Akiko’s dreams were of dark, polluting creatures chasing her, and of her money running out completely, leaving her living on the streets and begging from passers-by. Despite that, she woke up feeling refreshed. Stressed, but refreshed. Getting out of bed, she took another shower while planning her day.

At first, she kept going over and over her encounters with the contamination creatures, shuddering involuntarily as she recalled how she had felt afterwards. For all her thinking, however, she had no idea what they were, where they came from, or how to deal with them. This did not make her feel any better, but in the end she looked at herself in the mirror, and told herself to stop worrying about the things she could do nothing about.

It didn’t work. It did, however, let her worry about her lack of money as well, and on that topic she was able to come up with some more plans. Obviously, she had to keep looking for a proper job, but she needed to get some income as soon as possible, and keep her expenditure down. What if one of those things injures me? I need some savings, she thought as she dried her hair. She needed to find a part-time job, one that would leave her time to hunt for a real job but provide enough money for her to live. She frowned. That wasn’t going to be easy. She couldn’t afford to keep staying in love hotels, that was for sure.

“Are you looking for staff at the moment?” Akiko had gone to one of the cafes near the station, one that she remembered having a recruiting poster in the window.

“Not right now, sorry. If you leave your contact details, we’ll get back to you if we have anything.” Akiko nodded, and started filling the forms in.

“Do you have any idea when you might be hiring again?”

“No, sorry. It depends on when someone quits, you see.” Akiko nodded in understanding, handed over the form, and moved on to the next place.

“Do you have any food preparation qualifications?” The question surprised her.

“Er, no…”

“I’m sorry, then, but we have all the serving staff we need right now. All the vacancies are in the kitchens.”

“Can I leave my contact details?”

“You could, but there are already more than twenty people on the waiting list. We have good staff retention.”

“Oh, I see. Thank you.” On to the next candidate.

“Can you put a kimono on?”

“What?” That was a very unexpected question. “Well, not by myself.”

“Oh, I see. We have a couple of vacancies in the kimono department, but you have to wear a kimono if you work there. There’s nothing else at the moment, I’m afraid.”

“Can I leave my contact details?”

“Of course.”

Working down the list, she moved on.

“I’m really sorry, but I’m afraid not.”

“But you have a poster in the window!”

“I know. I meant to take that down, which is why I’m really sorry. A whole bunch of high school girls came in this morning and all signed up together. Strength in numbers, perhaps. Anyway, I had to push things to take them all on as it is, so I’m afraid we really have no vacancies at all just now.”

“I see.” Akiko was quite despondent.

“You could leave your contact details, though.”

“No, that’s all right. I’ll call back.”

Not even McDonalds would hire her.

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It was dark when she got back to the station after a fruitless day searching for jobs and a slightly more productive hour or so cleaning the precincts at Tamao Shrine. She pulled her stuff out of the coin locker, and looked around, wondering where she could sleep. The hotels around the station were definitely too expensive, and she couldn’t even afford to go back to the love hotel, at least not until she got some sort of job.

Not even McDonalds! That still rankled. On the bright side, she hadn’t seen any of the creatures. Maybe they stayed in certain areas; another reason not to go back to the love hotel. And… She shied away from the memory, unwilling to even acknowledge it.

As she looked around, her eyes fell on a board advertising a manga cafe. “Sofa cubicles! Open 24 hours! Shower rooms!” A quick bit of mental arithmetic suggested that she could stay there for a couple of thousand yen, which was much better than the hotels. Picking her bags up, she headed in the indicated direction.

The cafe was quite dark, a maze of cubicles with walls that were just a little taller than her, with simple doors. There were, indeed, sofas in every cubicle, along with a computer and a desk, and the drinks machine was free. The food machine wasn’t too expensive either. The desk clerk had seemed completely unfazed by the amount of luggage she was carrying.

“Don’t forget to lock the shower room door. Someone gets embarrassed every week, and it’s mostly men here at night.” Akiko felt herself blushing at the very thought.

“I’ll be careful.”

“Ladies toilets are on the third floor, so you probably want to go up there. Most of the manga are down here, so there are empty cubicles. Quieter, too. Sound good?”

“Oh? Oh, yes, that’s fine.”

“You’re in J35, then. Bring this to the reception desk when you leave. Oh, it’s a thousand yen in advance, the rest when you go.” Akiko handed over a thousand yen note, and took the plastic block the clerk handed to her.

