Chapter 1 – The Potion

A/N: This is my first story, so be nice.

The Story is set after Winter War, none of the captains have died except Aizen and Tosen of course, and Ichigo is captain of the fifth, Gin is the captain of the third, he redeemed himself after helping Ichigo kill butterfly-Aizen, and Hisagi got promoted to captaincy. Set about ten to twenty years after the defeat of Aizen.

Disclaimer: I do not own bleach, Tite Kubo does. I had forgot to put this in 0.0

-0-0- = scene change

It was a hot summer day in the Seireitei, the heat was blistering, and causing the shinigami to slowly be drenched in their sweat, but the shinigami still worked and bustled, doing their daily work. Some filled paperwork, others stood guard, and one was drinking sake wearing a straw hat and a pink flowery kimono. The diversity of the activity in the Seireitei was well-spread, each person wasn't suspecting anything.

Though the scene was quite peaceful, a darkness threatening to unleash its wrath on Soul Society was lurking within the bowels of the twelfth division's barracks.

Mayuri Kurotsuchi, the captain of the twelfth division, was discreetly working on a potion to test on the Gotei 13. Hoping to develop a revolutionary potion to control the genetics of a spiritual body, he had used over two thirds of the division budget on this project; he had no intention of letting this go into failure.

After several days of preparation and many failed tests, which often resulted in explosions or complete evaporation, Mayuri finally managed to get the concoction right.

"Yes, it is done!" the captain exclaimed.

Watching the bubbling slowly cease inside the test tube and the liquid becoming crystal clear, he quickly wrote down his observations and finalized the information inside his database. When the bubbling stopped, he carefully poured the contents of the test tube into eight separate containers and added different amounts of another liquid in each container. The amount of this special liquid would likely determine the affect of the potion. Each container was labeled from one to eight, distinguishing the each test tube from each other and put into separate boxes.

After pouring the liquid into the test tubes, he decided he needed a spare potion, so he took the rest of the liquid and stored it in a super secret safe.

"Nemu!"

"Yes, Mayuri-sama?" Nemu replied.

"Deliver each one of these containers to a random test subject. Apply the potion by making their skin touch it, report the results back to me when you're done. People with high riatsu are more susceptible to this potion though. Failure is not accepted. Also, dispose the bottle when you're done, we don't want anyone to copy my creation." The captain ordered. Then he told Nemu about a lot of technical stuff of the nature of the potion.

"What does the potion do?" Nemu asked.

"Bah. I already told you before. Now get going." The captain said, as he waved Nemu off.

Nemu lifted the boxes of containers and quietly walked out of the room. When she had left normal hearing distance, the mad scientist laughed, for he too did not know what the potion would do. Based on his research, the potion could do almost anything to the spiritual body; changing genders, growing older, growing younger, changing how they look, even switching bodies was possible if the same potion was applied once to two people.

The deranged captain then went to his control panel to monitor the potions progress through the multiple secret video cameras he hid through the Seireitei. Clearly aware that he would be wreaking chaos to whomever Nemu gave the potions to, he gleefully stared at the monitor.

Nemu walked down the corridors of the twelfth division barracks to the exit, assuming that her captain had wanted her to go to any division to distribute this potion. After she exited the division, she decided to visit the thirteenth division's barracks first, since it was the closest. The heat was blistering and had caused Nemu to be slightly un-coordinated. After walking for a while, she turned corner and bumped into Rukia, who was also carrying a bunch of boxes. The two ungracefully fell and the boxes they had been carrying were scattered.

"Sorry!" Rukia said.

"It's okay; I'll pick up the boxes." Nemu answered.

"Let me help you."

They quietly picked up the boxes they assumed they had carried and went along with their paths. Back in the twelfth division barracks, Mayuri snickered; Nemu had mistaken two of Rukia's boxes to be hers. This was going to be a very interesting day he thought.

