"Nemu!" The mad scientist called out as his chair turned away from the computer screen. He was obviously thinking something through as he tapped the arm on the chair. His "daughter" entered the room but before she could say anything he continued, "Nemu, I've been thinking… Do you know how much time was wasted when fighting with that Espada? Hmm?"

She shifted slightly as if to respond. "Too much!" He blurted out, his fingers twitching away, "Precious research time, gone! So many things that could have been figured out! Solved! Answered! Discovered! Destroyed!"

His chair spun around violently, and he went to work on the keyboard.

"So how do we fix this, Nemu?" He stopped typing to grin over his shoulder.

"Send me to fight, Mayuri-sama?" Nemu stated without moving more than necessary.

The mad scientist's grin widened at the sound of her answer, "No…" He returned to his computer. There was a few seconds of just him typing before he finally finished, "How would you like a little brother?"

Nemu shifted slightly out of shock, and what might have been affection.

"Hmm… Just think of all the work I can accomplish if there's a brute I can trust to send out. Well maybe not a completebrute…" Mayuri thought aloud.

"A fighter with a brain could be helpful, Mayuri-sama," Nemu threw in to compliment his thoughts.

"Of course he'll have a brain you idiot! He just won't be using it in the lab as much."

Kurotsuchi's hands flew deftly across the keyboard as he grinned at the figures on the screen. He laughed suddenly, "And now he needs a name…"

A Few Hundred Years Later...

"Manzo, can you hear me?" Father's voice was hard to mistake, even through this earring/walkie talkie. I held up the thistle I found somewhere along the way. It wasn't really that spectacular, just interesting… "Manzo!"

"You know how rare a thistle is here?" I couldn't take my eyes off the now-rare flower. What were the odds that a member of the Twelveth Division would find it? It was really interesting.

"Manzo, you useless waste of space! Find the Hollow! Metastacia is not only suppose to be dead but has also become an Arrancar—we cannot let such a satisfying experiment get away! Forget some stupid flower and get on with the mission!" His voice had to be the most annoying I'd ever heard.

"Whatever you say," I threw the thistle away with half of a smirk. Such a rare find and now… nothing… I watched it fall part of the way down all the stories. The wind blew it this way and that way, but I soon lost interest in watching it fall away from me. I walked to the edge of the building, looking at the city. Cars flew and there was no sign of nature anywhere… This must be the future everyone thought about hundreds of years ago. It just looked like the world to me, but I was constantly reminded about how much the world had changed.

"Manzo?" Ah, nothing like the sweet sound of an older sister.

"Mayuri-sama's having one of his fits right now so I'll be directing you." Her voice was as cold as ever. I often wondered why I didn't have the robotic thing to me… Did he beat it into her? Or was she just always like this? I clenched my fist at the thought.

"It gets a little irksome when he gets this interested in a subject," I chuckled.

"Target is right below." I could live with her cold directedness over his simple hate any day. I fell forward, proceeding to dive. For a split second, I wished the fall could kill me.

The breeze was quite nice.

"SHINIGAMI!" A voice screamed out as what seemed to be an Arrancar's Resurrección exploded from inside the building. Thousands of pieces of glass reflected either of us to the other. Then one of his many tentacles shot out towards me as I slid Kijo [a/n Demoness]from my sash. He was faster than I throught as he used his tentacle to plug up the hole in my huge gun. At least Metastacia was stupid enough to think Kijo was a zanpakuto.

"Sorry," I pulled the trigger. There was something so great about the distinct purple flash Kijo made as it blew away the tentacle. As we continued to fall, the Hollow changed tactics and shot his tentacles at me, only to have each one blown off. Pretty soon the dumbass was down to just his six arms, and as he tried to rake me, I put my bullets to a different use—creating a little bit of a distance between us. It didn't take long and pretty soon I was taking shots at his face, forcing him to block with his arms.

What an idiot…

I pulled out a small black ball from my sash and threw it at my target. The ball exploded and a black band wrapped all six of his arms together, leaving him helpless. I could see this sense of helplessness in his eyes, the fear of death… Too bad I couldn't just give him that luxury…

And then I slammed into the cold concrete that hid the true ground; it didn't hurt too much. Metastacia hit just a couple inches from me and immediately, a glowing yellow cage formed around us. I hooked Kijo back through my teal sash and stretched out, just laying there. I felt something against my hand and looked instantly.

It sucks when you capture yourself with whatever you meant to capture, but eh… I didn't care… I had my thistle. The flower seemed undamaged by its fall and this made me happy for some reason.

