An Arcanist in Karakura Town 35 (Patreon)

An Arcanist in Karakura Town
Chapter 35

-VB-

Approximately an hour ago, Hollows of immense powers invaded Karakura Town in the middle of the night. He and the others who had been sent there as a  pre-emptive defensive measure rose up to fight, despite the shackles of restraint they had to wear to not cause undue distress to the still living mortals.

And learned that the Hollows they faced were not the monsters in grotesque bodies but humanoid beings on par with shinigamis.

They had been the arrancars, the humanoid forms of Hollows that had been mere legends.

Legends, they no longer were.

Unfortunately, he hadn’t been able to fight his own opponent properly with the restrictions on him, and the request to release those restrictions came almost too late, but the permission did come before it became too late and they released their true powers against the monsters!

The tables turned, and the shinigamis under his command found themselves overpowering the Hollows, who had been gloating mere moments before how their mission here had been to test out themselves against the shinigamis.

One of the Hollows, realizing that there was a good chance of death, decided to fulfill an unspoken mission and attacked the only other mortal in all of Karakura Town who was not part of the Ryoka.

Well…

The crab shell-like masked arrancar died in the mortal’s retaliation.

Hitsugaya Toshiro stared at the dissolving ashes of one of the arrancars that had attacked the base of the reported anomalous mortal magician who operated in the town.

What happened afterward was …

It sent chills down his spine.

It wasn’t like watching one of Ichigo’s friends, the Quincy, fight. When a Quincy arrow or attack landed on any spiritual being, then the damage was clear and distinct. It wasn’t poisonous or insidious; a Quincy attack didn’t differ from a shinigami’s attack unless it led to a kill. A fatal attack caused by a zanpakuto will always lead to a purification of the Hollow or Pluses. A fatal Quincy attack destroyed the bonds that kept a soul together, effectively dissolving them down to basic spiritual particles.

What happened to the arrancar that attacked the magician’s base was nothing like either of those scenarios.

Toshiro had felt that arrancar exist. Just like he had felt his own opponent, Shawlong, exist by feeling the arrancar’s spiritual presence, he had felt that specific arrancar’s presence, because that arrancar had been the one to announce their arrival.

And now… there was nothing.

Not even a shard of a spiritual particle was left.

“Ichigo wasn’t kidding when he said the magician was stronger than him,” Matsumoto hummed thoughtfully but without her usual playfulness as she appeared with a high-speed shunpo.

“I think he’s a little more than just a little bit stronger than Kurosaki-san,” Toshiro deadpanned at the absurdity of the statement as others started to converge on him.

“Why not go and talk with him, taicho?” Matsumoto asked.

It was around this time that Liejtenant Kuchiki Rukia shunpo'ed onto the scene in time to hear the other lieutenant's question.

"It would not be a good idea," she replied as she too stared down at the lifeless ashes of once living spirit. "Urahara … severely angered the magician. On top of that, he accuses Gltei 13 of sending assassins after him. It is very possible that if he spots us getting close, we just might get the same treatment."

Some of his subordinates for this mission looked unnerved by what they felt and saw, and Toshiro himself intended to not send anyone over.

“... How about Ichigo?” Rukia suggested. “He is at least on speaking terms with the magician.”

“You think the ryoka won’t be blasted?”

“The magician enjoys bullying Ichigo too much to consider killing him.”

Toshiro snorted. “Very well. Get Kurosaki-san over here so we can discuss how we are going to approach the magician.”

-VB-

I frowned when a very familiar spiritual signature started slowly approaching my warehouse from the mass of other signature.

Instead of activating the defensive measures, I turned to the side, activated the wireless comm, and spoke in Japanese.

“Kurosaki, what do you want?” I demanded.

The representatives, who were still with me and would remain until the shinigamis left the immediate area, looked anxious by my usage of Japanese. For all they knew, I might be negotiating for a ceasefire with the shinigamis.

Unfortunately for the shinigamis, I wasn’t in the mood for a “ceasefire” after Urahara tried … whatever it was that he did when we talked. Maybe he just wanted me to be more pliable or neutral to him and the shinigamis, but mind controlling instead of persuasion was really not the way he should have gone about doing it.

Was I that big a threat to him and his friends even though I was only sticking to my corner of the city?

On the 3D holographic map centering on my warehouse base, I saw Kurosaki pause in his approach.

“Can you here me, you asshole magician?!”

Yup, that was Kurosaki alright.

“It is the magician who regularly beats the shit out of the asshole teenagers who leave collateral damage everywhere. Oh, you better tell your shinigamis friends that they better fix the damages they caused to the city. Do you know how much time and money it takes to fix potholes, but they go and destory entire sections of walls and people’s houses?”

