Akiko stood in the porch of the shrine house, watching the ambulance crew carry Mr Takenaka’s corpse out of the shrine into the torrential rain, and heard them calling to each other as they tried to manoeuvre the stretcher down the shrine steps. As the last of them passed through the torii, she thought she saw something shadowy spring up and cling onto the upper lintel of the gate, but in the darkness it was impossible to be sure.

She remained standing there even after they were out of sight. She could hear the police officers in the shrine, but she wasn’t looking that way. She wasn’t looking at anything. She felt on the verge of tears, even though she had hardly known Mr Takenaka, and was willing herself not to cry. Akira seemed to be bearing up, and she didn’t want to look to him as though she was acting sadder than she felt.

“Ms Tanahata?” She looked round; it was one of the police officers.

“Yes?”

“Can I ask a few questions?”

“Oh, yes, of course.”

“Thank you. When did you first see the body?”

“A bit before ten, I think. I was with Mr Takenaka and Revd Shiraishi.”

“Why were you going into the shrine?”

“We were looking for Mr Takenaka. Er, Hideo Takenaka.”

“Why?”

“Akira was worried about him. He said he’d been very worried recently. He certainly looked worried when he came to the shrine this morning.” The police officer nodded.

“How well did you know the late Mr Takenaka?” Akiko shrugged.

“Not well. We had spoken a few times, but that’s all. I went to his house once, but didn’t go inside.”

“Apparently, he came to the shrine a lot.”

“Yes, I mainly met him here.”

“But only a few times?”

“Oh, I only moved in a couple of days ago.” The officer nodded again.

“I see. Well, thank you for your co-operation. I know finding a suicide must be difficult.”

Akiko nodded, and involuntarily looked back at the shrine, wondering why Mr Takenaka had chosen to end his life there.

“If you would excuse me…” Akiko turned back to bow briefly to the officer, who went to join the others in the shrine. Akiko remained in the porch, ignoring the chill and the spray that struck her, leaving her clothes damp. There was an edge to the smell of the shrine tonight, an edge that was more than the wetness.

“Akiko, you should go inside.” It was Akira. She turned to face him, and he quickly looked outside. “There’s nothing you can do, now, and it’s cold.”

“Mr Takenaka, I’m really…” Her voice trailed off. What on earth could she say to him now?

“Mm.” He still wasn’t looking at her. “I have to go home, now. My mother will need me, and there’s a flood warning from the rain. Take care.” He looked towards her as he bowed, and their eyes met for a moment, before he turned away and hurried into the rain. Akiko felt tears pricking at her eyes, and blinked rapidly to bring them under control.

It was several minutes before she realised that Akira had left his coat, hanging on a peg by the door.

03: Takenaka, Episode 16 | 1 Comment »

The rain had stopped by the time Akiko woke up the following morning, but the sky was still a heavy grey, pressing down and threatening more rain at any moment. The air seemed oppressive, somehow thicker around her as she got up. She checked her watch; already nine am. A quick look at her cell phone confirmed that she had forgotten to set her alarm, and she quickly got dressed before going looking for Shiraishi.

She first went outside, but the shrine was still closed and shuttered. Akiko frowned. If Shiraishi hadn’t got around to opening up, that was not a good sign. Scuttling motion caught her eyes, as something seemed to dart under the doors of the shrine, but when she looked again, there was nothing. Akiko forced herself to relax her jaw as she turned and went back into the house, but she could not deny that she was worried.

She found Shiraishi, dressed in a simple yukata, in the living room. A bottle of sake was open in front of her, and she was downing another glass as Akiko entered. The priest looked up at her, and forced a smile.

“You didn’t know him, did you? Not really.” Akiko shook her head. “Biggest supporter of the shrine. An Ujiko representative for the last fifteen years, and the only one who hadn’t abandoned us recently.” She laughed, completely without humour. “Even in death, he hasn’t abandoned the shrine.” Her laughter stopped abruptly, and she refilled her glass. “Now what do we do?” Akiko knew that the question wasn’t really directed at her, which was just as well, as she had no idea how to answer it. No idea what to say or do, in fact.

