Web of light. Part 1-7. part 25

And the spirits themselves suddenly overgrown with social connections, greeted oncoming acquaintances, talked about the topic of payment for work, asshole suppliers of building materials, and even argued about politics. Cami! It's only been a week! Were they really all like this before the Ferry — the oaths were so insane that they couldn't find a common language with people? Or am I underestimating the influence I had on the Goddess of Rivers, and she, in turn, on the wards? Because the ferry didn't fundamentally change anything in yokai's psyche — it just rearranged his priorities (it's still unclear how). However, there is something to ponder...

On Monday, I covered my tails, answered in class, pulling my arm hard — in short, I made up for the upcoming absenteeism in every possible way. It even seemed to work out. And on Tuesday, Hiroe's father picked me up by car from home with all the service. Kaname-san is a typical IT guy, except without a beard and without a sweater — it's hot! — he quickly drove me to a skyscraper office center. Well, hello, the Social Committee.

Chapter 120.

No, it wasn't an office center-the thirty-story building was entirely owned by the committee. Damn, where did the money come from? And actually on the embankment of a hefty freshwater lake, which for some reason was called a "reservoir" in the manga. There is even a port on the lake and a yacht club, and the latter is suspiciously close to the committee's high-rise. How interesting...

The car drove through a gate in a wide elevation around the building — the underground garage, of course, is very big. And then I saw what I had long wanted to see: the implementation of magical protection by magical means. Forgive me for the tautology, I mean, it was exactly a magically active defense... or an alarm system. Although, judging by the intensity of the glow of individual lines, it is still protection. Embedded spells pierced the concrete of the underground complex, creating a uniform grid inside the walls — three-dimensional, quite frequent, mathematically verified. Were they amulets or just spells? Damn, once again I regret that none of "my" people understand this issue at all! What's this? Right in the thickness of the concrete, gliding and touching the cells of the network, a certain energy formation was floating and crawling quite cheerfully. There are also movable elements, autonomous, apparently. Or is it a type of "tester" spell, looking for gaps in the defense?

Kaname-san parked the car in his "own" box, and we only had to go to the elevators, after all, the head of the department. Yeah, there's a signal network running through the air. Logically. It turns out that the foundation is not a signaling device at all, but a reinforcing weave? However, I'm not thinking about that. Here I come to the lines of the network, here my body crosses them, and the lines try to pass through it, as through Hiroe's father... And, of course, they break off: Grandpa's amulet breaks them one by one. And here the guards at the elevators are bored. And why is he bored? Well, let's say the guys aren't magicians, but they must have a combination of magical and conventional security systems, right?

We get into the elevator. Why am I so calm? Because of the "ferry" items of my own manufacture, I risked taking only glasses with me, and the Committee should have information about the lock amulet issued by relatives. At least for those of them who are "in the know", let them see how the amulet works.

The elevator is also not simple — it not only has its charms in the walls, but also crosses the threads stretched across the shaft when moving. It's all very cool, but the purpose is completely unclear. No, well, it's clear that the sensors are working "at the intersection", but what about the rest? And, most importantly, where does the energy come from to power all this beauty?

The elevator stopped at the eighth floor, and Kaname-san invited me to get out.

"Yuto-kun, take a look: the eighth floor is my department, you'll be interested!"

It's really interesting! But actually, I didn't come here to look at the server hardware. But I would take a look at the system of interfacing protection spells, at least with one eye.

"Aren't we going to be late for the interview?" I asked, letting the "naive" intonation into my voice. Ugh, damn, communication with Hiroe has already begun to influence me — I've already noticed that Rinko is unconsciously trying to control her voice, and even Mizuchi. I can imagine how a woman with a haircut communicates with her mother if, even after completely "letting go" of the mask, she continues to play intonations on a subconscious level.

"Kouji-san asked me to give you a sightseeing tour of our building while he has a meeting in the morning. He'll call you when he can come over."

"Kouji-san?"

