Аннотация: Returning home. A conversation with Kouji-san. Rinko competitions.
Part 30.
You can be awesome at how cool it is to take responsibility for the deeds and actions of your ancestors, make clever multi-way Plans and get ready to reveal the secrets of the universe... But if you're eleven years old and you haven't slept at night, then you'll sleep during the day. Ironically! The daily routine for children is not just invented. In short, I rode the train to Takamiya with Kashi in your arms, sweetly snuffling and dreaming, and continued this fascinating activity for half the time of the train journey, and the other half I listened to the sarcastic comments of the Shizuka-Kuzaki couple practicing wit and yawned sweetly. After each yawn, the verbal pressure gained momentum, which led to an unequivocal conclusion: some people are jealous that I didn't have to drag my feet! And who is to blame? I just sat on the doorstep, waiting for everyone to get out, leaned against the roof support post - and woke up only in the carriage.
It is good that before leaving home, I took care to give instructions to the vassals who passed under my hand from my ancestors. Everything is generally simple: keep a low profile for a week and, if possible, do not leave the house, which is protected by Kai's magic. I killed two hours of time for the brownie herself, explaining why she couldn't leave the house at all. He explained to her like a child that only she could protect her guests, but the fact that the envelope snob and Ginko did not arouse particularly warm feelings in her... I don't know. Have you ever had to explain to a five-year-old child why electricity is just waiting in an outlet to shock a curious person who sticks his fingers in there? Approximately the same process. Zashiki-varashi was the first yokai I met who behaved like a European demon: if you give an order, she will, of course, carry it out... twisting the content and essence to the best of their small brains. He would have, because I didn't give orders... directly. I pressed logic, complimented her, told her that I was counting on her (and it was true), and even asked for advice. It turned out to be easier to corner the girl into her own reasoning - after Grandpa Gene's work, the brownie's consciousness was greatly simplified. But I didn't stop there: I took the girl out into the courtyard, asked the Hawk-Nosed Man (who was successfully admiring the dawn and was immediately plowed in) to bring me a small boulder, steamed a piece of stone to maximum hardness - and the hell! A stone with a diameter of half a meter (small from Shinji's point of view), naturally, crumbled into a pile of dust - the material, acquiring a very high hardness, usually becomes very brittle, and large cracks are enough for the Steam to "fly off". The main thing is to find what to hit and what to put on, a blow with your hand is not enough.
"How's that? You didn't use magic, I felt it!"
"The amulet blocks my magic, but I can use my ancestral ability as well as my grandfather", I explained the meaning of the demonstration directly.
Kaya shuddered, looking into her eyes, and I saw fear and long-standing pain again.
"Understand that I want you to have a normal life, not because I can't force you to follow orders, but because you are my vassal, and I want my people to... The Yokai lived... They didn't exist. I gave you my word, and you have to believe me."
Kaya nodded a little sluggishly. Well, yes. It looks like I'll have to come to Noihara regularly-the brownie is my strongest unit right now, and it's stronger than most of the magicians and spirits in this world within the house. Grandpa did a good job on his experimental project, and now I'm in pain... And I really wanted zashiki-varashi to be able to socialize. After all, half of the associative fields of her brain are working, which means that the task as a whole is solvable. She's not bright, but she won't be a brainless fool like she is now... Okay, we need to take advantage of the situation while the girl is impressed.
"Kaya, tell me, did grandfather keep amulets or blanks for them in the house? Where did he have a Laboratory?" After all, Himari couldn't have brought along a few notebooks... Okay, even the trunks of notebooks, should I take out the entire magical library of the clan? Or could she?
"Laboratory..." Yokai whispered in confusion, "I... I guess Kaya was there... But he doesn't remember..." The brownie's eyes unfocused.
Yeah, and the memory is clean... And it's probably good. I grabbed the girl by the elbow and towed her into the kitchen. He made me drink tea, reliably distracting me with conversation. Very reliable - I asked about my cat.