The priest emptied her glass and sighed, resting her head on her hand.

“Centuries of history. Is it all over now?” Akiko really wanted to do something, and she moved further into the room. Shiraishi looked up at her, sharply.

“You see the kami. Tell him that if he doesn’t do something soon, his shrine is history.” Her face was hard, and then suddenly crumpled, as she dropped her head back into her hands. “I want to talk to Hideo!” she wailed. “He always had an idea. He never gave up. Why did you give up?” The last question was almost screamed into the air. Akiko bit her lip, and took another step forward, but Shiraishi took a deep breath, and reached for the bottle again.

“Can I do anything?” Akiko asked, wincing a little at how banal it was.

“Tell Tamao to bring Hideo back. And the other Ujiko, while you’re at it.” The priest took another deep breath. “I’m sorry. I know this is hard for you as well.”

“I could open the shrine up.”

The priest nodded.

“You do that. It can’t hurt; the police said we could.” There was a pause, while Shiraishi refilled her glass. “And you could answer the phone and door today. I’m ill.”

“Of course.” Akiko waited a few moments longer, then left the priest to herself.

As she walked over to the shrine, dozens of crows started up from the trees, their raucous cries almost deafening. She flinched a little as the sky filled with their dark forms, but they soon settled, and Akiko was able to purify herself in peace. The water had a bitter tang to it, and she pulled a face as she spat it out.

Standing in front of the shrine, she paid her respects first, and then slid the doors open. The interior looked just as it always did, just a little darker, a little colder, and the veranda seemed to shift slightly under her feet. Shivering, from the cold, she told herself, Akiko hurried back into the house.

03: Takenaka, Episode 16 | 5 Comments »

Shiraishi seemed rather better, if a bit hung over, the next morning. Akiko made breakfast, and the priest ate some. She made no comment on the previous day, beyond thanking Akiko for opening and closing the shrine, and said nothing while she ate, nor when they had finished. After sitting in silence for some time, while Akiko wondered whether she should say anything, Shiraishi stood up.

“Ms Tanahata, please deal with any callers.” She took a bottle of sake out of a cupboard, then another. Then she paused, put one back, locked the cupboard and put the key on the counter. “Keep this safe,” she said, tapping it, and then left the room, carrying the bottle and a glass. Akiko stood up and pocketed the key, then cleared up.

Once the breakfast things were cleared away, Akiko had nothing to do, and found herself sitting on the veranda outside her room, staring out across the pond. The air was heavy and still, tense, as if waiting for a great storm, and unwholesome colours, oily, writhed on the surface of the pond. Akiko kept telling herself that she ought to find out what they were, but she couldn’t convince herself to move. What was the point?

The doorbell roused her, and she went to see who it was.

She had not been expecting Akira, but there he was, dressed formally in black, bowing deeply as she opened the door.

“Ms Tanahata. Is Revd Shiraishi at home?”

“Ah, she said she didn’t want to be disturbed.” Akira nodded, his face concerned.

“Is she all right? It must have been a great shock for her.” Akiko nodded, surprised.

“She’s… coping, I think. Are you all right?” As soon as she’d asked it, she worried that she had made a mistake, but Akira didn’t seem to be bothered.

“Oh yes. It’s Sunday; I can’t do anything about the business until tomorrow, so there’s no problem with me coming to check on you. And mother wanted me to get out of the house for a while; I think she wants some time alone.” He smiled, then, but even Akiko could see that it wasn’t wholly natural.

“That…” She stopped herself. She didn’t know Akira well enough to tell him how he should be reacting. She brushed her hair back, to give herself something to do, and then looked beyond Akira, out into the shrine.

