Web of light. Part 1-7

Several things happened at once. An empty winding path, Rinko and I, I have the last apple in my hands. A teenager of about fifteen rushes past like an arrow, ripping the bag off Kuzaki's shoulder. So fast that she doesn't have time to react... But I can do it. On pure reflex. Swing. A throw. An apple strike near the shoulder blades. And the explosion!

It's like a freeze frame in my eyes: a flash of light, a teenager's legs lifting off the ground, and a head hurtling towards the ground. And the shock wave, picking up the petals from the ground in a beautiful pink ring, carrying them past us and in all directions. Then time "dies out". I have noticed many times that with a sudden change of events, if you need to act quickly, emotions disappear somewhere, and a bare calculation remains. I run up to the opponent. The gloves are thin and leather, here they are "winter" on the hands, well, they were lying in the pockets. Flip over. Heavy, but not that heavy. The nose is smashed and broken — but successfully, sideways, otherwise there could already be a cute corpse.

Thin trickles of blood from the ears, what a lovely concussion. He's breathing. Pick up Rinko's bag. Did you forget something? Ah, of course. My favorite books about popadants! Left jacket pocket. Keys. Right jacket pocket. One, two, three cell phones. I won't take it, no one canceled the IMEI, and they sell phones here with a passport. Left trouser pocket. The wallet. Wow, how fat! Take the cash, put the wallet in the loser's jacket pocket. The right pocket of trousers. A taser?! You know, kid, I don't feel sorry for you. I think for a second, so as not to invest my "favorite" Ferry, which is "hamster death". We also leave the shocker. Nearby, near the pocket, let the police have questions — should the park be patrolled on holidays? And even better, the citizens who have already "got acquainted" with him should find a friend. And now, grab Kuzaki by the elbow and go, go. Yes, not on the ground, but on the path, it was not enough to leave footprints. The first turn. To the right. It's a good thing that "pocket" pyrotechnics are being sold in the park and the kids are ripping firecrackers and firecrackers for nothing. Just not in the cherry blossom alleys, but there are assholes everywhere, right? The second intersection. To the left. And now stop, and step, step! People are already walking around here. Phew. So much adrenaline! But not as much as it could be. The committeeman scared me a lot more then, not to mention the caterpillar.

"W..what was that?" and here Rinko is "turned on".

"They tried to rob us. A fast, long-legged bastard. You know, let's go home, because I don't feel like walking anymore."

Yeah, so I relaxed.

Chapter 84

Who runs the bus routes? I want to see this creature, which can certainly move between worlds, not to mention countries. Thirty minutes to get home! This is taking into account the fact that he stops at the school, and from there I still have fifteen minutes to walk. And I really want to count the money, but not the place. By the way, every bus here is already equipped with cameras, and "us" only started installing them in the eleventh year. Yeah, I used to dream of throwing fireballs when I was a kid. Who knew that it was necessary to throw apples? And by the way, why did it explode? No, well, it's clear that this is a "Ferry", I just didn't put any structure in, I didn't even want the apple to explode, it was just an ancient reflex to stop an escaping opponent, almost inherited from my tailed ancestors... Stop. That's it. What I forgot, or rather, couldn't realize. A message of action without "words describing it in thought." Da-a-mn, you could have figured it out for yourself! The ferry is not magic! The ferry is not magic! The ferry is not magic! It's an ability of the body, an inherited skill. What kind of pronouncing properties are "about yourself"! This is probably the heavy legacy of watching animes, with the characters becoming brutalized by "accepting themselves." It's pretty hard not to think while thinking. Only if you need to act so quickly that you don't have time to think. Only if the nervous system is overloaded with impressions that have fallen on your head, and you, thinking, "fall" into a kind of trance. Or... in the toilet on the toilet bowl, "lost in thought." If I'm not mistaken, this state is called "meditation." An empty head with no thoughts, just pure action. I also read in that "old" LiveJournal, dedicated, oddly enough, to motorcycles and riding them. The only book from which the author of the diary quoted quotes, where instead of pseudo-clever nonsense there was a specific description of the technique. But in Japanese, of course, I will find information and more details, after all, "the homeland of elephants"!

Hey, Rinko's uploaded something.

"Rinko, don't worry about the jerk. No one asked him to attack vacationers."

