Friday was a terrible day at work. Akiko was utterly exhausted, to the point that even Megumi sounded sympathetic when asking how she was, and the documents she had prepared were not quite right. Mr Kanayama explained the problem, but Akiko couldn’t see how she could have got that wrong. She managed to get the corrected parts to the meeting before it finished, but she could tell that Mr Kanayama was disappointed.

Even though she knew that she should work late to try to improve his opinion of her, she just couldn’t keep going past five. She fell asleep on the train home even so, waking up with a start at the stop before hers. There was another note from the landlord when she got back, something about a water leak, but she barely had the energy to pull her futon flat and collapse onto it.

The ground was pleasantly warm under her feet as she walked around the shrine precincts, the blades of grass tickling slightly. With every step, her awareness of the grass became more intense, more precise, so that she could feel the shape of each blade, all its imperfections, bends, tears, and insect bites. And then they started to dig into her feet, sharp pricks that got stronger, turning to cuts that drew blood, flowing warm and sticky over the soles of her feet, the grass now lancing into her feet and crumbling to dust within the wounds…

Akiko sat up sharply, drawing a shuddering breath. Her heart was racing, and she reached down to massage her feet without thinking. Despite her exhaustion, it was clear to her what she had to do. She would get no peace otherwise.

Despite her convictions, she still hesitated at the foot of the steps, remembering the previous night. Clutching her rubbish bag and torch, she made her way carefully into the shrine precincts, straining all her senses for any sign of trouble.

After purifying herself and making her initial prayers, the only problem she found was that her torch wasn’t working. That wasn’t really surprising, now that she thought about it, but it still restricted her to looking for rubbish in the open area. The air was very still, and even the animals seemed to be resting; apart from Akiko herself, the only sounds were those of distant cars, and occasional sirens. Her footfalls sounded loud to her, and she kept glancing nervously at the shrine house, but there was no reaction. When she started jumping at her breathing as well, she realised that she was over-reacting, and tried to relax.

She found a few pieces of litter for her bag, but the area round the front of the shrine was quite clean now. Still unsettled, she decided that she had to go around the back, even though that was darker and near the rocks.

The stones were a dark mass in the night, with no sign of a light within them. The air stayed still, and the ground remained steady under her feet. She looked up, and hundreds of stars shone down. She bent to pick up a piece of litter, and then straightened sharply at a rhythmic noise. She looked first at the stones, but they remained unmoving. And then she placed the noise.

Someone was coming up the steps into the shrine.