She could see where he had stepped, crossing the grass to reach the house. The grass in his footprints was dead, sere and brown, and the ground beneath it shimmered, covered with crawling insects. Akiko shuddered, and looked back at Akira. He was looking at her in apparent concern.

“Are you all right, Ms Tanahata?”

“Me?” To cover her confusion, Akiko looked past him again. This time, the grass was unmarked, green and wet from the rain. “I… Yes, I’m fine.”

“Well, take care. There seems to be a nasty fever going around; I know a couple of people who went down with it yesterday.”

A fever? Akiko almost wanted to shout at Akira, to shake him, to tell him that his father was dead, why was he babbling about a fever? But she didn’t. She just nodded.

“We will.”

“Good. Well, I suppose I had better be going home.” With a bow, he took his leave. Akiko stood looking after him for some time.

03: Takenaka, Episode 16 | 4 Comments »

Shiraishi was equally quiet during breakfast the following day, and when it finished she turned to look at the sake cupboard, fixing her gaze on it for long moments before sighing and turning back to Akiko.

“I’ll deal with any visitors today. Thank you.” Akiko nodded. She had been thinking about looking for jobs again, but she felt very lethargic, as if the close atmosphere was draining all her vitality.

“Oh, Akira Takenaka visited yesterday. He wanted to see whether we were all right.” Shiraishi looked at her, surprised, and Akiko nodded. “He also warned us about a fever that might be going around.” The priest sighed and shook her head, looking down at the table for a few moments.

“I’d better get on,” she said, standing up. “You do… whatever you feel you need to.” Akiko just nodded, not at all sure what she did want, or need, to do. She went back to her room, and looked out of the window, but the pond seemed to be covered with a layer of scum, with the bright colours of plastics mixed with the bodies of dead fish.

Plastics? How could they have got in there?

She looked back, and the scum was gone, although the plants around the pond looked unhealthy, spotted with fungus. Akiko felt her heart speeding up as anxiety gripped her stomach, and twisted. She got up and went out of the front of the house, looking at the shrine.

Something scuttled over the roof, something a bit like a monkey, and dropped out of sight in the back. Akiko went round, noticing that the shrine seemed to be leaning slightly, twisted. At the back, however, there was nothing to see. The shadow in the heart of the iwakura seemed deeper than normal, but it wasn’t big enough to hide whatever she had seen. Akiko wasn’t surprised, but her concern didn’t lessen.

She heard the doorbell, and went to see who it was, arriving at the same time as Shiraishi, from the opposite side.

Mr Wakabayashi was very formally dressed, but Akiko could smell burning around him, ash, and greasy black smoke seemed to be rising from his suit, forming a dark cloud in the air around him. Akiko glanced covertly at Shiraishi, but she showed no signs of seeing anything amiss. A call from the trees drew Akiko’s eyes, and she realised that dozens of crows were perched there, watching them.

“Revd Shiraishi, I heard about your loss.”

“Thank you for your concern.” The priest bowed formally, but her tone was no more sincere than Mr Wakabayashi’s.

“I was wondering whether you wanted to reconsider my offer?” Shiraishi’s face changed in an instant, flushing red with anger.

“No! I will not sell you the shrine grounds! Never! How many times? How dare you come at a time like this, with such a suggestion?”

“A time like this?” Mr Wakabayashi was still calm, but the smoke coming off him had thickened, and Akiko could now see small flames on his suit, flames like eyes that seemed to be watching her. “You have just lost the last person supporting the shrine. Do you really have any choice?”

“Get out! Get out before I call the police!” Shiraishi was screaming, but Wakabayashi only sighed, bowing to her again before turning to leave. The flames Akiko could see were now like giant centipedes, crawling over him and looking back at her, while the smoke cast a pall over the whole precinct. As she watched him leave, she saw that the grass he had crossed was blackened to ash, the destruction spreading out.

