<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“So, Kazumi, from whom did you borrow the coats?â€</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“Ah.â€ Kazumi blushed furiously, and looked down at the table. Shiraishi just waited, holding up a hand when Akiko started to speak. After what seemed a very long time, but probably wasn’t even a minute, Kazumi took a deep breath and looked up.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“I…â€ She broke off again, and looked back down at the table. “A… friend.â€ There was a long pause, and this time Shiraishi did break the silence.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“We’ve been to that park before. The women there are almost all prostitutes.â€</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“So my friend is a prostitute. Anything wrong with that?â€ Kazumi looked up, trying to look defiant, but Akiko could see the tears in her eyes, and the girl didn’t actually make eye contact with either of them.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“Do you remember when we saw Tamao in the shrine, not just now?â€ Shiraishi asked, and Akiko was momentarily thrown. Why was she bringing that up? “He said everything was purified. So, no matter what it was, it’s gone. It won’t make any difference.â€</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“That’s easy to say!â€ Kazumi was almost crying.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“And I’m very good at identifying faces,â€ the priest added, “even if people change their hairstyle and make-up radically.â€</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">Kazumi swallowed hard.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“You knew?â€</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“A bit. Do you want to tell me more?â€ Akiko suddenly put the pieces together, and looked at Kazumi in shock. “Ah,â€ Shiraishi said. “It looks like Akiko isn’t quite as quick on the uptake.â€ Kazumi made a strange, strangled noise, and it was a couple of moments before Akiko realised she was laughing, and almost crying at the same time.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“OK,â€ Kazumi said. “I should tell you the important bits.â€ She took a deep breath.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“I signed up on one of those dating phone sites in my last year of junior high. I… I used to let the men take my clothes off. It was no big deal.â€</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“We’ve noticed,â€ Shiraishi interjected, and Kazumi laughed again, although her heart wasn’t in it.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“Anyway, I made quite a lot of money, but the men kept offering me more if I’d do sexual things. That’s… a bit different. Then one guy offered me 50,000 yen just to touch his prick. Just to touch it. I decided I could do that.â€ She grimaced. “He came all over my hand. I think I spent three hours washing it.â€ She sighed, looking down again. “But then, I’d done it. I told myself it was a lot of money for not very much effort, and did it again. And, slowly…â€ She trailed off.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“We don’t need to know the details,â€ Shiraishi said, and Kazumi nodded.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“Right. Well, obviously it was a stupid thing to do. I was trying to prove to myself that I wasn’t bothered. Just like a body, right? Everyone has a naked body under their clothes. Everyone has sex. Or wants to. No big deal, nothing wrong with it. That was what I was telling myself. So I made myself up like the other tarts in the park, and went to join them. Selling your body to men in parks is like selling hamburgers, right? And at least you aren’t a slave to a corporation.â€ Kazumi shook her head, even as she said it.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“Anyway, the woman I borrowed the coats off saw that I was new, and helped me out.â€ Kazumi grinned suddenly, and it looked genuine. “And in her case, I really <em>don’t</em> care that it was mainly because she wanted to get into my knickers.â€ Her face was suddenly serious again. “Of course, I did actually care about the rest of it. I felt dirty.â€ She paused, looking down.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“Used?â€ Shiraishi suggested, but Kazumi shook her head.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“No. Not used. Actually,â€ she drew a deep, shuddering breath, “that made it worse.â€ She looked up again. “I couldn’t really blame anyone else. It was just me. But I couldn’t stop. That would mean admitting that I had made a really, really big mistake.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“And then… And then you came to the park. You did the ceremony and, well, I <em>felt</em> something.â€ She smiled wryly. “Actually, I suppose that’s not really surprising. Anyway, I felt clean, somehow. It was, like, the mistake was part of the past. I wasn’t carrying it anymore. And I realised that I could, in fact, just stop.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“So I did. I walked straight home, cut off my hair, cleaned off my make up, changed my clothes. Stopped going to the park. Cancelled my registrations on the dating sites.â€</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">Kazumi was looking at them now, although there were still tears in her eyes, and tracks on her face.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“I worked out you must be from a shrine, so I went round the local shrines looking for you, and found you here. I wasn’t sure what I wanted, really, but that ceremony had made a big impression on me.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“The clean feeling went away, which is also not really surprising, and so I came back and asked for the purification ceremony. It worked again, of course, which is why I kept coming back; I really do feel a lot better in the shrine.â€</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">She stopped, and after a while Shiraishi broke the silence.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“And…?â€</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">Kazumi sighed, and fiddled with the belt on her miko’s hakama.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“And I still don’t know. Now I’ve seen the kami, I can hardly walk away. I mean, I <em>know.</em>â€ She looked up, her face really earnest. “The kami are real. Kegare is real, and dangerous. Some trees are paths to another world. How could I walk away from that? But I’m not a priest like you. I can’t see the kegare like Akiko. So I don’t know what I’m doing here.â€ She pulled a face. “Hanging around the kami in the hopes of something happening, I guess.â€</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“Well,â€ Shiraishi said, “it’s almost certain that things are going to happen. I…â€ Shiraishi swallowed hard, and Akiko could swear she was blushing. “We’ll wait and see,â€ she said, finally.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">Kazumi nodded, her eyes on the priest, before she looked at Akiko, and raised her eyebrows quizzically. Akiko might have been slow on the uptake before, but she knew what this meant.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“It’s OK.â€ Her voice wasn’t very steady as she said it, so she cleared her throat and tried again. “It’s OK. The past is the past. Tamao said it was all purified, so it is.â€ She nodded, firmly, and Kazumi broke out in a genuine smile, the tears leaking out of her eyes.</p>