Web of light. Part 1. part 30

"Does it work?" Shizuka felt an empty spot with her hand.

Instead of answering, I put Mizuchi's amulet around my neck. He chuckled. He took two steps back. He grunted approvingly.

"Yes, it works. Almost exactly as it should be, although I still don't understand what physics holds vapor molecules in such a volume. It must be quantum..."

[13th day after arrival from Noihara]

Okay, it'll do for rural areas," Hiroe examined the result of her work — a crooked "Chinese replica" of a neat flat bag that usually dangles from my chest, and now lies in the center of the table as a sample. Yes, we picked up a fifty-year-old fabric, but we didn't have enough time for the rest. Well, let's hope that the scarce protection amulets will not be opened in vain... anyway, the Ferry, so crudely destroyed, will cause the fabric, paper and petals to fall apart almost to dust. By the way, the "wrapping" fabric is very similar to my amulet, also with a cherry blossom pattern, only on a dark blue background. Kaname said that the material was from the Chinese Folk Theater, and somehow we didn't have the courage to clarify how she got her hands on it. Even Shizuka's. By the way, I understood why in the manga the amulet is called a grandmother's amulet... compared to my crafts, even Hiroe's version looks like a masterpiece! But Mizuchi, Yu, and Rinko make blanks with exactly the same quality as my old one. Well, yes. And suddenly, the heat of passion around the forced needlework turned out to be very serious: and Kaname IS WORRIED! We've been talking for a long time, and I've learned to catch the nuances of girls' moods, at least when they're not trying to hide them from me. And it's a good thing that after her first result, when I decided to tear her hair away from a job that was unsuccessful for her, I first looked into her eyes. I had to urgently pretend that I just wanted to ask if I could bring tea to someone. Because if the cynical, consistent and ironic Hiroe has an expression like "Ah! THIS IS SPARTA!!!"it's better not to get involved. And keep quiet in a rag. And then, when she calms down, thank her long and sincerely for solving the problem with the "Mutual Aid Unit." Although, when I read her report, I really wanted to ask our "onaliteg" what she was smoking when she came up with it. Whatever! Peace in the "family" is more expensive! Or is it just in the family?

Chapter 139.

"Hiroe is a diagnosis," Rinko muttered, watching as a crane lowered another section of the antenna mast and two men hanging from mounting belts on a support began to twist the delicate metalwork.

"But she did logically justify our contact with the patrol," Yu retorted, wrapping herself in a scarf. It was quite fresh on the street on the day of the departure of the Tsuchimikado police combat squad. Actually, besides the five of us, ten more of our friends from the Physics club were digging in and around the hangar. We're helping, yeah. On a voluntary basis. Sometimes it's really plans to smoke in Hiroe. But on the other hand, Shimomuro's rights are insurance in case our connections with the Squad come up, it won't be superfluous. Actually, Kaname played a win-win card — "if you have nothing to occupy a lot of adults, provide them with the conditions for falling into childhood, and let them play." Every child dreamed of becoming a detective, secret agent, superman in the end, and then all at once, and even — especially for men — helicopters! The newly minted UAV pilots, twenty in number (four shifts of five people each), sat at tables pulled out on the occasion of flight training outside, and with more or less success tried to steer with four sides (01, 02, 03, 05). The merrily painted red-and-orange-striped Side 04 managed to hit the lighting pole so that the motor controller board failed, and the shamefully exiled kamikaze, along with half a dozen advisers and assistants, went to get a new one. At himself own expense, of course. Yes, Hiroe also solved the equation "I want to patrol, but I don't fit the gender" — of the twenty pilots, twelve were ladies. Actually, I don't really have much to do here — Ishida Rino, a local policeman who became friends with the locals after the advertising rally, not only helped to purchase a decommissioned police repeater, but also brought his friend from the technical department, who really, unlike me, an amateur, understands how to set up trunk communications, which is what he does for the police. The policies, by the way, also decided to make a profit from our overly proactive initiative and agreed that one of the patrol's walkie-talkies and a separate trunk channel would be assigned to police station number 27. What a blessing that the communication frequencies for public organizations can be obtained free of charge, according to the signatures of the local police chief and the head of the GUIS*, otherwise we might not have been able to afford these additional expenses!

[* GUIS is one of the services of the city administration, together with DEZS, GUIS make up a full-fledged network of responsibility for the condition of every square meter of the city territory, DEZ — where there are buildings, GUIS — roads, bridges, sidewalks, lawns...]

