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.

<em>This looks bad,</em> 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.