Akiko sat on the roof of the shrine, the metal cool against her bare feet. The wind gusted a bit, blowing her yukata around and blowing up, cold under the skirts. She pushed them down with her hands, and looked around at the trees, waving in the breeze, almost as if they were trying to warn her of something.

The roof was getting warm under her, and there was a smell of burning. The first tendrils of smoke appeared around her, followed by tongues of flame licking up around the edges of the roof. Akiko sprang to her feet, hopping from one foot to the other as the metal roof became hot, and then started to shift. She ran to the edge, but the flames from the shrine were already a blazing wall around it, the heat pouring off them in waves, driving her back, up the roof, to the ridge pole. Balanced precariously on it, she felt it start to shift under her weight as the flames undermined its structure. A lurch, a crack, and flames roared up through the roof in front of her.

Akiko woke with a gasp, sitting up in bed, clutching the futon to her chest, drenched in sweat. She put her hands on the floor for support, breathing heavily, and looked around the room. The clock said two am.

<em>Not again!</em> she thought. <em>That’s three nights running.</em> She thought about getting up to see what Tamao wanted, but knew she would find nothing, just like the previous two days.

<em>I’m going back to sleep, Tamao, </em>she thought. <em>I can’t go out to the shrine building every night. I need sleep. Leave me alone.</em>

She lay down again, but sleep wouldn’t come. She couldn’t even manage to keep her eyes closed; they kept coming open of their own accord, staring at the ceiling. Akiko tossed and turned in bed, trying to find a comfortable position, somewhere to relax and get to sleep, but nowhere was right. Something dug into her hip, and then when she moved there was nowhere comfortable to put her arm. Sitting up again, she shook the pillow vigourously, then lay down.

It had no effect.

Sitting up again, Akiko decided to go and get a drink of water. <em>Maybe getting up and lying down again will settle me,</em> she thought. The hallway was dark, as were the shrine precincts beyond the frosted doors, but Akiko made her way to the kitchen and got her glass of water.

While she was drinking it, it struck her that she should have been able to see the shrine’s external lights through the front door; they were left on all night. Putting the glass on the table, she went back to the hall. There was light visible through the door, and she was about to go back into the kitchen when she realised that the light was orange, and flickering.

The only window in the shrine house that overlooked the shrine building was in the office, and Akiko ran there to look out.

The shrine was on fire.