This is a translation of a wonderful fanfiction Web of Light by Greyrat (Sergej Plotnikow), basing on Omamori Himari. I don’t own his work and neither Omamori Himari nor any of its characters. Greyrat has officially approved the translation. The original fanfiction can be found here: bit . ly / 1dZH6PU (in Russian).

I am not a native speaker, so when (not if) you spot some typos, mistakes or oddly formulated phrases: do tell. I will correct them soon. I am currently aiming and checking the spelling for British English.

This is formally Yuuto/harem, but it’s actually about science and magic. Don’t expect too much fanservice or sex scenes. Web of Light is to Omamori Himari what HPMOR is to Harry Potter. Don’t expect too much of canonical plot, the story begins years before canon beginning and has not caught up with it yet. The chapters are relatively small, but there are many of them. Oh, and don’t expect to meet Himari soon. Now, if I have not scared you off, here you go!

This chapter is a teaser of what Web of Light actually is. This scene is well 1.5 Megabytes back in the text, but it is nicely written, has barely spoilers, and gives a very nice impression of what WoL is actually about. This is not a cross-over with Harry Potter or Star Wars, the references are just the usual postmodernism. The main protagonist is still physicist!Yuuto, this is an interlude.

Video record #2. Amakawa file archive. A recording of Gilbert O’Loufert public lecture “Me, magic, and Universe”, read at British Magic Academy 08/15/2008. The video file is sent by Kuesu Jinguji at 06/18/2008 and follows “as is”. Recommended material for all clan members.

Note #1.

The link to this file was attached to the following letter.

"Hi Yuu-chan!

Here is the lecture I recorded for you! Please forgive me: I was able to upload it only recently because of trouble with finding the fast Internet connection. In England we still have problems with it and at home— well, you know. Here, I uploaded it to the site you told me. Please watch, I am sure you’ll like it. Of course, O’Loufert seems off his trolley at first glance, but this is just a facade. He can talk simply on complicated things. I went there thinking that he won’t tell me anything new: Theory of Magic is taught for eight years at BMA, but the basics are in the first and second year. However, it turned out that I not only did not know the half of the issues, I did not manage to ask myself the right questions! Though I should warn you: in TheoMag half of the hypotheses live for 2–3 years, then they invent something even more knotty. O’Loufert then writes down new lectures and tours the world again. My only doubt: are his own ideas sincere? They are just too… unorthodox. However, some folks pose him quite like a prophet. Anyway, have a look, I made this effort for you!"

On screen is a large, theatre-like lecture hall; the camera pans a few times in camera man’s hands, showing high ceiling, ascending rows of narrow tables made of dark wood, with Academy students settling down. Most are in plain clothes, at few spots the bachelor and professor robes appear. The camera rotates and shows the seats next to the operator: a guy, ash-blonde, sits down; next to him is a bronzed girl, glasses-wearing. She has a typical “Greek” profile and burning red hair.

The guy, wondered: “Ku, is this a video cam?”

Camera holder, in a female voice, proudly: “Yep! I ordered it specially for recording O’Loufert! I even got a tripod!”

The camera aims on the yet empty tribune in front of cyclopean “banded” blackboard and stops jiggering.

Another female voice, mockingly: “You’re telling me, you joined the army of his fangirls, don’t you?”

Camera holder, explicitly proud: “Buzz off! Unlike certain persons, I am here not for fun, but for knowledge. And lectures are to be noted down, I hope you know why so?”

Guy: “Noted down, you know, not recorded…”

Girl: “… of course! If they are not hold by O’Loufert!”

Camera holder, in a good humour: “Look at this pair! Oh wait, it’s beginning!”

To the tribune a young looking man comes: a curly blonde clothed in light-beige robes with a large hood. The talking in the hall fades out quickly, when O’Loufert grabs the mic the silence is total.

“So, let’s check the mic. Wow, it’s working. Well, then: hi everyone!”

Applause, whistles, unreadable shout outs, mostly female.

“It’s nice when your audience loves you! Especially, when so many cute girls are among them. I am feeling like myself!”

Loud, joint laughter, applause, shouting “Louf, we feel you like yourself!”

“Okay, okay. I admit, I am not that pompous as it might seem when you look at my magazine cover face.”

Laughter.

“But as I indeed look gorgeous and really like talking about myself, it would be shame not to use the publicity my former student created for me. A very generous present, indeed! I need to say that I met she-who-may-not-be-called-by-her-name-here during the second semester of her eighth year: I was preparing for my thesis defence and I got shoved to supervising five diploma theses— most of you are not yet there with your studies. So, I came up with five simpler titles and gave them out to my guinea pi— students. The fair Miss who later found her destiny in world literature got the simplest topic I could think of: ‘Dichotomy of sporadic counter-entropy processes in energogenetic organisms in the setting of well-developed biosphere.’”

From the hall unclear sounds are heard: something between a snort, a hiccup, and “oh fuck.”

“Actually, I acted just as I had to in these circumstances. The students were repeating the experiments basing on the material, already acquired from me; that’s the actual reason for the diploma students to be assigned to a specific magister. And I had the impression that everything is going nicely: the experiments were carried on with stable results, I taught a theory that was not found in base course books, adapting it to the students’ level, basically the success was imminent. Then, five days before I needed to collect the drafts of the theses, my student (that girl) approaches me and is asking a question. ‘Fair magister, could you please explain a few terms to me, as I could not figure them out myself.’ I am answering ‘Sure, my dear, what is your concern?’ – ‘Oh, firstly, what is dichotomy?’ And then it sank in…”

Increasing laughter.

“Not before, nor after that I was writing and talking as much as in these five days. Frankly, I was sure I got some separate topics of the thesis though to her— until the second book of the series well-known to you was published. Judging by how I was pictured there (you can easily recognise me there, so cool am I) it was a blasting failure! Alas! Having grasped my defeat, I figured that I cannot bear with someone else not understanding me and since then I am reading my public lectures. Thank you for coming and listening to me, ladies and gentlemen!”

Gilbert bows to the hall, the audience applauds fiercely.

“That was the small introduction, now let us begin with the actual topic. So, there is something what our ancestors were daily conflicting with – and we are. This is our world and our magic. Any advanced student would correct me: ‘wait, magic is a part of our world.’ They would be correct, but not totally. We all proudly call ourselves ‘magi’ not without a reason: we are those who ‘professionally addresses’ the Universe through one it its shades: though the magic. If we would address it through professionally growing biomass for feeding ourselves and other people, we would be called farmers. If through controlling the aircraft, we would be pilots. That’s logical, right? Our main profession, what we do to ‘earn our bread’, unbearably changes the consciousness and perception of a man. Any man, note it, even myself!”

Short laughs in the audience.

“One could say that we choose a piece of the universe and tell it: you are mine! And through you shall I look on everything else. And this piece does not resist; well, no way it could rebel. That’s why between ‘myself’ and ‘Universe’ we will always have magic. And through this so-to-say prism we will learn to look today, dear colleges!”

Again, a bow and short applause.

“To look and to see something, we first of all need to determine: why are we doing this? Well, when we put issues like professional curiosity of a researcher or a strive to be more professional aside, we identify a sole important reason. That is – improving the quality of life. Concretely our own life, yes, but also for the whole humanity. To be alive, healthy, to live comfortably, to overcome any hazards: this is the ”bait“ that made a species of weak tailless monkeys accepted leaders among all the species on our good old Earth. While for the ‘conventional’ occupations the issue of the quality of their actions is important in the net sum as a possibility for the social exchange – to trade the results of their occupation against the results of the occupations of others, – our ‘tool’ often allows to gain this life quality without any intermediaries. Not completely, magi need to eat and to drink too – and preferably better than normals, – but to a larger extent. Take a look at yourself. Almost any of you can move much faster than a non-magus, is more healthy, can with a guarantee survive such surroundings where a non-mana-user will die in five-ten minutes. Surviving too cold or too hot surroundings, physical attacks; an ability to cook (and before that: to ‘catch’) food without any tools; magic eagerly gives us possibilities. This is our power. This is our weakness. We need to know and to remember this. Always.”

