An Arcanist in Karakura Town 20 (Patreon)

An Arcanist in Karakura Town
Chapter 20

-VB-

I noted that Soul Society had sent Captain Kuchiki and his lieutenant, and promptly ignored it.

It wasn’t like they were coming after me, knew about me, and had business with me in general. Until the Fake Karakura Town Arc, Soul Society had nothing to do with me until they forced themselves in my business.

It was unlikely that they would, however. Ryoka business, Aizen’s betrayal, execution, and, before all of that, catching Kuchiki Rukia, came before investigating some foreigner using non-standard methods.

That said, I was also aware of the fact that I couldn’t be too far outside of Aizen’s radar due to my interactions with Ichigo, Kisuke, and their crew.

To that end, I now taught Orihime how to use magic!

A bit of a jump in logic, I knew, but it was what I decided was worthy of my time now that my first “set” of tinkertech armor and weapon. I could certainly improve upon them right now and there was no such thing as overkill, I didn’t exactly want to leave Orihime completely helpless.

It wasn’t like she could stay indefinitely within my base. No one could stay indefinitely indoors.

“You want to go for the western system?” I asked her as I used raw spiritual manipulation to form a simple fireball via intense spiriton vibration of the air. I didn’t know much about western system itself, but apparently, it was a thing.

Hide told me so, and I didn’t exactly have a reason to dispute nor not believe him as he had been out … ultra-socializing.

In the span of time I was Tinkering, Hollow-hunting, Uryu-zapping, Ichigo-stomping, and Urahara-duped, he was out making money.

Money!

Well, money and influence.

Japan might be insular, but its people absolutely loved different ethnicities, especially whites, coming into their country and becoming one of them. While Hide was definitely an Asian, he was just exotic and pale enough that no one gave two shits about that little tidbit.

Nope. He made connections in bars, moved up to casinos, set up businesses, and when he came to see me again just earlier today, he was a millionaire.

Like…

What?

How?

Ugh.

I slid the book Hidemasa got me to Orihime, and the girl nearly snatched it out of my hands.

I understood why she was so shiny-eyed at the prospect of learning magic, and she was still a teenager, however sexually she might be active. What normal teenager would say no to magic?

There was another reason why I was learning magic; I needed to diversify my options to prevent my enemies from taking out my foundation and thus remove my capabilities. With DnD arcane magic, I needed reagents for higher tiers and was ultimately limited in how much damage I could directly apply. With my spiritual manipulation, there were others who were simply better than I was. My harvested Hollow masks could bolster my spiritual abilities only so much. My Tinkertech was esoteric technology that needed long prep time, and one that I was still working on; I hadn’t put it completely away, just out of my narrow field of focus.

I opened my copy of the tome and began to read.

This new magic, I hoped, would cover some of the -.

I frowned.

And then let my head drop.

“‘A chanting system with power directly associated with the length and content of the chant in an ancient language most meaningful to the beholder.’” It was, in essence, a ritual-based non-combative type.

Yeah, this would be a net negative for me to learn. For Orihime, it might not be.

I sighed as I closed the book and went back to the arcane worktable at the corner of the warehouse.

Researching new spells and effects would have to do.

-VB-

“So how does this work?”

I looked up in surprise. Apparently, Orihime had become bored with her magic tome and came looking at my work over my shoulder.

“My spells?”

“Yes! It’s very different from what I am reading.”

“It’s a different system of supernatural, just like the Hollows and Shinigamis are different from my western magic and my arcane.”

“And?”

“Western magic would be like telling the world to do very specific things and providing the energy for it while my arcane would be … forcing my will upon reality.”

She hummed. “So if I wanted to make a rainbow unicorn…”

I snorted. “The western system will be easier. The spell that I am working on right now is a spacetime-singularity bomb, though it’s not exactly working out well.”

“What is spacetime-singularity?”

“It’s when gravity gets too strong at a point and everything gets sucked in. Like a black hole, because a black hole is also a singularity.”

“Oh, so you’re making a black hole spell!” she said excitedly. “Is it going to be all big and black and explosive?!”

“... Probably?”

Spiritual particles and spiritual beings still followed the laws of gravity, so it should work against them, especially inside them, right?

I held my hand up and carefully began to cast, but there was another component to this spell.

To make this spell work, I had to speak two different spells and weave them into one, but I only had one mouth.

So I made a spell that temporarily made a mouth on the palm of my hand.

I grimaced as a line formed on my left palm before splitting painfully with full grown adult teeth and a tongue inside a space that couldn’t exist within the volume of my hand.

“And yes, I do need this,” I spoke through my left hand mouth.

Orihime looked intrigued as hell and just as disgusted.

I took a deep breath in.

Wizards died not because they fought an enemy too strong for them but because they took their research too far. They delved too deep without asking themselves if they were asking the wrong question.

Why did they not ask if they should do this rather than can they do this?

It was madness to create a black hole in front of your face!

I let both of my mouths grin even as a third mouth formed on my right palm.

“But madness is merely another side of genius.”

I spoke the words.

Blended together, they sounded merely like noise. High, medium, and low pitched. Three different languages.

Reality warped at the same time as I felt something drain from within me.

And then there it was.

A black hole, hovering only a meter from my face. It was no wider than pinprick, but it fucked up reality and distorted space.

And yet, thanks to the constant chanting of my right palm mouth, it’s gravitational pull was held at bay… for now.

I reached for the black tourmaline I had prepared just for this occasion and held it underneath the singularity.

My facial mouth and my left palm mouth spoke again, hurting my own ears with the noises I was making.

I grinned as the black hole entered the gem, distorting nothing as it sealed itself inside the enchanted black gem.

And then I dropped it.

The gem tumbled on the worktable and … nothing happened.

And nothing would happen until I broke it.

“Spell success,” I said proudly, exhausted and delirious. “The very stars will be my power.”

And then I fainted.