An Arcanist in Karakura Town 46 (Patreon)

An Arcanist in Karakura Town

Chapter 46

-VB-

Urahara’s Shop

“I’m going to ask again. What do you want? Gotei 13’s self-prophecized paranoia can’t be the only reason you asked to meet me.”

Urahara met my eyes for a moment before nodding. “You are sharp.”

I didn’t reply.

He cleared his throat after a while. “Honestly, there are no ulterior motives. Gotei 13 really does want that assessment, and we aren’t keen on … making you resort to your bombs or any other unscrupulous weapons.”

I sighed. “Alright. Well, here I am. How do you intend to do your ‘assessment’?”

“Ask you questions and hope you answer honestly!” Urahara grinned as he pulled out a clipboard and a pen.

The rest of us looked at him incredulously.

“So let’s begin with a simple question! Are you hostile to Gotei 13?”

“Wow, going really strong right there, aren’t you?” I huffed.

Yoruichi gave her cousin a deadpan stare. “You couldn’t start off with an easy one?”

“But why would I do that?” Urahara asked faux-cheerfulness. “That’s no fun!”

“No, I am not hostile at the moment because I don’t want to do anything like unnecessary fighting, which Gotei 13 seems very willing to carry out when they get the orders,” I grouched. “It’s like Gotei 13 is … brainless~!”

None of the former Gotei 13 captains and vice-captain present said anything about that. Instead, Urahara just plowed on with the question.

“What is your intent with Soul Society?”

“Stay the fuck off my lawn. The dead should stay in the realm of the dead.”

“Do you consider Karakura Town to be yours?”

“I don’t have ownership of property… and I’d like for Gotei 13 to remember that they don’t have it as well.”

“Why did you come down to Karakura Town? As far as our intelligence was able to confirm, you started living in Japan starting in Hokkaido.”

I leaned back. They learned about my past as far back as that. Concerning. It also showed that they felt the need to gather every piece of information they could to find any advantage over me. Or, perhaps, they wanted access to their own bombs and were looking either for inspiration or a source for it.

Either way, that little tidbit Urahara threw at me, probably intentionally, told me that Gotei 13 was highly wary of me.

Or was Urahara lying and just telling me what he found?

“Whose intelligence?” I asked him. If he answered, then I would know, assuming he wasn’t lying.

“Gotei 13.”

“... Alright. What’s the next question?”

“Who is your servant? The one that is responsible for the defense-”

I glared at him. “Next.”

He grinned, and I just glared harder.

“A-O-kay! Gotei 13 wants to know if you intend to continue to stay in Karakura Town.”

“Yes. My stuff is here. I settled down here, found my girlfriend here, and finished setting up my base of operation to near completion. I don’t see a reason to move.”

“You seem to like long answers,” Urahara hummed. I wasn’t sure if I was getting to him or not.

“I don’t like to fight-”

“The bloodthirsty grin on your face as you beat Ichigo to a pulp, which we recorded-”

“You mean you recorded,” Yoruichi added.

“-says otherwise.”

I shrugged. “I may let my bloodlust get to me once in a while.”

“And then there are your experiments which violate all manner of laws, spiritual and mortal, legal and ethical.”

“No more unethical than lab animal experimentation. Your point?”

“... There is none.”

“Next question, please.”

“Why are you hostile toward Gotei 13 beyond reasonable causes?”

… Did they really ask me that? Seriously?

“Obvious question gets an obvious answer. You suck. Next.”

Urahara pointed at himself in question.

“No, Gotei.”

He grinned.

I didn’t understand what he was doing at this point.

“Okay, next question!” he tittered. Ugh. “Why did you contact the European magicians?”

“Skip. I’m not giving you answers to similar questions, either.”

The “assessment” continued in that manner, but ultimately, they gained nothing useful from it. If they didn’t know it beforehand, then they knew tidbits about myself I didn’t care about.

Why even ask what my favorite color was?

-VB-

Tokyo

Masuda Yoroi stared across the table at the other key members of the Imperial Japanese Onmyouji in an elaborate and tastefully decorated room designed specifically for such meetings. The muted gold and jade-themed room, with milky white walls, ceiling, and floor, provided a certain calm feel to the meeting room that sat in contrast with the actual mood of the people.

Because sitting in the center of the table between seven members of the Imperial Japanese Onmyouji was a small glass sample bottle.

Within this glass bottle, no wider than a man’s finger and as tall as one, was a writhing and hissing essence of a Hollow.

“Where did you get this?” Masuda Yoroi asked.

“An independent mage gave it to me.”

“Mage. That’s not a word we use to describe ourselves… Was it a gaijin?”

“It was,” Yoroi replied with a grunt while fixing his business suit. “A young man named Marris Alan. And he was a very curious man. Who else would call someone like Marris-san when he is in contact with Soul Society?”

That caused a stir among the other leaders.

“Truly?”

“Yes. And it seems that he did something interesting: defy the shinigamis.”

And so the interest of the mortals turned upon Karakura Town.