“Twenty million yen.” Shiraishi looked at Akiko for confirmation, and she nodded. That was what she counted, as well.

They were sitting facing each other over the office table, the money stacked between them after counting. Akiko looked back at the money. She’d never seen so much cash. She wasn’t entirely sure she believed she was seeing it now.

“Exactly the amount we need.” Shiraishi’s tone was awe-struck, almost incredulous. Akiko looked up and nodded again.

“Who was he?” she asked.

“Mr Fujimura,” Shiraishi replied, and shrugged. “You know as much as I do.”

“But surely he must be an ujiko, or a past ujiko, or something.”

Shiraishi shook her head.

“I’ve never seen him before, at least as far as I can remember. And we’ve never had ujiko called Fujimura, at least not in my lifetime.”

“But you don’t just walk into a random shrine and hand over twenty million yen!” It struck Akiko that it was slightly perverse to be sceptical about this, but she couldn’t help it.

“Apparently, he does.” Shiraishi was looking at the money again.

“But exactly the right amount?” That made it even harder to believe.

“Could be chance.” The priest didn’t sound convinced herself.

“Are you sure he was human?” Akiko asked, and Shiraishi looked at her sharply.

“You’re the one who sees the kami. You tell me.”

“I… I couldn’t tell. For some reason, I only saw the normal world. I couldn’t see whether he had any kegare.”

“So, maybe not human, then.”

“Maybe,” Akiko agreed. “It would explain how he knew how much we needed.”

“Kami don’t know everything.”

“True, but they have ways of learning things. They can wander around invisible, if nothing else.”

“Could he have been Tamao?”

Akiko thought about it for a while, then shook her head.

“I really don’t think so. He was, how to put it, too controlled. Tamao is much more elemental, much more spontaneous than that.”

“But why would another kami want to help Tamao’s shrine?”

“So, maybe he was human.”

“Then how did he know?”

“Wakabayashi told him?” Even as she said it, Akiko realised that it was a real possibility. This could be a further part of some scheme to undermine the shrine.

“But what good would that do?”

“Well, if we take the money, we are involved in whatever Mr Fujimura is planning.”

Shiraishi looked thoughtfully at the money.

“I’ll ask the bank to check that it isn’t forged when I take it in. They should be able to do that quite quickly; getting me arrested for dealing in forged money would undermine the shrine even more.” The priest continued looking down for a while longer, clearly thinking, and then looked up.

“If it’s real, though? What do you think, Akiko?”

That was the question. If it was real, they had the money they needed to pay off the debt and save the shrine. She remembered Mr Takenaka’s warning, and the dangers if they didn’t save the place.

“If it’s real,” she said, at last, “I think we have to take it. If we don’t, it’s all over anyway.”

05: Spirit Busters, Episode 29 | 3 Comments »

Akiko was nervous, waiting in the office in her best suit. It was some comfort to see that Shiraishi was nervous as well, pacing back and forth in the small space available. The bank had confirmed that the money was genuine, and paid it into the shrine’s account. Shiraishi had then called Wakabayashi, asking him to come to the shrine to discuss the issue of the loan. She’d asked Akiko to be there, and to go with her when they went to pay the loan off, to make sure that there was at least one witness on the shrine’s side. Akiko was happy to agree; she wanted to see the loan cleared, to be sure the problem was solved. And now, they just had to wait for Wakabayashi.

He should be arriving any minute. Akiko reflected that he, at least, wouldn’t have any problems with the protesters.

Akiko jumped when the doorbell rang, and Shiraishi looked startled as well, for all that they had been anticipating it. Quickly, Akiko stood up, following the priest to the entrance.

Wakabayashi was waiting there, and he bowed formally to them. Akiko focused her attention inward, trying to switch to seeing the kegare she was sure he carried.

“Revd Shiraishi, have you decided to sell me the shrine grounds? A very wise decision. I will even pay you full market price for them, without worrying about the loan amount.”

“Mr Wakabayashi, will you not reconsider calling in the loan?” Shiraishi was polite, but clearly ignoring what Wakabayashi had just said. Akiko thought she nearly had her vision right and then, there.

Smoke and fire still clung close to Wakabayashi, the smoke curling round his body and head while small flames danced over his suit. Something darted out of one pocket and into another, moving so quickly that Akiko could not see what it was.

“We would be happy to pay off the loan under the original terms,” Shiraishi continued.

For the first time, Wakabayashi’s mask of politeness slipped.

