An Arcanist in Karakura Town 66: Epilogue (Patreon)

An Arcanist in Karakura Town

Chapter 66: Epilogue

-VB-

2030.

The Splitting of Korea, the event with many names that turned the Korean Peninsula into the Korean Island, was ultimately not beneficial for Japan.

Why would it be beneficial? Korea had been a big trade partner of Japan’s, and technological innovation in one country spread to the other country more easily than importing them from Europe or America. History made one wary and dislike the other, yes, but it was one that many prime ministers of Japan had apologized for time and time again.

Relations had been on the upturn when the Splitting happened. 

When Japan sent thousands of volunteer workers even as the event’s aftershock also truck Japan’s northern coastlines as tsunamis and earthquakes, that relationship turned into a mutually amicable one. 

China wasn’t so amicable. 

Even though there was clear evidence that what happened wasn’t either Korea or Japan’s fault, they had no one to blame and thus blamed the two countries. Trade relations were cut, tourism ground to a halt, and Chinese fishermen started to aggressively strip Korean and Japanese coasts of their fish as some sort of petty punishment.

That got a lot of condemnation from the West and even other Asian countries but since when did China care about what other countries said about them, really? China cared about China and punishing Koreans and Japanese for something they had no hand in was what they did to assuage their people. 

Things kind of escalated when a Chinese fishermen “accidentally” killed a Korean fisherman and then a Japanese coast guard who’d come to help.

China sent its outdated but still formidable warships. Korean navy was still strong so they deployed theirs. America got involved. U.N. sanctions when China threatened Korea, Japan, and Taiwan (because why not include Taiwan, right?). 

War almost broke out before things finally settled down when even Russia told China that they goofed up.

Whatever westernization and capitalist investments that had been poured into China up to that point reversed instantly. These days, only Shanghai and Beijing remained heavily industrialized with factories and corporate towers everywhere else either burned to the ground by nationalist mobs or demolished after businesses pulled out of the increasingly hostile China.

‘Not that that stopped China from industrializing,’ Masuda Hina, the newly minted Fourth Elder of the Tennihon Onmyouji, thought as she gazed out of the skyscraper tower owned by her paternal grandfather. 

The said grandfather, the Third Elder of the Tennihon Onmyouji, Masuda Yoroi let out a long and deep dragged out sigh that belayed his small size. He used to be bigger, towering over Hina when she was but an adolescent going on a personal crusade against the magician who had killed her other grandfather. 

‘Except he turned out to be something so much more than just a mere magician, didn’t he?’

The elders of the Tennihon Onmyouji knew the truth about what happened during the Splitting and shared it with the Hidden Shaman Societies of Goryeo, the Korean equivalent of the Tennihon Onmyouji. 

Sufficed to say, they were not happy.

No one who knew the truth was happy but they all agreed to keep it quiet.

Because if the world found out that a magician had been responsible for the Splitting, no matter who else had been involved, then it would cause problems for their entire community. That could not be allowed to happen. 

She sighed. 

She was starting to act like her grandfather in both her internal monologue and her actions. 

“Are the preparations complete?” her grandfather asked.

“Yes,” she replied. “The representatives have all arrived.”

“The Hollows of Las Noches? Shinigamis of Gotei 13? The European Conclave? The Western Association? Pharaoh’s Mausoleum? Hidden Shamans?”

“Yes. All have arrived.”

“Good. Let this be my final meeting before I have to retire. Can’t deal with all of this international crisis bullshit.”

She chuckled. 

The Quincies, one of the two parties responsible for the Splitting in the eyes of the world, had begun to act belligerently. They have been rebuffed in Eastern, Central, and Western Europe, so they were using the Balkans, Anatolia, and North Africa as their recruiting ground and base of operation. Of course, normal people had a hard time fighting them off, but apparently, enough artillery shells (imbued with holy water) can put down some of their named rankers. 

Their belligerence had become the focal point of both mundane and spiritual matters. After the ninth city to be attacked by them, the United Nations had decreed the sect of Quincies known as the Wandenreich to be a terrorist organization on par with the Islamic State and al Qaeda. 

Of course, all of magicians, spirits, monsters, and even the shinigamis thought that the United Nations was bullshit. Who the hell were they to have authority over the matters of magic and spirit? 

So that’s what this meeting was about: to organize themselves and put an end to the Wandenreich before the mundane could attempt to. 

Key word: attempt. 

Because even with the pseudo-angels of the Papacy backing them, Hina doubted that the numerically smaller Wandenreich would be so easy to fall. Not unless the Papacy broke the Gate and Key and started to distribute their forbidden lores.

Which they just might.

“Alright then. Can you wheel me there, Hina?”

“Of course, grandfather.”

