Akiko didn’t see Shiraishi again until breakfast the following day. She had been in no mood to talk to the priest, or anyone, for that matter, when she got back from the interview, going straight to her room and closing the door. She woke up with a bit of a headache, but resigned to explaining the situation.

As normal, Shiraishi was silent throughout breakfast, and Akiko decided to wait until she had finished before raising the issue. Akiko found that she didn’t have much appetite herself, and she ate little more than a few mouthfuls of rice. Finally, Shiraishi was finished, and Akiko cleared her throat.

“Er, Revd Shiraishi?”

“Yes?”

“I’ve been going to job interviews, you know.”

“Mm. I noticed. Thank you.”

“Yes, well. I… I don’t think Tamao wants me to get a job.”

“I’m sorry?”

“I think Tamao is actively trying to stop me getting a job.”

“Why would you think that?” Akiko took a deep breath, and began telling the stories of her attempts to find a job. Shiraishi made occasional comments.

“They were trying to film you? You should tell the police.”

“That was a mugging, Akiko. You really should tell the police.”

“I’m sorry, why did the spilled coffee mean that you couldn’t work there? It isn’t like you spilled it.” Akiko blushed, as she realised that she had been avoiding telling that part of the story. She explained, keeping the details to a minimum, and found Shiraishi still apparently sceptical.

“If the coffee was that hot, I don’t think you could have got your clothes off in time. You should have been badly scalded.”

“It was definitely that hot; the woman almost burned herself on the cup,” Akiko protested, defensively.

“Mm. And how quickly can you normally undress?”

“Er, well, um.” Now Shiraishi was blushing as well.

“I’m sorry, that’s a rather odd question. Still, I hope you understand what I’m saying.”

“You don’t believe me?”

“Er, no. I do believe you. And I think Tamao must have been involved, or you would have been badly injured.”

“So he was just trying to humiliate me?”

Shiraishi laughed, rather awkwardly.

“I don’t know. This is all very new for me as well, you know.”

“So, do you agree that Tamao is trying to stop me finding a job?” The priest sighed, and looked down at her hands, folded on the table.

“I think I do,” she said, without looking up. “I…” She paused again, and did look up. “I don’t understand what is going on, but something, quite likely Tamao, does seem to be willing to do almost anything to stop you getting a job.”

Akiko nodded, and rested her head in her hands; the headache had been getting worse as she told her story.

“Given that,” the priest continued, “I don’t suppose I can ask you to contribute much money for the moment.” She laughed, briefly, but it wasn’t a terribly happy sound. “I guess that, if Tamao is causing the problems, it’s only fair for him to pay for the result.”

Akiko nodded again, and stood up, her head swimming as she did so, forcing her to clutch the back of the chair for support.

“I’ll go and clean the precincts a bit, then. I should at least do something.”

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Akiko went out into the grounds with a few tools, planning to clear up any bits of litter then tidy the plants up a bit, but her headache continued to get worse. The sun was out, and the light hurt her eyes, seeming to throb in time with her pulse. For a moment, she wondered whether Tamao was doing something again, but then she realised that it was just part of the headache.

She went to sit down on the shrine’s veranda, out of the sun, to get her breath back, and recover a bit of energy. And then Shiraishi was in front of her, and Akiko had no idea how long she had been sitting there.

“Ms Tanahata? Are you all right?”

Akiko looked up, her eyes narrowing against the brightness and her head throbbing even more as she moved it. She tried to shake her head, but that was too painful. And, it seemed, unnecessary.

“You look dreadful. Come on, get back inside at once. You need to lie down.” Akiko struggled to rise, suddenly overcome by coughing, and was glad when the priest reached down and helped her up. “I think you’ve caught this disease that’s going around.” Akiko nodded, very gently, remembering the coughing man on the bus. She never had got a chance to buy a mask.

Shiraishi helped her inside, and once they were in Akiko pushed her gently away.

“Thank you. I think I can walk to my room, now.” As she said it, she swayed a little in place, slightly dizzy, and the hallway came in and out of focus. She felt very cold, and could feel herself start to shiver, but as she tried to put one foot in front of the other her sense of balance deserted her, and she flung out a hand, trying to catch the wall.

