Akiko replayed the conversation with Mr Kanayama over and over in the train on her way home. Every time she came up with better responses, either to convince him that he was lowly scum and that she didn’t want their stupid job anyway, or that he was making the biggest mistake in the company’s history, so that he grovelled to her to accept his apologies and take the job back. Sometimes she did, sometimes she didn’t.

When she got off the train, however, her mood flipped to despair. She couldn’t even keep a job as an office worker. What was she going to tell Naoyuki? What was she going to tell her mother? What must Satomi think of her now? And Megumi: Megumi would probably be gloating, blaming everything on Akiko’s failure to buy new Louis Vuitton bags every three months. Thinking about Megumi helped switch her mood back to anger. It was absurd to think that she was a worse worker than Megumi, and utterly inconceivable that she deserved to be sacked while Megumi didn’t. Akiko started speculating darkly about affairs between Megumi and Mr Kanayama, or conspiracies to ruin her life stretching up through the company.

That reminded her of the other influence that had played a role. Tamao. What did the kami want? He had made it impossible for her to work properly, interfering with the computer and, she was suddenly sure, with the files and print-outs, making her lose her job. He’d rather have her picking litter up in the shrine grounds. Maybe he was also behind the affair between Megumi and Mr Kanayama. That would make sense; she couldn’t see any other reason why those two might get together. Well, she could understand Mr Kanayama lusting after Megumi, but he was hardly a prize physical specimen, and Megumi hardly needed to go gold digging. And if she did, she’d set her sights rather higher than the manager of such a small a company. Yes, the kami definitely had to be involved.

Satisfied with the conspiracy, she started thinking about ways to expose it in the press, bringing the whole company down in scandal as crowds picketed the shrine over the kami’s destruction of her life.

Of course, that was impossible. No-one would believe her about the kami. Not even the priest at the shrine believed her about the kami. Naoyuki would dump her for sure if she blamed it on the kami. She felt tears pricking at her eyes as her mood swung back to despair, and had to stop on a street corner and take a deep breath to steady herself. She looked down at her clothes, her work uniform, and the tears threatened again. <em>Get home and get changed,</em> she told herself. <em>You’ll feel better then.</em>

She walked up the stairs to her flat, and realised something was wrong as she reached the door. There were boxes and cases piled round the door, things she recognised, her things. On the door was a note, addressed to her.