Web of light. Part 1-7

"First of all, as I understand it, you all would like to get to know the human world better in order to gain some experience, am I right? Great. Then the suggestion is this: thanks to my clan technique, I can make your auras completely undetectable, which Mizuchi and I, who are present here, have already checked. And if you really integrate into the city, then it's better not to live in a park or under a bridge — with the risk of detection by ordinary police or problems with the population: a house or apartments would be better suited, right? The facial expressions of the interlocutors changed from lazily attentive to focused and then naively enthusiastic. I already felt like a politician, once again promising universal happiness from the rostrum, immediately after the elections, of course... until he came across a mocking look from a Hawk-nosed man. However, he remained silent anyway.

"As you probably know, to live in apartments and houses, you need to pay rent to their owners, and it would also be nice to eat normal food and receive other social services. And for that, I suggest you... to work as construction workers or road workers for a while. Qualifications are almost not required there — there is enough strength and desire to work, so you can... Khem!"

Then I naturally fell into a precipitate — after the words "work a little", the already joyful faces lit up with admiring smiles.

"Ah," said one of the Yokai girls from the Devourer's team, "we can play real people! And they'll also give you money for all sorts of goodies!"

The Death Eater forced a smile, spreading his arms, while the Hawk-Nosed Man couldn't help but hold his face with his palm. And completely in vain. Naivety is not something that lasts long in human society. In two months they'll be making fun of themselves. But at least it's clear why these comrades went for Kashi — the infantilism is impressive! Okay, now for the finishing blow.

"Entering the society of people is the task of the next month or two. After about this time, the Tsuchimikado clan will withdraw their fighters from the city police and remove them, and we will take their former territory under our control. That's why you need to get to know people's lives in as much detail as possible."

Huh! And the Japanese and those masquerading as them are also called "narrow-eyed"! Anime and elves are nervously smoking on the sidelines!

Chapter 112

After circling the battlefield for about an hour, Tsuchimikado's agents set fire to the remains of the killed yokai with some kind of technique, joining them with several corpses of scavengers that had not decomposed on the spot, who did not have enough instincts (or were just so hungry) to get away when the police mages approached. After waiting for this entire installation in the "horror" genre to burn out, the flames that were trying to spread to the trees were thoroughly extinguished — and finally dumped.

While Mizuchi carefully watched them from afar, I answered the questions of the yokai hiding in the cave from my squad now. And there were just a lot of questions: from the stupidest to the unexpectedly relevant ones that I hadn't even thought about yet. I answered everything: it doesn't matter if someone doesn't understand the realities of Japanese society yet. It's not so difficult to "drive into" them, especially if you don't immediately try to look like an academic and speak at some kind of debate... although, for example, if something like this happened to a Corpse Eater, I would still think who would "play out" his role better — him or a real academic. After all, an active age combined with an active intellect is a terrible combination in its effectiveness. And surely there are other yokai who have reached great heights in human society: it cannot be that there is no other "perfect" disguise other than the "ferry" one... and you can get it one way or another.

I tried to put into the heads of my now vassals, with all the persuasiveness I could, an understanding of what I expected specifically from them: not blind obedience, not worship, and not service from beginning to end: I needed employees. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say "comrades", but I really hoped that battles like today's senseless massacre would be avoided... and that, if necessary, it will not be "meat" who will fight, but specialists like Mizuchi and Houk-nose. Although I understood that this was a utopia, because if a "wave" of Yokays found out about the departure of the police from the city, a commotion would begin... and we still need to do something about it... and hopefully not in two weeks, anyway.

I specified a period of two months with a margin, given the delay in information about the security situation inside the policy beyond its borders, but then the patrols will have to be assembled "on a live thread," which obviously will not add efficiency... Because even Hiroe has problems with this when there is no specific goal, but an analysis of the situation is required. Things are not so smooth with the "three strongest" either, the infantile Shizuka and the pacifist Kashi are a great example of how a person is suitable for a leader according to the "formula"... yokai can't become one for internal reasons (he just doesn't want to). And when a patient doesn't want to go to the morgue, medicine is powerless...

