Yeaaaah... more or less. And we need them to believe in us to keep existing properly in most cases. But, because a couple spirits have tricks and flit in and out sometimes, like Tanuki? Sometimes stuff from the outside world gets in.

...

Actually the whole "If you don't believe in me, I stop existing" thing, might help you? You remember I was letting people pray at the shrine, and you were suggesting I try and be something else, believing I could? It's... related. What you believe? How you treat a spirit? It can change them.

A bridge princess is still a bridge princess. But a youkai is what happens if a spirit is corrupted. So, what you've been helping try to do is to reverse that.