Web of light. Part 1-7

"You were the one rattling around, you know?"

Chapter 89

That's a fucking thing! Grabbing my backpack with one hand, I literally turned 180 degrees in a jump, preparing to grab a pistol or a stunner — whichever gets into my hand first. And then he discarded the idea — it was useless. Because behind me, about five meters away, there was a girl-my age, by the look of it-with long, green-black hair almost to her feet. The Goddess of Rivers, the Mizuchi Water Snake. I probably would have been scared out of my mind, but I could see her aura in the vision spectrum of the glasses... It's stupid, but I couldn't suppress my admiration! The glasses, of course, provided visualization of energy in one color — azure blue, and it suited Shizuka insanely. All that slightly hunched figure, hands lowered in a slightly inhuman gesture, eyes looking "nowhere" from under their brows — and all this framed by a giant canopy of energy that swept over the tops of the trees, spreading to the right and left like a peacock's tail! Something similar can be seen in the manga Naruto — a fox spirit crouching before jumping — and a fan of tails like a flame behind his back. It turns out that the engravers of medieval Japan copied the images of spirits from nature, and modern mangakas copied them. We were probably silent for about ten seconds, I was mesmerized by the picture of a riot of Power, and the snake was probably trying to glue the template torn by my facial expression. I got there first. Once. The snake didn't attack first. Is he playing? No, I'm just HUMAN to her. A complete blockage of magic, neither in me nor in the objects. If I wanted to kill you, I'd just hit you in the back of the head with water, but I didn't kill you, did I? I was one hundred percent ready to scare, but I missed my role a little bit. She reflexively released the pent-up force, otherwise I would have seen her from the road... although not. Damn range, I completely forgot. Okay, Mizuchi is clearly going to say something now, we should seize the initiative. Because if she touches me and doesn't have time to kill me, then she's guaranteed dead, or whatever remains of yokoy. It's bad to be a piece of water. Of course, I hadn't tried "Death of hamsters" on perfume, but I felt it would work.

"Ko-o-o-oll!" I said, smiling. "Don't they force you to get a haircut?" (Parents, I wanted to add, but I shut up in time).

Apparently, the image of the Corpse-Eater and his companions persuading the water spirit to get a haircut appeared alive in Mizuchi's imagination, because she choked on the prepared phrase and muttered something like

"Well, you know."

Meanwhile, I began to act. In an arc, gradually approaching (and leaving the opponent between himself and the ravine, into which, if anything, a snake with burnt brains needs to be pushed) I walked behind ayakashi, admiring the waterfall of hair, which, by the way, a normal girl at that age would never grow.

"That's cool-ll!"

"What do you mean, you know?" The snake finally recovered and turned to me.

"Hair! U! You! They're so cool!" And I didn't lie, the hair looks cool and clean. And immediately, without interruption, it is necessary to add pressure: "You won't tell anyone, will you?" and look back. "You're the only one here, aren't you, like me?"

"What won't I say?"

"That I was throwing bombs here!" Look back again, and it's quieter. "I did it myself. Cool, right?"

"You're right, you know" I'm kind of tired the snake replied," I won't tell you. "Did you know that this place is reserved and it may be dangerous for people to come here? Spirits are roaming around here, anything can happen."

Yeah, there are miracles here, a goblin is wandering around, a Shizuka is sitting on the branches...

"Well, you're walking around here, and nothing." push, push with logic. And take a step closer. I wonder if the snake looks like that as part of psychological pressure or to avoid accidentally looking into the eyes? She seems to be an ideological opponent of mental pressure.

"What if I'm a malevolent yokai myself, I just took on this appearance, you know?"

"You're not doing very well," I looked at the girl critically and summarized. "It doesn't look like it."

"What doesn't look like?"

"She doesn't look like a yokoi. You're beautiful!" Mizuchi straightened up and began to hold her hands normally. The eyes lost their depth and finally began to focus normally on the other person. That is, on me. Well, I can calmly look into the eyes of almost anyone — to break through the cocoon of protection of the amulet, you need to be either an extremely strong mentat, like a banshee (if I correctly interpreted the knowledge of evil spirits from the "past" world), or an archmage like Kues.

"Do you live in the village or in the city? I'm in the city, and I wanted to go to the bus stop right now. And you?"

"I'll go with you," the girl muttered. Ha, and the "mysterious syllable" is gone.