"When Himari left, what did she say to you? I remember you said that she had gone to guard me. But what exactly did she say? Understand, maybe I can figure out where she is, since she hasn't visited me once in two years... and I think Grandfather Gen knew my address."
"She said, "Something happened to Gennosuke-sama, he should have been back by now. It's my turn to leave, I have to do what I have to do.""
"Hmm, not a word about her coming to protect me, is it, Kaya?"
"Himari-dono since you go... You were taken away, and Gen-sama kept saying that she had to protect you, not stay in the village forever. She even took Yasutsuna with her. She wasn't listening to me at all... Nobody listens to me at all!" Suddenly, the brownie sobbed. "No one needs me, no one wants to talk to me! Just bring it, serve it, or sit and don't get in the way! Only Himari talked to me! And now no one knows where she went! Why am I alone again?!"
Then the brownie just smeared tears on her face, and I had to resort to the good old method of consolation - in other words, hug. By the way, the brownie is quite curvy, and it was very pleasant to hug her - in the last six months my body has been reacting very vividly to the presence of beautiful women, and the further I go, the stronger. Thank kami, yokai either didn't perceive herself as an established girl, or she couldn't even think about such a context in a lord-vassal relationship, or she just wasn't thinking about anything right now... After putting half a pack of napkins on the tear-stained face, I already habitually picked up the girl who fell asleep almost immediately from too tired of her worries and dragged her to the nearest sofa. The issue with the laboratory remained open. Well, let's try asking the others.
Do didn't know about the lab before. She didn't get her hands on any records about magic or clan techniques at all. Ginko squeezed me, licked me, was very upset that I was leaving, was glad that I would take her to the city if she wanted (but not right now, because she couldn't), and when asked about the laboratory, she honestly admitted that she couldn't pronounce such a difficult word. And yes, Gen-sama left home regularly. No, I never followed him, and she never left the neighborhood without permission. No, she didn't find any traces of Gennosuke-sama herself, except on the road and around the house. Thank you, she-wolf (I've clarified the issue of her species identity, finally!) now I know that there is no laboratory in the vicinity of the house. And where is there? The mountains are big... and empty, in terms of population density. I'll think about it...
"Did you find out anything interesting in Noihara while I was working with the archive?" I asked when the bout of venomous wit finally wore off.
"I've been working with the clan library, you know," Shizuka shook her head thoughtfully, "nothing particularly interesting, financial documents, copies of agreements with other clans, species descriptions of Yokai, incomplete... I think you'll be interested in this."
Hm? A4 sheet, where it is copied in perfect snake handwriting... Yes, this is tax information for 1964. And why?.. Oh, I see. Then the payment was charged directly from the bank account. How lovely. The snake rewrote the numbers and kindly deciphered the area: what a decent piece should be obtained. I wonder what is on this earth and where is it? I'll have to contact the bank, since I know which one, let them make a decryption for last year - my grandfather sold something there from the ground...
"Shizuka, you're gold!"
"Actually, I am water, you could have already remembered," She smiled smugly.
"Yuto, tell me," Rinko turned to me a little uncertainly, - this Himari cat, with whom the scandal began, who is she? You said you were a childhood friend, but I've never seen your friends..."
"A good childhood friend, you know," The snake said grumpily, "The Amakawa clan's best assassin, Noihara's Crimson Blade. They said she killed without hesitation, obeying any order from her master... and she was appointed your bodyguard. A babysitter killer, I'd like to see that..."
"I don't know about the murders, she was always in the form of a cat with me... a small white one. We... We were really friends, she was with me all the time... He carried it in his arms..."
Shizuka shuddered from the picture presented.
"A cat, you say?" Rinko drawled.
"Yes, I have not seen her other form... I didn't even know she had one. And about... an ambiguous biography... No one told me."
(Because the manga doesn't have a story, it even has notes, right?)
"So, what are we going to do next, Yuto Amakawa, after what you've learned about your ancestors?"
"The same as always, Shizuka. The same as always!"
Chapter 138.
