This face...
This is the face of a bear that would've attacked humans someday.
How can you be so sure?
Look.
A six-year-old female whose womb shows no signs of ever having given birth.
Bears like this get more and more violent as time passes.
When it comes to brown bears, the females are more foul-tempered and scary.
Just like humans, huh?
If you're a Matagi, I'm sure you know this,
but every bear has some traits that make it unique.
Some get scared and run.
Some will come after you no matter how many times you shoot them.
I've killed over 200 bears myself,
but the hunt's never been the same twice.
He's killed 200 himself?
But they all have similar habits.
Each one's different, but their habits are similar.
If you know those habits in and out,
it will help you.
Matagi soldier, you've never hunted a wolf, right?
What about you?
Nope.
I know nothing about them. That's why I want to hunt one.
Human traps drove the wolves to extinction.
But one last wolf won that battle of wits and survived.
A battle between what makes it unique, and what makes me unique...
My hunter's soul is getting erect!
Golden Kamuy
Episode Six Hunter's Soul
There're footprints heading under that Sakhalin fir.
The deer you shot must be hiding under it and resting.
I'll drive it out.
You go around and ambush it.
Right.
This time, I need to put it out of its misery.
Wow!
It's on the move, Sugimoto!
Where's the deer?
Asirpa-san, where's the deer?
It climbed up that way.
I can't believe it still has that much stamina.
It'll be dark soon.
Let's wait for morning and follow its tracks then.
We can use that tree to make a simple hut.
Don't worry so much about it.
The meat and liver of a deer don't taste as good if it suffers,
but the brain and eyeballs will still be delicious.
No, that's not it...
Tonight, you'll be dining on freshly-killed bear,
prepared by none other than Nihei Tetsuzou.
Nihei's cuisine!
The heart is ready to eat!
It's good!
The more you chew it, the bloodier it tastes.
Fresh heart is something only hunters get to eat, huh, Tanigaki?
I heard Matagi drink bear blood, right?
Then you should be able to eat this, too.
Nihei's cuisine! Blood sausage!
It's nice and bloody!
Be careful, it boosts your libido.
Don't let it get so big it blows a hole in the roof!
Your boner, I mean!
You're a quiet guy.
The traditions of the Matagi have seeped into your bones.
Why are you still wearing that cap? It doesn't suit you at all.
Why don't you go back home and go back to being a Matagi, Tanigaki?
I stayed in the military for a reason.
I was ready to abandon my home, Akita.
But when I was in the mountains,
I could feel something like poison seeping out of my body.
"May you be born again and hear pleasant sounds."
That's what we Matagi say to the bears as we send them to the next life.
I never said that to anyone I killed in that war.
The wolf hunt is just an excuse for you.
You can't go back to the military or your home.
Your hunter's soul wanders the forests of Hokkaido.
Tanigaki, when we kill that wolf,
take its pelt and head back home.
BONER!
Stand up, Sugimoto!
Run, run!
If you stop, you'll die!
I refuse to die!
I'm going to live!
This is where the deer dug up the snow and went to sleep.
We were just a little too late.
There's deer osoma frozen on the ground.
Look, Sugimoto.
Don't eat it.
That's the kind of osoma you're not supposed to eat.
There is no poop you're supposed to eat!
Deer drop their osoma at regular intervals,
so when you chase them, it will tell you how far away you are.
There's very little space between the tracks.
We'll catch it for sure.
How are you going to hunt the wolf?
First, we need bait to lure it out.
We'll shoot a deer.
Why?
We have plenty of bear meat.
Tanigaki, if you were walking down the road,
and you saw a peeled persimmon lying on the ground,
would you eat it?
When you're hunting, you need to put yourself in the place of the prey.
Did your senses dull in the war, Matagi Tanigaki-chan?
Its tracks are unsteady.
It's running out of strength.
That tree ahead of us...
That must be where it's hiding.
I'll chase it out,
so you go downwind, circle around a good long ways, and then lay in ambush.
Stay low, and go quiet.
I'll do it in one shot this time.
I'll end it without making it suffer more.
Ryuu's young, but he's a good hunting dog.
He can find the newest, strongest scent from among a lot of deer tracks.
What is it, Ryuu?
I see.
This is a dog that doesn't even fear bears, and look at it.
Do you mean...?
We're inside the wolf's territory!
Here we go, Sugimoto.
Aim carefully.
Sugimoto, shoot!
What is he doing?
Retar?
Retar, hold it down!
Why didn't you shoot?
You said you'd finish it!
The blood on its wound had become an icicle that shook when it moved.
It didn't have enough body heat left to melt that icicle,
but it was still trying its best to live. And when it stared at me...
I couldn't move.
This thing is me!
If you can't take responsibility until the end,
don't shoot at all.
That gunshot...
It was a Type 30, just like my rifle.
Sugimoto, put your hands in here.
Well?
It's warm.
My cold hands are warming up...
The deer died, and now, it's warming you up.
Its body heat is becoming yours
and keeping you alive.
We and the animals eat the meat,
and the rest becomes life for the trees, the grass, and the ground.
The value of that deer's life won't disappear.
Should we eat it?
Let's!
Golden Kamuy
He's acting strange.
He's telling us to hurry.
Somebody's coming.
It must be that soldier.
He's still looking for me?
You can go, Retar.
Sugimoto, take as much as you can, and let's go.
Retar will come back and eat the rest.
This is heavy!
We're eating the brains. Take it.
Look. Wolf tracks.
And big ones.
