Chapter 9

Mother (母親, Hahaoya) is the 9th chapter of the Parasyte manga series written and illustrated by Hitoshi Iwaaki.

Overview
''After killing her host's mother for realizing she was an imposter, Ryōko is forced to change her identity. Shinichi begins having a conflict with his own mother due to keeping Migi a secret. Shinichi apologizes and remembers how his mother obtained the burn on her arm. Satisfied, his parents take an overdue vacation to the countryside.''

Summary
Ryoko's mother arrives at her apartment and is let in. She states that she came because the school called her, and Ryoko attempts to leave. Her mother tells her to look at her, and then realizes that Ryoko is no longer her daughter. She attempts to call the police in her panic and Ryoko decapitates her in response, then wonders how the woman saw through her disguise immediately despite her identical face and voice. She decides to clean up the corpse and change her identity soon.

The manga narration states that the number of mincemeat murders has decreased, but the number of people missing increased due to the parasites learning that it was safer to hide the remains of the people they killed.

Shinichi wakes up, and is shocked by his missing arm. His scream startles his mother and father. Migi is currently detached and walking around his room, causing him to freak out more until Migi reconnects. His mother bursts into his room and asks why he screamed, and he frantically replies that he just had a bad dream.

Once she leaves, Shinichi asks what Migi was doing. It replies that it was experimenting on how long it could stay disconnected and how it could move around, which prompts Shinichi to ask if it planned to take over his head. It states that it doesn't know how to control the body because it didn't take over the brain, but it can try if Shinichi likes. He quickly tells it he was kidding.

He then realizes that a parasite that took over the brain could switch to a different body, but Migi states that a head transplant would be very dangerous and might be rejected anyway.

At breakfast, Shinichi's parents state that they plan to have a vacation together now that Shinichi can take care of himself and his father has some time off from work. Shinichi expresses worry about the murders, but his father brushes it off since the number of murders appears to be decreasing, and assumes that Shinichi is just afraid of missing them. His mother states that if Shinichi is worried they don't have to go on vacation, and says that she's noticed Shinichi changed a lot over the last year, asking him if something is bothering him. Shinichi immediately flees while telling her nothing is wrong.

Outside, Shinichi is reminded that Migi is ruthless towards any threats to its existence, including telling his parents.

Nobuko wonders if Shinichi is hiding something and Kazuyuki states that he's just a late bloomer to his rebellious teenage years, possibly due to the scar on Nobuko's arm.

Later at home, Migi reassures Shinichi that parasites usually stays in the cities and targets single travelers whereas his parents will be out in the country together, and possibly even safer on vacation than at home. Nobuko walks in while they're conversing and asks who he was talking to, before telling him dinner is almost ready. He says he was talking to himself and asks her to knock before she opens the door. She uncertainly agrees and leaves.

While washing the dishes, Nobuko tells her husband that Shinichi yelled at her, and he asks if Shinichi was jerking off.

Shinichi later tells his parents that he changed his mind and is fine with them going on vacation, which prompts Nobuko to ask how he could reverse his attitude so swiftly when he was fiercely against it this morning and if he doesn't care about them anymore. She begins to cry, finding it hard to recognize Shinichi as the son she's always known, and begs him to tell her what's going on.

Shinichi looks down at the scar on her arm and tells her that he'll miss them because he's never been alone for so long. He states that he told his friends and they changed his mind because he can invite them over instead if he gets lonely.

The day they leave, Shinichi has a flashback to when his mother got the scar. When he was a kid, he tried to get an aluminum plate for school off a high shelf and fell, causing a pot of boiling tempura oil to nearly fall on him. Nobuko caught the pot, the oil splashing on her hand and leaving a large burn across her palm and arm. In the present his parents remind him of what to keep an eye on in their house, then leave.