Web of light. Part 1. part 36

Interlude 31. Kagamimori Temple Complex on the West Coast. Kasuri (12 years old) (receives visitors) and Hisuzu Kagamimori (11 years old) (does the cleaning)

"Why do I have to do this again?" Hisuzu whined on one note.

"Because it's our job," Kasuri replied calmly, without looking up from the piece of paper. A simple calligraphy set, ink, and a stack of already written "good news" on the left hand spoke of the remarkable tenacity of the little miko.

"And how can you sit in one place?" Miko-with-a-mop continued. "It's as cold as the North Pole! And I still can't understand why we have to accept parishioners!"

"Even our venerable mother is doing it. Duty is our duty, and you must accept it."

"Well, if you say so, of course," She shook Hisuzu's bangs and began to rub the same spot for the tenth time, "However, for some reason it seemed to me that our duty was to catch and destroy the spirits..."

"Our duty is to stop evil and lock it in the endless void between image and form, between light and reflection..."

"...between a moment and infinity," the "cleaner" finished Kagamimori's jagged mantra and asked in a sarcastic tone: "Does scrubbing floors really help to "lock up evil"?"

"Well, you're not running all over the territory shouting "I'm going to hit you, you filthy spirit, that's my best shot!"."

"But this is my best shot!"

"..With which you broke the temple tree..."

"You're always spoiling my mood, sis!"

"You better calm down and get out of here."

"Yes, I do the cleaning, I do... It's just incredibly boring!"

Kasuri didn't answer: leaving the line unfinished, she took the brush away from the paper and listened to something. And then she put down the brush and paper altogether and took out a small round mirror in a heavy copper frame. Judging by the symbols embossed on the bronze, this mirror was not just a necessary object for any girl, but a real temple prop.

The visitor who stepped over the threshold twitched as the little priestess stared at him without blinking, and her yellow, inhumanly bright right eye seemed to see right through the man. And something strange was reflected in the mirror lying on the table in front of the priestess... but then Miko covered the "spirit" eye with her eyelid, and the delusion dissipated.

"Come closer, the Western Temple of Mirrors is ready to listen to your request." Kasuri rose from the table and inclined her head in a bow. The visitor, who was a very elderly Japanese man, timidly walked to the middle of the room, ignoring Hisuzu, who was frozen and listening intently. It wasn't the first time he had been to the temple, but the mismatched miko suddenly scared the headman of Shiraki village to tremble in his rheumatic knees, thank you for not forgetting why you came.

"So that's the young lady... I ask you, on behalf of our residents, to cleanse the cursed stones from evil..."

"Rocks?!" Hisuzu couldn't resist coming out of her corner and was immediately literally pinned to the floor by her older sister's stern gaze.

"Can you elaborate a bit, honorable visitor-san?"

"In more detail... Why not? A long time ago, our bay was cursed..."

"I've never heard such a stupid story!" Miko the cleaner joyfully shared her revelation with Kasuri and immediately shut up: the mirror, to which her sister forced her grandfather, a fisherman from the village of Shiraki, to put his palm, suddenly dimmed under the fingers of the exorcist girl, and the discordant howl of many voices hung in the room... Crazy, inhuman voices!

"A stupid story, then?" The mismatched Miko grinned, taking out her cell phone.

"Mom? Take the order. Shiraki Bay, a fishing village of the same name. The cursed sealing... I don't know, but maybe this is our sealing. The client asks for until Christmas... A lot? Well, I don't know... He said it was about two hundred and ten tons of granite. Two hundred and ten! Yes, I also asked again. Exactly tons. We should have it in the archive. He asked me to do it before the school holidays so that the children wouldn't stumble. Yes, but there is no school in the village itself. Got it, Mom."

"Oh!" Hisuzu tossed the hateful broom in her exuberance. "Are we going too? The first task, ur-r-ra-a-a-a!"

Kasuri looked after the younger one with the expression of a mother cat watching a kitten chasing a mouse half its size and frowned. The mother reacted too sharply. Shiraki, Shiraki, she heard something like that when she was a child... Or maybe not. And anyway, with such a volume of work, you should usually call Tsuchimikado — for all his strength, the Kagamimori clan is by no means famous for his fighting skills. So, the interests of the clan? Very interesting...