“That’s … that’s not what I’m here for. What the fuck did you do to that Hollow?”

“The Hollow? I gave him the gift of peace,” I chuckled ominously. “Eternal peace.”

“Yeah, no, that’s fucked up.”

“Hollows are fucked up. They start their life by eating their own families. Get to the point.”

“Can you not use it again?”

“Hell no! It is the perfect weapon to use against meddling shinigamis, Hollows, and supernaturals. Why the fuck would I not use it?” I asked incredulously. “You know, instead of asking me to not use it, maybe they shouldn’t fight in my backyard and then try to breach my defenses? Have you thought about that?”

From how his spiritual presence flared and waned, I knew that my words were pissing him off.

“Look, what you did is not like what Quincies or Shinigamis do. According to the nerds up there, you’re destroying souls!”

“Yeah? And? What’s the difference between that and the murder-in-self-defense all of you engage in?” I asked casually. “If you spout some bullshit about the balance of the spiritual world, then let me remind you that I can and will use that bomb on a large scale to even the odds on all things; a total annihilation is the ultimate equalizer.”

“You’re insane!”

“And your friends in Gotei 13 have sent assassins after assassins after me! Intrude upon my base! Threaten to kill Orihime and myself! For what?! For existing?! And then Urahara comes and tries to mind control me! So fuck off, Kurosaki!” I spat back angrily. “You can remain in your human body and survive the fucking bomb when Gotei 13 and Aizen eventually forces me to use it or you can die with them!” I paused before grinning malevolently. “You know what? Maybe you need some evidence for what I said. So here. Take the frozen heads of the assassins they sent after my ass.”

And opened a portal using an incomplete Professor Haywire tech (I always had small workable tinkertech that I never really focused on) under the bodies of the calcified remnants of the dead shinigamis that I kept in the corner (you never know when bodies can be used, so I kept them around). It opened up a hole in my defenses for just a moment, but I closed the portal, which also closed the hole in my defense, before anyone could think to take advantage of it.

I heard horrified squeals, though it wasn’t Ichigo’s.

“Urahara already declared war on me, Ichigo. If he so much as step around my warehouse, then he and his cousin will die! Don’t make the same mistake, Kurosaki! I only beat you up because you’re a punk, not a monster!”

And then I cut off the comm.

Turning back to the Grand Warlock and her current assistant, I smiled. “Now, where were we?”

The representatives of the European magicians, totally unaware of the fact that I just threatened(bluffed) annihilation of entire worlds, smiled back. “We were discussing how we can help you contain these… beasts and rogue spirits.”

“We were, weren’t we?” I hummed as I led them away from the main room.

-VB-

Eventually, the shinigamis left as did the magicians when our discussion ended, though regrettably without any solid promises of help or alliance.

Left to my own devices, I was left with Kurosaki twins, Tatsuki, and Orihime.

“Do you want to go back home?” I asked the former trio. “I can’t guarantee your safety.”

“I do,” Karin replied. “Ichigo-nii will keep us safe.”

I snorted. “I beat the shit out of your brother regularly, kiddo. He is nowhere near the strongest right now.” ‘But he might be sooner or later, even if I took away one cause for his evolution.’

Karin glared at me for that. “He doesn’t stay down and will get stronger.”

I chuckled at her belief, because she wasn’t wrong. Canon Kurosaki Ichigo doesn’t stay down. “Sure, sure,” I replied. “Alright, just stand over there and I’ll open up a portal for all three of you to go.”

“I’ll… stay.”

I turned to Tatsuki in surprise, and saw how close she was to Orihime.

Damn girl, did you convince her to stay knowing what I would do?

Shrugging, I turned back around and saw Yuzu nod and hold close to Karin.

I gave both of the cute kids a ruffle of their hair, which they both disliked because I was a stranger, and then gave them both cute … let’s call them talisman. I wasn’t monstrous enough to leave kids to die if I could do something about it. With Orihime gone, there was a good chance that Aizen might just kidnap these two to use as hostage in Orihime’s stead.

The talisman, disguised to look like phone accessories, looked liek jewels, and as far as physical world was concerned, they were middling grade 1 carat emerald and ruby respectively for Yuzu and Karin. Should a hostile Hollow’s spiritual presence appear near them, those talisman would activate and teleport them back into my base.

“Go,” I said as I opened a portal to the front of their house.

They stepped through, thanking me for the accessories and admiring the gems. I closed the portal behind them and turned back to Tatsuki.

“So-”

“I’m pregnant,” she blurted out, and Orihime wrapped her arms around her friends now noticeably wider abdomen.

Oh.

I did not expect that.