“What do you mean, wasn’t here?” The question sounded stupid to Akiko even as she said it; it wasn’t exactly an unclear statement.

“I grew up here. I played in the woods. I worked in them when I was older. This tree,” she turned to look at the tree again, almost as if she wasn’t sure that it would still be there, “wasn’t here.”

Akiko looked at the tree. It was huge, hundreds of years old. Well, far older than Shiraishi, anyway. She didn’t understand, but this time she kept her mouth shut, rather than say something fatuous. The priest turned back to her.

“So, you started here.”

“Yes.” The rest of what had happened was also important. “And when I went back to the main precincts, I was, I don’t know, in a different version of the shrine. It still had a honden, a simple shinmeizukuri building.”

“Let’s go and see.” The tension was obvious in Shiraishi’s voice, but Akiko couldn’t tell whether it was excitement or worry. They walked through the wood, the priest glancing back until the tree was out of sight, and then out into the clearing.

There was no honden; just the iwakura, the empty space, and, beyond that, the shrine house. Shiraishi sighed.

“Oh well. So, what happened then?”

“I saw Tamao and Hideo Takenaka. They led me to the entrance, which was on a mountain high over the city, and had me look down. I could see the kegare all across the city, like a net, with some places swarming with corrupt spirits. And then Tamao told me that we had to cleanse it. He called you Spirit Child. He said that he wasn’t strong enough to cleanse it himself at the moment. Then a strong wind picked me up, and dropped me back in the tree.”

“Tamao said that he wasn’t strong enough?”

“He said that the kami draw strength from people’s respect.”

Shiraishi nodded.

“That’s a phrase from the opening of a famous Kamakura period law. It’s true, then.” The priest’s voice was strained again.

“Do you think that the lack of worshippers has weakened Tamao?” This time, Shiraishi just nodded, her hands clenched by her side. Akiko looked at her more closely; she seemed to be swallowing and blinking a lot.

“Revd Shiraishi, are you all right?”

“I didn’t know!” It was a wail. “I thought they were just traditional ceremonies! I didn’t know it was all real!”

“Isn’t it good that they’re real?”

The priest rounded on her.

“Good? I don’t understand what’s going on, or what to do. My training covered where to kneel while doing the Great Festival, not how to deal with spirits of corruption trying to destroy the city. I could just about cope with developers trying to get their hands on the shrine land; with this as well…” She came to a stop, drawing a deep breath. “No, I don’t think it’s good.” She paused.

“But we have to deal with it.”

“So, what do we do?” Akiko asked.

Shiraishi turned to look out towards the city.

“You said that the harae ceremony removed the kegare, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then that’s something we know how to do. We should find the concentrations of pollution you saw, and purify them. Hunt down these corrupt spirits and drive them out.”

Relief swept through Akiko’s body; finally someone was helping her to deal with the problems. She looked out of the shrine as well. They would cleanse the pollution together.

05: Spirit Busters, Episode 30 | 7 Comments »

Sitting next to Akira in his car, Akiko looked out of the windows as he drove around, keeping her awareness on the kegare. Akira seemed remarkably resigned to strange requests, but after she had discovered that she couldn’t walk around without bumping into things while looking for kegare she had had to ask for someone to drive her — and Akira was the only person she had thought might actually agree.

Akiko could see some kegare on all the houses they passed, crawling over some like vines, settling on others like mould, drifting around still others like smoke. She wondered whether the appearance of the kegare meant anything, or whether it was just random.

“Stop!” she said, and Akira brought the car quickly to a halt. The house on the corner was almost hidden in black fronds, cascading from the walls and roof. As she looked, it seemed to move within the kegare, as if shifting in place, and a cloud of brown spores rose from it. “This one is heavy with kegare.”

Akira leaned over, and looked out of the window.

“Hmm. So, what do we do? Just walk up and say “your house is…” Hang on.” He leaned over the satnav on the dashboard, checking where they were and then looking back at the house. “Actually, we can just walk up. I know these people.”