Shiraishi caught her. Akiko smiled sheepishly as she leaned on the priest again.

“Maybe I can’t.”

They got to Akiko’s room, where the futon was still spread out on the floor. Akiko was glad she had forgotten to put it away, and let Shiraishi lower her into it, quickly bundling herself up in the covers.

“I’ll bring you some water; you have to be careful about dehydration.” Akiko tried to nod, but was overcome with another fit of coughing.

Under the futon, Akiko’s chills quickly vanished, becoming uncomfortable heat. Her headache was getting worse by the moment, and she threw the quilt off her as she rolled around, trying to get comfortable. A sudden fit of coughing brought her upright, the quilt falling from her, and she looked to see Shiraishi kneeling by her bed, a look of concern on her face and a damp cloth in her hand. How long had the priest been there? She tried to form a question, but Shiraishi just shushed her, and got her to lie down again.

Akiko could feel herself sweating under the futon, her clothes getting sodden, as if it were raining inside the room. Her mouth was dry, her head on fire, and she tried to form the words to ask for a drink. She felt a hand under her head, and water on her lips, before she slipped back into the fever dream.

03: Takenaka, Episode 18 | 2 Comments »

Akiko got out of bed, straightening the white yukata she was wearing, and walked, barefoot, along the corridor. Cold, silver light poured in from the full moon, giving everything an otherworldly gloss. Akiko stepped down into a pair of sandals and then out into the shrine precincts.

The moonlight washed the colour from everything, leaving the grass black around the silver of the path. The trees of the woodland, whispering in a gentle breeze, were black with silver leaves, leaves that scattered moonlight across the grass like small pearls. The shrine building itself shone silver, the white wood reflecting the light while the burnished copper roof was turned the colour of pure gold. The breeze blew a little more strongly, pleasantly warm in her hair, rubbing the silk of the yukata gently over her skin. Akiko smiled, and turned around, gazing at the unbroken circle of trees.

Her eyes fell on the torii at the entrance, glowing white, a halo hovering around it in the air.

And, beyond it, a dark silhouette. A silhouette that looked somehow familiar. Was it someone she knew? Akiko moved a bit closer, and the figure turned round, the moonlight giving his face a deathly tinge.

Hideo Takenaka.

Akiko stopped in her tracks as her heart stopped for a moment, then started again, beating quickly, accelerating. Mr Takenaka did not seem to recognise her, or even notice that she was there, as he looked around the precincts. He took a step forward, to pass through the torii, but the light shining from the pillars flared across the gap, and he fell back.

His face twisted in rage, but it didn’t seem to be directed at the torii, or at Akiko. He turned away from them, looking out over the forest, and raised his hands, shaking his fists at the sky. As if in answer, clouds appeared above him, boiling and clashing, spreading across the sky.

“Traitors!” It was a scream more than a yell. “I helped you all those years, and you abandoned me!” He paused, dropping his arms to his sides, and then spun round to look around the shrine precincts. Akiko’s immediate instinct was to hide, but there was nowhere close by, and her white yukata was bright in the darkness. Mr Takenaka’s arm shot out, pointing at her.

“You!” Akiko took an involuntary step back. “Tell them! Tell them that this is fair punishment for what they did! As they took everything from me, I will take it from them. They thought they could save themselves by agreeing to the demands of a tyrant, but they were wrong. I can still punish those who spurned me. I can still have my revenge!”

Mr Takenaka paused, apparently catching his breath, and then started again.

“There will be justice! They could have been loyal, they could have stood by connections built up over years, but no, they had to go for quick profits instead. Or bow, craven, to threats! Well, it will do them no good! Everything they feared will happen to them! They cursed my name before; let them understand what a curse truly is!”

“Akiko! Akiko!”

It was Shiraishi’s voice. Akiko opened her eyes, then closed them again as the light hurt them.

“Lights…” was all she could manage to say, as her hands pushed weakly at the futon, seeking some relief.

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The futon seemed to get heavier and heavier, and finally Akiko managed to push it off, struggling to her feet. The room was bright, sunlight flooding in from the open windows, sparkling off the surface of the pond. Akiko quickly shrugged her yukata off, bathing quickly in the pond before putting on the white kimono and red hakama of her miko’s uniform. She walked out through the garden, into the shrine precincts.

