Ngoc Chau does not own Bleach

So these are sort of like deleted scenes. Stuff I liked and really wanted to put in the fanfic but felt that they had no place in the storyline. It sort of lets you understand the characters a little better and have a chance to see them in a different view. But after reading, I'm sure you'll sort of see why I had to chuck these parts out. Where else would I have put them?

Akon meets Mayuri

Akon had eyed the little boy hiding behind Nemu's trouser skirts. Mayuri, she had introduced him as. He was to expect that he would be the next Chief? Never. He couldn't hear what Nemu was saying, could only study the hiding eyes of the little boy before him. When he could not hear the chime of her voice anymore, he answered almost automatically, "Sure. No problem, Taicho." He looked up to see her smile.

She turned around and left, her hand caressing the boy's blue hair as the distance between her and the two of them became greater. She had not painted his face yet and he looked ridiculous, for the dark skin was so un-Japanese. He was used to seeing the skeletal design of black and white upon a male Kurotsuchi. Mayuri tilted his head, the eyes narrowing.

Akon crouched down to Mayuri's level, the latter suddenly looking very on the spot. "What" Akon first said to Mayuri, "is that stare for?"

He looked to be mustering up his wills to speak, and what a boyish voice he possessed. So unlike the Chief. "I don't like you."
Well, the response was very like the Chief's.

Mayuri's tantrums

Although no longer very 'young' as others called him, Mayuri had found a marvellous outlet by drawing moustaches on every one of his 'father's' portraits. He could not explain why defacing the man gave his own ego a burst and a stronger sense of superiority. Others were speechless when he came forward without any prompting that it was he who was the new residential artist of the SDRI.

Scientists trying to bully Mayuri

A fond memory of Nemu was when Mayuri had not yet been obligated to go to the Academy and so she had brought him with her to the labs. Although she had made sure that the shinigami should not provoke her boy, it did not stop them from sending him on little errands.

How humorous it was then when one week, Mayuri was constantly seeking approval from everybody; only in the following week when someone ordered him to get everyone in Monitor Lab 5 their lunch, he had responded indignantly with his head held high, "Fuck you, go get it yourself."

Over the laughter of others who had witnessed the scene, Nemu had to explain that she didn't know where he had picked it up from. She supposed that was his father in him.

Nemu visits Mayuri at the Academy

She felt as though she was being given the treat of something that on one else could understand or appreciate. To see Mayuri in the academy, wearing the white kosode and the navy hakama, his skin still left unpainted and his body untouched by machinery and modifications. Though she knew it would not be long before otherwise. It was as though she possessed the chance to see her creator as he was before she came into his life, before he was put into the Maggots' Nest. Though she feared that it might happen to him, she was confident that she could pull enough strings to make sure everything went smoothly in his life until he would be captain like their creator.

He did in fact looked very un-Japanese with his dark skin and blue hair among the other darker haired, fairer skinned students. All the more easily for him to covet her attentions as he stood in line with his other classmates. She watched as it came to his turn, to have to perform any spell without an incantation. He held out his hand, the other supporting his wrist. "Hado 31!" There was a large brilliant crimson ball of energy before his palm that shot off like a cannon, leaving a trail of dust and debris in its way as it took off half of the building. It was obvious that not even Mayuri himself knew just how strong it could be.

Everyone around him was down for the count, their clothes singed, he on the other hand remained standing with soot on his dark face and his kosode torn off his shoulders.
The instructor next to her complimented, "Your son has quite a talent, taicho. He's only been here a few months and he acts as though he's been here longer."

She had to smile as some of the shinigami had to ask for assistance to get up.

Mayuri in the Gotei 13

Mayuri looked over his zanpakuto: Asishoji Jizo. At first, he had been impressed with himself: the zanpakuto's shikai that could render anything it cut to be paralyzed yet the sense of pain remained. How twisted! Yet that joy had turned sour when he learned that the previous captain's zanpakuto had done just that. Another thing to tie him closer to that man, to prove they were evermore the same.

A sudden knocking came at the door and Mayuri sheathed his zanpakuto away, placing the weapon on a nearby stand and simultaneously picking up his lab coat to sport. He allowed entrance and Megane bowed to him. "Congratulations on your new promotion, fukutaicho."

He raised a brow, "You seriously didn't just come here to tell me that, did you?"

She shook her head, "There's a meeting going on for lieutenants and they've been sending jigokucho to you for a while. So they asked me to deliver a message to you."