Interlude 32. Tayama Mountain range, "Dojo of Spirits" by Tengu the Smashing. Ageha

"One... two... Blow! One... two... Blow! One... two..."

Ageha grimaced. How can you be such assholes? A small but dense forest on the mountainside, where the walls of an old dojo, built many years ago by unknown people, were located, was supposed to be under the tight control of Tengu students. Uh-huh. And there were even students, but the density of control could only be dreamed of. At least Ageha reached the walls in full height and without hiding — and this in a blouse, a short skirt and stilettos. No, but why? The issued protective amulet from Yuto worked fine if you didn't use active aerial sorcery under it, and Ageha was finally able to buy things according to her level, rather than wearing something that could be intercepted at random sales in small towns or even pushed out of the container during transportation. It was a BLESSING! Peasants and peasant women cannot understand the joy of soft, high-quality fabric, balanced design and finally the right combination of colors. Once she got rid of the "curse" of her power, which previously could not be completely hidden, Hinoyonma came off to the fullest... but carefully, it was not enough to be remembered by her face. However, now her outfit did not match the surrounding "greenery"... But a girl can show weakness, right?! Moreover, the heels and the amulet did not interfere with the use of energy inside the body, for jumping from branch to branch, for example.

No, definitely, Tengu doesn't catch mice: sneaking up... hmm, actually just walking behind the trees, where along the branches, and where on the ground, to a couple of posts, she found that patrol couples were doing anything except visual observation: sleeping, meditating, reading, sparring, these two They hugged each other and cried... Ah, they're reading a new volume of some kind of manga. The assholes!

It turned out to be even funnier at the gate — no one was guarding them. From the word at all. No one was watching from above, no one was examining the trees on top of the wall... No one reacted when Ageha hooked the gate lock with her curved blade and simply walked through the gate: the guards at that moment were staring at Tengu and his five students sparring in the center. Cami! Are they even normal?! Then a beautiful girl came, and they were staring at sweaty half-naked men and their teachers in combat haori, with a blade in one hand and a combat fan in the other... Oh, no, it's not that hopeless! Ageha came out from behind the gatekeepers and calmly walked to the trampled playground in the middle of the school yard, listening with satisfaction to the clamoring crowd of younger students shut up, as the mismatched, but all male yokai swallowed together, seeing off her flawless legs. As the older students of the dojo fly away one by one from the blows of a fan or a training sword: old man Tengu, it turns out, staged a blindfolded battle with them. Oh, and that was painful, probably — the tallest of the opponents of the old master of the sword got a folded fan between his legs, where, judging by the slowed reaction, all the blood from his muscles flowed away, and, plausibly pretending to be an owl, flew away towards the inner buildings of the martial arts school. Tengu grinned, but immediately grimaced, pulling his long predatory nose.

"Well, well, I feel like one of you suicide bombers has bought this newfangled one again... "odeco-lon". Do you think old Tengu is too stupid not to use his nose?! Yes, here I am... Ageha?!"

"In person, Smasher!"

"What a beauty you are... What the fuck are you doing here, bloodsucker?! Or didn't we drive you enough last time?!"

"Have you been racing? Hmm, let me think about it... Is that when you said that whoever catches this nimble creature will get a red belt externally? Haha, did you drive, then? Say that to my face again!"

Tengu suddenly realized that he couldn't feel Hinoyonma's power, even though she was bearing down on him almost point-blank. He didn't have the strength, but in his narrowed eyes he immediately read a sentence to himself-no, not a death sentence, but she would be able to drain three liters of blood "in reserve." And although spiritual blood for bloodsucking was not the most successful product — it could not be compared with the blood of magicians, but during the memorable "persecution", when the tongue-tied bitch managed to bring the old swordsman literally to white heat and he angrily announced a "hunt with a prize", the dojo lost a total of thirty liters of this liquid... However, it was a long time ago. By human standards, it's been a long time-seventy years have passed since then. People became completely insane, and instead of the old, time-tested houses made of wood and paper, they began to build giant anthills made of glass and stone, and the centuries-old traditions were forgotten... They say that now women are being hired, not even as geisha, but as construction workers, drivers of these newfangled carriages that ride and fly. That's about three hundred years ago... or better yet, five hundred. Oh, yes, he was already "in years" then, but still full of strength, he walked with a blade and a fan across the islands and mainland lands, giving battle to anyone who wanted to challenge him, destroying the insane monsters of the ancient land of the Empire. From Sakhalin to Okinawa, from the borders of Mongolia to the shores of the vast waters of the Great Sea in the east... Tengu the Hunter was his name then, and to the sound of the horn, the younger yokai invariably gathered under his arm to give battle to the presumptuous exorcist witches... or plunder the overly fat nest of local spirits who imagine themselves to be the navel of the earth. And the women knew their place then. No, well, there were crazy spiders or kitsune pretenders, and there were tanuki who could tuck their striped-tailed husbands into their belts without any balls... Oh, the Tanuki! This loving family... And, you see, not a single piglet dared to drag herself to the place of noble training of husbands in the noblest of arts...

