Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, Kubo Tite does. However, Original Characters belong to me.

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Mariko leaned over a wash sink in the employee locker room, cleared her throat and spat bright red blood into the stainless steel basin. Dark circles under her eyes tried to show themselves through the makeup she had put on. She hadn't slept well last night. Her dreams were filled with a combination of bad memories and the recurring garden scenario. She could swear she hear Byakuya's voice at one point.

She went to Kurosaki Clinic in the morning as promised, but Dr. Kurosaki hadn't told her anything different than what she had heard before. Complications due to Endometriosis: the same disease that she had been plagued with since she was a teenager.

It was a relatively common illness—affecting 5–10% of women—and typically non-fatal, but the side effects were excruciating. She was subjected to painful abdominal cramping, lesions forming on her womb, and worst of all infertility.

Mariko had married her husband because she thought she was pregnant, but that was not the case. It was the disease, only showing symptoms of pregnancy like morning sickness and a false-positive test result. After she had been admitted to the hospital for a ruptured cyst, her husband couldn't take it anymore. He became a withdrawn, adulterous bastard and she caught him cheating red-handed. She couldn't blame him entirely though. There was no love in their relationship in the first place.

She wiped light sweat off her forehead. Some days she could deal with the pain and some days she couldn't. Last night was the latter. She was embarrassed that Byakuya had seen her in that condition. Mariko did not like to appear weak.

She reached for a nearby paper towel to wipe her mouth. She leaned in closer to the mirror, placing her hand on the glass and looked into her reflection with shock.

Violet eyes stared back at her. White hair had been replaced with midnight black.

Mariko closed her eyes tightly to get the image out of her head. When she opened them again, her normal reflection was looking back at her: ice-blue orbs and snowy locks.

She shook her head to bring herself back to earth. Ever since she saw Byakuya in his true form, weird things like this had been happening. Her dreams of an Edo time period grew more vivid and the Emergency Room became filled with ghosts looking for a way out. She was going to kill the Shinigami for making her life more complicated.

"Mariko?" said a chipper voice. She turned to see Gina bouncing up to her. The nurse stopped short when she saw the look on her friend's face. "Are you okay?" she came beside Mariko with concern.

"I'm fine," Mariko dismissed. "Just a little tired."

"Well," Gina grinned, "maybe this will help brighten your mood. There's a certain gentleman here to see you."

"Excuse me?"

"You know, a certain gentleman that you were drooling over yesterday," she winked.

Mariko rolled her eyes. Speak of the devil. "Good, I need to talk to him."

"Did something happen?" Gina raised a brow, "Dish, girl."

"Something happened. But nothing you'd be interested in, trust me." Mariko cracked her knuckles like she was ready for a fight. She left a very confused Gina staring after her in the locker room.

When Mariko turned the corner she nearly ran into him. "Kuchiki Byakuya," her eyes narrowed, "You have some explaining to do." She grasped his arm and dragged him into an empty patient room.

He had to admit he was a bit surprised at how much strength the small woman had. Perhaps it ran in the family. "Is that so?" his baritone smoothly replied.

"Damn straight!" she hissed. "Ever since I met you—well, the real you—all this weird shit keeps happening to me and I can't do a thing to stop it! Do you know how many ghosts I have seen in the past few hours?"

"I would estimate about nineteen."

"Yeah, that's…that's right. Of course you would know; it's your job." She crossed her arms in a huff. "It's my job to take care of living. I can't do both and yet they expect me to do something about it."

"I fail to see your point." Byakuya remained calm as ever.

"Well if you had done your job, I wouldn't have to deal with them. Keep your business out of mine!" Mariko felt herself fuming at this point. Her pale face had to grown to a dark red by now.

"I will not go into the technicalities of my position, Dr. Yoshitune, but in short, that is not my only duty. Two other Shinigami are Karakura residents. If you want to blame anyone for your misfortune, I suggest you bring it up with them."

"If that's not your real duty here, then why did you take care of that girl yesterday?"

"I was the closest in proximity area."

Mariko growled in response. The man was infuriating with his sense of order and purpose. "You're impossible," she huffed, loudly sitting down in a nearby chair. She leaned her pounding head against the thin mattress. After her outburst something dawned on her. "What are you doing here, anyway?"

Byakuya made his way to her side with large strides, his expensive leather shoes barely making a sound across the linoleum tile. He slightly winced at the sight of Mariko lying against the hospital bed. She was still in pain, and that worried him. "You went to Kurosaki Clinic this morning, correct?"

"Yeah," she closed her eyes with a sigh.

"And the results?"

"Same old, same old. Nothing I hadn't heard before." She puffed a breath up, moving her stray white bangs.

The Shinigami narrowed his stormy grey eyes. "You mean to tell me this was a pre-existing condition?" If Isshin knew about this, he was going to have an angry Senbonzakura to deal with.

"Yeah, it's a chronic illness. Something I've had for a long time, but it's not serious. Nothing I can't handle with two aspirin and a bad chick flick." She smirked, opening her glacier orbs. She glanced up at the tall man.