"They went back to the city, I followed them to the car, you know." It is the Goddess of Rivers who has returned to the cave.

I grimaced inwardly: it's easy to talk, but now I have to work again.

"Gentlemen and ladies! And now, please, choose a set of clothes for yourself to wear in the city, and I will process them. Yes, any of them. No, Mi, an evening dress is great, but it's not what people understand by the term "casual wear," so ask Rinko. Rinko. Rinko! And what does "how cool" mean, she's not going to go to the construction site in it! And there are no fitting rooms here! Okay, okay, I'm going to block another piece of the magic shaft, but don't look at me LIKE that..."

"Hello, Hiroe?" I got out of the cave. "Hi. Yes, the negotiations have already been held, and even successfully, I will tell you everything at home. I didn't call because there was no reception, and they agreed to our terms right away. And that's it! Wait, we'll be there by five or six..."

"Dear Kashi, this passport cannot be used... No, I agree that it's probably not expired, and it's convenient, but... Look at the photo! IT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE IT!" And this is us gutting the warehouse of things in the cave that the Yokai have stolen over the past twenty years, which is pretty smart when you think about it. After making sure that there are no mago police or any of the free exorcists.

There were also curiosities: apparently, the technique of influencing consciousness really "clears the brain", because it cannot be explained by a banal lack of curiosity that things from a box with "valuable objects", as soon as they were removed, were immediately expropriated by Kuzaki and two female spirits who had already sung with her. Well, yes, well, beautiful jewelry... and even a part of it is over a hundred years old (thanks to the Kashi reference book). But that's not a reason to grab them with a happy squeal, put them on and refuse to take them off? The voice of reason, ow!

As a result, apart from the same train in which we were traveling to the city, no one went with us — the contents of the cave suddenly became too valuable: something in terms of money that no one had previously followed, and something increased dramatically in price, having received from me a "ferry" to disguise magic. In addition, when a girl of the same age as my "childhood friends" appears in my house (and not a bit of a lie — I was friends with at least Himari, let the first one to throw a stone at me be the one who says that yokai are not my "childhood friends") it looks completely normal and innocent, but if an adult man shows up with me, and even cooler — a few, they can call the police... Fuck it, fuck it, I've had enough for today.

..After "catching" the evening bus, the three of us took our seats, two facing each other. Rinko unceremoniously took a seat next to me, which Mizuchi was clearly aiming at, and suddenly wrapped her arms around my shoulder and hugged me... A second later, a soft snore was heard! So we were driving: a sleeping swordswoman exhausted from impressions, who killed her first enemy today, a yokai of water, who received from me an incomprehensible "gift" in a dream (but guesses appeared) and your humble servant — with a bruise on half my back, dizzy and full of confusion in my thoughts.

And something tells me that there will be many such "eventful" days now!

Part 23

chapter 114

Naturally, it took us a lot of time to move the yokai squad into the rooms of two dormitories for workers and construction workers, if only because none of us had such an experience, and this social group usually does not write detailed reports on forums. Fortunately, they have foremen, and foremen have senior engineers who are forced to vent their frustration with their subordinates somewhere... Well, why not a blog?

I blamed Hiroe for checking the documents for adequacy: whether their owner was wanted as a missing person or for some other reason (from criminal offenses to non-payment of utility bills), since many women in Japan have high-pitched voices so that a haircut does not stand out when talking. Kaname had to drive around the city a lot, spend several thousand yen in pay phones and use the services of about twenty computer clubs.

