Web of light. Part 2

Plotnikov Sergey — https://author.today/u/SergeyPlotnikov

The web of light 2.

Two and a half years have passed since our compatriot came to a world where mysticism is part of the existing order of things. Finding himself in the place of nine-year-old Yuto-kun, the last "prince" of the Amakawa clan, Alexander Zharov did not want to sit and wait for the "canonical" outcome. Instead, he tried to build his future with his own hands — and something even worked out! The starting team's set is behind, and in front... There are only problems ahead. A natural civil war against the boundless from the spirit world, the protection of civilians from the manifestations of the otherworldly and a showdown with human magicians. Oh, yes — you also need to earn money somehow. But the prize is simply wonderful: you can survive!

Part 1.

Interlude 1. Tokyo, Hinoyonma and dorogumo, Ageha and Kotegawa Tsuchigume

What is happiness? Ageha has just lost her three months' salary and a "bonus" transfer from Amakawa, and that's all FOR her CLOTHES! THERE IS HAPPINESS!!! Uh-huh! I wanted to jump, shout and give kindness and justice to the right and to the left — something like that was probably written on hinoyonma's face, otherwise why would passersby swiftly jump away from a beautiful girl hurrying along the sidewalk of the "City" in Tokyo? No, not everyone reacted in a fairly dense crowd... but still, still. And it's Christmas! Ageha, while hanging out "in Europe" and in America, had learned a lot about understanding "alien" culture, and the word "Christmas" for her was not synonymous with "Winter holiday with gifts." But to do a little good is Christian! But to whom? Oh, the Soup Carry Kokoro Shimokitazawa restaurant. YO, WHAT PRICES! On the other hand, it's Christmas. Maybe she should give these nice people some of her money for food? Maybe she's even worth it?

Hinoyonma rocked a little from heel to toe and back again — her new Gucci winter boots allowed it — and she was about to decide that a check of ten thousand was too fat a gift for chefs she didn't know, when her gaze caught on a familiar hairstyle. Long, silky, shiny slightly wavy hair covered the back of the dining woman in a luxurious wave... but they did not interfere at all with examining the gold bracelet encrusted with small diamonds of an elegant watch. No matter how many years have passed, Kotegawa still has the same excellent taste in jewelry and hair like a silk wave. yokai, who could be called a "friend" almost without internal resistance. Ha, just like custom made! After all, miracles can really happen at Christmas! And the unsuspecting spider-spirit was quietly eating excellent curry (she only eats it here!), thinking about the eternal... and she almost didn't jump when one freaking person covered her eyes with her palms!!!

"Guess who?!"

"Ah-Ageha! Again?! You almost scared me!!!"

"Oh, come on! What can scare you if the annual financial report has already been submitted?"

"Ageha..."

"Come on, come on." Hinoyonma the fashionista plopped down on the next chair next to the accountant girl. "You're free, and you come here."

Without any magic, he dispersed the managers and called the waiter (well, just think, a "golden" VISA is clutched in his hand?) The bloodsucker rattled off the order and began shamelessly examining her counterpart.

"Oh..." dorogumo put down her chopsticks and looked sadly at her neighbor. "You're not going to leave me alone now, are you?"

"It's Christmas today, and I'm determined to give you a good mood!"

"Oh my god..."

[40 minutes later]

"Come on, sit down." The spider opened the door of her Mercedes Benz w221 invitingly. "Tokyo traffic jams are my favorites..."

"Why not Maybach?"

"Buy yourself this coffin!"

"God, God, how much expression!"

"And I was so calm..."

"Why are you worried?"

"A. Let me think about it. Maybe you met someone you know?"

"Yes, acquaintances are such a source of anxiety," Ageha readily agreed.

She made herself comfortable by reclining her chair and pushing it back, and now she was curiously watching the flow of pedestrians and cars from an unusual angle for herself. Kotegawa drove with one hand, occasionally glancing in the rearview mirror. A luxurious silk dress in deep black looked like casual clothes on her, and she was clearly "in place" in the expensive S-class interior. The Weaver of Fate was sometimes called dorogumo by the ancient Japanese, and the yokai with an eight-legged second appearance completely fit into its "specific" niche.

"Did you find me by accident, or do you still have a problem?" Here, inside the moving car, Tsuchigume finally calmed down and stopped looking at Ageha like a wolf.

"No, on the contrary, as you can see." Hinoyonma shrugged slightly, showing off her new clothes. "With money and in a good mood. And you?"

Instead of answering, a newspaper taken out of the glove compartment floated to the spirit's lap. Curved so that the note catches the eye:

"THE FLESH TEARER IN TOKYO!"

And below:

"Five people were found murdered today near the building of the Mitsukoshi Shopping Center! According to the police, the victims were literally torn apart..."

"It's harsh. Are there no witnesses again?"

"No. She doesn't make mistakes, you know."

"Are you still talking about your beastform as if it's not you in it? The psychologist didn't help?"

"No. He decided that a course of retrospective hypnosis should still be conducted, even without the patient's consent. I wanted to help..."

"A psychologist is worse." Hinoyonma shook her head. "They can even go on an anonymous list."

"No, he's still alive... I erased his memory later... SHE also decided that the trail would be too obvious."

"Why are you so sad?"

"He remained paralyzed from the waist down. My poison... you know, the degradation of nerve fibers, if the dose is even a little higher. He also thanked me for calling an ambulance and going to the hospital with him. It's so embarrassing..."

"And what kind of full-board patient are you going to have? The eighth?"

"Seventh..."

"And what didn't you share with them?"

"The wind blew the receipt sheet away from the parking lot..."

"And once again you stumbled into a remote and dark alley just like that! Again?"

"But I wasn't thinking..."

"Forget it, it's fate... I see you're still hanging out with the Chinese brothers' crafts? And wherever you can get it..."

"I'm dragging myself. I'd rather have the "smell" of Chinese magic than the spirit. I offered it to you, too."

"Not for me! I'll never get control like yours in my life! It will still "smell", just not a yokai, but a mixture of yokai and Chinese. Phew!"

"By the way, I see you've solved your problem. I didn't even feel anything until you caught me at the cafe... The bully." The brunette finally smiled — for the first time since the girls boarded the transport. "Will you tell me?"

"Tell. That's why I "caught" you. There is something to offer."

"Has Ageha-the-Free-Wind decided to go into business? My bad example?"

"You fool! I'm here to help you, and are you kidding me?" Ageha showed elongated fangs in a malicious smile.

"Scary, scary!"

"But the apartment is nothing like that. There will be a hundred squares. And almost in the center... Now it's clear why not "Maybach"."

"Ageha, how many times have I told you that the words "social status" are not empty words among people... and not the way to dress in "the most expensive and stylish of the latest collection"!"

"Of course," Hinoyonma snorted and stopped short, "Oh, again, right?"

One of the rooms was completely covered with cobwebs: the panoramic darkened windows were tightly shut to block out light, the walls were covered with silk white canvases, and somewhere in the center of the room, a net woven from thick rope threads hung from wall to wall. Bedroom. And in the corner, on a lovingly twisted mat of the same spider silk, there were six large billiard balls the size of billiard balls. Spider eggs.

"You don't have to look— they're cold." Kotegawa informed from the next room. Anyway, come here... The lifeguard."

Due to the fact that as soon as dorogumo lost control of himself — to be scared, surprised, or simply fall asleep — a transformation immediately followed, and then a violent giant spider arranged for others to doomsday with dismemberment, there was no alcohol on the table. Just tea... and a cake! Hinoyonma smiled, and that's what her friend was all about. A cold, calculating spider... which can be scared by gopnik or a cockroach (minus one apartment). Calculated movements... and the stupid habit of dropping everything. A true professional in the world of finance... completely unable to cook his own food and eating only sweets at home. Ageha accidentally looked into the refrigerator one day, and it was one of the biggest shocks of her life.

"It was a yokai." after a while, the brunette began to tell. "He found me himself. I warned him... apparently, not enough... she held on almost to the end... You can see for yourself."

"Do you want to try it with another spider?"

"I told you about our kind... If he gets stronger, he'll eat me and my balls. It's no use. Everything has been tried. All that remains is to go to the exorcists... Maybe it won't hurt to be killed."