“No!” he barked, shaking his head, and the flames Akiko could see rose up, stronger, stinking of oils and plastics, the greasy smoke hiding Wakabayashi’s face for a moment. As he regained control, they subsided. “It is too late for that,” he continued. “You must pay up within the week. Good day.” He was bowing to take his leave when Shiraishi interrupted.

“In that case, can I ask you to accompany us to the bank? They have a room ready in which we can do the necessary paperwork.”

Wakabayashi just stared at her for a moment.

“I’m sorry?”

“We need to go to the bank so that I can pay off the loan.”

“That’s impossible! You don’t have enough money to pay the loan off now!” Again, the mask slipped, but this time the fires were flickering, more smoke pouring off them, sweeping around Wakabayashi’s head as if driven by a strong wind.

“As I said, we are ready to pay the loan off today.” Shiraishi was entirely calm, and polite. Akiko reflected that it was easier to hold that poise when you were the one in the dominant position.

“I… I don’t believe you.” Wakabayashi sounded slightly desperate.

“In any case, you can hardly refuse to accompany us to the bank.” For a moment, Akiko thought he might; the smoke was thick around him, and the shapes moving within it, glowing like embers as they crawled slowly over his body, took the form of rats, biting at his clothes. She could smell fear in the smoke now.

“Very well. We will continue with this charade.” Akiko blinked, and her vision returned to normal. Before she could work out what had happened, and try to change back again, Shiraishi spoke to her.

“Good. Ms Tanahata, if you please.”

05: Spirit Busters, Episode 29 | 2 Comments »

They returned from the bank in a good mood. Wakabayashi had been noticeably sour as he accepted the money, and acknowledged that the loan had been cleared. Even the protesters gathered at the foot of the steps couldn’t dampen their mood.

“I hope you’re ready for the long haul,” Shiraishi said to them, as they passed.

“What are you talking about? You’ll be out in a week.”

“Not any more. The shrine isn’t going anywhere. You might as well give up. Excuse me.” The priest hurried up the steps before the protesters could say any more, but she was grinning when they reached the top.

“Oh, that felt good. To actually have something to say to them!” Akiko smiled back. A victory was good, even one like this. The empty space in the shrine grounds reminded Akiko that they no longer had the money to rebuild, and they certainly weren’t going to borrow again.

Back inside the house, Akiko suddenly remembered the other part of Hideo Takenaka’s message. They had acted on the message about the shrine; it was time for her to pass on his message to Akira.

She sat with the phone in her hand for at least ten minutes before she got up the nerve to call, and even then she only managed to ask him to come to the shrine. Better to do it face-to-face, she told herself.

It was no better when Akira arrived at the shrine, however.

“What did you want to talk to me about?” Akiko wasn’t at all sure how to answer that question.

“Let’s go to see your father’s shrine.” It seemed like an appropriate place for the conversation, and it bought Akiko a bit more time. Not that she really had any use for it, she realised. She had spent hours trying to think of a good way to start the conversation, without any luck, and she was hardly likely to get inspiration in the couple of minutes it took to walk to the small shrine. Akira paid his respects, giving her another few seconds, but then she couldn’t put it off any longer. Akira was looking at her, a question clear on his face, although he said nothing.

“Ah, Mr Takenaka, you know that I sometimes see the kami.”

“I… well, you saw my father during the fever. Yes.” He looked nervous now, almost as nervous as Akiko felt.

“Yes. Yes, well. I… I saw him again. Yesterday.”

“Oh?” Akiko had no idea how to read Akira’s tone at that point, so she just pressed on.

“He said to give you two messages.”

“Two? Well?”

“One was the password for the encrypted directory. It’s “obviously”, in English.”

“The encrypted… Oh. Oh, I see.”

“There is an encrypted directory, then?”

Akira nodded, apparently lost in thought for a moment.

“Yes, there is, on his personal computer. I’ve been wondering what was in it.” He shook his head, and looked back at Akiko. “You said there were two messages?”

“Yes.” The second one was even more awkward, now that she came to say it. “He said… He said to tell you…” She took a deep breath. How could she say this in an appropriate way? She had to just say it.

“He said he was proud of you for continuing the company.”

“Re… really?” Akira sounded like he couldn’t quite believe it. “He said he was proud of me?” Akiko nodded, and Akira looked away, staring at the shrine.

It was a few moments before she realised he was crying.

05: Spirit Busters, Episode 29 | 4 Comments »

“Who are those people in front of the shrine?”

That was not what Akiko expected to hear when she opened the front door of the shrine house, so it took her a few moments to take the situation in. Satomi was standing in front of her, looking as elegant as ever, but also more than a little hassled.