[1st day after arrival from Noihara]
Why does a person buy a thousand children's rubber balls, not solid, but so that there is air inside? One of two things, either he opens a baby goods store, or he's Naruto. The diagnosis, yes...
[3rd day after arrival from Noihara]
Actually, we all have a kind of time pressure here: Rinko is preparing at a fast pace for competitions that are literally on the nose, Hiroe is frantically figuring out how to stuff a hundred and fifty people into useful activities so that everyone will like it, Kashi is sewing up with the organization of a future water-resource epic, and I'm trying to figure out how to make "blanks, found in Amakawa's house in Noihara." Actually, that's why the balls became the answer to the question - "how to make a "Ferry" to such an unstable environment as air?". Actually, my efforts looked rather idiotic from the outside: to take the ball and hold it in my hand... cut it with a knife / pierce it / heat it / etc. And track the behavior of the volume of the gas mixture with its improved clan ability. Curiously, some variants lasted for quite a long time, even after being extracted from the cut rubber shell. Do you see a ball of air in the air? But he is. I wonder if I redo the entire volume of air piece by piece, will it be possible to breathe it? Research has given me a lot of positive emotions - it's not often that a modern scientist gets into the hands of a problem that needs to be solved almost from scratch, which colleagues or predecessors haven't had time to dig into... but all the cards were confused by the time limit.
A week and a half! And then I'll have to give Kouji-san an answer to the question of whether I found anything by agreement at the Amakawa Estate. And if I say yes, I'm politely asked to do so. And if I say no, then it will become problematic to pursue further mutually beneficial cooperation. And I am very satisfied with the loyalty of the Social Committee in a particular city! Moreover, there will be another advantage from issuing amulets to magicians and "magicians" of the regional branch - in addition to disguising magicians, these same amulets will not allow anything to be felt through them and considered in the range of mana radiation. And only me and my team have glases!
[5th day after arrival from Noihara]
Fortunately, I didn't have the task of copying my complicated and advanced amulet. A rough imitation is also suitable, or even come up with something of your own. As I have seen, there is nothing super-complicated or impossible to copy from what I have seen, which came out from under the hands of my ancestral relatives. And this is logical - Ferry, like human hands, is a universal tool, but there are also well-defined frameworks for a broad-profile instrument, beyond which it is impossible to create something without additional tools. That is, by definition, grandfather could not do something that I cannot repeat "on my knee.".. Okay. If anything, I'll lock up a spool of silk ribbon and, without batting an eye, inform you that this is an old version of the amulet. At the same time, it will be possible to laugh behind the backs of harsh men who tie themselves every thirty centimeters of the body with pink (which I found!) with ribbons! It's okay, as they say, if you want to live, you won't get too excited!
[7th day after arrival from Noihara]
Shizuka, tell me, can you make a mist? Yes, I admit, it sounded a little out of place: we were just returning from school, and Mizuchi and Rinko were discussing something about clothes. Yes, yes! My friends are also people, and even more than that, they are young girls (though not a snake, but is she a schoolgirl? So, young, and age aside!). You can roll your eyes as much as you want and pretend that you're actually thinking about the fate of the world even on the potty... but it's not for us. We do what we do so that we can live a normal life, not for the sake of a heroic process... You know," the Goddess of Rivers said after a moment of silence,
"I can make fog, of course, but not very much... But I can't compare with you!"
"Yes, you said it rather vaguely," Kuzaki giggled, "maybe you'll take your mind off it?"
"I can't," I smiled, "you have competitions in twelve days, and I want to watch them-and so that my head doesn't hurt about the work that hasn't been done."
"A cheating argument, you know!"
[9th day after arrival from Noihara]
"Tighter, tighter... even tighter..."
"A little more, and instead of fog there will be just water... by the volume of our bathroom!"
"You're not going to let it leak anyway."
"The exploiter! Ouch!"
Yes, it was that "ouch" when the Ferry tore out a piece about seventy centimeters in diameter from the magically saturated environment around my hand. And in my hand I had a sandwich made from a dried layer of sakura petals pasted on a piece of paper (sakura flowers are sold as... um, seasoning in the grocery store) and two layers of waterproof fabric. The whole trick here is to steam the medium together with the mediator, to form a single whole from the amulet and the volume of gas... that is, not a gas, but a gas emulsion.
