Once Mayuri finished finally solving one antidote, he decided to check on the girl for how the others were coming along.
The door was closed but on the handle was a set of gloves and a face mask.
He put on the face mask, a glove on his left hand, and went inside.
A thin layer of smoke was around the girl.
"What happened?"
She turned, a face mask covering her nose and mouth.
"Forgive me, my Lord. I just finished the samples but I wanted to try something."
He curiously looked over and saw a melted piece of meat.
"If these are poisons and their antidotes, what if for different poisons, different antidotes would be even more fatal?"
She held up a green liquid.
"This is the antidote for #487-A9. When I altered the formula just a slight bit, it works with poison #397-20 but when mixed with poison #445-18..."
She lightly dropped two drops on on the two remaining pieces of meat. Both were already purple. When one was in contact, it changed back to red. The other started smoking.
"The first poison takes effect in roughly fourteen minutes. The other five hours. If one were to try and steal the antidote for the other..."
"They would end up killing themselves faster," he said with a hidden grin.
"I should have asked first. I'm sorry."
"I'll allow it this time but don't recklessly try new things."
"Yes, my Lord."
He looked at the time.
"Why are you out so early in the morning?"
"I was too excited to start my real first day as a member of the Research and Development Institute!"
She blushed and bowed.
"I'm sorry. I went a little overboard."
He simply tilted his head.
"You're...an odd one aren't you?"
Shiori bit the inside of her cheek.
Way to make a nice first impression.
"You could start on some extra work if you are up for it."
"Anything you need."
Mayuri reluctantly went home to at least get a few hours of sleep after giving Shiori a few more projects.
"Nemu!" he yelled outside her door. "I'll be late going in tomorrow! Don't wake me up for anything!"
He went back to his room, started taking off his make-up, and fell asleep.
Mayuri Kurotsuchi didn't often have dreams. Usually, his mind would just run through the things he should try next or that he needed to do.
By the time he woke up, it was only an hour after the time he should have been at the Institute.
---------------------
Akon was amazed to see Captain Kurotsuchi walk in over an hour after he usually came in.
"Good morning, sir."
"What's there today, Akon?"
"Nothing very much, sir."
He smiled and glanced over at the new girl helping a senior researcher.
"Miss Yusa came in early and started finishing what needed to be done. And anything she didn't know what to do, she didn't touch until someone more experienced came."
Mayuri never saw the young man so calm.
"Then I'll work on some of my personal experiments. Don't let anyone disturb me."
Mayuri worked on replacement body part for if a gigai or a Soul Reaper was injured. He made some ones for himself and Nemu before adding a new experiment for his list of things to do.
He wanted to try and created a poison that would change a person's nerve signals. If they wanted to move one part of their body, the signals would cross and the body would move something else.
It was relatively peaceful in his work space. Only if someone passed by his room did his focus stray.
As he left his room, he couldn't see that new girl anywhere.
She probably lost her nerve when she had to inject something in a lab rat.
Out of nowhere, Nemu walks out of one of the hallways, carrying a large stack of boxes, with the new girl next to her carrying the same amount.
"What are the two of you doing?"
"Mayuri-Sama. Miss Shiori was straightening up the filing room."
"I had everything in a specific order!"
Shiori stepped forward.
"It wasn't after the mutated gigai ran in and exploded. We tried to program it to go to a specific location and it malfunctioned."
"What?! Why didn't anyone call me?!"
"You asked not to be disturbed."
"Everything is all right, my Lord. We cleaned up the mess and put everything back in order. Nemu remembered where everything went. We just had to move these boxes out of the way while we cleaned up."
Mayuri's anger calmed down.
"Good. Nemu, you keep fixing that room. You, new girl, I need your help with another experiment."
"Yes, my Lord."
Nemu was bewildered when Captain Mayuri asked Shiori for help. Ordinarilly, he asked Akon or a more experienced person for assistance.
-----------------------
"Hold it steady..." he said as Shiori held the mixture over a bunsen burner.
"Yes, my Lord."
