Web of light. Part 1-7

The girl was absentmindedly looking at the surrounding landscape, floating behind her, and her thoughts were far from the road and from the springs.

"Another not-so-fun birthday," she thought. "And again without Yuto. Sometimes parents still overdo it with their "correctness and upbringing." Even though the guy is worried about his parents, surely he won't think that everyone else will stop celebrating their birthday? And it's boring there without him."

That's what, but Yuto was never boring, and the more they talked, the more interesting and mysterious he opened up to her! They hadn't talked much before his parents' death, and Rinko honestly considered her friend to be a sullen, withdrawn boy who couldn't hit back. Yeah, well, she was always good with punches. The family inheritance must have finally manifested itself. Her father kept lamenting that her grandfather had not lived to see her win the district kendo competition among ten-year-olds this spring. And when Amakawa said that he was from a family of exorcists, it was funny! Very! Until his strange magic manifested. However, magic was not very good, except for the time when they counted the bugs in the floor of his house (Brr! The horror!!) Yuto showed his powers in front of her a few times: when he enchanted glasses (Rinko adjusted the glasses on her nose), when he enchanted dishes from breaking and when ... yes, when he protected her from that incomprehensible crap two years ago. Admittedly, she didn't see much at the time: just a vague silhouette that detached itself from the darkness beyond the circle of light from a street lamp, rushing towards her at the speed of a train... and it split into two halves, melting away with a strange liquid smoke. The girl shrugged her shoulders shiveringly and shook her head to get rid of the shadow of the horror she had experienced. It's better to remember what was good.

And there were a lot of good and funny things. Yuto turned out to be an enthusiastic inventor, an inspired storyteller, and demonstrated a shocking agility of thought in conducting experiments of interest to him. Hamsters alone are worth a lot! And the rocket? Wow, the chemist turned pale later, as soon as their class came to a science lesson, if it was devoted to chemistry! And also... Then Kuzaki Jr. was distracted from her memories and stared out the window. Something flashed by, something wrong... unusual... Rinko noticed the first faintly glowing blue dot higher up the slope, along which their car was crawling at a speed of thirty kilometers per hour. Dangerous road, speed is limited... Then another flashed below the tops of the passing trees as the Kuzaki family's car drove onto a straight stretch of serpentine... And here's the third one... It's strange that it could be so small, not cicadas, and even those don't glow... Wait, what kind of cicadas are in the mountains and at two degrees Celsius? And then it hit me-the glasses! After so many days of magical vacuum, the magosensor finally found something to visualize! And the higher up in the mountains, the more points there were. Some were floating slowly in the sky (not too high, the glasses were "blind" at thirty or forty meters), others were swarming in the branches. Still others were on the ground or in the ground, one dot even flew through the windshield, completely ignoring the matter, flashed past Rinko and disappeared behind the car. There was no doubt left — Kuzaki had heard about little harmless spirits living in the woods and in the mountains, and scary stories about will-o'-the-wisps too. However, not a single spirit reached the ogonyok. Some of the visible dots were brighter, of course, but once I caught a glimpse of something resembling the silhouette of a mouse, and that was it.

Having settled into their familiar house in the backyard of the hotel, Rinko habitually harnessed herself to the general turmoil of the staff: she helped in the kitchen (it was there that the chefs taught her how to cook almost better than her mother!), washed the floor, started huge washing machines that washed clothes and yukata, hung up the washed clothes and performed dozens more small but important orders. And how nice it is to relax in the pool after physical exertion, from where all the visitors have left, to occupy it like an important person, alone or with cousins...

And all this time, the girl noticed the spirits: there were fewer of them on the territory of the hotel — somehow people were bothering them. But some non-material guests, on the contrary, behaved sociably — jostled at a street lamp, followed one of the hotel guests, swam in the water column in the pools. There were really a lot of them only in the stone bowl at the edge of the territory, a natural reservoir of "heavy" water, which was unpleasant to climb into and in which you couldn't stand for more than five minutes. The most interesting thing is that if you scoop up water from the tank, for example, with a bucket— then at least hold your arm or leg until the evening — no effect.

