Shintaro, the young son of the village headman, pleads for help when his father fails to return for two weeks from a shrine on Hijiri Island in the middle of a misty lake. The villagers believe that the village is cursed due to the absence of the headman. InuYasha and his companions travel with Shintaro to the island, being the source of the same purified scent of the demon puppet. Bankotsu appears to fight InuYasha yet again. To make matters worse, InuYasha's Tetsusaiga is rendered powerless against Bankotsu's Banryu. It is explained that Saint Hakushin, the monk of the shrine, is responsible for putting up a barrier surrounding the mountain and the island. Miroku and Shintaro work together to destroy the core of the barrier.