O’Loufert pressures the hall with suddenly stern look, the audience is silent.

“So, magic is a universal tool for the interaction with the Universe. Or— the most universal tool we know today. This is your personal power. The weakness of the tool is its universality: to do something you need not only the tool, but also the ability to apply it. The more universal is the tool, the more difficult is it to apply. Take a shovel. Yep, a simple shovel. One can shove with it. Or not to shove…”

Some are giggling.

“… but even this choice give us unlimited possibilities of action. We can build a house or create tableware – clay is fetched with a shovel, I need to tell you, – we can plant vegetables or dig a grave – well, in my case it’s the same, farewell dill seeds! – we can throw the shovel as a spear or boil eggs on it – it tried this myself, works just like a pan! – But without the know-how you are getting only callus and almost no actual result. Magic is a big good shovel, with no handle…”

A hysterical laughter from the back rows fading to total applause. Visibly a lot of effort comes from young teachers in the first row. Gilbert continues tranquilly.

“… that’s why it’s even harder to use. Well, how to learn using shovel? There are two ways. Either someone who knows the craft needs to teach you how to use the shovel. How to build, to hunt, or to boil eggs with it. And you shall be able to do it very well. Most magical families teach their children the family techniques of shov… magic. Most of the time it is a set of memorised, for centuries approved operations. This knowledge is good, it is of quality— and it is separated from others! Hence, one can learn a lot of shovel techniques, such that in a critical moment you find at your disposal… a rake!”

Laughter.

“Or a hoe.”

Louder laughter.

“Or maybe an axe?”

A shouting: “an axe is also a kind of shovel!”

“Right! An axe, a rake, a hoe, just a stick, a sword, simply a elongated item: all this is a shovel, alas not comfortable and hard to use. This really works this way, especially in ‘universal’ magic. With the ‘physical shield’ spell you can catch flying items, use it as a parachute, hang it across trees and make a hammock. You can even dig with it.”

Laughter.

“I am serious, by the way. Five years ago in Amazon tropical forest I had to dig out the reason for my visit straight on the way of a nomadic red ant colony. Believe me, I did it fast, or else I would not be standing in front of you today.”

A bow and short applause.

“But let’s get back to our mutton… err… shovels!”

Giggles.

“The second way is more universal than the first. We can at once learn all the ways (even yet unknown ones) of the interaction between the shovel and the Universe, it’s not that hard. Even more, if you happen to get a rake, you would not need to learn ‘the rake techniques’ first, as you need to gain efficiency. You would just insert different parameters into the known rules for the interaction of ‘an elongated item’ and ‘the world’ – and think about it a little bit before you begin applying it. The deduction of common laws of interaction that in each specific case would produce good solutions to a problem is called ‘a scientific method.’ To find out the generic way and to apply it specifically, this is the leitmotif of the current approach of human race to problem solving. And it works, damn it! The internal combustion engine and a flying plane are both the special cases of gas dynamics. Building skyscrapers and ships are both the special cases of materials science. Phones, TV sets, computers, and lamps are all special cases of electrodynamics. By the way, there is no generic theory of everything – for now, and probably for quite long in the future; but even the known generalisations literally turned over the human live! And what shall come in the future – oh, anyway. A shovel!”

Laughter.

“Hence, for the shovel to be a universal tool in our hands, we need to know physics. Some parts of mechanics and a bit of the materials science will be enough. The lever, the pressure distribution, the knowledge how the shovel will behave in the soil or in the flight for a deer, this is physics. A few simple laws and the shovel world is at your knees!”

Laughter, applause.

“It’s crystal clear with the shovel. So, what’s about magic? It is more universal, can be applied to many more things, its usage is complicated. Attention, ladies and gentlemen, now I will tell you the greatest secret of magic. Are you ready?”

O’Loufert steps back from the tribune, pulls up the hood with both hands such that only the lower part of his face is visible, and lifting his hand, clinches his fingers in a typical jedi gesture, moving the hand to the audience.

“There is no magic, only physics!”

From the audience comes an surprised whimper, and a deafening laughter ensues. It transitions into a long standing ovation.

Gilbert, self-assured:

"Yeah, this is my favourite moment in the lecture – and I need to admit, the mantle was custom-tailored to achieve a greater similarity. You probably have read this on my website, and I often tell this in the interviews. George Lucas – not really clear to me how – had quite exactly anticipated the future the Humanity will see on its way to space expansion. That will begin sooner or later. The current state of the ‘magi’ that are pressed down by the UN ‘Statute of Wizarding Secrecy’ are the quintessence of the medieval believes about the magi. Even shamans from ancient times were closer to the ‘normals’ than we are today. Well, what is a magus in medieval believes? Some strange person in robes…

Giggles.

“… who can anytime knuckle the commoner under, make him grow a tail, force to give him commoner’s last pennies or even ‘hex’ the poor man to stop drinking beer with a company! Oh dears!”

Loud laughter and clapping that grows to an enthusiastic applause.

“Yeah, not without a reason women – especially the married ones – were said to be close to witchcraft. Who else would ‘hex’ poor John the neighbour away from the bar? Only Bertha and her Magic Battledore!”

Laughter.

"Yep, you are laughing. But a normal ‘commoner’, a politician or a policeman does not understand magic, he does not know what to expect from me or from you. That’s why we are forbidden to use our talent freely on streets or in public places. Well, except when in the direct danger or to save lives of many people – while keeping the fact of our influence hidden. If you break this part of the international law – in any country, except something like Laos – an investigation and often a court trial await you. The magus will be fined, the people will get their memories changed – only because we are ‘magi.’ Note, not magi, ‘magi.’ And now let’s take a look on jedi from the Lucas’ saga. They are respected people! They openly use their abilities. The keepers of peace! Almost a special police, but what they can do, an average magus level three can do. Why so? Jedi are magi, but not ‘magi.’ Their ‘power’ has a ‘scientific explanation,’ and while it is not known what ‘cool trait’ has this particular force user, jedi are still perceived as normal people, albeit more ‘weaponed.’

Think now about this. In the modern literature the magic is often contrasted with science: the way of knowledge and the way of ‘unknown… crap.’ Crapusers are bad guys and do things on the emotions, hence they are often bad and evil. And those who handle upon the science are ‘good guys.’ Even if a person does not understand things, but has an opinion that upon desire to do so, he would personally understand them, this changes the whole game. And you know what? They, the ‘commoners’ are right. We get this far: an old school ability to move mountains and pull river’s water aside turned out to be weaker – weaker! – than tools made by commoners. Only because we still try to progress with the trial and error method. A theory of magic does exist. A theory connecting magic and the physical world does not. We know how to create a fireball. How to wrap the ‘phi’ flow around the manifestation of the movement vector… But we do not know what is happening in this moment in the casting place. The twentieth century has seen attempts to ‘decompile’ magic from the ‘scientific truth’ point of view: observations, measurements… vivisection. Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, USA, later: Commie China or now North Korea. Aside from a large collection of observations nothing was gained. Why? Oh, because the ‘magic’ event was treated as – well, as magic. A ‘total black box,’ as later one Soviet science fiction author would write. It fulfils the wishes – upon the orders of the Party, – but how? Heck, no one knows. And what could be done with it? Only ‘rationalise’ it away, that is: find a place for it where it is least visible. Out of the eye, out of the mind! And I am telling you: this attitude would continue as long as magic and magi are ‘unknown crap:’ they will be pulled out, every time when a problem arises that is not solvable with ‘common’ methods. And pull away, as soon as the problem is no more. But this barrier, it’s only in our heads. Now, let’s try to peel it off!

