[3][4] During Heian period, well-renowned fortune-teller Kamo no Yasunori reads his oracle scroll The Golden Crow and learns he should adopt a particular girl.
Yasuna discovers identical twin girls born to Lord Shoji of Izumi at the correct time and returns with the older one, Sakaki.
Ten years later strange omens and The Golden Crow tell Yasunori that the heirless crown prince is cursed and the country will soon be in turmoil.
Yasunori's wife lusts after Doman and has her husband killed on the road blaming the murder on bandits.
Yasunori's widow privately confesses to Doman that she stole the scroll to help him succeed and she initiates an affair with him.
Yasuna escapes, finding Sakaki dead and overhearing the deceitful plan he goes mad and attacks the conspirators.
She remains in Kuzunoha's form and, with Yasuna still believing her to be Sakaki, the pair live in a small isolated hut and have a child together.
Some wandering men see Kon and soon Lord Shoji arrives at the hut with his wife and Kuzunoha who is lovesick for Yasuna.
The scene changes to a Sessho-seki, roughly the size of a human adult lying in foetal position, with a flame looking like that in which the kitsune appeared floating around it.