“Revd Shiraishi! The shrine’s on fire! The shrine’s on fire!â€ Akiko yelled at the top of her voice as she dialled 119 for the fire brigade. By the time she had finished giving them the details, Shiraishi was beside her.

“The goshintai!â€ she said. “We have to get it out!â€

Akiko turned to look at her, but the priest had already grabbed the shrine keys and was running from the office. Her heart suddenly pounding even more, Akiko ran to follow her.

Tamao was still in the shrine.

Outside the scent of burning wood was heavy on the air, but the flames were still confined to one side of the shrine. Shiraishi ran across to the other side, keeping as far away as possible as she climbed the steps, Akiko just behind her. The priest’s hands shook as she opened the door, and it took her two attempts to get the lock undone, before thrusting the door aside.

The shrine was filling with smoke, and as Akiko coughed, her eyes starting to water, she thought she could see things crawling in it, spiders and lizards of ash and embers clinging to the ceiling. She remembered something she had read about fires, dropped to a crouch, where the air was clearer.

Shiraishi had quickly climbed the inner steps, and was wrestling with the lock on the inner door when Akiko arrived. The large metal padlock was purely ceremonial, and needed no key, but Akiko could see that the priest was holding it wrong. She reached out, sucking in her breath as she touched the hot metal, and helped the priest to open it. Together, they pulled the doors open, and Shiraishi pushed the interior bamboo blind aside.

The only light came from the flames along one wall, revealing brocade curtains hanging from a square frame in the middle of the room. The flames were still confined to one edge of the room, but they were spreading; Akiko turned away from them to concentrate on following Shiraishi.

Within the curtains, on a raised platform of tatami mats and woven cloths, sat a large box. Shiraishi threw it open as she reached it, and started pulling on something within. Akiko came up beside her, and saw something wrapped in cloth inside. They pulled it out, but it was still too heavy to carry out. Together, they tore the cloth off, revealing another box. Shiraishi opened this one as well, and grabbed a brocade bag. She opened it, looking inside, and Akiko caught a flash of reflected, refracted light from a jewel. The priest looked at her and nodded, and together they turned away, running back out.

There were more creatures crawling around the worship hall now, glowing embers starting fires in their wake. Akiko was ahead of Shiraishi as they ran out of the door and down the steps, and then further down the path, to get clear of the flames.

Breathing heavily, they turned back to look at the shrine building, the flames spreading.

Akiko saw Tamao, still within the building, flinching as the flames approached him.