"Package secured," I looked up at my thistle. What a waste of my time.

"And tell me… Why shouldn't I just leave you in there? Your incompetence is quite annoying," Mayuri crossed his arms as he stared at me in his cage with his experiment. I just smiled back as I did with every scolding. Nemu was the good child.

"I wonder if I get that from Mom?" Hehe, being technically motherless made it easy a lot of times for comebacks when Father was pissed. Judging by his impatient tapping, I had made it much worse for myself, but I refused to be talked down at like Nemu.

"Maybe I should just start with you, Manzo?" His eyes squinted like they did for all of his threats. He wouldn't mind doing it either. I was basically another failed experiment and he most likely wanted to know what he did wrong.

Smiling, I pulled Kijo out and pointed it at Metastacia, who had returned to his shinigami-rip off look. Both the mad scientist and the Arrancar seemed to panick. "Manzo! What the hell are you doing!"

"Lemme out, Daddy…" I made sure that my face revealed just how serious I was. He needed his experiment, and he needed me. He gave me an identical look before hitting the release for the cage. Neither of us looked at each other as I walked out, ignoring my quiet sister all together. I wondered if she hated me…

Now, what to do with this thistle?

I threw my thistle into the river below with a gentle toss. There wasn't much else I could've done for it.

After watching it float some distance, I laid back on the hill to relax. It felt quite nice today in the Soul Society—which begs the question of why does heaven ever not feel good? Eh, I wasn't in the mood for thinking… My eyes close themselves as I began to dose off.

"MANZO!" I jumped out of my skin at the cheap scare. Sayoonara-fukutaichou laughed as he dropped down beside me.

"I might just kill, Style—if that is your real name?" I chuckled. The Tenth Division Lieutenant's name was often the source of jokes; with a name like "Sayoonara Style", it was hard for it not to be. I was usually one of the few who actually did joke with him though, mostly 'cause everyone else was just jealous of his position under Matsumoto-taichou.

But there was also this mysterious thing to the tacky-dressed shinigami. He had been a high ranking officer in the Eleventh, Fourth, Second, and Twelveth Divisions. He was also very skilled in all of the different areas covered by each squad, and yet, now his job was nothing more than a tailor. I was one of his people he like to dress up in his newest ideas, and I didn't really care so it all worked out.

I heard his fingers snap, "Oi! Manzo, you're spacing out on me!" I find myself constantly wondering why he wears the two rings on each hand. He once said that they were reminders of each set of friends he left behind in each squad he left.

"Sorry, Style… The mission was fine, just not the part afterwards…" I really like Style 'cause he was one of the few that didn't automatically assume I was like Father.

"Ah, so it went as well as usual, huh?" He half-laughed before examining my outfit, "So how do we like the new outfit?"

"Remind me again why the coat and boots are suppose to feel like I'm carrying a mountain?" Really the only problem I had with it was how it stuck out from everyone else's but then again that was what Style went for… Plus I technically wasn't a shinigami. If there was one thing I wish I had gotten from the mad scientist, it would have been his shinigami powers. It was all I lacked…

"Think of this way, if you reach the point where you can catch up with the fastest moving enemy with such a hindering weight, then imagine what it'll feel like without it," He smiled, unaware that I had realized this a while back and was really just avoiding the truth.

"Well, just so you know, you missed quite the extraordinary event while you were away." I couldn't tell if it was sarcastic or genuine when he said "extraordinary".

"Is that so?" I smiled, closing my eyes once more. I tried to remember if there was something I knew about that went on while I was gone but kept drawing a blank.

"Kurosaki Ren graduated from the Academy, after just two years," Style laughed. Kurosaki Ichigo's son was about to enter the Gotei 13 evidently… This was so… not interesting… To everyone else, Ren was the child prodigy of Soul Society's Savior. Ichigo himself might as well have been a fable to be; I wasn't even "born" yet when Aizen was defeated the first time, and I was too young to remember the second time. Ren probably wasn't as great of a shinigami, but everyone wanted him to be.

"Damn… Well, I'll just have to congratulate him when I see him." He didn't interest me in the slightest. I did find it a little ironic though that Ichigo had become Captain of the Fifth Division.

About then a Hell Butterfly fluttered up just as I opened my eyes. A message? Style looked as surprised as me. Eh, maybe it wasn't anything serious…

Like everyone else in Seireitei, both Syle and me were bumping our way through the crowd. None of the unranked officers put up a fight considering who we were, but there was still quite a bit of pushing and shoving.

Finally, the two of us reached the front to see.

