Akiko spent the rest of the day fielding enquiries from the press, dealing with the investigator sent by the police, and generally keeping the outside world away from Shiraishi, who quickly became very drunk, and fell asleep slumped over the kitchen table. Akiko checked on her every so often, but she was snoring loudly enough to put any worries about her immediate state of health to rest.

She did carefully pick up the bag containing the go-shintai, feeling something hard and heavy inside, certainly like a necklace, and put it on the kamidana in the living room. The thought of the priest throwing up on it made her go cold with horror.

Akiko thought about calling someone, but she couldn’t think of anyone suitable. She certainly couldn’t tell her mother. She hadn’t even said that she was at the shrine; how could she start from “the shrine burned downâ€? And then there was the problem with Wakabayashi. The more Akiko thought about it, the more sure she was that he was behind the fire, but she couldn’t tell anyone before she spoke to the priest. After all, her visions of his kegare were not the sort of thing that the police would take seriously as evidence.

Effectively alone, she started to wonder about what she was doing there. Now that the shrine was gone, shouldn’t she be looking for another job? It wasn’t as if she owed Tamao anything, and Shiraishi would probably be glad to have her off her hands.

On the other hand, would Tamao let her go?

She still hadn’t reached a conclusion by the time night fell. She got Shiraishi to her bed, and then went to take a bath. It was only as she washed herself that she realised she still smelled of smoke, and she scrubbed vigourously at her skin and hair in an attempt to get rid of it.

Finally satisfied, she got into the enormous bath, and sank gratefully into the warm water, sighing as it soothed and relaxed her body. She could see the shrine woodland in the light spilling from the window, but only the first few trees were visible.

<em>What do I do now?</em>

The question wasn’t going away, and she still had no answer.

On a sudden impulse she got out of the bath, drying off quickly and pulling a yukata on. She went out through the windows of her room, crossing the bridge over the pond and purifying herself, again, at the entrance to the precincts. The shrine lights were off, but there was just enough light for her to see, and find her way.

First, she went to the ashes of the shrine. They seemed even blacker in the night, dead and inert, with a few bits of metal scattered among them. Behind them, however, the stones of the iwakura still stood, dark shadows in the night.

Akiko walked round to the stones, which seemed to shift as she approached. She thought she heard them grinding against each other, but she didn’t feel an earthquake.

The wind caught her by surprise, blasting from beyond the stones, blowing up from below, catching her yukata and flicking it up around her. As she fought it down with her hands, she caught sight of a red light within the stones, pulsing in the gap between them.

It was pulsing in time with her heart.

<em>I can’t leave,</em> she realised. <em>Even though I don’t understand it, I have to be here.</em>

The wind got even stronger, but now it was surrounding and supporting her, almost in an embrace.