That Which Blocks the Ceremony Takashi and Natori investigate an abandoned home of the extinct Miharu exorcist clan, which is being watched over by the Matoba clan in their stead. One of three yōkai called "the Three Pillars" visit for a few decades and leave. Some of the yōkai are doing whatever they can to disrupt the ceremony. Matoba and Natori end up being locked in a room as the air becomes harder to breathe, and Takashi meets a yōkai who had cut down the cloth earlier. She informs Takashi that she desires the annihilation of the Miharu family, and pushes him and Nyanko-sensei down a trapdoor they had opened.