An Arcanist in Karakura Town 42 (Patreon)

An Arcanist in Karakura Town

Chapter 42

-VB-

The situation I found myself in was now stupidly stupid.

One, I have pissed off Shinigamis.

Two, I have pissed off Arrancars and Hollows.

Three, I have no allies in Europe unlike what I had hoped.

Four, the local magicians decided they wanted me dead for some reason, and promptly got killed by my cute Wiggle.

In my opinion, their deaths were justified because they outright claimed that they would kill me if they found even one thing they didn’t like.

Let me emphasize that.

Not “breaking the law” or “inhumane research or conduct” but “what they don’t like.”

At this point, I was being surrounded by enemies on all sides.

What to do, what to do, what to do…

I … could be a bitch and run away. It would take a bit of time to get the infrastructure set-up, but we could do it by utilizing our [Professor Haywire] tinker specialty to make a device to take us away from this universe to another.

That would, however, leave us exposed and without home in whichever world we arrived at. There was also no guarantee that we would be left peacefully or that some aggressive (didn’t have to be insidious or benevolent) person or organization would detect and investigate the energy output that would inevitably get detected on both ends of the dimensional hole.

No, no, no. Leaving sounded like a good idea on the surface, but it was a trap.

At the same time, doing nothing inside our warehouse-fortress was also a no-go, because even I was getting cabin fever at this point.

But to just leave it?

To foolishly venture out when nearly everyone with power wanted me dead? Yeah, no.

There was a reason why I built those bombs.

They were my M.A.D. devices, and Wiggle my penultimate fuck-you should I get killed. The former would devastate all realms, and the latter had no weakness because reality itself was food for it. My baby slime ball would step in to wipe away any remnant remaining after the bombs were dropped.

And I told everyone that.

A single letter was sent to each of the factions wanting my head, and I demanded an answer within the week.

Of course, I didn’t just make a demand. I gave both the Espada and the Gotei 13 a treat.

A fourth party for them to focus on in the coming future.

-VB-

Kyoraku Shunsui hummed as he passed the letter along.

He understood why the mortal magician felt the need to go so far. After all, the 2nd Division had created mistrust between their two organizations, and the latest conflict initiated upon them by the other mortals in Japan was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Magician Marris had enough of the world and was ready to kill the world if it didn’t leave him alone anymore.

Of course, Shunsui couldn’t let that happen. He might have advocated for the boy being left alone when he was a mere captain, but now as the captain-general of the Gotei 13, he now had responsibilities and duties to see to, including that over Soul Society’s nominal authority over the mortal world.

“This is absurd,” normally stoic Byakuya frowned while staring disdainfully at the letter. “A mortal has no right to make demands out of Soul Society, never mind Gotei 13. Our immortal laws reign supreme over material Japan.”

Shunsui objected to that statement because the law itself stated that the afterlife does not interfere with the affairs of the mortal and material world, but for the sake of smoothening ou-.

“Don’t be stupid, Bya-kun,” Yoruichi tutted at the younger captain. “When a man has a gun capable of killing you, you need to take him seriously, and that boy has so many bombs capable of killing everyone in this room.”

Everyone briefly glanced at her wilting lieutenant.

Ex-captain and now lieutenant once more Soi Fon had made a bad mistake based on incorrect conclusions. Sending assassins after the mortal magician had …

Let’s just say that he was very upset with them still but not wrathful enough to send a letter of demand for a begrudging ceasefire.

“I’m willing to accept it,” Shunsui spoke up to the chagrin of a few angry stares. “We have no way to prevent him from dropping those bombs on us, you understand? He has the advantage over us, so we won’t make him use it. This means keeping our hands off where he is concerned. On top of that, the dissipation of the reiatsu-rich atmosphere around Karakura Town makes keeping our attention on Marris-mado is unnecessary. We should focus on finding the next location where Soul Society connects to the Material World naturally.”

He paused before speaking again.

“Of course, we should focus on the tidbit of information he gave us. Send a letter back to him, agreeing to the ceasefire on the condition that he keeps his bombs locked away.”

-VB-

Aizen stared at the letter before tossing it aside.

He was … not happy with the situation. Not only did the magician decimate his puppets and his plan but he went and made a threat?

If the letter had very little difference in its content, then Gotei 13 was now aware of their second enemy as well.

This … wasn’t exactly a bad news for him.

The fact of the matter was that part of the reason why he had wanted to take over Soul Society in the first place was to change how souls worked. It was clear to him that the current system had too many issues and allowed the existence of too many enemies.

The Quincies were just another one of those.

Unfortunately, without the spiritual particle dense location and the numerous souls required to make the Key, he was in position to change the world.

This meant that the Quincies, should they rise up within the next two years as the letter suggested, would need to be eradicated as soon as they appeared.

“Ulquiorra.”

The stoic and silent arrancar stepped up.

“How did you come by this letter?”

“I found it in the halls, Aizen-sama,” he replied while bowing.

“I see. So our dear magician somehow infiltrated Las Noches, dropped a letter, and left. It seems that our security needs to be worked upon.”

“... Si.”

“I will have a letter for you to deliver to the mortal magician. If the mortal magician wants to delay his comeuppance for a few years, then that’s fine. I will be agreeing to the ceasefire.”

-VB-

I stared at the two letters on my desk and marveled at how effective M.A.D. was.

“... I need to make more bombs.”

Because I too needed to prepare for the Quincies.