As they bowed once more, Tamao retreated back into the sanctuary, leaving them alone. They stood, and starting walking back to the tree, in silence at first.

“That was…” Akiko wasn’t entirely sure what she wanted to say. “How can you be here now?” she remembered, and now that she thought about it, that fitted with other things she knew about Yoshiko. But she couldn’t ask about that. “Unusually direct,” she finished.

Yoshiko nodded, and suddenly smiled.

“Yes. A straightforward instruction from Tamao. Not quite a first, but still.”

“Why is he so indirect?” It had been bothering Akiko for a while, but there weren’t many people she could ask.

“I don’t think he means to be,” Yoshiko said. “I think he just doesn’t understand the way we think.”

“Oh, yes,” Akiko replied, remembering when she, Shiraishi, and Kazumi had all seen the kami. “He said something like that to us.”

“Really?” Yoshiko looked at her, and then suddenly pulled a face. “Actually, I was rather hoping it was deliberate.”

“Why?”

“Because then there’d be a chance of getting him to stop.” Akiko tried to fight down the giggles that provoked, but when she realised that Yoshiko was also trying to stay serious, she gave up.

Both miko were still laughing when they returned to the tree, Kazumi’s yukata lying at its base. They stopped abruptly.

“It was a very straightforward instruction,” Yoshiko said, looking at Akiko.

“Yes,” Akiko replied, glancing at Yoshiko, and then back at the tree. “I suppose there’s only one way to do this.” She looked back at Yoshiko, who took a deep breath and nodded.

Neither of them moved.

“Kazumi just got undressed?” Yoshiko sounded a bit sceptical.

“Kazumi really doesn’t seem to care about that sort of thing.”

“Oh.”

They stood there for a bit longer, and Akiko suddenly shook herself.

“This is ridiculous. Tamao is obviously right.” She reached for the belt of her hakama, and started to undo it. As she did, Yoshiko also seemed released from the trance, and began to undress.

When they were both naked, they stepped up to the tree, Akiko keeping her eyes fixed on the trunk.

“Ready?” she asked.

“Ready,” Yoshiko replied. Together, they stepped forward, reaching out, touching the bark, pressing their bodies against it.

They stood, side by side, breathing hard, at the foot of a great tree. Sunlight filtered through the leaves above them, while the roots were rough and warm under their bare feet. Akiko felt as though she had just dived through icy water, or perhaps fallen from a great height, or, no, maybe it was more like running through fire. She looked at Yoshiko.

“Are you OK?”

The other miko nodded, looking around.

“Where are we?”

It was a good question. They were surrounded by trees, all as ancient and tall as the kami tree, their branches meeting overhead in a canopy of leaves, their roots stretching out to cover the ground. A gentle breeze blew, caressing Akiko’s skin, pleasantly warm.

Akiko switched her vision over, and gasped.

The trees were all huge, throbbing with life, each leaf pulsing with energy, even a leaf was overwhelming.

Akiko switched her vision back, breathing hard, and realised that Yoshiko was doing the same.

“Did you look?” she asked, and the other miko nodded.

“So much… power. Energy. Life.” Akiko nodded.

“Do you think this is where the kami tree came from?”

“Maybe. Or maybe this is the kami.”

“This forest?”

“Why not?”

Akiko couldn’t answer that, so she just nodded, as she looked round again. She felt, not calm, exactly, but not worried. Exalted, maybe.

“We should look for…”

“I thought I heard voices.” It was Kazumi, above them. Akiko looked up into the tree, to see the girl among the branches. She swung nimbly down, landing in front of them, on the uneven roots, without even stumbling.

“Isn’t this place great?” Kazumi’s eyes were shining. “I mean, did you see that? I just swung out of the tree!” Akiko wasn’t sure what she meant, and Kazumi seemed to pick up on her puzzlement. “I’m not a gymnast,” she explained. “I can’t normally do that. Go on, you try.” Akiko looked up at the tree. It seemed a long way up, certainly further than she thought she could jump. “Look, just jump for the lower branches. Like this.”