They were deserted, the roof of the shrine shining green in the sunlight, while the rocks of the iwakura behind it seemed to suck the light in to the deep shadow at their heart. Birds were singing in the trees, and the sun shone from a clear sky, warm on Akiko’s skin. The grass was soft against her bare feet as she walked up to the shrine.

The doors were shut. Akiko frowned. They shouldn’t have been closed during the day; maybe Revd Shiraishi had forgotten to open them. Akiko reached out to slide the doors, but they wouldn’t move. She took out the key, and put it in the lock, but it seemed to be open already. She pushed again, but the doors wouldn’t move. Even rattling them didn’t help.

As she struggled with the doors, she felt a chill, as if a shadow had fallen over her, although the sun was as bright as ever. She turned, looking out from the shrine over Kawasaki.

She could see the hills, covered with houses, some topped with blocks of flats, the power cables running from one house to another, tying them down to the earth. The town was still in the sunlight. No cars moved on the roads, no people walked the streets. The neon signs on the love hotels flashed their desperate invitations, but no-one answered. The convenience stores were open for business, their automatic doors sliding open to entice custom, but there was no-one there to be tempted.

Akiko frowned, a frown that deepened as something did move. Something dark among the houses, something clouded and dusty among the flats, something wet and rotten among the love hotels. Tendrils shot out, like vines among the houses, like cracks among the flats, obscene among the love hotels, wrapping themselves around the buildings and spreading rapidly, darkening the scene and casting shadows across the city, even as the sky remained clear, the sun bright.

Akiko felt the chill again and shivered, hugging herself. As the tendrils spread, other things started to crawl along them, things that she had seen before, two-headed dogs of crumbling concrete, lizards made of desperate, furtive couplings, centipedes born from the death of bamboo groves. All the green in the landscape vanished, turning to brown, and then the black of decay or the grey of paving.

And then the first block of flats collapsed, folding into itself in a cloud of grey dust that formed into a flock of birds, birds that cried in harsh voices as they settled on another block, which collapsed beneath them, spawning yet more of the creatures. The houses were shrouded in darkness, and Akiko saw the first signs of fire among them. Only the love hotels seemed to prosper, their signs becoming larger, brighter, and more explicit, offering people as well as a place.

Akiko found her breath, and screamed.

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“Akiko! Akiko! It’s all right.” Akiko opened her eyes on hearing Shiraishi’s voice and looked around her room, not really taking anything in. There was no sign of decay, no sign of kegare. Breathing a sigh of relief, she relaxed back into the bed.

She couldn’t get comfortable, though, and a noise from outside, something she couldn’t quite place, kept distracting her, just as she thought she was about to get to sleep. Finally giving up, she flung off the futon and got up, pulling a yukata on for warmth as she went out through the windows into the garden, picking her way carefully around the pond in the dark and the mist.

She could hardly see anything, and almost felt her way towards the entrance, the apparent source of the sound. It was clearer now, someone muttering and occasionally shouting, but she couldn’t make out any words, just sounds that hovered on the edge of clarity before falling back into mere noise once more.

Just inside the torii she stopped, one hand on the cool, rough stone of the upright, peering out into the gloom. She caught sight of motion, someone pacing, up and down the steps, and across them from one side to another. The shape was vaguely familiar, and then she placed it: Mr Takenaka.

At that moment she could understand what he was saying, catching even his mutterings.

“Betrayal. Lies. That’s what it is. Ingratitude. None of them put any value on what I’ve done for them over the years. None of them care about anything other than making as much money as possible. No loyalty. No-one is honest any more. No-one. Look what they did to me! Look what they are doing to the area!”

Mr Takenaka walked all the way up the steps, right to the threshold of the torii, but he didn’t look at Akiko. Rather, he was staring into the precincts. Akiko glanced over her shoulder, but she could see nothing, the shrine building lost in the mist, the lights apparently not working. She looked back, and Mr Takenaka was still standing there. He raised his fists and screamed at the shrine.

“You too! You have no loyalty. I’ll show you all. You will all regret what you did to me! All of you! But the ones who betrayed me will regret more than most. Sugiyama! I mean you! You will pay for abandoning me.” His hands dropped back to his sides, and he looked down, breathing heavily, his distorted face slowly relaxing.

