Shishi Gami kisses Okkotonushi's muzzle. Okkotonushi quickly loses his vitals, and falls onto the ground. Shighi Gami has taken his life. Moro, standing next to him, collapses at the same time.

Shishi Gami looks up the moon in the sky, and starts transforming into Didarabocchi. Eboshi tries to shoot it again. Ashitaka throws his sword, which hits Eboshi's Ishibiya and forces it to misfire.

Shishi Gami turns and looks at Eboshi with its strange eyes. Plants sprout out of her Ishibiya.

"Damn You!! Monster!!"

Eboshi shoots the Ishibiya again.

The bullet hits the half-transformed Shishi Gami in its neck. The head of Shishi Gami falls onto the ground.

The headless body of Shishi Gami turns into black tar-like slime and explodes. Everything it touches dies. Great trees fall down, and dead kodamas fall like snow.

Eboshi grabs Shishi Gami's head, and throws it to Jiko Bou, who puts it in a container and runs off with his men.

Suddenly, Moro's head, detached from her body by the black ooze, flies and bites off Eboshi's left arm. Moro's head dives straight into the slime, and dies.

Ashitaka and Gonza run to Eboshi, and attend her wound. San demands Ashitaka to give Eboshi to her so that she can tear this woman apart. But Ashitaka says that Eboshi has been punished enough.

The slime has now taken the shape of a headless Didarabocchi. Searching for its head, it roams around. The forest keeps dying at its touches.

Ashitaka asks San to help him to stop the catastrophe.

Shuddering in rage and grief, San cries:

"No!! You too are on the side of the humans! Take that woman and go away!"

Ashitaka approaches her, with his arms open.

San: "Don't come near me!! I loathe humans!"

Ashitaka: "I am a human. And you... are a human, too."

San: "Shut up!! I'm a wolf!!!"

Blinded by rage, she stabs Ashitaka in chest with the stone knife he gave her. But Ashitaka takes her into his arms, and holds her tightly.

Ashitaka: "I'm sorry. I tried to stop them..."

In a numb voice, San murmurs:

"It's all over. Shishi Gami is dead."

But Ashitaka answers:

"No it isn't, since we are still here."

16. Tatara Ba

The siege has temporally ceased as the Samurais take a night rest. Inside the hold of Tatara Ba, the survivors are also asleep, exhausted. Toki is awake, and next to her is a leper woman, who is fixing Toki's Ishibiya. They talk, laugh, and share food, as they await the dawn.

As the eastern sky begins to light up, they hear a strange sound coming from the direction of the forest. They see a headless giant rising over the hill, and Samurais running away for their lives as it approaches Tatara Ba.

Ashitaka and San, riding the two wolves, run up to Tatara Ba. Ashitaka shouts to them that they should evacuate to the lake, as water seems to slow the slime down.

As the people leave Tatara Ba, Didarabocchi destroys it. Watching the main building burn, Kouroku cries:

It's finished! We are through!"

Carrying a leper woman on her back, Toki scolds him:

"As long as we are alive, we'll manage!"

Ashitaka and San find Jiko Bou and his men, carrying the container with the head in it. Ashitaka tells Jiko Bou to return the head to Shishi Gami, but Jiko Bou will not listen to him, saying that it's human nature to desire everything between heaven and earth. He says that returning the head would have no effect since Didarabocchi will die once it's exposed to the morning sun.

Ashitaka says that returning the head is the least that the humans should do, and tries to persuade Jiko Bou. But Jiko Bou attacks Ashitaka.

While Ashitaka and San are fighting against Jiko Bou and his men, the black slime of Didarabocchi surrounds them. Jiko Bou finally gives up, and opens the container.

Ashitaka and San hold Shishi Gami's head up. Golden liquid drips down from the head, and leaves red-black marks all over the bodies of Ashitaka and San. Ignoring the pain from the mark, Ashitaka shouts at Didarabocchi:

"Shishi Gami! We shall return your head. Please be calm!"

Didarabocchi stretches its neck towards its head. As Didarabocchi bends over them, Ashitaka holds San tightly. And Ashitaka and San are enveloped in golden light...

The body of Didarabocchi changes its color from dark gray to gold, then its usual blue. Having regained its head, Didarabocchi slowly stands up.

Then, the first light of morning strikes it.

Didarabocchi slowly falls down on the lake. It flashes with a bright blue-white light, and disappears instantly.

As it disappears, a wind blows through. It blows out the fire at Tatara Ba, and blows off everything, such as buildings, trees, horses, and Samurais.

After the wind, plants start sprouting all over. The earth burned by Didarabocchi is now covered entirely with green.

The Tatara people are watching this from the lake, stupefied. A leper woman looks at her hand, and realizes that the mark of her disease has disappeared.

Nudged gently by Yakkul, Ashitaka wakes up to find himself and San lying on a grassy plain. San is still in his arms. Ashitaka wakes her up, and shows her what Shishi Gami has done.

San: "Even if it comes back, this is no longer Shishi Gami's forest. Shishi Gami is dead..."

Ashitaka: "Shishi Gami cannot die, since it's life itself. It has both life and death. It told me to live..."

As he says so, Ashitaka looks at his right hand. The mark has almost disappeared; only a light scar is left.

Mounting one of the wolves, San says to Ashitaka:

"I love you, Ashitaka. But I cannot forgive humans."

Ashitaka smiles and says:

"That is all right. San, you in the forest, and me in Tatara Ba, we shall live on together. I will go see you, with Yakkul."

San gives him a slight smile and heads for the forest with the wolves.

Eboshi is surrounded by her people. In a sardonic tone, she laughs at herself, for the irony of being saved by wolves, carried out of the forest on their backs. She asks her people to bring Ashitaka to her, so that she can thank him.

Then she smiles at her people, and says:

"We will start all over. Let's make this village a better one."

In the plain where he has been hiding, Jiko Bou laughs and says:

"I give up! You can't win against fools."

At the shore of Shishi Gami's pond, great dead trees look like white bones. On the foot of them are sprouts, and a little Kodama appears among them. As it clatters its head, the sound echos through the forest...