Kazumi crouched, and sprang. Her hands closed around a branch, and she swung herself round it and up, releasing her grip at just the right time to land sitting on it. Akiko just stared at her.

“I can’t do that!” Yoshiko was nodding beside her.

“Me neither. Where did you learn it?”

“Here,” Kazumi replied. “Look, just try it. Come on, Akiko.”

Akiko squinted up into the tree, choosing a branch she thought she would be able to sit on. Well, maybe I can do it here, she thought, before crouching.

Her legs seemed stronger than normal, and her hands closed around the branch easily, instinctively. She swung her legs forward without thinking, pivoting up and around, releasing the branch as she tumbled over in the air, and then grabbing it again as she came to rest on top of it, the texture of the bark against her skin sending shivers through her.

Moments later, Yoshiko was sitting on a third branch, a look of wonder on her face.

“Ah. I’m Kazumi Miura, a miko at Tamao Shrine. Pleased to meet you.”

“I’m Yoshiko. I’m also a miko at Tamao Shrine.”

“But…” Akiko cut Kazumi off.

“We aren’t asking those questions.”

“But…”

“No,” Akiko cut her off again. “We have enough to worry about. Yoshiko has been teaching me miko dances for quite a while now; she taught me the secret ceremony for the wild festival.”

“Oh. Can you teach me, too?”

Yoshiko grinned.

“I suppose…”

“Ooh, what happened to your teeth?”

“I blackened them,” Yoshiko replied.

“But only women hundreds of…” Kazumi trailed off. “Right, we aren’t asking those questions.” She looked around for a moment. “I suppose we’d better get out of the tree if we’re going to have a dance lesson.”

Yoshiko got to her feet, balancing on the branch, swinging her arms.

“Hmm, yes. The other branches would get in the way.” She pushed up, jumping off the branch and plummeting to the ground. Akiko looked down, to see her standing calmly under the tree. “On the ground, please.” Kazumi swung down round her branch, spinning in the air to land on her feet, and Akiko grinned, shaking her head.

That girl is a real show-off.

07: Spreading the Light, Episode 44 | 3 Comments »

“I think you should teach Kazumi,” Yoshiko said, as they sat in the tree again after the lesson. Akiko was shocked.

“Do you think I can?”

Yoshiko nodded.

“You’ve made a lot of progress, so it’s rather hard to teach you and Kazumi together.”

“Hmph.” Kazumi stuck her tongue out at them. “Are you saying I can’t dance?”

“I’m just saying you need more lessons. Akiko has been practising for some time, after all.”

“Well, as long was we can practise here,” Kazumi said, “I don’t mind.” But Yoshiko shook her head again.

“You need to practise in vestments, and with the kagurasuzu. I don’t think we can bring those here.”

“Talking of that,” Akiko said, “we should be getting back. It must be getting late.” She looked around. “How, exactly, do we get back?”

“The same way we came in?” Yoshiko suggested. Akiko thought for a moment, and nodded.

“It sounds sensible; certainly worth a try.” She dropped out of the tree, followed by the other two, and stepped up to the trunk, wrapping her arms around it and pressing her body against it.

This time, the shock left her gagging and retching, doubled over at the base of the tree as her stomach heaved. She didn’t even want to think about what it felt like.

“Oh, crap.” It was Kazumi. “Wrong tree.”

Akiko looked up, and saw that she was right. They were all there, all naked, and not in the shrine grounds. Akiko hugged her legs to her chest, trying to cover up as much as possible; Yoshiko was pressed back against the tree, but not vanishing. After a moment, she also dropped to a crouch.

“What is this place?” she asked, her eyes wide as she looked around.

Akiko had been wondering the same thing, but as she recovered from the shock she realised that it looked familiar.

“A park, I think.”

“Yes…” Kazumi had stood up, covering herself with her hands, and then crouched down again. “I know where we are.” Akiko quickly switched her vision to kegare; the surroundings were heavy with it, and she saw a spirit moving, a spirit with many insectile legs and a bird’s skull for a head.

