“Twenty million yen.â€ 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.â€ Shiraishi’s tone was awe-struck, almost incredulous. Akiko looked up and nodded again.

“Who <em>was</em> he?â€ she asked.

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

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

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.â€

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“So, maybe not human, then.â€

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

“Kami don’t know everything.â€

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

“Could he have been Tamao?â€

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

“I really don’t think so. He was, how to put it, too <em>controlled</em>. Tamao is much more elemental, much more spontaneous than that.â€

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

“So, maybe he was human.â€

“Then how did he know?â€

“Wakabayashi told him?â€ 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?â€

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

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.â€ 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?â€

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