One of the flying platforms had descended and was thrusting its propellers directly above us:

"Mr. President, the technical service of the club asks you to come to the hangar."

"All right," I shouted to the sky, "I'm coming! Can you hear me?"

"Pretty good," the speaker said, and the platform began to rise.

"Come on," I called the girls, "it's warm in the hangar, sorry, the Squad office."

"It seems to me that these flying cameras will be banned."

"We have received permission to "use video surveillance equipment in public works," in the sense that all such organizations have this permission."

"It's just that we have an airplane..."

"If only by itself," Yu chuckled, watching as another red-orange crosspiece was dragged to the pilots' table, and Taizo, who kindly agreed to participate in the training, disassembles and immediately reassembles one of the guides with a new part instead of the broken one. My idea of bringing three fabbers here turned out to be very appropriate.

I don't know who was more excited about the possibility of a new entertainment experience-the tough guys from the working-class neighborhood who weren't spoiled by it, or the little guys from my school. But an epochal event happened before my eyes — the children of the handymen themselves certainly could not help but take part in it. And they accepted. And... it was just communication. Without any kind of "hey, smartass, let's go outside" or "is there something?". Despite the fact that the speech of adults did not shine with the purity of language and courtly expressions. Despite the lower level of knowledge even among high school students. Of course, I screwed everyone from my Club, as well as Taizo and Rinko, to behave correctly and at the slightest problem with the locals they backed off and called us... but, to my surprise, it wasn't necessary. Moreover, Shizuka claimed that a couple of times it was "tell me, if anything, we'll fit in for you." Heh, thank you, Hiroe-sama!*

[* Yuto refers to Hiroe as a locally revered goddess.]

The patrol of the working quarter will begin only in a day. A squad consisting of the "spiritual" troika is going on duty this evening, so far only the map control and one rapid reaction group. And tomorrow, after school, I will have an interesting conversation with the first person of the local committee...

Chapter 140.

"Kouji-san."

"Amakawa-san."

A mutual bow. The supervisor motioned for me to sit down and sat down at the table himself. And the Committee building has noticeably changed... It's noticeable to magicians. The security lines are disabled, even at the checkpoints and in the elevators there is no trace of a magical background. I couldn't see the collapsed auras through several walls. But Sugowara himself has his aura unfurled like a battle flag. And the secretary, now a different one, although disguised in a magical range, glows more strongly than a weakling like the ever-memorable psychologist. High alert mode, huh. They didn't relax, they introduced it right away.

"Here," I put a wooden box with perforations in the walls on the table and moved it to the middle of the table, "is an experimental batch, as I understand it. I couldn't think of anything better, please forgive me. There's a list of restrictions inside. I deciphered some of my grandfather's notes (yes, but we'll leave out the fact that the records are actually archival).

"The upper limit is sixty-five degrees Celsius, the lower limit is zero, and in the rain the protection radius is reduced to a meter... Does this amulet have anything to do with water?"

"I think you're right."

"Well, well, complete aura blocking. Hmm. I'm sorry for this question... Have you checked their work?"

"Yes. I told you that I want to invite my vassals to the city. They checked it out. My... the force is already blocked, as you know."

"Clear... I hope you didn't have any problems at the manor, Amakawa-san?"

"Of course there were!" I replied calmly. "But they were solved."

The social controller did not allow himself to chuckle, although he probably wanted to. And ask about the problems, and offer help, in a friendly way... but such primitive divorces are not his level. Instead, he picked up the box... I held it at arm's length, and I saw how its power fluttered, quickly overloading the protection of all thirty-eight amulets. I know it feels interesting... The most amazing thing is that, for example, I don't feel my power flowing out of my body spontaneously. I always walk around with my aura rolled up, otherwise the amulet would constantly "scoop" me almost dry, and apparently that was the case for the first few weeks... or months... when I was under the amulet. Now my body "holds" the convolution all the time by itself, and in order to release some mana, I have to make some efforts. I wonder if when the protection goes off, I won't be able to feel the outside magic properly for a long time... or for a very long time? For some reason, this thought only occurred to me now. Again, how many "greetings" can you receive from dear relatives?..

I checked the burial site next to the temple. I didn't find any ashes of your grandfather or grandmother. Urns with ashes, and even this is the ashes of a magician, but it doesn't taste like what your ancestors should have with your scent...

"What does it taste like?"

"My species identity..."

