Web of light. Part 1

Плотников Сергей, Горный цветок.

The Web of Light I. The expanded universe

https://author.today/u/SergeyPlotnikov

The preface

I probably shouldn't tell you what "fanfiction" is, does everyone know that? "Web of Light" is a fanfiction based on the Japanese manga "Omamori Himari", "My Guardian Himari".

If you can't stomach anime or don't like fan fiction, just skip this text :) In principle, the "Web" can be read without knowledge of the original source, but if you are interested, here is the link to the translation: http://mintmanga.com/omamori_himari

"My Guardian Himari" is an author's work by mangaka Matra Milan, who was previously noted for graphic novels in the genre of "hentai", that is, frankly speaking, pornography. Which left its mark, yes. Therefore, "Himari" can be safely attributed to the genre of "etty", eroticism (mostly light). However, in the fanfiction itself, this very eroticism will not be enough: I was interested in something else. Namely, the world, the background of what is happening. I wanted to "unwind" it, to reveal it in a normal way... Well, here we go :)

First of all, I'll briefly introduce you to the main character. Alex Zharov, a graduate student in biophysics, is a typical junior researcher. He sees his career in scientific work, he is on duty in the laboratory at night. And here is Yuto Amakawa, a nine-year-old boy who has just been orphaned. He had a loving family, and the ancestral family tree stretches back almost a thousand years, closely intertwined with the history of Japan itself. He was destined to become an exorcist, a hunter of Ayakashi — in his world, which is very similar to our Earth, demons are a very real threat. But it just so happened that the young prince lost everything — the death of his parents was just the last straw. Well, now Alex will have to become Yuto. Not to take a place, but to become an Amakawa.

Rinko Kuzaki is a swordsman, Yuto's childhood friend, with a ferry that has upgraded her body and is putting pressure on her nervous system. Yuto's neighbor, who took on the kid's domestic problems.

Hiroe Kaname is an aspiring journalist with a flawed Yakoin detective gene.

Yu Shimomuro is the head of the magic club at the Yuto School. He's drawn to Harry Potter and Spider-Man.

Mizuchi Shizuka is the goddess of rivers, who found a younger brother in Yuto.

Hinoyonma Ageha is an air demon (bloodsucker) who has fallen for Yuto and helps him find new vassals in the city.

Bakeneko Himari is Yuto's bodyguard.

Kues Jinguji is the bride of Yuto from the Jinguji clan. She is studying at the British Magic Academy (Hogwarts, as her graduate Rowling called her).

Chapter 1. The Awakening.

0

The installation works silently, which cannot be said about the peripherals: the power supplies buzz like bumblebees — and each in its own way — the radiometer beeps once a second, the coolers of the rather old system unit (laboratory stand) and the almost new desktop (Starcraft 2 is the favorite game of the laboratory) buzz. My time is night. The experiment starts at 8 p.m. and lasts until 6 p.m., and there is no way to leave the laboratory without an employee: it is forbidden for safety reasons. Unsurprisingly, most of the time I doze on a chair or in an armchair, sometimes on an uncomfortable, flat sofa that looks like a bench from a clinic (if I can't stand it at all). A few months ago, I began to notice that my dreams had become more realistic, vivid, and colorful. Even if I dreamed that I was a giant dragonfly, and the whole dream I was catching flying fish over the vast expanse of a dense, all shades of green ocean. I dreamed of various plots: from a replay of everyday, from a series of experiences, to absolutely fantastic ones, like the struggle for the survivability of a military spaceship. (Or not military?.. I didn't understand it then.) I had played enough of the first mass effect before that. So it's not surprising.

What is the effect? Electromagnetic fluctuations? That's nonsense, that's what the radiometer is for. I told the boss, who assumed an infrasound. They brought a quartz resonator, searched-searched — did not aim. We didn't understand anything, but considering that quartz has some measurement selectivity... On the other hand, we would have detected any strong impact, but a weak one... There won't be enough energy to damage anything in the body. Of course, no one released me from night duty. And I wouldn't ruin my career myself. And now...