“Oh, Satomi. Er, they’re protesters against the shrine.”

“I could see that. But why would anyone protest against a shrine? I mean, why bother? It’s not like shrines pollute the surrounding environment.”

Akiko shrugged.

“I don’t know. They seem to think it’s important, though.”

“Hmph. Why don’t you move them on?”

“They come back. We aren’t the police.”

“I suppose so.” Satomi took a deep breath. “Anyway, I didn’t come to talk about them. I came to see how you were. And look at you! Quite the proper miko! Give us a turn.” Satomi was smiling as she said it, so Akiko, blushing, did a quick pirouette. “It suits you, you know,” Satomi said.

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t really know. It looks right, though. You look like a real miko, not like you’ve dressed up for a party.”

“Well I am a real miko,” Akiko protested, and Satomi laughed.

“Of course, but, well, you look like one. Are you enjoying the job?”

Akiko had to think about that. Was she enjoying it? That really didn’t seem like the right word. But saying “no” would make it sound like she didn’t like being a miko, and that wasn’t right either. Satomi was still watching her, her face growing quizzical.

“It’s very… interesting,” Akiko said at last. “Not at all what I expected. But I do plan to keep it up. So, how are you doing?” She moved on to the question quickly, before Satomi could ask any more difficult questions.

“Oh, me.” Satomi sighed, and looked skywards. “I’ve had one of those weeks. Everything that could go wrong did, or at least it seems like that. My car broke down, and the repairs will cost hundreds of thousands. The trains were disrupted every single day this week, and I wasn’t into work on time once. We had a computer virus in the office, which shut us down for a day and lost us some data; we still don’t know how much.” She stopped, and took a deep breath, then smiled. “I could go on like that for quite some time, I’m afraid.”

Acting on instinct, Akiko pushed her vision into seeing kegare, and had to suppress a gasp.

Satomi was heavy with pollution, ragged, feral cats draped over her shoulders and threading between her legs, jumping up to fasten their claws in her immaculate designers clothes and slipping back down, leaving the clothes shredded. There was something threaded through her hair, something that looked a bit like pond weed, or maybe seaweed, and it pulsed, releasing clouds of greenish-black spores.

“Maybe you should have a harae,” Akiko suggested.

“What? To get rid of the bad luck?” Satomi sounded sceptical.

“Well, yes. That’s one of the sorts of pollution it clears.”

“Akiko, do you actually believe that sort of stuff?” This time, Satomi sounded really surprised, and Akiko instantly felt defensive.

“Well, you said I looked like a real miko.”

“Yes, but you don’t have to believe the supernatural stuff. Anyway, I think I’ll pass on the harae, thanks. I’d really better be going. See you!” And she turned and hurried off, trailing kegare behind her.

Akiko watched her go, worry and puzzlement vying for dominance.

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Akiko stood in the doorway for a while longer, trying to work out why Satomi had visited the shrine. It was almost as if she was just keeping an eye on Akiko, making sure she was all right, but that didn’t make sense; why would Satomi be doing that? For a moment, she worried that Satomi might be part of the group conspiring against the shrine, but that made even less sense. They had protesters around the shrine all the time; Satomi wasn’t learning anything that they didn’t already know.

Thinking about the protesters reminded Akiko that she hadn’t checked the precincts for a while, so she stepped out of the house, closing the door behind her, and started on a circuit of the grounds. There didn’t seem to be anyone inside, although, when she glanced down the steps, she could see them gathered at the bottom, chatting among themselves.

They’re certainly dedicated, she conceded, and she wondered again just how much some of them knew.

The weather was fairly good, with plenty of blue sky visible between the clouds, so Akiko decided to have a look round the shrine woods, as well. So far, the protesters had not gone in there, as far as she knew, but it was something to keep an eye on.

For a moment, she couldn’t see in the gloom under the trees, but her eyes quickly adjusted, picking out the undergrowth and low branches, and the patches of dancing sunlight that made it through the many layers of leaves. Twigs and leaves, fallen in the windstorm, crunched under her feet as she made her way between the tree trunks, and birds sang above her, their sweet notes backed by the rustling of leaves.

On impulse, Akiko changed her course, walking towards the sacred tree. She was there quicker than she had expected, the white paper of the shide almost glowing as motes of sunlight flickered over it. She put her hands on the rough bark, enjoying the comforting warmth and solidity of the tree’s trunk, pressing her cheek against it, her eyes closed, leaning on the tree and letting it support her.

Her awareness of the cloth between her and the tree gradually strengthened, until she pushed off from it, opening her eyes and looking at it thoughtfully.

“Not today,” she said, and then blushed as she realised that she was seriously considering hugging it naked, or at least much less dressed.

But maybe it’s important, a part of her mind told her.

“Not today,” she repeated, and then bowed twice, clapped twice, and bowed once. Was the tree a kami, or the home of a kami? And did it matter?

Much calmer and refreshed, but still thoughtful, Akiko made her way out of the wood.

The sun shone from a clear sky, and the copper roof of the shrine glowed as if it were on fire. Akiko stopped at the edge of the wood, her breath snatched away by the beauty of the scene.

And then Tamao slid into view from the other side of the shrine building.

05: Spirit Busters, Episode 29 | 3 Comments »

Immediately, Akiko dropped to her knees, bowing her face twice to the ground, sitting back on her heels to clap twice, and then bowing once more, before sitting back up to look at the kami.

“Rise, Bright Child.” Tamao spoke to her, but Akiko heard her name’s meaning rather than its sound, just like when she had been possessed. Slowly, she got to her feet. “Welcome back.”

“Thank you, Lord Tamao.” She bowed again; it seemed the only polite thing to do. And why had she used such an old-fashioned honorific? It had been instinctive, but it certainly wasn’t how she normally spoke.

“Welcome, Akiko.” Hideo Takenaka walked over to stand beside Tamao, bowing low to the snake as he reached him; Tamao bobbed his head in acknowledgement, and then looked back at Akiko.

“Bright Child, there is still darkness spreading across the land. Come, see.” He turned away, slithering towards the entrance, and Akiko quickly followed, Mr Takenaka coming along behind her.

The white torii still stood in these precincts, and she looked down the steps, lined by ancient trees, disappearing into the clouds. Tamao let out a long hiss, and the clouds suddenly boiled, surging and flowing away, splitting apart so that she could see below them.

The gap in the clouds revealed the area around the shrine, the area that was under Tamao’s protection. A net of pollution lay over it, threads covering the whole region, while a few nodes throbbed with kegare, seeming to writhe and boil with spirits, spirits that were barely visible from this distance.

“Bright Child, you and Spirit Child must drive back this corruption.”

Akiko looked down, and quailed at the scale of the job. A question rose in her mind, but she didn’t want to ask it. She looked up, to see Mr Takenaka looking at her, and smiling.

“Ask, Akiko. Don’t assume he knows what you need to know.” Tamao’s face swung round to look at her, and for a moment Akiko lost herself in the glow of the golden eyes. Summoning all her willpower, she managed to stammer out the question.

“Why… Why don’t you cleanse it?” Even as she asked it, she was overcome with nerves. That wasn’t very polite, she chided herself, and, unthinkingly, she shrunk back a little from Tamao, fearing his reaction.

“I have not the strength.” The kami looked away, looking back down at the city. “Once I could have driven this away with one breath. Once it could not have risen so strong in the first place.” He looked back at her, and Akiko thought she could see regret on the serpentine features. “The kami gain power as people honour them, and people are made prosperous by the kami.”

Akiko swallowed hard. The neglect of the shrine must be weakening Tamao, then, she thought.

“But the storms…” She cut herself off. Maybe asking everything was not such a good idea. Tamao’s eyes flared more brightly, and lightning danced over his lips, the gems of his skin scattering the light back in red, green, and purple.

“I can show my anger still, Bright Child. I am still a kami.”

He still has power in his anger? Akiko thought.

“So, could your aramitama…” The breath was knocked from Akiko’s body as a blast of wind picked her up and hurled her into the air.

05: Spirit Busters, Episode 29 | 2 Comments »

In moments Akiko was high above the shrine, the green of its mountain standing out against the sea of clouds, the roof of the shrine shining like a beacon. Then the wind dropped her, and she screamed.

It caught her again while she was still far above the mountain peak, tossing her up again, and then flinging her sideways. She tumbled upside-down, and the wind blew from above, tangling her vestments around her head, leaving her blind as her stomach lurched at the sickening downwards plunge.

“Tamao!” she screamed, grabbing at the heavy material and trying to get it out of her face. She tumbled again, and now the wind was lifting her once more, while pressing her vestments closer around her upper body, twisting her around so that they gradually became more tangled around her, while the cold air bit into her exposed legs. Desperately, she grabbed at the cloth, trying to pull it away from her face at least, but now the wind was rolling her through the air, and she was getting dizzy, nausea rising in her stomach. The thought of actually vomiting while her face was covered in cloth made her panic even more, and she pushed harder at the fabric. It was no good; the cloth was too heavy, the wind too strong. She continued to lurch through the air, the motion getting ever more violent.

