Web of light. Part 2. 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.