Unfortunately, Rinko was completely useless in terms of working with documents or studying information to create an impression of something. It's just that no one prepared her specifically, and it's quite difficult to face this side of the issue with normal parents. But she was the only one of us who was engaged in raising our combat readiness... society? Communities? Fuck it, with the name, let it be "band". So, Rinko raised the combat readiness of the group by raising the combat readiness of herself: I modified the system of turning on/off the magical reinforcement of the musculoskeletal system with a ferry. Yes, yes, ODO, not just the muscles. I was extremely lucky that when I applied the "steam of light" to the Kuzaki, I automatically blinded it in the same way as in hamsters — not by the muscles separately, but affecting both bones and internal organs — as much as the previous "update" made by my parents allowed them to be affected. Fortunately, in irreversible tissues, such a "magic booster" simply "tightens" the structures of bones and tendons, adding strength to them (like reinforcing concrete with iron), otherwise we would not get off with bruises and aching joints. Actually, as I count the number of times we missed the metaphorical "arctic fox" that day, it gets so bad, I won't think about it.

Shizuka was trying to close the last gaps in her education at a rapid pace, and, naturally, these were the remaining most difficult pieces for her, such as ideas about the atomic structure of matter or the features of the structure of the earth's crust: even at the school level, this knowledge was so in conflict with the "naturally formed" ideas over so many years that the snake literally fought to win back I have the opportunity to understand what I have memorized. One day, I even had to give up on business, take Mizuchi to school and open a laboratory with "experimental machines": centrifugal forces, experiments on the speed of falling in a "vacuum" (if you can consider a vacuum of 10 at minus four to be a vacuum), blocks and levers — they killed the whole day, but after that, Yokai there was literally a breakthrough. As she confessed to me in the evening, she even "really managed to believe that our planet is round, and can really be in the void." After this conversation, I seriously bothered to do something about the education of the rest of the yokai from the Amakawa group, because even if a water snake scout has such problems with thinking flexibly, what about the rest?

Speaking of the others. That's exactly what took up most of my time tinkering with them. To begin with, I had to hammer into the heads of the "employees" that protection should always be worn, ALWAYS. Except maybe the shower, which I'll handle in the dorm. I forced them to learn their social roles thoroughly, using printouts from the "diaries" of civil engineers and contractors as material, as well as personal impressions of the two days that Rinko and I spent observing. However, "officially" I was looking for suitable dormitories in the quarters of "jamshut's" and stamped mago-control sensors, but that's another matter.

In general, Father Rinko enlightened me about the "jamshuts" from the Japanese society: it turns out that a significant part of real estate transactions concerns such "working quarters". By the way, the "jamshuts" there are, of course, Japanese themselves — it is very difficult for Gaijin to obtain a residence permit, and illegal immigrants are caught very strictly. Getting Kuzaki Sr. to talk turned out to be quite simple — after all, people like to talk about their favorite job... Well, all I had to do was get the information I needed. Then came the actual "settlement". The hawk-nosed one, accompanied by Rinko's "sister," went to negotiate with the commandant of a "guest house for builders," and I accompanied Kashi. No matter how much I spin the idea of "handymen" in my head, I'm more and more convinced that it was just an epiphany... or the result of watching a bunch of anime, where the hero earns something-important-but-expensive by moonlighting like this: in a yellow helmet, with a shovel, jackhammer, or in the form of a construction supervisor. The oldest earthly principle of the "gang" worked to the fullest in this Japan: if the future workforce does not come by itself, but as part of a brigade, and with a sane "senior" foreman, she is much more welcome. They can even suggest a job right on the spot. In short, everything worked out, the owners of the real estate were dealt with (Kashi was hitting, and I was "studying" as a "younger relative"), and the operation to relocate and move valuables began.

The sorted jewelry (there weren't that many of them) was put in an anonymous safe deposit box, access to which could be obtained by having a key, paying a not-so-expensive rent for 25 years. Naturally, I got one of the keys. The total amount of money collected in several deposits for the members of the "group" amounted to almost three and a half million yen. It's not enough for ten people, but it'll do for rural areas to start with. I also had to participate in the purchase of work sets of clothing, protective helmets and other stuff, such as reflective stripes for night time: despite the fact that the customer had to issue uniforms and protection, for obvious reasons it was necessary to make do with their own uniforms, so hired workers were paid more, but now these things had a chance to be demolished quickly. much less.