“Thank you.”

“Thank you. Good night.”

“Good night.” Akiko was already climbing the stairs when she realised what the clerk had said. She cringed with embarrassment; he’d realised she was planning to stay the night.

In the cubicle, she just took her shoes and coat off before stretching out on the sofa. It was quite comfortable, and the third floor did seem to be largely deserted. There were no strange creatures to be seen, either.

Soon, she fell asleep.

The shouting woke her up.

“Find your own manga!”

“I was already reading that. You took it from my cubicle.”

“Did not! You want to make something of it?”

“Think you’re hard, don’t you? Go home now, while you can.”

“Bloody idiot!”

Then there was a crash, followed by another, and rather less coherent shouting. Akiko sat up, and pushed open the door of the cubicle, looking around. She could see nothing but the corridor, and a couple of other open doors as other people looked to see what the trouble was. Then a couple of members of staff came charging up, and she ducked back in as they went past.

There was more shouting as the offenders were faced down and thrown out, and the staff issued apologies as they went past. Akiko settled back down, and was asleep again far faster than she had thought likely.

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The morning was a repeat of the previous day. Akiko visited several shops that weren’t hiring right now, and spent a couple of hours in a cafe calling companies who were no longer interested in the jobs they had advertised. By lunchtime she had called all of the reasonable candidates, with no luck at all. She ordered some food in the cafe; it was slightly expensive, but after sitting there all morning she didn’t feel that she could just leave to eat elsewhere.

She did leave after the meal, though, to avoid being forced to eat dinner there as well. After an hour wandering aimlessly around the shopping area, she came to the conclusion that she had asked in all the shops that looked at all likely. She knew that she ought to try the ones that didn’t look likely, as well, but she just couldn’t summon up the motivation.

She found herself walking away from the station, towards the shrine, and decided to continue. She had nothing better to do, and the shrine was a better place to be sitting than in front of the station like some unemployed homeless person. Even if she was an unemployed homeless person.

After purification and paying her respects, Akiko looked around the shrine, deciding what to do. There was no litter she could see, and probably none hidden, since she had found only a couple of small pieces the previous day. There were, however, some weeds growing in the path, and she decided to pull them up. The grey stones were cool to the touch, and the scattering of earth from the roots of the weeds fell like black stars against clouds.

“I’ve made some tea. Would you like some?”

Akiko hadn’t heard Shiraishi approach, and she quickly stood up to greet the priest properly.

“Yes, thank you.”

“It’s inside. Come on in.” Shiraishi led the way, and, in the entrance way, pointed at a corner. “Leave the weeds there. I’ll throw them out later.”

Once they were seated and drinking the tea, Shiraishi turned to Akiko, slightly hesitant.

“Er, thank you for doing the weeding.” Akiko bowed her head in acknowledgement.

“It’s really nothing.”

“I can’t help noticing that you’re here on a weekday afternoon…” Her voice trailed off, and she seemed to be blushing slightly. Akiko was sure she was.

“Oh, yes. I’m… I’m not working today.” Perfectly true, she told herself.

“Mmm.” Shiraishi didn’t sound entirely satisfied. “Are you all right?”

“What? Oh yes, I’m fine. Why shouldn’t I be?” Even as she said it, Akiko realised it was a silly thing to say, given what she had said to Shiraishi and what the priest had seen. She felt herself blushing again, and dropped her eyes.

“Well, I was just a bit worried, you know…” The priest was probing a bit, and Akiko seriously considered telling her everything. It had gone wrong last time, but they seemed to have got over that, and the priest already knew about Akiko seeing Tamao. For a moment, she wanted to, but she couldn’t quite make herself form the words.

“No, I’m fine.” Picking up the tea, she forced a smile over the top of the cup.

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“Revd Shiraishi? Are you there?” A voice called from the entrance, relieving Akiko of the need to say anything more. The priest’s face set hard in a moment, and she got to her feet, looking almost angry.

“Please excuse me, Akiko. Could you go and work outside again?”

“Yes,” Akiko said, surprised. “Yes, of course. Thank you for the tea.”

