Several cups of coffee had done nothing to wake Akiko up, but at least the frequent trips to the toilet had stopped her falling properly asleep. Neither helped with work, however, so she was trying to get through at least an hour without coffee. As the screen swam in front of her eyes, she wasn’t at all sure she would make it.

She shook herself awake, and shifted to get comfortable on the tatami, catching her sleeve out of the way with her left hand as she picked up the brush with her right. Before she could dip it in the ink, however, she noticed a flaw in the paper, a speck of greenish black in the white. She brushed at it, but it seemed to be part of the paper, sticky, grasping at her fingertips as they passed over it. The mark was larger already, now covering half the paper and growing rapidly, the stench of decay rising from it as the lacquer writing desk also began to crumble. Akiko stood up and stepped back, her sleeves becoming heavier as they turned black, the smell filling her nostrils, the rot crossing the floor and devouring her tabi, cold, slimy, and alive underfoot, writhing and trying to push through her toes.

She turned and ran deeper into the shrine, as the groans of the timbers behind her became tortured screams, rotten bases no longer able to support the weight of a roof itself turning to decay, even the copper splitting and falling as scales with the sound of a thousand crashing cars.

Tamao was sleeping on his dais, his scales still shining as she reached him. She tore away the rotten remnants of her kimono and gathered him up in her arms, his skin against hers, cool metal and warm gemstone sliding along her arms and round her stomach as the kami coiled around her, his head resting between her breasts. Even in sleep, the lightning of his tongue played around his mouth, jolting her body and making her gasp for breath.

The decay was rushing to meet her, spreading from the fallen fragments of her clothes, and she stumbled with every step as the floor sagged and cracked under her weight, or flowed away from her, or seized her feet and tried to pull her down. Dragging her feet forward, she moved to where she thought the exit should be, but the shrine was changing as it collapsed.

And then she felt something cool and slimy on her side, and looked down to see tarnish covering the gold and silver of Tamao’s skin as the gemstones cracked and clouded, grey mud oozing out from around them as the lightning tongue turned a sickly green, its touch provoking nausea and making Akiko stagger. She could feel her fingers sinking into the kami’s flesh, as…

“Akiko! Wake up!â€ The urgent hiss was accompanied by a poke in the ribs, and Akiko brought her head up with a start. Satomi was next to her, looking at the screen. “Pretend you’re showing me something.â€ Still half asleep, Akiko pointed at the screen, and Satomi nodded. Akiko surreptitiously glanced around the room, but no-one seemed to have noticed.

Her hands were shaking, possibly due to all the coffee she had been drinking, but she decided to have another cup anyway.