"Shizuka, take the water out of the air.... Great! Someday I'll figure out how it works at the molecular level, and you and I will win the Nobel Prize, colleague!"
"It's very nice to hear that, colleague," Mizuchi adjusted her glasses, looking with interest at the empty space around the sandwich amulet. It was nothing to her, but I was looking at a reinvented "rubber" ferry. Around the amulet, spreading across the floor from below and across the ceiling from above, strands of a web of light fluctuated "in empty air." It's a good thing that the magicians won't see it - it's not a sight for the faint of heart, especially if the amulet is on a person... on the magician. Dandelion boy, damn it!
"Does it work?" Shizuka felt an empty spot with her hand.
Instead of answering, I put Mizuchi's amulet around my neck. He chuckled. He took two steps back. He grunted approvingly.
"Yes, it works. Almost exactly as it should be, although I still don't understand what physics holds vapor molecules in such a volume. It must be quantum..."
[13th day after arrival from Noihara]
Okay, it'll do for rural areas," Hiroe examined the result of her work - a crooked "Chinese replica" of a neat flat bag that usually dangles from my chest, and now lies in the center of the table as a sample. Yes, we picked up a fifty-year-old fabric, but we didn't have enough time for the rest. Well, let's hope that the scarce protection amulets will not be opened in vain... anyway, the Ferry, so crudely destroyed, will cause the fabric, paper and petals to fall apart almost to dust. By the way, the "wrapping" fabric is very similar to my amulet, also with a cherry blossom pattern, only on a dark blue background. Kaname said that the material was from the Chinese Folk Theater, and somehow we didn't have the courage to clarify how she got her hands on it. Even Shizuka's. By the way, I understood why in the manga the amulet is called a grandmother's amulet... compared to my crafts, even Hiroe's version looks like a masterpiece! But Mizuchi, Yu, and Rinko make blanks with exactly the same quality as my old one. Well, yes. And suddenly, the heat of passion around the forced needlework turned out to be very serious: and Kaname IS WORRIED! We've been talking for a long time, and I've learned to catch the nuances of girls' moods, at least when they're not trying to hide them from me. And it's a good thing that after her first result, when I decided to tear her hair away from a job that was unsuccessful for her, I first looked into her eyes. I had to urgently pretend that I just wanted to ask if I could bring tea to someone. Because if the cynical, consistent and ironic Hiroe has an expression like "Ah! THIS IS SPARTA!!!"it's better not to get involved. And keep quiet in a rag. And then, when she calms down, thank her long and sincerely for solving the problem with the "Mutual Aid Unit." Although, when I read her report, I really wanted to ask our "onaliteg" what she was smoking when she came up with it. Whatever! Peace in the "family" is more expensive! Or is it just in the family?
Chapter 139.
"Hiroe is a diagnosis," Rinko muttered, watching as a crane lowered another section of the antenna mast and two men hanging from mounting belts on a support began to twist the delicate metalwork.
