The moment the bride crosses the threshold of the house to leave, she is struck dead. The medicine peddler, being a stranger and looking rather suspicious, is seized as the culprit and bound. After an older retainer is killed while attempting to fetch a doctor, the medicine peddler breaks his bounds, reveals himself to also be a demon-hunter, and claims the true villain is a bakeneko. The medicine peddler sets up a barrier to keep the demon at bay and begins questioning the family and their retainers to learn the shape (katachi), truth (makoto) and reasoning (kotowari) of the demon so that it can be exorcised. At first the family prevaricates, but as the demon grows stronger, breaking through the barriers of the medicine peddler and killing their members, they begin to talk, alluding to the family's dark past. As the demon breaks through his final barrier, the medicine peddler attempts to unsheathe his sword and destroy it, but fails and is shown a vision by the demon itself.