"Are you serious, girlfriend?"

"What about human magicians? We could help— seriously. Yes, yes, I've reached it! So, are you going to wish me a "Merry Christmas"?"

"You know, I think I will. But first I'll tell you a story, I came to Takamiya at the end of autumn..."

...After leaving the spider to settle down to sleep, Hinoyonma went to her hotel. The fact that she was on foot and at night didn't really bother her. And there was a lot to think about. Dorogumo was her last "loyal" contact — in a month, Ageha had managed to run around all the "sane" people she knew and to whom she was going to convey Amakawa's invitation. Someone immediately refused, someone "thought", and many immortal spirits are able to "think" for years... So far, only Tengu had responded to the call, however, bloodsucker had no doubt about the raven. Now Kotegawa had managed to give hope, and knowing Yuto, she was sure that the spider would be helped. If not by washing, then by rolling. And anyway, corporate-level accountants and an A+ class yokai don't lie around on the road! The strongest spirit, even stronger than her, of those whom she knew "by sight." Now you have to catch every little thing... and often it was to catch in the literal sense — the B-class preferred not to mess with Ageha. And talk, talk... again, the quality of the "product" will drop significantly... And Amakawa didn't want to let him down. Such a personnel policy is useless... Okay. At least she would try.

Part 2.

Interlude 2. Scotland. The surroundings of Malcolm Castle. The Malcolm Clan combat training ground. Merukhi and Kues Jinguji, Hamish and Alexander Malcolm

"Get ready!"

The bowl of the "combat range" of the ancient Malcolm family most resembled an ordinary amphitheater, or rather, half of the arena... and any military man would have no problem recognizing the shooting range. A small one.

"Relea-a-se!"

Due to the shape of the polygon, the voice of the "presenter" was reflected and carried around, causing Merukhi Jinguji to wince at the operator's intonation: not so much from a harsh accent or echo, but out of habit. Their own training ground in Japan was set up in much the same way. Meanwhile, two identical figures materialized in the middle of the arena... rather, the figures are caricature likenesses of people, green and pointy-eared, and on the muzzle — ugh! The goblins of Scotland couldn't claim aesthetics from a human point of view. By the way, the Europeans used about the same spatial technique as their Japanese counterparts to "pack" training props: rows of "bottles" stood to the right of the head of the Jinguji, pointing the neck at the center of the amphitheater. Like guns like that. One "bottle" is one spirit. Convenient!

The figures of the spirits, having appeared on the "field", meanwhile, were not going to stand and pretend to be a target — they instantly got their bearings and scattered in different directions... They tried, at least. The left spirit suddenly and without visible special effects flew away in a cloud of smoke-emitting fragments, but the right one, with a high leap and a flip in the air, still escaped from the impact of the fiery arrow.

Malcolm Sr., standing next to Meruhi, snorted faintly. Theory is theory, but his son "failed" the first blow. Goblin, despite the C-class, has one indisputable "advantage": he runs very fast... He demonstrated this to the Malcolm heir by successively dodging an ice arrow and a fireball... and ran into a zipper. There were no beautiful pieces, just a patch of melted soil. Hamish Malcolm shook his head. And the second mistake. Lightning is not a spell for goblin level, it's like hitting a fly with a grenade. And a full-fledged lightning is very demanding on mana — in proportion to the distance, which is typical. Even weak magicians can hit at point-blank range, and "pump up" a channel of forty meters — and quickly! It's even expensive for him, not like for his son, who is breathing heavily.

The younger Jinguji showed no signs of fatigue. And judging by the speed with which she formed the "sword" — a channel-force impact spell, rather than a channel-energy (like lightning) type, she trained precisely for this tactic. That's right: when the "limit" is not tight, use what you can use quickly. The overwhelming aura of power, flickering a little, but so powerful that it completely overshadowed Alex's aura, made it clear better than any words that it was still very, very far before the reserve of the twelve-year-old sorceress "shows the bottom"... much further than Hemish himself and even the elder Jinguji standing next to him. The same goblin, if given the opportunity, would have fled faster than his own scream, as soon as such a wizard appeared on the horizon. It is logical that the "minimal" spell developed by the young sorceress is designed for an entity of a class higher than a pathetic three-piece anthropoid, which is similar to class C in the Jinguji classification, which does not even have brains. Well, we must continue. Hamish nodded to the operator, who was looking at him attentively, and "Get ready!" resounded over the training ground again.

This time, the cameraman brought a water creature into the training arena — the so-called "little nymph". At an equal distance, puddles with a diameter of ten meters suddenly appeared in the middle of the withered winter grass... And the left one exploded into unrestrained flames without a pause! The water boiled and evaporated in the blink of an eye — a furious streak of plasma stretching from the Japanese woman to the opponent made even Alexander Malcolm, who was standing twenty meters to the right, recoil — alas, and then he lost the initiative. But no, he didn't miss it. Having decided to make up for his past mistake, as well as recognizing the "water", the child carefully formed "dead water" around the brushes — a laboratory spell for neutralizing water. However, it has been considered a laboratory weapon for the last three hundred years — and before that it was quite combat-ready, though slow, but the nymph couldn't get out of her puddle anyway. The water in the right puddle rapidly turned black and slowly began to lighten... and Malcolm Sr. mentally counted another mistake for his son. However! No, in urban or even rural conditions, "dead water" was preferable — no visible effects, traces, or destruction... but not for the landfill, where it is necessary to destroy evil spirits for a while!

"What's going to be number three, colleague?" Meruhi smiled tightly, but it was obvious that she was proud of her daughter. And Malcolm decided, showing the operator "two" on his fingers.

"Get ready!"

"One of the minor Shi."

"And that's not too much," Mother Kues suddenly became serious. "Children..."

"One "two" is quite possible for them." The "Scottish Baron" smiled politely.

Once again, two figures appeared on the battlefield: light, flexible, airy silhouettes, and deliberate smoothness of movement. The younger alves. Which immediately proved the advantage of intelligence over brainless strength and speed — a shield of dust and air successfully deflected Alexander's fireball into space, and immediately, taking off, struck... according to the Kues. He tried to hit her. Because the young sorceress, it turns out, was waiting for this: the classic Japanese blow-on-the-counter with the same air and stones literally sawed through the left figure, forcing the victim to expel his last, heart-rending scream from his lungs... very similar to the female one. Malcolm Jr. also made no mistake: an ice arrow pierced the second figure and literally pinned it to the ground: the temperature difference of the ice desublimated from the humid December air was enough to freeze the still-alive Shi to the ground. More precisely, still alive. The "elf" is just over a meter tall and has the proportions of a child: a head larger than a person of that height should have, huge black eyes ... an excellent adaptive appearance that allows these two spirits to successfully survive most meetings with people... and some male magicians.

"Don't kill... please..." The spirit suddenly spoke clearly, causing the boy, who was already ready to throw the second arrow, to lose his way. Exactly one second was how much the wounded target "bought" for itself, and then it, along with the "arrow", exploded into familiar smoking fragments.

"I'm sorry, reflex." Kues, who came up to Alex, who dispelled the spell, even put her hand on his shoulder — the younger Malcolm looked so upset. "I was taught that those creatures that speak should be taken out first. A dangerous opponent, especially for us."

The boy's mood began to improve rapidly — he started talking about something with Merukhi's daughter, but Khamish's discontent only intensified. Damn it! The little witch made a guy by all accounts. Not only that, but also not at the expense of superiority in strength, which is the most insulting thing! The willingness to kill is to kill quickly and efficiently, that's what the Japanese woman demonstrated. The product is, so to speak, a face. Yes, for such a girl, a hundred years ago, a quarrel could have been unleashed from the heels of the Old Families — moreover, the age, so to speak, has already come up. A black warm dress with a long skirt quite clearly indicated the presence of secondary sexual characteristics... and young Malcolm, no, no, and even glanced at these "beautiful hills." Damn, it's not the right time for all this fuss!

