Web of Light

This is a translation of a wonderful fanfiction Web of Light by Greyrat (Sergej Plotnikow), basing on Omamori Himari. I don’t own his work and neither Omamori Himari nor any of its characters. Greyrat has officially approved the translation. The original fanfiction can be found here: bit . ly / 1dZH6PU (in Russian).

I am not a native speaker, so when (not if) you spot some typos, mistakes or oddly formulated phrases: do tell. I will correct them soon. I am currently aiming and checking the spelling for British English.

This is formally Yuuto/harem, but it’s actually about science and magic. Don’t expect too much fanservice or sex scenes. Web of Light is to Omamori Himari what HPMOR is to Harry Potter. Don’t expect too much of canonical plot, the story begins years before canon beginning and has not caught up with it yet. The chapters are relatively small, but there are many of them. Oh, and don’t expect to meet Himari soon. Now, if I have not scared you off, here you go!

This chapter is a teaser of what Web of Light actually is. This scene is well 1.5 Megabytes back in the text, but it is nicely written, has barely spoilers, and gives a very nice impression of what WoL is actually about. This is not a cross-over with Harry Potter or Star Wars, the references are just the usual postmodernism. The main protagonist is still physicist!Yuuto, this is an interlude.

Video record #2. Amakawa file archive. A recording of Gilbert O’Loufert public lecture “Me, magic, and Universe”, read at British Magic Academy 08/15/2008. The video file is sent by Kuesu Jinguji at 06/18/2008 and follows “as is”. Recommended material for all clan members.

Note #1.

The link to this file was attached to the following letter.

"Hi Yuu-chan!

Here is the lecture I recorded for you! Please forgive me: I was able to upload it only recently because of trouble with finding the fast Internet connection. In England we still have problems with it and at home— well, you know. Here, I uploaded it to the site you told me. Please watch, I am sure you’ll like it. Of course, O’Loufert seems off his trolley at first glance, but this is just a facade. He can talk simply on complicated things. I went there thinking that he won’t tell me anything new: Theory of Magic is taught for eight years at BMA, but the basics are in the first and second year. However, it turned out that I not only did not know the half of the issues, I did not manage to ask myself the right questions! Though I should warn you: in TheoMag half of the hypotheses live for 2—3 years, then they invent something even more knotty. O’Loufert then writes down new lectures and tours the world again. My only doubt: are his own ideas sincere? They are just too… unorthodox. However, some folks pose him quite like a prophet. Anyway, have a look, I made this effort for you!"

On screen is a large, theatre-like lecture hall; the camera pans a few times in camera man’s hands, showing high ceiling, ascending rows of narrow tables made of dark wood, with Academy students settling down. Most are in plain clothes, at few spots the bachelor and professor robes appear. The camera rotates and shows the seats next to the operator: a guy, ash-blonde, sits down; next to him is a bronzed girl, glasses-wearing. She has a typical “Greek” profile and burning red hair.

The guy, wondered: “Ku, is this a video cam?”

Camera holder, in a female voice, proudly: “Yep! I ordered it specially for recording O’Loufert! I even got a tripod!”

The camera aims on the yet empty tribune in front of cyclopean “banded” blackboard and stops jiggering.

Another female voice, mockingly: “You’re telling me, you joined the army of his fangirls, don’t you?”

Camera holder, explicitly proud: “Buzz off! Unlike certain persons, I am here not for fun, but for knowledge. And lectures are to be noted down, I hope you know why so?”

Guy: “Noted down, you know, not recorded…”

Girl: “… of course! If they are not hold by O’Loufert!”

Camera holder, in a good humour: “Look at this pair! Oh wait, it’s beginning!”

To the tribune a young looking man comes: a curly blonde clothed in light-beige robes with a large hood. The talking in the hall fades out quickly, when O’Loufert grabs the mic the silence is total.

“So, let’s check the mic. Wow, it’s working. Well, then: hi everyone!”

