Howdy! Near the portal outside the gate, I spoke to the gate guard and prompted a battle, which removed the sprite. However, when I teleported back to the shrine and then returned, the sprite was still there, preventing me from proceeding. I also think that I merely registered that portal, but didn't take it. I actually went further past the gates and took that portal back, but returning only gave me 3 return options (there should be 4) and the most recent return option seemed to take me to the portal I skipped, which is outside the gate. I hope this helps as a bug report. It was a fun game with cool little yokai sprites.