An Arcanist in Karakura Town 55

A/N: the last update to Arcanist was 7 months ago. Damn, that’s a long time ago.

-VB-

An Arcanist in Karakura Town

Chapter 55

-VB-

In a quiet and dimly lit throne room, a single man patiently watched a livestream feed of the situation developing at hand. 

Aizen Sosuke wanted as much information as he could obtain about the mortal artificer who’d foiled his plans already. He made the mistake of dismissing him before, and he wouldn’t do it again. 

But the problem with that particular mortal thorn was the fact that he was a paranoid bastard incapable of letting his guard down. Even his friends and women were tagged and ready to be extracted at any moment should a single thing go wrong. 

Aizen saw plenty of examples of what the young man could make. He’s even spied a few that Soul Society knew about and even fewer he was sure that they hadn’t. He was certainly that Mayuri and Urahara would have detected more than a few fluctuations that couldn’t be hidden, even behind those ridiculous defenses the mortal wasted on a warehouse of all things. 

‘But then again, if he was a normal mortal with a normal mind, then I wouldn’t have this much trouble dealing with him,’ he thought sardonically. ‘Maybe it’s because he’s abnormal that he chose a warehouse of all things? Even Urahara and I choose regular houses and palaces for our bases of operation.’

He fiddled with the broken asauchi of a shinigami that had been hiding in the Forest of the Menos. There were a few more such asauchis scattered about in Las Noches, most of which came from … shinigamis who went missing in action.

Just because there was a truce in effect between Marris, Soul Society, and himself did not mean that low level skirmishes did not happen. Gotei 13, of course, didn’t send any of their lieutenants or captains to any “mysterious hotspots” of Hollow activity just as he didn’t send any of his Privaron Espada and Espada to any “unauthorized” shinigami incursions to the edges of his territory in Hueco Mundo. 

It was a great game they played to see how they could get each other’s assets without losing one of their own and risking Marris finding out and bombing the “offending” party.

But then again, everyone was an offender in that mortal’s eyes, so maybe he’ll go and bomb everyone. 

That would be something that irrational man would do. 

Had the young man been even a little less prepared, then Aizen knew that he could send one of his arrancars to sneak in and end him. Maybe even kidnap one of his women or children to even turn him into one of his own weapons against Soul Society. 

Alas, Marris was too paranoid. Worse, he could detect Hollows and shinigamis even before they breached into the material world. 

Since that was the case, Aizen had opted to do the only thing he could do.

He waited.

And waited.

And waited. 

And waited.

And then … what he feared happened. 

The Quincies began to come back. Oddly enough, the first place they attacked was Hueco Mundo and his Las Noches. 

Aizen soundedly defeated them, of course. The Quincies sent some nobodies to fight him. What did they expect to accomplish? 

But in the Quincies, Aizen saw a way.

A way to gauge Marris without getting blamed and bombed.

He “sold” some of his numerous weaker arrancars to the new army of Quincies, this “Wandenreich.” It wasn’t hard to sell them in exchange for whatever information they can scavenge on Marris. They were … willing, if begrudgingly. Sure, Aizen knew that they had many troops. Their soldats. But a single soldat was no match for even a Menos-born arrancar, never mind higher class born arrancars. And unlike the Quincies, it was easy to replace an arrancar. 

But imagine his surprise when the Wandenreich … started blasting away at the warehouse, revealing themselves in a flashy, ineffective, and ultimately stupid fashion. He thought better of its leaders, but apparently, he had thought wrong. 

“They are beyond redemption if that is one of their best,” Ichimaru Gin, his right-hand man, hummed. The traitor pretending to not be one hadn’t had the chance to betray him because of how both of their plans had derailed thanks to Marris. “They only know how to brute force their way, huh?”

“It is why Gotei 13 was able to get rid of them easily the first time they came about,” Aizen replied without taking his eyes off of his floating screen. “But then what can you do? This is the kind of behavior that runs in the family.”

Aizen knew Gin was glancing at him, silently asking what he meant, but he didn’t answer. Keeping others in the dark while making them ponder the mysteries of their lives was intriguing and amusing.

Which … also made sense why he didn’t appreciate Marris. That man didn’t stumble around. He was like Mayuri, Urahara, and himself. If he wanted answers, then he made sure to get those answers. Where Mayuri was the madness of a scientist, Urahara the unshakable belief in status quo, and he was a guiding hand, Marris was disgustingly pointless destruction.

‘At least, that’s my current thoughts on the human man,’ Aizen thought to himself as the Quincy brought in more support and had them and the arrancars blast away at hte warehouse.

“... You sure the Quincies aren’t insane as a race?” Gin asked as he stared at the same feed as he did. “That’s the definition of insanity, ain’t it? Doing and same thing over and over again expecting a different answer.”

“Quincies … aren’t normal, yes,” Aizen chuckled. “By human standards, the average Quincy is someone who belongs in a mental asylum.”

Gin cackled. 

Aizen focused back on the screen, not that there was anything new happening. If Marris had half a brain, then he would stay inside until Soul Society could no longer ignore the growing Quincy and arrcancar group blasting away at a mortal city and clear them out. 

He sighed.

So very disappointing… 

-VB-

“It’s been over a goddamn day already,” I grumbled after briefly staring at the sensors taking in readings from outside of the warehouse. Thanks to certain advances with my version of [Professor Haywire], I didn’t even need to have openings in the barrier to take information in. 

My third copied Shard power, [Professor Haywire], was the focus of my tinkering today, because, well, my girls and I couldn’t exactly leave the warehouse when there were now a dozen Quincies and Arrancars blasting away. 

The problem, though, was that Gotei 13 still hadn’t come to kick them out. 

I was so very tempted to give Urahara a call to ask what the fuck were the lazy shits doing in Soul Society and not up here in the material world kicking ass and taking names. 

But I half-suspected that Soul Society was actually watching what was happening - or rather their mad scientist Mayuri was - and were deliberately delaying deployment of their lieutenants and captains using all manner of excuses to see how I would react and what kind of new things I would have in my arsenal.

It had been a year, after all. If I hadn’t made some advances and gadgets with all that was at my disposal, then I would be a wasteful motherfucker.

Now.

Well, if neither Aizen nor Soul Society was going to clean-up, then they had no standing to complain on when I took care of them my way, yeah?