“So do I,” she said, fear clutching at her. “I don’t think this is a good place to be naked.”

“No,” Kazumi agreed, looking around.

Yoshiko was still staring around her, saying nothing, curled into a ball with her back against the tree. Akiko wanted to say something to calm her down, but she hardly felt calm herself.

“Ah, good,” Kazumi said. “Wait here.” Still crouched down, she ran to a rubbish bin, and hid behind it, while apparently calling out to someone. She stood out against the kegare, her body almost — no, actually — glowing. The spirit was a bit smaller than Akiko remembered, but she hoped it wouldn’t bear a grudge.

One of the prostitutes came over to Kazumi, and Akiko could hear her laugh, and even caught a bit of Kazumi’s outraged protest. The prostitute went away again, and then came back and handed a bundle over to Kazumi. The girl scuttled back over to them.

“Here, coats. Put them on and do them up; no-one will notice.” She handed them out; Yoshiko looked at hers for a moment, as if puzzled, and then started pulling it on. Akiko did the same with hers. It was light, and only came part way down her thighs, but it was opaque, and she felt a lot better as soon as she was dressed.

“We should get back to the shrine,” Kazumi said, and Akiko had to agree.

07: Spreading the Light, Episode 45 | 2 Comments »

As they walked through Kawasaki, Akiko was acutely conscious that she was wearing nothing under the coat, and had to resist the temptation to keep a death-grip on the hem.

“No-one will notice if you just walk naturally,” Kazumi had said. “Try to forget about what you aren’t wearing.”

“Do you do this a lot?” Akiko had asked, but Kazumi hadn’t answered. Still, she tried to follow the advice, but it was difficult.

Yoshiko, however, seemed to be having a different problem. She kept flinching away from things around her, from almost everything in fact, and Akiko realised that she was on the verge of panic.

“Yoshiko?” she asked, putting her hand on the other miko’s arm.

“What… where… what is this place?”

“This is Kawasaki.” Yoshiko shook her head violently, and Akiko quickly amended her statement. “This is our Kawasaki. Come on. The shrine isn’t far.” Yoshiko just stood there, apparently frozen, so Akiko put an arm around her shoulders, and started guiding her forwards. She realised that the woman was shaking, trembling, and found herself almost supporting her as they walked forward. After a few moments, Kazumi came to join her on the other side, putting Yoshiko’s arm over her shoulders and gripping the miko round the waist.

“I guess this wasn’t the best way to find out where we were from, was it,” she said. Yoshiko actually managed the ghost of a smile as she shook her head.

And then a car went past, and Yoshiko screamed, pressing herself against the wall of the nearest house, breathing heavily as Akiko and Kazumi tried to calm her down.

“I’m sorry,” she said, at last. “But what was that? Some sort of demon-spirit?”

“Er, no. That was just a car…” Kazumi said. “They don’t have them where you come from. No. Of course not.” It was just a statement, but she looked at Akiko, obviously seeking confirmation of some sort, and Akiko nodded. It really looked as though Yoshiko was from the past. Somehow.

“It’s all right, Yoshiko. It’s safe. Come on, the shrine isn’t far now.”

When the shrine, with protesters and guards gathered at the base of the steps came into view, Akiko realised that she had been so concerned with Yoshiko that she had almost forgotten about her state of dress. Looking at the steps, however, forcibly reminded her. Kazumi glanced across and grimaced, suggesting that she’d had the same thought.

“The shrine!” Yoshiko, however, sounded relieved. “That is the shrine! Who are those people?”

“Half of them are protesting against Shinto, and the other half are making sure they don’t damage the shrine. So, what do we do?” Kazumi asked.

Akiko looked at the situation for a moment. The steps were dark, and the guards would recognise them.

“We just go in,” she said. “If we don’t give them any reason to be suspicious, they won’t notice. Can you walk by yourself?” This last was to Yoshiko, who nodded, straightening herself up.