The spectators on either side made the large open area into much more of a hallway. On one side a Gargantuan loomed open for all to see. It was obvious that the three dressed in all white had used it. I nearly fell over once I recognized which Arrancars they were.

It was the King of Hueco Mundo and two others from his court, his Espada.

"What happened to the Truce between us and Hueco Mundo?" Style asked aloud what everyone was thinking.

Ulquiorra Cifer walked on followed by Yammy Riyalgo and Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck.

To appear so suddenly was interesting enough, but to have brought help as well. This was the first time I'd seen the Hollow King, and he was just as depressing looking as I had been told. The thing that stuck out though was his lack of even a piece of his Hollow mask. Evidently it was true… He became the first to completely remove his mask… How much more powerful had he become?

While Yammy and Nelliel had their zanpakutos, Ulquiorra didn't. He either didn't want to fight or was just that confident. A second look at their faces revealed that none of them apparently wanted to fight.

"Ulquiorra Cifer…" The voice of the Captain Commander called out. The three intruders stopped immediately at the sound of his voice—it had that effect on people. Looking over at him, surprisingly Hitsugaya Toushiro had come alone. Some had said he was stronger than Yamamoto, but given the situation, a little back up couldn't hurt…

"If I'm not mistaken, some terms have been violated and corrections are in order." His eyes never moved—it was slightly unnerving. The question however was what he was talking about.

"I'm not quite sure what you're referring to," He honestly didn't seem to know. This was a very intriguing exchange. And then something clicked in my mind: what if he means Metastacia?

"Well, let's ask the audience then…" Ulquiorra shifted his glare to me from however far away but then suddenly, he was right in front of me. His eyes were piercing, and I would have sworn his shadow had wings, but he didn't give me time to get a good look. He grabbed me by my throat and disappeared once more to right in front of the Captain Commander where he simply dropped me.

I tried to breathe; his grip was unbelievably strong.

"First, let's start with his use of a Bakkoto," He handed Kijo over to Hitsugaya while I tried to figure out exactly when he took it. The white haired shinigami gave it a curious look, "The use of a Bakkoto is still illegal, yes?"

He smirked, "Not in his case." He handed my gun back to me as he continued, "He's taking part in a controlledexperiment to examine any long term affects of a Bakkoto, but also he doesn't have a zanpakuto and I prefer to keep my researchers armed when working in the field."

Ulquiorra's gaze aimed down at me, casting judgment at me. I hadn't even tried to stand up yet. My grip tightened on Kijo, but I reminded myself of how powerful he was. "Such trash…" The words plunged in like a knife. Did he say it out of general hate or because even HE had a zanpakuto while I'm using this Bakkoto?

"Very well then, bend your rules if you must but not ours." His gaze returned to the Captain Commander, "A fellow Arrancar seemed to have made an unauthorized entry into the Human World, but before we could properly retrieve him, and even before he could attack any innocents, the trash here captured him. This is by no means the problem, he is rightfully ours BUT the fact that we're having to come here to get him this long after his capture is inexcusable." Ulquiorra's expression never changed.

"Oi!" The last voice I wanted to hear right now called out.

Behind Father was Nemu who lead Metastacia along via specialized handcuffs. The Arrancar's head was down, but it was obvious that he was smiling. The mad scientist's grin was the largest though.

"I just wanted to know how an already dead Hollow became an Arrancar. Here you can have it back, a clone is useless to me," He snapped his finger, and Nemu took off the cuffs. "There was no intention of keeping him from you… All was figured out through some simple Q and A."

To say that no one believed a word of it would have been a huge understatement, but we all also knew that Mayuri would have covered his tracks well if he was coming out like this. Ulquiorra just turned and walked away with Metastacia following behind. There wasn't anything really left to say, but trust was going to be even harder to achieve between us and the Hollows. The fact that the Truce had lasted this long though showed that peace is what's desired. Unless something outrageous happens, no one will start a war they don't want.

I stood up as everyone else watched the Arrancar leave back to Hueco Mundo. This was very interesting… Why would the most powerful Arrancar come all this way to retrieve one little subordinate that on top of that was only a clone?

"Kurotsuchi-taichou, an explanation will be made in front of all the Captains immediately, so I hope there is some significance to whatever you did…" Hitsugaya turned to leave as Mayuri followed. Nemu walked over to where I stood silently. I wasn't being told something.

"So what's going on?" I asked while scratching my head. She wouldn't look me in the eye and just stood there. I knew what the silence meant—Father didn't want me to know, probably 'cause of my "attitude".

Normally, I wouldn't care but for some reason I wanted to be a part of this.