The Malcolm family, an old Scottish magical and chivalrous family, has been chronicling the Island since the end of the thirteenth century, when the land was granted to his ancestor as a reward for clearing the surrounding forests. Forests, huh! Fields of heather and rocks are all that remains of the mystical splendor and diversity of Old England... this is if you don't go into reservoirs. And into the swamps. And into the underground tunnels. Yeah, and to the catacombs under London. In short, magicians will not be left without work. Especially considering that there have been no more uncovered "hollow hills" on the territory of Albion in the entire history than the hills themselves... and more and more shelters continued to be found even now. Moreover, the damned creatures even improved their skills, effectively disguised themselves, and showed all the signs of socialization... They almost supported the Irish Resistance! chi-childbirth... And the Redbeards, too...

The "supernatural" situation in good old Britain was slowly but surely heating up — the number of skirmishes and problems grew year by year, the mages from the National Patrol doubled their number — and this is not counting the volunteer Squad deployed from thirty-nine Old Families, the families of noble magicians have not yet forgotten what they swore to their monarchs. And in such a situation, it was not very convenient to get involved with a renegade Japanese clan. It seems that while everyone is fighting, some people are running their own business... moreover, Malcolm had no one but himself to put in the "squad" from the Hemish Family. For the Old Families, the Jinguji clan, which was clearly trying to get into the number of British Families, was considered a bit "not a cake" — just a hundred and fifty years of a half-eyed family, and already there... That's apart from the amount of property and the steady flow of artifacts from the east to the Island and Europe. And artifacts are not just about money. These are the lives of weak magicians and the effective "fencing off" of problem areas and zones. The government of the European Union did not want to hear about any mysticism, only the strengthening of the Vatican and the Church was missing in the local soup with dumplings — oil, gas, Islamists and other entertainment of civilized Europeans. The government's demands were accompanied by financing and preferences — tax and land, but remove this headache as well, and the Jingujis are rapidly getting richer. And the matriarch of this impressive clan has a marriageable daughter growing up... and Alex has also managed to make friends with a witch! Clearly, it is worth indicating your intentions, as the squabble will begin immediately. The alienation status will be lifted from Ji... and stick it to the Malcolms. No, to lay hands on such a treasure as the daughter of the head would be simply wonderful... but they won't understand, sir, especially since marriage with a change of surname and descent is not even considered. And this is again a violation of traditions...

So Hamish "paused" without indicating his position in front of the guest, and she, in turn, without offering anything, took advantage of the opportunity to arrange "screenings" for the young baronet and draw conclusions from what happened at the training ground. There was no doubt that such "courtesy visits" would take place not only with them — after all, Kues was not studying in a vacuum, and she had enough British friends from the Academy. So it will be possible to decide in three or four years... The main thing was not to be late if the heir did decide, because it was clear that Kues and his son were close friends. Both were slightly "turned" on the research of the nature of magic — an analogue of theoretical physics for the mystical field. This subject was puzzling, abstract and philosophical... and it had about the same significance as the fundamental research that marked the beginning of the "atomic" era of mankind. Kues and Alex were both already engaged in science — their childish naive interest in the mysteries of nature was transformed into good scientific researchers, since the work was dusty and very honorable.

Malcolm realized that his son was "caught" when he caught the latter looking at photos of the younger Jinguji: during the filming, they made a whole bunch of them, and during the year the students actively "clicked" each other and posted on all kinds of Facebook. I even had to specifically raise the firewall in the school network and turn on the forwarding on the nearest cellular repeaters, otherwise especially advanced kids, having created the first "lamp" in their lives, tried to immediately post a photo online and brag. Children... They're the only problem. But there is nowhere without children. If only Bella were with him... They wouldn't stop at one child! And Merukhi has an amazing figure. For forty-year-olds. And you can't tell that she's over twenty-five. I just want to offer to spend the night in the castle... But you can't. Damn traditions and damn long ears are always ready...

"What a stylish place you have here!" Kues looked around with interest, trying to cheer up her friend who had slipped back into melancholy with funny comments. Dad had already conducted a light debriefing with him, and the results turned out to be much less comforting for the young heir to the barony. And a girlfriend, too... Kues... She showed such a clear class that it's a shame to look into her eyes!

"Hey, can you hear me?" the girl waved her palm in front of the guy's face and brought her face closer. "I'm saying, stop worrying about nonsense."

Alex's cheeks turned pink — the girl handled her personal space quite freely, and if she was in a hurry, she could grab her hand if a friend "slowed down". Nothing like that, just a temperament. But it feels good!

"I'm not w-worried." he tried to deny it, but it didn't do much good — Jinguji didn't believe him. Which she demonstrated by making a skeptical face.

"Boys! You're always causing problems. Well, they didn't train you like they did me, so why worry?.. Oh, well. What you won't do for friendship. Let's organize our "Squad" after the holidays!"

"How's that? The squad is already quite there."

"You freaks! Not from adults— but from children! We have a lot of goonies who would just like to fight, and if you offer them the idea of learning how to defend themselves, it's the right way!"

"Actually, they don't teach combat magic at the Academy..." Alex drawled, trying to remember if there was a ban on "combat" training.

"They don't teach... They stopped after World War II." Kues demonstrated commendable elaboration of the issue. "And dueling is prohibited, as well as fighting. But no one forbids you to create a circle and train yourself. And there are even halls with protection and a shooting range. At the same time, let's see what all the "Papuans" have learned in their Pampas!"

"That's how they'll show it... and they don't know a damn thing."

"They know something. And knowledge doesn't lie around on the road. And in six months you will please your father! At least I'll fix your reaction problem" the Princess has given her word!

Kues puffed out her cheeks comically and looked "proudly" at the younger Malcolm. Well, he could only agree. Moreover, this way they can be together for a little more time. There was a sweet ache in the pit of the guy's stomach...

..And Kues, staring out the window, was no longer smiling. The mother came to Albion instead of taking her daughter to Japan. And she also clearly hinted that the girl should think about European holidays. What's going on back home? She didn't even ask about Amakawa, as she had noticed last time that her parent was quite annoyed by this topic. Yu-kun, how is he? Goes to a regular school, does her own childish things and doesn't know about any magic? Is this really life?

Well, if nothing can be done, you'll have to put your worries out of your head and learn. Be strong. To kill the spirits. Don't turn your back on the enemy. Mom will be proud of her daughter!

"Malcolm! You boasted that you had Druid texts in your library!"

Admiring the girl standing by the window in the slanting, rare winter sunlight falling from the window, he could not immediately return to reality.

"And he didn't brag about anything! They are there. And you can even watch it before lunch! Let's go!"

Part 3.

Kuzaki's family had to arrange with Rinko's aunt to send a minibus to pick us up in order to transport all their daughter's friends. Since there was a minibus at the springs not just for beauty, but to carry people, and now is the season, we left inconveniently, at one o'clock in the morning. The driver wasn't particularly happy either, but he was friendly. However, the degree of happiness increased dramatically when we put Kaya in the front seat. Not just out of the goodness of my heart and to distract the driver, but in order to look carefully at the sides in the headlights — you never know, she will remember a familiar slope or find out something else. In general, while the guy was talking, squinting in the direction of the brownie, thoroughly retelling the principles of the internal combustion engine (zashiki-varashi was really interesting), we settled in the bus cabin wonderfully and with full dedication... They staged a poker battle! Well, what about it? You also need to rest sometime. We also invited Rinko's parents, but seeing me being torn to shreds by these furies, they decided to knock out the weakest player first, refused under a plausible pretext and dozed off in chairs all the way. I don't think you'll be surprised if I tell you that I was left without a single chip in just an hour? Then the girls looked at each other, moved their heads together and, after whispering about something, staged a card fight among themselves — it seems that the dispute was again revolving around the "checksum" of the chips. Heh, it's just been half a year since that birthday party story... but it seems like three years! It's amazing how compactly the "event feed" can fit in such a short period of time as a year. It hasn't even been a year since Rinko and I met Hiroe... what can we say about the fact that two Yokai are traveling with us, and we don't feel a bit surprised. However, the fact that Rinko's "friends" are not just people, except for us, no one in the car knows... otherwise, I don't know if Kuzaki's ancestors could have slept so sweetly, leaning back in the back seats, hehe. On the other hand, I seem to have already become quite imbued with the "Amakawa ideology" and habitually consider my two companions not as "potentially dangerous non-humans", but as "intelligent with enhanced capabilities". A kind of "living weapon" that looks like cute girls in a peaceful life. And no psychological discomfort! In general, if we divide the degree of danger, then the first place is generally for Hiroe. Our "director of analytics" possessed truly terrible weapons — brains and the appropriate skills! The ability to understand and analyze a person's actions, the ability to make predictions based on a built model with a high degree of reliability and in given circumstances. Besides, manipulating people, and now, by the way, not only them, which she is not shy about.