“Damn that man!” Akiko looked back at Shiraishi, who was still fuming in the porch, and when she looked back the grass and air were free of smoke or signs of burning.

03: Takenaka, Episode 16 | 3 Comments »

Shiraishi soon went back inside the house, leaving Akiko standing alone in the precincts. Everything seemed normal, apart from the large audience of crows, but the atmosphere was still oppressive, and a faint, acrid smell of smoke remained on the air. Looking around, Akiko noticed that the path was still rather muddy from the rainstorms, and that the area in front of the shrine needed tidying up. Shaking herself in an attempt to dispel the lethargy, she went to fetch a broom.

The mud was easy to clean up, and for a while Akiko lost herself in the simple, repetitive task of sweeping the path. She knew that she should be thinking about her future, but she just couldn’t concentrate on it. All she could think about was the broom, sweeping back and forth across the stones, scraping the mud off to either side and leaving the dull grey surface of the rocks clean.

An insect scuttled across, but Akiko paid it no mind. Then there was another, and another. They looked like large cockroaches, but they looked soft, rotten. More appeared, running around on the path as if not knowing where they were going, and the smell of rotten flesh reached Akiko’s nose. One ran over her foot, and even through the shoe she could feel its legs touching her, a slimy, repellent chill.

Through the shoe? Akiko looked up, sharply, and then down again. The insects were gone, but there was a dark mist in the air, smelling chemical, taking on the colours of corrosion when she wasn’t looking directly at it. Clutching the broom, she started walking slowly towards the shrine.

The ground shook, enough to rattle the windows of the house and ring the bell at the shrine, and to send the crows skyward from the trees in a cacophony of screeches. Akiko stumbled, but didn’t fall. The bell rope was swinging wildly, and there seemed to be something hanging on to it, although she couldn’t make out the details.

The ground shook again, and for a moment Akiko thought she saw parts of the shrine roof, shaken free, falling like rain onto the veranda. In a moment they were gone, however.

Akiko realised that she hadn’t purified herself. Was that why there was an earthquake? She was almost at the water basin before it struck her that she was taking seriously the idea that an earthquake might be a personal message from the kami.

The water in the basin smelled foul when she got there, a layer of green scum covering the surface, apart from a couple of areas where oil glistened in many colours.

This is not real, Akiko told herself. The water is still flowing through the basin. It can’t be stagnant. She closed her eyes, breathed out, and then opened them again as she breathed in. The water looked clean again, and she quickly rinsed her hands and mouth, before turning back to the shrine.

She could see fungus growing on the walls, forcing the boards apart, pushing through the copper plates on the roof. As she watched, a cloud of spores rose from a cluster of greenish-grey puffballs, and drifted towards the shrine house.

Not real. Akiko thought for a moment, then corrected herself. Not real fungus, anyway. Sure enough, when she looked away and looked back, the shrine was back to normal. Determined to find out what was going on, she steeled herself and started walking up the path.

03: Takenaka, Episode 16 | 1 Comment »

The steps up to the shrine shrieked in protest as Akiko stepped on them, and shifted under her feet as if they were about to give way. She reached out for the railing and looked down with a gasp, but the steps were as solid as ever. The railing, however, felt slimy, and something with too many legs scuttled over her hand. She snatched her hand back, but the railing looked the same as ever, and there was no sign of anything crawling on it.

With every step, Akiko’s legs felt heavier, and the shrine got darker. By the time she reached the veranda, it was positively gloomy, and as she looked back at the precincts, she saw them wreathed in a dark mist, more like smoke than mist, smelling like burnt plastic. She could just make out the torii, but she thought she saw other things moving in the smoke, things that moved wrongly.

Her heart was pounding and her mouth dry as she turned back to the shrine, ringing the bell, ignoring the things that seemed to fall out, bowing twice, clapping twice, the noise apparently startling things inside the shrine, and then bowing once more.