"But she did logically justify our contact with the patrol," Yu retorted, wrapping herself in a scarf. It was quite fresh on the street on the day of the departure of the Tsuchimikado police combat squad. Actually, besides the five of us, ten more of our friends from the Physics club were digging in and around the hangar. We're helping, yeah. On a voluntary basis. Sometimes it's really plans to smoke in Hiroe. But on the other hand, Shimomuro's rights are insurance in case our connections with the Squad come up, it won't be superfluous. Actually, Kaname played a win-win card - "if you have nothing to occupy a lot of adults, provide them with the conditions for falling into childhood, and let them play." Every child dreamed of becoming a detective, secret agent, superman in the end, and then all at once, and even - especially for men - helicopters! The newly minted UAV pilots, twenty in number (four shifts of five people each), sat at tables pulled out on the occasion of flight training outside, and with more or less success tried to steer with four sides (01, 02, 03, 05). The merrily painted red-and-orange-striped Side 04 managed to hit the lighting pole so that the motor controller board failed, and the shamefully exiled kamikaze, along with half a dozen advisers and assistants, went to get a new one. At himself own expense, of course. Yes, Hiroe also solved the equation "I want to patrol, but I don't fit the gender" - of the twenty pilots, twelve were ladies. Actually, I don't really have much to do here - Ishida Rino, a local policeman who became friends with the locals after the advertising rally, not only helped to purchase a decommissioned police repeater, but also brought his friend from the technical department, who really, unlike me, an amateur, understands how to set up trunk communications, which is what he does for the police. The policies, by the way, also decided to make a profit from our overly proactive initiative and agreed that one of the patrol's walkie-talkies and a separate trunk channel would be assigned to police station number 27. What a blessing that the communication frequencies for public organizations can be obtained free of charge, according to the signatures of the local police chief and the head of the GUIS*, otherwise we might not have been able to afford these additional expenses!
[* GUIS is one of the services of the city administration, together with DEZS, GUIS make up a full-fledged network of responsibility for the condition of every square meter of the city territory, DEZ - where there are buildings, GUIS - roads, bridges, sidewalks, lawns...]
One of the flying platforms had descended and was thrusting its propellers directly above us:
"Mr. President, the technical service of the club asks you to come to the hangar."
"All right," I shouted to the sky, "I'm coming! Can you hear me?"
"Pretty good," the speaker said, and the platform began to rise.
"Come on," I called the girls, "it's warm in the hangar, sorry, the Squad office."
"It seems to me that these flying cameras will be banned."
"We have received permission to "use video surveillance equipment in public works," in the sense that all such organizations have this permission."
"It's just that we have an airplane..."
"If only by itself," Yu chuckled, watching as another red-orange crosspiece was dragged to the pilots' table, and Taizo, who kindly agreed to participate in the training, disassembles and immediately reassembles one of the guides with a new part instead of the broken one. My idea of bringing three fabbers here turned out to be very appropriate.
I don't know who was more excited about the possibility of a new entertainment experience-the tough guys from the working-class neighborhood who weren't spoiled by it, or the little guys from my school. But an epochal event happened before my eyes - the children of the handymen themselves certainly could not help but take part in it. And they accepted. And... it was just communication. Without any kind of "hey, smartass, let's go outside" or "is there something?". Despite the fact that the speech of adults did not shine with the purity of language and courtly expressions. Despite the lower level of knowledge even among high school students. Of course, I screwed everyone from my Club, as well as Taizo and Rinko, to behave correctly and at the slightest problem with the locals they backed off and called us... but, to my surprise, it wasn't necessary. Moreover, Shizuka claimed that a couple of times it was "tell me, if anything, we'll fit in for you." Heh, thank you, Hiroe-sama!*
[* Yuto refers to Hiroe as a locally revered goddess.]
The patrol of the working quarter will begin only in a day. A squad consisting of the "spiritual" troika is going on duty this evening, so far only the map control and one rapid reaction group. And tomorrow, after school, I will have an interesting conversation with the first person of the local committee...
Chapter 140.
"Kouji-san."
"Amakawa-san."
A mutual bow. The supervisor motioned for me to sit down and sat down at the table himself. And the Committee building has noticeably changed... It's noticeable to magicians. The security lines are disabled, even at the checkpoints and in the elevators there is no trace of a magical background. I couldn't see the collapsed auras through several walls. But Sugowara himself has his aura unfurled like a battle flag. And the secretary, now a different one, although disguised in a magical range, glows more strongly than a weakling like the ever-memorable psychologist. High alert mode, huh. They didn't relax, they introduced it right away.
"Here," I put a wooden box with perforations in the walls on the table and moved it to the middle of the table, "is an experimental batch, as I understand it. I couldn't think of anything better, please forgive me. There's a list of restrictions inside. I deciphered some of my grandfather's notes (yes, but we'll leave out the fact that the records are actually archival).
