I do not own Bleach.

A battle between Shinigami and Espada had Squad Four filled to the brim even though it was a relatively short and uneventful battle. Captain Toshiro Hitsugaya was currently in Squad Four recovering from a few injuries that he received in the battle. The healer had just finished dressing his wounds when he heard fierce shouting coming from Captain Unohana's office.

After a very brief argument, a man stormed out of Captain Unohana's office and started toward the exit. A painful looking and deep cut was on the left side of his face from his temple down to his jaw line. He was a very handsome man with dark blue hair and golden eyes.

Toshiro was almost positive he knew the mysterious man, but he couldn't figure out where he knew him from. Who could he be? Right as the man was about to leave, Captain Unohana steps out of her office and stops him with a firm command.

"Captain Kurotsuchi!" Mayuri turns toward Captain Unohana as she calls his name, "Remember you cannot reapply all that silly make-up for at least two weeks. That cut will become horribly infected if you do." Mayuri acted as if he did not hear Captain Unohana and continued out the door.

Captain Hitsugaya was frozen in place with shock. He couldn't believe that was Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi. The man looked completely normal and could even be considered handsome despite the wound covering one side of his face. Captain Hitsugaya pulled himself out of his shock induced state and hurried after the other Captain. By the time he made it out of Squad Four, he saw Captain Kurotsuchi rounding a corner a few feet in front of him.

Captain Hitsugaya rushed to catch up with the other Captain and called out for him to slow down, "Captain Kurotsuchi!" Mayuri slowed to see who was calling him and stopped completely when he saw it was a fellow Captain, "I need to speak with you for a moment."

An almost cruel smirk formed as he replied, "Finally decided to volunteer yourself to become an experiment?"

Captain Hitsugaya could detect the enormous amount of sarcasm in his fellow Captain's question, "No!" He snapped, "I wanted to ask you a few questions."

While Captain Hitsugaya had been talking Captain Kurotsuchi continued on his way. The only way he acknowledged Toshiro's statement was by making a small 'Hmm' noise to show he was listening.

Captain Hitsugaya took a deep breath to calm himself as he followed Captain Kurotsuchi, "Well…I…I know this will sound incredibly rude, but…"

Captain Kurotsuchi let out a loud annoyed sigh and quickened his pace out of frustration. Toshiro noticed that he was getting angry and blurted out his question, "Why do you make yourself so ugly?"

Captain Kurotsuchi stopped and abruptly spun around to face the younger Captain. He looked beyond furious and Captain Hitsugaya was beginning to wish he had just gone back to his own division, "Keep up this line of questioning and I will turn you into an experiment against your will!" Captain Kurotsuchi spat the threat out angrily.

"No…I'm sorry, that came out wrong." Captain Hitsugaya hurriedly explained, "What I meant to ask was, why do you put all that unnecessary make-up on? You look fine without it."

Captain Kurotsuchi just stared at Toshiro with a confused expression on his face for a few moments. The confused expression is soon replaced with a maniacal grin, "I'm a freak. What did you expect?"