Akiko stifled a scream as she straightened up. Mr Takenaka’s body was back, hanging from the ceiling, twisting in the air. She couldn’t properly make out his face in the shadows, but it was unmistakably him. Further in, in the back the shrine, there were twin golden lights, Tamao’s eyes, and the snake moved forward into the shrine, twisting away from the hanging corpse, but keeping his eyes on Akiko.

Akiko found herself looking from the kami to the corpse and back, unable to focus on either as her heart pounded, her blood surging in her ears, deafeningly loud.

The surface of the body started to flex and writhe, and it seemed to shift, maybe flexing its fingers, or turning its head. Akiko tried to step backwards, but her feet seemed to be stuck to the floor. The motion resolved itself, maggots, hundreds of them, all a dull white, crawling out of and through the body. The stench of decay suddenly hit her, and she gagged, desperately fighting the urge to vomit.

The maggots started dropping off the corpse, landing on the stools, which immediately began decaying around them. They swarmed up the rope, into the roof of the shrine, and the rope began to thin and fray, and then it broke.

The body fell among the stools with a crash, scattering them and spraying maggots around. Some landed on Akiko, and she desperately brushed them off.

The shrine was rocked by a thunderclap, and Akiko looked up to see some of the maggots on Tamao, burrowing into his skin. As if summoned, maggots began pouring out of the corpse, flowing across the floor with incredible speed and up, onto Tamao. The kami reared up, thrashing, scattering some and crushing others, but there were too many, crawling beneath the scales, devouring the kami alive. Akiko still couldn’t move, and could only watch as Tamao collapsed to the floor.

And vanished. Akiko staggered forward as her feet were released, looking around the room. The stools were still lined up in orderly rows, and there were no corpses, but now she could feel the pollution, the kegare, all around her. She turned and ran out.

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There was someone in the precincts as Akiko dashed down the steps of the shrine, but she ignored them, running straight to the house and into the entrance hall.

“Revd Shiraishi! Revd Shiraishi!” It was only as she called for the priest that she realised who she had seen; Akira Takenaka. She turned back, and he nodded to her.

“Good morning, Ms Tanahata. Are you all right?” Akiko had some idea of how panicked she looked, and just shook her head. She was about to explain, but suddenly realised that she couldn’t tell Akira that she’d just had a vision of his father’s corpse.

Shiraishi came hurrying to the entrance.

“What is it? Oh, Akira. How are you?”

“Revd Shiraishi, you have to purify the shrine.” Akiko couldn’t wait, couldn’t take time to explain. The priest looked at her, puzzled.

“What? What are you talking about?”

“There are purification ceremonies, right? You have to perform one for the shrine.” Don’t make me explain why, she pleaded silently. Not in front of Akira. Shiraishi continued staring at her, puzzled, for a few moments, and then she paled, blood draining from her face, and nodded.

“Yes, yes, you’re right.” She turned back to Akira. “I’m sorry, Akira. How are you? And what can we do for you?” Akiko, her heart still pounding, turned to look out at the shrine. It looked as though the ridge pole had collapsed, the centre of the roof drooping inwards as pus leaked from the cracks as if from a sore.

“I’m all right, thank you. I just came to make sure you were OK, because I didn’t see you yesterday.” Akiko couldn’t control herself any longer.

“Revd Shiraishi, you have to  purify the shrine now.” The priest looked at her, angry, and opened her mouth, before closing it sharply as fear chased anger from her face.

“Did you…?” She trailed off, glancing surreptitiously at Akira. Akiko just nodded, and she saw the priest swallow sharply, and then try to bring herself under control. Shiraishi turned back to Akira.

“I’m sorry, we have to perform this ceremony. Would you like to attend?”

“I would be happy to.” Akira was very polite, but sounded slightly distant. Shiraishi watched him for a long moment, and then nodded.

“I have to get changed. Please wait here.” She bowed once, and then headed back into the house, leaving Akiko and Akira alone.