“I’m sorry. Yes. I’m feeling a lot better now.”

Everyone turned to look at them as they approached, but the guards did quickly recognise them.

“Oh, Ms Tanahata, Ms Miura. We didn’t notice you go out. Welcome back.”

“Thank you,” Akiko said, and led the way up the steps, forcing herself not to run. Slow and steady. Keep it steady and the coat will stay hanging down.

Once they made it into the shrine grounds, however, she did run, racing across the open area and into the forest, heading straight for the kami tree. Yoshiko and Kazumi weren’t far behind her. It was only when they reached the tree, their clothes still neatly piled at the bottom, that Akiko realised Kazumi was laughing.

07: Spreading the Light, Episode 45 | 1 Comment »

Kazumi was dressed in moments, but it took Yoshiko and Akiko a bit longer to get back into their vestments. As soon as they were dressed, Yoshiko bowed to the other two.

“I think I can get back from here,” she said.

“But…” Kazumi was obviously about to ask a question, and Yoshiko shook her head.

“Not tonight. I need to think, first. Please excuse me.” Without waiting for a response, she picked up her lamp and disappeared into the trees.

“If we followed her, do you think…” Kazumi began.

“Quite possibly,” Akiko cut her off. “And I don’t think it’s a good idea. We might not be able to get straight back. Again.” Kazumi looked disappointed for a moment, and then nodded, gathering up the coats.

“Yeah, OK. Enough excitement for one night.” Akiko looked at the coats, and her eyes narrowed as she thought about it.

“Kazumi…” She paused. Better to have the whole conversation once, with Shiraishi. “We need to talk to Revd Shiraishi.”

Kazumi looked at her, and pulled a face.

“Yes, I suppose we do.”

The night was already brightening, and when they got back to the house Shiraishi was up, preparing for the morning rituals. She was a bit surprised to see them coming in, but that made it easy for Akiko to explain that they needed to talk.

Shiraishi knew not to ask too many questions while Akiko told her what had happened, although she did blush deeply when Akiko described how to get inside the kami tree. When Akiko had finished, the priest looked at the table for a few moments, glancing up at both of them from time to time, then took a deep breath.

“This is…” She stopped, and shook her head. “Kazumi, did Akiko miss anything?”

“No…” the girl said slowly, shaking her head. “Think she got the lot.”

“Mm.” Shiraishi nodded, and looked down again. “So, where did you go?” She asked the question quietly, without looking up, and Akiko got the impression she wasn’t really asking them. “And…” The priest stopped, and visibly shook herself, before looking up at them.

“I don’t understand any of this.” She grinned, suddenly. “And I don’t suppose that surprises either of you. So I don’t imagine you can answer most of my questions. Where were you? Who is Yoshiko? Why doesn’t Tamao know what’s going on? What’s the connection to the tree in the park?”

Akiko just shook her head as Shiraishi listed the questions, not even pausing between them. The priest nodded.

“I do have a couple of questions I think you will be able to answer, though. First, er, aren’t you tired?”

“What?” Akiko was a bit surprised.

“From your story, you haven’t slept all night, and you spent most of the time practising kagura in the forest, when you weren’t jumping in and out of trees. Shouldn’t you be tired?”

“I…” Akiko didn’t know what to say, and glanced at Kazumi, who looked equally nonplussed. “Actually,” she said, looking back at Shiraishi, “I feel great. Full of energy. Completely rested.” She glanced across at Kazumi, who nodded.

“Me too. Ready for anything.” The girl paused. “That is really odd, isn’t it?” Akiko nodded, and looked back at the priest, who was looking at them both thoughtfully.

“Yes,” she said. “It is odd. But maybe…” She paused for a minute, then shook her head. “I need to think about it a bit more. OK, second question. Kazumi, about those coats…”

Kazumi suddenly sprang to her feet.

“I have to take them back before school! I’ve got to go!” She rushed out of the room, and Shiraishi sighed, shaking her head.

“Well, I’ll try again this evening.”

