Disclaimer: Given the current fluctuations of the American and Japanese market, I refuse to speculate on whether or not I own Bleach. I will, however, give you one hint.

I am not Kite Tubo.

Make what you will of this information.

Kurotsuchi Mayuri frowned as he looked down upon the dying animal. The rabbit, with one of its lungs lying on the table next to it, gasped in pain. Mayuri sighed as he pushed the tray away and jotted something down in his notes.

"Useless animal…" he said, adjusting his mask. "Obviously this new cell structure is unable to function without oxygen." He continued to write in his journal, and did look up, even when a shadow in a corner of the room detached itself and began moving slowly towards his back. It was within feet of him when Mayuri finally spoke.

"I may not be as fond of fighting as that brute Zaraki, but please remember that I am a captain. You insult me by not thinking that I can hear you." The intruder paused.

A voice filled with regret at last spoke out.

"Kurotsuchi Mayuri, I have come here to kill you." Mayuri's pen stopped scratching at his notepad. The Twelfth Division Captain rose, and drew his zanpakuto. He would rather be studying his new work, but this stranger had irritated him.

I am going to have to ask Nemu how this man sneaked into my office without her noticing, thought Mayuri as he prepared to fight. When I get through with her, she… Mayuri's thought processes were suddenly interrupted by the sword sticking through his chest.

"B-b-but… how?" Mayuri had seen Yourichi herself in action, and he knew that what he had just seen was not shunpo. He saw a sad smile begin to form on the stranger's face.

"You're wondering, aren't you?" Mayuri no longer had the breath to speak, and his vision was fading. The man's face was in the light, and his features were more visible. He had jet black hair, and was slightly taller than the ryoka, Ishida Uryu. The one man who had beaten him in a fight, until now.

"You're wondering how I moved so quickly." The man began slowly walking around the captain, who felt the specter of death coming upon him. "I do not mean to be cruel, but I know how much stress it would cause you to die with an unsolved question on your mind. I made a vow," said the stranger, his eyes and mind obviously no longer on the present, "That I would treat you with the cruelty you gave to your test subjects. Farewell, Kurotsuchi Mayuri."

Though the wounded captain could no longer speak, the hate coming from his eyes could be clearly felt. As his blood seeped to the floor, Mayuri had one thought on his mind. It was not, as the stranger seemed to think, the question of how the man was in a place he clearly had not been the moment before, but something else.

Who is this man…

The captain went to his grave, the ultimate unanswered question, without knowing.

Kurotsuchi Nemu sat in front of her desk, filling in the mind-numbing amounts of paperwork assigned to the divisions of the Gotei Thirteen. She had long since learned not to bother Mayuri-taichou with such trivialities. Although the pain had been severe, it was far from the worst punishment she could remember at his hands.

She didn't shudder at the memory. Mayuri-taichou had punished her when she did that too.

As she was working, she began to feel that something was amiss. She kept on working, but the feeling remained like a sore at the back of her mind, become increasingly distracting. After another half-hour of working, she realized the source of the unease.

Where is Mayuri-taichou's reiatsu? The source of Nemu's unease having been found, she finally was able to think of solutions in the scientific, orderly method that her father had taught her.

Could he be deliberately suppressing it? Nemu pondered this for a moment. She couldn't come up with a reason that her father would do something like that. There were currently no scheduled experiments that would involve such a procedure.

Could he have left? Nemu knew this was even more unlikely. The only way out of the lab besides the door she stood watch over was the maintenance hallway. She knew that Mayuri-taichou would consider this beneath his dignity. He would rather blow a hole in the wall and walk through it.

The more she thought, Nemu became convinced that something was wrong. She knew that she should go into the lab, but the fear of what Mayuri would do to her if she interrupted his experiment made her hesitant to enter. At long last, her fear of pain was overruled by her concern for her father. She entered the laboratory.

"Mayuri-taichou?" Nemu kept her voice at the appropriate volume, conditioned into her since her birth. "Are you in here?" All too soon, her gaze locked onto the pool of blood, and to the man lying in it.

Shock froze her to the ground. The blood drained from her face, and had she not been trained since her birth to control her emotions, she might have begun sobbing. Or laughing. She did not know. Then, her attention was drawn to the dark-haired man sitting at Mayuri's desk. Seeing that her attention was on him, he rose.

"Kurotsuchi Nemu-san," he said with a bow. "My name is Kansoki Ryaki. I am the killer of your captain. I'm afraid you'll have to arrest… oh, please don't faint."

Ryaki's words fell on deaf ears Nemu had begun falling to the floor. Before she fell, Ryuki was behind her, catching her.

That's odd, she thought as she lost consciousness, that wasn't shunpo…

Ryuki placed her on the ground gently, making sure she had not been injured. Then, the murderer of Kurotsuchi Mayuri, the captain of the Twelfth Divison of the Gotei Thirteen, walked over to the telephone in the laboratory, and picked it up.

"Hello? Yes, please send word to First Captian Yammamoto. Tell him that Captain Kurotsuchi has been killed. By me." With that, Ryuki sat down. He did not have long to wait now. His vow had been fulfilled. Now it was just a matter of seeing what happened to him.

Author's note: Hahahaha, I finally killed Mayuri… Now, I suppose I should finish this up in a couple of chapters. I will try…