He nodded his head and set off, wondering if this promotion really was what it was cracked out to be.

Mayuri gets a portfolio

The portfolio held no significance to him. But he had found it useful upon observing what the lieutenant over at Eighth did with the heavy book in her arms. Since he was promoted to lieutenant, he had found his work consisted more of paperwork than Hollow-slaying.
The multiple uses of the thickly enforced portfolio was discovered when he gave a sharp whack to a sleeping shinigami on the job and promptly handed him a stack of paperwork from said portfolio.

Mayuri learns something about Nemu

Looking over his captain blueprints and files, he was intrigued to how she could survive events that would've killed any other kind of shinigami. He voiced his thoughts to her. She answered with a blush that his father had a procedure that was something like a resurrection for her as long as her body was still salvageable.

He found himself blushing mad when she explained the process. After the lengthy discussion, the only thing he could ask her afterward was, "Well…. Did it need to be specifically him to make it effective?"

Never piss off the Lieutenant

Revenge was never good, particularly when dealing with the lieutenant of the Twelfth Division.

Rin recalled an unlucky shinigami who had the misfortune to offend the blue-haired shinigami. Said shinigami was later requested to accompany the Twelfth Division on an outdoor expedition.

The following week, they finally found him after he was reported missing in a crater-like ditch out in the Rukongai with his hair burned off, muttering, "I won't do it again, I don't do it again, I won't do it again, Iwontdoitagain, Iwontdoitagain…"

Mayuri and Nemu takes a bath

He discussed what they should do next week since the data for subjects 256 and 67 were progressing better and faster than they had thought. He leaned over the edge of the tub and pulled out a document that had been laminated. He pointed out new ideas and asked for her approval though it was hardly ever needed. As everyone knew it, the lieutenant was the real leader in the shadows of the division. As he leaned over the edge of the tub and read out what he had written and what others had pointed out to him, his voice involuntarily got caught in his throat. He dropped the paper and looked over his unpainted shoulder.

Nemu nodded her head, "Yes. Please do so, fukutaicho." as she washed his back.

He shuddered and tried to will the blood to continue flowing evenly throughout every vein of his body, to not pool south as he turned around to face his captain. She chided him, "You still have some soap on your back." He moved back to his position and allowed her to continue scrubbing at his back. Why was he such a masochist for agreeing to take a bath with his captain? But she had sashayed past him, resting both of her hands on his shoulders, and asked if he would like a bath. He had no qualms about it. When he had followed her to the bathroom, he had not expected his captain to strip as well. His face had burned to see her nude form, utterly beautiful and crafted with such skill.

Her voice next to his ear ruined what great concentration he had and he felt the ache below. "I'm all done."

He turned around in the tub and had to claw his nails into his palm to keep from stuttering. "Fine. My turn, then?"

She thanked him as she turned around and he thought it truly masochistic to be reduced to touch her unclothed skin chastely.

Mayuri's modifications

He flexed his left hand, still sore from the surgery. And his ears were aching. He could not eat solids for a month, would have to gorge himself on pills to make sure his body's circulation and temperature was maintained, he was not allowed to do anything save pace for fear that it might cause his arms to fall off, and he was left with a massive headache.

Was this really worth it so that he could use his arm as a grappling hook, survive a hole to the stomach, and hear everything within Seireitei?

Mayuri's new look

"Oh!" Nemu exclaimed as she saw Mayuri walk downstairs. He had painted himself completely white save for the black badger mask that made his golden eyes appear brighter. He had combed back his hair and suddenly looked as though he aged 10 years overnight. With the blue hair atop his head, the paints on him and the cones that improved his hearing; Nemu felt as though she was with her captain once more.

"I know it looks weird, but he wore it like this too and everyone keeps always looks at me. This ought to be more than enough reason to look at me now."

She always knew that he was sensitive about his dark skin. She caressed a white cheek and smiled, "You look so handsome. I like it."

Mayuri finds a test subject

"Well, did you find me a volunteer yet?" he asked the group of shinigami harshly.

They were shaking in their boots. "Um... We're sorry, fukutaicho, but so far no one is willing to go with us to the SDRI. They're worried something might happen to them."