07: Spreading the Light, Episode 45 | 7 Comments »

Akiko stood quietly at the back of the room, feeling rather awkward. It wasn’t just that Akira was there, pointedly not looking in her direction, although that was, she had to admit to herself, certainly part of it. It wasn’t even that she had been stuck in the shrine all morning, unable to even look for somewhere to purify. No, she realised that, suddenly, she didn’t feel like she belonged at the shrine.

The ujiko had, as promised at the festival, come to the shrine for a lunchtime meeting. Most of them had clearly known Shiraishi for years, and even the exceptions, like Noriko and Mr Tanaka, knew other people. Akiko had only met any of these people as a miko. They weren’t her friends; she couldn’t chat to any of them. The big exception, of course, had been Akira, but… She looked over at him as the meeting started, and made herself think about the problem.

Why was it a problem? So he fancied her. It wasn’t like that was a new experience for her. And he wasn’t a creepy stalker type. Far from it; she liked Akira. Was that the problem? She just wanted to be friends, and his desires complicated it?

Shiraishi called the meeting to order, and the ujiko started discussing what to do for the shrine. Shiraishi began by explaining the situation with the buildings, and the amounts of money involved made a lot of the ujiko gasp. It was all old news to Akiko, however, so she went back to her own problem.

Was it that she had no romantic interest in Akira? She pondered the issue, looking at him. He was kind of cute, she had to admit. Younger than her, true, but not by so much, and couples with older women were much more common now. And he was president of his own company. That’d make mother happy, she thought, wryly. OK, so there was nothing actually wrong with him. But could she imagine having sex with him?

The discussion had moved on to the tsukinamisai, and the ujiko were promising to support it. Fortunately, this didn’t need much of Akiko’s attention, because it turned out that yes, she could in fact imagine sleeping with Akira, in quite surprising detail.

Am I worried about his father cursing me? she wondered. No, not really. So why, then?

The final topic for discussion was setting up a rota to keep an eye on the shrine, so that Shiraishi and Akiko could go out to purify homes, and the surrounding area, without leaving the shrine unsupervised. Akiko had to contribute to this bit, explaining a little about the need for purification and her role in the ceremonies, while trying not to say too much that sounded weird and off-putting. She wasn’t sure just how many of the ujiko were ready to hear about the spirits.

As she explained, the answer to her own problem became clear.

I can’t start a relationship while I’m fighting evil spirits. I have to concentrate on that first. And it’s not fair to ask Akira to wait.

She looked at Akira again, and he glanced in her direction, smiling as their eyes met, before he blushed and looked down.

Oh, but it is a shame…

07: Spreading the Light, Episode 45 | 5 Comments »

“Hey, you! Show some respect! This is a shrine, not a park.”

Akiko glanced over her shoulder to see one of the guards bearing down on a group of young women who had been giggling together, taking photos in front of the hot spring on their cell phones. Now, however, they were looking confused, and a little worried.

“I don’t suppose you even purified yourselves, much less paid your respects to the kami.”

Akiko stifled a sigh and turned back to the people she’d been talking to.

“Please excuse me.” They nodded, the problem being as obvious to them as to her, and she left them to hurry over.

“Get over to the water basin and purify yourselves. Go on, now.” The guard wasn’t exactly shouting, but he was talking as if they were naughty children.

“Thank you. I’ll deal with it now,” Akiko said as she came up to the women, trying to put as much authority as she could into the glare she shot at the guard. He stopped short, then nodded curtly and strode off back to the entrance. Akiko breathed a sigh of relief, and turned back to the women. What was she going to say? The guard hadn’t actually been wrong in what he said, after all.

“I’m sorry,” she started. “He means well, but he does need to work on his attitude to visitors.” She smiled and bowed a little as she spoke, and as she straightened up, the women looked rather more relaxed. “Would you like me to show you how to do the purification?”

