An Arcanist in Karakura Town 56

An Arcanist in Karakura Town

Chapter 56

-VB-

Tatsuki looked at her … lover. 

She wanted to think of him as something more than that, but they weren’t legally married, so it felt odd and weird to call him her husband, especially when Orihime was also his lover. Her place in this odd and definitely un-Japanese family was unique. 

In a way, she was the one who was the most “afterthought” out of the three. Was it pessimistic and ungrateful of her place? Probably. She did love him, and she knew that he loved her, too. He also loved Orihime and she loved him back. And he definitely loved his children. 

Even so, she still felt like the third wheel of their family. 

She was also the weakest without her own significant power to speak of. 

Apparently, being able to see the monsters from hell was already a power of its own. 

Orihime was … unique in that regard. Her best friend was also someone like Alan. she wasn’t a mad scientist, but she could throw a punch if she wanted to. 

So where did that leave her? 

… 

She wasn’t sure. 

Well, actually, she knew the answer. 

She was the home sitter. Did that admission hurt like hell when she was the one who had always been the protector and fighter before Alan came along. 

But she had to! 

Alan and Orihime were the worst cooks! 

Maybe Alan had a few bits of hope, but he was not good at making Japanese home food. He was also not good at babyrearing. He knew how to change diapers and feed from the bottle, but he was completely blank when it came to “playing” with the babies. 

His brain only held mad science. 

And she knew exactly what she was thinking when she labeled his tinkering as “mad science” because there was no way he did anything that was logically possible.

“I find your bombs to be an afront to the laws of the universe and gods as well as common sense and philosophies of humanity.”

Alan gawked at her. Orihime’s eyes sparkeldd in mirth.

“Why would you say something so hurtful?!” Alan whined. 

Ah, he was in a playful mood today, despite the fact that their home was under siege. 

He must have some nasty surprises for them. 

“Because they are. Bombs shouldn’t be able to disintegrate souls.”

“Well, mine can,” he pouted like a child. 

“We have two children at home. You are not allowed to degrade into a child. Stop pouting,” she grunted as she glared at him.

“... Orihime, Tatsuki is being mean.”

“Eheheh. She’s having fun.”

“I’m not having fun,” Tatsuki sighed as she sat down next to Orihime, who had been sitting some distance away from Alan’s main “workshop” within the open warehouse floor. The windows of the warehouse only allowed the natural sunlight through, which completely ignored the reality of the akuma fucking siege of their home. Did she mention the siege? The one where the number of attackers grew in number? No?

She also tried her best to not look at a struggling woman - naked, chained, and slightly bloodied woman who once wore an immaculate white uniform before her lover caught her from somewhere - in the corner of the warehouse. She hung right next to one of the Hollows, who sat in his cage placidly. 

“Entonces eres nuevo aqui?” the Hollow asked the naked woman conversationally, not that Tatsuki cared about those two or what they were talking about. 

Tatsuki ignored those two and focused on Alan.

The siege made it hard for her to keep avoiding all of the lees than humane shenanigans Alan did in his labs. So she just accepted it, especially since he was doing most of it to keep himself and them safe. Or maybe it was just that over the past year, she just got used to his work and … just grew accustomed to watching people who tried to kill her and her family die under a scalpel. 

“... And finally after two weeks of Tinkering, I am done,” he giggled. 

Uh… uh oh. He was giggling. 

“Stop giggling. I told you that you’re not allowed to regress back into a kid,” Tatsuki muttered even as she shivered. “... And what did you make?” 

He turned around with eye smiles before -.

He tossed it up.

She watched it fly up into the air and then blink away. 

“... So what was that bomb?” she asked him.

“You know how I can do a lot of things?” he asked her and Orihime. 

“Yes…?” Oriihme trailed off. 

“And I thought about how I could get them to stop. Just chucking bombs at them won’t do it. I’ve been doing that for over a year now.”

“So you told me,” Tatsuki nodded, wanting him to hurry it up with the explanation. 

“So I thought about how I could get them to stop because apparently even a soul-eradicating bomb wasn’t enough. I mean … everyone on the other side should already be aware of how dangerous I am, but they are still doing this!”

“Okay and…?” she asked impatiently. 

“So I thought … why don’t I just delegate that?”

“Huh? Delegate what?”

“They look down on me because I’m ‘just a mortal human,’” he grinned maliciously. “So I found something that isn’t human. Or rather someplace out there in the great multiverse thanks to my Haywire Tinkering.”

Haywire… Wasn’t that the one that let him make portals to other universes or something? 

Then she paused.

“Wait, you found aliens?!” Orihime squealed.

Tatsuki deadpanned at her friend. Of course, she would focus on that. 

He paused. “... Well, yes? But also no.”

“What do you mean yes and no?” Tatsuki asked cautiously. 

“Would they be aliens if they were on their human-filled Earth for longer than humans have been around?” he asked her. 

-VB-

Quilge wanted to kill the Hollows who had been so weak.

Now, he had over forty Hollow Arrancars and Soldats under his command, and they still could not break through the goddamn defenses of this mortal human who wasn’t even a Quincy! 

Thankfully, neither the rogue shinigami or Soul Society was reacting to the siege, which was … odd. 

Even if he and his army was not damaging the human hovels, he expected them to ambush him by now. 

Instead, they did nothing, including the resident human shinigami and exiled shinigami captains.

Fwip.

He whirled around. 

His eyes widened as he spotted a mechanical orb. 

His lips stretched into a grin.

That fool! So he had been planning on retaliating instead of turtling it out inside his fortress! 

But he was a fool. All Quincies were still living mortals. His attacks that destroy Hollows and Shinigamis would do nothing -! 

The bomb lit up and then -.

Quilge blinked as the entire world changed. He and his army whirled around in place. 

They weren’t in Karakura Town anymore. Instead, they found themselves hovering over an open ocean. 

It was misty and single crescent moon shined its dim light over them. 

“Did he just teleport us away?” Quilge hissed. “He couldn’t even bother to attack us properly?!” 

“S-Sir…”

He whirled around, recognizing an arrancar’s voice and readying himself to kill the little monster for daring to interrupt him.

But he stopped. 

Because apparently he had been the only one to not notice it beforehand.

He looked down along with the rest of his soldiers. 

There was something underwater.

Something big. 

Something … something powerful.

And it was coming up to the surface. 

His army scattered when something giant broke through the waters and soared up into the sky. But it didn’t leave the water. 

No.

It was a single thing.

Quilge looked up to the giant. Its tentacled face. The wings. The eYEs and -.

Screams. 

People screamed around him. 

But why was hE NoT doINg ANytHiNg…? 

Oh.

He was screaming, too.

His throat grew hoarse as a sudden pain lanced through his head. 

He fell to the ocean and drowned.

But he didn’t stop screaming.

He screamed into the vile ocean water as the Deep Ones latched onto him and dragged him down below.

The light!

Don’t take him away from the light! 

Your Majesty! Save me!

Help me!

-VB-

I waited. The bomb should have gone off by now. 

The attacks did cease, but that didn’t mean they were gone.

“Hiro? Can you check outside?” 

“Of course, master,” my Servant’s voice emanated out from somewhere within the warehouse. “The coast is clear.”

“Sweet,” I grinned along with my girls. “I think we should go outside and see the real sunlight for a few hours at least before they come again?”

“Oi, you didn’t answer me,” she grumbled as she followed me. “Where did you send them?”

I chuckled. “Somewhere no sane person would dare tread, because the sunken city was sunk for a reason.”

“You are still being cryptic!”