They looked out of the car. There was no hill near the house, and Akiko could see little sign of kegare.

“Dammit. Not this one.â€

“You’re sure?â€ Akira asked.

“No hill. And…â€ She paused to consider how to put it. “It doesn’t look like the right place.â€ <em>No time to explain kegare,</em> she thought. Akira looked at her for a moment, and then nodded, pressing buttons on the navigator again.

“OK. One more to try.â€

Akiko could still see the kegare if she looked out of the car, particularly concentrated around the warning posters and clinics, but also around some houses and other businesses, and occasionally huddling around a pedestrian, or covering a car. She watched it in horrified fascination, wondering what it meant, fearful of possible consequences.

But, most of all, desperately trying to think of something, anything, she could do about it. Warning one family no longer seemed like a good response.

They were driving into a hilly region now, along narrow streets. Houses lined both sides, the ground built up on concrete platforms to make a flat base, the buildings fitting together like pieces of a puzzle. The hill was there, but Akiko couldn’t see how Takenaka could target just one house.

Then she remembered how indiscriminate the fever was, and realised that he might not care.

The car lurched, as Akira struggled to bring it under control, finally scraping along the wall of a house. All around them things were shaking, falling over. And then the quake was over. Akira got out, and Akiko scrambled over his seat to follow him.

“It’s just round the…â€ He was cut off by the sound of a terrible groan, a growl of pain from the guts of the world. The ground shook again, with a roar, and a great cloud of dust billowed down the street, grit in her eyes and on her skin. Blinking, she looked ahead, at the dirt spilling out across the street.

She started running forward just before Akira did, round the corner to where the dirt and rock that had collapsed from the hill nearly buried a house. People were running out of the houses to either side, but for a moment, Akiko thought that the targeted house was already destroyed. Then she heard a squeal, metal under strain, and realised that the structure was still, barely, holding up against the weight of the earth.

Without thinking she scrambled up the slope to the first-floor windows, barely visible over the dirt. Grabbing a rock she broke the glass in, fumbling around inside for the catch. The frame had bowed slightly, and the window was stiff, but then Akira caught up to her, and between her they pushed it open. The dirt shifted under her feet, a small landslide below her, and the house groaned again. Akiko could suddenly see kegare-spirits all over it, lizards made of rock and earth, probing for weaknesses.

“Over here!â€ she yelled into the open window. “Get out over here!â€

There was an answering shout from inside the house, and moments later, as the house shifted again, a woman came into the room, leading two young children. The shifting floor made her stumble, but she pushed the children ahead of her. Akira reached through the window and scooped one out, and as he turned to deposit the boy on the landslip Akiko helped his sister out. The house groaned again, and they both reached back to seize the woman’s arms, pulling her out and running down the slope, slipping and sliding, as the house groaned a last time and collapsed, spilling more earth down, catching them and sweeping them off their feet to leave them, bruised and breathing heavily, at the base of the pile.