The name of this mushi translates to 'cloud eater.' Normally these are a perfectly harmless mushi, responsible for hail when there isn't a cloud in the sky (to normal people, that is). To those who can see the mushi, they look like pinkish clouds, but nothing more ominous than that.
Kumohami emerging from a child.
In rare cases, however, when there is a long period of time without wind, the kumohami will drop down to earth and go into hibernation, waiting for the wind to return. Because they can't eat or go anywhere without it, they don't have much choice. In even rarer cases, if the mushi happened to drop into a place like a cave where wind doesn't reach, their hibernating forms will petrify and turn to rock.
In this specific case, an inkstone maker found the kumohami stone and made it into an inkstone.
Whenever the inkstone was wetted and rubbed with an ink-stick in order to make ink, a little of the kumohami woke up and tried to return to the sky.
Unfortunately for everyone involved, many people who used the stone ended up inhaling the kumohami. The only way to get rid of a kumohami that has infected a person is to go high into the mountains, so the mushi leaves your body for its natural habitat. Because most of the people infected lived at a low altitude, however, the kumohami had no way to escape their bodies and ended up freezing them to death by trying to feed off the moisture in the human body and release it as snow and hail. In the end, Ginko was able to save the children that had been affected and convince the one who owned the inkstone to release the rest of the kumohami into the sky.
Kumohami
The name of this mushi translates to 'cloud eater.' Normally these are a perfectly harmless mushi, responsible for hail when there isn't a cloud in the sky (to normal people, that is). To those who can see the mushi, they look like pinkish clouds, but nothing more ominous than that.
Kumohami emerging from a child.
In rare cases, however, when there is a long period of time without wind, the kumohami will drop down to earth and go into hibernation, waiting for the wind to return. Because they can't eat or go anywhere without it, they don't have much choice. In even rarer cases, if the mushi happened to drop into a place like a cave where wind doesn't reach, their hibernating forms will petrify and turn to rock.
In this specific case, an inkstone maker found the kumohami stone and made it into an inkstone.
Whenever the inkstone was wetted and rubbed with an ink-stick in order to make ink, a little of the kumohami woke up and tried to return to the sky.
Unfortunately for everyone involved, many people who used the stone ended up inhaling the kumohami. The only way to get rid of a kumohami that has infected a person is to go high into the mountains, so the mushi leaves your body for its natural habitat. Because most of the people infected lived at a low altitude, however, the kumohami had no way to escape their bodies and ended up freezing them to death by trying to feed off the moisture in the human body and release it as snow and hail. In the end, Ginko was able to save the children that had been affected and convince the one who owned the inkstone to release the rest of the kumohami into the sky.