Interestingly, Yuto didn't say anything about the little Yokai when he warned her about her behavior if she noticed something magical with the glasses, apparently he just didn't know about them. The spirits didn't do anything to anyone, and after a day Rinko stopped paying special attention to them... until small dots flew past her right through the walls, hurrying to get away from her... The girl turned and almost fell. A glowing female silhouette could be seen right through the wooden wall of the house. A silhouette engulfed in invisible blue flames, beating around the figure as if in the wind.

Entry seventy-two.

I killed the first hamster pretty quickly today: after superimposing a web of lines, as I remembered them and redrawn them from the Rinko structure, the animal lasted about half an hour. Despite the fact that it's a hamster and that I specifically bought it as a laboratory animal, its death really stressed me out. After applying the "Ferry", the hamster abruptly changed the pattern of movements: instead of smooth, imposing ones, they were sharp and impetuous. Moreover, I got the impression that the rodent suddenly stopped recognizing familiar objects: it sensitively pressed against the bars of the cage several times, tried for a long time to chew sawdust from the bottom, and then, finally finding food, began to hide it. Moreover, if the attempt to bury it in sawdust can still be attributed to an awakened instinct, then throwing grains through the bars did not climb into any gate at all. And the amplitude and power of the movements continued to increase. After a few minutes, the hamster was already screaming with every movement, and bruises began to collect under the skin. When the little body stopped shaking and breathing, I finally approached the cage. And I found that my "inventory" was at least missing a scalpel and a binocular magnifier, or better yet, a microscope. It seems that I can only determine the cause of death "by eye", because I simply have nothing to open the corpse with. It looks like it's internal bleeding, because the limbs are swollen, they literally turned blue. But if not for such obvious symptoms, the hamster would have died in vain. And I need to do something about my eternal fuck planning problems, otherwise the first fight will be my last!

Peace be upon your ashes, hamster, forgive me your death. It wasn't that pointless. I'm having a bad day today. It's better to try to learn the map anyway. Burnt-out controllers are at least easy to replace.

Interlude 4. Part 2

For a few seconds, Rinko just stared at the fiery silhouette, unable to believe what she was seeing. Her face must have been such at that moment that an unknown Yokai would surely have guessed that he was being seen somehow wrong. Or is it a magician? The girl shook her head convulsively. Concentrate! Yuto gave clear instructions: Whatever happens, keep the poker face. Funny word — Yuto-kun had to explain the translation first, then the meaning, and then teach her, Rinko, to play poker. The memory made her smile: Rinko eventually figured out the rules and quickly started winning, considering that they were playing to visit an amusement park, the guy managed to lose as many as two trips! After that, he refused to play cards with her flatly.

Just focus. "I'm-very-busy-and-going-on-business, especially since there really is a case! Chanting this mantra to herself, Rinko slid open the front door and stepped out onto a narrow veranda without a railing. And here... the girl hurriedly took off her glasses, pretending that something got on the glass, because it was indecent to look at a calmly walking along the path, an unremarkable woman at first glance. But through the enchanted glass, the picture opened up to a completely different one: the facial expression from afar looked more like a grin, the gaze of the inhuman deep eyes attracted like a pool. "Don't look into Yokai's eyes! Rinko recalled, carefully putting her glasses in her pocket, now she had no doubt that she was seeing a spirit. The girl carefully picked up the basket with bedding and dragged it, resting the edge of the container on her stomach, stealing glances at the stranger. When my daughter was very young, her dad often played "make a wish" with her — he combined mindfulness training with his daughter's development. The restless Rinko rarely managed to notice something casually, like her dad, but if someone caught her attention... Yokai turned out to be strangely dressed: her too-dark yukata was worn out, and her wide belt also remembered the best of times. The woman, Rinko realized, was not just walking, but eating nuts. And how she ate! She indiscriminately took out another nut from her wide sleeve — either ordinary, forest, noble, or earthy, and when Kuzaki came very close— Greek was used. Crunch! Rinko's jaw ached and his eye twitched. And more. Kuzaki realized that she wasn't afraid of the spirit at all. Maybe it's self-deception, but such a vegetarian-minded Yokai was not at all intimidated.