He carefully dropped a small bit of soduim and the compound fizzed.
"All right. Slowly put it in the tray."
She moved it over and placed it.
"Not bad," he said much to his own surprise.
He never complimented his staff before.
"Thank you, my Lord. I was happy to be of service."
He scratched his chin with his long fingernail.
"There was something else I was supossed to do."
Shiori was about to say something but quickly stopped.
"Yes? What is it?"
"Um, you said in the beginning how you wanted to see what happened to the other members of the new staff."
"Ah. Thats right."
"I didn't know if you were serious or not so I was afraid to say something."
"Do you know what happened to them?"
"I'm almost certain the girls were sent to Squads 5 and 10. Two of the men went to Squad 4, five to Squad 3, and the last three to Squad 9."
"Very precise."
She blushed.
"I wanted to find out why they wouldn't want to stay here. Ever since I found out about Soul Reapers, I knew I wanted to be in this Squad. I don't care if I never make it to a seat. I'm honored just to be able to say I'm in this Squad."
He barely realized the question passed his lips when he asked.
"Why this Squad?"
"Because no one ever considers what it takes to come up with some of the amazing inventions this unit creates! How it must have taken months of tests to have them work as efficiently! They think its as easy as mixing a few serums and poking around. I-I always wanted to know how it worked!"
She blushed and covered her mouth.
"Forgive me, my Lord. I didn't mean to blurt everything out like that. I'm very sorry."
As Shiori turned to leave, Captain Kurotsuchi made a straggled noise.
"I didn't excuse you."
She turned back and he noticed the blush on her face.
"I still need you. There's more work to be done."
-----------------------
Something was overbearing on Mayuri. He kept trying to think of any little daunting thing to keep Shiori from leaving.
Akon and others came to see what he wanted them to do and he said they could check storage.
He was showing Shiori how to construct an arm like his left one.
"You need to make sure the mechanisms flow right with the other, otherwise a segment could break and the arm would be useless."
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the wonderment in her eyes. The smile on her face.
"If you have it for your arm, when you use your regenerative serum on it, do you need to reconstruct a new arm?"
He nodded.
"I had to do it after my fight with the Quincy Ryoka."
"A Quincy? Really? I thought they were almost wiped out."
"Almost but not quite yet. This one was strong."
"I read your files on the Quincy and their powers. I'm sorry to pry but was he able to do some of the things you mentioned?"
He actually enjoyed the girl asking questions.
"He was able to perform a full Renso Tengai after I poisoned him with Ashisogi Jizo."
She gasped.
"But there hasn't been an opponent yet you haven't been able to take down with your Zanpakuto!"
There was a slight sense of admiration in her voice.
"I wasn't able to take him down but I didn't lose. The match was a draw."
She sighed in relief.
"Thats good, my Lord."
The way she said that sent a strange feeling in his stomach.
He glanced at the clock and saw it was eight.
Captain Kyoraku had invited all the Captains and Assistant Captains for a party. Yamamoto said that everyone should attent, at least for a little while.
"Is something wrong?"
"The Squad 8 Captain is having a gathering I must go to. I'll try to hurry back. I still want to see if you could create an arm like this."
She nodded.
"Have fun, my Lord."
"Its that idiot Captain. How could I?"
She giggled as he left.
----------------------
Mayuri groaned as he walked into the house. Already, he saw sake, balloons, and decorations.
"Mayuri!"
"I told you to call me Kurotsuchi."
"Relax man!"
"Its a party!"
The men were drinking, only a few weren't, and Retsu, Soifon, and Nemu were in a corner with their usual demenor.
Mayuri groaned and sat in one of the chairs.
It was strange. Normally, it took months for him to remember people's names. The reason he gave Nemu her name because it was easy to remember.
So why was her name already stuck in his head?
All he wanted was to rush back to the Institute, show Shiori some secret projects, and watch her eyes light up.
Ukitake came over and handed him a drink.
"Come on! Just have a few drinks!"
"Leave me alone."
"Not until you have this!"
He sighed and quickly swallowed the drink.
"There. Now go."