"The upper limit is sixty-five degrees Celsius, the lower limit is zero, and in the rain the protection radius is reduced to a meter... Does this amulet have anything to do with water?"
"I think you're right."
"Well, well, complete aura blocking. Hmm. I'm sorry for this question... Have you checked their work?"
"Yes. I told you that I want to invite my vassals to the city. They checked it out. My... the force is already blocked, as you know."
"Clear... I hope you didn't have any problems at the manor, Amakawa-san?"
"Of course there were!" I replied calmly. "But they were solved."
The social controller did not allow himself to chuckle, although he probably wanted to. And ask about the problems, and offer help, in a friendly way... but such primitive divorces are not his level. Instead, he picked up the box... I held it at arm's length, and I saw how its power fluttered, quickly overloading the protection of all thirty-eight amulets. I know it feels interesting... The most amazing thing is that, for example, I don't feel my power flowing out of my body spontaneously. I always walk around with my aura rolled up, otherwise the amulet would constantly "scoop" me almost dry, and apparently that was the case for the first few weeks... or months... when I was under the amulet. Now my body "holds" the convolution all the time by itself, and in order to release some mana, I have to make some efforts. I wonder if when the protection goes off, I won't be able to feel the outside magic properly for a long time... or for a very long time? For some reason, this thought only occurred to me now. Again, how many "greetings" can you receive from dear relatives?..
I checked the burial site next to the temple. I didn't find any ashes of your grandfather or grandmother. Urns with ashes, and even this is the ashes of a magician, but it doesn't taste like what your ancestors should have with your scent...
"What does it taste like?"
"My species identity..."
"Kashi, stop! I've got IT ALL figured out, no need for details... and check my parents' burial, please..."
Meanwhile, the director chose one of the amulets and put a string around his neck, first folding the aura. He turned it around, overloaded his defenses, and rolled it up again, all with a stony face, looking benevolently at me. What about me? Oh, and here, apparently, he tried to activate a magic eye scanner with a collapsed aura - he just squints in vain at the office door, behind which the secretary is. The pause is getting longer...
"Have I fulfilled my promise, Kouji-san?"
"I don't even know how to thank you, Amakawa-san!"
"Then may I expect to introduce my vassals to you and your people? Next week, for example?"
"Oh, I don't see any problem with that. The main thing is not to disturb the peace of the townspeople... Too much."
"I don't think so. Here." I put in a printout of the sixth edition of the "rules of conduct in the city for yokai" - without a hat and points about wearing a passport amulet. "I can send it electronically, if it's more convenient. I would like to receive your approval of such a list of conditions."
"Undoubtedly. Even now, I can say that the rules are quite well developed. You have a good style, Amakawa-san."
"Japanese politicians have a good style, I just copied and corrected it to fit... for my vassals." "Fuck off!" I didn't write it, I didn't! And Hiroe is really good at correcting paperwork so that normal humans and nonhumans can immediately understand what is written, and not after the third consultation with a lawyer. "Okay, I won't take up any more of your time today. But if I have any unexpected questions in the future, should I make an appointment with you in advance?"
"No, really, Amakawa-san. You can come on any business day, just call at least an hour in advance... And also, Amakawa-san. If you have any other mutually beneficial proposals, the Regional Office of the Social Committee is ready to assist and support you in our area of responsibility."
Chapter 141.
"This... this... I just don't have the words!"
"I agree with you, Yu! Mizuhuna-san, walk from the wall to me... super! Tomorrow I'll bring the camera and the light is normal!"
"Patchi! Well, what should you do? Oh, right, cement. Is everything okay with iron and plastic?"
"There will be such shots! Mizuhuna-san, can you do THIS?"
"Ah-ano-oh!" Ami stammered, red-faced. "Don't make him do THIS, Hiroe-dono! This is very... personal!"
"Okay, I'm alive... I mean, you can go back. Who knew that partial transformation WAS SUCH A COOL THING! Damn, damn, Patchi! How did you do that?! Oh, do your tentacles extend up to fifteen meters? Bli-i-in!!! It's going to be epic! I need to draw a little bit to make the graphics look good... Kashi, what can you do?!"
