An Arcanist in Karakura Town 57

An Arcanist in Karakura Town

Chapter 57

-VB-

Urahara Kisuke stared at the large computer screen.

He had, of course, been keeping an eye out on the siege. He reported it to Soul Society, and even had the Visoreds ready just in case it escalated and spilled into a bigger problem than a siege on a dimensionally isolated fortress. 

They were content to fire day and night onto the fortress even though nothing changed visually or spiritually. Their attacks, and the mindset and orders of the Quincy commanding officer, had been the definition of insanity. 

What did they expect to accomplish by doing that? Even Gotei 13 only managed to get their assassins/spies in when someone from the inside opened the door and then using shunpo to get in without being seen. 

But the “bomber” had learned from the past, it seemed, because he didn’t open the door at all. There was nothing going through, or at least from what Kisuke could see. 

The entire warehouse was a sensor-blank zone comparable to a rock. 

Kisuke didn’t expect anything to change, because while the mortal magician was good at defense, his personal offense skills outside of his bombs were … limited. 

And for a whole week, nothing happened. 

“Kisuke!” Yoruichi shouted as she rushed into his observation room. 

He didn’t respond to her. Instead, he kept his eyes firmly planted on the screen. 

Because everyone with a lick of spiritual power had just sensed what had happened. 

“Boss…” Tessai spoke up as well as he walked into the room with Jinta and Ururu in tow; this place was one of the safest rooms in his entire shop. 

“I know, just give me a moment, please,” he muttered out without turning away from the screen. 

His computers, all designed to capture even the most minute details of spiritual pressure, were going haywire. 

Marris-kun had done something again. Unlike last time where he dispersed all spiritual particles, this time, he opened up a dimensional portal akin to Garganta and Senkaimon. It didn’t lead to Dangai, though. 

The spiritual pressure exuding out of the portal was … 

And then the portal closed. 

His computer stopped screaming as the spiritual pressure that exceeded everything he’s ever recorded stopped coming through. He didn’t gulp, though it was a near thing. He turned around and looked at Yoruichi and Tessai. 

Both of them still looked tense, but there was less weight on their shoulders. 

Spiritual pressure had little to no presence. There were other effects that could be mixed with spiritual pressure, like killing intent, but spiritual pressure was, by itself, an exertion of one’s spiritual power, the reiyouku.

But what he and everyone here just felt wasn’t spiritual pressure that they were familiar with. It was … it was something that touched their minds. Something that wanted to tear at them. 

Something beyond them. 

“... I think we need to go and talk to the young magician about what he just did,” he said quietly and slowly. 

-VB-

Aizen stared.

He ignored the sweat running down his face. 

He ignored Gin’s stiff form. 

He ignored the pure terror on the faces of the arrancars who had come running to him.

Aizen knew that there were greater beings, Yhwach and Soul King. It was why he had embarked on his mission in the first place, especially when he learned about how utterly idiotic and useless those beings were. There were even greater beings who were dead; Hueco Mundo, as it had been speculated before, was created from the death of one such great being. 

Great beings were rare and hidden, not absent. 

And what was on the other side of that portal was another great being.

No.

A greater being than the likes of Yhwach. 

Yhwach’s mere presence didn’t drive lesser souls insane and lost to “common” souls. The Soul King was a monolith of childish impulsiveness who could change so much of the world yet could not bend the shinigamis to his whims in the end. 

Both were laid low against the will of humanity. 

Great beings should have remained just that: beings with great power.

Yet … yet… 

Aizen slowly stood up from his throne. 

He had been mistaken. 

He thought that the magician was just a very powerful and creative thorn in his side. He thought that the magician was just an anomaly. 

No.

No, he - Aizen Sosuke - had been arrogant.

The magician was his own faction, capable of causing death and destruction on a scale that only entire organizations like the Espada and Gotei 13 could bring forth. 

So what was he going to do about that magician? 

He needs to die.

Was there ever any other choice? Someone of his power and retaliatory tendencies was an obstacle even if he wasn’t directly on his path to ascension. 

… Even Soul Society wouldn’t allow the existence of that magician to continue. They destroyed the Quincies for less. 

After all, destroyed souls and war would simply mean the return of the three worlds to what it was like before, but bringing a greater being like what was on the other side of that portal to come to this world would mean meaningless ruination. 

If that glimpse hadn’t already alerted that thing to this world, that was.

-VB-

“So where did you send them to?” Orihime asked me. 

“Hmm?”

“The bad guys who were pounding at our home! Where did you send them to?”

“What makes you think that I didn’t just kill them?” I asked her as I raised an eyebrow at the question. 

She smirked. It was cute. “You like your explosions loud. Even if we couldn’t hear it from the inside, nothing was different outside..”

I opened my mouth before closing. That was kind of true… I think. Even my disintegration bomb had a pfoomf to it. 

“Anything else?”

She frowned. 

But to our surprise, it was Tatsuki who answered as she came out of the house portion of the warehouse. “I didn’t feel any spiritual change outside,” she said as she grunted a little as she sat down next to Orihime. She was very close to giving birth. I would give her a few weeks at most. “Last time you disintegrated a bunch of people, it felt icky. Like there was too much humidity in the air or there was smog but instead of something physical, it was a feeling.”

“Huh,” I uttered before shrugging. “Well, you two are right that it wasn’t quite the kind of bomb most would expect out of it. Since everyone’s stark mad about waging war and killing other people, I sent them to a place that was actually insane.” I chuckled. “Call it cosmic karma.” 

“Like where?” Tatsuki asked.

I gave her my most serious stare. 

“Where mad gods roam free and the universe is destined to end without any fanfare.”

Tatsuki frowned but it was Orihime who spoke up first. “Mo, that’s boring! If you can take us somewhere else other than Earth, then let’s go to somewhere fun! Oh oh oh! Can we meet aliens?!” 

I stared at her before laughing. 

That was a very Orihime-like sentiment. 

“Sure. We’ll go somewhere with aliens.” 

Ding dong.

I blinked before turning toward a set of computers on the side. While I did have magic and spirit-based sensors, someone was actually polite enough to ring the doorbell. So I looked and saw the resident scientist-slash-candy shop owner. 

“... Now what?” I grumbled as I went out to meet him. 

I opened one of the people-sized doors, not the big doors at the center of the wall, and looked at Urahara Kisuke. 

Before I had a chance to speak, he snapped at me.

“Are you even aware of what you just did?” he demanded. 

I stared at him before grunting. “Well, good morning to you, too. Thank you for alerting Soul Society to the goddamn siege happening on my home. Did you offer to help or dissuade the quincies and hollows from attacking someone who has an anti-spirit bomb?” I asked instead. “You know I don’t take shit fro-”

“Can you can it with your self-righteous bullshit and actually answer my question?” 

I paused and looked at him.

Really looked at him.

He was pale. Sweating. Not quite shaking. 

… Why would that be? 

Then I did some thinking, which he seemed to be patient enough to let me do. 

“... Why are you scared?” I asked him carefully. 

“Because of whatever was on the other side of your portal,” he almost snarled. 

“... I only opened a portal to a universe that ends when a mad god wakes up,” I shrugged. “Completely unrelated to our universe, I assure you.”

He stared at me. 

He really stared at me. 

Then he turned around and just left. 

Shrugging, I closed the door and came back to my work station. 

Tatsuki and Orihime looked at me with questions unspoken. 

“It was the candy shop owner. He was asking why I made the portal to the insane universe.”

“And he just … left?”

“I think he was done with me like I was done with his people,” I snorted.