"So this a between-Captains-only-type of secret," Style whined from his perch in the tree that I was sitting against. When he didn't know something it annoyed him 'til he found out. I always found humor in this; however, this time was different—I wanted to know. I kept my wishes secret though and just acted like I didn't care.

"…Which is why I'm heading the team that's going to the Human World tomorrow." I unconsciously turned my head up to him out of curiosity. I hadn't heard about his team.

"I won't lie, Style…" Honesty's the best policy, right? "For some reason, this whole thing is stuck in my head, and I would like to come too."

I could hear him gulp in regret. "That's gonna be a problem, Manzon…" I didn't understand, but then I saw his eyes. He didn't want to say it, "Everyone has made it clear that you can't go on this mission… because everyone thinks that Mayuri has his own agenda that's not in Soul Society's best interest. 'He and all of his subordinates cannot be allowed any part of this'… You can thank the Central 46 Chambers for the seclusion."

I looked away instantly. Everyone thinks I'm my father… or at least his pawn… such an empty feeling…

"It's okay, man…" Style jumped down and propped up against the tree, halfway looking over me, "The fact that you use a Bakkoto has never sat well with anyone but that's not the problem here…"

Dumbass, I know that. Sometimes, Style was so dense…

"The idea is that once we get back, everyone will see that everything happening has nothing to do with you 'cause you'll have been here, see?" It sounded like I was going to be spied on once they leave. I didn't approve, even a little, but there was simply no reason to argue.

I didn't like it, but it was no big deal I guess. I'll be bored and annoyed for a while, but I'll live.

I walked on as night crept up. Everything was still and quiet. It felt like I was an outcast that was becoming separated from everyone even further. It was an itch that I couldn't quite scratch.

"Oi!" A voice came from a tree I walked by.

I just kept walking; there wasn't anyone I wanted to talk to right now. "Oi!" Whoever's voice sounded slightly aggravated. Oh well…

Then I felt an unwelcomed pat on my shoulder, and instinctly, I twisted around with my hand on Kijo. I didn't pull the gun out though. It was hard enough to secure permission to carry it around with me.

A face I hardly recognized stood in front of me. It took me a few seconds to realize who it was.

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Don't shoot, man!" He snickered as he mockingly threw his hands up.

I let go of Kijo and turned as if to leave, "What'd you want, Ren?" I refused to congratulate him 'til I knew why he was here. He looked innocent enough though.

"It makes it a lil difficult to prove you're not you dad when you keep acting like him." I honestly felt like shooting the little brat right there. "If you wanna be a shinigami, then by all means be one."

Looking over my shoulder, I tried to give him the coldest look I could. He just smiled and walked away. It was then that I realized his hair wasn't orange like Ichigo's but instead an interesting purple. I honestly expected another carrot top… odd…

"Don't let anyone stop ya!" Kurosaki called out without looking back to me.

His words stuck. My mind immediately began twisting and churning at it. My thoughts consumed it as I walked on. Why come to me like that?

And that's when something snapped in my mind.

"Attention all personnel! A breach in Sector 6 has released numerous chemicals. Danger levels are at critical, and it is advised that all evacuate immediately so that the automated clean up can begin." The robotic voice on the intercom was louder than the sirens going off.

"What a nuisance, Nemu… Come on. I suppose I'll at least get to see if the clean up system is working fine… The faster we leave, the faster I can get back in… I swear, one day I'll fix Sector 6," Kurotsuchi spoke as Nemu followed him out.

While they just walked out casually, everyone else basically ran. There was no telling what Mayuri's chemicals could do, and no one wanted to find out… Just another day at the Shinigami Research and Development Institute.

I only casually strolled out as everyone else ran for their lives. Occasionally, someone else was calm about it, but even they walked faster than me. I guess I was really just enjoying the chaos of it all. Everyone was panicking while Father could be seen off to the side tapping his finger in annoyance. It was no more than a mild nuisance to him. I couldn't help but smile at his ignorance…

There was something so exciting about setting off a false alarm.

Everyone else was more or less huddled together a good distance away from the Institute—in case there was a leak as well. They were all swapping theories on what chemicals they thought had been spilled, etc. I silently walked past everyone without giving or receiving any acknowledgement. I just kept walking.

And then I pushed the button on the detonator.

No one screamed louder than the mad scientist at the sight of his precious SRDI exploding right before his eyes. There was an odd rhythm to the explosions before the flames engulfed the rest. It was quite the sight.

"Well that was fun," I smirked as I strolled along in the night.

Maybe this is what is known as a "rebirth"… I honestly didn't know, but I like it…