Chapter 8

Species (種（しゅ）, Shu) is the 8th chapter of the Parasyte manga series, written and illustrated by Hitoshi Iwaaki.

Overview
After b''ecoming severely injured by Shinichi, A tries to escape and merge with Ryōko. Ryōko had other plans and kills A in an explosion. After things settle down, Ryōko is fired from her teaching position for being pregnant and unmarried, and decides to change identities. Outside the school Shinichi has a talk with Ryōko and learns she plans to kill him. However, after discovering that Shinichi and Migi are merging, she decides to let Shinichi live.''

Summary
A catches Migi's tentacles and throws Shinichi and Migi past the desk barricade. Migi declares that the blood loss is fatal, while A is shocked at the human host attacking. He then pushes the pipe completely through his body, blocking off the blood loss, and stumbles slowly away. Migi tells Shinichi to follow and kill him, but Shinichi refuses to be a killer.

A struggles onward towards Ryoko's signal, hoping to join her host body.

Outside, the police arrive. Yamamoto is seen with the students.

Migi accepts Shinichi's decision and tells him to leave, while A reaches the room Ryoko is currently residing in. As he enters, the room explodes, startling all the students including Satomi and Shinichi.

Shinichi's mother and father are seen listening to the news about the killer A, whose body cannot be identified due to the explosion obliterating his upper torso.

A month later, the school settles down. Shinichi remains preoccupied due to thinking about Ryoko even on his walks to school with Satomi. At home, he states to Migi that they have to kill Ryoko to stop whatever murders she's causing, but Migi tells him that they're unlikely to beat her since she's more clever than A and now knows how Migi fights. Migi also reminds Shinichi about the human baby she's carrying, assuming that he would be bothered by killing it.

At school, Ryoko's pregnancy is brought up during a faculty meeting, and she is berated for being an unmarried teacher yet pregnant with a fatherless child. She states her surprise that this issue is what creates trouble for her, and decides to quit being Ryoko Tamiya altogether. While chatting with Kamijo and Nagai, Shinichi overhears this and confronts her later outside of school.

She tells him that now that she is discarding her human identity, she has no reason to let the people around her live. Shinichi asks why she kills people, since Migi subsists on his own blood and nutrition, and therefore Ryoko should be capable of living without eating humans. Ryoko agrees, but states that, like other organisms, she is simply following "orders", and the order she received when she took over her host's head was to kill and eat her host species.

Shinichi then asks her what she plans to do with the baby. She states she will experiment on it, and if that fails, she can eat it, which angers him. Annoyed, Ryoko decides to kill him and begins splitting her face into multiple blades which intimidates Migi. She then notices something in Shinichi's gaze, determines that Shinichi and Migi have begun mixing, and decides to let them live instead. She leaves, leaving Shinichi confused.