Web of light. Part 1. part 39

I also became an official student of Tengu. That's it! The wise old raven (I'm not being sarcastic!) found a great form of suzerain control... I liked her even more than he did. With a single step, the man put himself in the position of my first adviser on "yokai affairs," which greatly calmed Kashi, who had recently been too busy with the "white" side of our joint business and the Squad. The burly swordsman and the Corpse Eater worked together very quickly — their views on life in general and on the organization of it within the framework of the conditions of the city largely coincided... but Raven thought about these questions ten times longer! And I came up with many working concepts — only no one with Amakawa's ability was at hand. However, it cannot be said that I have not tried Tengu at all...

"Amakawa-sama, I want you to be my first student... And don't make those eyes! I've thought it over, and you'll understand all the advantages— look..."

"..And I also want to correct my mistake and repay the debt. A mistake I made half a thousand years ago, and a debt I couldn't have paid any other way. I've already had one... the first student. Once upon a time, I recaptured it from a pack of creatures... quite intelligent creatures, I must say. A yokai who hates yokai... His name was Shuten. Oh, I see you know that name. Yes, the same Shuten that was defeated by your ancestor. I was literally a hundred steps away when he was executed... I thought maybe, at least before his death, the student who was taught by Smashing himself would wake up in him. In vain. Only hatred was in his eyes. He was exhausted, he was poisoned, he was dying... he didn't even see me — there was only blood in front of his eyes: madness had defeated him. Do you know what that Amakawa, your ancestor, said? "I am not executing the spirit, because the animals do not deserve to be executed, they are killed while hunting. I will execute the ruler, for he who rules only for the sake of power and blood is unworthy of a duel." By that time, the student had his own castle and his own lands. Eighteen people made seppuku after his death... but this is only the tip of the pyramid of skulls erected by him during his reign. And in the castle, I found a "retention star" tuned to me. Your ancestor kindly defused the traps, but the traces remained... He was waiting for me, and I was literally twenty-four hours late... You want to follow the path of peace, but I want my First Student to become stronger than the teacher... with my soul.

In total, Tengu had forty-three yokai in his squad with a level not lower than B. Such a small detachment on the march dispersed all the small evil spirits from the vicinity of the city — and, I think, made those of the intelligent spirits who had already looked at the "orphan" city think — such a strong detachment proceeded to Takamiya... and disappeared from perception. Had they been hacked out by vicious but well-disguised exorcists? Naturally, we gave the Tengu students the amulets, but "the men don't know." We performed the Oath-taking ritual in the new home of this peculiar community. The name "Tengugumi", which I started from a "big" mind, stuck to the dojo to death — as well as to a group of yokai students who doted on their teacher. Students, heh! The second student is aha, with a capital letter, there are only four of them, such a "privileged group of the best." The Striker no longer had the first one after the last unsuccessful attempt. So, Raven's second student has been "learning" from him for almost four hundred and fifty years. No, you can officially graduate — no one holds you by the scruff of the neck, but school is considered finished only if the student surpasses the teacher, and before that, even further than crawling across the sea to China on all fours. It must have been funny — first I take the oath to Tengu, and then he accepts me as a disciple. Everything is grown-up — with pretentious speeches and a beautiful belt tie to my "weekend" kimono. The Smashing brute didn't even think to warn his students that they were joining the Amakawa service — they were in such a stupor! And when they took me for the First time, there was a general jaw drop and almost fainting. Of course, I warned Tengu in advance that I was unlikely to make any progress in fencing — and there was simply no time to pump up the "physical training", but the old man promised to make a training schedule "for an hour a day" specifically "for a magician" — purely on muscle amuletization and acceleration of the central nervous system and with an emphasis not on punches and "cold", but for touching with your hand.