He was closer now, close enough to reach out and stroke her hair, but he didn't move. Part of her felt disappointed that he didn't even try. Byakuya remained torn between wanting to comfort he woman in front of him and maintain his distance. She may have been his wife once, but she was a stranger to him now.

The buzz of Mariko's pager going off interrupted the silent moment. She looked down at the message with a slight grimace. "I gotta go," she said standing up.

"Dr. Yoshitsune," Byakuya began. "I apologize for the mishap last night. Could I make it up to you tonight?"

Mariko felt the corner of her mouth curve up in a smile. "Dinner?" she suggested. "I cook a mean red curry."

"If by 'mean' you implied 'delicious' then I will accept."

"Gods, you're too proper, Shinigami. Catch up with times." She grinned and playfully patted the captain on his shoulder.

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Urahara combed through Yoshitsune Mariko's medical history Isshin had dropped off earlier. The disease mentioned throughout the documents was the same: Endometriosis. He was unfamiliar with the medical term but knew how the illness affected humans.

After much convincing and groveling, Captain Unohana, the Healer from the Fourth Division, had sent Hisana's medical documentation to him with a hell butterfly. He compared the notes with a grimace. In both cases the illness seemed to have the same side effects and symptoms, only in Soul Society the disease had killed her. It was no wonder why the Fourth Division's treatments were ineffective: it was a condition carried through after her death in the real world. They couldn't have saved Hisana. Her spirit was already weakened, leaving an opening for the tumors to find their way to her soul sleep.

Cracking his neck, Urahara took in a sip of hot tea to mull things over. If the disease had passed through her journey from the transient world to Soul Society, it was completely possible that it was embedded in her soul's memory. Isshin had explained that modern medicine had treatments for the condition, and Mariko was currently on medicated and surgical treatment. She had already undergone three corrective surgeries over the past five years. No matter what they seemed to do, the lesions kept coming back.

There had to be more to this disease than what presented itself on the surface. It explained how Mariko had become sick, but according to Isshin, the lesions should not have been growing back this rapidly. There was also the matter of her soul thread fluctuating.

"I see you are having some problems, Kisuke," a slimy voice came over speakers.

Urahara turned to face the screen he used to communicate with Soul Society. His former third seat eerily grinned through the monitor.

"If only Captain Kuchiki had let me continue with my research I might be of some assistance," Kurotsuchi Mayuri drummed his thin white fingers together.

"Oi, Mayrui," the shopkeeper casually waved. "I think we both know that you never intended for your guards to make it past me, anyway."

"Was my plan that transparent?" Mayrui faked a gasp. "Why else would I send my weakest minions on a pointless assignment?"

"Why else, indeed?" Urahara raised a brow. His green-grey eyes became devious with thought. "So tell me, my protégé, when did you implant Byakuya with the informational bacteria? By now I'm sure it's passed on to Hisana's reincarnate."

"You don't miss anything, do you Kisuke?" The mad-scientist cackled.

"I brought you out of the Maggot's Nest, Mayuri. I was your captain for nine years. I've always been one step ahead of you." Urahara said the last part with a wink.

Mayuri widened his skeletal grin. "I baited him until he snapped. When he strangled me, I passed the information-gathering bacteria onto him."

Urahara nodded with approval. His former student had proven just as dedicated as he was to his experiments.

"So I take it you've already given Captain Kuchiki the antibody?" Mayrui continued.

"Discreetly, of course. He never even knew he was a carrier."

"But not before he passed it onto the woman?" The mad-scientist smirked slyly. "Even I don't understand your methods sometimes, Kisuke. Information about her has been transmitting for the past several hours. I must say, it's…intriguing."

"I was counting on that. I can't figure this out on my own, Mayuri. I need your help."

"Why should I help you, exile?" Mayuri scoffed.

"Come now, you wouldn't want to upset Benihime would you?" Urahara held a fox's grin as he spoke.

Captain Kurotsuchi gulped. The one time he had insulted Urahara's zanpaktou he couldn't turn from his gelatinous form for a month. Benihime was finely in touch with her Shinigami and would incur her wrath when she deemed fit.

Although Urahara hadn't used his full powers in nearly 100 years, Mayuri could sense his former captain maintained the same ferocity and strength as he could back then. Even with his Bankai, he knew he didn't stand a chance in the face of Benihime. Poison did no good against a weapon of pure destruction. Besides, this was the just the sort of twisted man he knew Urahara was at manipulating a situation to his advantage. Mayuri laughed a shrill cackle that echoed through the metal room. "I always liked your style, Kisuke."

"Get to work, Mayuri," Urahara suddenly changed his tone. "I don't know how much time we have."

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^__^ Please READ & REVIEW! ^__^

I hope this clears a few things up as to why Mariko is sick and Mayuri's involvement.


Additional A/N:

I have to comment about the disease I gave Mariko: Endometriosis. This is a personal subject for me, as I was diagnosed with the disease at age 17. I have already had one corrective surgery to remove the lesions and am on hormonal treatment to prevent more growth. Endometriosis does not cause coughing up blood, unless your esophagus has been scarred by vomiting --- I added that part in to Mariko's symptoms to hint that there is more to her sickness than what is showing up in the human side.

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