Firstly, the issues everyone knows. We need a body for wizardry. The body is the source of mana. The body generates the aura. If the body is damaged, the aura gets some problems, at least temporary. Everyone knows that the spells are formed inside the aura and inside the body, if directed on self. Or, outside the body, but inside the aura, if directed to the ‘outside.’ Complicated spells have their own ‘aura,’ that’s how to ‘jinx’ an item. The mana energy in the jinx is at ‘launch’ converted from mana to the physical manifestation of the effect. That is, if it is a fireball than we obtain a meta stable plasmoid with medium live duration. Now – the key question! – what is then this mysterious ‘aura?’ And the schoolbook suddenly has an answer: the manifestation of the magus’ power. Come on! That’s how I answer this question. Aura is a ‘holographic’ superimposition of the mana trajectory in nerve and blood systems of the magus’ body. And my hypothesis already has some proofs. Now, casting spells and applying the ‘magical instrument’ is no longer ‘unknown crap.’ It is cybernetics and quantum-wave process. Both at the same time. That’s what it is! However, I guess, that for the most of you this sounds even worse than ‘magic’ for a ‘normal’, he he. But well, that’s the reason I am here! After the pause we shall continue folding our brains into tubes on the topic ‘Me and magic.’ And after the lunch we’ll arrive at the even more interesting topic ‘magic and Universe.’ Thank you!"

A bow and long-lasting applause. Female voice says ‘my brain is already twisted’ and a male answers ‘yeah, at the end he strangled too hard.’ The camera holder is silent.

The playback is interrupted by the user. These are the first chapters. The book is a bit slow to boot, the actual fun begins like at chapter 18 if not 30, so bear with the initial chapters, they are short. I hope to get to the interesting bits fast enough. There be lasers, explosives, and, of course, supernatural abilities. Mind chapter 16. And yeah, the future chapters will be larger. I am bundling them to pieces of relatively same size. Oh, and the misspelling of the Shizuku’s name is on purpose: the guy does not remember it correctly.

0. Starting point

The main device is working silently, but one cannot say this about the supporting machinery – each to its own tune – the power supplies hum, once per seconds beeps the radiometer, the coolers both of an old PC – this is the lab stand – and of a new machine – Star Craft 2 is the lab’s favourite game! – are buzzing. Night is my time. The experiment has begun at 2000 and goes on until 0600. The lab cannot be left without a scientist supervising the machinery; that’s what the safety instructions say. It is not surprising that most of the time I am napping: in the chair, in the armchair, sometimes on a uncomfortable small sofa that feels like a waiting bank in public hospital.

Few months ago I caught myself seeing dreams. More realistic, bright, colourful dreams. I even had a dream that I am a huge dragonfly and I was catching flying fish over the surface of the dense ocean of all colours of green – all dream long. I had a dream about all kinds of stories. Beginning with a replay of everyday life, over the feelings and emotions, ending with completely fictional ones. Like damage control of a huge military spaceship. Or was it not military? I did not get it that time.

What was the reason? Electromagnetic waves? That’s crap, that’s why we have a radiometer here. I told my boss, he assumed infrasonic. We borrowed a quartz resonator, but an exhaustive search was fruitless. Well, quartz has some measurement selectivity, but— Well, a strong influence we would have caught, and a weak one would not have an energy to break something in the human body. Nobody freed me from the night watches, of course. I did not complain myself, I do not want to shatter my career.

And now— Probably, I switched off in a sweet spot where the waves are crossing – be they electromagnetic or sonic. This time I was a mournful nine year old. He lost his parents yesterday. It was a strange feeling, but again I knew I am just sleeping. I did not wake up, I did not even try. That dream was interesting: an alternative Japan. Why alternative? Look at the house that is now mine. Completely European design, including furniture. No social care: at the funeral no official approached me, but I am an orphan now. I do not think we are in Tokyo, that is not Kyoto either – there is no port. The mother of my school friend accompanied me, but even she had no doubt that a kid can live alone. Gloomy.

Meanwhile I have now completely lost the feeling of my body spread in an office chair in the middle of the lab, but began feeling the fresh breeze here. Such things happened often in my dreams; I even remember the taste of the fish from the ocean-broth… I was still in doubt whether I should keep watching this stick-jaw dream, but then suddenly it turned out that my school friend is cooking a lunch (!) for me at my kitchen (!!), and this is her free choice to choose this chore. And it’s tasty, damn it! I even got a feeling of being full, nice. Further, I was too tired to cry. My emotions, according to the dream screenplay still were sad, and I was getting some strange, a little uncomfortable pleasure from the thought that these are in fact not mine. It was enough for me and I went for a sleep. This is the surest way to wake up when inside a dream: to go in bed. I knew it from experience. Either that or to wait until a dream ends: five-six hours of subjective time – but I was bored. Again, I wanted to remember the dream as a tasty dinner and not a foreign loss. I got down and slept in.

1.

I woke up still in the dream. Phew. Familiar bed, familiar wall, not familiar ceiling? Heh, thanks, but the ceiling was also familiar: square shade, round lamp – very typical for the Japanese. For the manga and anime Japanese, to be more exact. Our army guys are like this: drag the round things, roll the square ones – a suspicious similarity of styles. No? OK, a not funny joke. I wonder, is this dream original or inspired by something? Rather the latter, the anime lamp is hinting at this. That’s unfortunate, original plots are more unusual, although the surrounding world is as real as it gets. OK. So, show must go on. Let’s try to sort this out—

2.

It is a bit disappointing to realise that my fantasy was not deep enough for an original world. 48 hours of local time have passed; and from these I can remember almost anything that happened to a minute exact. Rinko came by – that was the name of the neighbour girl. A small kid, babbles a lot, but cooking astonishingly fine for her age. Each of us is like nine years old. What’s funny: the social service inspector did not pay a visit. I explored the house, saw the basement and the attic. Walked around the town: a splendid park with a water storage reservoir; the business centre is full with skyscrapers, similar to Moscow-City, but like five times more; walked into the shops. Tried to figure out the time. The calender has the year 2005 on it. Again: hm!

It is school time, tomorrow I am going to school. Japanese anime has this at a fetish level. Tried to “remember” something about me – I remember very little. Tried to delve something in the papers. Found ownership papers on a land and a house somewhere in Noihara. It looks like I got this directly from grandfather, bypassing my parents. Hm, Rinko is a quite common name, but I have seen Noihara in an only one work. Anime or manga, as I said: unfortunately my imagination turned out to be not as good as I though it would be.

3.

Heh, the teachers are gazing off, but do not say anything. Traditional behaviour. I am curious, is it like this also in the original Japan? And wow, my sitting place is not at the window, but in the back of the class! Either the trope got broken or my imagination plays its games. But I doubt the imagination.

I was thinking a lot about what happened. Memorised a hell-lot of dates from the history of local Japan. Especially cool are the motoric writing skills. Well, I scribble in fact, just so-so for a school boy, but come on – I did not have them. Again, we communicate in Japanese. I understand everything, have no difficulties talking. I should have waken up, if all this surrounding stuff would be “supported” by my own brain. Hence, my conscience is on a “remote server.” An interesting side effect from the device, turns out to be not a stimulation, but something else. I even wanted to research it more.