Touch, yes. I don't know if the Fourth One didn't trust his teacher, or if he was just "the smartest one," but his oath turned out to be insincere. I felt it, but... There was nothing he could do anymore — under my hand, yokai suddenly shuddered, then abruptly arched up with empty eyes... and he fell. A half-growl, half-moan, hanging, it seems, independently of the throat that vomited it out, and a body without a drop of reason in its eyes, rolling on the ground trampled by many generations of dojo owners... It seems that the rollback from the destruction affected not only the vestibular apparatus — there was also a problem with coordination of movements, the body changed jerkily, turning from a human form into a grotesque anthropomorph with an elongated muzzle. And Tengu, with one swing of his sword, ending the doomed man's life path. Judging by the encouraging smile and inviting wave towards the deathly pale Fifth, the Warrior Teacher suspected something like this... or he just suspected all the students a little bit, having once been burned by Shuten's betrayal. Well, yes, since the Ferry "holds" the promise made to me as part of the oath, it automatically holds the student's oath to the teacher. As expected from a spirit with a thousand years of experience. I did not ask how Tengu learned such details about the work of the "Changing Light". Needless to say, after that, the dojo students had no more questions about the number "one" for me?

By the way, the Tengugumi Dojo was the first building that I protected from mana leaks with "volumetric" stationary amulets. I had to struggle to reach the "sphere" of ten meters — the amulets turned out to be the size of a sheet of cardboard, and for the first time I had to make them myself in the form of a three-dimensional wooden lattice. What a sight, I must admit! Moreover, they had to be hung on cables at regular intervals over an open courtyard — and then my first vassals showed their class: it was not for nothing that they worked hard for the municipality for several months! As the Hawk-Nosed Man said, you can call the city reception: the art object is "a network with cells of fifteen meters, at the nodes of which are wooden ornaments in the style of cubism." You can become an officially mentioned landmark in a tourist guide. A joke! More precisely, I hope it's a joke...

The hawk-nosed man had every right to "joke" like that — Shinji's group had recently received a contract for the installation of monuments and a week of fuck. She put a lot of effort into making super-smooth foundations and learning how to glue granite tiles onto concrete so that it looked like a stone monolith. So we picked up a few words from one of the architects of the city administration. But this joke made me think: why would I make personal amulets that protect only spirits and spend a lot of resources on catching "everyday troubles"? It's enough to protect the city, and the problem with the D-class will be solved — just screw on top of the disguise and also fix the withdrawal of power and the alarm, at the same time I'll finish the signal card. However, it will be difficult to hide such a design if some "outsider" magician arrives... and I will have to reveal my real capabilities to Sugowara-san. However, he most likely guesses... or he'll figure it out soon enough. I'll think about it during the holidays... fortunately, they have almost begun. Less than a week!..

...The train we took from Noihara enters Takamiya on a high trestle along the slopes of the hills — there is a lake below and a city in front of it: both of them reach the horizon! Kaya, whom I let go to the window, dozed off on my shoulder, rocked by the unaccustomed smooth running of the carriages, immediately woke up and stuck her nose to the glass. There was a reason: twilight, the dark mirror of the lake... the orange-lilac glow of city lights is reflected in the clouds, blocks of low-rise buildings surround a small "city" of high-rise buildings and skyscrapers. Lights and advertisements are on, cars are like fireflies running through the main streets in an endless ribbon...

"Is this where you live?" the immediate brownie pointed her finger in the direction of the skyscrapers.

"You're wrong." I gently pushed the girl away from the window and, seeing some disappointment in her eyes, I smiled. "If you're asking about the house where I sleep and spend part of my time, it's in the private sector... but you can't live in a city in a specific place. If you live in a city, then you live everywhere."

And I gestured broadly at the slowly shifting panorama. Kaya nodded seriously.

155.

The hangar of the office of the Mutual Assistance Unit was decorated from the inside with ribbons and tinsel, paper garlands with hearts, paper snowflakes and a couple of garlands with light bulbs. However, all this was hung up so haphazardly, as if a chaos breakthrough was expected in the near future and the authorized representative of the Warp needed to be met in a warm and friendly atmosphere. I thought in passing that in this case the hearts should be replaced with blades for grinders on a metal cable, in order to avoid any wrong representative.