"Oh yeah, you don't know. This is the director of our branch. When he found out that I was taking you here, he asked me to show you the interesting things in the branch at my discretion. I decided to start with my department — you're not interested in paper shufflers, are you?"

"IT solutions in such a big house are probably more interesting." I returned the smile with a smile, following Hiroe's father into his office... rather, however, it was a control post — I was even slightly confused by the wall of monitors displaying the statuses of the main servers and controllers in a single scheme. Damn, I thought that only happened in Hollywood movies!

Oh, they've also screwed on the touch controls! In general, the tour was a success: starting from the IT chief's office, designed to throw dust in his eyes (he calmly conducted all control from a ten-inch tablet or netbook) and ending with a huge forced ventilation and air conditioning room under the roof. No, I looked at the clerks too, and there were quite a few of them. At the resolution limit of the glasses, I could barely see up or down five or six floors. For the three hundred plus personnel, there were, if I understood correctly, thirty or forty people who were magicians as such. More precisely, they are "magicians" who are twice or more weaker than me. But behind the overlapping lines of defense, I still spotted a couple of quite powerful auras.

And there was only one thing I couldn't figure out: what the fuck? I was determined to defend my rights or to carry out formal procedures, but here... as an honored guest of what. "Look at how we live and work here." Well, cool. So what? And why should I look at it? Although I was almost completely convinced of the impossibility of covert penetration. But it's not like I was going to break in here... I wasn't going to at all.

Was I really invited not as a student of Yuto, but as a representative of the clan? An incapacitated representative, and even under a seal, that is, under an amulet. When Hiroe's father finally got a call from the director asking him to bring me, it wasn't just me who was tired. But I got an idea of the amount of "basic" — not magical, social — work that the Committee does, and I was a little taken aback by the scope: from working with minors, unreliable and single-parent families, to assessing and planning social norms for the number of recreation areas, beaches, cafes, etc. Now it's clear where such a lot of money comes from! It's just a gold mine! Moreover, the Committee was not officially responsible for the maintenance of the infrastructure, but only for receiving information and processing it for the Japanese government (and other structures, if they contacted them... not for free, of course). How did the city council miss such a delicious piece, I wonder? We had to create our own committees... Or did they just transfer their officials here? Damn, Jinguji is something. I wouldn't be surprised if they also managed to pull money out of the city for the hotel room occupied by the "princess" in the manga — they just registered the Kues as another inspector — and go ahead. The massive redevelopment of the urban landscape is just in time for the Twilight Moon. She can... or it will be able to. In general, I don't know if this was what Jinguji's protege in the city wanted, but I entered his office feeling some respect and even reverence for the creators and employees of this structure, at least for those who performed "official functions."

Chapter 121.

In some cases, Japanese pedantry is very convenient, as is hieroglyphic writing. Because the small sign on the door of the office could easily fit the inscription:

"Office of the Regional Director of the Social Committee for the city of Takamiya."

"Social Controller of the Executive Department of the central office of the Social Committee."

"Sugowara Kouji"

Just great! The office, according to custom, was located almost under the roof, on the 27th floor. A spacious lobby in front of the elevators, black leather sofas, techno-style lamps and decorative glass panels. And the door to the reception area with the receptionist. More precisely, with man the secretary. The secretary, not looking for me on the list, got up and bowed me into the office, hmm, without even asking on the intercom.

Wow! What a breathtaking view! The glass wall of the office overlooked the lake shore with one side and the lake itself with the other. Impressive. It's not that I wanted an office like this "right now," but it would be an interesting experience to sit in such an armchair and run my own corporation...

While I was looking at the scenery outside the window and the surroundings, the main conductor, that is, excuse me, the controller, was looking at me. By the way, the setting is emphatically minimalist and completely European — not a single Japanese motif, right down to a single painting in the genre of, it seems, super-realism, depicting quite a tea clipper, even if not the famous Cutty Sark.

Finally, I walked through the entire twenty-meter office to the desk of the regional director and bowed. In response, he stood up and bowed to me, and motioned for me to sit down.