Applause, whistles, unreadable shout outs, mostly female.

“It’s nice when your audience loves you! Especially, when so many cute girls are among them. I am feeling like myself!”

Loud, joint laughter, applause, shouting “Louf, we feel you like yourself!”

“Okay, okay. I admit, I am not that pompous as it might seem when you look at my magazine cover face.”

Laughter.

“But as I indeed look gorgeous and really like talking about myself, it would be shame not to use the publicity my former student created for me. A very generous present, indeed! I need to say that I met she-who-may-not-be-called-by-her-name-here during the second semester of her eighth year: I was preparing for my thesis defence and I got shoved to supervising five diploma theses— most of you are not yet there with your studies. So, I came up with five simpler titles and gave them out to my guinea pi— students. The fair Miss who later found her destiny in world literature got the simplest topic I could think of: ‘Dichotomy of sporadic counter-entropy processes in energogenetic organisms in the setting of well-developed biosphere.’”

From the hall unclear sounds are heard: something between a snort, a hiccup, and “oh fuck.”

“Actually, I acted just as I had to in these circumstances. The students were repeating the experiments basing on the material, already acquired from me; that’s the actual reason for the diploma students to be assigned to a specific magister. And I had the impression that everything is going nicely: the experiments were carried on with stable results, I taught a theory that was not found in base course books, adapting it to the students’ level, basically the success was imminent. Then, five days before I needed to collect the drafts of the theses, my student (that girl) approaches me and is asking a question. ‘Fair magister, could you please explain a few terms to me, as I could not figure them out myself.’ I am answering ‘Sure, my dear, what is your concern?’ — ‘Oh, firstly, what is dichotomy?’ And then it sank in…”

Increasing laughter.

“Not before, nor after that I was writing and talking as much as in these five days. Frankly, I was sure I got some separate topics of the thesis though to her— until the second book of the series well-known to you was published. Judging by how I was pictured there (you can easily recognise me there, so cool am I) it was a blasting failure! Alas! Having grasped my defeat, I figured that I cannot bear with someone else not understanding me and since then I am reading my public lectures. Thank you for coming and listening to me, ladies and gentlemen!”

Gilbert bows to the hall, the audience applauds fiercely.

“That was the small introduction, now let us begin with the actual topic. So, there is something what our ancestors were daily conflicting with — and we are. This is our world and our magic. Any advanced student would correct me: ‘wait, magic is a part of our world.’ They would be correct, but not totally. We all proudly call ourselves ‘magi’ not without a reason: we are those who ‘professionally addresses’ the Universe through one it its shades: though the magic. If we would address it through professionally growing biomass for feeding ourselves and other people, we would be called farmers. If through controlling the aircraft, we would be pilots. That’s logical, right? Our main profession, what we do to ‘earn our bread’, unbearably changes the consciousness and perception of a man. Any man, note it, even myself!”

Short laughs in the audience.

“One could say that we choose a piece of the universe and tell it: you are mine! And through you shall I look on everything else. And this piece does not resist; well, no way it could rebel. That’s why between ‘myself’ and ‘Universe’ we will always have magic. And through this so-to-say prism we will learn to look today, dear colleges!”

Again, a bow and short applause.

“To look and to see something, we first of all need to determine: why are we doing this? Well, when we put issues like professional curiosity of a researcher or a strive to be more professional aside, we identify a sole important reason. That is — improving the quality of life. Concretely our own life, yes, but also for the whole humanity. To be alive, healthy, to live comfortably, to overcome any hazards: this is the ”bait“ that made a species of weak tailless monkeys accepted leaders among all the species on our good old Earth. While for the ‘conventional’ occupations the issue of the quality of their actions is important in the net sum as a possibility for the social exchange — to trade the results of their occupation against the results of the occupations of others, — our ‘tool’ often allows to gain this life quality without any intermediaries. Not completely, magi need to eat and to drink too — and preferably better than normals, — but to a larger extent. Take a look at yourself. Almost any of you can move much faster than a non-magus, is more healthy, can with a guarantee survive such surroundings where a non-mana-user will die in five-ten minutes. Surviving too cold or too hot surroundings, physical attacks; an ability to cook (and before that: to ‘catch’) food without any tools; magic eagerly gives us possibilities. This is our power. This is our weakness. We need to know and to remember this. Always.”

