Akiko sat in a coffee shop, nursing her coffee to make it last as long as possible. The jobs paper was open on the table in front of her as she went through it, looking, first, for jobs that looked appealing, as well as available soon. Each time she found a possibility, she called the contact number.

“Hello, my name is Akiko Tanahata. I’m calling about the position you advertised in this week’s Job Pages.â€

The responses she got were very varied, but had one thing in common.

“I’m terribly sorry, but we’ve already filled that post.

“I’m afraid that advert was put in by mistake; we filled that post last year.â€

“Unfortunately, due to the economic conditions, we have had to decide against filling that vacancy.â€

“Thank you. I have to tell you that the advert was incomplete, however; we require experience using 3D CAD software. Do you have any?â€

After a couple of hours of this, Akiko was getting so frustrated she felt like crying again.

<em>This is ridiculous,</em> she told herself. <em>There must be jobs available in Kawasaki. Keep looking. Don’t give up.</em>

Despite her resolution, however, she found herself staring blankly at the pages, and finally getting up to order another coffee.

When she sat down again, she forced herself to look through the magazine once more, but her heart wasn’t in it. She glanced over the pages, barely taking in the details of the adverts, while her mind went over her last day at work, the previous day, and then the previous week, as she tried to understand why she had lost her job. In the cold light of day, the idea that the kami had deliberately driven her out of her job seemed ridiculous, and she was almost convinced to put the sequence of incidents down to bad luck.

But she still couldn’t understand why she’d been sacked. It really was true that Megumi made the same sorts of mistakes all the time, and while her father’s position bought her some security, it couldn’t be that much. And, seriously, she couldn’t believe that Megumi and Mr Kanayama were having an affair. An image formed in her mind, and, shuddering, she tried to forget it, even as it brought a brief smile to her lips.

She shook her head, telling herself to stop brooding, and tried to concentrate on the job adverts again. She found another one that looked promising, and picked up her cell phone to call.

“Hello, my name is…â€

“If this is about the job, don’t bother.â€ The woman at the other end interrupted her, her voice strained. “The company’s just gone bust.â€ She then hung up, without waiting to see whether that really was what Akiko had wanted. Akiko dropped her phone onto the table, and buried her face in her hands.

A curse. A curse was the only reasonable explanation. Tamao was cursing every company in Kawasaki in an attempt to stop her getting a job.

<em>Oh, for goodness’ sake, woman,</em> she berated herself, and looked up again. Her eyes fell on the coat over the chair opposite. Shiraishi’s raincoat. Akiko sighed as she realised that she would have to return it, and decided to get it over with as soon as possible.