There's no sign of it eating anything.
Did it make the kill, and then hunters took the meat?
They did a bad job of cleaning up.
A Type 30 rifle and boots,
and a child wearing deerskin shoes.
It's those two from before.
Must be them.
You mean that Ainu girl?
I don't know why,
but the wolf doesn't seem to fear the girl.
The wolf sensed us and ran.
So they left the meat for the wolf?
Maybe it will come back to eat it.
Tanigaki, let's wash each other.
Matagi bathe in cold water before hunting, right?
We're up against a wolf with a sharp sense of smell.
We need to do everything we can to prepare.
It's too far away to see them,
but one is carrying soldier's gear.
They don't seem to be following us.
Let's hurry.
Someone's here.
I've been waiting for you!
Oh, it's you, Shiraishi?
What kind of greeting is that?
Oh, did you hunt that?
Perfect timing.
I brought some sake as a present!
Deer lung.
You eat this raw, too.
I'd like some meat...
Call it chitatap!
Hey, Sugimoto, there's still some chitatap left.
Eat it all.
I'm full.
What?
The deer, boldly running across the snow!
The heat of its organs!
The taste of its meat!
It's all proof that the deer lived!
Eat it all, and remember it all!
That is the responsibility we take for our prey!
If I die,
will you be the one person to never forget me?
If you die?
Don't die, Sugimoto!
I'm immortal!
He says he's immortal, Asirpa-chan.
So eat some chitatap.
Chitatap's so good!
Oh, right, Sugimoto.
I came to tell you about something I found out in town.
Information about a prisoner with one of the gold tattoos on his body.
I heard it from a pelt trader.
A man who'd been arrested several years ago for three murders
had showed back up in Otaru.
He was a talented hunter,
and the pelt traders had a name they gave him out of fear and respect.
"Nihei Tetsuzou, the Hunter Who Gives Hibernating Bears Bad Dreams."
That tattoo...
Don't look at me like that, Tanigaki.
It's just small because of the cold.
Usually, it's much bigger than that.
I don't know how you can joke with me after you killed those soldiers.
Are you gonna shoot me, rip off my skin,
and then head back to the military?
Are you a Matagi or a soldier?
Which are you right now?
Nihei Tetsuzou...
I've heard that name before.
Once, there was this group of bad guys who'd kill hunters and steal their prey.
But one day, they picked the wrong guy to go after.
It happened when I'd tracked and slain a bear that had left its den,
and was field dressing it.
Can you hear me, thieves?
When I hunt a bear, I'm willing to risk my life doing it!
If you want to hunt me,
you'd better be ready to end up as animal shit!
You're lower than animals. I won't use my gun on you.
I spent three days tracking them down, one by one,
and beating them to death.
But the last one...
The police that were searching the mountain got to him first.
Oh, you're here, Nihei?
You're too late!
Put down that club!
Stop!
Hey, stop!
Leave him to us!
I'm more obsessed with tracking my prey than a bear.
But I'm not an animal. I'm a human.
And humans have their own laws.
My penalty for following the laws of the mountains was to be sent to Abashiri Prison.
I escaped because I wanted to die in the mountains.
At the end of my battle, the beasts will eat me and shit me out,
and I'll become part of the mountains.
That's my ideal end.
You understand that, right, Matagi Tanigaki?
An older man with an Ainu dog...
It might be the guy we saw earlier.
Oh, and one more thing.
He was asking a pelt trader something interesting.
"If I had a white wolf pelt, what would you pay for it?"
Why didn't you say that sooner?
It wasn't me...
They were after Retar.
Asirpa-san, let's wait for morning.
We need to rest.
It's here.
A clue to the gold's location...
At this point, he won't do much more than act as a hot water bottle.
You'll tell me if the wolf comes, right?
He got us.
Wolf droppings.
When...?
When we were bathing, I'm sure.
A "watching wolf"...
I've heard stories about wolves that track humans and watch them.
We were watched from the first moment we came here, huh?
My boner just won't stop.
When a watching wolf comes after you,
it's said you can discard what you're wearing,
and the wolf will stay focused on it, ignoring you.
It may be watching us right now.
It stinks!
What did you burn?
The droppings he left.
I'm going to make him obsessed with us.
Make him think we're intruders that he hates.
Watch carefully.
This is literally the last fire made with wolf droppings there'll ever be in Japan!
This is where we hunted that deer yesterday.
Both you and I have a murderous air about us that's too strong.
Maybe that's why the wolf found us.
There's a Matagi word called "kibake," to become a tree.
When you wait for your prey,
you become one with the trees around you to hide yourself.
"Kibake," huh?
That's them.
I can't see their faces unless they look this way.
Asirpa-san, back us up with your bow.
He knows what he's aiming at.
Is he aiming at something in particular?
Retar!
Stay back!
There he is.
What's wrong?
Come out!
He sensed my desire to kill, huh?
I have to control my emotions!
Kibake! Kibake!
Boner...
I was interrupted.
Throw that gun over here.
My kibake's ruined if it's that obvious you're ready to kill me.
This is him, right?
Yeah. That's Nihei Tetsuzou.
Shiraishi, huh?
You after my tattoo?
You gonna keep your hand on that rifle?
In the time it takes you to get a bullet out of your pouch,
pull back the bolt, and load it,
I'll have five rounds in your body.
Want to try it?
Let's see who survives on this mountain.
I'm immortal!
You did it, hot water bottle!
You're ready to be animal shit, right?
Next Time Complication
Next time: "Complication."