<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">Shiraishi had said yes, so they put Kazumi up in one of the spare rooms, putting a futon down for her. Akiko waited, still in her vestments, until she couldn’t hear anything from Kazumi’s room, and then left her room quietly, through the windows.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">It was dark in the shrine precincts, but Akiko waited until she was away from the house before turning her torch on. The air was very still, heavy with the warmth and humidity of the day, and Akiko was soon sweating. There were a few noises of animals and insects around her, and then something that sounded a bit like footsteps behind her.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">She swung round, playing the torch’s beam over the area behind her, but she couldn’t see anything. She thought she saw some movement at the edge of the woodland, but when she trained the torch on that spot, there was nothing. She stood for a moment, considering, and then quickly switched her vision over to look for kegare. If it was someone from outside the shrine, she reasoned, she should be able to see their pollution.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">The light from the barrier washed over the precincts, rendering Akiko’s torch unnecessary. Feeling slightly foolish, she switched it off, and searched for any sign of pollution. There was none, just small spirits playing in the air, a cloud of moth-spirits, in particular, dancing by the woods, the white and silver of their wings drawing sparkling patterns. Akiko smiled, and turned back. There didn’t seem to be anyone, and if there was, it was Shiraishi or Kazumi, she decided, and it wouldn’t be a disaster if they did follow her.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">Once she entered the woodland, the light from the barrier got fainter, so she turned the torch back on, keeping it on the ground so that she could be sure of her footing. There was a hum at the edge of hearing, and as she concentrated on it she thought she caught the sound of laughter. Looking around, she realised that it must be the voices of the small spirits she could see playing in the trees, some watching her, others apparently uninterested in the miko walking through their territory. Akiko bowed slightly to a spirit, shaped like a raven, watching her from one branch, and was a bit surprised when it gravely bowed back.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">The area around the tree was quiet, the tree itself an overwhelming presence, so strong that Akiko had to change her vision back to normal. She walked over to put the torch down, and rest her hands on the ancient trunk. As ever, calm flowed into her, along with an urge to embrace it.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“Tree hugging?â€ Kazumi’s voice was amused, and Akiko spun round to see the girl standing at the edge of the clearing, dressed in a yukata.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“You followed me!â€</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“I wondered where you were off to in full vestments in the middle of the night. Is this a sacred tree?â€</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">Akiko sighed. Not a disaster, but possibly a bit inconvenient.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“Yes, it is.â€</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“Ooh.â€ Kazumi stepped up to it, and laid her hands gently on the trunk. “Oh!â€ she said, sounding surprised. “It… talks to you?â€</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“Yes,â€ Akiko said. <em>Maybe it’s as well to introduce her to the tree,</em> she thought. “We think the tree is some sort of kami.â€ Kazumi was embracing the tree now, pressing her body and her cheek against it. She nodded vaguely, then took a step back, away from Akiko.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">She undid her belt and shrugged off her yukata in one fluid moment, and Akiko barely had time to register that she was naked underneath before she stepped forward, out of her sandals, and embraced the tree again.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">And vanished.</p>