An Arcanist in Karakura Town 15: A... Save?

An Arcanist in Karakura Town

Chapter 15: A … Save?

-VB-

Silence descended upon the room after I put my camera - not a smartphone, but a proper cheap camera - away.

Urahara and Shihoin stared at me in disbelief… before suddenly, Shihoin was by my side and holding my eyes open.

“W-What-?!” I slurred out. Huh?

Urahara was soon next to her with a … flashlight? ARGH! The bastard’s shining it in my eyes!

Shihoin sighed in concern. It was figuratively written all over her face.

“Concussion. You did pound his head to the ground,” Urahara giggled.

Disgusting.

Also.

Concussion?

… Might explain why I am swaying from side to side very slightly and why I blurted out shit that I normally wouldn’t have.

“I forgot that he’s just a regular mortal-” she groaned out.

“Yoruichi-chan, you have to be gentler with Alan-san here~!”

Stop giggling, you disgustingly creepy shopkeeper. I want to throw up when I hear you of all people giggling like a little girl.

Disgusting!

Urahara was giving me odd looks.

…

I said nothing out loud.

“No, but you are very clear with how much you don’t like me.”

“Maybe if you don’t keep waking me up in the morning for your goddamn testing I might like you a little better,” I grouched and slurred at the same time.

“Fair enough. Well, let’s put you to sleep.”

… Wait, what?

“N-Now, letz not be too hasty,” I tried.

“Now now, a patient shouldn’t be picky about the treatment. Since we caused it, it’ll be one hundred percent free, including but not limited to rectal cleansing!”

…!

“N-No, stop-!”

“Yoruichi-chan?”

“Kisuke, you disgust me,” the mocha skinned woman grunted before I felt something hit me in the back of the neck.

I keeled over and saw the shop’s ceiling before darkness came and covered my eyes.

-VB-

Yoruichi glared at her cousin/lover.

“Want to tell me who this guy is?” she asked. “Because his barriers and attacks weren’t weak at all like most living mortals.”

Urahara merely hummed instead of answering her on the spot.

She grunted in exasperation as she pulled her hand away from the neck strike that left their new house guest unconscious.

“You know how spiritual particles are how we and most native born living people use their power?” he asked her.

She raised an eyebrow at the obvious question. It was so obvious that most didn’t even mention it.

“Yeah?”

“Well, our friend here has another source of power. It is awfully similar to those used by our western counterparts.”

“... Magic? Seriously? This guy?” she asked incredulously while glancing down at the boy.

He nodded.

Unlike spiritual particles that dominated the far east, magic was the predominant force for the rest of the world. While these two forces didn’t intermingle with one another, it didn’t mean that the denizens of both worlds abstained from contact.

Funny thing about both magic and spirits was that they interacted primarily through people. Neither could exist where people didn’t live permanently, making Japan part of the figurative edge of the world for the Old World.

Magic, as such, appeared rarely in Japan, and most of those came from foreigners or enchanted items.

“Well, he does have that weird western name. Marris Alan,” Yoruichi waved it off. “So what if he’s a magician?”

“... Just curious, that’s all.”

“So you brought him over because you were curious… and then riled me up so that I’d beat the shit out of him?”

“Well, no, but you certainly helped exactly how I thought you might!”

“Ugh. You’re really a manipulator, aren’t you?”

“I try my best!” Then he grew serious. “I also have to check if Aizen haven’t recruited him already, and you know that he has a particular way of marking those who work for him, one way or another.”

“Didn’t you already get Shinji to check up on him?”

“Yup! But a few conversations aren’t exactly how you determine if someone is a sleeper agent. He did show up awfully at the right time just as Ichigo was starting to grow.”

“Ch. Look for it already, then.”

“Hai, hai. No need to rush me.”

-VB-

I woke up slowly, but it wasn’t to the same sensation I was now familiar with in the morning.

When I woke up at home, Orihime was always by myself more often naked than dressed. She would wake up sometimes when I stirred and we would just cuddle if we had the time before she had to leave for school.

Very rarely did I wake up alone.

Almost never did I wake up at a place that was not my home.

I pushed myself up as silently as possible, I noticed the futon and the comforter that I had been laying on and covered with respectively. The room itself was more traditional Japanese than modern.

I frowned as I tried to remember what happened before I fell asleep, because it was obvious that I wasn’t exactly kidnapped.

Then I remembered.

Urahara invited me over on the pretext of setting up a spar between Kurosaki and I, but never got to “alert” the man in question. I knew that he just wanted me to come over because he was curious about me and wanted to test me, but then Yoruichi kind of stumbled into the scene and … did things to me.

Painful things.

Like ass kicking and concussion.

Before I could get up from the bed in this barren guestroom(?), the rice paper door slid open, and Kisuke was on the other side of it.

Smiling.

Goddamn it.

I hate this bastard.