Web of light. Part 1-7

Shizuka. At least she behaves normally, she doesn't run out of water, I didn't notice much difference in behavior "before" and "after". There is catastrophically little data for analysis.: I can more or less say what influences what, but I still can't figure out how. True, no one canceled the "black box" method, but I didn't watch Shizuka that much and in rather monotonous situations: we worked together on "amulet" muscle strengthening, then I helped the snake deal with one or another section of knowledge of human civilization, like computer games or the principles of setting time zones for different regions. We walked together a few times. We talked about serious topics several times. We ate together. All. And now there's just a great opportunity to look at Mizuchi "in his natural habitat" and I don't even know what to compare it with...

By the way, why did I decide that the Ferry had any critical effect at all? Perhaps the changes will manifest themselves for the better or not at all. I will consider the latter option: it is at least pointless to introduce a new unknown factor into calculations that already consist of more than two-thirds of assumptions alone. And so Shizuka has already looked at me a couple of times in disbelief — why am I staring at her so often?

And at all. I need to try to calm down: I have a pretty good chance of successful negotiations. Yeah, fifty percent, like in the joke about the dinosaur in New York: either you meet it or you don't. There are no other options for negotiations at all...

...Naturally, I was mistaken.

We calmly got off the bus at a familiar stop, even the driver seemed to me the same as the last time, although you wouldn't understand because of the sun glasses. We waited until the transport disappeared around the bend. They crossed the road. Let's go to the river...

"Fuck!" For the first time in my memory, Shizuka swore. She managed to partially remove her disguise: hairpins from her head, glasses and a locket, and slightly released her aura to clarify if any of her own were nearby. Clarified it.

"There's a fight going on," Mizuchi said almost calmly. "Yokay vs. yokay. Ours against several enemies. Wait here..."

Damn it! My heart jumped in my chest in fright, and emotions, as always with very close danger, faded into the background. Meditation, the very "combat" meditation. Sensei also called her "involuntary..."

"We're coming with you," I quickly interrupted. "Make me an ice spear with a four-sided tip. The length is two meters. And for Rinko, it's an ice-cold straight sword with a sharp edge."

Ferry. I've already tested the accelerating-on-mans Ferry. Only on animals, but...

"They'll just kill you there."

And if we don't step in, they'll kill our hope. If anyone survives, they obviously won't negotiate.

"If you accelerate your muscles with magic, they won't kill you."

The time for "clinical trials" of his meager skills has come.

"You don't..." Kuzaki looked at me in surprise and a little scared. "... tested on people..."

I'll take my chances. If the Hawk-Nosed and Death Eater didn't deal with the enemies quickly, then Mizuchi's help won't be critical. But we have mago-invisibility and a chance to suddenly hit the enemy's flank. Mizuchi, the weapon!

"I'm already doing it, you know." the face of the Goddess of Rivers, which had been so deadly serious, became just intensely focused, a slight smile appeared on her lips. And the expression in his eyes changed. "Thanks for your help, Amakawa."

Next to Shizuka, the water rushing from the figure quickly began to take on the appearance of an ordered weapon, but I didn't look anymore. When I got to Rinko, I knelt down and ran my fingers over her ankles, thighs, across her buttocks and back to her neck and head, and down her arms to her fingers. Kuzaki must have been slightly stupefied by the speed of events, and she did not react in any way, except for a dumbfounded look, to such a blatant groping. After, everything after. We have to make it. Now the head. It's simple, it's a "magically accelerated" perception, and besides, Yuto swore, Kuzaki, if I mess up with you now, I won't forgive myself. That's it!

"Is it okay?" I asked, taking my hands off the swordswoman's temples.

"I don't feel anything like that..."

"He'll be right there."

I put my hand on the middle of the girl's stomach and formed a storage device in one motion. I started to fill it up, but Shizuka pushed me away:

"It's me, you take care of the weapons."

Logically. I picked up the sword, meditation, and ran my palm along it. Strengthening. I've read about rearranged ice, such as can be found on the moons of Jupiter or in space. It is closer to steel in properties, but its crystal lattice is more ordered.

Now the spear. Made by.

Mizuchi took her hands off the girl's stomach, and Rinko waved her hand with surprise on her face. Whistling, the limb "smeared" in the air into a semicircle. It's good that the clothes are enchanted for decontamination, the glowing areas of Kuzaki's body are almost invisible from the front.