In general, in many books, and in manga, the line is often drawn that the Main Character suffers from his weakness if he is physically protected by strong comrades... And he suffers especially much if he is protected by women. Well, I don't know. In my opinion, it's better for the same Shizuka to go into battle, knowing that at the right moment the snipers covering her will not run out of bullets and batteries and that there is a base behind her where she can and wants to return. It's better than me admiring others by personally blowing enemies to smithereens, not caring about the rear and security. Perhaps that's the whole point — it's difficult to perceive a set of personal characteristics of an intelligent being as a strength or weakness. Actually, it's kind of a stupid tendency to talk about "power." The criterion is benefit! And speaking of benefits, taking into account the interests of all stakeholders within my sprawling vassal team could become a problem in the near future — it is necessary to provide conditions for everyone and find compromise solutions in case of conflicts (or objectively take the right side), and I cannot bow out. That is, I can, if according to the manga, Yuto uses clones in battle (oh Kami, it was necessary to send a contact fighter against the Kyubi flamethrower shooter!), but I doubt the ability of "clones" to transmit information like the "shadow cheat" from Naruto... In short, I need to find a HR specialist, or better yet, lay the foundation for a team, and I had the right person in mind who could pick such a team for me. Or recommend it.

That person is Hiroe's mother, Aya Kaname. After Shizuka slammed the arrogant Baku, she "overlaid" her daughter specifically — she just listed all the oddities of her daughter's friends' company, some indirect observations and conclusions. The conclusion "there's some kind of mysticism here" was obvious. Well, we somehow had no doubt that it would come to this. However, I insisted that I would conduct a demonstration of my capabilities and negotiations in person — and immediately after the new year according to the European calendar. Why? I needed a closed job on the "Water Resource Trust" — in fact, the only "product" that I could "show my face." Once you decide to recruit investors, you need to do it properly... and strengthening the "political prestige" of the Kaname family. For a partner to be a good partner, you must be a useful partner to them. I don't think Aya herself would agree to become an employee, but I was hoping to get a recommendation for a person who can be brought up to date (and it's hardly possible to work with spirits without imagining their real capabilities) so that they would remain loyal and willing to work... All right! That's it! Stop "loading up"! We're going on vacation, and as "light board games" we're looking for the Amakawa base. I looked around — the darkness outside the windows with the occasional lights of cars passing towards me did not seem interesting to me, and, settling myself comfortably, I dozed off...

The car rocked when the driver braked, and I was thrown out of the dream. A dream where I'm in besieged Takamiya, leading the defense against British tanks for some reason, and Shizuka helps me, who dyed her hair red and has a pretty feminine figure. I also remember Ageha instructing human fighters, urging them to shout "Blood for Hinoyonma!" every time they hit an enemy soldier. Cami! I'll dream about it, I'll dream about it! I thought about politics at night, it's called...

I got out of the car and almost suffocated from the frosty-fresh smells of the morning mountain twilight... and a very specific one — thermal mineral water from the hotel. A ghostly haze of vapors from outdoor baths floated in the air behind the building, and through glasses, this slightly surreal picture was complemented by lights scurrying back and forth— fireflies of E-class spirits. Yes, Rinko told me... But fuck, you can't imagine it until you see it for yourself! By the way, my "ferry" camera comes with a set in the quadra I brought with me — it will be possible to shoot a video! And also to see where these natural-born spirits specifically come from. The rest promised to be interesting!

Part 4.

2.

In general, it is customary to be naked in a Japanese hot spring... but we didn't check what would happen to Rinko's parents when they saw us in the pool together and without clothes... and so I was asked five times in different ways if I was bored in a female company. Oh, yes! As if they'd let me get bored!

We celebrated Rinko's birthday according to plan: only gifts that can be shown to parents. So the katana I picked up for my girlfriend (Tengu, thank you! Even though you grumbled that a woman should be given a naginata... or a rolling pin.) He's waiting for her at my place. But Hiroe handed over the gift certificate of the fashion boutique right away: then you had to see the face of Kuzaki's mother, who, apparently, really wanted to ask her daughter not to forget to take her with her. But Tsukiro courageously restrained herself! But Kai's gift impressed both me and Shizuku. No, outwardly they were the most ordinary "combat gloves" — fingerless, made of thick skin, probably of a shark or a stingray — I don't understand. On the knuckles there is reinforcement in the form of a metal strip peeking out from under the leather patch with round rivets. But! The gloves were covered with "Steam" — an intricate, very clearly ordered pattern of elements, flowing in lines from the edges of the fingers and palm to a metal amplifier. Busy, busy, busy! Then I noticed Shizuka, who was also looking at the gift, with a long, very intent look.

"Jibashiri's combat gloves, you know." Without waiting for a question, the Goddess of Rivers came up to me and softly commented on what she saw almost in my ear. "I got a good look at them... then... and then, too."

Even better! The Jibashiri are the guys who massacred the Mizuchi family in the temple by the lake. And the ferry is an unfamiliar one. I've already seen enough of my grandfather's and father's creations to be able to tell them apart right away.

"Kaya, can you tell me how you got these mittens?" I asked Yokai as calmly as possible. If it's from the clan's artifact warehouse, then someone is waiting for a lecture on "don't squander your neighbor's goods." And Do that, too.

"I took them from the pantry" naive zashiki-varashi didn't even understand anything and answered quite calmly. "We keep damaged things there that are not suitable, but it's a pity to throw them away. I've been looking into it... There was nothing to do, I burned the completely rotten and scattered garbage and took some things to restore. Look how sheathed is the skin of a young stingray!"

"Cool! You're such a needlewoman!" I have a definite opinion about the contents of that "storage room"... Grandpa, damn it! Was it difficult to explain to your own brownie? Taking Kaya by the elbow, I led her away from the group of girls.

"Just please show me later what else you've been redoing, just in case. You see, this battle trophy is probably my great-grandfather's..." at this point, yokai gave a strangled squeak and twitched — the brownie realized what she had given and to whom without my permission. "...It is also an amulet. Judging by the unfamiliar "handwriting", it was the great-grandfather who did it."

"But I... looked at their magic..." it was a pity to look at Kaya — she was about to cry. "and she tried to let me in, just like your grandfather taught her, but nothing happened. I thought it was just a thing!"

"Calmly. Don't worry! Rinko is our woman, she can... but then sort out the things from that "storeroom" and have her send them to me before — I really don't want to get any more surprises. And now let's go to the birthday girl — nothing irreparable happened..."

Damn it! The scene is like something out of a King novel. I inherited an old house in a secluded place from my grandfather, which means that there are definitely dozens of skeletons in the cupboards! I should have personally poked my head into all the rooms... Okay, bullshit, now we need to carefully figure out what kind Kaya slipped Rinko.

I managed to take one glove away from the hero of the occasion quickly enough, and I concentrated and put mana into the object. Literally a microscopic portion... And nothing. The object, as befits an object, not an amulet, did not hold the magic, but evenly dispersed it. Uh, what? Then why the Ferry, excuse me? After playing around for a couple more minutes under the interested gazes of snake and Hiroe, the gift had to be returned. The item was definitely not an amulet... but the embedded "Light" definitely had some other function than strengthening. M-yes. But we'll have to figure it out...

In the meantime, having dealt with the congratulations, we went to fulfill our obligations.: The hotel needed hands, and we needed to put them in. Kaya and Mizuchi were seconded to the kitchen, Rinko habitually went to work with the arrivals, and I found Kaname five seconds later next to the business owner — it looks like the girl decided to conduct an unscheduled audit of the hotel. Well, then I also have a lot to put my analytical mind and honed intelligence into... to carry the boxes, for example! Then wash the floors. Then I had to peel a hefty bowl of potatoes (though in the company of a brownie, and I can honestly say that she did it much faster). Hanging clothes from a stool has not bypassed me either, because the growth is still childish. Well, what about it? A basket with towels or sheets weighs more than a box, and the "drying room" occupied a huge canopy behind one of the buildings — the specifics of hot springs, again...

