<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“I can’t see anything,â€ Akiko said, looking out of the car’s window in despair. “Just… fog. No, dust. Ash. Clouds of it, swirling right up to the windows. Black and brown, rotten. Stinking.â€ She stopped herself. “Sorry. You don’t need the details. The kegare has got a lot heavier since I last checked.â€</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">Shiraishi pulled over to the side of the road, and Akiko let her vision revert to normal. The houses suddenly sprang into view around her, looking, at first glance, to be in good shape. But Akiko soon noticed the litter, the minor damage, the bits of vandalism, the dying plants in pots and window-boxes… The effects were more subtle here, but they were still real.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“Didn’t you notice it around the shrine?â€ the priest asked. Akiko shook her head.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“It’s not this heavy round the shrine. Maybe the barrier around the shrine grounds purifies the surrounding area a bit. Anyway,â€ she went on, “if Kazumi’s been sleeping in this, it’s hardly surprising she wakes up feeling dreadful.â€ She paused, and then smiled wryly. “I don’t suppose we can evacuate the ujiko to the shrine grounds.â€</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">Shiraishi looked at her sharply, and then shook her head.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“It wouldn’t really be practical. We need to solve the problem at its source.â€</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">Akiko nodded. That was true, but where was the source?</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“So what do we do?â€ the priest asked. “Just purify some random place?â€</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“Well, we could…â€ Akiko said, thinking about it. “But I don’t think that would be very effective. We need to find somewhere that’s more polluted than average. If there are any such places left.â€</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“But how do we find them, if you can’t see?â€</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“That is a problem,â€ Akiko admitted. “Where is the kegare likely to be heavy?â€</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“Well, places associated with pollution. Rubbish dumps. Places associated with sickness and death, as well.â€</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“So, hospitals and old folks’ homes. What about the park?â€</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“That was a different…â€ But mentioning the park had reminded Akiko of something.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“Kazumi’s school!â€</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“What?â€</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“When Kazumi comes to the shrine after school, she always has really heavy, really nasty kegare. She might have picked it up at school. And given that it’s presumably full of teenagers, it would be a good place to purify if it is that polluted.â€</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“Do you know which school she’s at?â€</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“I’ll ask her.â€ Akiko pulled her cell phone out and started on a text message.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“She might be in a lesson,â€ Shiraishi warned.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“Do you really think that would stop her answering?â€ Akiko asked, and, after a moment, Shiraishi grinned and shook her head.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">Whether Kazumi used her phone in lessons or not, the answer came back almost immediately, and they drove over to the school, parking a short distance away and walking over. When they stood at the entrance, Akiko switched her vision over.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">For a moment she could only see the clouds of fog and ash, writhing around them, flinching away from the thin layer of light that covered their bodies. <em>The power of the shrine,</em> Akiko thought. On impulse, she raised the kagurasuzu in front of her, and brought it down hard.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">The fog rolled back, revealing the school.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">And the things crawling over it. They were large, lizards with the legs of centipedes, giant spiders in school uniform, cockroaches with human arms instead of legs, and something like a rat with spines, small white things hanging from the spines. Beyond them, the whole surface of the school heaved in browns and yellows, the colours of vomit and excrement, shifting as millions of creatures too small to distinguish swarmed over it.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“This is a good place,â€ Akiko said, swallowing hard.</p>