“Really?”

“Yes. The Tanakas. I was friends with their son at high school. He’s at university in Kyoto now, but I know them all. Come on.” Akira got out of the car, and Akiko quickly followed him, hoping that this really was a piece of good luck.

Akiko let her vision return to normal as they walked up to the house, to avoid bumping into anything. Without the overlay, it looked like a perfectly ordinary house, maybe a little old, but still in good shape, and well cared for. Akira rang the bell, and they waited.

“Yes?” A woman opened the door, and then, almost immediately, smiled. “Akira! It’s been ages. Come in! Oh, and your friend, too. What brings you here?” She looked really pleased to see him, and Akiko relaxed a bit.

Inside the house, sitting at the dining room table, Akiko shifted her vision back. Everything was now covered with a layer of mould, and every movement stirred up a cloud of spores, which obscured her vision and made her cough, an acrid taste in the back of her throat.

A figure entered the room, swathed in dark strands of webbing, with malformed spiders in dozens of unhealthy colours scuttling here and there across it, disappearing into the folds only to reappear at the other side. The surface of the webs heaved and shook, as if ten thousand maggots waited inside. Akiko suppressed the urge to scream, and desperately tried to switch back to normal vision.

“Lovely to see you Akira,” an old woman said. “I won’t come any closer; I have a bit of a cold.” As she finished, Akiko found that she could no longer see the kegare, and could see the woman, a white mask over her mouth and nose, leaning on the kitchen counter.

Akiko looked at Akira, and nodded. He cleared his throat and took a deep breath before starting.

“This is going to sound really strange, but…”

05: Spirit Busters, Episode 30 | 5 Comments »

Akiko felt rather self-conscious standing on the doorstep in her vestments, especially as they had left Akira at the shrine to keep an eye on things. Shiraishi, however, looked very confident, completely at home in her robes. The door opened, and Mrs Tanaka, obviously nervous, bowed to them.

“Good afternoon Revd Shiraishi. Akira, er, Mr Takenaka said that you would perform a cleansing ritual on our house.”

“That’s right. Thank you for agreeing.”

“No, that’s quite all right. Er, we don’t really have much to do with the shrine, so I wasn’t sure what we needed to do.”

“We only need some space for the himorogi; we brought everything else.”

“Well, please come in. We cleared some space in the living room.”

The space between the furniture was a bit tight, but Akiko got the himorogi set up while Shiraishi spoke to the family, asking them to attend the harae. Akiko remembered how the grandmother had looked, and wanted her to be close to the harae.

“My mother isn’t feeling well, so is it all right for her to stay in her room?” Akiko’s stomach lurched as she heard Mrs Tanaka’s words, and she quickly turned towards her.

“It would be better for her to attend, if it’s at all possible.” Mrs Tanaka looked at her a little strangely for a moment, then nodded.

“Oh, if that’s how things are done. I’ll go and speak to her.”

Akiko bowed in acknowledgement, and turned back to finish preparing the himorogi.

A few minutes later the old woman came in, leaning heavily on her daughter’s arm and looking very weak. For a moment, Akiko felt guilty about asking her to come, but the memory of the kegare was still with her. Settling herself in position, she shifted her perception so that she could see it again.

The himorogi stood out, clean against the mould coating every other surface, spore-bearing threads reaching out into the air, waving in the air currents and exploding in brown clouds when anyone passed close by. Shiraishi was almost completely clean, even so, but the family were heavy with pollution. The grandmother was invisible within the cocoon of webs, but a huge, spider-like creature sat on her back, thrusting barbed and pointed limbs through the threads and presumably into her body, then pulling them out with a ugly chittering before striking again. Akiko could not entirely repress the shudder as she looked away.