In general, when we went into the spring ourselves — I was in swimming trunks, and the girls were in swimsuits, I felt a decent ache in my muscles and a pleasant emptiness in my head. No conflict resolution between youkai who managed to quarrel right in the middle of the patrol, no tasks like "create a workable amulet in 12 days, otherwise it's a mess", you don't even have to torture hamsters! In fact, Kashi, who was left "on the farm," called me, but rather to notify me that everything was in order than to really ask for something extra valuable. Although I got the impression that the spirit was just plain worried about letting me and Shizuka out of sight. It's a strange feeling to have someone worried about you... Well, I wouldn't call a Corpse Eater an "outsider". An employee? A comrade? I would not treat Rinko's excitement as something unusual, after all, we have been friends for more than four years, and for the last two and a half years she has actually replaced my whole family... Another thing is that "there" I got used to being almost a loner — I couldn't achieve permanent relationships for a long time, my parents lived on the other side of Moscow, and the scientific director and the people from the department... No, we used to drink together, and the next day we suffered from a hangover, but I wouldn't call them close people. And Kashi has only known me for six months. It's an interesting topic, I'll need to think about it at my leisure: I reached for my cell phone and cursed to myself — the handset was left "on the shore."

We got a fairly large swimming pool for dinner — about twenty meters in diameter, with a maze of stone back walls closer to the shore and a free zone in the center. A floating table is a great thing. Cold lemonade inside when there's forty degrees of water around — it's divine! No, there are hot pools too — we chose the "coldest" one for soaking. It's hard to sit in very hot water for a long time. For the first half hour, we were accompanied by adults, but after half an hour we remained only our circle. And correctly. No, I'm interested in listening to table conversations about modern Japanese politics, problems, and discussing all those aspects of life that I haven't come into contact with yet, like restoring car rights or pension payments... but not at a children's party! However, I got the distinct impression that the girl's parents and the small hotel staff, who had become almost a family to Aunt Kuzaki for so many years, did not go to sleep, but even "drink sake, wallow in water" — there were enough baths, and the visitors from them had already been dispersed. After making sure that the adults were not up to us, we took out Hiroe's hidden liqueur — cherry and something else — poured ourselves a small glass and indulged in hedonism. I mean, we were up to our necks, with a towel on our heads, staring at the stars, sipping delicious food with a small degree, exchanging words — in general, I haven't been able to have such a cool time since I got there! ..And in the morning — back to work! Having intellectually diversified the carrying of crates and peeling vegetables by raking lawns — the snow meanly left the flat terrace in the mountains, where the thermal groundwater went out, and in general it was plus five — I was released before dark and went to wander around the hotel grounds with a camera — I was interested in the crooked mountain pines and the opportunity to get my legitimate break — after all They're pulling the staff for nothing. For about twenty minutes, I caught the lens of an expensive DSLR that Hiroe had given me (so that if I took photos, I would take normal ones!) all kinds of squirrels, birds, like chickadees and pincers (fuck knows who they really are, maybe even canaries... No, canaries are in China... although, on the other hand, China is not far away), I looked at the flickering of disembodied trifles born in these mountains, and then I wandered to the natural reservoir located outside the hotel. Immediately, however, I doubted that the reservoir was really natural — and immediately remembered that the clan's possessions also began somewhere literally here.

The stone one... A pond? Let there be a pond — it was filled with hot water. Steam stood in the cold air in a dense clot, and there was a smell of some kind of salts... and the water in the pond was a single conglomerate of the Ferry's light lines. In balance, an oscillating clot of enchanted water with a volume of more than a hundred cubic meters. The "ferry" was not empty — the water clearly contained mana and somehow structured it. Having discovered a path and a ladder into the water, which was obviously used from time to time, I risked dipping my finger into the water... pinkie... on the left hand... and then the whole arm up to the elbow. Bliss! The water gently massaged the skin, removing fatigue from the overworked limb in a few seconds and giving it a feeling of vivacity and a feeling of long rest! Everything is clear — I saw a pond next to the house in Noihara, "lined up" in a similar way — the line drawings were about the same. I quickly undressed — fortunately, the uniform at the hotel at the springs was a yukata, that is, in fact, a bathrobe, only warm, I slipped into the water. Ah-h! Indescribable bliss! Five minutes turned out to be enough for me to fully restore the feeling of early morning — when I manage to get enough sleep and then get a good workout! And why doesn't anyone use the pool? Flying out of the water and pulling on clothes and shoes at a fast pace, enjoying the unfamiliar cheerfulness, I almost ran along the shore of the spring... and after a while I came across what I was looking for. A vertical row of light lines and collinear rings stretched through the thickness of the stone, about two meters deep. It was precisely such pipelines that I used for my signal network — only here it was not empty. Faintly, faintly, mana flowed through him from... I followed with my eyes the path of lines running down the slope of the hill... from somewhere higher up the hill. I "saw" the light lines for a hundred to a hundred and fifty meters. Well, I didn't have to walk in the mountains either. We need to arrange for us to be allowed to go for a walk together tomorrow in the middle of the day — the days are short, and in the mountains in winter the darkness is scarier than wild animals (which are not here) and yokai. It's time to dig up another skeleton in the ancestral inheritance!

Part 5.

3.

What is encouraging is that it is not so easy to lay a Ferry-based manaprovod — it requires direct contact with the surface with at least some kind of limb. The maximum I could personally cover a perimeter of five meters was when I assisted Shizuka in the treatment of the Kashi group. After that, I fainted ingloriously, although I also had mano exhaustion... The fact is, following the line of force, we could reach its source relatively easily, especially since I didn't need to track a faint trickle of mana — I was guided by a clearly visible "Ferry". Every time I "see" a projection of lines inside a solid opaque object, like a wall or the ground, I get the feeling that I'm seeing through the object, but this feeling is false. Apparently, my eyes somehow "recalculate" my sense of the world into a "picture.".. Yeah, it sounds like nonsense. Moreover, by applying "ferry vision" to myself, I put my hand to my eyes. Self-deception? Aw, whatever. Now there is a more interesting task. In the sense that it is necessary to find where, more precisely, from where, the manaprovod leads and what feeds it. Kipling has a boring rhyme with a recitative, "we are walking through Africa." But we're walking along the e... no, no, the Russian landscape subject starting with "e" is still more severe. Well, the undergrowth. Well, it's wet in places. The ground sometimes slips underfoot — but nothing supernatural. I mean, the supernatural is flying around (or floating?), but not very active. By the way, it is also clearly decreasing in quantity. The landscape seems monotonous to the girls, I think because we are silent. Still, stomping up the slope, which is from ten to twenty degrees, is still a pleasure. Moreover, only I, Shizuka and Rinko feel cheerful — Kaya and Hiroe are trailing behind. Moreover, I'm from "cheating": I lay in the "ferry" bath — and I'm ready to move mountains! It's a useful thing, however, how regular use affects your health is anyone's guess. The girls and yokai got into the pool after me — and lasted about a minute the first — and about three minutes the second. "Prickly water," well, well.

Oh, yes, I was talking about the landscape — well, it couldn't seem monotonous to me: ferry lines dissected the mountainside singly and in patterns in different directions. Including at a depth of a couple of meters. By the way, if you see the rare "descents" — the points from which the technique was applied — then my father had an amazing impact radius. Maybe twenty-five meters? Training or innate? Or is there just a secret? Again, with my nose in my own inability, it doesn't even hurt anymore... SO, WHAT'S THIS?!

"This" turned out to be a protruding "step" about one and a half meters high, with an uneven cornice tracing the slope of the hill to the right and to the left. It was possible to move... It would have been possible if Dad hadn't drawn hieroglyphs directly on the stone with a Ferry. "IT'S DANGEROUS! THE PROTECTION SYSTEM IS WORKING! THE PASSAGE IS ON THE RIGHT!" The inscription was repeated along the barrier every twenty meters. However! It's a great way to store information — no one except genome carriers who can make "eyes" will be able to read it. And my dad was quite a pedant... or was he afraid that Grandfather would get inside without permission? Actually, this territory in the mountains was acquired by my father, with his name on the deed. In any case, he could only leave a message to his grandfather or me...

