Kuroneko

Yone and Shige are raped and murdered by a troop of samurai, and their bamboo grove house is burned to the ground. A black cat appears, lingering at the smoky scene and licking at the bodies.

The two women return as elegant ghosts and wait at Rajōmon. They plan to lure samurai to an illusory mansion hidden in the bamboo grove where their house was burned.

The ghosts lure the samurai to the illusory mansion, seducing them with their beauty and then killing them with feline swiftness, tearing throats with their teeth. The murder unfolds within the bamboo grove’s illusion, leaving the region haunted.

In northern Japan, a battle against the Emishi unfolds. A young warrior named Hachi kills the enemy general, Kumasunehiko, and returns the severed head to Governor Raikō.

Hachi reveals he fought as Gintoki and is made a samurai by Raikō in recognition of his feat. He sets out to find his mother and wife, sensing their danger.

Gintoki learns his mother and wife are missing and that their house has been burned. The tragedy pushes him deeper into his new role as a samurai tasked with eradicating the ghosts.

Raikō assigns Gintoki the mission to destroy the spectral killers. Gintoki accepts, beginning the hunt for the revenant sisters.

Gintoki encounters Yone and Shige and realizes they are his mother and wife. They explain their pact with the underworld to return and kill samurai in vengeance.

Shige breaks her seven-night pledge of love with Gintoki, violating the pact that bound them. As punishment, she is condemned to the underworld while Yone remains bound to the mortal realm.

Gintoki informs Raikō that he has destroyed one of the ghosts. The confession weighs on him as he mourns the lives lost and the cost of vengeance.

Gintoki confronts the second ghost at Rajōmon, and in a brutal strike he cuts off her arm, which takes on the appearance of a cat's limb. He brings the severed limb to Raikō as proof of the second ghost's death.

Raikō orders seven days of ritual purification before any further action. Gintoki prepares to endure the rites while grieving for his losses.

During the purification, Yone visits as a seer and deceitfully gains the limb from Gintoki before escaping. Gintoki remains distraught and bewildered by the turn of events.

Gintoki stumbles through the woods toward the cottage where he first faced the ghosts. He collapses as the walls vanish, revealing the charred remains of his family home at last.

Snow falls and covers his body as a cat meows in the distance. The tale closes on Gintoki's grief, with the revenant cycle complete and the family never returned.