“You’re quite welcome.” Akiko stood, and the priest escorted her to the door, where a businessman was standing. Akiko thought he looked familiar, and he looked startled when she appeared, looking at her quite hard for a moment. Where did she know him from? He did not greet her, or even really acknowledge her, before turning back to the priest.

“May I come in?”

“I suppose so.” Both of them glanced at Akiko, and she took the hint, bowing and leaving the house.

As she was pulling weeds up, she racked her brains. She had definitely seen the man before somewhere, and she had a sense that it was important. She hadn’t just seen him on the street. There was a chill breeze, and she looked up. The sky was darkening, the clouds thickening and turning an ominous black. She could see the underside swirling as the wind drove it, wind that was getting stronger by the moment. Keeping a firm grip on her carrier bag, Akiko continued pulling up the weeds, but the wind was whipping the dirt up, and some of it was getting in her eyes. As she sat back on her heels, blinking rapidly to clear her vision, the man came back out of the shrine house, followed by Shiraishi.

“The answer is still no,” she said, almost shouting.

“Call me when you change your mind,” he replied, his tone patronising, and Akiko suddenly remembered where she had seen him: Mr Wakabayashi, the construction company boss, who had come to her company a few days before she was sacked.

“I won’t.” Shiraishi sounded very determined, but Wakabayashi just bowed to her, and turned to leave.

As he did so, the heavens opened and torrential rain began, as if someone had turned on a tap. The torii almost vanished beyond a grey curtain of water, and the spray bouncing back from the path was higher than Akiko’s thighs as she knelt there. She was soaked before she had properly registered that the rain had started, and moments later she felt water flowing down the path from behind her, flowing into her trousers and between her legs, running away in front of her to cascade down the steps. Wakabayashi had put up a useless umbrella, hurried away, doubtless to a waiting car. Akiko stood up, and hurried over to the shrine house, taking care not to slip, intending to wait in the porch.

Shiraishi was there, her face set, her expression somehow strange.

“You’re already soaked to the skin, aren’t you?” Akiko nodded. “Let me get you a yukata. You can use the bath again.” The priest forced a smile. “You must be a rain woman.”

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When Akiko emerged from the bathroom in her yukata, there was no sign of the priest or her clothes.

“Revd Shiraishi?” There was no immediate response, and Akiko made her way to the waiting room. The tea things were still on the table, and her clothes were carefully hung over stands. Akiko reached out to feel it, but even her underwear was still too wet to wear.

Well, it’s not like I have somewhere else to be, she thought. But where is Revd Shiraishi?

“Revd Shiraishi?” she called out again, louder this time.

“In ‘ere.” The reply was slightly slurred, and Akiko followed the sound back into the house. She found the priest sitting by a table, a half-empty large bottle of sake and cup in front of her. As Akiko entered, she was pouring herself another drink.

“Kanpai!” she said, with a half smile, and then she barked a humourless laugh, before downing the contents of the cup and filling it again.

“Revd Shiraishi, are you all right?”

“Course I am. Fine. What could possibly be wrong? You juss sit there. I’m busy.” She drained another cup, and looked away from Akiko as she filled it again. Her face was already red, and Akiko, looking at the size of the bottle, was suddenly worried.

“Revd Shiraishi…”

“I’m fine, I said. Lemme alone. I dint push you. You can wait til your things are dry, course. But lemme alone. Go on. Go.” She made shooing motions with her hands as she picked up the cup, spilling a lot of sake on the table. “Shit.”

As Shiraishi started pouring herself another drink, Akiko went back to the waiting room, not wanting to upset her further, but very worried. As she paced the room, wondering what she could do, her eyes fell on a stack of business cards. The top one belonged to Mr Takenaka, and had his address on. It was really very close to the shrine. She pulled out her cell phone, but as she opened it the screen flashed “battery low” at her, and it died. Cursing herself for not recharging it at the hotel, she looked out of the window and the torrential rain, and then crept back inside to peep in at Shiraishi, who was still drinking. Sighing, she went back to the waiting room and changed into her wet clothes, shivering at their touch.

Not that it’s really worth drying them out, she thought.

Changed, she checked the address again, picking up the business card, and borrowed one of Shiraishi’s waterproofs before heading out into the rain.

Despite the coat, she was soaked, again, before she had even got to the bottom of the steps. The water running along the road was up to her ankles, and she had to step carefully to avoid falling over. Peering at the address plates on gates and lamp posts, she found her way to the right house, the Takenakas’ name on the board.