To think logically, at 6 a.m. the PC turns the power off. And if not: at 8 a.m. the folks arrive at work and will turn the device off. Will I be back? This is very probable. How much of the local time will pass? I am curious!

4.

A week has passed. I am sturdy stuffing my head with various information, like a geek. Was painting hieroglyphs with brush and Indian ink. Cool! We had a painting lesson; needed to sketch a vase with flowers. I damned every second. Got mail from the bank, fetched the chequebook. I am getting weekly payments from parents’ account, not so tiny ones, I can afford not to cook at all. But Rinko provides me with food, either he brings something from her parents or cooks herself. Yeah, I drag on my neck a large “amulet:” a flat bag made of red silk, larger than my palm. Tried to took it off and “remembered” that my grandpa gave it to me when I was— Six? Seven? Something is— off with my memory. Or “was.” I can take the amulet off. But when I cannot step aside from it more than one-two meters: I naturally have heart attacks and get extremely scared at this moment. Damn mystics!

5.

One month. Have I created this world or got inserted into it? OK, more detailed: is this world created with the power of human imagination or has the mangaka foreshadowed it? Yeah, I know where I am. There are no experts on creating worlds around, cannot ask one. Or should we assume the theory of the infinite amount of worlds— Or sign up to the Max Frei religion, be Juffin Hally his prophet. [This is a reference to the fantasy series Labyrinths of Echo. It’s partially about travelling to other fantasy worlds and a power of imagination.] OK, from the point of view of a physical observer all this is bullshit. The observer hates the fact that the is the “chosen” one, in other words: he is deep in shit. Some damn wraiths— sorry, ayakashi. What about mazoku or kishins? Unfortunately, the manga is of the “ecchi” genre, meaning: “perversities.” Well, perversities from the Japanese point of view: I don’t see anything bad in looking at pretty skinny-clad girls. I would not look at guys, but— Oh, come on!

Back to manga. My bodyguard Himari. I could tell it apart from others because the protagonist there was a support fighter. Some clan speciality, “light ferry.” Strange name, what is this ferry about? Note, this is the only supernatural ability, in contrast to other clans. To adapt the history, the ancestors were not stupid: the only available magic is a counterpart on Uzumaki’s fuinjutsu from Naruto. Yep, I was watching this one. Now, I am a clan member. A sole one. Last heir. A clan head. Who is nine years old, crap! OK, I got distracted.

So, the now-mine ancestors did not watch Naruto, but were fighting in a similar manner. They casted spells onto themselves (something like “spirit sighting,” “acceleration,” “strengthen muscles,” and hell-I-don’t-know-what-else) and were slashing ayakashi. Oh, yeah, my clan was occupied with demon slaying. Some kind of secret magical shinobi, oh, Naruto, hi again. Common folks forgot about ayakashi since longer, thank you, government, for protecting us. I am not joking, altruistic demon slayers are in the past; well, Japanese are quite conservative, but the Western influence opened magi’s eyes: what the hell? Nowadays our magi (meaning: the demon slayer or exorcist clans, there are as many as 12 of them – and Japan is a small country) have the government influence and got to the top. But not all of them. After the manga the Amakawa clan is not aboard. Interesting, why the heck? Also is interesting, why are we so few. Like an endangered species. Or died out ones, huh. OK, I distracted again.

Amakawa. The gift. The spirits – to use an English word – are hard to kill because of their fu— fierce power. Not all, but some. So, one of my smart ancestors 200 or 300 years ago (it’s a bad thing to forget the history of your own clan! Bad, bad boy!) drastically solved the problem. He caught a cat. Hey, a demon cat. I mean, a cat spirit, but a quite advanced game unit, the ancestor almost kicked in the bucket. But anyway, the cat swore the vassal’s oath of alliance. How?! That’s the most intriguing question for me. Because when I am 16 years old the amulet will be no more and I will tastefully “smell” around with free magic energy. Free for the spirits, as nobody was teaching the heir. However, in anticipation of this I was given a descendant of that very cat. It will arrive to “protect and guide me” after the amulet will cease its action. As I remember from the manga, spirits will come as flies to… err… honey. While I cannot wield a sword or use magic! I cannot even give orders to my only assault unit! Why? Per manga: because my parents took me off and harshly guarded me from all supernatural things. Why did then the grandpops give me the amulet? Questions without answers…

6.

A day free! A sole one! If not this, my life would be beautiful; well, until I’ll turn 16. I had to wait until school break to go to Noihara. Apparently we have there a clan library. That was “useless”, the manga protagonist did not even look into it. “The techniques are taught orally.” Yep, sure! And the description of the strategic weapons – the demon cats – simply lies around in the house. I have my doubts, especially for a clan that can turn anything into an artefact. Amakawa chose a knowingly successful path: to recruit strong units in enemy’s lore – they did not need to overpower all of them, some were initially ready to collaborate; – and then: to support them during the fight. I wonder, how the energy creatures can be motivated to fight? Only by the safety of life close to people? Sounds like bullshit.

But Noihara now is a “domestic” enclave of “sworn spirits,” but I guess that most of them run away when the grand-pops and my parents died. Or they were released while there is no one to support? In a sense the spirits are vulnerable. To convey some influence onto the normal world they need to partially materialise (a physicist inside of me has seizures and demands Einstein’s blood: no damn E = mc² for ya!). A materialised spirit can be killed with a commoners’ weapon. But these bandits are very fast, even the weak ones. But well, not faster as a bullet, so that one Harry Potter fanfiction was right. Well, where can a nine year old buy a Kalashnikov or UZI? And I am not joking…

7

I overestimated myself. Long time since I was 9 years old! My legs hurt. After resting for 10 minutes everything is fine again. First I am thirsty, then I am hungry. Devoured two bags of chips, they are light; I am drinking the water slowly: here I cannot buy more. For two hours I am ascending in the mountains. Blast it!

To visit the clan house of my dead relatives is a bit angsty idea. After the manga the vampire ayakashi (what was her name again? Don’t remember!) and her friends are waiting for me here. But: think logically. The bloodsucker would prepare ambush only after the world would know of the appearance of the Amakawa heir. Now I am quasi not here. I am curious: does my amulet only protect me from “lighting up” with magical energy or does it fully shield me from the spiritual world? Should I go visit shrines? As far as I recall the “water god” who stuck to Yuuto was merely water spirit. If one can call this a creature that has the power similar to the jinchuuriki of the one-tailed beast from Naruto, only with water and not with sand. Yeah, the analogies with the anime about an idiot from the Uzumaki clan arise more and more often. I am here something like a mix of two protagonists: Naruto and Saske. Well, no red eyes for me, but having such a kekken genkai, read: an improved genome, I could make them happen. As I said, the “light ferry” can be applied to self. I feel myself like Kononocha’s genin, only that Danzo is not here. Wait, or is he— Wow, that is a very interesting question…

8.

A funny place. Well, and where is everybody? I was sort of expecting that near to the house I will be turned back by guys in black suits and sunglasses— How come? Yep, the Social Committee, wasn’t it? A strange name for a magical police. But no. Also, no spirits. By the way, the house does not look abandoned. The backyard is swept. And— Silence! Only the trees creep sometimes and the wind blows the leafs.

I hate using the manga as a guide! I do not remember all exactly, and there was not much useful information – like 5%. Oh, you are asking about other 95%? That’s fanservice! Handsome and well-curved gi— spirits! Hello memories!

No fresh food in the kitchen. Good thing is: we have electricity and even cell phone coverage. I called Rinko and reported in. The version for her is: I was honouring the memories of my relatives. She thinks for sure that I am at the cemetery. Well, I have a small altar directly in the house, an even the aroma sticks.

