An Arcanist in Karakura Town 44 (Patreon)

An Arcanist in Karakura Town

Chapter 44

-VB-

It took a while for me to find out information on and understand the group that was the local onmyouji.

The Ten-Nihon-Onmyouji (Imperial Japan Onmyouji) was a long-standing organization whose roots were, expectedly from a nation that’s been around for a long time, from a long fucking time ago. To be very specific, the TNO existed since the 200 AD’s in one form or another.

To prevent their members from being slaughtered like that again, the TNO had decided to operate in cells. Still connected to each other, yes, but working in only their jurisdiction with none holding power over another except through a council of six elders they called the Rokurei.

And, well, the onmyouji guy who tried to fuck me over was one of those six elders, who was in charge of the 4th District (a large area that stretched from the western half of Tokyo to Kyoto).

By killing him, I had more or less declared war on the entirety of the Ten-Nihon-Onmyouji.

What I had not expected was for one of those elders to personally come out with a white flag asking to negotiate with me.

So, a month after I managed to get an uneasy truce among the shinigamis, Aizen-aligned hollows, and myself, I found myself standing across the bridge from one such elder of the TNO. The bridge was the one that separated Karakura Town from one of its neighboring cities, and the elder asked to meet here.

Had this been a mere week ago, I wouldn’t have.

However, I didn’t have enough bombs to recreate MAD a week ago. I did now.

So me strutting out around Karakura Town was perfectly within my limits of safety, because everyone who knew anyone in this area (except for the TNO apparently) knew that attacking me was suicide. Worse, the spiritual beings among them knew that I had weapons that could erase them from existence.

I could have refused this meeting.

But I didn’t.

The reason for accepting the invitation was simple: I wanted more buffer between me and the future shenanigans that were to occur. Aizen and the shinigamis were sure to come to blows once the Quincies, whose existence I revealed, and their fiasco came to an end. Shunsui may be a chill guy, but he was a shinigami at the end of the day. Allowing a traitor and Hollow-sympathizer to exist was simply not in the cards.

It was also not his decision to make, so there’s that; Gotei 13 was subordinate to the Soul Society’s version of parliament (forgot their name and I never bothered to remember the names of people making trouble and dying often).

Which also meant that whatever truce I might have being in the middle of the two would also become null and void. Sure, my weapons would keep them back but eventually, they’ll find a way to hurt me.

So why not get myself an ally?

I mean I already killed one of their elders, but what’s that gotta do with a future profitable alliance? Hmm? Or sales of MAD bombs?

And so I stood here with another elder of the TNO, who came with two bodyguards.

This man looked different. While the previous elder was all war-like samurai, this one was more reserved and statesman-like. Crisply dressed in a modern business suit (stripped dark blue and grey) and with his hair slicked back (with perfectly single black highlight on the side of his head among his white hair), he looked more like the prime minister or a very big name CEO of a keiretsu.

Actually, for all I know, he was a CEO.

“Good morning, Marris-san,” the elder began with a grandfatherly smile.

I felt more nervous than I should have, and decided to fuck it and went with the Japanese greeting style. I gave him a bow.

“Good morning, elder,” I greeted in turn.

He hummed. “You are different than what I was led to believe. I am glad.”

Curiosity got the better of me. “And what do they say about me?”

“Brash.” Fair. “Brutish.” Also fair. “Crude.” On point, really. “And violent.”

“... None of them are wrong,” I said, which made me raise his eyebrows.

“Oh?”

“But that is mostly because people come to my home, threaten me, threaten my family, and say they will burn down everything I own.”

He gave me an ‘ah’ before nodding.

“I can understand such a response, then. Was that what Sendo did?”

“Was that the old man who led his minions and try to kill me?”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

“I see. Then it is clear that you are in the wrong yet you have committed murder in turn instead of subduing them.”

I frowned. “Of course, I’m not going to let people who threaten me live. They will keep trying to kill me.”

“It is nonetheless the law of the land, even if the normals are largely unaware of our business,” he shook his head.

“Even the business of the shinigamis and Hollows?”

He stiffened. “So you know about them, too.” He waved his hand, and his bodyguards backed off quite a bit. “Their existence is not something lightly discussed even among our circles.”

I scoffed. “You give them too much credit then.”

“You are in contact with them?” he asked incredulously.

Oh, this was perfect.

“Let me tell you a little story, and how their current conflict jeopardizes everything you have right now…”

-VB-

When he returned to his home after establishing communication and a ceasefire with the magician, Masuda Yoroi returned home and pulled his tie off of his neck. Sitting down behind his desk, he contemplated the story - a fantastical story - and the evidence he had been given.

He stared down at the orb currently sitting on top of his desk and the utter evil it irradiated.

The Essence of a Hollow.

The mad magician had captured and boiled down a Hollow to its spiritual essence before encasing it in an enchanted plastic shell to prevent its evaporation via the natural diffusion of spiritual energies.

Yoroi was not an expert in spiritual sciences. That was more of his nephew's and grandnieces’ specialties.

Even so, he could not deny what sat in front of him and the utter horrors that played out, blind to the public and the wider magical community at large.

“Fucking Europeans,” he growled. The Magic Association in European knew about this fiasco bubbling right underneath his feet but they neglected to inform him about it post-haste.

‘Oh, the world is ending, and it is starting right where you sleep. Good luck.’ Couldn’t even tell him that little bit.

If his father was still alive, then he would have done some subtle revenges against the Europeans. Crashing a few of their stock markets once or twice just for the hell of it before going after the creating “accidents.”

Unfortunately, he was not his father.

“Masuda-sama.”

He looked up.

It was his secretary. Not the one assigned for his group but the one in charge of his magical and onmyouji work.

“What is it, Rina-chan?” he asked tiredly as he ran his fingers along his clean-shaven jaw. He needed to deal with this soon.

“Hina-sama is here.”

He groaned.

Hina, the Sixth’s granddaughter and his grandniece, had been apopletic after the Sixth got killed. Despite her age, she had been part of the driving force to attack the mage and put him down for good. It was a good thing it didn’t happen because Yoroi did not want to know what kind of monster was able to keep Hollows and shinigamis at bay.

“Let her in.”

“Hai.”

Within the next ten seconds, his office doors - expensive mahogany - flung open, crashed onto the side, and Hina stomped her way in.

“Ooji! What is this about -?!”

He grabbed the ball and tossed it to her. She caught in, only half paying attention. It was until she held it for a moment that she froze like a deer in headlights and slowly looked down at it.

“W-What is this vile thing?”

“That, dear grandniece, is part of the story, and what a story it is. Your grandfather and my friend may have been a pawn in someone else’s dirty work.”

And Masuda Yoroi, the head of the Mitsui Group, was not going to let that go.

No, he was going to get to the bottom of it and take a pound of flesh from the perpetrators that dared to send his friend to die against a monster. He did not blame the monster for being a monster. In fact, the monster generously offered to share some of his arcanotechnologies - a field of magical science Yoroi was not even aware of - to soothe things over.

No, he blamed this person.

This Aizen.