"What are we standing for, who are we waiting for?" the couple from the haircut and the brownie had caught up with our leading three and were now trying to figure out what kind of revelations I had read in the blank stone wall. Are we climbing further? The mana comes from there.

"No, we're bypassing it. There's a warning here."

"Where?"

"No one else will see it. By the way, Kaya. Don't you see anything familiar?"

yokai shook her head: her protective amulet was left in the hotel — in a "blinded" state of protection, she would not have seen anything "like that" anyway, she might not even visually recognize the place — yokai's perception, like humans, is complex. It can be difficult to recognize a place you've personally seen for a long time from a black-and-white photograph...

The protection system... It would be interesting to see her. Turn it off. Or better yet, diagrams and drawings. Even if I'm right, the three-dimensional Ferry lines for each user are probably visible in their own way... that's why daddy painted over the area (or rather, the volume) in the stone with lines — it's clearly visible from afar, but the inscription blurs up close. So, even if I'm right, you still need to draw a flowchart of the logic of this system — there are too many elements, even if they are all a "black box". We walk along the rocky ledge-fence. I was already beginning to think that this was a trace of some kind of magical technique, specially carried out to cut off the top of the mountain from possible curious "tourists" or competitors who looked "at the light" in the absence of the owners.

For long or short... Ugh, damn it! Anyway, after another hour of walking around the mountain counterclockwise, we finally arrived. Visually, the place was no different from what was left behind us, and, apparently, the rest was the same, only with the inscription "Here are the hades, here are the hades, right?" I'm sorry, it's my stupid sarcasm again. Because the terrain was different after all. The ferry covered a decent area in a complex pattern, and the inscriptions in the stone under the soil were the most peaceful: "RECREATION AREA", "CARGO TERMINAL" and "TERMINAL A." Apparently, there was also a "terminal B" nearby — only the mountainside in this place was destroyed two meters deep, the trees did not grow, only bushes like hazel trees grew out, slightly masking this area. And the bark on the trees is all around...

"There was a fire here." Shizuka picked at the bark with her finger and sniffed. "About ten years ago."

"Have you come?" Rinko asked me uncertainly, coming out from behind me. "Here?"

"No, here. I pointed to the center of a multipath star in a circle visible only to me. Get up here. Girls, you too."

"There is a monolithic stone below us..." Kaya drawled a little uncertainly. "And I... nothing like that at all..."

Only Hiroe, with the air of a seasoned tracker, looked around, at my direction, also located inside Terminal A.

"And what now? "Say 'friend' and come in"?" Kanami had the same idea as me. The allusion is obvious. One problem is that I didn't see any cracks in the nearby wall ahead... and anyway, there aren't even any inscriptions there — an empty dark stone, in some places covered with withered vines of wild grapes. Probably grapes.

"Terminal-terminal, do you accept cash?". And in what sense is "terminal"? No, it is clear that the "cargo terminal" implies the shipment of goods. It is logical that Terminal A should send people. The problem is that there is not a drop of magic in the whole system. Either that's how it should be (because it's a disguise), or the system is "de-energized" after something happened here. One thing pleases — it was a long time ago... However, the external recharge of the Amakawa bathhouse tells us that some part of the systems is at least working... Well, that's interesting!

In the relatively central part of the zvezda terminal, there was an area almost free of the Ferry. And in it, only the silhouette of a human arm, elbow-deep, was filled in with lines. Got the hint, Dad! Come on... I squatted down first, then on all fours. I thought about it. He took off his jacket, then rolled up his shirt sleeve. And he put it on the damp, cold ground. And... nothing? When the second minute of my stay in this world began in the butt-off position, the girls around me, who had been watching all this "sacrament" almost without breathing, "it's obvious that the shaman is doing terrible witchcraft," now began to show signs... so to speak, "some distrust."

"Yuto, please tell me, are you sure this will work?" Hiroe formulated the question as correctly as possible, exchanging glances with the others.

"I think so. It has an intuitive interface."

"Perhaps you need to perform another intuitive action?" Rinko muttered behind my back. "Otherwise, it's completely understandable to me. Intuitive!"

What does she mean by that? Not what I thought, I hope?!

"Rinko!"

I didn't have time to finish. It must have been beautiful-a flying blue wave of ever-thickening magic-and flying, characteristically, from all directions. The problem is that this wave "appeared" for me at forty meters, which is the limit for glasses, and I managed to get scared, but I couldn't do anything anymore. The obediently extended time only gave me the opportunity to meet the magic blow without standing on all fours...

..It's as if the world itself has been punched in the jaw, and it falls, turning over in the air...

...The stunner in my hand was looking at a concrete wall, a semicircle enclosing a flat concrete area with the inscription — this time... more precisely, on this side, it's quite ordinary red paint. "TERMINAL A". The fact that we were somewhere not where we were just a moment ago screamed about itself — the sky was a rich BLUE color, like the sea poured out somewhere there, from above. Against the background of the sky, one could see some regular structures — either a dome or a network with very large cells.

"We've arrived," I stated the obvious, changing my position to a more relaxed one. It looks like we're where we wanted to go. Welcome to the Amakawa base, or something.

"...You know." Mizuchi absorbed the excess water, restoring her disguise. "Impressive."

Rinko, who also managed to grab a stunner, looked around in disbelief — it seemed that the color of the sky caused her particular distrust.

"Where are we?"

"This is a separate space, something like a "Mystical House,"" the snake beat me to it.

"Kaya?" I went up to the frozen brownie, staring steadily at the sky. "Kaya! Do you recognize anything?"

"I remember a sky like that... I've seen him before..." Zashiki-varashi looked confused and scared "I..."

Damn it! A meaningful expression appeared in Kaya's eyes only after I put my arm around her shoulders and hugged her to me. After that, the brownie stopped whispering and just kept close to my back all the time, despite the fact that she couldn't remember what was scaring her about "these blue skies." Rinko and Hiroe were also quite uneasy — Shizuka alone looked almost calm.

"It's a strange smell, you know." She commented as I headed for the right of the two staircases, with concrete steps rising up and away from the terminal area. There was no concreting behind the transport area, and there was a rocky slope rising without a single blade of grass. Apparently, the site is on some kind of hill — and, apparently, I specifically underestimated my ancestors, expecting to see a house hidden in the "hidden", well, at most, an estate. And not a hefty piece of reality — the dome structures were more than twenty meters away. What is the whole zone of the "hidden"? However, I saw the answer when I came out from behind the concrete monolith that covered Terminal A. It was indeed located on a slope, but not mountains, but depressions — about thirty meters from the conventional plane of the bottom — the "floor" of the base... laboratories? Spatial technology? Whatever it is...

...At first, the brain refused to accept the picture of a gigantic stone bowl under the dome — it was at least three or four kilometers to the opposite end of the "Mystical House". In some places, greenery was visible, and water glistened... strange stone structures of unknown purpose... straight arrows of roads that once connected the center of the "base" and the surrounding area... black shiny areas, some kind of metal structures... then my eyes caught on a green-gray, recognizable silhouette... a tank, and everything fell into place.

Once upon a time, the Amakawa Laboratory was a real village — with a fairly regular layout, several rings of two— and three-story houses, green lawns and some metal structures — perhaps they were banal metal containers or quick-assembly structures, or maybe some kind of equipment located directly under the open sky. I doubt it will rain inside the hidden one. And then in the center of this village... Something happened. Flame... Rather, even the plasma that had melted the stone radiated out in uneven lines around it, leaving streaks of continuous destruction — from here, from above, it was especially noticeable. And it wasn't an explosion-it was something like shelling. Of the buildings that received direct hits, only concrete fragments and charred foundations remained. Looking back at the concrete wall in front of the terminal, I realized that it had played the role of a shield: three plasma spits, one after the other, bit into and partially shattered, partially melted a thick monolith of artificial stone, but did not go through half the thickness. Oh my God, what was going on here?

