An Arcanist in Karakura Town 18 (Patreon)

An Arcanist in Karakura Town
Chapter 18

-VB-

Ichigo came at me with a vertical downward strike. I tilted left as if to dodge leftward before pushing off rightward. He did try to correct his attack in my first tilt, but outright missed me as I dodged the other way. His sword dug into the asphalt road and stuck for a moment.

I used no spells.

With my armored gauntlet, I lashed out with a punch to his upper left back and lashed out again, striking his lower left back right where his kidney was.

Ichigo hissed as my hits staggered him. Only a moment later, he succeeded in pulling out his sword and slashed at me horizontally with enough force to make the air ripple and explode outward like a bomb.

He’s getting stronger, I thought to myself as I slid backward and then penetrated into his defense.

His eyes widened before I delivered a double strike against his sternum, making his eyes widened further from pain and loss of air as his lips burst open and violently exhaled air. His eyes scrunched up as he tried to suck in air, but I didn’t let him.

The thing about Tecton’s power was not only power armor manufacture; it could also generate localized earthquakes. Now, how it could do this was up to the actual parahuman, or Tecton in Worm canon and me in this universe. Tecton did it by creating “Piledriver Gauntlets” that could make earthquakes.

I chose to do something more subtle than just “one punch, one result.”

As Ichigo brought his hands to his sword for a horizontal slash again, I punched him and activated the earthquake power.

“Did you know?” I asked as his body froze from something happening from within. “I can make earthquakes? And what are earthquakes but mere rippling effects from tensions broken underground?”

"What … Are … you…?!" he hissed as his body began to tremble on its own.

"I'm being petty. I could have done what I did to your friend right now, but I wanted to do something more. I wanted to test these out."

His skin tore open, his eyes bled, and finally, when it looked like he would shatter, the trembling stopped. Ichigo dropped his zanpakuto and fell to his knees, vomiting up blood.

"I call that Timed Detonation. Each strike against you was not meant to hurt you seriously but set off an 'earthquake' with the final hit."

He stopped coughing and looked up with a glare.

And suddenly, I felt an overwhelming spiritual pressure come down on my body.

'Yeah, I expected this…' I growled mentally as I jumped away from Ichigo.

Ichigo pushed himself up, surely but slowly.

'Bullshit shonen protagonists…'

He gripped his zanpakuto and pulled it up. "... Zangetsu, huh?"

… ah hell no. He shouldn't even have access to his zanpakuto yet! What the fuck?!

Still moving under the immense spiritual pressure, I quickly held up my gauntlets and focused on my own spiritual flow. I pushed my spiritual energy into the quartz crystals embedded on each of the knuckles of the gauntlets, catalysts for my magic spells.

"Shatter!"

Ichigo blurred as he dodged the attack, standing to my left with his blade drawn.

I whirled around, not dodging but moving to strike the large flat of his blade.

He brought his sword down and I struck.

His eyes widened as his zanpakuto's form wobbled physically before he gritted his teeth and exerted his presence.

His blade, which should have shattered from a lethal level of vibration assault, stiffened back into shape, though not without damage. There were cracks and it no longer looked like a large butcher knife but a jagged and serrated mimicry of the former form.

"Bullshit!" I roared out in defiance at the level of reality-bending favor the universe showed for its protagonist.

"I don't know what's happening… but I am going to knock you down!" he roared right back at my face as he pulled his blade away and swung again.

This time, it struck me head-on… only to tear the personal barrier and the talisman powering it.

It was my only non-physical defense. The time for equipment testing was over.

"Hold Person!"

And just like that, Ichigo froze mid-attack.

I glared at him with an ugly snarl on my face. "I'm being fucking used. I'm letting him fucking use me…!" I hissed in wrath. "I should just fucking…!"

I stopped. No. As much as Urahara and Ichigo were pissing me off, We couldn't hope to survive this universe's apocalypse without them. Because I wasn't ready. I will be. I goddamn will be but I wasn't fucking ready yet.

Also, Ichigo here was a teenager. I might not have been reckless or bullheaded as him, but it gave him a leeway … of a sort.

Instead of killing the guy who came at me with a sword drawn, I chose to do something… childish.

I held up both of my gauntlets. Target: right next to his left ear.

"You're going to survive this, no doubt. Go fucking suffer, you irresponsible and irrational bastard. Shatter!"

The very air around him tore and rippled. His eardrum burst and then when I let him go, he dropped to the floor, gasping in pain.

"Fuck off, you self-righteous prick!" I shouted before kicking him in the ribs with my steel-toed boots. He fell and didn't get up. Then I turned to the neighborhood. "Come get your fucking pet project!"

And then I left in a series of teleports.

-VB-

When he opened his eyes, Ichigo found himself staring up at the wooden ceiling of hat-and-clog's candy shop.

"... I lost."

"Ichigo!"

He turned his head a little and looked to the left. He saw Rukia and Ishida there.

"Hey, guys."

"Don't you get me, idiot!" Rukia shouted before bonking him on the head.

"Ow!"

"You deserved that," bandage wrapped Quincy chided. "You knew that he would win against you, so why did you chase after him."

"... Because I had to. I couldn't just let someone like that run around without making him know that he will not get away with it. What he did was-"

"Completely justified."

Ichigo looked surprised at how Rukia and Ishida spoke in unison.

The two glanced at each other before Rukia spoke up. "As great as defending your friend is, stupid strawberry, if this happened in Soul Society, Ishida here would have been executed without question. It is a serious crime."

"It is. I should be - and I am - happy that he only roughened me up."

Ichigo looked at them uncomprehendingly. "But it isn't right-"

"It wasn't, but it doesn't change the fact that it happened, and what also happened was your complete stupidity in charging in against someone who could kill you!"

"But he didn't."

Rukia stared at him in a deadpan. "Are you serious, Kurosaki?"

"He wouldn't have defended the school if he was that ruthless."

That brought the two up short.

And then the rice doors slid open and hat-and-clogs was there.

"Kurosaki-san, I didn't think you would wake up so soon!"

Ugh.

"..... You also seemed to have grown in strength."

Ichigo blinked as he heard Ishida and Rukia agree with the man, but he could only think of one thing.

That man. He called him a 'pet project.'

Whose pet project?

… someone like Urahara who always showed up mysteriously? Who Told him the details behind Ishida's beat down?

… fuck. Ichigo wasn't sure if he could trust this guy right now.