As Akira drove her round the area the following day, Akiko had to keep forcing herself to concentrate on looking for kegare. Shiraishi’s reaction to Mr Fujimura’s literature bothered her; the priest had just shrugged and said that they should put it on display. Akiko was sure that they should be thinking about it rather more carefully, but she still couldn’t formulate exactly what she was worried about. That, of course, just made it even more irritating to her. She couldn’t even suggest that they talk about it more, because she had no idea what she wanted to say.

<em>Concentrate!</em> she reminded herself, and switched her vision back to looking at the kegare. The houses and shops all looked to have roughly the same level of pollution, although it took different forms on different houses. Akiko thought that it looked heavier than it had before, but she couldn’t be sure. In any case, she couldn’t see any concentrations.

And then she looked forward.

A curtain of writhing darkness blocked the road, apparently solid, and as they approached it, she screamed.

Akira quickly stopped the car, and looked over at her.

“Are you all right?â€

For a few moments, Akiko just sat there, breathing heavily and trying to calm down. She had let her vision return to normal, and she could see that they had stopped under the Tokyo to Nagoya expressway. To normal eyes, there was nothing out of the ordinary.

“Sorry,â€ she said, finally. “I saw a lot of kegare. It looked like you were driving into a wall.â€

“Here?â€ Akira asked, and she nodded. “What can you see now?â€ he continued, and Akiko took a deep breath.

“One moment. Let me look again.â€

She shifted her vision back, and everything vanished in darkness. Slowly, her eyes adjusted, and she could see things crawling along the underside of the road, great black worms, slime dripping from their bodies, hissing as it fell through the air, but vanishing as it touched the ground. They were wrapped around the pillars supporting the expressway, and hanging down from the edges like a curtain, but the space within was clear, like being in a box. The things seemed unaware of them, or at least unconcerned, but Akiko did not want to risk drawing their attention, and switched her vision back to normal, shuddering.

“The whole place is covered with kegare spirits,â€ she said. “More than I’ve seen anywhere else. We need to go back to the shrine and get Revd Shiraishi out here.â€

Akira nodded, and started the car again, driving in silence for a few minutes.

“Akiko,â€ he said at last, “do you ever get a break from this?â€

“From what? Dealing with the pollution?â€ She glanced at him, and then back out of the window. A break. It would be nice, but the problems wouldn’t go away while she was resting. She shook her head. “I can’t take a break while the problems continue.â€

“You’re…â€ Akira paused, apparently looking for the right words. “You’re not going to be able to do anything if you’re completely exhausted, you know.â€

It was very tempting, and a very plausible excuse, but Akiko shook her head again.

“Once the problem is solved. Not before.â€