-0-0-

Nemu continued her journey to thirteenth division's barracks, while Rukia walked toward the tenth divisions. When Nemu had reached the thirteenth division's barracks, she walked around looking for a test subject. Fortunately for Nemu, she found two of them in less than one minute. Unfortunately for Kiyone and Sentaro, they were the ones chosen.

"I help Ukitake-taicho more than you" Sentaro declared.

"But I did more paperwork than you!" Kiyone exclaimed.

"Half of that was illegible!"

"Your handwriting is worse."

"At least I know the difference between the seventh and the ninth division."

"How was I supposed to know the seventh wanted more books and not the ninth?"

"The deliverer of the paperwork from the seventh said so!"

"How was I supposed to know he was from the seventh?"

Kiyone and Sentaro were unaware of Nemu's presence and continued to argue about who was more loyal to Captain Ukitake and paperwork. Nemu quietly stood behind the door to their room and pondered how to expose them to the potion, eventually she decided to stain the door with some of the clear liquid on the door to the room, though it might only last for one hour at the rate it was evaporating. Deciding that only using one container wasn't enough, she used two. After making sure the door was secretly covered in the liquid, she left the division and headed for the seventh division.

"Fine! Be that way." Kiyone exclaimed, as she stormed out of the room and slammed the door shut. As soon as she touched the door, however, she became dizzy and fell down.

"Kiyone!" Sentaro said panicking at the unknown threat.

After hearing the collapse, he opened the door and when he touched the door that was covered with the potion he also became dizzy and then he fell down on top of Kiyone.

-0-0-

Rukia was paying a visit to the tenth division, while delivering some gifts the Captain Ukitake had decided to give to Captain Hitsugaya. The boxes were supposed to have a bunch of candy. At first Rukia had questioned why she was delivering candy, but she decided that it wasn't important anyway.

Once she reached the tenth division's barracks she set down the boxes on a table and went to talk to the captain.

While Rukia was busy talking to Toshiro, a pink flash invaded the tenth division's barracks. Yachiru was hungry, well not hungry for food exactly, but hungry for candy. She started to look around the barracks for candy and she found none, but what she did find where a few boxes. Curios of what was in them, Yachiru opened one of the boxes and found that it was filled with sweets. Amazed at the amount of candy these boxes contained, she started to steal the boxes.

When Rukia and Toshiro walked out of the captain's office, they saw Yachiru trying to make off with the last two boxes.

"Hey, wait! Those are for Hitsugaya-taicho!" Rukia yelled.

Rukia cornered Yachiru, sensing that she could not escape with these last two boxes, so she ditched them and ran away.

"I'm sorry that Yachiru stole some of the boxes I was supposed to give to you, Hitsugaya-taicho." Rukia said

"It's okay. What's in them anyway?" Toshiro replied

"Umm… candy from Ukitake-taicho."

"Okay, I don't mind."

Before Rukia left, Rukia presented the boxes to Toshiro. After opening one of the boxes and seeing candy, Toshiro dismissed the present and decided to give these boxes to Rangiku as a present to her. Carefully setting the boxes on her desk, he proceeded to finish the paperwork that he was doing.

Later when Rangiku returned to the barracks from her trip to a shopping district in Rukongai, she saw two boxes on her desk with a note that said "To my lazy lieutenant, in hope that the sugar rush will make you do more paperwork." After opening both of the boxes, she saw that one was full of candy, while the other had a container full of a clear liquid. Not sure what it was, she picked it up and wandered to Toshiro's office.

"Taicho… what is this liquid?" Rangiku asked.

"What liquid, Matsumoto? Can't you see I'm doing paper work right now?" Toshiro replied, obviously getting irritated, since he hated the heat.

"The clear liquid in that box you gave me."

"There's only supposed to be candy in those boxes…"

"Then what's in this container?"

"I don't know."

"But you gave it to me."

"You must be mistaken."

"But the box had your name on it."

"Just let me see it!" Toshiro said, irritated by her redundant questions and comments.

Rangiku went over to where her captain was sitting, but she didn't notice the chair that was in the way. As Rangiku tripped on the chair, Rangiku dropped the container and the liquid splashed all over Toshiro.