"I'm on my own now. How to do it?"

It's kind of silly to touch yourself... And it's true. The necessary lines formed in an instant inside my body from the "rays of the star" of the Ferry source. So, and the head. Oh-h! How suddenly all the movements of foliage and grass became clearly visible. And how will I turn off this state? Fuck it, I'll think about it if I survive.

"How do we distinguish the opponents?" I asked the first smart question that finally came to my mind.

Mizuchi tensed up, looking "inside herself" and gave out:

"Two baboons, a stingray, a spider and a praying mantis. The spider is the strongest. There are only seven of us left..."

"Put on your protection and let's run."

And they ran. Three small figures: two female and one male. One with a spear, one with a straight bokken-like sword. Alone with empty hands. After the Ferry was rebuilt, the weapon stopped sticking to the skin and desperately freezing fingers and palms. I hope Rinko doesn't slip the handle in his hands. I hope that with the first blow we will kill three at once. We have the advantage in speed and full-fledged camouflage — the barrels flash by, the legs almost never get tired — we have. The Shizuka ahead is gradually making a loop from the direction of the mountains to the direction along the slopes. I hope Kuzaki and I have enough inertia and brains to hit opponents even in human form, although it is unlikely that there is at least one "in disguise". I hope the sight of monsters doesn't put me or my friend in a stupor. I hope we get to know everyone correctly and don't kill any of our allies by mistake. But it doesn't make sense. After the fight, we will count. Suddenly, a blue glow shot up like a flame in the empty forest — they reached the sensory distance for glasses. How's it going? Everything is at zero. FIGHT!

Chapter 110.

A hollow, almost without trees. And the ones that were ground to pieces, broken. Shuddering, blood-soaked carcasses and monster small carcasses. And above them is the battle of the "titans" of this battlefield. Side view. And here comes the enemy. A baboon actually looks like a cross between an eyeless gorilla and a python. Time seems to stretch even more. I see a carcass slowly approaching, I shuffle my feet, I see that we haven't even been noticed. The spear is tipped somewhere in the center of the furry part of the body. Hit. With noticeable resistance, the spear enters the carcass, I slow down, holding the handle at the opposite end. What's this? Slowly rising blood from the other side? There are no sounds. I brace myself with both hands, extinguishing the inertia of the body. The familiar, unfamiliar feeling of a nonexistent ball in my hands. The whole thing that can be done better. Or — split, crumble in the palms of my hands. The ferry!

The creature's tail convulsively moves towards me, wanting to slap me to the side next to the wound, jump straight at him and up. Unaccustomed, I push off harder and realize that I will rise five meters. A ramp floats through the thick air to his left, his glasses darkening as he releases a zipper from under his mouth plates. Hopefully not at the Rinko. I take the stunner out of my pocket. I'm checking it out. I hold down the button. The flash! A ramp with a burnt "wing"-fin begins to roll on its side. I twist in the air, my trajectory begins to tilt towards the ground. And there's a spider about four meters in its belly, with a red cross pattern, grappling with a hefty toothy beast, I can't find an analogue. With my hands and feet, I push against the spider's abdomen, my inertia throws it at the opponent. Again, the feeling is that the whole here is more perfect, rounded... The ferry!.. and there were fragments. With a convulsive movement of his body, the spider throws me almost parallel to the ground, and I crash into a pile of torn, chopped monstrous bodies. The air is knocked out, but the clothes restrain and distribute the impact. About two meters to the left, it crashes into the ground, raising dust... Spit? a piece?.. cobwebs, I feel a concussion from the impact. I push off, sliding in the blood-and as soon as I don't smash my head, I straighten up in one motion to see Kuzaki cutting through the mantis's cephalothorax with a white, black, and red sword, and out of the corner of my eye I see a deceptively slow black ramp falling and crashing into the ground. Shizuka shows up on the back of a slashed baboon, bigger than mine, which doesn't twitch. All?