The aura of power flickering around ayakashi rapidly shrank, being drawn into the figure. Once— and now only the glowing outline around the body can reveal the disguised snake.

"What's your name?" I asked the girl, putting on the straps of my backpack and picking up an empty box. "And I'm Yuto!"

"Shizuku," the Goddess of Rivers introduced herself.

It took about ten minutes to walk to the bus stop along the slope. Damn, I've been climbing up here for almost half an hour, so Shizuka didn't come with me for nothing. That's what a local means. We started talking. I talked about school, about how I live, about Rinko's girl-friend who cuts her hair short — that's stupid. The snake mostly made meaningless comments, but I tried not to ask her anything. I'll also drive her into a logical dead end, and she'll want to "clean up" my memory after all. It will break off, of course, but then you will have to hit to defeat... And keep up the pace. So very soon I turned the conversation to new movies (at least ayakashi should read the posters in the city, otherwise what kind of scout would she be) and found out an outrageous gap in her familiarity with the horror genre. And snake really seemed to have watched some of the new movies. Apparently, he is creatively conducting observations in the city, yes! Or maybe it was just the magicians she was spying on who went to watch the movies.

Anyway, when I got to the bus stop and found out that the bus would be there in twenty minutes, I took out the bentos I had packed for the trip and honestly shared them with the conductor. The well-rounded yokai appreciated the taste of the products with the interjection "hmm", which apparently meant "you can still eat," and I was solving a difficult question for myself. How to extend the contact. However, if I turn off the magic indicators from the maps, put normal LEDs on and put the ferry's mago protection on top, and like hell she'll find something magical with me. However, my house will end up in the database of the local Yokai gang... But what do they care about me? They're not interested in people, but they are in a normal relationship with Shizuka. And it is desirable that I have it at hand when the "Ferry" system of the oath is restored by me. If there is, but somehow I again believed in my strength after apples. But would she come?. Hehe, watch The Bell. Mizuchi will like it, I guess!

"Listen, if you're in town, come visit!" I tore out a piece of paper from my notebook and wrote down the address. "And you walked me out, and I can't thank you enough... Can I braid your hair?"

"Kha... Well, you know! Try."

Well, what's so complicated about a braid? Just practice. And I put long, beautiful hair on the list of advantages right after big tits... Have a good figure! I've been bothering my mother every day since I was five years old, when I saw her braiding her hair for the first time. And then I had long-haired girlfriends, you know! So there was practice, and women, oddly enough, appreciate such a gesture of attention to themselves. Of course, if Mizuchi were a normal girl, I would have to comb her hair first, but the "spiritual" hair lay hair to hair and was braided quite simply. The secret of a beautiful braid is simple — uniform effort throughout and the most dense styling. Well, that's it. After looking for something to tie it with, I found only a spare bootlace berz in my backpack. Oh well, it'll do for the countryside. A knot, long "bow" loops. And again. And again.

"Well how?"

Mizuchi threw her braid over her shoulder, looking as if she had never styled her hair... Hmmm, or maybe she didn't. She tugged at the end of her thick braid, thicker than her hand, and finally smiled a normal smile. Great! And finally, a bus, barely moving, appeared around the bend in the road. I got up from the bus stop bench, picking up my things.

"Of course, a ribbon would be more suitable... Mm-hmm... Light blue, yes. If you come to visit, I'll give it to you! Will you come?"

"Maybe," replied the snake, and, apparently, having decided something for herself, she spoke seriously and with suggestion:

"My house is not far from the ravine, mine, and many more, but these places are not kind. It happens... everything, and again someone attacks people, we haven't found him yet, but two people are missing. Don't come yet, but later... If you show up one day, I'll warn you about you."

The bus pulled up and opened the doors, and I was somewhat stunned to understand the meaning of Shizuki's maneuvers with his aura. She stupidly scared a possible opponent, and then just protected the child. She led him out of the woods, spent a lot of time making sure that the possible target was out of the kill zone, and only then went on to track down the killer. Oh, shit! Well, Shizuka, I won't forget it, I swear! Your rating in my eyes has risen to an unattainable height! And her last sentence. Apparently, I hooked the river goddess with something, either with attitude or fearlessness... Maybe, despite the amulet, Ayakashi felt something. This is the very thing that allowed Amakawa to recruit spirits into his troops. Damn, there are so many reasons to think carefully about everything.

Part 15.

part 14.

Interlude 7. The beloved clearing of the "big three" Yokai led by the Corpse Eater. 15 kilometers upstream of the stream where Mizuchi and Yuto met.