"Girl, wait," the woman called out to Rinko in such a voice that any normal, unprepared person would have jumped half a meter — it sounded so otherworldly. Kuzaki, already mentally prepared for something like this, didn't even flinch. Taking a deep breath, she put her burden on the path and, without looking up, memorized and politely gave out the standard phrase of the attendant-at-the-entrance, since she was wearing a yukata:

"Good afternoon, dear madam! We, the staff of the Night Bell Hotel, are ready to help you in any case. What do you want?"

"er-er..." — having lost half the overtones, the guest drawled with a slight accent. "I wish I had some nuts... unfamiliar, new ones."

Then, please follow me," looking at Yokai sternly at her feet, Rinko rammed in the same tone again, picked up the basket and continued on her way to the laundry room. There was no one in the laundry room, just the drums of two of the three machines turning steadily. Kuzaki unloaded her tired laundry, pulled out the key to the grocery warehouse and opened the door leading there. The three-by-three room on several levels was filled with boxes, and there was exactly one step left to stand up. However, the girl almost immediately found what she was looking for, pulled out the three remaining decently heavy coconuts from the shelf and, after a brief hesitation, added pineapple to them. About personality (or essence?) as a guest at night, she had already formed a definite opinion.

"Here, eat up!"

The Yokai woman looked at the gifts with a completely confused face:

"How can me repay you, child, for this treat? It's not often that I see generosity, only occasionally can I reach out to people."

Rinko sighed. Well, you can't demand money. And anyway, she felt humanly sorry for this creature in clothes from a hundred years ago. And is he talking about generosity? On the other hand, she could have been simply kicked out of the store — with all due politeness, of course, but without money, no one would give her anything... Kuzaki's parents often told fairy tales, and then she herself enjoyed reading folk art, where it was mentioned more than once that some spirits can afford to walk "in the body" only once every ten years, or only on new moons at night, or with some other problems. But my aunt could just steal it, or even take it by force — look how the aura was burning!

And Kuzaki Rinko, who is still a ten-year-old girl, felt sorry for Yokai, who is maybe a hundred, maybe three hundred years old. Sighing once more, she reached into her pocket and fished out a five-thousand-yen bill-she was instructed to pay off the alcohol suppliers and was allowed to keep the change.

"Here," the girl held out a bill, "the figure is how much it costs, the price tag is usually under the product. Buy some more in the village under the mountain when these run out, if you want."

"I cannot leave this debt unpaid, and I see that your holiday will soon be, and you will soon be a woman. Please accept this gift." And the spirit took out an object from her other sleeve, put it in the hand of the dumbfounded Kuzaki, bowed, mystically without scattering nuts and pineapple, and slipped out into the street. Only then Rinko, cursing herself for her stupidity, snatched out her glasses and convulsively brought her hand with the gift clutched to her face: clear! No glow, no magic! Yuto strongly insisted that there could be any hidden thing in an ordinary thing, and if a spirit or magician dropped something "accidentally", look at it carefully without picking it up. But since I took it... Rinko, looking up, still managed to see through the wall, as at the limit of the range, the silhouette of a woman, engulfed in flames of her own power, suddenly shrinks into a bright dot and takes the form of some small animal with a long tail, and it disappears from sight in one movement. Scolding herself once again for her carelessness and for her inappropriate pity for a very dangerous creature, Rinko left the pantry, locked the door behind her, and only then opened her hand — there was a small and rather heavy antique hair clip in her palm. The lamp's beam reflected off the polished yellow metal, scattering small reflections from several small transparent stones inlaid...

Part 11.

Entry seventy-three.

Cami, bless the scientists who came up with naphthyzine and suprastin! Otherwise, feeding a Rink cat would have turned into a real torment, but as it was, I stroked and squeezed a fat fluffy animal that missed communication, happily purring something to me in its feline language. I wonder if Himari can translate from feline? Like she's a beast. I must remember to ask. Well, well, don't worry, tailed one, better wait for your mistress tomorrow. However, my girlfriend's rational parents do not often pamper their four-legged cat food, especially expensive "horse meat", preferring to buy cheap fish like capelin or saury, or whatever it is that we have here, actually on the ocean, much cheaper. Yes, they are also frozen in portions in the refrigerator. But I love cats, so I pamper this carcass, while mine... more precisely, he didn't start his own. If I live to see Himari, I will definitely force her to take on a second form and squeeze my legitimate familiar. And then — in the first appearance, and squeeze again!