Apparently, I very successfully passed out at the intersection of reflections from certain waves — sound waves or electromagnetic waves. This time, I became a gloomy nine-year-old child who had just lost his parents yesterday. A few unusual sensations — and again I remembered myself. I knew I was dreaming. But he didn't wake up, didn't even try. There was no fear, it was interesting. Some kind of alternative Japan. Why an alternative? Here is the house, now mine — the boy has no living relatives left. A completely European design, right down to the furniture. Lack of social care: for some reason, not a single official approached me at the funeral, and I am an orphan child... We don't seem to be in Tokyo (I saw it in the photos), but it doesn't look like Kyoto either — there's no port, but I remember there should be. I was accompanied by the mother of a school friend, and she also had no doubt that the child would be able to live alone. It's kind of gloomy.

I froze gloomily in front of two signs. It's too early to put up monuments, we have to wait at least a year. Shinji and Rei Amakawa. The wind was blowing my hair, and I was crying, trying to figure out what had happened. Judging by the corpses in the closed coffins, there was a car accident.

During the funeral and subsequent movements, I completely lost the feeling of my body lying in an office chair in the middle of the laboratory. But I began to feel a fresh breeze here. This often happened in my dreams — I even remember the taste of the notorious fish from the ocean-broth... I was still doubting whether it was worth watching this drudgery, when suddenly it turned out that my friend was preparing lunch for me in my kitchen. Like it's her voluntary responsibility. By the way, it's unexpectedly delicious, damn it. Even the feeling of fullness appeared, it was so pleasant. And I'm tired of crying. My emotions, according to the plot of the dream, were sad, and I got some strange, slightly unpleasant pleasure from the fact that they were not really mine. That's enough, I decided, and went to bed. The surest way to wake up in a dream is to go to bed. We've been through this before. Or wait for the end of sleep — a subjective five to six hours, but I got bored. Again, I wanted to remember the dream with dinner, not someone else's loss. I lay down and fell asleep.

* * *

Rinko's POV

Today is a terrible day, my only friend Yuto lost both his parents in a car accident. And a year ago, his grandfather and grandmother died, with whom he used to live in Noihara. There's a funeral today. Yuto returned from the cemetery completely lost. He walked around like he was out of his mind, which is not surprising. Mom said that Yuto had a tantrum at the cemetery, he screamed that he didn't want to live anymore, and then abruptly began to glow and became completely lost.

The kid stood in front of the graves for a long time and whispered something. Then he shook himself and said he wanted to go home. I've completely lost my bearings in the city. Mom had to almost lead him by the hand into his house.

I came to his house preparing for the fact that he would stop recognizing me again, as it was when he was seven years old, when his memory was gone.

"Yuto, you remember me, I've been your best friend Rinko for two years now."

A tearful Yuto let me in with mild interest.

"Come on in, even though I was about to go to bed. I wish this terrible day was over."

"I came to support you and make you something to eat."

"Oh, Rinko, what would I do without you?"

I went to the kitchen, and Yuto went to his room to continue crying for his parents.

So rice, dried carrots, which his mother Ray loved, vegetables in the freezer. Eggs for the omelet and some chicken for the noodle soup.

Today, everything was falling out of Rinko's hands. The girl sobbed softly, but continued cooking. The omelet stuck to a special frying pan, but she rolled it up anyway, as the cooks in her aunt's kitchen had taught her. Damn, the onion is too big in the soup. It is better to remove it altogether, Rinko fished out a coarsely chopped onion.

The girl went into the room where the boy had gone, who had lost the last link to the house yesterday.

"Yuto, I'm sorry to interrupt, but let's go eat. I made it myself."

Crying, Yuto silently got out of bed and went to the kitchen, where the delicious smell of food was coming from.

Rinko placed the plate of omelet in front of Yuto very quietly, as if she was afraid of disturbing the silence. She didn't fold the omurais perfectly — one side was slightly blurred, as if the omelet wanted to hug the rice tighter. Next to it was a small pile of salad: boiled potatoes, peas and a slice of cucumber, cut into thin circles, as she was taught in her first lesson by the sensei cook. She also put a pinch of paprika on the edge of the plate, just a little bit, so that it was the warmest color that Yuuto's mom loved.

Yuto sat with his shoulders slumped, and looked not at the food, but somewhere through it. His eyes were red, and all the time he seemed to want to say something, but the words wouldn't come. Rinko froze for a second, then quietly sat down opposite, not too close so as not to push, but so that he would know that she was there.