When he wakes up, he may change his profession.

And what kind of look is that? And why such a facial expression?

"Sorry... I'm not much of a defender." And tears in his eyes. Well, what should I do with you? Should I hug you? Wow, it worked! Whatever they call it in psychiatry, a substitute factor, I think.

"You are my friend and the closest person." I said it with emphasis on the word "most." I wanted to add, "and I'll always be there for you," but I didn't. And why? Fuck you! Because I'm shy!! I didn't expect it from myself... But looking at my reddened face, Kuzaki abruptly calmed down. She even giggled. Hurray! "I'm going to become a psychologist — let them teach me!"

Chapter 85.

After escorting Rinko to her door, I went to my house. The first thing he did was pull out a pretty thick wallet and count the cash: it came out to be something in the region of fifty thousand. It's not much, but if I pulled out such a pack in front of the seller in the store, unnecessary questions might arise, I usually don't carry so many small bills. And there's a message on the radio about a pickpocket or a bomber like that, and they'll think who knows what. I'd rather blow on the water.

Why would I go to the store? For apples, honey and sugar. And some more cinnamon, please. I can cook apples in honey, nothing complicated. And the structure must be drawn, absolutely. I think I can repeat it. I mean, not to draw from the finished fruit, but to make the apple become a grenade. As long as the emotions are fresh, as long as there is a ready result in front of your eyes... Oop, pick it up with a ladle, it's hot, damn it! On the window. Yeah, but now you can. Heck! It worked! It worked! I'm cool! And one more thing? Yes, yes! It was only when I had "steamed" six of them that I realized that there were six grenades with a contact fuse on the windowsill in front of me, and nitrocellulose (and what else could come from a fruit with 70% fiber content, where another 29% is water?) although not as unstable as the famous TNT, trinitrotoluene, or dynamite, it has proven its ability to be effectively detonated by impact.

Carefully, one at a time, without sudden movements, he transferred the "delicacy" to the top shelf of the far cupboard, having previously placed a plate. Rinko won't get in there, and we have to try to figure out how to defuse this stuff! But then, and now — to rest... and really, should I read the latest history of Russia? And then you can Google a map of the city's eateries and cafes.

Chapter 86

"I'm 30 years old. Even 39, if you count Yuto's past. I can't fall into childhood. I don't want to blow things up. Even if I can, and even if I have to blow them up for my own safety... Ah, to hell with everything!" these were the funny thoughts that were spinning in my head when I decided to dispose of the "ammunition". I wisely rejected the idea of "burying a contact mine in the front garden" and "putting it off for the future, in case it comes in handy." To walk two or three blocks, throwing an apple into each newly brought dumpster, and then watch from a distance as the poor guy who threw the garbage into the box is doused by a wave of the same garbage thrown out by the blast wave — crushed as a manifestation of inappropriate laziness and because of the rather high probability of injury, if not to the residents of the block, then scavengers taking away the bins. However, I must admit, there were such thoughts. In the absence of a landfill, it was decided to take the dangerous cargo outside the city, to find a more comfortable ravine there... and yes! Leave the shore! The idea of trying to transform the tree into a mine had to be discarded: there are not so many sugar and nitrogenous compounds in the tree, and the layer of explosive cellulose will turn out to be a thin layer between the bark and the trunk. No, I'll peel the bark off the tree, of course. What's the point? I must say that the explosive apple was also not 100% explosive, otherwise it would have been the equivalent of 30-50 grams of TNT and Rinko and I would have been lying next to the torn corpse on the path. Well, we would definitely survive, of course, but we still need to carefully use the newly acquired old ability.

Actually, for now, apart from apples, I can only boast of simple things — strengthening the fabric, for example. And then it suddenly turned out that I had already grown out of last year's clothes, so I had to buy T-shirts, trousers, shorts, and so on. Without much effort, it turned out to repeat the shocker, which is without laser tunneling to drain the charge through the air. And for the rest... right! What is missing now is not concentration, but detachment. I must say, meditation turned out to be not as simple as I thought. Ridiculously, it's easier to let go in case of danger and in battle than in a calm environment. Because there is one strong factor that needs to be eliminated — emotions, and here there are a lot of small ones. In bed, for example, instead of meditating, I just fall asleep. And by no means on the mat! I straightened my legs with such difficulty after the session that I felt sick. Should I sign up for a course? No matter what, but you can't find a mentor in meditation techniques in Japan, you have to try.