O’Loufert pressures the hall with suddenly stern look, the audience is silent.

“So, magic is a universal tool for the interaction with the Universe. Or— the most universal tool we know today. This is your personal power. The weakness of the tool is its universality: to do something you need not only the tool, but also the ability to apply it. The more universal is the tool, the more difficult is it to apply. Take a shovel. Yep, a simple shovel. One can shove with it. Or not to shove…”

Some are giggling.

“… but even this choice give us unlimited possibilities of action. We can build a house or create tableware — clay is fetched with a shovel, I need to tell you, — we can plant vegetables or dig a grave — well, in my case it’s the same, farewell dill seeds! — we can throw the shovel as a spear or boil eggs on it — it tried this myself, works just like a pan! — But without the know-how you are getting only callus and almost no actual result. Magic is a big good shovel, with no handle…”

A hysterical laughter from the back rows fading to total applause. Visibly a lot of effort comes from young teachers in the first row. Gilbert continues tranquilly.

“… that’s why it’s even harder to use. Well, how to learn using shovel? There are two ways. Either someone who knows the craft needs to teach you how to use the shovel. How to build, to hunt, or to boil eggs with it. And you shall be able to do it very well. Most magical families teach their children the family techniques of shov… magic. Most of the time it is a set of memorised, for centuries approved operations. This knowledge is good, it is of quality— and it is separated from others! Hence, one can learn a lot of shovel techniques, such that in a critical moment you find at your disposal… a rake!”

Laughter.

“Or a hoe.”

Louder laughter.

“Or maybe an axe?”

A shouting: “an axe is also a kind of shovel!”

“Right! An axe, a rake, a hoe, just a stick, a sword, simply a elongated item: all this is a shovel, alas not comfortable and hard to use. This really works this way, especially in ‘universal’ magic. With the ‘physical shield’ spell you can catch flying items, use it as a parachute, hang it across trees and make a hammock. You can even dig with it.”

Laughter.

“I am serious, by the way. Five years ago in Amazon tropical forest I had to dig out the reason for my visit straight on the way of a nomadic red ant colony. Believe me, I did it fast, or else I would not be standing in front of you today.”

A bow and short applause.

“But let’s get back to our mutton… err… shovels!”

Giggles.

“The second way is more universal than the first. We can at once learn all the ways (even yet unknown ones) of the interaction between the shovel and the Universe, it’s not that hard. Even more, if you happen to get a rake, you would not need to learn ‘the rake techniques’ first, as you need to gain efficiency. You would just insert different parameters into the known rules for the interaction of ‘an elongated item’ and ‘the world’ — and think about it a little bit before you begin applying it. The deduction of common laws of interaction that in each specific case would produce good solutions to a problem is called ‘a scientific method.’ To find out the generic way and to apply it specifically, this is the leitmotif of the current approach of human race to problem solving. And it works, damn it! The internal combustion engine and a flying plane are both the special cases of gas dynamics. Building skyscrapers and ships are both the special cases of materials science. Phones, TV sets, computers, and lamps are all special cases of electrodynamics. By the way, there is no generic theory of everything — for now, and probably for quite long in the future; but even the known generalisations literally turned over the human live! And what shall come in the future — oh, anyway. A shovel!”

Laughter.

“Hence, for the shovel to be a universal tool in our hands, we need to know physics. Some parts of mechanics and a bit of the materials science will be enough. The lever, the pressure distribution, the knowledge how the shovel will behave in the soil or in the flight for a deer, this is physics. A few simple laws and the shovel world is at your knees!”