She tumbled round in the air, and for a moment the wind was no longer pressing her clothes against her face. She pushed them out and away, gasping for breath as cool air flooded into her mouth, and her vision cleared.

She was still suspended in whiteness, with nothing visible in any direction. As she fell once more, her stomach rising into her throat, she realised that she felt wet, that she must be inside a cloud. Then the wind spun her round, whipping her skirts back up around her face and twisting.

Somehow, the cloth was around her neck, twisting, tightening, and she couldn’t breathe. Desperately, she tried to get her hands inside the folds, pull at the material, but she could only just get it loose, and as she spun the motion threatened to wrap it tighter once more.

She tried to cry out to Tamao for help, but she couldn’t get the words out, and for a moment she remembered the calm she felt when touching the sacred tree. That was what she needed now. As she thought that, she felt something whip against her foot as she spun round once more. Something like a twig. Blindly, she reached out, feeling bark, and closed her hands, grabbing and holding on.

The bark was rough, its texture calming her as it pressed against her skin, soothing her, settling her stomach. She could feel the tree accepting her panicked breathing, her racing heartbeat, and drawing the fear from her as she pressed herself closer to it.

Her legs were pressed against the bark of the tree, but her vestments were still wrapped around her upper body, separating her from the tree, cutting her off…

“No, I just want to get down,” she said.

Instantly, the feeling vanished, and she found her clothes shifting, falling back towards a more normal position now that she wasn’t being tossed by the wind. Shifting her grip on the branches, she was able to settle them in something like the normal position, and see an easy route for climbing down. Was that an answer? she wondered, as she started to descend.

As she reached the foot of the tree, she marvelled at how clean the vestments were. Even cleaner than they had been when she put them on, if anything; no sign that she’d been climbing a tree in them. She looked up at the tree, and knelt, performing the obeisance while kneeling.

“Thank you,” she said, with as much feeling, and respect, as she could manage.

She hurried back to the shrine house, bowing quickly to the iwakura as she passed, thinking about what had happened. It seemed likely that the aramitama had seized her when she mentioned it, and then the tree had rescued her. From somewhere. Although you could argue that she had never left the tree. Shaking her head, she decided to talk to Shiraishi.

The priest was in the office, just finishing a phone call, and she looked round as Akiko came in. She didn’t look very happy, but Akiko had to tell her what had happened.

“Revd Shiraishi, I just saw Tamao again. He told me that we had to purify the area.” Something struck her. “He called you Spirit Child; is your given name Tamako?”

“No, Reiko. Look, could you start from the beginning? I can’t follow what you’re saying.” Akiko took a deep breath, and nodded. A bit more context would make it easier to understand.

“I decided to check the shrine grounds, to make sure there were no protesters around, and I walked as far as the sacred tree.”

“Sacred tree?” Shiraishi looked puzzled.

“Well, I don’t know what it’s called. The big one with the shimenawa and shide around it, towards the back of the shrine.”

Shiraishi still looked puzzled.

“I don’t think we have a god tree at this shrine. Just the iwakura, and, normally, the honden.”

Now Akiko was puzzled.

“But the shimenawa has fresh shide on it all the time. You must be changing them at least once a week.”

Shiraishi shook her head.

“It’s not me. I think you’d better show me this tree.”

“Er, yes.” Akiko led the way out of the house and back to the woods.

“It’s somewhere around here, just a moment,” she said, as she tried to get her bearings. She realised that, although she knew where the tree was, she didn’t know a particular way to get there. “Ah, through here, I think.”

She led the priest through the trunks, and out into the space around the trunk. The tree soared above them, its leaves whispering in the breeze, patches of sunlight catching the white of the shimenawa. Akiko looked at the priest.

Shiraishi had stopped at the edge of the space, and was staring at the tree, awe on her face. She took a tentative step forward, then another, then another, until she was standing next to the tree. She started to raise her hands, then dropped them.

“It’s OK. You can touch it.” Akiko couldn’t understand Shiraishi’s reaction, but she understood what the priest was feeling when she touched the tree, then embraced it. And, when she blushed and quickly stepped back, Akiko thought she understood that, as well.

The priest looked up at the tree, then performed the standard obeisance before turning back to Akiko.

“Akiko, this tree.” She stopped, and a look of wondering incomprehension passed over her face. “This tree wasn’t here before.”

05: Spirit Busters, Episode 29 | 9 Comments »