Where is this fucking brownie— I mean, the house spirit that should protect the house. Yep, that idiot girl that was throwing knifes at me in the canon. Oh, not me, but Yuuto, but, well, I am Yuuto now. I am hungry! I am the clan leader, now where is the due respect? Give me time to grok the “blood heritage” – that’s the direct translation of kekken genkai – and someone will have problems! I have very strong doubts that the vassal’s oath the free choice. Have you ever seen a guard cat? For sure the defeated spirits were “ferried”— How was that in the shinobi series? To put under a controlling genjitsu. Or the ancestors just flashed their ROM: the energy-based creature can be influenced much easier than humans. And human consciousness can be “ferried,” I am an example for this. Or: how did they create the “Noihara blades” out of insane ayakashi cats? Yeah, now I have found something useful in clan roll— sorry, books. Strange, the house is not closed, come in anyone. On the other side: there is nothing valuable here except the house as such— I am stupid! Stupid!

Surely, around the house is a barrier with a selective filter. Wait, in manga quite everyone was walking there. Or did it discharge when I turn 16? In other words, it will discharge in seven years. What a bad position: blind, unschooled, last standing member of a once-great clan that needs to be rebuild. Hm. In other words: being a typical shounen protagonist. A big “hm!”

9.

It looks like I was wrong when cursing the brownie. She is not here. It is some kind of matryoshka: a usual barrier protects the house from normal people and weak ayakashi. A check-up from the magical police would break through the barrier only to reveal an empty house. And if something really strong stomps in, the house spirit will appear. I recall now, the manga showed this technique. A virtual house. Err— Nope, mystical house, of course. A complete copy of the real thing, including the internal space organisation, and the spirits sit in there. I wonder, if I damage the house, will the ayakashi appear? Or I will get the knife first and questions later? I am not eager to check this… In the spirit spectre I can be recognised as a heir. I could take the amulet off— but I am not sure that the barrier around the house can withstand my energy. And if not: I am doomed. By the way, about being doomed. In the manga Yuuto has met doom: an insane nine-tailed kitsune. I do not even know how did they manage to overpower her. Heh, it seems that the nine-tailed ones are always insane.

10.

Took few most interesting note blocks from the library, I need to thing about it. I wonder, does the virtual— heck! the mystical house contain real technique descriptions? In manga Yuuto has not found them, but he was not searching! And Mizuki, the water spirit, was not able to read it. “Only the third stage of Sharigan can read the carving from the rock—” Crap, again Naruto! But I would not exclude an “eye cipher. Or hand cipher? Activation with aura— or a blood drop? Heck, I feel like in my home lab. ”Here is the sample, do what you want, but find me the resonance frequency.“ But even the visible text is fascinating among the lines. Hey, ancestors, what did you find that was so dangerous? Concerning the demonic cats, this is not ”the planting of the duty" as you call it. To be frank, this is a full-fledged artificial personality. Holy crap! Can you do this with people? You know, in the future, my fiance will arrive. Kuesu, I forgot the clan name. She was a guest here when she was a kid, we even kissed. Funny. The hormones will kick in only like in two-three years. The grandpa was doing something fishy, oh, very-very fishy. And what about my parents? Following the manga, they refused their demon slayer life style, but did they resign from their own power? I doubt this strongly.

11.

Poor Rinko was very nervous. Does she think I will jump of the roof from grief? We are friends like for one year – since we arrived here. She kept my dinner warm. Your mother is waiting for you, doesn’t she? Oh you sweeth— hm— mine. Why does she stick to me? If it is not— Hey, paranoia, shut up! “I’ll think about it tomorrow.”

12.

Both Rinko and her relatives treat me… strange. They like me so much, they feed me, but they do not interfere with my affairs. It’s like I am partially an adult, and partially a kid. When I visit them, I am welcome. Rinko makes me lunch. Nine year old Rinko, a tomboy, who only cares about “running until stumbling” and “be merry, don’t be sad.” My suspicion becomes a confidence. By the way, we have a very interesting living block here. Apple-pie order. Neighbours are never loud, all cars are clean. The shops have exemplary service – well, it’s more the issue of the service in Japan. Something like a circle of close-by people that interact with the lone grumpy kid. Me. I am not grumpy, I am normal, but comparing with my neighbour Rinko…

13.

I bought a PC. To be more exact: bought components and assembled them, something like this. Rinko is shocked. Opened up the side and showed what is what. Rinko is even more shocked now. Bought a DSL modem, pulled the LAN cable. It’s cheaper than buying books, especially foreign ones. When Kusaki – that’s Rinko’s family name – visited again, showed her a browser. She is reluctant to use a mouse. Japanese, oh my god! Her mobile sends and receives emails, this is normal. But a PC is only for professionals. Facepalm.

14.

Why was I thinking that the amulet blocks my powers? It shields them. The evidence is this electric water boiler that is successfully working for two months after the heating spiral burned out. I just shook it and wished that this untimely refusing to work device would merely make my tea warm. Yuuto, you are an idiot. And I am an extreme lazy-bones! To start using clan jutsu just because I was too lazy to get my ass up… My future is bright!

15.

Vacations were for one month only, the school has begun again. No real progress, the computer is at fault. I did not forget Russian – but it was hard to make a Japanese browser understand Cyrillic, – my English was also intact. Funny math class, where to write numbers down is harder than to solve the assignment. The history studies are wow— interesting! Sociology, too. I learned a lot of new things there. Maybe I should just pass the natural sciences classes as one-shot?

16.

Began doubting that “light ferry” is magic. Yep, just like this. By the way, here exists a British Magical Academy, they even have a website, even a Wikipedia article! If you are not a magus, you can hear a theory course, how strange. Oh year, Harry Potter also exists. And a local Russian fandom – oh god! Compared it to Japanese one. Don’t know who is more perverse. Some fantasy books I remember are somewhat different. Some barriers, magical circles, stealing energy from other folks – that was not in there before. And some druids. That gave me a thought.

I found out how does the boiler work. A part of the wand polymer is now a conductor. Plastic. Is. A. Conductor. I did not believe this, but a tester says so and I believe it. Of course it’s not a metal and is getting hotter, but for a boiler it’s not a problem.

In the evening in the park we stumbled upon some jerks. They did not notice us at first and got punched. By Kusaki! I am shocked. It turns out, these guys were bulling me a year ago – I did not got that then! – and Kusaki made them go away. That’s how we became friends. This girl kicks first class. Gave myself a fearsome oath to start jogging and to do workouts. Well, that is: to start jogging, my bones are still growing, they should not be overloaded.

17.

I am jogging in the evening, the mornings are full. Funnily, the breakfast is now more delicious. The fish with rice that I was slowly beginning to be fed of suddenly got new sides to them! Indeed, as they say: the breakfast eaten non-eagerly is eaten one day too early.

I wonder, is our school just that good or is it normal for Japan? Recently I often stay at the physical lab there, the instruments are primitive, but good build. Why? Well, I wanted to measure the acceleration of free fall and other constants. I don’t remember the Plank constant by heart, the Avogadro number seems to match. And the free fall acceleration also matches. Rinko is tailing me, she has problems with physics. Well, its only by name physics, the material is rather history of physics and pretty experiments: what else you need to attract kids? I am in the circle— physics club; it is fun to perform some experiments. Nobody allows me to do chemistry without supervision, biology is pitiful, but physics – I am doing what I want to. The supplementary course has some social overhead for club activities: to show the experiments not in the program and to talk about them. Well, I can do the talking, kids like it, too. Well, now I am not a grumpy kid, but a geeky kid – in others’ eyes. Nobody dares to say this aloud: Kusaki has a hard fist and an even harder boot.