When Shizuka, revealing her disguise for a moment, blinked her aura and entered the clearing, the leader of the local yokai and his hook-nosed henchman number two (and number one was just her, Mizuchi) were discussing the end of the raid on the crazy "spirit of the graves." And where did the jerk come from?

The main yokai was about to tell the whistling girl, who had not appeared by the beginning of the short fight, what he thought of her independent antics, but when he saw her hair tied up and tied in a braid, he lost his way a little, and his claim sounded very similar to "What the fuck?!"

"I found a man in the woods by the river, a child, you know. She took me out of the woods. That is all." she replied indifferently in response to two questioning glances, sitting down on her favorite branch.

The Hawk-nosed Man grinned, but the Corpse Eater couldn't stand it.:

"Since when do you see people off instead of scaring the shit out of them.. gray hair?"

"He wasn't afraid of me, you know." The snake still spoke indifferently.

"How's that?"

"My appearance didn't affect him."

"You took off your disguise, I saw the reflections from the slope. Anyone in an aura of power experiences mild discomfort." He knew what he was talking about.

"So he's just not everyone." Shizuka stated phlegmatically.

After giving her an incredulously amazed look, the leader only silently raised his eyes to the sky, as if asking, "why am I doing all this?"

But the Hawk-Nosed Man finally gave his squeaky and nasty voice in this guise:

"Maybe he tied your braid, too." But Mizuchi ignored the question with a look that could have been deciphered from "if you're jealous, make yourself one" to "fuck you." And silence descended on the clearing.

Lying on a feather bed, little yokai was actually thinking the same thing: about a strange, not timid child, whose body was just slightly absorbing the bursting power of a powerful spirit that was trying to penetrate him. This can explain his calmness. Some kind of amulet? It will be interesting to see this amulet if it really is the effect of the amulet. In the old families of priests, there were sometimes extremely interesting gizmos that could work for centuries without recharging from a magician... or which could recharge themselves. But there were also Amakawa amulets, which were legendary. Especially about the ones that were made for the Yokai. In addition, another reason is that the possibility of sitting out an exorcist raid in one of the houses, if she falls under it, is much greater if there is such an "overwhelming" amulet in this house.

Then, during a short conversation, the River Goddess, convinced that she knew human society well, suddenly found out about a completely huge gap in knowledge, ranging from the dissemination of information to the banal "idea of spirits" on the part of people. Magicians are also people, and she often has to disguise herself as a human — in a big city, you can't get to some places otherwise... and her hair was really styled for the first time since... as there was no one else. And, according to the boy's reservations, it seems that he, too, has become an orphan and lives alone. Okay, that's settled, and as soon as the summer current washes the shoal back to the flooded island, from which these abnormal creatures crawl out every year, you'll still need to go to the city to explore. That's when she and... Talk to you? Shizuka was slightly surprised to find that she was actually slightly interested and a little worried. I really didn't expect it from myself. Mizuchi spread out a page from her notebook, memorizing the address. With her lousy job, papers and objects afraid of water didn't live in her pockets for long anyway.

Interlude 8. City center, police headquarters. The office of the Head of the Department for the investigation of crimes committed or related to occult purposes, as well as ritual or magical actions

Yes-Yes, that's what the department was called. Do you know why there are so few sacrifices in Japan, conducted by all sorts of profane people, as well as sects and religious fraudsters? But Tsuchimikado magicians don't like to be interrupted from their work by such nonsense. They can also apply a fireball (it especially affects various "demon summoners". Light a fireball, show the icon and ask unobtrusively: "Did you summon demons?").

There is only one department for such a specific topic in the whole city, which is much more important than the fact that there are only two employees in it besides the boss. Well, if necessary, you can call a rapid response team from Home — fortunately it is not so far away, and there are helicopters to the House, and secondly, there is a whole staff of these weaklings from the committee. So there are rumors that when the promotion comes, the department will be taken out of the city altogether. To spit in the sky, to arrange rare raids on all sorts of small fry or to catch charlatans is a waste of such a wonderful resource as the combat magicians of the strongest clan in Japan. There's enough "garbage" here to protect you from every little thing. Moreover, in winter and spring, when the underwater dam is being washed away, all sorts of animals stopped coming, otherwise they used to come in droves — five or six pieces per season. Should I go check out the mountains? Maybe some kind of crap has settled there, which eats up everyone passing by in vain?