An Arcanist in Karakura Town 31

An Arcanist in Karakura Town
Chapter 31

-VB-

Why did this happen so often?

Sitting in my living room, I sat across from Urahara Kisuke, who didn’t take a no this time. He was really rude this time, considering that I went out of my way to help Ichigo.

The boy was going to survive that fight, but I made it known to Urahara indirectly that I was on his side!

For spending my resources in that fight, I got a rude house call from Urahara.

“What do you want?”

I blinked. “Aren’t I supposed to be asking you that?” I asked him in honest surprise. “Considering you have been the one who’s been constantly bugging me?”

He rubbed his chin. “Since I have already been asking you, you already know what I want, don’t you?”

“... I guess I do,” I mumbled and then raised my voice back to normal level. “Does it matter what I want?”

He met my gaze equally.

“Marris-san, you have dealt a blow to an individual that has shown himself to be a captain-rank Hollow. Your ability to deal that damage without giving yourself away like all other combatants must make you a powerful player. You, however, have accepted neither our hands nor theirs. In fact, you have thrashed both sides at least once.”

I raised an eyebrow. “I remember only fighting Ichigo and his friend. You consider that ‘thrashing your side’? Especially when those boys -”

“They are the same age as you or nearly.”

“- are still incapable of fighting without causing collateral damage,” I continued, ignoring his tidbit. “My attacks on the humanoid Hollow caused very little damage to the infrastructure while Kurosaki-kun once again put holes and damaged houses that people live in.”

I knew that my complaint would amount to nothing.

Why?

Because Soul Society and its inhabitants - because of their naturally long age and spiritual importance - saw such troubles I was pointing out as trivial problems. As long as the afterlife remained disconnected from the material world, they didn’t care.

In that regard, they were no different from Ichigo.

And now that I was showing actual power, they considered me a threat worthy of their attention. Urahara was here, yes, and not Soi Fon or Byakuya, but at the end of the day, Urahara was still loyal to the idea of Soul Society.

Or at least, that was my belief. I could be wrong!

But it didn’t change the fact that Soul Society, despite having surely received the report that an unknown party nearly off’ed one of the strongest arrancars, didn’t send one of their own-.

Zap.

…

Never mind.

I sighed as I stood up. Urahara looked confused for a moment as he followed me deeper into the warehouse, which now had some of its space twisted so that it was bigger on the inside than the outside (but not by much).

A body fell from the ceiling and landed in front of us.

Urahara looked, and then his eyes widened.

“Marris-”

“I know. This is not the first time either,” I muttered as I kicked the dead shinigami over, showing me the work uniform of the Second Division, aka the assassins. I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Can you leave?”

“I don’t think that that would be a good idea.”

“Because it would make you my enemy?” I asked casually with a sigh. “Need I remind you that we are currently inside my workshop?”

He paused.

“No, that wasn’t what I was about to say.”

“Is it about how many powerful players are involved? Then I think you can appreciate what kind of defenses I have,” I grunted as I walked over to a glass cabinet, opened the doors, and then pulled out a ball. “This is a black hole bomb, Urahara.”

He froze and then paled. “That is -!”

“Not safe? Totally. It’s basically my ‘fuck you’ card. Something I set up specifically for mutually assured destruction. Ever heard of that? Wait, why am I asking. Of course, you have. You live in Japan, which got bombed twice by atomic bombs. It would be ignomous for you to not have heard of it, considering that you are a scientist and all.”

“... You are starting to act a little rude, Marris-kun.”

“I think I have a bloody right to be. Your cousin’s ex-coworkers send an assassin after me once a week almost. Do you know how frustrating and paranoid they make me? It wasn’t even that I did what Ichigo did and invade their goddamn country. No, I stuck to my little bubble but your people still attacked me.”

“I’m sure that there is a reason for it. However, you have already made an enemy out of Aizen.”

“And I’m sure the manipulative bastard knows what happens if he decides to go crazy on me. A black hole goes off, and he can forget whatever he planned because all of Japan would be gone.”

“You seriously intend to set it off?”

“Not if there is no reason to. Your friends’ assassins constantly make me doubt that, though.”

Urahara took a deep breath in. “I’ll do what I can, but in exchange, I want you to hand me that.”

I laughed at that. “Give you my final deterrent? Please, you can go get high elsewhere,” I snapped as I stashed it away. I sighed. I was getting too worked up about this. Why was I-?

My eyes widened and quickly used multiple dispels on myself.

I felt my mind restore itself to equilibrium.

My eyes snapped up and Urahara realized that something was wrong.

The bastard came here for information!

“You fucking-!” I snarled with wrath.

A dark form jumped out of his shadows and my own defenses reacted.

Space between us exploded, and I skided away from the explosion.

When the dust and smoke settled, Urahara and whoever that had been were gone.

My cheeks twitched irritably.

“Okay. Alright. You want a goddamn war? You’ll get one, you sons of bitches.” And then my eyes widened. Orihime wasn’t home yet, even though she was supposed to be.

Where was she?

I quickly pulled out my phone and called. My feet tapped irritably as -.

“[Alan?]”

“Orihime, use the teleport tag now.”

There was a moment of pause before she hummed in acknowledgement.

And then, no more than three seconds later, she was in front of me. She was frowning. “What’s wrong-?” she started to ask but then saw the state of the immediate area of the warehouse around us. “An attack?!”

“Urahara tried to mentally manipulate me…!” I hissed.

She frowned. “I… didn’t think he would go so far. I mean, I knew that he was working with Kurosaki-kun and they were fighting the evil guys, but you’re not evil!”

Debatable but her confidence in me helped me settle down.

I let my shoulders sag.

“Urgh, what am I going to do?” I muttered as I facepalmed and dragged it down the length of my face.

Orihime gave me a hug, and we stood there on top of the blackened spot on the warehouse’s concrete floor.

I needed options.