“An electrician. That’s what you were, Sugiyama. You betrayed that. And so electricity will betray you.” It was almost whispered. “Yes, you will feel its anger. And my anger, through it.” His voice was getting louder again, and he looked up, then spun round to face out over the city. “Lightning, Sugiyama! I’m going to strike your house with lightning! You cannot escape it. Your house cannot run. Your excuses are no good now!” Takenaka was screaming into the darkness again.

“Lightning will burn you!”

03: Takenaka, Episode 18 | 3 Comments »

“We have to warn them!” Akiko shouted, sitting up in bed and looking round the room. There were running footsteps, and the door slid open as Shiraishi came in, quickly followed by Akira Takenaka.

“Akiko, are you all right? You shouted…” The priest looked concerned.

“I’m fine, but we have to warn them. We have to warn them before the lightning strikes.”

“Akiko, calm down.” Shiraishi knelt by the bed and put a cool hand on Akiko’s forehead, frowning as she did so. “Lie down, Akiko. You need to sleep more.”

Akiko shook the priest’s hand off, and tried to push herself up, but her arm shook, and seemed to have no force. Her legs were heavy, as if wrapped in concrete, and she couldn’t move them, either.  She groaned in frustration, shook her head, and then groaned again at the pain that lanced through it.

“We have to warn them now! The lightning could strike at any time.”

“Shush, Akiko. It was just a dream.”

“It wasn’t! I saw Mr Takenaka! He was shouting, standing outside the shrine.” Akira stood up and took a step back, but he didn’t leave, just blinked rapidly.

“Akiko, Mr Takenaka is dead.” The priest’s voice was gentle, as if she really thought Akiko might have forgotten.

“I know!” Akiko almost cried in frustration. “I know he’s dead! But he’s going to strike them with lightning! We have to warn them; they can’t move the house, but they can get out. He said he’d strike the house. If they get out, they’ll be safe.”

“Akiko!” Shiraishi’s tone was sharper. “Stop it! Lie down!”

“It’s all right, reverend.” Akira’s voice was strained, but calm. “It’s the fever. I understand.”

Akiko collapsed back on to the bed for a moment, breathing heavily and gathering her strength before she pushed herself up again.

“It’s not the fever. I saw him. He was threatening them.”

“Akiko…” Shiraishi was trying to shush her again.

“He’s going to strike them with lightning! He said Sugiyama was an electrician and so deserved to be struck with lightning just as he was. No, that’s not right. Betrayed by electricity, just like he betrayed.”

“Akiko, lie down,” the priest said, but Akira had moved closer.

“Who? Who did he say he would strike?” His voice was very strained, on the verge of crying or screaming. But Akiko was out of energy, and she collapsed back on to the futon, drenched in sweat, tossing her head from side to side as the pillow dug into her. “Akiko? What was the name?” Akira’s voice was gentler now.

“Akira, I don’t think…”

“Please, Revd Shiraishi, let her answer. Akiko, what was the name?”

Yes, the name was important. If they knew the name, they would know whom to warn. What was the name? For a moment, Akiko thought that she might have forgotten it, but then she remembered the dark figure in the mist, ranting at the sky, calling down his vengeance on…

“Sugiyama. Sugiyama the electrician.” She looked at Akira, who was sitting back, shock etched on his face.

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Akiko pulled her trainers on in the entrance hall and went out into the shrine. She walked slowly across the grass, looking around her, paying attention to the shapes of the trees, the motion of the leaves, the birds darting among the branches. The quiet was broken only by the occasional snatch of bird song, and the gentle sound of her own footsteps. She looked up, at a blue sky brushed with white filaments of cloud, and down, at the blades of grass still sparkling with dew.

She was waiting for something, but she didn’t know what. She walked a bit further into the precincts, stepping on to the path from the torii to the shrine. She glanced both ways; the bell rope swung a little in the breeze, in front of the open shrine doors, and she could see little through the torii, the trees lining the steps blocking most of the view. Bowing her head as she crossed the middle of the path, she went to the water basin to purify herself.

The water was cool on her hands and sweet in her mouth, and her heart was calm as she walked to the shrine and climbed the steps. She rattled the rope, the bell clattering above her, and bowed twice.