As Shiraishi began the ceremony, the noise from the spirit got louder, and Akiko glanced round to see it perched on the old woman’s back, waving its limbs in anger and hissing at them. The sounds of the norito seemed to hurt it, as its legs skittered on the cocoon, and then, with a shriek, it fell to the floor, on its back, its legs flailing in the air. More spider-spirits emerged from the webs, struggling and then collapsing on the floor around the large one.

Shiraishi picked up the ohnusa and waved it, and there was a high-pitched squeal that hurt Akiko’s ears as the spiders seemed to dry up, crumbled, and blow away, as if in a high wind. Around the old woman, the threads of webbing crumbled, dropping from her in a rain of dust. Shiraishi continued to wave the ohnusa, glancing at Akiko. Mr and Mrs Tanaka were clean now, but there were still strands of kegare wrapped around the grandmother’s throat. As Akiko watched, they also crumbled, and blew away.

She nodded, and Shiraishi turned back to the himorogi, replacing the ohnusa.

05: Spirit Busters, Episode 30 | 4 Comments »

The following morning Akiko wanted to call the Tanakas to find out whether they had noticed any changes, but she didn’t feel that she could. They weren’t even former ujiko, like the Itos. On the other hand, she really wanted to know; maybe she could go back to the house? Or perhaps Shiraishi could call them?

Deciding that that was a good idea, Akiko went to look for the priest. She wasn’t in the house, and, looking at the precincts, the only person she could see was one of the protesters, wandering around looking suspiciously at everything. Akiko thought about going out and asking him to leave, but decided that she didn’t want the hassle. It wasn’t like there was anyone for him to get in the way of.

Before she turned away, however, she caught sight of Shiraishi coming out of the woods. The priest walked over to the protester, and Akiko could see her asking him to leave. Rather embarrassed at her lack of initiative, Akiko went out to provide moral support.

It proved to be unnecessary, as the protester was already on his way out when she stepped out of the house. Shiraishi did, however, seem pleased to see her.

“Akiko!” she called, as she hurried over. “I’ve just been to the tree.” Akiko nodded, not understanding why this was so important. Shiraishi noticed her puzzlement, and elaborated. “I went to the tree, the one that I had never seen before, by myself. I was worried that only you could find it.”

Akiko realised that that was a reasonable worry, under the circumstances, so she nodded.

“That’s good,” she agreed. The priest nodded back, smiling.

“And I think I want to improve our service to the kami.”

“Improve?”

“Yes. I’ve… I’ve been neglecting it a bit, I’m afraid. So, we have to offer meals to all the kami, morning and evening.”

“What does that involve?”

“Well, rice, salt, water, and sake, of course, but then I suppose we should add seasonal fish and vegetables. The vegetables, at least, ought to be local, but that might not be possible.”

“Can we afford that?” Akiko hated to be the practical one, especially now that Shiraishi was taking the kami completely seriously.

“Oh, we can eat the food afterwards, so yes, I think so. Now, where do we need to make offerings? The go-shintai is still on the kamidana, so there, of course, and Hideo’s shrine. I think we should make offerings at the tree, as well. What do you think?”

“Definitely.” Akiko was getting caught up in the priest’s enthusiasm. “And at the iwakura.”

“The iwakura? Why?”

“That’s where Tamao’s aramitama is enshrined.”

“Oh.” Shiraishi turned to look at the stones, her eyes narrowing as if she expected to be able to see some sign of the kami. “Well, in that case we had better include it. Any other locations?” Akiko thought for a moment, and then shook her head.

“Just those four, I think.”

“Well then, we’ll start from this evening. I’ll need to go shopping; we should only offer good-quality food to the kami.”

Akiko nodded, and looked around the shrine. Would the offerings help, she wondered.

05: Spirit Busters, Episode 30 | 2 Comments »

“Excuse me? Thank you for the other day.” Akiko looked round to see Mr Fujimura at the entrance to the shrine grounds, dressed in haori and hakama just as before, and holding another small parcel. She quickly bowed, deeply, and was aware of Shiraishi doing the same beside her.

