As soon as he was gone, Shiraishi turned to Akiko, her eyes flashing.

“The nerve of the man! It’s almost as bad as Wakabayashi.â€ Her eyes narrowed. “I wonder which of them burned the shrine down?â€ Akiko was somewhat relieved to see that the priest had also put the pieces together in that way, but hearing someone else say it made her realise how weak her actual evidence was.

“We don’t <em>know</em> that.â€

“Hah.â€ Shiraishi snorted in derision, but then nodded. “You’re right. We don’t know.â€ Then she sighed. “And it doesn’t really matter. Even if they went to prison, it wouldn’t produce any money for us.â€ She stepped down into the entrance hall, into a pair of sandals, and went to the door. Akiko quickly followed her outside, where she was staring at the ruins in the fading light. Every breath of wind stirred up clouds of black ash, making the smell of burning strong again.

“We have to rebuild.â€ It was a statement. “Even if there are only two of us, we have to rebuild.â€

“Akira Takenaka called; he said he would come to visit when he was back in the area.â€

“Two of us with at least some support.â€ The priest actually managed a smile. “We can do it. Right?â€ Akiko suddenly realised that Shiraishi wasn’t anything like as confident as she was trying to sound.

“Right.â€ Akiko wasn’t as confident as she tried to sound, either, but she’d decided now. They had to try to rebuild.

“We could appeal to the ujiko, but that would take months, years even. We can’t leave Tamao on the kamidana for that long.

“I have to borrow the money.â€

The conclusion was easily reached, and when Akiko and Shiraishi looked at the shrine’s accounts it looked as though they should be able to do it. If they took income over a long enough period, it was quite respectable, and there were no loans already, so they could secure the loan on the land. Akiko was briefly shocked when Shiraishi casually mentioned that they would need to borrow about a hundred million yen, but when the priest broke it down it suddenly sounded more reasonable. True, you could build a house that size for about twenty million, but a shrine was a rather more expensive undertaking.

Akiko was, therefore, quite optimistic when Shiraishi went out to visit banks. When she got back with nothing to report but refusals, it was disheartening, but there were still places to try, and Akira visited the shrine to offer support, and some money. Akiko almost wanted to refuse it, but she had to admit that the shrine needed it about as badly as his company did.

It took several days for Shiraishi to find somewhere willing to make the loan on reasonable terms, but while she was searching she was also carrying out the ceremonies and continuing Akiko’s training as a miko.

For her part, Akiko had no strange dreams, and no visions. Maybe, she thought, the threat to the shrine building had been everything that Tamao was worried about.