Natsume helps clean the stoeroom at Taki's house with Tanuma. He realizes that one of the kimonos that her grandfather, who researched youkai, used to ward off demons was missing, but decides not to tell them so they won't be scared. But that kimono was an old doll youkai, who was trying to recover its body which was torn apart when her grandfather sealed it

Natsume finds out who's been stealing the youkai blood: the exorcist Matoba Seiji. He investigates with the help of Natori, but is captured by Matoba's servant youkai. Matoba is willing to sacrifice any number of youkai for his own ambitions. He tells Natsume why he's gathering blood: to release the seal on a powerful youkai. Natsume learns that there are people who treat Youkai in a totally different way than he or even Natori.