“Mr Fujimura, we should be thanking you for your truly generous offering,” the priest said. “Won’t you come inside?” Mr Fujimura bowed in return.

“Thank you, that would be most kind.” Shiraishi led the way, and Akiko didn’t need to be told to get tea ready.

“…cannot express how grateful we are.” Akiko caught the end of Shiraishi’s sentence as she entered the room, and the priest was bowing to Mr Fujimura once more as they knelt at the table. He was shaking his head.

“There is no need. I believe that it is important to show the kami the proper respect, here in their country. I am sure that you agree.”

“Yes, of course. Would you have some tea?”

“Thank you.” Akiko poured for him, and then knelt off to one side to wait.

“What can we do for you today?” Shiraishi asked at length, when the silence became too long.

“Last time I was here, I noticed that you had also lost your Japanese flag in the fire, so I have brought you one.” He picked up the package he had brought, and handed it over with a bow.

“That is most kind, but quite unnecessary,” Shiraishi said, also bowing.

“I insist. It is a very small thing.”

Shiraishi bowed once more.

“Well, in that case, I would be delighted to receive it.” She took the parcel, placing it next to her on the table. Mr Fujimura bowed his head once more, and then cleared his throat.

“I’m sorry to change the subject, but are those people outside causing you any trouble?”

“They are rather irritating, but they haven’t yet caused real trouble.”

“But they try to stop people entering the shrine.”

Shiraishi shook her head slightly.

“So far, they only seem to try to discourage people. I don’t know of anyone who has actually been turned away.”

“Surely people should not be discouraged from paying their respects to the kami?”

“I’d prefer not, but,” Shiraishi smiled quickly, “it’s a free country.”

“Hmm. Some people abuse their freedoms, however.” Mr Fujimura did not look happy, and he was silent for a few moments. “In any case, I should like to pay my respects to the kami once more, and ask for the prosperity of our Imperial family.”

“Of course. Akiko, if you would help me prepare.”

After the ceremony, Mr Fujimura left an envelope containing his offering, just twenty thousand yen this time, and a business card. Akiko and Shiraishi quickly went into the office to search on the internet.

“Kazuhiko Fujimura,” Shiraishi said, as she typed the name in and started the search. “It’s not a name I know. Hmm, well, that one isn’t him. Ah, this is probably it.” Akiko looked; it was an account of one of the smaller pre-war industrial conglomerates, which had managed to preserve quite a lot of its integrity even during the Occupation. Its head was one Kazuhiko Fujimura, but very little else was noted.

“Well, that explains why he has so much money,” Akiko commented, “but not why us.”

“No…” Shiraishi acknowledged. “And what are we going to do with the flag? I’ve never flown one.”

“Now would be a good time to start,” Akiko said, smiling, and Shiraishi nodded, still looking forward.

“I suppose it can’t hurt.”

05: Spirit Busters, Episode 30 | 3 Comments »

Akiko stood on the corner of the street, holding the map as if she were looking at it while she shifted her vision so that she could see the kegare. The lines of rot and webs of cracks across the buildings and road were ubiquitous, so that she had become completely used to them. The creatures prowling across the polluted landscape still made her shudder, but most of the time they ignored her completely, and so far none had done more than stare at her, and maybe hiss, or growl, or, in one case, bubble, like gas through water.

There was nothing remarkable here either, and Akiko switched her vision back to normal before walking on, looking around to check that no-one was looking at her suspiciously. Once more, she wished that Akira had been able to drive her round, but he was already helping them more than they could really expect, and he had business for the company that would not wait.

At the next junction there was a small park, the ground bare earth, with a few sickly-looking trees poking into the sky. There was a toilet block off to the back, but Akiko could smell it from the street, and the benches were damaged, most of them with graffiti on.

This looks bad, she thought, and settled her thoughts to switch her mode of vision.