I have got another “friend” called Taiso. To be more exact, he thinks I am his friend, ’cause friends help you cheat in the exam. Man, is he funny. Taiso tries to pimp up in front of Rinko. Nope, not to attract her, but the other way round: “go away, woman!” Now, Rinko indeed understood the law of the impulse preservation: if your opponent is heavier than you, you need to kick him in flight. Oops! They did break the desk.

18.

Rinko is doing kendo now. Well, my fault. I explained the law of the lever, mentioned Archimedes and the fulcrum. An immediate reaction, I was stunned. That’s why I respect my friend: between decision making and execution lie exactly five seconds.

I kept nagging ’till I got a lab laser, for five watt. A good one, made by Hitachi. The diffraction picture is very sharp. I was talking about lasers, then we switched to Star Wars and weapons. Phew, my tongue was tired! Amusing: girls were paying attention just like boys. To break the awe of the lab equipment – only for smart guys and take care! – told them about semiconductor-based laser pointers and shooting range. Curse this tongue! The folks are now willing to do laser tag, thank you my “friend” Taiso! Offered my help, what else could I do?

19.

Before Christmas – they are celebrating on the 25th of December. Shintoists are so funny! Christian holiday? Who cares! – we finished the setup. Senior students helped us a lot: not only they made photoreceivers – red and green circles, sewn on a cloth to have one on the front and one on the back – and also a radio sender for them. Now, upon a hit, the display shows “alive” and “KIA” fighters. Weapons were a separate project. We were forming plastic on our own. Shy Japanese girl were in fact even more active than the guys. Teachers are also happy! Especially the physicist and the one for that thing that Japanese have for labour studies – the students are doing something constructive, and they are at that for few weeks.

We performed a “test” fight in the backyard after the school – and lost to seniors. All grown-up: bushes without leaves are a bad protection from a laser beam. Nobody came up with the idea to lie down on the ground to minimise the attacked surface to zero. Except me. I also “cheated” when shooting two: via the reflection in the window. No one noticed. Rules need improvement; we agreed to meet during the school free time and to start a global shooting in the school rooms. In the end, we got out of the school around 8 p.m., playing and cleaning up took some time.

20.

Oh fuck! No, I did not forget about ayakashi, but to see it “live”… I did not shit my pants only because I forgot to do so. Nope, the amulet is working fine and that crawling shit, something like a huge caterpillar, did not notice me. But Rinko. Me, a good boy, groped the weapon. The “weapon” from laser tag. Probably, subconsciously I still feel like in a computer game. Well, I killed the spirit. From a game pistol, with a laser pointer. “Ferry”, you are a cool thing. And you do trigger in the right moment. A spirit and a boiler are – philosophically spoken – things of a same order philosophically spoken, ain’t they? Fuck, fuck, fuck!

I recovered Rinko with tea. Very sweat tea. She was then spitting, after a litre of consumed syrup. I swear, were we both at least twelve, I’d try the “standard” way of stress relief. Oh, who would heal me… And I won’t go to a psychologist. I sent the girl in her bed and switched off myself.

21.

I have no words. Only letters, and even these are swearing. What is this fucking sex polic— spirit police doing, while huge caterpillars are feeding on people here in the park?! Or do the wraiths only carefully suck people without eating? I did not let my neighbour/female friend think this was a bad dream: she should better not walk alone in the park. What a cool Christmas the day after tomorrow will be…

22.

Nothing happened. Either our psyche is too flexible, or— My parents did something with the block with our house. When I say “my parents,” I really mean Yuuto’s parents, I am used now to call them this. Rinko is cool now, the celebration was OK.

I had a look on the gun. Better not take it to school, or we’ll get dead bodies for real. A semiconductor-based milliwatt laser is now delivering somewhat in the order of half a kilowatt of power. It’s warming, but not fatally, it does not get too hot during a second-long impulse. And the energy this badass seems to take from my own— power? skill? feature? Hell knows how this is called. Minus a wall in the basement – melted lines in the concrete, vertigo, and a great hunger!

23.

I am an idiot. Again. I got Internet access and did not read news. Eight bodies. Eight people did flesh out that fucking mad worm in the park! As it turns out, the police found a madman. Dead. Yep, I killed him. But somehow the magical police did not reach me out. It seems that it’s not too hard to find me. Or is it? As I recall, the Yuuto should be watched by the council of the clans and later by Kuesu. Or did they just tactful look aside? And what the caterpillar really mad? And what was the reason? Or— OK, I don’t want to know it, but it makes no sense to kill people. Ayakashi are killing just like humans do – either their enemies or for a meal. The hunger of the body can be satisfied with a conventional food, that people (sic!) are producing. Nowadays, there are almost no man-eating ayakashi. Compare a raw bland human and a meat pie: hot, just made. The caterpillar did not eat anyone. Maybe, the slayers killed someone from its family? Or the passionate many-legged pal just broke out from a years-long incarceration?

The magic cops thought apparently that ayakashi themselves killed the disrupter. As far as I recall the manga, they have here something like a bund commune, controlled by very strong old guys like Corpse Devourer or River Deity. I wonder, do magic cops have connections to that gang? Manga says no, but “I am not believing.”

24.

I was sitting in the basement and thinking a lot. I got a breakthrough. Was the fright the reason? But now I have another problem. Now I launch the “ferry” only in the basement, as I was playing with a magnet – a stupid small round thing to tap the notes to the fridge. I was holding it in my hands and then put it aside. On top of the mug from which I was drinking my tea. And it just— floated in the air. I froze. That’s what they call “maglev.” A levitation for real, but not magical or something, but magnetic. A funny physical trick, “the Mohamed’s coffin.” Bring a magnet close to a horizontal ring made from a superconductor, the magnet will induce Eddy currents in the ring. The electric current induces a magnetic field, directed strictly opposite, that’s how you compensate the gravity, that’s levitation. The rim of my cup became a superconductor, with my small help. Oh dear, they’ll kill me! Either that or I’ll never get out of an underground shelter – if I show this cup to anyone! A superconductor at room temperature. How, damn it, how it works? Well, I was reading, “there” yet, that ceramic superconductors are theoretically possible. Yep, at 70 centigrade. What a trap! The “ferry” is a devilish dangerous thing. For me, not even for enemies. I have already secured a coffin for me from the oil tycoons, if this cup gets in the wrong hands. Fuck, I am not even sure I can reproduce this! Can I—

25.

Rinko and her parents are back from visiting relatives. Hello, tasty food, nice to meed you again! I ordered some metal racks for the basement, partially to cover up the butched up wall. A safe was too expensive. I also did not order a bank cell. Come on, a nine year old puts his favourite mug into a bank cell, that’s ridiculous! I fear, I’ll soon have more of similar— souvenirs. But my basement is now cool, looks like a military base— or a mall storage. I put the cup on the shelf, that’s the first family artefact, damn it!

26.

The shelf got another five items, the cherry on the cake is, of course, the non-tearable toilet paper. Though, it still has all paper properties: it can be cut, it gets soaked, an so on. Should I conquer the world now or what? I see no other option to research these materials. I wondor, could my relatives do things like this? I think, they could. They would be alive now, otherwise.

Two days until the school break ends. The ability to make shit with my hands – and I’m not talking about cooking – is now under control. It’s easy. I almost broke my protecting amulet – I just love playing with something in my arms, and now I have this large thing hanging on my neck… I got away with that. Looks like I did. At least, no one hurries to me and tries to eat me. But the flash was— wow. Good that it was still day, so no one saw anything. I sweatdropped. Twiche. First, ’cause I though, I’ll go blind; sencond time, when I believed to have lost my protection. I was holding my hands to the eyes— Fuck! I have seen this. Lines. Curves. Sophisticated networks of 3D structures. That all in reverse colour, the background being the light stains in damaged eyes. The retina returned to normal by the evening, I hope, I did not damage my sight. I have seen the seals. I even understood how to turn the “eye jutsu” on. And I have seen myself.