"I... I wanted it to be delicious," She whispered, looking at her fingers clasped in a lock. "The cook said that if you do it with care, then even if something is wrong, it will still be fine. Well, at least... not too bad."

Yuuto jerked his shoulder slightly, as if he wanted to shake them, but couldn't.

"That's right," he said finally, almost in a whisper. "It's just... it's hard today. And I don't understand where I am or who I am at all."

"Oh, Yuto," she hugged the boy. "Like two years ago. It's okay, I got you out then, I can handle it now."

"Rinko, I can handle it. I'll look for documents at the house tomorrow and everything. But right now, I just want to eat and be alone. I'll probably go to bed, I don't have any strength at all."

"Then don't eat too much," she said softly. "You can just try a piece. Or not at all. But I wanted you to have something warm. Because when it's cold inside, it's chilly outside too."

She pushed a glass of milk towards him, warm, as she knew how to heat it in a small saucepan so that it wouldn't run away.

"I heated the milk myself on the stove, it tastes so much better than in the microwave. It's not hot to avoid getting burned, but it's not cold either. And... if you want, I can just sit here while you eat. Or I can tell you about how my omelet stuck at first today, and then suddenly fell behind, and I was so happy, as if I had won a competition. Or I don't have to tell you. What do you want more?"

Yuuto slowly raised his eyes. I paused for a second on the ketchup pattern that Rinko had drawn on the side-a simple curl, not a heart or a star, but just something round, like the sun.

He reached out with his fork, picked up a small piece of omelet, and tasted it. And he nodded slightly.

"It's delicious," he said, and the word sounded like it had cost him a lot. Rinko exhaled, as if she had just remembered to breathe. "I'm glad," she whispered. — If it's not enough, I also have chicken noodle soup, as you like. It's warm too."

And they sat like that for a while longer: Yuto ate a little bit, and Rinko looked at the plate, at her hands, at the window, where the bright sun was shining outside the window. And in that silence, between the pieces of food and the unspoken words, there was the most important thing: she tried to hold him, just by staying close.

"Rinko, tell me about my parents, because I don't remember them at all."

"Well, you told me that you lived with your grandparents until the age of seven, while your parents traveled abroad. And then your dad Shinji and Mom Rei took you away. I do not know what they did, but they loved you."

Yuto put down his empty omelet plate. And he asked me to pour him some soup, they say it's customary for them to remember with chicken soup.

"Rinko, sit down to eat too, and tell me about yourself."

"Well, we met in a city park when you were being bullied by older boys. You didn't even realize that they were bullying you. And I kicked them away. We've been walking together ever since."

We ate the entire small pot of soup, and Yuto staggered off to sleep. I stayed to clean up. I wanted to do something with my hands. Yuto doesn't remember anything, again. What if it lasts a lifetime?

Chapter 2. The second day in a new world.

1.

I woke up in a dream again. However. A familiar bed, a familiar wall... An unfamiliar ceiling? No, the ceiling is also familiar: a square chandelier, a round lamp: very typical for the Japanese. More precisely, for manga-anime Japanese. We also have such comrades: a round one is dragged, a square one is rolled — a suspicious similarity of styles. However, it stuck with me.

I wonder if the dream is original or inspired by something? It was both this way and that way. Rather the second, by the way: the anime lamp seems to hint. It's a pity, the original plots are captivating with their strangeness, although the world around them is as real as it can be. Hmm. Well, if that's the case, the show continues. First, let's try to figure out where I am... Or — to remember.

Overcoming tearfulness and the desire to bury my face in the wall and lie down, I began to search the house, as I promised my neighbor yesterday. So where can Japanese adults keep their home documents and their passports?

I listened to the fragmented memory of the child. So my father kept important documents in the built-in closet, and my mother kept his certificates and other necessary things on the table in her room. I was stuck, my memory could hardly make out incomprehensible hieroglyphs, and reacted to envelopes and folders.

* * *

Rinko's POV.

I stopped by Yuto's place this morning before school, but he was still asleep. Let him sleep, although it's not good for him to skip school, but he can today. Mom called his homeroom teacher yesterday and told her about the boy's bereavement. She gave him permission not to come today.

I adjusted the blanket on Yuto's bed, and after making him breakfast, I ran to school.