She rang the doorbell, and worked out what she wanted to say. Akira answered.

“Ms Tanahata?” He sounded very surprised, which was only to be expected.

“It’s Revd Shiraishi. She’s… well…” drinking herself into oblivion, Akiko thought, but she couldn’t say that.

“I’ll get my father,” Akira said, disappearing back into the house. When Mr Takenaka appeared, he was already getting ready to go out.

“Is she drinking?” He kept his voice low. Akiko nodded, and he sighed.

“I’ll go to the shrine. You’d better go home.” Akiko thought about the manga cafe, but nodded anyway. There was nothing else for her to do.

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Akiko woke the next morning in the manga cafe, her bag of wet clothes smelling slightly from under the desk. The shower room was fine for changing in, but there wasn’t anywhere to dry her things, so her first job today was finding a laundrette and running the clothes through the drier. The clerk gave her directions, and she found the laundrette a short walk away, across the swollen river churning its way to the Tama.

The laundrette was on the ground floor of a derelict block of flats, and although there was another woman there when Akiko arrived, her washing soon finished, and Akiko was alone with the tumbling machine. She sat, listless, in a chair, and for the first time allowed herself to properly remember what she had seen Naoyuki doing. She started crying, and at first she thought it was just the tears making the room swim.

It was as if there was dust in her throat, and she started to cough. As she gasped for breath, she felt the grittiness of disintegrating concrete all over her, on her skin, inside her clothes, chafing against her as she moved. She wiped the tears away and tried to take a breath, but she only coughed again. Her vision cleared, and she saw it.

The dark grey of old concrete, riddled with cracks, surrounded by the dust it created every time it moved, it was watching her with eyes like broken windows, gaping holes into an empty soul. Two canine heads had their attention fixed on her, and it moved towards her, every footfall grating like metal on stone. One shoulder flexed in a cloud of dust, and Akiko could see the brown of rusted iron within. It opened its mouths, dust flying out.

Akiko sprang to her feet, grabbing her bag, and ran out of the building. She looked behind her; the thing was following. Seized by panic, she sprinted out and down the street.

The road wasn’t that quiet, and she had to dodge pedestrians and cyclists. Quite a few people protested as she barged past them, but whenever she looked back the thing was still following, dodging around people, and gaining slightly.

She had been running for some time before she realised that, although people reacted to her, no-one else was reacting to the monster chasing her. Just like the snake, she thought, her heart going cold and her breath stopping for a moment. They can’t see it.

Renewed panic gave her a burst of speed, and she changed her direction. The shrine, she thought. Head for the shrine. Her skin, abraded by the dust under and in her clothes, was getting very sore, and she thought she could even feel some blood flowing, but she couldn’t stop. The thing was definitely gaining on her.

She stumbled as she turned up the hill, and for a moment she could feel its breath, cold, dank and gritty, on her back, before she pushed off again, gasping for breath, her legs and lungs protesting as the steps to the shrine finally came into view, the creature barely behind her now.

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Her breath came in short gasps as she started up the steps, taking them three at a time. She was nearly at the top when she felt a sharp pain on her trailing ankle; pushing down with all her strength, she threw herself through the torii, stumbling on the path and falling to her hands and knees as her leg, all its strength gone, collapsed under her. She looked back, at the thing climbing the steps, and screamed.

It sprang up the last few steps.

And, as it reached the torii, disintegrated into a cloud of grey dust, dust caught by a sudden gust of wind blowing straight out from the shrine and scattered into the air.

Akiko was still breathing hard, and her left leg was numb and weak. The wound on her ankle was more of a scratch than she had thought, although some of the dust had got into it, making it sting.

“Are you all right? Ms Tanahata?” Akiko looked up to see Shiraishi running across from the house towards her. “You screamed…” The priest’s voice trailed off.

“Something was chasing me.” Shiraishi looked startled, and glanced around. Akiko shook her head. “It vanished when it tried to go through the torii. Nothing but dust left now.”

Shiraishi turned to look down at Akiko, and Akiko dropped her eyes to the ground. She could tell that the priest was still looking at her, and had crouched down beside her. She didn’t want to look at Shiraishi’s face and find out what the priest was thinking. The silence stretched out, and Akiko started trying to brush some of the dust from her clothes.