27.

I look like a starfish. I mean— in the special “sight.” A light nucleus with undecipherable structure and spreading forking beams of light. I am moving my hands and the beams are combined to bundles and are shooting from my palms. Some beams concentrate in my head, there are tightening spots in my arms and legs. Everywhere else the light beams equally dissipate in the space around me— up to like 3 meters of distance. In all directions. The house is a one huge seal. The doors, the windows, the floor, the ceiling, the walls – everything is in a thick structure, a mesh of lines. My own structure is touching the house seal. Like— like a tram on the rails. That one thing from the amusement park: small electric cars with a driver and a conductor net on the ceiling. The net is connected with a beam of pantograph. The cars are moving; the net and the pantrographs are striking sparks. That’s very similar to my issue here.

28.

Back to school. Shocked Rinko today: asked her to go out twenty minutes earlier. Yep, she is not leaving me alone: I cannot make her stop thinking that I also was frightened by that “maniac.” Recall that I was the one who killed it— him. Or her. No, I told Rinko that was a spirit, an ayakashi. I even have shown her pictures from Wikipedia. Rinko thought, that’s some kind of an acid trip, a bit more material, but not overly dangerous. Folks ain’t believing in spirits and also not in magic. Considering real magical schools and “sorcerer” as an official job description, that’s strange. But just a little. In my “old” world I have seen similar issues. Maybe we got magi over there too?

On our way I activated the “ferry” view a few times. I need to think of a name for that. The result was not very shocking. This internal light is not just— poning out of me everywhere, it’s interacting with the outer world. The way to school is in chaotic lines, some are on nearby walls and trees. Not a seal, no. It has no particular structure; I don’t know if it does influence something. But my living block is the energy view looks strikingly different. There is a real, specially made seal. Like one kilometer wide. Houses. Trees. The soil, like few meters deep. People! Grown-ups, kids. Even dogs. And cats. And some birds. Everything is in the web of light.

My mind refuses be scared again.

T/N: Note, the character mixes the Groke from /Moomin/ series by Tove Jansson and /Lotta/ by Astrid Lindgren. You know, he read these in childhood that was long ago.

29.

“I’m living in a fairy tale.” But the tale is kinda scary. Astrid Lindgren had a character called Lotta in her Moomin series. Everything she sits on freezes. I am like this. If I stay on a spot for a while, beneath unfolds a blot of light web. Frankly, it does not hold long, if it is not renewed regularly by my appearance, like the way to school is. And the properties of the materials do not change. I think. My own seals, like the one on the superconductor mug or that on the laser gun, look like more condensed and structured mesh of lines. Finally, professional seals of my relatives look— finalised. And extremely intricate. Especially the one on the amulet. I can distinguish in the larger seals – like the ones on the walls of the living block – separate— blocks. Wavy “combs,” some closed rings, more complex elements. The seals on people are more compact, it’s hard to distinguish elements. And the climax: the amulet. Its seal transcends the material borders and it is moving, changing— Enough said.

My problem is: I do not understand how is this working. Where is the loop back to the amulet? Not there. It does not stop me from creating the spontaneous threads of light. And how is a seal able to change the material properties? Questions, only questions; now I have a headache.

30.

Winter in Japan – at least here – is short and not severe. Almost no snow. February has passed, spring begins: not only according to calendar. Soon is sakura blooming. Half of the school are fans of laser tag. School administration opened an official tournament after the “massacre” on holidays. One class is one team. I have even heared about bets.

Seals are still not clear understandable for me. The only progress: I got what is responsible for what in people. The seal in the muscles stands for strength and sturdiness. Bones are just sturdy. Subtract these and here you go: a seal for improving the contraction stength of fibres. It seems correct, but I feel quite anxious from the idea of testing it. Heck, it gives me creeps!

Some time ago, once I have managed to recreate my “seal” from the laser gun, I put it on some wood stick. And “put my energy” into it. Fuck! Good that this idiot of me took a non-conductive material! Good that close by was an iron leg of a park bench. This bench was wooden itself, which is good, too. Also good is that no one was around. Results: slowly recovering blinded eyes from the discharge arc; slightly impaired hearing from the thunder; bench leg, molten as from an electric welding, where the arc connected, and— a fully intact stick. That I made into a dangerous weapon, much worse than a stunner. A further “artefact” lies on the shelf in the basement now. I already blocked a half of the section with similar junk.

By the way! Rinko made me chocolate for Valentine’s Day. She was giving it to me with such a red face that I made heroic efforts not to burst in laughter. She’s so cute! However, I could not tell, how is the light seal influencing her. And what would happen, if the seal is removed. If seals can be removed at all.

31.

Plum trees are blooming, my brain is overloading. Everything is barely advancing – I don’t mean “normal” school, of course. Light Ferry is no magic. Because the energy, that “performs” magic I could not and still cannot see, as it turns out. I was trying to turn my spontaneous construct into something more controllable. One hundred wooden M2 pencils as the initial material, two weeks of wasted evening, and I have managed to construct from the pencils and myself a direct current energy source. What a cool feeling when a lightbulb burns in your hands. I managed to power it for almost an hour, by the way, so much about how much power do I have. Though, what is the efficiency of my device, is not clear, but I have an estimate. To the point: I noticed that when I “switch on” the lightbulb nothing changes in the visible pattern of light lines. Hence, I need to experiment more: now with my own eyes. In fact, this though alone makes me stop wishing to see magic. Or should I just get extremely scared again?

32.

The plum— err— the sakura is blooming! Classmates turned mysterious and moronic. Sometimes the wind ascends a winter storm made of petals, this is truely beautiful. But paining the same blooming plum is not funny at all. Good that we were doing so just on the next alley. Also, the school festival will take place; not quite soon, like, in one-and-half months, but we already need a topic for our class. Class rep was nagging us. Very funny: we are all such kids, extremely proud from the feeling of self-importance, and our homeroom teacher — actually a young gal, she is, like, 25 — is also very serious. My face is also getting tough: I am wearing glasses. In the kiosk where I got a hundred of them at once, this model was called “computer glasses.” But they look cool. Yep, I tried like twenty of them before I got the “bulk.” How he cringed, poor guy, I even had to leave some prepayment. But that Japanese guy was a very polite Japanese, so he did not ask anything.

Why do I need glasses? Well, I thought that instead killing my eyes I’d try glasses first. I have not mastered the “magical sight” yet, but I decided to get everyone familiar to the sight of me in glasses. I told just this the class rep: “To look more like a geek.” Why is everyone who hears this so overrun?

33.

Aaaachoo! Rinko “saved” a kitten, an extremely young one, just got its eyes open. Good that you can save yourself from a magically induced allergy with usual suprastin. Neither Rinko, nor her parents ever dealt with animals if not my help, neko’s fate would be pitful. Had to take Rinko by her arm and buy cat milk, nipple, napkins. The latter were needed after I fed the kitty with usual cow milk from a syringe. Now my neighbour is dashing home after school to look after the pet, then she runs back again for self-study. Yeah, she is fast. Unlike me. This is a demon hunter, what a shame! I often try jogging in the park, but I lack both speed and stamina. I am very afraid to “modernise” muscles, even though I have already copied and modernised the structure. Same for bones. I merely need to understand how does this work and then I can try to create my own seal. All my internals are twisting when I think how much knowledge was lost with the last one who was introduced to clan techinque. Fucking morons! Formally, it’s not really my heritage, but I got into the role— well, it’s mine now!