As she clapped for the first time, a deafening crack of thunder split the air. The second clap was the same, and when Akiko rose from the final bow Tamao was emerging from the rear of the shrine, golden eyes shining and the jewels of his skin sparkling in the light. His eyes met Akiko’s as he slid forwards, and she instinctively stepped back out of his way before dropping to her knees and bowing her face to the floor as he passed.

The snake glided easily down the steps, and as Akiko followed him with her eyes, she saw things moving on the steps beyond the torii. Her breath caught in her throat, which was suddenly dry and tight, and then came faster. Whatever they were, they were not healthy, not pure. They seemed to leak, or smoke, and in one case she could see the stench coming off it, although no odour reached her. They were climbing the steps slowly, shaped like feral cats, emaciated and disfigured with sores, and one of them hissed, a sound that made Akiko shudder, and filled her with an urge to wash.

Tamao crawled along the path, and then paused just inside the torii, looking out. The kegare creatures looked back. For several moments, all was still, as Akiko held her breath, not daring to move a muscle.

One of the cat-things leapt up at the torii, and Tamao’s head moved swiftly to meet it, catching it in mid-air and hurling it back and away, into the trees. Another sprang, and another, but always Tamao was there to meet the challenge.

But now there were other shapes among the trees, scuttling, far too large. One came to the edge of the clearing, a cockroach the size of a small car, apparently made of mould pressed together, oozing the juices of decay. Lightning flashing from his mouth, Tamao sprang sideways, and drove it back. Its place was soon taken by another, this one made of fragments of broken glass, most coated with dried fluids, blood, milk, vomit. It put one leg within the ring of trees, and Tamao, rearing up, spat lightning at it.

Shrieking, the creature drew back into the woods, but there were many more where it had come from, and Tamao was moving without ceasing, blocking entry, spitting lightning at those that dared to cross the border. Akiko looked to the other side, where the shrine house should have been, and saw Tamao again, driving back creatures like large worms made of chain fences, trailing barbed wire like drool from their faceless mouths.

She looked back to the torii, where the cat-creatures were gathering again, pacing in front of the gate and hissing, occasionally darting towards the gap before running back into the pack. They did not have enough courage to enter yet, but it would not be long before they did.

Akiko sprang to her feet and ran down the steps to the path, shouting at the things to go, waving her arms in an attempt to scare them. As she approached, she could feel her tee-shirt against her skin, the fibres rough, abrasive, while the stiff fabric of her jeans fought against her motion. She winced as the shirt grazed her armpit, and then stumbled, tripping and falling to the floor as the jeans refused to bend.

As she fell, the cats sprang, leaping through the torii towards her. Fear gave her greater strength, and she scrambled to her feet. The leading cat hissed again, its drool smoking green, black, and orange in the air, and terror took control, driving Akiko back as she ran back into the shrine.

Behind the shrine building, a red light pulsed within the iwakura, reflected in the pool at its base. Clothes, red and white, were draped over the stones, and something metallic sparkled beside them. The cats were getting closer, and Akiko ran forward.

The light within the stone pulsed, and a wave of intense heat passed over Akiko, leaving her clothes charred, smoking, on the verge of bursting into flames.

For once, Akiko understood what she was supposed to do and, pulling her clothes off, she plunged into the pool, ducking her head under the water.

It was icy cold, but pure and clean, penetrating her and washing all pollution away. When she stood up, pushing back hair that was suddenly dry, she could see a ring of red light surrounding her and the stones, while the cats prowled on the other side and, beyond, Tamao fought back the creatures in the woods.

She stepped over to the clothes on the stones, and quickly dressed, the white kimono and the red hakama, the miko’s uniform. The metal was a small implement, bells covering a cone on a short handle, with long ribbons, yellow, white, red, green, and purple, flowing from the bottom. She picked it up, and as she swung it through the air, the bells tinkling, the red light vanished.

The kegare beasts sprang forward, but Akiko was ready for them, sweeping the bells across their path, watching as they all dissolved into nothing when touched by the sound. Tamao was still fighting at the borders of the grass, and Akiko ran round to the front, to take her place at the torii.

03: Takenaka, Episode 18 | 6 Comments »