"Kashi, stop! I've got IT ALL figured out, no need for details... and check my parents' burial, please..."

Meanwhile, the director chose one of the amulets and put a string around his neck, first folding the aura. He turned it around, overloaded his defenses, and rolled it up again, all with a stony face, looking benevolently at me. What about me? Oh, and here, apparently, he tried to activate a magic eye scanner with a collapsed aura — he just squints in vain at the office door, behind which the secretary is. The pause is getting longer...

"Have I fulfilled my promise, Kouji-san?"

"I don't even know how to thank you, Amakawa-san!"

"Then may I expect to introduce my vassals to you and your people? Next week, for example?"

"Oh, I don't see any problem with that. The main thing is not to disturb the peace of the townspeople... Too much."

"I don't think so. Here." I put in a printout of the sixth edition of the "rules of conduct in the city for yokai" — without a hat and points about wearing a passport amulet. "I can send it electronically, if it's more convenient. I would like to receive your approval of such a list of conditions."

"Undoubtedly. Even now, I can say that the rules are quite well developed. You have a good style, Amakawa-san."

"Japanese politicians have a good style, I just copied and corrected it to fit... for my vassals." "Fuck off!" I didn't write it, I didn't! And Hiroe is really good at correcting paperwork so that normal humans and nonhumans can immediately understand what is written, and not after the third consultation with a lawyer. "Okay, I won't take up any more of your time today. But if I have any unexpected questions in the future, should I make an appointment with you in advance?"

"No, really, Amakawa-san. You can come on any business day, just call at least an hour in advance... And also, Amakawa-san. If you have any other mutually beneficial proposals, the Regional Office of the Social Committee is ready to assist and support you in our area of responsibility."

Chapter 141.

"This... this... I just don't have the words!"

"I agree with you, Yu! Mizuhuna-san, walk from the wall to me... super! Tomorrow I'll bring the camera and the light is normal!"

"Patchi! Well, what should you do? Oh, right, cement. Is everything okay with iron and plastic?"

"There will be such shots! Mizuhuna-san, can you do THIS?"

"Ah-ano-oh!" Ami stammered, red-faced. "Don't make him do THIS, Hiroe-dono! This is very... personal!"

"Okay, I'm alive... I mean, you can go back. Who knew that partial transformation WAS SUCH A COOL THING! Damn, damn, Patchi! How did you do that?! Oh, do your tentacles extend up to fifteen meters? Bli-i-in!!! It's going to be epic! I need to draw a little bit to make the graphics look good... Kashi, what can you do?!"

While the confused Corpse Eater argued that his partial transformation was not a particularly attractive thing, I continued to turn the trunk repeater settings, checking them for the correct operation of the scramblers*. It was extremely unwise to broadcast information about the spirit patrol. The problem with communication is that information can be transmitted over telephone lines... You can even get scramblers for handsets, but I really didn't want to depend on the work of a third-party system. By the way, the operators forbade encrypting the negotiations and could, at the very least, simply block the SIM cards if scrambling was detected... at the most crucial moment. Another thing is the map, it was convenient to view it from the phone: no one forbade it, and even if 3G, you can always simply dictate the coordinates of the cut-offs — after all, information flows to the center in a purely magical way.

[* Scrambler is a device for a radio station/phone that allows voice encryption with a digital key, including a token.]

Nearby, Rinko was nervous, straddling a chair so that she could put her hands on the back. And not at all about the first appearance of the spiritual patrol of the Detachment. The first round of urban kendo fights, the district competition, was very close. And although neither the coach nor the parents doubted her victory, and even Rinko herself understood that she was better trained than the others, she was still nervous. To prevent this from happening at home, where the girl would wind herself up, I dragged her to the start of the patrol service, especially since she is the commander. The trio of Kashi, Pachi (with a rifle) and Mizuhuna went out on a test night today and had to describe a closed figure around the city, moving imperceptibly along the roofs and not approaching the center. The lack of a natural sixth sense (suppression amulets work) could have played a cruel joke on the guys. Therefore, according to the mind, all exits in the next month can be considered trial. I hope no one falls off the roof... or it won't land on something sharp: the reaction of spirits is better than that of humans, especially since they could act on themselves from the inside with magic in full. Here is a parkour with route mapping... at night, because people jumping twenty meters during the day attract too much attention. Yes, and some... reasonable... We have come to the issue of our own protection... creative! I wonder if it was Hiroe and I who taught them, or if the Oath was my doing? However, I can also be creative.