We came to the party as a whole "director's" team — the only thing missing was Yu, who flew away last night. Even Hiroe managed to persuade her mother not to drag her to the Committee's corporate Christmas party this year. However, we didn't hang out much with the local proletariat and classmates with Taizo — we just noted that we had been, drank some pseudo-champagne (lemonade, but in "festive" bottles) and carefully cut down, leaving Kashi to keep order. However, Haruhi was temporarily neutralized, which meant that there was no danger of pranks like walking along fences wearing diving masks and carrying torches. We decided to celebrate this strange but very popular holiday at my house. Firstly, you can make a mess there, and it won't hurt anyone's feelings, and secondly, the issue of a subsequent overnight stay was resolved in the usual way: two are already at home, and two more just need to cross the road.

They were waiting for us at home too — it happened "by accident", but now three of the four yokai who remained from the "old" Amakawa clan are gathered here. In a way, it's even symbolic! They didn't understand the meaning of the holiday either, but they were all for it. After tasting Shizuki's cooking in the "normal day" mode, they were just eager to celebrate anything as long as she cooked! Even zashiki-varashi appreciated it — the snake was now the culinary god and the No 1 authority for her. We've been dragging Kai around a lot in recent days — the girls to the shops and cafes, I to the Amusement Park (while all the other losers were taking the semester test in physics, muahaha!), slot machines and movies. At the same time, they finally bought a cell phone and taught them how to use a laptop — in the latter, she was kind enough to put her pens to her face, demonstrating an amazing result for Kai in a few days.

They started celebrating before twelve — the tailed one had to go on duty, and the wolf flatly refused to wait until morning to try the stuffed turkey. Mnyam! I totally understand her! The turkey occupied Ginko's taste buds so much that I even avoided a nightly cuddling session — that's what, and she never gets tired of the process of squeezing me. I even began to think that this was a karmic response for my life "there", where I was just as mercilessly clutching my gray striped cat. Kote stoically endured my attacks, in retaliation, not even letting anyone stroke him anymore, so now I stoically carried his covenant through life... And then midnight struck and we finally opened the real champagne — our supplier, Hiroe Kaname, once again brought some kind of elite bottle, which was drunk in five shots. Okay. And now, the gifts.

"So, I'm handing it over in order of seniority! Kaya, this is for you." It was easy to talk to the brownie while she was away, set up Internet distribution via Wi-Fi and handed the girl a laptop. Considering that my yokai had "learned the power of Google" and was now stuck on the Internet for hours, randomly wandering from article to wiki article and occasionally playing something flashy, she didn't need anything else to be happy. I even got a kiss on the cheek, after which Kaya stormed off to her room to play with the gift.

"Do, and this is for you." A small piece of paper. The most common thick paper, like a business card. And just a few lines: two groups of four digits, login, password. Win2008 is signed under the first group, and LnxDeb is signed under the second group. Kami-sama! It was the first time I saw an Envelope squeal and bounce!

There's a phone number for the hosting emergency service on the back. Backup once a day, I took the tariff when they store a YEAR of backups. Enjoy it!

Slightly calmed down, yokai smiled... And she kissed me on the cheek too! Her lips were cool, dry, and rough. It turns out that I love making gifts!

Dofu turned out to be more restrained and teleported away with her piece of paper only after I gave her permission... Well, at least that's something. And in the morning I will give Ginko a gift — an invitation to the "Gluttony contest" on meat dishes. If only she didn't burn herself senseless there, she'd have to send someone to keep an eye on it...

Great. Now there are those who I need, my "inner circle". Rinko, Hiroe, Shizuka! We have done a good job this year and together we have earned the best gift... by themselves. So to speak, if you are not Santa Claus to yourself, then no one will help you.

Catch it! I opened a thin leather folder (show-off, show-off!) And: one, two, three — he threw three bulky envelopes on the smooth surface of the table. And he took the fourth envelope for himself.

"What is this?" Listening incredulously to the rustling inside.

"Oh, nothing like that. It's just your percentage of the corporation's profits for this year."

"Ha, I was sure you'd do something like that." Hiroe smiled triumphantly.

"You also have a salary, but everyone's share is the same. While."

"Er-er-er," Kuzaki's eyes grew bigger and bigger, "How many are there?!"