An Arcanist in Karakura Town Interlude: Tatsuki 1 (Patreon)

An Arcanist in Karakura Town
Interlude:

-VB-

“Eh?!”

Tatsuki stared at Ichigo, whose annoyed half-sneer hid his self-doubt.

“Wait, wait, wait. Are you saying that the blonde gaijin is stronger than all of us?”

“I think he’s always been strong,” Ichigo replied to her. “Before we went to Soul Society, he actually took on both me and Ishida, but took us down without even getting hurt.”

Chad looked stoic next to Ichigo, but he hummed thoughtfully. “So someone like that was in the town all along. But why didn’t Urahara ask for his help?”

Tatsuki grimaced. “I might know a few things about that.”

Her two friends looked at her, prompting her to follow up.

“Alan… he’s not a good person.”

“Okay…?”

“He’s more than a little selfish, he’s arrogant, he’s a seducer-” she bit her lips at that slip of the tongue before quickly continuing to cover it up. “Look, he’s just not the kind of guy you go to ask for help unless you have no options, and his help isn’t even guaranteed. If the circus hat couldn’t get Alan’s help, none of us can.”

Tatsuki wisely kept to herself the idea that she actually might be able to get that help… if only she exchanged his help for her body. She had a feeling that if that happened, she wouldn’t be leaving that warehouse he called his home.

“Besides, how do you know that it was Alan who did that?” she asked.

Ichigo scoffed. “Who else uses weird objects as weapons with effects no one else has ever seen? Rukia was baffled when she saw it.”

“I was.”

The three of them turned to Rukia, who had been sitting next to them the entire time. “When that Hollow, Grimmjow got hit by those bombs, it left him very weak. Ichigo’s Getsuga Tensho in his shikai form didn’t pierce him but each of those bombs did, which puts them on par if not greater in firepower than Ichigo’s bankai Getsuga Tensho.”

Tatsuki grimaced. Her best attack was on par with Ichigo’s Getsuga Tensho, and she didn’t have any other abilities to make up for it. She wasn’t as “tanky” as Chad, fast as Ichigo, experienced as Rukia, or whatever it was that the circus hat and his people were.

She was the weak link for her group, and hated every second of it.

What was worse was that if it hadn’t been for Alan’s pendent that Urahara got for her, she would be even weaker.

Yeah, so what if she was as strong as a Gotei 13 lieutenant? The moment that pendent ran out of power or she lost it, she would drop below and become nothing more than cannon fodder, and she knew it all too well.

She hated being helpless and reliant like this.

“Ohayo~!”

EVeryone turned towards the classroom entrance and saw Orihime.

“Orihim-!” And Chizuru got smacked mid-tackle-flight. Her head smoked from where she’d been struck by Orihime, who hadn’t even looked at her, and she twitched on the ground. “A-Ahn~! I l-love this new violent side of you…!”

Tatsuki shivered.

God, how did Orihime deal with that pervert everyday at school?

“Yay, all of us are here today!” Orihime cheered as she brought herself right next to the group of four.

For a moment, there was a bit of unease before Ichigo and Rukia smiled.

Tatsuki let herself smile… or would have done so if she didn’t see Orihime’s knowing look.

‘What the hell are you planning this time, hime?!’ Tatsuki ranted internally.

Ever since Alan corrupted Orihime, the innocent and naive, if occasionally wise, girl was no longer there. In her place was a strong-willed, experienced, still-optimistic, and outgoing woman. Of course, the rest of the school noticed this too. It didn’t help that she got prettier everyday. She wasn’t a supernatural beauty, yet.

All of the girls wanted to be like her.

All of the boys wanted to be her boyfriend (if they only knew…).

“So what are you all talking about?” said girl asked.

Her group glanced at each other before Rukia spoke up. “We were talking about your boyfri-”

“Husband.”

“...Excuse me?”

“Husband,” she smiled slyly as she presented her -.

“That’s a gold ring. Lots of small diamonds. And a big diamond,” Ichigo muttered.

There was a pause before the rest of the classroom erupted into a disbelieving yell before crowding the girl.

Girls cooed and boys wailed.

Tatsuki just sighed. “Did you finally badger him down to make it official?”

“Yup!”

Alan, for being a selfish, greedy, nearly sadistic, and often wanton character, possessed an oddly stiff side. Official marriage had been his thing, apparently. According to Orihime, he wanted to wait until she graduated so that her reputation wouldn’t get tarnished for it, but Orihime objected to that.

“So you got one over the pervert, huh?” she asked with a grin.

Orihime smiled coyly, which only made the wails and coos louder. “Well, I do know what to do to get my husband to act.”

Tatsuki rolled her eyes. “... Well, we need to talk to you in private soon,” she added, gesturing to her group.

“Oh oh oh! Then let’s a manga rooftop meeting!”

Snort.

Even if she had changed a lot, Orihime was still Orihime.

“We can talk about Alan’s black hole bombs!”

Rukia was clueless but the other three, including her, paled dramatically.

“Wait, what?”