Chapter 32 Freedom?

Flashback

-...you remember someone reaching out to you or touching you in the spirit world, don't you? — Wakana asked with an inscrutable face.

— I dreamt of a girl...somehow... — I draw hesitantly.

— You didn't sleep — you didn't have time. When you got sick, I decided to come back immediately, and at the border you shivered and glowed for a second. That's it, we're back. — The girl didn't take her eyes off me, nor did her mother or Tenno-sama.

— It seemed to me that we spent a lot more time there... no, I've read that all sorts of things happen in the spiritual planes, but time lapses don't happen there, and visions are visions, only in real time for a mage, realized....

— They do happen... — the priestess said in a strange tone and with no less strange eyes that examined me. — When a demon or a god pays attention to you, anything can happen... there's no demonic imprint on you...

— God? — I asked in surprise, feeling my eyebrows raise on their own.

— Goddess. — The priestess suddenly smiled, wide and bright. — It seems that Amaterasu-sama was interested in something, so much so that you received her blessing... — the girl looked at the spider woman and nodded in agreement.

— Sora-kun wasn't strong enough for the god to speak to him, even a light touch had a strong effect, so Amaterasu-sama couldn't explain it herself. But she conveyed her wish through me. — The girl was silent for a while, covering her eyes, and then spoke without opening them. — Live, child! Live and let others live! Remember your past self, your present self, and become your present self! And I will take care of you...

I wasn't even that surprised. Why not? It's simple: I'm a magician, I can learn amazing miracles, twist the laws of nature any way I want, wander through spiritual worlds, look into the past, the present and, if I'm lucky, the future.

 And now, if you add it all up and think hard, remembering that there are such born (not necessarily) magicians as demonologists and necromancers, whose essence of work concerns souls, the conclusion is simple: magic erases the limits of man.

Wrong, every race and affiliation of mages has no limits, except the ones they make themselves, or are afraid of, which is not the point. Now, to think for a moment about the gods.

These beings even live in their own plane, where even a strong magician can't go, and use powers of such power that not every higher ritual would repeat such a thing. Based on all these and many other things, the conclusion is obvious: any god or demon must immediately recognize that I was not born in this body and that my soul came. They did not expel me, did not set any conditions — good....

Before the last thought could form, my legs gave out and my eyes went dark. There was a strange heavy sound in my head, like a heavy sigh, like the howling of a storm... words cannot describe it. Nor could I understand the chaos swirling around in my head that almost made me vomit... all at once. And then my head exploded in pain and I blacked out and woke up the next day with clear knowledge, conditions and limitations.

***

And now I'm sitting in a fancy garden, watching rainbow carp, and I'm depressed. That's what they call it. It should be noted that now, thinking more or less freshly, I come to the conclusion that it is necessary to make legs out of Japan, but where to — there were no unambiguous thoughts, and there are none.

 However, after this "coming" I now know that Australia and Oceania, Africa, South America, a part of the Middle East and a part of Asia are closed to me. And not because some of those areas are tied up with doing business with the Japanese, no. I just can't go there, that's all. It's a law, or an order.

Too bad, I was looking forward to making good friends with some sultry hottie from Argentina or Brazil. No, I lied, I wanted to go to South America. And now you can't. That's sad.

Well, there are options, but, damn, now we have to consider the order, which complicates the task many times over. It's good that the blessing came from such a peaceful, even peace-loving goddess as Amaterasu, and not some unstable psycho with a shill in his karma (any accent will do).

The mother's behavior is also tense. The instructions didn't say anything about her, and she can be removed from my problems for a while until everything is settled. But my intuition whispers something vague, especially when Heavenly Fox invites the current matriarch of the Hoshino clan to a private conversation every day... and every time, Mother comes with a strange smile and remains silent like a partisan.

