An Arcanist in Karakura Town 15.5: K. Ichigo 1 (Patreon)

Merry Christmas, y'all!

-VB-

An Arcanist in Karakura Town
Interlude: Kurosaki Ichigo 1

-VB-

“WILL YOU STOP IT?!”

“NEVER!”

It was another normal day for him despite having dealt with the crisis that had threatened to swallow his town some time ago.

Nothing seemed to change inside his house, and while there were days that he wished his dad would stop it with the insane antics, Ichigo was also glad to have this “normalcy.”

If only dad just would stop waking him up with drop kicks.

Ichigo scoffed at the idea while leaving his dear old dad smoldering on the living room floor from his counter attack. He walked over to the kitchen where Yuzu was preparing breakfast.

"Ichi-nii, can you get me the wide plates?" she asked politely while peeking just a bit out of the kitchen.

He stopped his descent into his chair and rose back up. "Sure," he replied and got to helping his little sister. "Curry rice today?"

"Yup. We had some leftover pork and vegetables, so this is what I chose to make."

Rukia ran down the stairs at this point, greeting Karin who was on the couch and "cutesying" around his dad. The ignorant man quickly got off the floor and began to wax poetics about how "Rukia-chan was the best~!" Ichigo ignored him.

Ichigo hummed as he helped Yuzu portion out the curry rice. He liked Yuzu's curry rice so this was a win for him.

Everyone came around and sat. Breakfast came and went quickly, and he was off to school while leaving his dad to walk on their mother's wall-wide portrait about ungrateful children who ignored him.

He found the walk to school to be… abnormally peaceful. Even with Rukia beside him, comfortable silence reigned over their walk.

That in and of itself was alarming.

There should have been a lot of Hollows in the area. Why were there none?

"You noticed it," Rukia spoke up.

"Yeah. There is not a single Hollow where there should be at least two."

"Can you check if there is anyone around us?"

He huffed and stopped walking. Closing his eyes, he reached out for the spirit ribbons… And found an abnormality. He opened his eyes and saw it.

A grey ribbon.

Frowning, he snapped his hand out and caught it. "Grey?" he mumbled, and Rukia looked intrigued by it as well. "Know anything about this color?"

"No… I have never heard of a grey spirit ribbon."

"Should we check it out?"

"... Yes. You have Kon?"

Grumbling, he pulled out Kon from his backpack and popped the artificial soul out even before he could gush about Rukia.

He neatly slid out if his body and Kon took over. Looking at the two artificial souls, he ordered, "Go to school and don't be a pervert."

"You're no fun!" Kon whined.

"Not my problem, idiot," he scoffed before he nodded to Rukia, who quickly climbed onto his back, and then he jumped away.

He sped along the rooftops, silently jumping off from one place to abother before he arrived near the source of the grey ribbon.

"Where is it..?" he mumbled as he let Rukia down onto fhe flat rooftop he was on and looked around.

He saw it before Rukia's phone went off.

"Hollow to ournorth," he quickly said before jumping towards it. It was only after three street jumps that he noticed the Hollow being chased by someone.

It was a man dressed with a robe, armed with two staves, and … a Hollow mask.

"Fireball!"

A bright ball of fire fired off from an extended staff and crashed into the Hollow. It erupted into a small explosion of fire before disappearing without much smoke.

The Hollow that had been struck, an ape-like thing, was on the ground, already losing bits of itself which signified its death. The mystery man jumped onto it and quickly ripped its mask off. He did something that tungled against Ichigo's sense before hooking the mask that wasn't disappearing onto his waist… where there were four more such masks.

Then he looked up at Ichigo, and he looked pissed. It was just in the way he moved and posed. He was angry, and while he tried to hide it when he turned to look at him, Ichigo already saw the tattletale signs.

It was kind of a developed skill from having to deal with thugs and bullies who made exaggerated movements.

"Oh, if it isn't the troublemaker."

That irked Ichigo a bit. "Who are you calling a troublemaker?" he growled. "You're the one throwing explosive fireballs in the streets!"

"Combat by their very nature is destructive. No, I mean you and your Quicy friend's little challenge that endangered my women and her friends, you dipshit," the man snarled right back.

Ichigo twitched at the mention of the Holloe bait fiasco. "I didn't see you at all."

"Because I was busy protecting the school you and all other spirituals neglected."

Ichigo had no response to that.

"If the bait wasn't strong enough to keep most of the Hollows focused on, then the city would have had at least a thousand dead people-"

"And we got rid of it, didn't we?" Ichigo replied snappishly. "We cleaned up the mess we made."

"No. You did not. Nine people nearly died because of you two's antics."

This new information drained blood from Ichigo's face. He hadn't known that people nearly died!

"I have half a mind to beat the shit out of you and your accomplice… but the candy shopkeeper dissuaded me. I will not holld back next time. Why, I might have to hurt your family to make sure you understand what's at stake here."

That drew him up into a rage. "You leave my family out of this!"

"Did you leave my women out of your spat?"

Ichigo tsked. "I wasn't the one who started it."

"... I suppose that is right. Your Quincy friend on the other hand…" the man turned his head and Ichigo followed his gaze. To his surprise, he saw Ishida standing on another roof. "You, I will beat the shit out of right now."

Then before he could even react to those words, the man extended his hands abruptly-

"Hold Person."

- and Ishida froze, halfway into his bow drawing motion.

"Shatter!"

Ichigo felt it more than he saw it. There was a ripple before Ishida was screaming in pain. He snapped towards the stranger. "Stop it!"

The man turned to him, a baleful Holloe mask glaring up at him from below. "Or what?"

Ichigo drew his sword. Rukia hesitated beside him.

"I didn't even use a kill spell on him. Fuck off before Ibdecide that you'll feel the burn too." He turned his head back to Ishida. "Shatter!"

Ishida bled from his ears and nose. Ichigo was about to jump in, but the man dropped his arms and Ishida fell on the ground. "Get your friend out of here. Next time he pulls shit like that, then I am going to pull his arms apart."

And then he just walked away. Torn between stopping an obviously dangerous person and getting Ishida to the hospital… he jumped over to Ishida, who was actually conscious.

"Let's get you to a hospital," Ichigo grunted as he slung the Quincy's arm over his shoulder.

-VB-

Or in which Alan took out his anger on convenient targets with a convenient reason because he was still upset about losing.