The magician who’d caused it all was gone but that didn’t mean that the world came to a stop and clung to the Splitting like it was the resurrection of the Christ. 

It was just one more atrocity the world suffered through, nothing more and nothing less. 

-VB-

The Marris were an odd folk, they were. 

They came out of nowhere just after Elysium was settled, and Joe rather liked them.

Even though it was clear that they didn’t care too much about the law with their, uh, polygamy or the fact that, technically, they had a house in the middle of the second largest city on Elysium that no one knew where it was or if they even paid taxes. 

Personally, Joe didn’t mind them because the neighborhood got really nice after they moved in. 

The Krumpt used to be the bad part of town, you know? It’s where the gangs hung out because that’s where they could without running into the blues. 

Life used to be shit in the Krumpt before the Marris moved in. They seemed like nice folks. Still were nice folks. 

But then one of the gang goons fondled the orange-haired beauty. 

Then that gang goon and his entire gang was found dead the next day. No camera showed what happened. There were no eyewitnesses.

Everyone had a good idea who it was, though, cuz when Alan Marris came out the next day, he didn’t look surprised at all. Or appreciative. 

Acted like he took out the trash. After all, taking trash out, literally speaking, wasn’t something someone appreciated. It was just a chore. 

And Alan Marris looked like he’d just done his chore. 

Other gangs tried their luck with the Marris after that. 

They showed up dead one after another. 

“Joe?” 

He jolted and looked up.

“Well, hot … darn, you brought the entire family over?” he asked as he looked at the entire Marris family.

OIr should he call them the Marris Horde? 

Standing front and center of them all was none other than Alan. He looked a little older than when he first appeared, though that was over a decade and a half ago. The man must have some anti-aging gene or something. His short hair had speckles of grey here and there, but that only seemed to make him look good. 

To his left and right were his wives, Tatsuki and Orihime. The tomboy-ish one was Tatsuki and the beauty was Orihime. That’s how he remembered them. They also didn’t look like they aged any more than when they did, and they kept their figures over the years.

And behind and around the trio were their seven kids. 

From oldest to youngest, Sora (17), Sai (17), Hana (16), Amy (15), Nora (10), Vicky (10), and Nara (7). 

“Yup,” Alan said with a smile. “You have the best healthy burger in town.”

“Ah shucks, man. You don’t gotta butter up a man like that,” Joe chuckled. “There’s no way my s… stuff is healthy.”

“Better than Franklin’s chain,” Tatsuki snorted, and Joe nodded to that. 

Franklin’s was a burger chain that tried to mimic the McDonalds back on Earth. They mostly succeeded until it came out that they were using so much trans-fat that they were solely responsible for over a billion Elysium Reals worth of healthcare damage. 

Ever since that scandal, they had to do a lot of readjusting, but even then, they were still unhealthy.

“Bah. That’s a discussion for another time,” he huffed. “So what will all y’all have?” 

“Double cheese with extra bacon,” Sora interjected immediately but mutedly. 

“Me, too!” Sai, the cheerful kid, grinned. “Mom, can I have fries with that?” 

“Yes,” Tatsuki replied. 

“Tower burger!” “Regular cheeseburger with extra onions, please.” “White charger burger, please.” “Normal cheeseburger, Joe.” “One Elysium special, sir!” 

“I’d like Blue crab burger,” Orihime hummed before glancing over to Tatsuki. “You?”

Tatsuki was the pickiest of them all. “... I gotta watch my weight.”

Joe gave the woman a flat stare. Despite being in her mid-thirties, she still took out women and men ten years her junior in the boxing ring. 

He’d know. He watched her knock out a up-and-coming boxer who was a head taller than her. 

Tatsuki noticed all of the stares and huffed. “Fine. Lady’s Special. There’s another kid on the way.”

That made the Horde pause before the youngest four exploded into excited pandemonium.

“Another one?” Joe asked, raising an eyebrow even as he -. “Huh?”

He looked down at his computer. It wasn’t working? The screen and the computer itself was working but the order wasn’t going through, which worked off of wi-fi.

Alan frowned and then sniffed. 

He sniffed again.

Then he looked out of the restaurant window.

“... Is it me or is that something falling out of the sky?”

Joe rushed over to look, and his eyes widened. 

That was the Systems Alliance patrol ship! 

What the f-?

Then he froze as he watched ships that were definitely not Systems Alliance descend down from the skies. 

Alan looked at the descending ships and sighed. 

“They look Batarian,” he said.

Joe paled. “W-Wait, if Batarians are here…?!”

“Slave raid. You should get to shelter. After you turn off the electricity and stoves.”

Joe didn’t hear much after that. He was too busy. 

But he noted how calm Alan was. 

When Alan showed up a week later just as calm as before and all of the Batarians were found dead just like the gang goons had, Joe made sure to prioritize his order.