Akiko’s eye was caught by motion, by something like a centipede disappearing under the step up from the entrance into the house, and she turned to look out at the shrine again.

Everything seemed to be covered in cobwebs, great drapes of grey fibre cocooning everything, while a myriad spiders crawled over them, some of them as large as a dog, with venom dripping from their mouths. Akiko took a step back, and almost stumbled when she came up against the shelves for shoes.

“Ms Tanahata? Are you sure you’re all right?” Akiko realised she was shaking her head, but before she could correct herself her ears were filled with a hideous buzzing, like a million flies attacking a corpse, rising and settling in clouds of decay.

“Would you like to sit down?” Akira’s voice was solicitous, but Akiko still couldn’t get a reply together. Fortunately, Shiraishi chose that moment to reappear, in her full vestments.

“Right, if you would follow me to the shrine.”

The spiders were gone when they stepped outside, but off the paths the grass seemed to have become a swamp, with ghostly lights flickering over pools of stagnant water where the scent of rot hung heavy in the air. The only noise was of things moving through the water, some splashing, some gliding, some paddling, but none sounding healthy to Akiko as she picked her way carefully along the stones.

Akira and Revd Shiraishi haven’t noticed anything, she told herself. I won’t sink if I step off the path. But still, she couldn’t make herself do it.

They climbed the steps to the shrine, steps that looked rotted and broken to Akiko, but which became solid again moments before the priest stepped on them, and then seemed to crumble again under Akiko’s feet. She looked back from the veranda, and the swamp had swallowed the path. The torii at the entrance, wreathed in mist, was leaning at a crazy angle.

Inside the shrine, Shiraishi went to kneel before a large stick with many strips of folded white paper fixed to one end, the ohnusa, and Akiko and Akira sat on the stools. To Akiko’s eyes they were heavy with mildew, and cockroaches scampered across them, but Akira seemed to have no qualms about sitting. Although her skin shied away from contact, Akiko followed suit.

“Takamanoharanikamuzumarimasu…” Shiraishi started reciting the norito, the prayer, as darkness seemed to thicken around her. Akiko could definitely see things watching them now, clinging to the walls at the rafters, bats and lizards and monkeys and birds, all with injured or deformed bodies, all leaking pus, or drooling, some defecating on the shrine as she watched. Their eyes burned with an unwholesome light.

Akiko glanced at Akira, and had to suppress a gasp. She could hardly see him; he was wrapped in darkness, in threads that seemed to bind and conceal, that kept reaching for his mouth and nose as if they wanted to invade his throat. Choking back her words, Akiko turned back to Shiraishi.

The priest was continuing the prayer, and the ohnusa was shining. Gold and silver light ran along the edges of the paper like lightning, while a fire in red and green and purple seemed to burn at the head of the rod, consuming nothing.

“…kashikomikashikomimomousu.” Shiraishi finished the prayer and bowed before reaching for the ohnusa. As she lifted it, drops of light fell from the paper, bouncing on the floor and driving the darkness back. The priest stood and bowed once more, before walking to the rear of the shrine. She raised the ohnusa and shook it to the left, then the right, then the left again.

As she shook it, Akiko saw the light and fire flung off it, sweeping out to drive back the darkness, the fire consuming the things that clung to the walls, dissolving them to nothingness.

The priest turned to face them.

“Please bow your heads.”

Even with her head bowed, Akiko could see the light flooding out from the ohnusa, scouring the corruption, bleaching the mildew from the seats and, out of the corner of her eye, burning away the threads that surrounded Akira.

“Please raise your heads.”

Akiko looked up again. The room seemed empty and clean once more. She looked around, but there was nothing to be seen. She relaxed, the tension flowing out of her, and nodded to Shiraishi.

There was a sound from beside her, and she looked to see tears starting from Akira’s eyes, as he buried his head in his hands and began crying.

03: Takenaka, Episode 16 | 5 Comments »