While the confused Corpse Eater argued that his partial transformation was not a particularly attractive thing, I continued to turn the trunk repeater settings, checking them for the correct operation of the scramblers*. It was extremely unwise to broadcast information about the spirit patrol. The problem with communication is that information can be transmitted over telephone lines... You can even get scramblers for handsets, but I really didn't want to depend on the work of a third-party system. By the way, the operators forbade encrypting the negotiations and could, at the very least, simply block the SIM cards if scrambling was detected... at the most crucial moment. Another thing is the map, it was convenient to view it from the phone: no one forbade it, and even if 3G, you can always simply dictate the coordinates of the cut-offs - after all, information flows to the center in a purely magical way.
[* Scrambler is a device for a radio station/phone that allows voice encryption with a digital key, including a token.]
Nearby, Rinko was nervous, straddling a chair so that she could put her hands on the back. And not at all about the first appearance of the spiritual patrol of the Detachment. The first round of urban kendo fights, the district competition, was very close. And although neither the coach nor the parents doubted her victory, and even Rinko herself understood that she was better trained than the others, she was still nervous. To prevent this from happening at home, where the girl would wind herself up, I dragged her to the start of the patrol service, especially since she is the commander. The trio of Kashi, Pachi (with a rifle) and Mizuhuna went out on a test night today and had to describe a closed figure around the city, moving imperceptibly along the roofs and not approaching the center. The lack of a natural sixth sense (suppression amulets work) could have played a cruel joke on the guys. Therefore, according to the mind, all exits in the next month can be considered trial. I hope no one falls off the roof... or it won't land on something sharp: the reaction of spirits is better than that of humans, especially since they could act on themselves from the inside with magic in full. Here is a parkour with route mapping... at night, because people jumping twenty meters during the day attract too much attention. Yes, and some... reasonable... We have come to the issue of our own protection... creative! I wonder if it was Hiroe and I who taught them, or if the Oath was my doing? However, I can also be creative.
Mizuchi returned to the garage area of the hangar with a walkie-talkie in her belt and silently handed me a wide red cloth ribbon about one and a half meters long. Just the thing. So.
"Hey, Mizuhuna!" I called out, and yokai, looking up from posing for the cameras of Yu and Hiroe's phones, came up to me. "One detail is missing from your image. Bend over... Rinko, give me the scissors... That's it, and tie it on the back of your head. Super! Yu, rate it."
"Totally awesome!"
So, Mizuhuna, you have an additional instruction regarding disguise. - I said to yokai, the sea turtle, who, under the influence of Ami's feminine charm, personally developed a complete modernization of his appearance based on a partial transformation of his skin, that is, standing in front of me now in the form of an anthropomorphic humanoid... the bald one... in a shell covering the entire body (all this was complemented by amulet ribbons on each bend of the limbs)... and a red cloth mask on the "face"...
"If ordinary people accidentally notice you, don't get lost and shout loudly: "Kawabunga!!!""
Chapter 142.
Despite the fact that these competitions are just a regional stage of the city, the sports hall was not just chosen among the school ones, but the "real" one was in the dojo. There aren't many differences, but there are bleachers with backs, stationary cameras that allow you to cover the fields for duels from "looking from the ceiling" angles, and a hefty scoreboard. While the organizers were seating the audience, answering numerous questions from the parents of the tournament fighters, and making final preparations, I was busy turning my head, but I didn't see anything particularly interesting. Adults - parents and coaches, peers of the contestants - classmates or from the same section, that is, the school club.
Kuzaki's parents were also present. We shocked them a bit by showing up in a peculiar crowd at the bus stop, and Hiroe had an expensive semi-professional camera, and she handed the video camera to Yu. After the memorable "first dispatch" of the patrol Squad, we assessed some of the full-scale capabilities of our wards... According to the wards of Yokai, Hiroe took out her script "from a distant folder", which she managed to roll out in the meantime, and she and Shimomuro plunged into... uh ... well, let there be creativity. I don't know what it was like before, but now the girls were confidently moving towards a Hollywood action movie, heavily diluted by a Japanese animation school. When they sent me a file with the question "how cool is it?!"I must admit, I couldn't find the words for a minute and a half.
