An Arcanist in Karakura Town 38 (Patreon)

An Arcanist in Karakura Town
Chapter 38

-VB-

Soul Society and Gotei 13 were in shambles.

Toshirou knew that the latest disaster to strike the Gotei 13 would surely ruin their war effort against Aizen and the “Arrancars” under his command.

This event was significant because the man in charge of Gotei 13 for the past two thousand years, Yamamoto Genryusai, passed away.

It was …

Personally, Toshirou thought that the old man died with the worst timing possible, but it wasn’t outside of natural causes. Shinigamis have known to die from old age, though this varied depending on the strength of the soul of each individual shinigami. He’d read how some died at a few hundred years old while the last shinigami to die from “old age” did so at a “ripe, old” age of one thousand and five hundred.

Two thousand years?

That sounded like “overripe.”

Of course, there were some who weren’t as calm nor accepting of the situation.

“I refuse to believe that he died of old age,” Komamura Sajin, the Captain of the 7th Division, snarled without showing his fangs. He wasn’t hostile towards them. No, he saw the captains in this meeting as his only allies aside from a few shinigamis he also trusted outside of this hall. “Aizen is a cunning man. It wouldn’t be outside of his plans to poison the captain-commander!”

“Calm yourself, Komamura-dono,” Sui-Feng, the Captain of the 2nd Division and the woman most scorned by the existence of an uncontrollable wizard (for some reason), spoke quietly from his side. “We are all in mourning.”

Komamura looked like he was about to say something but he visibly got himself under control.

“My apologies,” he spoke to them all.

“Mah, mah. We’re all sad,” the scruffy bearded Kyoraku Shunsui smiled while wearing the robe of the captain-commander over his shoulders, but Toshirou could clearly see the dark bags underneath his eyes and those same bags were under Ukitake-taicho’s eyes. “But I do agree with you, Komamura. Something’s fishy. We’ll all look into it, yes?”

All of the loyal captains were here, including ones that had been previously exiled under crimes that they had been scapegoated for.

Toshirou peered to the side and saw his own captain, the one who’d left twenty years ago: Shiba Isshin.

Threats to his family had been strong enough - and the needs of the Gotei 13 big enough - that the provisional government had undone all of the sentencing of the “Visored” and the other exiles like Yoruichi, Tessai, and Urahara, the first and third of whom were also in this hall but not all of the Visored; only Hirako Shinji was here.

Sui-Fang had, to everyone’s surprise, stepped down as captain, to give the position back to Shihoin Yoruichi, and the fact that she - and others - had been exonerated had seen a resurgence of the Noble Shihoin and Shiba Clans.

But those were political details Toshirou cared very little for. All he cared about was that the Gotei 13, despite the political turmoil that’s gripped them for the past month, was back in full power.

But a thought lingered.

If Aizen had been responsible for the late captain-commander’s poisoning or other method of underhanded murder, then why hadn’t he struck then?

He glanced to Urahara.

“It’s not Aizen… or the magician,” Urahara hummed, and Toshirou saw how the mention of the magician was enough to make Sui-Feng twitch. “And Mayuri and I both made sure that it wasn’t any kind of poisoning. Are you all doubting our abilities?”

It was said so casually and lightheartedly, but there was disapproval behind that tone.

“Of course not, Ki-chan!” the new captain-commander laughed underneath his straw hat. “But suspicious is suspicious, you know?”

Urahara shrugged. “It is,” he replied. “S-”

“So we’re supposed to just wait for them to strike when we are weak?!” Komamura exploded, and the tension in the room ratcheted up.

“Komamura-taicho,” Ukitake Jushirou frowned. “I am upset as well, but do you see me shouting?”

It was a rare thing to see Ukitake-taicho speak up here.

Komamura, once again, had to visibly control himself.

“I think that we’re at a stalemate,” Urahara spoke up.

Everyone turned to him.

“How so?” Kyoraku-sotaicho asked.

“It’s the wizard.”

“Of course, it’s the bloody wizard,” Sui-Feng growled quietly.

“His defense is impenetrable,” the scientist-captain sighed. “It’s really remarkable, you know? Pulling in the power of legendary and historical figures to draw in the collective belief of living mortals and fuel a defensive measure that way.”

“We can work around a defense. He’s not even our target,” Shinji said with a drawl.

“No, not if that defense erases any and all spiritual beings into oblivion,” Urahara replied. “You felt it, didn’t you, Hitsugaya-taicho?”

“Hai,” Toshirou replied. “It … was pretty bad, feeling something just disappear like that.”

Kyoraku-sotaicho frowned. “Why would this wizard and his passive and active defenses be a problem, Urahara-san?”

“Because he’s like me but far more vindictive,” the man replied and then covered his face with a fan. “He’ll be doing what I do: improving his gadgets and gears. The month we spent between the fight at Karakura Town and now, he would have developed many more ways to fight back. From a mind that thought to erase reality, who knows what else we’ll encounter.”

“Then isn’t giving him more time a bad thing?” Kuchiki Byakuya, captain of the 6th division, asked.

“Yes,” Urahara replied. “We can’t do anything about an impenetrable defense, but neither can Aizen, which is why we’re at a stalemate. The moment a war breaks out over the Karakura Town, the wizard will retaliate.”

“So Aizen will just have to find other ways to fight us then.”

Urahara hummed, and Toshirou knew that look. He’s seen it before. The man was hiding something, but what could he be hiding?

“Perhaps.”

Yeah, he was hiding something.

-VB-

“What are you hiding?”

Urahara paused and turned around. There, standing in this isolated hallway with him, was Hitsugaya Toshirou.

“Heyo, Toshirou-chan~!” he greeted the boy-captain with a smile.

The white-haired captain glared at him.

“What are you hiding?” he insisted.

“What~? What could I be hiding?” he asked in turn, because both of them knew that he was hiding something and he was unlikely to distract or misdirect the captain.

“Is it serious?”

“... Quite, actually,” he replied. “And let me just say that it is actually a good thing that the wizard remains where he is.”

Toshirou frowned. “I need something more than that.”

Urahara nodded. “Understandable. Then let me put it this way. Karakua Town remains the only place where spiritual particles are dense in the mortal world, suffusing through the atmosphere, objects, and people alike and in sufficient quantity to serve as fuel for a massive project. Aizen wants to use that dense spiritual particle in a ritual to create something. Now, I can’t tell you what that something is, but I did tell the sotaicho about it.”

Toshirou tapped his foot.

“And why is the wizard a good thing then?”

“The more he uses his spirit erasing bomb, the less of the stuff there will be.”

“And there is nowhere else in the mortal realm for Aizen to start that ‘ritual’?”

“No, and I made sure to check.”

Toshirou sighed. “Alright. I’ll go talk to the sotaicho about it, but I don’t see how we can’t invade Hueco Mundo.”

“And walk into enemy territory that we don’t know anything about? Come on, Toshirou-kun! You’re a taicho!”

Toshirou grunted and walked away.

A stalemate, huh?

He wondered if this waiting will eat at his lieutenant.