The protesters did nothing but watch Akiko and Akira as they unloaded the car and carried things back to the shrine, for which Akiko was very grateful. Back in the house, Akira put his load down, and then stood, slightly awkwardly.

“Thanks,â€ Akiko said, but Akira still didn’t say anything, or leave, and he wasn’t looking at her. Akiko realised that he wanted to say something, but she couldn’t think of a good question to ask, so she just waited.

“Akiko! Could you bring some tea?â€ Shiraishi called to her from inside the house, and, with a smile and bow of apology to Akira, she turned and called back.

“Of course.â€

“Well, see you soon,â€ Akira said, as he turned to go.

“Yes, take care.â€ He just nodded, and Akiko stood for a moment, looking after him, wondering what he had wanted to say. Something about his father? But Shiraishi and the ujiko were waiting, and she had to hurry to the kitchen to make the tea.

The ujiko were there to have a ceremony performed, so as soon as they had drunk their tea they were back out in the shrine precincts, setting the himorogi up in the rapidly fading light and performing a harae and prayer for family safety and business success. Akiko saw that the ujiko had a lot of kegare before the purification, but there was nothing remarkable about it, not given how much of it there was around. After the ceremony, Akiko still felt alert, hardly tired at all, even though she wasn’t sure that she had slept at all. She didn’t anticipate any problems with the watch duty in the first part of the night.

She wasn’t tired, that was certainly true. But with nothing to demand her attention, her gaze kept drifting back to the iwakura, and her mind back to what had happened the previous night. She forced herself to look away, desperate not to draw the kami’s attention again, but she couldn’t shut the memory out of her mind. She couldn’t sit still in the office, but when she went outside her stomach lurched in fear, and she couldn’t make herself take another step, go any closer to the iwakura.

In the end, she found herself making endless cups of green tea, and thus spending an inordinate amount of time in the toilet. Still, it kept her mind off the iwakura, and when Shiraishi came in the early hours to relieve her, she went to bed hoping that she would sleep.

She woke with no memory of falling asleep, from a dream in which she had forgotten to put any knickers on under her miko’s vestments.

<em>Well, at least that one wasn’t a message from the kami,</em> she thought, wryly, as she tried to get comfortable and fall asleep again. She felt a sudden, overwhelming urge to get up, and put on her miko’s vestments. For a while she lay still, fighting it, but it only got stronger, and, with a sigh, she got out of bed. Carefully putting on knickers first, she dressed in the vestments, and picked up the kagurasuzu from the office as she made her way out of the house and into the shrine grounds.

The grounds were lit by the pulsing red light coming from the iwakura, and Akiko flinched back as she felt the warmth coming off it. Tamao was also there, coiled around the iwakura, looking at her.

“Do not fear, Bright Child.â€

Akiko realised that Tamao was between her and the iwakura, protecting her from it, preventing her from being sucked in. She quickly knelt, bowing, clapping, and bowing.

“Lord Tamao, what do you want me to do?â€ She hardly dared hope for a straight answer, but she figured that it was worth a try.

“Watch the gate.â€

Akiko turned to face the entrance to the shrine. There was no gate, of course, as they still hadn’t been able to replace the torii, but it was clear what Tamao had meant. The red light from behind her got stronger, as did the heat, and Akiko could feel sweat start to run down her back. Her stomach fluttered, but she remembered Tamao, between her and the stones, and forced herself to calm down.

Then something appeared outside the gate, above the steps, flying, like a bat with tattered wings, a tongue far longer than its body lolling from its mouth. It approached the edge of the precincts, and then shied away, flying back with a piercing screech. Another came up to join it, and another, and still more, along with rat-like creatures scuttling on the ground, probing at the boundaries of the shrine.

The red light flared again, very bright now, clearly picking out the creatures’ deformities, the weeping sores, the scars from burns and broken and barely mended limbs. The heat was even more intense, and Akiko could feel the sweat beading on her forehead as a hot wind started to blow from behind her, driving the flying creatures back and catching the ribbons attached to the kagurasuzu, making them dance wildly.

And then one of the rat-things darted across the boundary, in the face of the wind, the grass of the precincts curling and dying under its feet, greasy black smoke rising to be whipped away by a gale which blew even more strongly, but which could not force it back. Akiko was moving on the instant, swinging the kagurasuzu down, the sound of the bells also caught by the wind, sending the rat tumbling backwards with a squeal, out of the precincts and down the steps.

Even as she drew breath and straightened up, one of the flying creatures swooped in at an angle, coming at the boundary too quickly, wings folded small against the wind. Akiko thrust the bells up, and felt something actually strike them, felt it as a dazzling flash of golden light blinded her for an instant full of ringing bells.

Her vision cleared almost instantly, and even in the heat she felt energy flowing through her, driving her as she leapt sideways to intercept another rat, then up against a bat, and down again as she landed to block another spirit from scuttling in. There were things like centipedes there now, winding in and out of the feet of the rats, all scared of the kagurasuzu.

All scared of her.

The sweat was no longer beading on her; instead it was running down her face and body like a hundred tiny rivers, drops of salt water flying from her hair and fingers as she moved, burning the spirits with golden light wherever they touched. Her vestments should have been soaked, but they were not, flying light around her body as she danced.

As she blocked three rats, a centipede scuttled across at the other side, the grass dying beneath it as it started trying to burrow into the earth, and Akiko stumbled, before catching herself and launching herself at it. The kagurasuzu came down hard, crushing it in a gout of fire. She stood, sweeping her arms across the entrance, scattering salt water as the bells rang and the spirits shrank back once more.

She sprang forward, spinning, water spraying from her hair and hands as the bells rang and a great light burst from the kagurasuzu. She landed at the entrance and brought the bells down in both hands, striking three of the creatures, consuming them in fire.

The spirits broke, then, pouring back down the steps, away from the shrine.