The forbidden treasure: Onigari-no-ryuuou.

It's the most valuable asset of the Furude Shrine that's kept in the ritual storehouse.

In ancient times...

when this place was a chaotic world of both humans and demons, this precious sword defeated the demon god.

However, nobody has seen it for a thousand years.

According to the legend, it is sealed in the statue dedicated to Oyashiro-sama in the ritual storehouse.

Because of its structure, as long as the belief in Oyashiro-sama continues, it will remain a forbidden tool, forever sealed away.

Also, it is only mentioned in the forbidden scrolls of the Furude Shrine.

Therefore, only a handful of the Furude family heads have ever known about its existence.

According to several of these forbidden scrolls, the sword is shaped like a willow branch.

There are some ink paintings of the sword, made by a few Furude heads, but none of them match that description.

That means they drew those pictures from their imagination.

The legend says there was a girl named Ouka who received a divine message that commanded her to defeat the demon god.

However, neither the swords of humans or demons could conquer the demon god.

It would require a blade that was neither a human sword nor a demon sword...

Only a sword that mixes human and demon qualities could defeat the demon god.

(*It has been said repeatedly that the ancestors of Hinamizawa are half-demon and half-human.

Ouka Furude (dates unknown) is said to be the first person whose blood was mixed in that way. This description is what conveys that.)

Heaven gave Ouka a precious sword.

The precious sword was shaped like a willow branch.

Its tip split three ways, which symbolized Heaven, Earth, and people in unity. It also symbolizes the harmony between Heaven, demons, and humans.

Ouka headed to the swamp where the demon god hid and defeated him with this treasured sword.

(*Each forbidden scroll describes how she defeated the demon god differently.

Some say she disciplined him, some say he ran away, some say he surrendered. What happened to the demon god afterwards is unclear, too.

The oldest scroll says the precious sword destroyed the demon god's horn, but other books don't mention that.)

The precious sword that defeated the demon god was then enshrined, and was named Onigari-no-ryuuou.

Ouka sealed this precious sword in the deepest place of the shrine to hide its existence forever.

(*Even if it was created to slay the demon god, the sword didn't belong in this world anymore, and shouldn't exist on the face of the Earth. Some said that was why it was removed from the human world.

But some said Ouka was the daughter of the demon god, and that she wanted to banish the sword that killed her mother.)

The ancient cult of Oyashiro-sama suggested Oyashiro-sama was this demon god.

The source of chaos, the source of all that was evil, and the source of all friction...

To prevent the demon god from returning to the human world through worship and comfort is the root of that ancient cult.

(*This may be a type of cult devoted to an evil god.

This idea that it's not worshipped for protection but to stave off a curse links slightly to the modern worship of Oyashiro-sama,

but seems slightly distant from the modern worship that asks for Oyashiro-sama's blessings and sees them as a god of marriage and good relationships.)

It fosters the argument that humans are good by nature, saying that all discord is the work of Oyashiro-sama, and there are no demons in the world of man.

After that, the legend continues on to what we know today... The harmony of humans and demons...

But in this era, all the scrolls on the origin of the belief in Oyashiro-sama, and the scrolls of the Matriarch of the Furude family, have been sealed due to being forbidden.

That happened probably because the new image of Oyashiro-sama, that of a loving and affectionate god, and the ancient image of Oyashiro-sama, the source of all evil, didn't match.

It became too difficult to explain the faith's doctrine.

Also, if one believes the forbidden scrolls, the Furude family was descended from one who killed her own mother. That would mean their blood was cursed.

If all of that is true, then today's faith is very different from the one that was started by the Matriarch.

One of the leaders of the Furude family from hundreds of years ago wrote this.

The Onigari-no-ryuuou, the legendary precious sword, is the symbol of both the Furude family and the sins of the human world.

It was an era where people pushed the source of their evil onto others, and could only purify their sins by killing one another.

The Matriarch (*1) took in the root of all evil herself and let her child murder her. That was how this place was freed from the chaos.

(*1: The Matriarch usually means Ouka Furude, but sometimes it means her mother.

The notion that the Matriarch was the demon god was a taboo among the Furude family.

However, obviously some leaders interpreted it that way.)

When the Furude family or when the world of man commits the foolish act of seeking to blame others and tries to return to the world of demons...

That is when faith will disappear, and the statue's head will shatter. That's when the Onigari-no-ryuou will reappear to us.

This second coming will once again revive the memory of the Furude family's forgotten sins...

Is the demon god a fictional legend?

Or someone who actually existed?

In some rare cases, babies were born with horns, and they were called children of the demon god.

Descendants of the Furude family who will read this...

The myths passed down by our forbidden scrolls are numerous and their content vastly differs.

But don't get caught up in the smoke.

No matter how different all of these scrolls are, there is one thing they all want to convey.

Search the heart of Ouka Furude, the one who sealed the Onigari-no-ryuuou forever.

That is the fate that all the Furude family leaders must understand.