The dust. She was still covered in dust. She could see it, and feel it against her skin. Her skin started to crawl under it as she realised just how dirty she was, but there was also a sense of exultation. Real dust! She looked up, looking Shiraishi straight in the eye.

“Do you see the dust? All over me?” The priest’s eyes were more concerned than anything, and for a moment she didn’t respond. Akiko suddenly wondered whether anyone else could see the dust, but then Shiraishi nodded slowly. “The dust came from the thing that was chasing me. It was like a two-headed dog made out of old concrete. And I saw something by the love hotels two days ago, and there were things by my flat. And something similar on the building site. Only I don’t think anyone else sees them, just like no-one else sees the snake.” She paused. “I haven’t seen the snake for a few days, either.” She realised she was babbling, then, and took a deep breath to calm herself. Dust caught in her throat, provoking a fit of coughing.

“What’s going on?” Akiko hadn’t meant to sound so pleading, but Shiraishi still hadn’t moved, or said anything. She looked at the priest again, but couldn’t hold her gaze, soon looking back down at the floor.

“You…” Shiraishi began, then stopped, cleared her throat, and started again. “You should come inside and have a shower, first. You’re filthy.” Akiko nodded; she was feeling dirtier by the second, and definitely wanted to wash. She tried to stand, but her left leg was still weak, and she staggered. Shiraishi held out an arm to support her, and then guided her into the house, and back to the bathroom, leaving her in the anteroom.

By the time Akiko came out of the bathroom, wearing a yukata again, she felt much better. Clean, for a start, and her leg was back to normal, the scratch much smaller than she would have believed possible. She was actually feeling quite cheerful.

Shiraishi was waiting for her, sitting by the table, with tea and Japanese sweets set out. The priest was kneeling rigidly, her hands clasped on the table in front of her, and she looked up as Akiko came in.

“Ms Tanahata, please sit down and have some tea.” She sounded very formal, and Akiko found herself getting nervous as she did as she was asked. Shiraishi poured her a cup of green tea, and passed her a sweet. Akiko took a sip of the tea, which was good, while the priest looked at the table, and then back up at her.

“Please tell me what’s been happening to you.” Akiko was surprised, and didn’t know how to answer at first. Shiraishi seemed to take her silence for reluctance, and hurried on. “I promise not to make any wild accusations this time. I’ll just listen, at least until you finish.” The priest was blushing slightly as she said that, apparently a little embarrassed. Akiko could feel her face heating up; now it came down to actually saying what had happened, it all seemed ridiculous to her. How was anyone going to believe her? “Could you start with seeing the kami?” Shiraishi continued. Akiko took a deep breath, and nodded.

She started from the first storm, and told the priest everything. Once she had started talking, it got easier, especially as Shiraishi made no comment, just nodding and indicating that she was still listening. Akiko described the dreams and visions, and the problems at work, and the snake appearing in the night club. She talked about the vision in the love hotel, and the creatures that she had seen, at the building site, near her flat, near the love hotel, and in the laundrette. She put particular emphasis on the fact that her flat had been wet after the internal rainstorm, and the dust that had covered her earlier, but Shiraishi still said nothing.

When she had finished, the priest just sat there, saying nothing, but nodding slightly. Akiko waited, but there was still no response.

“Well?”

“I…” Shiraishi began, and then broke off. “I don’t know.”

“Do you believe me?”

“I don’t think you’re lying to me.”

“You saw the dust!” Did the priest think she was mad?

“I did. Yes, I saw the dust.” The priest looked up again, meeting Akiko’s eyes.

“I really don’t know. I have to think about this.”

“Weren’t you trained for this?” Shiraishi laughed, briefly.

“No, I’m afraid the standard training for a Shinto priest does not cover what to do when the kami starts appearing.” By the time she finished the sentence, she was very serious again. “I have to think.”

Akiko nodded.

“If you have time, come back tomorrow, and we’ll talk again.” Akiko felt a surge of hope,

“You don’t disbelieve me, then?”

“I…” Again a pause. “No. I’m not sure what to think, but I don’t think you’re lying, or simply mad.”

“But then…” Shiraishi raised a hand to stop her.

“Like I said, I need to think. Come back when you have time.” Akiko nodded.

“Can I finish my tea?” Shiraishi smiled again.

“Of course.”

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