A staircase along the slope (the same one was on the opposite side of the concrete protection of the terminal) descended in wide steps to "ground level", then continued with a wide concrete strip of road, a straight thread that once rested on the now-destroyed center of the "settlement". What was there? From the height of our position, only shapeless fragments were visible— and a crater, a funnel. Or maybe it was just a hole in the place of a sagging basement — an explosion that left such a crater would have demolished all the buildings in the village — and there would have been no need to shell them... Whoever was shooting with whatever. Another virtual "brain click" — and I realized that the uneven spots of different colors scattered here and there were what was left of the residents and defenders of the territory. There were definitely defenders — the tank, which turned the turret with its cannon to the center, hinted at this very well. By the way, the car looked completely intact in this chaos of destruction.

"We need to go down and look around a bit." my voice seemed strange to me — hoarse croaking words broke the silence of the eternal peace of this place. It looks like there's no one to ask, we'll have to figure it out ourselves. The girls, who had been staring at the panorama in fascination, apparently, like me at the beginning, unable to comprehend what they saw, twitched. Now all four of them, despite their different ages, life experiences, views, and intelligence, looked exactly the same. It's just that the frightened women, unlike me, immediately felt the terrible "aura" of this place.

"M-can we just go back?" Rinko stared at her feet, unable to look up at me. "It doesn't feel right here..."

Kaya nodded quickly — she also wanted to "go back and forget everything as soon as possible" — you don't need to be an empath to read it on her face. But Hiroe raised her head, clenched her fists, and I saw grim determination in her eyes.

"Amakawa is right. We should at least try to find out what happened here. And we must not let him go alone."

Shizuka just came over and stood next to me, her lips pursed into a tight line, revealing her feelings. Lips — and bursting flashes of aura that could not be extinguished by amulet clothes. I defiantly took out my mobile phone, noting the expected "no network", and pressed the backlight...

"It's one o'clock in the afternoon. It gets dark at four. We have an hour and a half for everything. We walk for forty-five minutes to the center of the "Mystical House", then turn back. Don't put your weapon away. And we don't split up — you never know what. It seems that magic cannot be used to enter here — only a carrier of the Amakawa genes can trigger the "terminal" mechanism. Let's go. Let's not waste any time...

And we went. The vast territory under the dome of spatial technology did not give the effect of oppressive silence — but there was no wind either. Even lighting is like in the middle of a cloudy day that we left "on the surface", tasteless air and silence, broken only by our footsteps. Grass grew on the lawns in some places — smooth, as if trimmed, there were even natural flower beds: it was noticeable that those who lived here settled down seriously and for a long time. By the way, there must be another terminal — otherwise it's hard to imagine how so much concrete and iron were dragged through the mountainside in the middle of the forest. This one looks more like a back door... or an emergency exit, if you like. And then we got to the outer ring of buildings — and the first "corpses" began.

It was creepy: clothes lying without a body. Not removed, but fallen down so that it was clear: the body was there — and it dispersed, evaporated, disappeared without changing its position. Only Mizuchi and I ventured to the first pile of rags — the others were huddled in a pile about three meters away — even Hiroe, who for the first time in my memory was denied impeccable self-control. An ordinary twelve-year-old girl... Unfortunately, I couldn't afford to say something like "don't look, this won't happen to you" to Rinko and Kaname. Since we have agreed to play with open cards, we must be honest to the end. In particular, in order not to repeat the fate of the dead Yokai. I have almost no doubt whose grave the "hidden" of the Amakawa clan has become. "Under unknown circumstances, the vassals of the clan dropped out-and the list. Sixty-nine names." An attack from inside the clan complex was clearly not expected — most of the clothes we found were ordinary civilian rags of bright colors and a style more suitable for weekend walks. By the way, it was much warmer here than "outside" — the girls had to unbutton their jackets, but I still didn't put mine on. In many of the clothes found, there were traces of blows that turned out to be fatal: some melted and burned, some torn, some with neat round holes of decent caliber — and not a single trace of what caused them...

Of the forty-five minutes I had allotted for forward movement, thirty had already passed when the first signs of armed resistance appeared. Shell casings. A lot of shell casings from automatic weapons — and a melted spot in the place of another shooter. It soon became clear to me why armed Yokai were being burned with plasma. One of the spirits was unlucky enough to receive a fatal blow between his helmet and body armor. At the same time, the weapon and armor remained intact. I couldn't sort out the "ferry" lying on top of things on the spot — there were so many layers in it. Strengthening, strength-enhancing, and mana-absorbing constructs were combined with others unknown to me. There were significantly more unknowns. The armor was "working"-the familiar cloud of altered water vapor... or not steam, but what my ancestors used there (I hope it's not mercury vapor?) It surrounded objects, turning the stormtrooper's military kit into a real mobile armor. There was a pistol in the holster on his belt, and a rifle with a collimator sight lay a little to one side-probably a Japanese assault rifle, because it didn't look like a Kalash or an M-16, and from modern weapons I can only learn what is in Counter Strike-how-I wasn't interested in these issues... since the age of nine. I mean, nine years "there." However... I took out my cell phone and took a picture of the rifle first, then carefully pulled out the pistol (and recognized the Glock), and fixed it. Then a helmet-sphere, a general kind of camouflage...

I had no doubt that Amakawa was working with the military, or rather with the military representatives of Tsuchimikado. Or was it still an "out-of-the-circle" contact? It doesn't matter. Another important thing is that the parents didn't just let the loss of so much "goodness" go away — they also lived quietly in Japan after the incident, completely openly. Shizuka said about "ten years after the fire" — it is logical to connect these two events. More precisely, the burnt-out terminal B is a consequence of these events. 2007 minus ten — 1997. It's lovely, I was "here" for about two years. I'm so glad my parents didn't drag me to this military base. Or is it still a laboratory? However, I can hardly imagine a "failed experiment" that can shoot plasma and the result of which must be crushed by tanks... Okay. Five minutes left, and the tank is just around the corner. I'll take a look inside and let's get out of here. It's more than enough for the first time. I picked up the gun and held it in my hands... and he carefully put it in the holster, and that one on the clothes of the deceased warrior of our clan. Yes, there's nothing to bury... but this does not mean that a fighter who died with a weapon in his hands does not need honors. In fact, he died for the clan, and therefore for me... Besides, where am I going to put my guns in the hotel? It's still clear that we need to assemble an expedition separately and fully dig up everything that has survived.

The tank appeared to be intact only from the stern — the starboard side and frontal armor bore numerous chips and were completely blackened — apparently, the machine was too tough for the flamethrower. Protected from top to bottom by clan skill, she withstood all attacks with honor... except for the last one, which killed her crew. The turret hatch was open, and I peered inside, using my cell phone's display to light myself up. It's dark, cramped, and empty. Here are the clothes, one pile, another...

"Em... I feel something..." Kaya called from the ground. "In the car."..

Without waiting for the end of the sentence, the snake pushed me away from the hatchway with one movement, and jumped inside.

"I found it, you know." she spoke up just a minute later and showed herself. The badge.

It's just a badge like an army badge, a simple strengthening "Ferry". In the spectrum of glasses, he had a weak background of magic — I would not have seen him.

In response to my questioning look, Shizuka said only one word.

"The Shard".

Now we've definitely done everything we could.

"Let's go back," I commanded.

As we walked to the terminal, as we climbed the stairs, I kept waiting for a look to rest on my back — hating, interested, indifferent... but no. Intuition was silent, Kaya was also calm. The battlefield was abandoned and dead, as were all its participants...

We decided to repeat our journey so as not to get lost. I also had to call Rinko's parents and explain that we had entered a place where mobile phones do not catch — otherwise they were already starting to worry when they themselves could not "get us" an hour ago — and the rescuers almost did not get it! Kuzaki herself was still unable to explain herself, and Hiroe's smile was extremely crooked. And I... And I was sure that something "like that" had happened. The clan, officially called the "sixth", could not just lose its vassals without a trace. It was clear to me before that my father was not a fool, but now, looking at the combat kit of the dead spirit, I realized that Himari-with-a-katana was really a child's cat. Something like a babysitter toy. Well, she doesn't look like an assault combat unit — even the snake in the canon was able to swaddle her. Well, or she was trained to be a "ninja" — to get within striking distance, chop and knock down. Himari wasn't inside the "hidden"-I hope Kaya could really feel her... And I don't even know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. However, there was still hope for a picked-up "fragment" — perhaps it would be possible to pull out the "shell" of the murdered yokai from it — and perhaps he or she would be able to tell me something about what was there and what happened. Kso! The New Year is just around the corner, and here's the news. A wonderful, simply wonderful omen... However, it's easy for someone now.