"MATSUMOOTOOO!" Toshiro exclaimed, before he fainted and Rangiku fell backwards.

"Taicho?" Rangiku asked nervously.

-0-0-

Yachiru made her way back to eleventh division's barracks, pleased with the amount of candy that she had managed to obtain from the tenth division. When she returned to her room, she began opening each box to take out the candy and store it into her grand stash of candy. After opening the sixth one, she was confused when she discovered that inside the container wasn't candy, it was a container with clear liquid inside. She took it out and looked at it; it reminded her of the containers that Yumichika used to store his cosmetics. She decided to ask him what it was, but first, maybe ken-chan knew. Yachiru went to Kenpachi to ask.

Kenpachi was in a good mood today. He had convinced his third and fifth seat to do all the paperwork for the division, while he, himself, drank sake and fought his division members. He was resting under a tree when the pink flash came.

"Hey Ken-chan, what is this?" Yachiru asked, as she landed on his shoulder.

After a quick look at the container, Kenpachi decided that it belonged to Yumichika; since he thinks that he saw a container like that in Yumichika's room once.

"It's probably one of Yumichika's things." Kenpachi responded.

"It's pretty-boy's container?"

"Yeah, probably"

"OK, bye Ken-chan" Yachiru said, as she jumped of Kenpachi to search for Yumichika.

Yumichika was at the training ground, having sustained several bruises from Ikkaku, he was still fighting Ikkaku; the unseated shinigami were watching them in awe as the attacked, parried, dodged, and lunged at each other. Even though Yumichika had sustained several hits, Ikkaku, though, look pretty much unharmed and had a lot of energy to attack. They had been sparing for over an hour, until Ikkaku finally broke through Yumichika's defense and knocked his wooden sword down from the left and kicked him down to the ground.

"It's over Yumichika. I won, now give me the sake." Ikkaku said

"Fine." Yumichika said reluctantly

"Though you lost, you did improve; your right side defense has increased greatly, so your secret training wasn't a waste, but you still need to work on the left." Ikkaku said

"Thanks."

Yumichika was walking away from the training ground with Ikkaku, while they discussed their battle. Once they reached the eleventh divisions barracks they were greeted by a tackle from a pink flash. Yumichika, having the air knocked out of him, stumbled backward and fell on the grass, while Ikkaku was looking, in enjoyment at the scene.

"What is this? Does it smell nice? Is it yours? Did you want to give it to frosty-chan? Why did you want to give it? Can I pour it on you? What does it do?" asked Yachiru as she hyperactively bounced on Yumichika's chest.

"I don't know, I don't know, no, who's 'frosty-chan', what? No! I don't know, get off of me already!" replied Yumichika, as he tried to keep up with her questions.

Yachiru got off Yumichika, and then on the spur of the moment, she dumped the contents of the container on him and giggled and ran away.

"What the hell was that?" Yumichika asked, before he too started to feel his surroundings fade into the void.

"Huh?" Ikkaku mumbled, as he dragged Yumichika to a bed by the dry part of his shihakusho's sleeve.

-0-0-

At the seventh division's barracks, Captain Komamura was organizing books on justice that Captain Tosen had given him a decade ago, when Nemu had finally arrived. Nemu then proceeded to find a way to expose the potion. After thinking for a good hour, she still had not thought of how to expose the potion since the seventh division was very alert at the time. She had thought of slipping the potion in some sake or something, but then realized that Captain Komamura didn't drink sake.

After pondering for a long time, Captain Komamura left for an errand, and she despaired that she wouldn't be able to finish the mission. Lieutenant Iba saw her and went up to approach her.

"Nemu-fukataicho, what are you doing in the seventh division's barracks and why do you look depressed?" Iba asked curiously.

Acting on this chance, Nemu devised a plan to trick Captain Komamura into touching the liquid.

"Iba-fukataicho, I have brought this box with a container of cleaning fluid to clean your captain's office, it is very effective and guaranteed to work, my captain gives it to you, hoping to raise his reputation, but your captain just left so I don't know who to give it to. By the way, just dump it on the floor and spread it, it works best that way."