Suddenly, clarity disappears, and sounds "catch up" with my head: squelching, growling, and whining... the soft rustle of the wind in the trees. A dead spider is thrown onto a slope by a man in his mid-twenties in a dazzling white shirt and tie. Shizuka falls to his knees in front of a pile of corpses and almost corpses of smaller yokai, blood is flowing, and in some places a familiar black smoke is smoking. Mizuchi's hands are covered in blood up to the elbows, his face is wet, his dress is split on the side and slightly charred — that's who the scat hit. Water falls from her hands in streams, covering the nearest mutilated yokai, covering it with a film, penetrating into the wounds. Judging by the contorted soundless scream (or am I not hearing it?) I don't think there's much hope of saving anyone from this pile of semi-finished meat products. My head is "leading" me more and more — apparently, I still applied it on impact. At the edge of my field of vision, I see another man with a funny crooked nose bowing to Kuzaki's waist, leaning on a sword. I've finally reached it, and I'm kneeling next to the Goddess of Rivers. It's funny! I know what you're missing. It's simple: water is an excellent mediator, it's understandable. But water doesn't take energy well. You can be a water spirit twenty times, but you can't feed it with your power even more. It's funny! But I can help you, since these pieces of meat have upset you so much.

"Cover everyone with water." Such a hoarse voice, wow, I didn't recognize myself. "All "ours", I specify."

The water is coming in, and I'm in a puddle again, now almost to the middle of my thigh. The hands sink into the water. It's so cool! For the first time, I see how the lines "feel like" filling the volume of water. Some bodies shudder in the depths, others don't care, they slowly spread out like black clouds in the water, as in the sky. Anyway.

That's the problem, I can't reach it. But you should. What's in the way? Is it bothering you? Well, let him get in the way. My field of vision narrows and floats away to the left, but I can still see how my hands begin to glow with a warm yellow light, and the slightly rolled-up sleeves of my shirt begin to literally fall apart right on top of me. It's funny! Darkness.

Part 21

Interlude 12. A former clearing near a mountain river, the former Ayakasi camp. Rinko Kuzaki, Shizuka Mizuchi, Corpse Eater (Kashi), Hawk-nose and other yokai, dead and not so.

[Rinko Kuzaki]

"Thank you, young lady Swordswoman," A young man with a nose slightly larger than it would be proportional bowed.

Rinko looked around dumbfounded: is that all of them? The frenzied steeplechase turned into a fight so suddenly that Rinko acted on full automatic: she singled out the target, a huge grotesque praying mantis, and, as in training, slashed at the supporting leg, and with the second movement she cut the second. When Shizuka created the sword, she clearly copied the shinto-gui, which was too heavy for 11-year-old Kuzaki, she had to hold and strike with both hands, inertia carried the blade away each time. But the opponent was still slower. The mantis settled on its belly, and one of the long blade limbs jerked back, and the girl hacked at the joint. Now the pseudo-insect-like ayakashi switched to a new target, and immediately received a paw on the leg from a clawed bare-skinned humanoid. Well, then it's a matter of technique.

Rinko suddenly felt tired. Leaning on the ice blade, she calmly surveyed the battlefield once more... just as Yuto braced his hands against the rapidly rising water... and the light hurt her eyes, despite the chameleon glasses. A second later, she saw her friend slumped against Mizuchi's shoulder. With her other hand, she continued to hold the water.

"What are you looking at, help me quickly!"

Rinko let go of the blade, ran up to Ayakashi, grabbed the guy by the arms. Heavy! She pulled him a step away from Shizuka, wrapping her arms around his chest. His friend's shirt was falling apart in threads, and they crumbled into dust. Only the amulet dangled in a ridiculous red spot on his chest, not affected at all. Thank kami, the guy was breathing. Shizuka returned to manipulating the water. Only now did the young swordswoman notice that the water was almost opaque from the radiance of power that filled it. The faint auras of the other ayakashi made their way through the water.

"Eleven. You have saved eleven lives, Blessed One." A Yokai in a white shirt appeared next to him unnoticed. "We are grateful to you and your companion, lady."

"Kashi, stop talking, you know. Take the kids and take cover, I wouldn't be surprised if the hunters are already running here. Such a doomsday has been arranged, kso! kso!"

"Come on, beautiful lady!" Named Kashi picked Yuto up in his arms and carried him, nodding to Rinko. They were walking at a normal speed now. Soon Kuzaki felt some discomfort and almost immediately realized that something was obviously wrong with the shoes. High, heavy lace-up boots "for going out into nature" were thoroughly worn out, and dangled on their feet as if worn out. Fine dust flew from the trousers every now and then, the colors faded. The crazy race and the short fight cost the clothes dearly. What if Yuto hadn't worked on things? Brr, she would have stayed naked!