Thorny Path

The Senior Council reveals that if the Seven Pillars are cut down, the city members will have to flee, but a portal that connects the human world to the yōkai world will not be created. When the townspeople question the decision, Hime is unable to calm them. On her regular rounds throughout the city, she learns that Akina has sent out recommendations to the townspeople to hide in safe locations, and she accuses him of lacking the resolve to defeat Enjin. A pair of giant yōkai attack, and Hime attempts to defeat one of them by herself, but is defeated. Akina, Kyōsuke, and Kotoha defeat both of them, and Hime is hospitalized. Meanwhile, the Seven Pillars start to grow, and Kyōsuke orders that the townspeople abandon the area. In the hospital, Hime tearfully confides to Akina that she is too weak to save the town by herself, and Ao tells her to allow her friends to help her.