It was bad. The trees were covered in choking fungus, in sickly greens and yellows, and as she watched the fungus belched out clouds of spores, some of which drifted her way, their scent acrid, burning at the back of her throat. Coughing slightly, she looked around the rest of the park. There were things perched on the benches, things like ravens with needles for beaks, completely hairless rats with strange, fat tails, feral cats that smoked slightly. There were rustles and hisses as they looked in her direction.

The toilet block looked in even worse shape, with cracks in the wall making the inside visible, and celluloid lizards scuttled over the surface, their camera eyes occasionally turning in Akiko’s direction. A cloud of something dark, maybe smoke, billowed from the toilet and across the park, briefly hiding everything from view.

Akiko nodded to herself. For whatever reason, this looked like a centre of pollution, so this was a good place to purify. As a bonus, it was a public place, so no-one could stop them performing the ceremony.

Then the darkness cleared, and Akiko could see the park again. The small spirits had scattered to the edges, away from the creature standing in the centre, looking at Akiko.

Its naked torso was human, emaciated, the ribs standing out, and the skin marked with sores weeping pus. The only unmarked places were the large breasts and penis, which looked young and healthy, apart from the foul red fluid leaking from them. From its hips a forest of insectile legs reached down to the floor, while it had octopus tentacles instead of arms, several on each side. Its head was a giant raven’s skull, with something dark boiling inside, black smoke pouring from the eye sockets.

It opened its beak, and took a step towards Akiko. She turned and ran.

05: Spirit Busters, Episode 30 | 5 Comments »

Akiko sat in the car for a few moments, gathering the nerve to get out. What finally did it was the sound of Shiraishi opening the boot; the addition of embarrassment pushed her over the limit, and she opened the door.

As she took some of the equipment from the priest, she looked over at the park. It was hard to see in the dark, but there seemed to be some people around, and Akiko wondered why. She considered looking at the kegare, but decided against it. She really didn’t want to see that thing again, and maybe if she couldn’t see it, it couldn’t see her.

“Ready?” Shiraishi asked. Akiko looked down at the things she was carrying, and into the boot again. They seemed to have everything, so she nodded.

“Let’s go.”

The priest closed the boot and locked the car up, and they walked over to the park. There were definitely people there, but Akiko couldn’t see them clearly. She felt a little self-conscious in her miko’s vestments, but she told herself that there was no law against it, and that Shiraishi was completely calm. She glanced quickly at the priest to confirm it, and she did indeed look very confident in her vestments.

I decided to do this, she reminded herself. I decided to do this to protect people. Reminding herself of the reasons did help, and she straightened up a bit.

As they approached the park there was movement, and then the sound of female giggling.

“Fancy dress?” someone called, to renewed laughter. Akiko felt herself blush, but Shiraishi didn’t even break her stride. They could see the women now, most of them with bleached blonde hair, all of them wearing very short mini-skirts or shorts, most of them in brief tee-shirts that exposed their stomachs, despite the cool night. They looked at Akiko and Shiraishi for another couple of moments, then laughed and moved off, although they didn’t leave the park.

Shiraishi led the way to a space away from the entrances to the park, where there seemed to be fewer people. A couple of men, startled, left in a hurry, walking in opposite directions, but there didn’t seem to be anyone else immediately around.

As they were setting the himorogi up, Akiko heard a car pull up. She glanced at the street, and saw one of the women lean down to the window, then, after a short discussion, get into the car.

Prostitutes! she suddenly realised. That explained some of the features of the spirit she had seen, at least. As if answering her thoughts, Shiraishi came close beside her and muttered in her ear.

“Prostitutes and drug dealers. The pollution here isn’t entirely spiritual, Akiko. I hope this works.”

“Yes,” Akiko whispered back, remembering the corruption she’d seen, the many spirits. Which corruption was cause, and which effect, she wondered.

Shiraishi looked over the himorogi, and nodded.

“We’re ready. Standing ceremony here, OK?”

“Yes, I’m ready.”