Chapter 88.

The bus stopped, and the driver kindly asked if I really needed to get here. And the stop where the village is in the saddle is only one through. Fortunately, I knew that there was a shrine of some spirits somewhere relatively nearby (in fact, this is the first stop after the place where the park turns into a forest on the gentle slopes of the local mountains), so I just showed a transparent plastic box from Christmas balls (with compartments, and sticky grenades I wrapped in the same napkins and padded with cotton wool, like the balls before). Like, an offering. And he told the driver something about the respect for the spirits, invested by older relatives. And what? I respect that. Himari, for example, I respect, I respect so much, I just can't live without her... Damn, literally. Bye bang me... Well, not that it's a couple of trifles, but I won't have time to apply my best practices, so I have my laser prototype and remote stunner with me. If anything happens, the unexploded Apple Zapas will be blown up. And the fact that I got respect for Himari from my grandfather, I don't think I need to mention?

Waving to the driver, I found a narrow path climbing through the forest somewhere up a gentle slope, and cheerfully turned my back on it, crossed an empty highway and plunged into the forest. Yes! I have special street crime supplies — boots like "berzy" and camouflage pants. The hoodie is ordinary, but it seems to match the image of a brutal hitman again. Ah, Kso! There is no Kalashnikov assault rifle, pity, pity. It was also possible to apply strips on the cheeks a la Rimbaud, since there was a foundation for the face in the same sports store. However, it would go wonderfully with the glasses that I wear without taking them off. Do you think hunters shouldn't mask their faces in an ambush? The animals are not as naive as the ones that survived here. The islands of the Japanese archipelago are not that big, and people have been living here in abundance for a long time.

Well, here's a wonderful piece. Meters... I should have taken a laser rangefinder. But there are ten. Three floors, exactly. I hope the edge under me won't collapse from the explosion? A meter-wide river, or rather a stream, runs briskly over the rocks below, the bottom is wide and rocky, without vegetation. Apparently, the spring flood carries everything away with the current every year — then the bottom of the ravine becomes a riverbed for several days. Both turns on the right and on the left — the sound should be muffled. Oh, swing your arm, open your shoulder... some kind of incorrect quote... whatever. Fire an apple at a likely opponent! Bang! Wow, what an echo. Pebbles and sand were scattered, but only those that are smaller than the phalanx of a long finger. The second one went! Bang. I'm kind of oblique, but I was aiming at the same place. But when an emergency situation occurs, it naturally turns out to throw far and accurately. Yeah. The pile of rocks over there is unstable. A throw. Bang! A miss. A throw. Bang! Passing by again. A throw. Uh-huh? That's a bitch. The apple fell and rolled down the slide I was aiming at. What the hell is this? I couldn't have missed it, could I? Yes, I see the lines of a disorderly grid, the trace of a ferry. Apparently, the ammunition "goes out" over time. Or I got a rotten apple— I haven't tried them. Okay, let's try to play billiards for now. The last shell. Throw! Bang! Wow, damn it, bang! The sixth apple that fell next to the fifth threw the never-exploding companion into the center of the stream, onto a fragment of stone protruding slightly from the running water. And a second explosion followed. The spray of water was thrown up two meters, splashing the stones around the stream. Damn, I didn't kill the fish, I hope? Otherwise, you can't actually catch it here, all freshwater reservoirs are a nature conservation area, all that. It's a logical requirement for islands. And I feel sorry for the frogs too. No one has surfaced, like. Well, I think we can move back. I'll just have time to get back and wait for the bus to arrive in time for Rinko's return. Well, I calmed my darling down with explosives, got rid of a potentially dangerous "treasure" at home, and even took a walk in the woods. I haven't been in a forest in a hundred years, and I haven't been in one with double-girth mast larches and pines like here. Otherwise, a park is great, of course, but a park consisting of 50% cherry trees is not our way. I thought for a while about whether I should urinate off the cliff, for more pathos of the moment, but decided that it was too much. And glory to kami! Because otherwise I would have fallen off a cliff or at least got into an awkward situation that might not end well either. And all because I heard a voice from behind me: