Web of light. Part 1.2

"Great!" Kaname was just beaming with "innocence," and Rinko got nervous. What"s wrong again?

"So," the schemer continued, "you keep the house in perfect order? Ha, you"re the real boss here, everything is tidy and in place. And I appreciated the napkins on the windowsills. Show us the house, since you"re keeping order for Yuto-kun."

The snake nodded. Rinko felt that she had been hit. Admitting that she wasn"t the one "keeping the house in order" was beyond her. I had to nod and invite the guests to the second floor after me. Hiroe made a victorious and at the same time slightly disappointed face — Yuto would not have been caught in such a banal two-level divorce. Then she caught an appreciative look from Shizuki and realized that she had an intellectual rival for today. This is Yuto"s room," Rinko said a little irritably. She vindictively began the tour with the bathroom and the toilet and for 10 minutes listened to the praises of "excellent tiles, warm design" and a bunch of other incomprehensible stuff. One thing was good, these two drunken bitches, no matter what, obediently followed her, which meant there was no chance that they would climb into the basement. Although there is nothing "like that"... but it will raise unnecessary questions anyway. Rinko waved her hand around the room and was about to return to the corridor, but it was not there! The girls wandered around the room as if nothing had happened, examining the spines of books and the computer, Hiroe tried the softness of the bed (and shot a provocative glance at Kuzaki), and Shizuka looked at the shelves of the shelf. And naturally, I came across a blue velvet box with a sticker "for Shizuka". Oops! Ayakashi felt herself blushing! Agree, that"s how to discover in someone else"s house that you are not just not forgotten, but also a gift has been prepared! It had been a long, long time since she had had anyone to leave a gift... and at home, where this gift could be found. The Goddess of Rivers fled from any attempt to settle in the house, she had been running for more than two hundred years... maybe in vain. The frozen Ayakashi attracted the attention of Rinko and Hiroe, and both looked over her shoulder.

"A gift?" Kaname asked?

"Yes, for Shizuka. Yuto asked me to give them to Shizuka if she came in his absence. Well, don"t be shy, open up!"

In the box, as expected, there were two folded satin-blue hair ribbons with Chinese tassels at the ends. Hiroe immediately recognized the expensive accessory that Amakawa-kun had asked for advice about almost two months ago. However, the guest has been waiting for a long time! And Shizuka was completely lost, holding the box in her hands. And no amount of long-term experience has helped. "Yuto did well, as he knew exactly what to choose for someone who, in general, does not really need things and personal items," Rinko thought proudly.

"Yuto did well, such a subtle manipulation! I wonder if I guessed it or figured it out? That scoundrel!" Hiroe thought.

"Do you want me to braid your braid?" To bring Mizuchi out of her stupor, Rinko asked, "And Yuto-kun will love that you took advantage of his gift."

"Can I?" — the snake asked in a kind of childish confusion, uncertainly.

"And even necessary! Hiroe, can you help me?"

"No," she smirked sarcastically, running her fingers through her short boyish crew cut. "It"s like I"m from a different camp."

Hiroe was mentally berating herself and her mother in every way! Well, what was it worth to show a child how to make braids? Well, you never know that their hair in the family is so brittle that you can afford a maximum of a short square! It"s necessary to make a mistake on what elementary stuff! However, Kaname didn"t self-flagellate for a long time while Rinko was flying over Ayakashi"s gorgeous hair (and was wildly jealous — she didn"t cut her hair short from a good life either!) with blue ribbons, I walked around the room once more and noticed how the corner of the long bedspread was suspiciously protruding, skirting a rather large rectangular object. "And what does Yuto keep under his bed?— the question struggled for a while with the obvious answer of "playboy selections," but surely everything could be expected from Yuto? Moreover, for some reason, I irrationally wanted to annoy "bosom friends who, in a moment, sang along on the basis of their heartfelt feelings for Yuto-kun." So I"m sorry in advance, Yuto, but if there"s porn, then your girlfriends are close enough to understand and not knock you over the head too much for "perversion". Besides, I have to figure out which figures Amakawa-kun likes the most. What if they"re skinny girls with short hair? One correctly calculated "random" step, and the box, along with its contents, rolls out from under the bed on the smooth floor. Oh, it"s not porn. It"s quite a "Table poker club". We live!

Under the delicious smells from the stove and oven, the trio sat down at a large dining table and laid out cards, chips, and even spread out a green cloth. There was still at least an hour left before the end of classes and Yuto"s arrival, which meant there was time. Rinko finally figured out to text her friend just in case, so that he wouldn"t worry about missed calls and a flashpoint from ayakashi right in the house. Kuzaki laid out and distributed the chips (she was assigned to bank) and looked questioningly at the girls.

"It"s just not interesting to play like that..." Hiroe handed it over, and after examining the chips, she said. "Let"s play for secrets!"

"How"s that?"

"Everything is simple. We play five games. Who has how many chips left at the end of the game — we calculate the minimum value and take the same amount from the rest. Whoever has the remaining chips can buy one secret from an opponent for one black (ten red). We have five black chips each, I suggest we skip the blue ones and play big right away. Just don"t be silent and don"t lie. Do you agree?"

"Hehe",— Hiroe thought, "here you are in my pocket. You"re no match for me in math and mindfulness. And obviously no one taught you how to "keep your face" like me! Everything is clear with Rinko, but I can say the same about Shizuka based on the scene in Yuto"s room. Let"s see what you"re capable of, inhuman girl!"

"Rinko, judging by the reactions, is a fairly honest and straightforward person, he won"t lie unnecessarily. And if he lies, it will mean something."

the snake reasoned and clarified:

"Tell any secret about something, unless you promised not to reveal it to anyone."

"This house, Yuto... I have more and more questions, and his "neighbor" clearly knows more than she"s letting on.", Mizuchi has already discovered that the walls "suck in" magic, subtle flashes of which break out of the collapsed aura, and the magic is consumed nowhere, not even a channel is visible. If the amulet could still be written off as an inheritance, then the artifact house, the very "ideal base" she was looking for in the city, was no longer there.

Rinko shivered slightly, feeling as if the "Ki" was clearly coming from her playing partners, and decided that in any case she had nothing to lose. After all, Yuto-kun warned that perhaps the yokai-water spirit would ask her about him, and Hiroe himself called him "a potential ally with whom sooner or later he would have to have a frank conversation." He allowed Rinko to decide if he had to decide on his own. "If I can"t trust you, I can"t trust anyone at all. Even for myself." These words, which came back to her memory, were filled with warmth in my chest and determination. Rinko might not have Hiroe"s analytical mind or the abilities of Ayakashi Shizuki, but she feels with her heart and the instincts of a tournament fighter that the right moment is coming soon. It hurts to have girls looking at each other and at her with "smart" faces. Great. Let the battle begin!

"I"m raising it."

"Support."

"I"m doubling up!"

"Pass."

If the first game was marked by careful probing, in which Yokai and the schemer literally tore Rinko, who took a careless risk, to shreds, then the "real fun" went on! Kuzaki"s emotions from the game were somewhat distorted by the fact that she would have to "shoot" anyway, it was not for nothing that the snake so confidently supported Kaname, who had outsmarted herself, and therefore, instead of closely following the games, she sat on pins and needles, giving false signals to her opponents. She had no doubt that she would lose, having assessed the class of the participants in the first game, and therefore she took risks, bluffed and mixed up the opponent"s cards in every possible way, not on purpose — and therefore effectively.

Hiroe, who held her poker face perfectly, strained her abilities, trying to keep track of everything, including the card shirts. The problem is that the cards were new and the shirt was exactly the same, but mathematics in poker begins to solve more than the case when the game drags on. The brains of the short-haired girl literally overheated, pulling out limited capacities by nature itself, promising headaches and apathy for tomorrow. He"ll survive!

And Shizuka was surprised to realize that she was losing! The fourth game, and the chips slowly flow over to the meanly calm Hiroe. It is necessary to bring the devil out of balance! Mizuchi lowered her eyelids, unfocusing her eyes into her favorite "drowned woman look," and slightly released her aura, trying to put pressure on her opponents. Of course, it was possible to stupidly "get into the brain," but an honest ayakashi would never do that. By overstepping other rules, you stop being yourself so much that you want to die later. Yes, she"s been through that too.

The demon"s aura captured the figures of the opposing girls with its edges, but instead of slightly disturbing people, it brought the opposite effect — Rinko did not feel anything at all.: "another amulet that doesn"t work properly" the snake stated with longing, but the exact opposite story happened to Hiroe — she suddenly cheered up and even smiled, and magic and auras began to flow two orders of magnitude faster than into Rinko"s amulet. The snake, who could not believe her senses, activated thermal vision and made sure that the brain of the shorn girl, working with a temperature almost half a degree higher than normal, was rapidly returning to normal, absorbing the parasitic manapot of the yokai. Moreover, she confidently started winning! Hiroe"s oddities formed a big picture and gave a clear answer to how a little girl can be so strong. Hastily pulling her aura away from the strange couple, Mizuchi barely managed to win back her last black chip in the fifth game (initially, each had two). So, following the results of a fierce poker battle of five games, Shizuka turned out to be the loser, Kaname stayed with her own and Rinko suddenly turned out to be in the lead. That"s it!

"Well, Rinko-chan, you won, and you should be the first to ask questions. The loser," Hiroe broke the thickening silence after the game and immediately switched hands.

"Er-er-er..." Kuzaki drawled, "Tell me some secret of yours, Shizuka. You are welcome."

"A secret?" Ayakashi narrowed her eyes merrily "It"s easy! I"m not human, you know. I"m actually a spirit, and you call my people Yokai... Isn"t it scary at all?" Mizuchi asked, looking at Rinko"s satisfied face (hooray, Yuto"s plan has worked!) and Hiroe"s delighted, anticipating grin.

"Nah," the short-haired piggy snorted, "You"re actually more human than many of my friends, who are clearly trying to degrade towards monkeys as soon as possible. And, I want to say, it would not hurt to prove your words."

Instead of answering, the Goddess of Rivers casually made a drop of water about the size of a soccer ball roll out of the shell and hung it in front of Kaname"s nose.

"I believe it now!" she whispered in a strangled voice. You can understand as much as you want that you calculated everything correctly, but such a collision with something you don"t believe in is shocking!

"Is that enough?" Mizuchi asked, and Rinko nodded and put one of the black chips aside. "By the way," Shizuka grinned, looking at Kaname"s dipping and pulling brush into the levitating water, and sent a drop back into the sink.: washing pans and dirty knives — since she had to open up anyway, why not help the hostess? "You two are also unusual personalities, I can tell you. Hiroe, you too... mmm... You"re not an ordinary person, and Rinko, you"re a very unusual person. At least this is the first time I"ve seen this rarity on a human." And the snake pointed her finger at her bangs.

"And?!" Hiroe leaned forward.

"Spend a chip, it"s all fair, you know!"

Hiroe and Rinko exchanged glances and simultaneously pulled out a black chip from their piles.

"I"ll start with you, Hiroe-chan. You see, I"ve been wondering who you remind me of: those all-seeing eyes, those grins, the ability to literally read the owner"s personality through things... an overloaded brain and the ability to make variable predictions, which manifested itself when you began to pull my mana. You felt my moves, right? You don"t have one iota of mana in you, but the basic abilities of each clan, which gave them a decisive advantage in the fight against the Yokai, were originally non-magical. So Hiroe Kaname, how far can you trace your family?"

"Before Grandma," Hiroe replied, involuntarily overwhelmed by the "revelation."

"Was your grandmother by any chance an orphan picked up by another family?"

"Where are you from... Oh, I see. And what is my "supposed to be" last name?"

"Ykoin. A clan of hunter-detectives. They have achieved impressive heights in controlling their own consciousness and brain... But don"t get your hopes up. The clan won"t accept you anyway, because, as I said, you don"t have any magic at all. Apparently, your grandmother was the so-called "empty branch" of the family, and she was placed with other children in a clan orphanage. And then... There was a terrible war then... You know. I actually wonder how you can use at least some of your abilities, even without magic, if no one has trained you.

"What about me?" Rinko asked after a pause.

"And you," Yokai grinned, "I managed to get the "Blessing of the Spirits" somewhere. Yes, yes, the hairpin on your head. Only One-eyed Blacksmiths make these, you know, and you have to do a great favor for them to give the hairpin to other spirits. And for Ayakashi to give such a thing to a person... Consider, for all the spirits whose mind has not faded, there is a great pass fixed on your bangs. No one in their right mind would encroach on someone marked with a Blessing, and I won"t even ask why you were given one. Curiosity killed the cat, you know! It is impossible to transfer such a thing, it becomes attached to the owner and stays with him forever... Well, are you going to ask me anything else?