in is not just a simple silkworm farm but an egg production facility as well.

Sekiya says that there are many processes to grooming the silkworm and as such there are ten different sections for each of them and that Hijikata is buried in one of them. He tells Kadokura that he wishes for him to undergo a trial in which he put different kinds of poison in some of the cocoon on the sorting device with the ones that are diagonal of them being harmless.

Kadokura will choose one of these cocooons and Sekiya will eat the one that is opposite of it. Sekiya swears that if he eats a poisoned one, then he will tell him where Hijikata is buried before he dies but if Kadokura eats a poisoned one, then he will release Hijikata. However, Kadokura is annoyed and stabs Sekiya's thigh with Kirawus's knife, demanding where Hijikata is. Sekiya says that Hijikata does not have long left to live and that he has a strong interest in the fates of other people.

As the sorting device spins, Kadokura mulls over how terrible his luck is but says that he would willingly give his life in exchange for Hijikata's as he and Sekiya eats a cocoon. Sekiya then begins to tell Kadokura about his past, when he was out walking with his daughter on a Sunday morning, a loud explosion occurred right beside him, which caused him to black out. When he had woken up, he found his daughter dead and realized that she had been struck by lightning. Since then, Sekiya wonders if luck is the will of god or the fact that he still lives proves that they do not exist.

Sekiya notices Kadokura showing symptoms of aconite and Kadokura demands that Sekiya keeps his word before asking how long will it take for him to die. As Sekiya goes to dig up Hijikata, he says that Kadokura will spend the next few hours in agony before the poison kills him. Kadokura then knocks the sorting device down and begins to eat the content of one of the cocoon while apologizing to Hijikata since their time together may end.

Sekiya digs up Hijikata's coffin but notes that he can still make use of him and wonders if he could give the next trial to Kirawus or Ushiyama. Just then, Hijikata springs up from the casket and grabs Sekiya's neck as well as a nearby knife which he uses to cut Sekiya down. Hijikata says that his experience selling medicine in his youth helped him to survive as he had taken enough aconite to reduce the pufferfish poison below a fatal dose. He tells Sekiya that if he wishes to survive in this day and age, relying on luck won't be enough. Meanwhile, Kadokura recovers from the poison as well.

## Character Appearances

* Kadokura
* Tatsuma Ushiyama
* Kirawus
* Waichirou Sekiya
* Toshizou Hijikata

## Trivia

* The text on the cover page (MayuでUkaする５秒前ッ!) is a reference to a song MajiでKoiする5秒前 by a Japanese singer Ryoko Hirosue.