We were seated in the third row, with our parents in the second, and the coaches and "honored guests" in the first. A list of fights appeared on the scoreboard, and some guy in a traditional swordsman's uniform started talking about "great traditions", "the way of the sword" and the like, risking reaching world peace at such a pace by the end of the performance. To my left, Shizuka was listening to the speaker with an impenetrable look, to my left, Yu and Hiroe were discussing something in a low whisper, bent over their laptop, and I got bored...
"Amakawa-dono, I'm sorry, but I have doubts that we will be able to handle the work on the gulf cleanup tender."
"Why is that? We were counting the money. There is enough money to rent a self-propelled marine barge, and with three marine yokai, search and navigation are greatly simplified. The most problematic moment for other contractors was the stones themselves, since it is quite difficult to put cables under them for reliable fastening."
"The stones generate their own water magic around them, I'm not sure I can easily move them in the water... You know. And underwater blasting is prohibited because of fishing..."
"In any case, take it in a row, if we can't handle it now, at least we'll gain the necessary experience... and I will try to destroy the "Road" with a ferry. Otherwise, we will simply drown in repelling attacks from the mountains and from the city."
"Kuzaki Rinko!"
The girls filming the competition quite carefully immediately turned their lenses to the figure of my neighbor. The figure, yes - Rinko in armor looks not even twice, but almost three times wider than his natural self. The pattern of movements changes noticeably, you may not even recognize it... But still, Kuzaki doesn't need her "magic dope.".. but I need to see the details of a sports duel. After all, the duel is not so conditional: the blows are delivered with full force, and the shinai is still a club. Heh, well, that's it. Rinko was so nervous, and then it was over in less than a minute. How many more fights does she have today, three?
"Amakawa-san, I want to inform you that your age is..."
"I'm sorry, but I'm not asking you to accept an account management order. I just need a copy of the tax transfer report."
"hm-m"
"I'm sorry again, but I will definitely need this information in order to ensure timely replenishment of funds in case they turn out to be insufficient. I don't want my property, even if I can't manage it yet, to be rejected for non-payment of taxes."
"Well, Amakawa-san, that's a really serious argument. The bank will meet you halfway..."
Twenty seconds. Apparently, Kuzaki calmed down and became even more effective. But there aren't many people left - the first three matches are held according to the Olympic system, and those who lost two are already eliminated...
"Your parents' ashes are in the cemetery, Amakawa-sama... I'm sorry to bring you this news."
"Kashi, what are you doing? What's it got to do with you?"
"And... I'm not sure, it's been a long time... but their ashes have a taste... the other one."
"The other one?"
"I do not know how to express it. Not the way a person should be..."
"Hm... Maybe it's a generic feature? Give me a glass and I'll pump out some blood. Can you identify it?"
"I'll try... I'm sorry, Amakawa-sama, but your blood has the most ordinary taste."
"Why, I'm already used to having my family around... I think there are a lot of such stories around any Old Clan. It was clear that two exorcists were not so easy to kill, even if they were speeding for some reason."
"Kuzaki Rinko - first place!!!"
While the inspired parents went to catch their child at the locker rooms, where no one else was allowed except them and the coach, the four of us went out into the fresh (too fresh, three degrees of heat and slush!) air. Yu and Hiroe were watching individual frames right on the camera displays, and I asked Mizuchi:
"Did you like it?"
"It was interesting for me to see people like Kuzaki," The snake answered honestly.
"There are no more people like our Rinko," I stated with a smile.
"You're right," the girl returned my smile.
Then I caught the appraising gaze of Shimomuro and Kaname.
"What?"
"Mm-hmm", Yu hesitated, "in general... We wanted to ask you something."
"And?"
"Can you make us Spider-Man-style web throwers? For our film, we need!"