"Hey, Tengu! Did you fall asleep?" Ageha's voice even sounded a little worried. At the same time, she brought her face closer to his, and the Killer reflexively recoiled, almost tripping. Damn woman! But strong, strong!.. But where is the power? And how did she manage to hide like that?

"I'm thinking about..." he wanted to say "your punishment," but he thought better of it in time. Back then, the bloodsucker was in a good mood, and therefore she did not smash the dojo to smithereens and in half, but participated in the entertainment herself... and it really knocked down the arrogance of individual jerks. The old master did not believe that Ageha had lost even a drop of strength, otherwise she would not have shown up. And so brazenly! And even in this!

Tengu looked at the figure of the spirit, the face made up with a skillful hand, the styled hair, the Gaijin shirt without strings, the indecently short skirt and ... completely "glued his eyes" to the slender legs! That's how she manages...

"I'm really glad you're thinking about my legs. I'm not even going to set up a construction dump here... although it would have been worth it after the last time. Can you give me half an hour alone?"

Oh, what started here! The general drooling and envious glances literally burned through the old teacher.

"And there's nothing to be envious of, we're going to talk." Hinoyonma emphasized in her voice. But you're still not going to get anywhere, even an eleven-year-old boy can beat you up.

"Well, you shouldn't have "let them down" like that, Ageha,"" old yokai still stood up for his students when the two of them walked through the sliding doors of the teacher's house. "Everything is fine in moderation."

"And I'm not omitting personal experience, so to speak",

The spirit replied casually, smiling dreamily.

"But that's not why I'm here, as you know. I remember your speech when you unleashed your boys on me: "The power of the sword is the power of the soul. Your personal strength is nothing against willpower." So?"

"It's hard to change at that age," Tengu said with a wise smile.

"Then I have an interesting suggestion for you. Takamiya city on the shore of a freshwater lake, do you know one? I highly recommend visiting there..."

Interlude 33. Yu Shimomuro, Hiroe Kaname, Shizuka [walking from school together]

"It's a pity that shots with Dar can't be used. I've probably watched your editing a dozen times, Hiroe! And it was really scary to shoot from the shore near the place where he was moving the stones! One wrong move..."

"And the scene where Patchi catches you with tentacles, in which you screamed so much?"

"She's having fun, you know."

"Shizuka! No, at first it doesn't feel right either: to be in the place of the main character of an anime with tentacles... I'll show you my selection later... But we took so many takes until your aesthetic sense was satisfied, Kaname! I even got used to it."

"Art requires sacrifice! Rinko and Takahashi and Shizuka did it the first time. An exemplary fight!"

"...Where they're trying to beat me with sticks, you know..."

"It's a classic of our film culture!"

"Is idiocy a classic of our film culture?"

"Idiocy is a classic of any film culture, if it is widespread."

"That's a strong word, friend!"

"Otherwise! What am I talking about... ah! The T-1000 Terminator cannot be destroyed with conventional weapons, but instead of dropping Gaijin into molten metal, our heroes use their "inner strength". We'll also need to process the scene where Shizuka breaks up into water, otherwise metal, no matter how liquid it is, does not behave like that. I specifically found a video here showing how mercury is poured at a factory — a completely different current and slower."

"Well, I'm sorry that I can't melt like liquid metal. You already made me shoot almost naked, perverts!"

"You had the tapes..."