They glanced at each other; clearly they hadn’t actually been thinking about the shrine as a religious site. Then one nodded, and the others joined her. Akiko led them over to the water basin, and showed them how to pour the water over their hands. She was reminded of when Shiraishi had had to show her; it seemed a very long time ago, now.

The women paid their respects, then got Akiko to take a picture of all of them in front of the pool before leaving the shrine, giggling among themselves again. Thinking about the guard’s actions, Akiko looked around for Shiraishi, and had just found her, talking to some more visitors, when there was a shout from the steps.

“You are not going in!” Akiko closed her eyes for a moment as she sighed, and then turned to hurry to the steps, Shiraishi just behind her.

The guards had formed a human wall across the steps, easy enough to do, blocking a man whom Akiko recognised as one of the more frequent protesters. She looked around for Mrs Watanabe, wondering what sort of trouble she was trying to stir up this time, but there was no sign of her.

“Look, let me pass. I’m not going to cause trouble.”

“Too right you’re not. You’re staying out here.”

The man caught sight of Akiko and Shiraishi, and bowed to them. Before Akiko could recover from that shock, he addressed the priest.

“Revd Shiraishi, could I ask you for a purification ceremony?”

07: Spreading the Light, Episode 45 | 2 Comments »

Even though one of the ujiko had turned up in the late afternoon, Akiko and Shiraishi had still not been able to get out of the shrine before Kazumi turned up; there were just too many visitors demanding their attention, or asking for purification ceremonies at the shrine. The former protester had been heavy with kegare, and had actually made a larger-than-normal offering after the harae, possibly out of guilt, and he wasn’t the only one. Turning them away seemed wrong; as Shiraishi had said, they really needed another priest.

Kazumi’s kegare appeared as cockroaches tonight, covering her in a solid mat, shifting over each other in a constant clicking and skittering, never for a moment revealing so much as a glimpse of the girl beneath. The harae quickly dispersed them however, and Kazumi, looking cheerful again, went into the house to shower and change.

“Ms Tanahata! Revd Shiraishi! I think you should come here!” Kazumi was calling from the bathroom, and sounded quite alarmed. Akiko called Shiraishi over — the priest had been on the other side of the grounds, out of earshot — and they went in to see what it was.

Kazumi was standing in the changing area, clutching the knot of the towel wrapped around her body, and staring at the mirror. She glanced at them as they appeared in the doorway, and then nodded at the mirror.

The mirror reflected a forest under a stormy sky, lightning flickering at the base of the clouds. Tamao dominated the centre of the image, his gem-like scales sparkling as they caught and refracted the lightning. Akiko quickly stepped into the room, turning to face Tamao and bowing deeply, and, moments later, Shiraishi did the same.

“Spirit Child, I told you to purify the area, did I not? The kegare is growing in strength. You must not neglect it.”

Shiraishi bowed deeply again, and Akiko quickly followed suit.

“Take the power you have raised, and cleanse my lands,” the kami commanded, and for a moment Akiko felt that she was standing outside, the scent of pine heavy on air that held the promise of a storm. There was a flash of lightning and a deafening crash of thunder, and they were standing in the changing area, looking at their own reflections.

“I guess we’d better make time to get out,” Akiko remarked, before realising that Shiraishi and Kazumi still hadn’t moved. Kazumi’s knuckles were white where she was gripping her towel. “Er, are you all right?”

“Akiko, Tamao just appeared in the mirror.”

“Yes… Oh. Ah, yes. Sorry. He used to do that to me all the time, before I moved to the shrine,” Akiko quickly explained. “Sorry, I forgot that you weren’t used to it.”

“Used to it?” The scepticism was clear in Kazumi’s voice.

“You can get used to anything,” Akiko said, smiling.

“Mm.” Shiraishi seemed to have come out of a trance. “Kazumi, get dressed, and then come to the meeting room. We have to talk before we do anything else.”

“What…” Kazumi began, but then she sighed. “Yes, all right.” She unwrapped the towel and began dressing, and Shiraishi, who had flushed bright red, grabbed Akiko’s wrist and almost dragged her out of the changing area.

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