No, she told me that as a token of appreciation for our help, we are now welcome guests at any time, and a guest house has been assigned to us. Also, one of the trophy swords that once belonged to the Hoshino clan was broken, and the local craftsmen would reshape it during the three months we would be here.

Mother promised to take care of my training and even tried to scare me. But, damn it, I THINK something is being kept from me, I sense some problems for myself, but I can't make sense of the premonitions! No shit!

We have a bunch of kitsune maids who follow me around all the time (they think I don't notice them), and whenever I try to look through the spiritual plane, they immediately distract me. It's annoying, I even snapped once, and at the end of the first week I yelled at one of them!

My mother immediately jumped on me and started beating my brain with lectures and another beating (disguised as training).

Anyway, by the beginning of the second week, I came to the conclusion that I was stupid, and Ba-san confirmed my conclusions. What did I want, freedom? So where is it? Why did I run away from Miyazaki, you ask, to be caught in the web of some devious plan again? I didn't want that. If I wanted to save myself, I saved myself. If I wanted to save my mother, I saved her.

She's safe, she's well taken care of, she's made friends with the local government (a few times I've seen other Ayakashi Elders come to tea parties, especially the old tanuki), she's having fun. So let her continue to have fun, but I have to go. Yes! I have things to do!

Quietly packed up, did some reconnaissance, even with the help of the dolls and the Brothers (NAMES, DAMN IT!), and at three in the morning decided to leave in English... almost. Left a simple shikigami with a message. Well, here we go. He pulled himself together, left the mansion, and made his way out of Mystic City. It's worth explaining that the Ayakashi have several actual cities. Enclosed ones. They are indeed cities, but with a nuance.

Different cities at different times, but here's the capital, Kyoto, was founded in 1699, if our time. And no, do not rush to condemn me for ignorance of dates, here everything is correct.

 The thing is that in their time the strongest ayakashi somehow managed to fix a clear, full imprint of Kyoto in the spiritual plane, and then it was stupidly turned into another plan — a pre-prepared spatial fold. And the exits to the simple world can be reconfigured, moved, and so on. How was this done? I don't know. I don't even have theories.

I just heard it in the same words I just told you. The funny thing is that almost all of the people who made this miracle are still smoking, but they don't say anything, they just smile or whatever. It is only known that the instigator and the main "incarnation" — Nurarihyon, and to look for this crazy thief of tea and cookies — a thankless job. In addition, I began to suspect that this cadre had been reincarnated as a god, because literally the next day, after I heard about the creation of Mystic Cities and wanted to talk to Nurarihyon, I began to lose food. Mostly tea and sweets, a little less alcohol (I didn't have much of it anyway, well, the stuff that wasn't sealed). Tried to find it, lure it in, but it didn't work.

Switched from tea to coffee. So one morning there were goat balls in the coffee bag. Anyway, I gave up on the bastard and went about my business. No more disappearances. Oh well. Let's get back to my escape. I was about to leave through one of the temples when I was attacked.

I was quickly defeated, twisted, and rather neatly than morally traumatized, and returned to the place. And in the morning, bound and angry, I was visited by my mother, Tenno-sama, and Wakana, all three echidna servants peering in through the open doors to the room.

And all of them, ALL of them! Fucking hell! The faces were so grim and satisfied that even a cart full of lemons wouldn't help. The humiliation lasted the rest of the day, but the very next morning I was a sight for sore echidnas, with caustic pink, acidic salmon, and a perfect balance of the two previous colors on the same head.

 And it wasn't an illusion, but powerful potions, and the kitsune will now walk around with those colors for at least a month! I thought for a while about how to retaliate against the others, and even made a few attempts, but I hesitated.

A staff predictor in the enemy camp is inconvenient. It's also funny that I never found out who caught me. No, it's pretty clear — some Ayakashi secret service and their fighters. But the level of their work makes me feel like an idiot. I wonder what Miyazaki and his lackeys are counting on if the enemy has fighters of THAT level? Or am I missing something? — That was a rhetorical question.