"Good day to you, Amakawa-san. I am very glad that you accepted my invitation and were able to visit our Social Committee office."

Oh! And it turns out that I accepted the invitation. Or why not take it? You bastard, Controller, you're also making fun of me.

"Oh, thank you! The tour of your patrimony was extremely, simply amazingly entertaining. Although, of course, the teachers at school were not happy about my absence."

Especially the attempts to see through the three walls of the real command center in the heart of the building, "hung" with energy flows so that it was difficult to see the auras.

"I will not hide that I would not have distracted you from your studies if I had not accidentally happened to hear your last name in connection with participation in the social control program for minors that Saturday. You probably don't know, but all schools provide us with summary reports from their psychologists on all students annually, I won't hide it — I requested information about you..."

er-er-er, is he trying to scare me or something? Why such a preamble?

"...Because of course I was aware of the accident with your parents. The surname Amakawa is quite famous in certain circles... but the psychologist's report notes the loss of early childhood memories. Tell me, do you remember what makes your last name stand out?"

Oh, that's it! It's an interesting question, and Hiroe seems to have been right in her analysis. That's just it...

"I do seem to have lost some of my childhood memories, but not all of them..."

You can't lie now. I can't pretend to be oblivious anyway-I'm too full-fledged. And a magician who has climbed into the chair of the regional director on the twenty-seventh floor has the ability to "read" the interlocutor in one way or another... especially 11 years old.

"..But I can't, forgive me, not ask a counter question: why did this conversation take place today, and not immediately after the parents... They got too far away... from me." I made an effort to remember the unpleasant moments in front of the gravestones in the cemetery on my very first day "here", and the pauses with the right intonation came out by themselves. "Or it wasn't postponed until the age of fifteen, when it would be possible to deal with someone other than... a child."

"That's exactly why," Kouji Sugowara's put a smile on lips. "sometimes a terrible tragedy breaks a person's fate forever... and sometimes it makes you show your essence, grow up ahead of time. I want to say, young man, you have achieved significant success, your name is well-known in the inter-district school commission, under your leadership and with your participation, one school club was reorganized and two more were formed. Didn't you know that Toryu High School has been hosting laser fighting tournaments for the second year in a row, wasn't that your idea too?"

I could only nod. However, the inertia of thinking: I got used to the fact that "there" was everything for the initiatives of schoolchildren... Well, it's not that I don't care, but RONO and the Ministry of Education and Science were interested in average data, and here, it turns out, they already noted and praised... and they didn't say anything, because they really did... Cultured, like a Rabbit from Winnie the Pooh! Although no, I'm driving: I would definitely have told my parents, but no one is covering this place for me. So, since such revelations have been made, we need to clarify this issue, I really don't want to feel like a disenfranchised child.

"Really, you're praising me too much, Kouji-san. Of course, I can guess something, but maybe then you can tell me why I wasn't sent to an orphanage as an orphan?"

"It will make sense if you have sufficiently preserved your childhood memories... after putting on your amulet."

And this is a subtle politician and psychologist?! Rushing like a bear through a raspberry! One of two things, either he doesn't consider it necessary to hide something, or just such behavior is recommended based on the study of my psychological profile... or is it such a test? "There may be a combination..."

"The Amakawa Clan," I began, looking him straight in the eye, "One of the twelve clans of exorcists in Japan, is that what you wanted to hear?"

He's smiling, you bastard!

"Very well, Amakawa-san, I'm glad you haven't forgotten the main thing. I'm answering your question.: You are the most recent member of your clan's senior family. Provided that there was no younger family as such in your clan, you are the heir. Our internal rules are somewhat different from the laws of Japan, the adoption of the heir of the family would mean the actual deposition of this kind. Moreover, your parents have persuasively asked us not to interfere in the upbringing of their child, that is, you. It is the responsibility of the Social Committee to ensure that the rules of the Circle of Exorcists are properly followed in such cases. Accounts, real estate, personal property — our task is to transfer them to the legitimate heir and make sure that the rules will not be violated... Not to the detriment of a minor, of course, but with minimal interference."