A whole week had passed by since they had arrived. The entire village were preparing for Tokushima Yokai festival, but they were especially accumulating things for a ceremony. Maria was happy and excited preparing for the festival, she felt as if time had given her a second opportunity to live once again. Lisa had only heard her mother once brag about the Tokushima Yokai festival but had never seen one except in her imagination. However, Lisa had been deprived of her daily dose of folktale ever since their arrival in Tokyo. They would either be preparing for the festival and the scared ritual or would be visiting their extended families. Soon the day of the ceremony arrived and as Daigo was the head of the family his house was full of guest, mostly relatives and some of them were Maria's friends. Lisa had brought her cam recorder because she wanted to film everything only to boast around her friends later on. The ceremony started at 18:30 p.m. at their nearby shrine. Maria pulled her daughter close by who was busy recording the ritual and said, "this shrine is the exact imitation of the one at Mt. Fujiyama." Lisa's eyes widened with curiosity as she looked at her mother who just gave her a smile. Lisa wanted to know more but knew that she would find better insight of the story from her grandfather who was immersed in his devotion, so she was well aware that she had to wait. Her eagerness now was to capture all the corners of the shrine though at first, she wanted to only record the ceremony. With the camera in her hand, she drifted apart from the crowd and went around the temple. She tried to capture everything, but something caught her attention more than anything. She saw a monk beating water with his stick. At first, she thought that he might've been doing that to kill his time but when she got near him, she could hear him singing a hymn which was sweeter than any melody that she had ever heard. She got near to him, but he seemed unaffected by the intrusion of this person. He looked at her and bowed his head. She was curious to know who this person was and why had he been sitting there playing with the water. Before she could ask the monk said, "once this place was empty and had no life, who could have imagined that the same place would've been considered sacred."
Lisa: what do you mean by this place had no life?
Monk: ah. You must have come from far away am I right?
Lisa: yes, this is my first time in Japan. Daigo is my grandfather. Could you tell me more about the history of this temple? Mom told me that this shrine is the imitation of the one at Mt. Fujiyama. Is that right?
Monk: it's a long story and you've come here to celebrate the festival; you should enjoy that rather than listen to the story and I'm sure Daigo-san will tell you the story.
The monk continued beating the water with his stick. Lisa stood there watching and listening to his hymn. At last, the monk looked at her and asked her if she really wanted to listen to his story than attending the festival. Lisa sat nearby and by the look in her eyes the monk had to finally give up.
Monk: the temple at Mt. Fujiyama has a very great legend. Have you ever heard about the story of the war between the ayakashi and humans?
Lisa: my mom tells me the story almost every night (sigh) which is mostly incomplete. The last time she told me about was how the inhabitants of Mt. Fujiyama were rescued and how the goddesses took shelter in the heart of the mountain turning the greenery into frost.
Monk: "a very curious soul indeed" and turning towards the pond he continued the two ayakashis guarded the temple with the outmost loyalty. The more familiar Ginji became the more secluded the white snake became. Ginji would often play around the temple and visit the villagers but there was a young boy named Izumi who turned out to be his best friend. They played all day and thought that the spring would never pass over them, but no one could see the long night that was about to engulf them. Izumi grew so close to Ginji that he had started neglecting his duties. The gap between the white snake and Ginji grew so much that even Ginji failed to see the heart of this ayakashi. To protect Ginji from falling prey into the hands of evil human beings the priest ordered to open the gates of the temple for Izumi so they could meet and play. As the time passed, they became best friends and with each passing season the difference between humans and ayakashis disappeared or so they thought.