Aside from that, all the limits on the term of awaking have passed. I don’t even know what to think about this. After comming up with like three dozen hypotheses, I deciding to stop playing a fortune teller. Even more: we have here like a hell much of “specialists” in injecting a conscience into someone’s else body, starting with ayakashi and ending with local magi. I cound try to acquire the required information— later on— Survival is the current priority. Good that the amulet is so robust and seems to do self-repearing. By the way, its seal is changing over time, but too weakly for me to comprehend what is it about.

T/N: Remeber that the protagonist identifies himself as Russian.

34.

Rinko is through with milk-feeding her kitten, he is now capable of non-assisted eating. We made a 3D cinema in class. Hail the Russian torrent servers! You can not only find there a cam-rip for a film that is not yet running in cinemas, but also a full version of a Japanese cinema classics. In Japanese. For home cinema. I also found on some our forum how to make a projector from a television set. Very nice! And how much fun I got from the team speak in “Lineage” on a Russian server: even the accent of my young body almost disappeared! Well-well, a master’s introduction to swearing from the lab for the young lads was also included.

The festival was also pure gold. Did not laugh that much since longer! And even a fraction of this fun was not shown in any anime. You just need to keep your eyes open. Well, also the preparation. Like, when we were painting my “computer glasses” in two colours. With a nail polish. We, guys. By the way, the teachers are working hard here, in Japan. Even such a not-quite-fitting into the group guy as me is now perceived by his nine-year-old peers as “ours”. Though, I am almost ten years old now, it’s soon a year since I am here.

35.

What is magic? Oh, well, let’s be more concrete: what is magical energy? Twelve variants of a seal and, correspondingly, twelve glasses. Each seal shows a movement— something when I power on electric artifacts. Something different for each variant. By the way, the light lines of a seal appear to have varying functions. Rinko has no magic by definition. She should not have it. But as the seal speciman #22 that seems to register weak high-frequency electric currents— or something— Well, the muscle amplifier looks like a dumb forcing of all fibres of a muscle to contract strictly synchronous, not in a time frame of few milliseconds as in a purely biological sample. Please don’t ask me what part of the body of my female friend I was peeping at and for how long!

36.

Today I turned ten years old and I made myself a “gift”. The second wall is occupied with a rack with cages holding hamsters. First I thought about getting mice, but white lab mice do not look very much like house pets. I did not want to risk. I just said, I am buying them for school pet circle, it went A-Ok. I need to conduct experiments, six years are left to the moment X. It would be dumb to die because I am so tasty.

Now I now where to get pure magic to compare things to. Ayakashi. Apparently they consist of pure energy, even though they have a body from matter. Now I will walk in the park in the evening, it will be Ok, as it’s summer. And we’ll get summer vacation soon. It would be nice to remove the attached curse: Rinko is running everywhere with her pet, and I have to sneeze when I visit. This annoys me a bit. But— To find a curse in my own body? I do not even know where to start. Now, the spirit hunt begins next saturday. And now: go feed the hamsters!

37.

Minus two hamsters. I need to cast muscle amplifier and bone strengthener together, or else the animal broke both front paws. The second “disabling” happened in course of a completely successful casting of an amplifier. The cage rods were bitten though— and swallowed. Looks like internal bleeding.

I crafted a magic wand. Yep, sure! For real it is a distance shocker, based on “farey”: a tube, laser pointer, and an optimised seal from my first artefact, the gun. (Yeah, I got a grip on that. With trial and error method. And a bit of knowledge of physics.) The laser ionises the air, and from the edge of the improvised stunner the discharge arrives over the air. Plus the glasses to protect my cornea, as I got “arc eyes”. The usage looks highly magical: point the wand to the target in a most pathos manner possible. Oh, a poor wall, a yet another scotched blot! The working distance of the stunner was like five yards, maximally ten. This weapon should have similar characteristica. Need also to eat something sweet before usage, I am very starving now.

38.

First try failed. Better luck next time! The park has, surely, lights. On the alleys. New moon, stars, light pollution do illuminate a bit. The tops of the trees. I need the night sight glasses. I wonder, do the bodies of demons emit heat? Maybe, I could just buy a night sight in a shop and let it be… On the other hand, with the large night sight on my head I would look even more strange than just a boy wandering in the park at 3 a.m. They are also heavy— I have decided to craft a night sight myself. I need practice.

39.

Second try failed. Better luck next time! Three glasses worn consecutively look impressive— or at least take aback. I closed the curtains to train at home, and then Rinko came for a visit, while I was currently in the hall.

A positive result: I was right, the glasses with the detector of biological currents can be used as a selective filter. Many ayakashi wander around in the human form, this way I should be able to tell them apart from humans. I should feel the Force, just like any hunter of any clan, but— it could be the blocking of the amulet, it could be that I did not meet any spririts after that maniac caterpillar. Or I just don’t understand what I am feeling: noone can teach me.

A negative result: Rinko still cannot get over myself in three glasses at once. I regret telling her that one glass is not enough to express my charisma.

Well, okay. I think I should tell her about my magical heritage. Either way the girl will get deep into this just as soon as I will. Well, there is way around this: just stop all comminication with her, but— Maybe it’s really egoistic, but I fear to loose my sole friend. Rinko is indeed everything I have, the only person who is concerned about me. A further point: there are not so many ayakashi compared to human population, and it’s much more probable to get into a car accident that smacked with a tentacle or mind control. But forewarned is forearmed. And last but not least: the responsibility. I don’t know if my parents “ferried” my neighbour on purpose to change her attitude towards myself, or did she just got hit with all the quater and caring is part of ther personality, but as it happened that I am the last clan member, I am responsible for her. And, on a big scale, also for others in our block.

But, additionally to all these thoughts of high moral, I got a very pragmatic one: when you are ten you will believe into magic easier than when you are sixteen. Not merely believe, but integrate into your world view and react calmly. Ok, commence educating the allies.

40.

Long since I have seen someone being to amused. I told Rinko about great, but extinct clan of exorcists and its last heir, me. As I said, it’s shounen plot story. As a proof of my “magical force” I suggested to Rinko to wear my glasses. And got another burst of laughter. What? It works for me! What’s the prob— Idiot! Power source! The girl has no magic, as I reckoned earlier. Okay, let me touch the glasses on the handle— Wow, very large eyes you got! Ten year olds have very expressive eyes already, but like now it’s almost like in an anime! Snapped on a mobile phone, I’ll print it and hide in an album. I’ll need teasing material in, like, five years.

Ok, now she is unpaused and ready to hear relevations about the wonders of the world. By the way, thank you, many-legged maniac, now I have someone to blame for “sudden enlightment” and “revival of childhood memories”.

41.

I am an idiot. How could I ignore the problem solving principle: go from simple to complicated? Now, why do I try to find an adventure upon my arse in the dark city park instead of a safe experiment in “laboratory conditions”? What happens if I stumble upon someone really strong? I won’t defent myself with a stunner from the Corpse Eater or Water Spirit. Also, I extremely risc to reveal myself. I don’t need such riscs, shoo, shoo!

Ok, an exercise for the elementary school. We have a “weaving” that works on “magic”. Add to this that I can disregard the power— magic— mana— whatever loss from the glass. It’s logical, if I can create a “magical device”, I would be able to create a battery for it with my “ferry”.

Meanwhile, the vacation begins in a week. Interim exams are almost over, we’ll get an assignment over vacation and— well, no vacation for you. Or, will I manage to get some rest?