Akiko put the mask on as she strode purposefully out of the shrine house and down the steps from the precinct, pulling the straps over her ears. She glanced around as she reached the bottom, but the street seemed normal; no monsters, no signs of decay. The only people she could see were wearing masks, just like her, but they didn’t seem to be suffering from anything. Akiko felt a brief uncertainty; was she just imagining all the things she saw? Then she remembered the ridiculous sequences of events preventing her from getting a job, and her confidence returned. She had to warn the Sugiyamas.

Waiting for the bus, Akiko noticed that everyone she could see was wearing a mask. She looked around to confirm it; she could see a couple of people in a coffee shop who weren’t wearing them, but they were drinking coffee, which they could hardly do through a mask. She wondered how much worse the fever had got while she was ill, and it suddenly occurred to her that it might be connected with the corruption she had seen.

On the bus, half-empty, and with only one person without a mask, that possibility continued to bother Akiko. She peered out of the window, squinting, trying to look out of the corners of her eyes, doing anything she could think of that might enable her to see the kegare again. Nothing worked, however, and the streetscape remained stubbornly mundane.

As the bus reached her stop, Akiko turned her thoughts to the warning.

<em>The ghost of Hideo Takenaka threatened to strike your house with lightning. You need to get out while you still can.</em>

As soon as she formulated it, she could see the problem. These were people who didn’t know her, and almost certainly didn’t believe in curses and the like. Were they going to listen to that? No. Better to find some other way to phrase it.

<em>Have you had your home checked for lightning risk?</em>

Akiko grimaced as she got off the bus. That made her sound like a con-man, about to charge them hundreds of thousands of yen to put a wire on the roof. And how could she follow it up?

<em>Does Hideo Takenaka have any reason to hold a grudge against you?</em>

She checked the address plate on an electricity pole, and set off towards the area where the Sugiyamas’ house should be. She wasn’t happy with that opening, either. It was too personal, and probably not something that they would want to discuss with a complete stranger. It also didn’t lead into the warning.

<em>I’m a weather scientist, and I think that lightning might strike your house soon.</em>

Akiko tried to remember what the proper word for “weather scientistâ€ was, but couldn’t. Keeping that story up was likely to be difficult, then. The Sugiyamas were unlikely to trust her enough to take the warning.

Akiko found herself outside the house. She hesitated, on the verge of abandoning the foolish errand, when she noticed that black clouds were gathering overhead, heavy and menacing. She hurried up the path and pressed the doorbell, not letting herself dwell on the difficulties. As soon as the door opened, she blurted out her warning.

“The ghost of Hideo Takenaka threatened to strike your house with lightning. You need to get out while you still can.â€