Shiraishi bowed once to open the ceremony, and as she began to recite the norito Akiko became inescapably aware that people were watching.

“Hey! Look over here!” one of the women called, and soon a small group had gathered, laughing and joking among themselves.

“Need any special help?”

“Is it true miko aren’t allowed to screw?”

“What about girl on girl?”

“Wanna try? I’ll give you a first-time discount, miko.” That last comment met with a lot of raucous catcalls and laughter, and Akiko focused her attention on the himorogi and Shiraishi’s voice.

“Hey, this isn’t your shrine. Are you so stoned you got lost? Shall I show you the way home?” More laughter.

It didn’t matter, Akiko suddenly realised. She was doing the right thing. Maybe if the women knew the reasons, they’d agree, and maybe they wouldn’t. Either way, she was doing the right thing, and she couldn’t let their comments stop her.

When Shiraishi bowed and clapped at the end of the norito, Akiko joined in calmly, despite the mocking imitations she could see around them.

Shiraishi picked up the ohnusa, and Akiko realised that she would have to switch her vision, to make sure that the corruption was cleared.

The switch was almost immediate, and Akiko could see that the ground around the himorogi was already clear. The spirit she had seen during the day was still there, larger now, towering over the spindly trees, which were still laden with fungus. It looked down at them, and then away, its tentacles reaching down to push one of the prostitutes towards a car and draw two men together.

Akiko looked down, at the women gathered around them. Their faces were all covered by masks of makeup, garish and bright, tied on with their own hair, which was pulled violently round from the back. Their clothes were now rotten rags which hid nothing, and most had sores on their breasts, between their legs, on their arms. Huge, deformed slugs crawled over their skin, leaving trails of slime, and as one vanished between a woman’s legs Akiko suddenly realised what they looked like.

She shuddered, but kept watching. Shiraishi had raised the ohnusa now.

As she swung it, there was a sound of bells, hundreds of small bells tinkling at once, and the giant spirit swung its attention back to them, spinning round, its insect legs scuttling across the ground, tentacles reaching down.

Shiraishi swung it again, and the spirit recoiled, throwing its head back and belching a great column of smoke. A wind blew from the ohnusa, catching the smoke and scattering it.

Akiko glanced down at the prostitutes, to see the slugs dropping from their bodies to the ground, dropping not only from their skin, but from between their legs. The masks started to crack, and many of the women turned to run, somehow avoiding the legs of the spirit as it milled around.

The priest swung the ohnusa once more, and the great spirit screamed, a sound that hurt Akiko’s ears and shook her stomach, making her feel sick. A leg came down, and snapped, and then another, and the spirit came crashing to the ground. Akiko looked down, and saw one prostitute still standing there. The mask over her face shattered, and she doubled over, vomiting phallic slugs onto the ground. Beyond her, the spirit convulsed and fragmented, vanishing.

Akiko looked around. The park was dark, but clean. She even saw new green buds on the trees. Shiraishi, clean and shining as ever, glanced round at her, and she nodded. As the priest closed the ceremony, Akiko returned her vision to normal.

Only one of the prostitutes was still there, staring at them. Akiko met her eyes for a moment.

She looks so young, she thought, and then the girl turned and walked quickly away, straight out of the park.

“Well?”

“Yes, we…”

“Hey!” It was a man’s voice, and he didn’t sound happy. They glanced round, and saw a group of men approaching.

“Someone doesn’t want us here,” Shiraishi said, turning to grab the himorogi. Akiko helped her, and they were soon hurrying for an exit. The men were following them, so they broke into a run, which the men matched.

Akiko thought that the sounds of pursuit stopped quickly, but she didn’t risk a look back until they had reached the car. The men were standing at the entrance to the park, watching them, and the prostitutes had gathered around them again.

“Let’s go home,” Shiraishi said, and Akiko fully agreed.

05: Spirit Busters, Episode 30 | 1 Comment »