Ai vanishes after blasting the Shibatas into the lake. Ichimoku Ren yells for her to come back while the spider watches from the destroyed tree. In the lake, Hajime and Tsugumi receive a vision of Ai and Sentaro beginning with Sentaro waking up to his father making straw sandals to sell. Sentaro asks to help his father, but he tells Sentaro to play with Ai as he's her only friend. Ai walks in crying about being bullied and Sentaro runs off to beat the bullies up. A gang of bullies led by a boy named Kokuchi had been bullying Ai because they thought she had brought a butterfly back from the dead and Sentaro defends her because she's his cousin. The bullies respond by saying the entire village is afraid that Ai is an evil spirit. At the waterfall, Ai apologizes for having caused Sentaro trouble, but Sentaro brushes it off, telling her that he does not believe that she's an evil spirit. That winter, a village elder tells Ai's parents that Ai is to be sacrificed to the god of the mountain to ensure a plentiful harvest the next seven years. Sentaro says that the elder just wants to get rid of Ai and the ritual is just a convenient excuse, but the elder says that if that's the case then Sentaro can find a replacement. Ai's parents ask Sentaro to help Ai escape. Sentaro agrees. The next year, the village is experiencing a drought. Ai's mother asks Sentaro for help again. That night, Sentaro sneaks up to a small shrine by the waterfall where Ai is hidden to bring her food and new clothes. In the present, Ai is being ferried to Hell.
The drought continues for another six years and the village is starving and unable to pay their taxes while Sentaro has kept silent about Ai's escape. That night, Sentaro visits Ai at the shrine and sing a children's song about the ritual. They go swimming, but Sentaro decides to leave the village. Kokuchi's gang catches them and Sentaro tells Ai to run, but the bullies drag them back to the village. At the present, Ai's minions discuss what they can do to help Ai. Ren says that Ai rescued them from damnation and they owe her for it. Wanyuudo tells them to calm down though he is visible troubled himself as evidenced by a large pile of cigarettes next to him. In the past, the ritual is being performed a second time, this time with Ai's parents as additional sacrifices. Sentaro's father tells him not to interfere with the ritual as they will both be killed if he does. The villagers beat Ai and her parents and throw her into an open pit. Ai hears Sentaro, but Sentaro is stopped from helping her and given a shovel to bury her with. Ai begs Sentaro for help, but Sentaro knocks some loose dirt into the pit. Enraged by Sentaro's betrayal, Ai curses him. Sentaro runs away as the villagers bury Ai alive, none of them seeing that her eyes have turned blood red. Sometime later, a hand emerges from the ground while Sentaro wakes up to leave the village by night. As he walks along a path up the mountain, he smells smoke and realizes that the village is burning. He returns to see Ai burning the village in revenge for her death down while singing the song about the ritual. Sentaro runs away. In the present, Hajime and Tsugumi have made it back to the temple. Tsugumi doesn't understand why Sentaro betrayed Ai, but Hajime does. Meanwhile, Ai awakens on the boat to Hell.
This episode contains examples of:
- Butterfly of Death and Rebirth: We don't actually see her do this but, according to one of bullies, Ai brought a butterfly back to life. This supposed weirdness to her is what prompts the villagers to pick her for the sacrifice.
- Buried Alive: After killing her parents, the villagers toss an unconscious Ai into the pit.
- Creepy Children Singing: Ai, when the village is on fire and she's covered in blood, after she's taken her revenge.
- Et Tu, Brute?: Ai's vengeance is partly driven by Sentaro's betrayal, which was to save his and his father's lives. However, we get a deconstruction of this, as Sentaro was given something of a Sadistic Choice by the villagers (it was either he do it or the village kills him and his parents).
- Eye Awaken: When Ai wakes up on the boat to Hell, we see both her eyes open.
- Ghostly Goals: Ai avenged her death by burning the village down.
- Good Parents: In a sense, Ai's parents are these, as they decided to defy the order to sacrifice Ai and chose to hide her instead. Unfortunately, this trope didn't help them any.
- Human Sacrifice: As a last ditch to get out of a famine and after finding out she survived, the villagers go a different route and sacrifice Ai and her parents by burying them at a mountain god's shrine. Sentaro's dialogue implies that it's used to hurt people that the village finds inconvenient by targeting their families.
- Ironic Echo: Ai sings the ritual's song while burning the village.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Ai became an Onryō
. - Red Eyes, Take Warning: Ai's Eyes turn red just before she dies.
- Single Tear: One of Sentaro's tears wakes Ai up from unconsciousness, where she sees him putting the first scoop of dirt on her.