Although the plan wasn't very well thought out, but Iba still fell for it.

"Okay, I'll take it."

Nemu then quickly left for the sixth division. Iba took the container and gave it to the fourth division member that came to clean the captain's office that afternoon. He told the fourth division member to just dump it on the floor and use a mop to quickly spread it. After supervising the fourth division member and making sure that he got it right, Iba left. When Captain Komamura stepped in his office from his errand to get paperwork, he did not suspect the floor to be wet, so he slipped on the floor and fell on his face, fainting after he touched the liquid and letting out a grunt.

"Taicho!" Iba yelled after hearing the distress of his captain

Iba entered the room and but he also fell on the floor, knocking him unconscious.

-0-0-

Nemu continued her journey through Seireitei, in search of good test subjects. Remembering that people with high riatsu are more susceptible, she decided to try to get Captain Kuchiki to take the potion.

When she reached the sixth division, she quickly deduced that Renji could help her because he was so ignorant. She had tricked Renji into thinking that this would be a great prank to put on Captain Kuchiki (through means no one will ever know -.-) and so Renji did what he was asked to do. Renji secretly tainted Captain Kuchiki's tea. When Captain Kuchiki drank it he immediately fainted and fell to the ground. Renji, who heard the noise, went to investigate, only to find that his captain was unconscious. Afraid of the consequences that might happen if he was found red handed in tainting the tea, Renji dragged Captain Kuchiki's body to his private quarters to rest and to cover up, Renji was going to say it was all a dream and if anyone asked, he would say it was heat exhaustion.

Later, Nemu tricked Captain Soifon to take it. It actually wasn't that hard. Of course Captain Soifon was alert at all times, but Nemu knew, from the various Shinigami Women's Society meetings, that Captain Soifon had a weakness for Yoruichi. So, she approached Captain Soifon and told her that it was from Yoruichi as a gift. Soifon asked what it was, and Nemu said it was some sake that was very good. After she left the second division, she snuck some of it in Captain Kyouraku's sake. It was actually very hard to get it into his sake as she found out, since Lieutenant Nanao kept checking on her Captain every three minutes.

She eventually had to take advantage of Kyouraku's drunkenness to persuade him that the container was actually full of sake that she wanted to give to him as a gift. Kyouraku, drunk of course, listened to her and tried it, he laid down and started to sleep.

After the distribution of these containers, she proceeded to the fifth division, deciding to use it on Captain Kurosaki, since he had monster riatsu, he should be the most affected. When she reached the fifth division barracks, she opened another box, only to discover that inside that next box was candy. Shocked that there wasn't any container inside, she franticly opened the other boxes, to only discover more candy. Wondering where the actual containers went, she remembered when she bumped into Rukia and mixed the boxes up. She felt guilty for her mistake and immediately realized that those containers could have gone anywhere.

Inside she felt queasy and knew that she would be punished for this insolence by her captain. Slowly making her way back to her division, she pondered whether there anyway to make an excuse for her captain. Knowing that he didn't accept any failure, the chances were very bleak.

When Nemu returned to the twelfth division, she was shocked that her captain did not scold her or punish her and instead congratulated her on getting the job done, Mayuri had so much fun watching the events unfold on his monitor that he forgave Nemu for anything she may have done wrong.

Nemu was confused, though secretly happy that she wasn't punished, and so the day was coming to an end in the Soul Society in anticipation of the events of tomorrow. No one noticing the secret garganta that opened in the super secret safe in the twelfth division. No one noticing the blue haired man with a skeletal jaw walk in and take the container, not one person suspecting anything.

So the people affected by the potion are: Captain Kyouraku, Captain Soifon, Captain Hitsugaya, Captain Kuchiki, Captain Komamura, Lieutenant Iba, Kiyone & Sentaro, and Yumichika

Guess who the man at the end is 0.0

Next Chapter: the aftereffects, though I'll be mainly focusing on Toshiro -.-

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