Entry 4

Yeah, it was a hell of a ride... Hiroe and I, being more "thick-skinned", left in the evening, and Rinko and Kaya needed another day. Crossing paths together, we fell silent, not knowing what to talk about — all the everyday topics seemed like mere trifles against the background of the tragedy of ten years ago... But gradually everything returned to normal. I suspect that if we had come across bodies and corpses, with the smell and splashes of dried blood, we would not have gotten off so easily. I also noticed that zashiki-varashi began to spend more time with me — it was obvious that after sitting in one place for so many years, she felt uncomfortable with so many impressions, and I turned out to be the anchor that reliably belonged to her world — home. Seizing the moment, I asked Kaya if she would be able to repel the plasma clot with her protective field if she was inside the estate in Noihara, and in response I received a thoughtful look. However, I think that the house's power shield should withstand at least one plasma strike.

I had to tinker with the "splinter". It took me a moment to notice that there were about three dozen fireflies gathered around the die I'd left on the table, hovering around with interest. Remembering how spirits develop at the lowest level, I was alarmed — but before I could pick up the token, one of the lights "sat down" on the metal... and was immediately absorbed. I promptly made a "fu-fu", it was not enough just to take away the last remnants of energy from the miraculously surviving "fragment" — my amulet is too powerful for such operations. Meanwhile, the inhabitant of the cube captured another unwary, and ten minutes later, another one. The glow of the amulet seemed to have intensified, and I decided that nothing was in danger. Just before departure, the "splinter" could already pull in an E from a distance of twenty centimeters and shone with a fairly confident light. Alas, I couldn't just leave the partially dead spirit from the tank crew in the hotel like that — you never know who will do something with the amulet, and if they throw it away, that's not the worst thing. Through a simple experiment, I became convinced that pumping human mana (from a wooden amulet that I made from a small piece of board) causes about the same effect — at least the fragment "came to life", increasing its activity. On the last day, a very faint semblance of an aura appeared around the amulet... But Mizuchi couldn't tell me how much longer this process would take or how much energy would be needed. As a result, the token and amulet wrapped in cloth came with us to Takamiya in a magic-proof bag. Hopefully, the basement and the "artificial" feeding will eventually be able to "resurrect" the fallen Yokai clan fighter...

The new year 2008 came into its own under the snow and rain, sharp, cold gusty wind and the incessant running of low, gray-orange clouds in the urban glow. Shizuka seriously suggested making a fireplace — during my absence, I "screwed on" the batteries in unused rooms, and it was, let's just say, not hot. Ginko was the only one who didn't care — the master returned, whom she could squeeze, Kaya and Mizuchi, who would be able to feed the wolf, who was tired of eating fast food and semi-finished products, what else do you need for happiness?

We arrived in the evening. I waited in semi-prostration and memories of what happened for the start of the online broadcast of the New Year's address by the President of Russia. I knew this uncle both from the textbook of modern history for the next, graduating (from elementary school) class, and from my searches on the Internet when I was trying to figure out how the political situation "here" differs from "there". Well yeah.. differ. If I had been interested in politics before, maybe I would have learned something else interesting. And the appeal... His favorite word, "reforms," never came out, which led me to decide that the situation in Russia might be better here than in "the homeland I left behind by a whim of fate." Maybe I'm wrong, but at least that's what I'd like to think. And the helicopter drone over the waters of the gulf seemed to hint at better financing for at least the fleet... Speaking of the military...

After uploading the photos from my phone, I made sure that the base (somehow I couldn't bring myself to call the "Mystical House" with so many weapons a laboratory) I found a Japanese TYPE 89 assault rifle, the pistol was indeed a Glock, but the tank turned out to be a rather old TYPE 74 model. The rifle, by the way, is also not the kind that was made yesterday. Apparently, the Amakawa unit was armed with army weapons, if not decommissioned, then from long-term storage warehouses. Of course, it's hard to judge by the ruins that were literally scattered over a pebble, but it's unlikely that the Yokai were in military service on a regular basis — rather, it was an experimental action... or even a one-time job. Although why guess at the coffee grounds? It is necessary to go and look — and purposefully: perhaps, from the surviving objects or, as Kami-sama is not joking, from the surviving documents it will be possible to at least understand what was there...

...I took Shizuka and Kashi to meet Kaname Senior. I should have taken the Tengu as well, but I just didn't dare. An involuntary reaction, which can occur to a person who suddenly discovers that spirits really exist, could spoil the mutual impression of a thousand-year-old Raven (and I would like to say Falcon) and Hiroe's mother, and if the two do not get along, most likely, there will be a big fuck. In addition, Kashi was the head of the Trust, and I also wanted to finally close this issue today.

We met in the living room of Kaname's house. After mutual shuffling of Kashi and the hostess of the house, and in an emphatically homely atmosphere, they went into the living room and sat around the dining table. It was only after Hiroe sat down on my side of the chair as if nothing had happened that I realized how important this meeting was. Not just informal gatherings between two families... Well, the spirits may not be my family, but my clan is a fact! No, Kaname Jr. took her exam today, the exam for independent management of her own affairs. That's a naughty girl! She could have hinted, and then I would have planned the conversation more carefully and laid out the roles with the lines... but, apparently, that's exactly what my analyst didn't want. Something like "everything should be natural." Well, then let's start with aces.

Aya-san, first of all, I would like to demonstrate something to you — and this is directly related to the business conversation that Kashi-san and I had with you. The Water Resource Trust was planned by us"-I waved my hand at Devourer, Shizuka and Hiroe-"as a means of extracting hard-to-reach materials. Lifting the cargo of sunken ships... and this allows us to greatly increase the percentage of successful operations.

Mizuchi nodded at me... and it disintegrated with water. Once — and there is no girl. No matter how prepared the woman was, no matter how much she expected "some kind of mysticism" from us, she couldn't keep her face. I even stood up, looking at the clothes of the Goddess of Rivers lying in a pile in a puddle of water. There was no girl.

"Ar"? Hiroe's mother started a sentence and immediately cut it off: the snake began to gather from the water in another part of the room, deliberately slowly, first a transparent silhouette, then the contours of the figure immediately with clothes, then color and opacity. Her clothes were made of the same water and were of a different color and style.

Shock! In our opinion, it's a shock. It's good that we rehearsed this particular scene, with some variations, for the film. It gets creepy if you look at it the first five times, then take it easier.

"Er... em. Can i..." Kaname Sr., having obtained Mizuchi's hand, once again made sure that her eyes were not deceiving her: the hand. It's human. And then — r-time, and water! But in the shape of a hand. And then Mizuchi showed class by rushing to her clothes in a wave and in an instant she was not only dressed, but also dry. The "drop" pulled out of the jug on the table, frozen into an ice ball in front of Aya-san's eyes, did not add anything special.

However, the "steel lady" had already regained self-control and was now pumping up the situation at a rapid pace — I recognized the well-hidden, but such a characteristic gleam in her eyes! She pumped it up. And now she was looking only at me. And she was smiling. I shivered, openly. Why hide? No one has ever left such a "bison"!

"Yuto... san. Apparently, I need to ask you exactly what you wanted to tell me with this demonstration, besides to convince an old sick woman (Hiroe snorted loudly!) invest your modest capital in a Trust venture... which will be there right after we talk, I appreciated." she made an imperceptible gesture with her fingers, as if inviting me to tell her everything... and I, involuntarily copying the gesture of "telling the truth" (Hiroe's influence, manipulative chips slip through again, involuntarily!), began to "prick".

"Seven hundred years ago..." ..January 1, 2008, can now be considered the official birthday of my businesses, the day I convinced Kaname-san to participate in our entertaining supernatural, scientific, and political economy game. The day when everything stopped depending on me.