His palm hit his face. "You idiots! You just had to convince them to come to the Twelfth Barracks. You didn't need to tell them anymore!" Of course something was going to happen to them, he thought, he was going to demonstrate a new invention today: an improved Hojiku-Zai. As he looked up, his eye caught a glimpse of black. There was a lone subject.
"I guess" he mused outloud, "if you want something done right, you do it yourself." He strode quickly to his target, his group of shinigami following behind and clamouring. Thinking quick on his feet, he pulled out his handkerchief and a bottle of chlorofom from his labcoat. He dabbed a little bit of the contents onto the handkerchief.

They approached the average-looking shinigami.

"Ah, Kurotsuchi-fukutaicho. Is there anything I can help with?" he asked with doe-like eyes.

Mayuri subtly slipped away the bottle into his sleeves and held out the handkerchief to him. "Do me a favour, will you? Shinbo there in the back thinks that this doesn't smell like flowers. Prove to me it does."

The hapless victim leaned forward and took a whiff, before feeling smothered.

Mayuri is acting strange

Among the lower ranked scientists, who were hardly of any use but running errands and doing stupid jobs that the middle-ranked shinigami felt were too much below their dignity to do, and the higher ranked scientists, who did not have to burden themselves with too much work anymore but management, whispers were exchanged over how peculiar the lieutenant was acting. "Did you hear about it? He actually wanted to escort Unohana-taicho himself!" one pointed out.

"I know! And it's not with her. I saw Akane bump into him and he told him to be careful!"

"Careful?" came the unison exclamation. "Just last month, he nearly chewed out Akane for going to the bathroom when it wasn't break yet. What's up with the lieutenant acting so… so… so nice?"

"There's only one answer." a voice behind them said. It was Akon, Kuma, and Doru: senior head scientists of the SDRI. Doru fanned himself haughtily, "I've seen this years before. It's so obvious: the lieutenant's in love."

They laughed, "In love with who? I've seen the lieutenant take measurements of all sort of shinigami - women too - and not a single one of them ever turned him on!"

Doru tossed his chin up, "Then he's finally getting some nookie then."

More laughter, "At this age? He's almost fifty, isn't he? It took him that long?"

And for the life of them, they fearfully could not stop laughing even when the Lieutenant approached them with a frown on his expressions, "And what is so funny here?"

Nemu does something with her hair

The captain walked into the labs with her hair let down in a plait. They wondered what was the occasion that she had decided to change her look. "Because I felt like it." she told them.

The lieutenant walked up to her, "I like the change."

It did not escape Megane's eyes how the lieutenant played with the fringe of her braid as he walked behind her; his maniac's grin that seemed to be reserved only for the captain, and the latter's face always blazing red.

Nemu being healed by Mayuri

Nemu winced to hear Mayuri sigh out loud as he applied the various lotions and potions to her battered body. "I believe that you will be remembered as the only captain in the history of the Soul Society to kill hollows by killing herself as well."

She apologized, his life was worth more to her than her own.

He gave her a sharp tap on her head, "I can do Bankai too, I'm not some novice fresh out of the academy."

She nodded her head.

His hands caressed the side of her face so gently that she grew dizzy, his hands moving to hold the hill of her breasts. He moved over her, it was as though he knew what effect his words were having on her. "Will you only stop treating me like a little boy when we're in bed?"

Akon is a potential rival

Mayuri saw red when Akon nearly bumped into him; but it was not the near accident that infuriated him but that he had been alone with his captain before Mayuri had arrived. He entered the room to see her on the hospital bed, she had bandages wrapped around her arm and her head.

She smiled at him, "Mayuri-sama."

He nodded his head, "Taicho." and sat down by her bed, presenting her with paperwork that must be filled out for her injuries report. But concern for his captain disappeared from his mind. All he could think about was lithium and potassium, of where he could find Akon alone. Man was always in the labs and he couldn't risk anything happening to their work. But perhaps if he forged something from his captain, he would most likely follow and then -

His thoughts of violence were sealed away when she pulled him closer to her and kissed him on his lips, "Please don't. He's such a good scientist."

He gave a sigh, "I wasn't going to do anything."

Nemu's death

"Taicho! Taicho!" he begged her as he held her in his arms. What sort of death was this for a captain? To have to be slain by her own lieutenant because she was being possessed by a Hollow? The inky shadow of the Hollow was slowly disappearing from her white skin, its effects going away by the second. The golden blade of his zanpakuto slid out of her stomach. The rain was heavy around them, pounding hard.

She breathed frantically, her eyes drowning. "I'm so… sorry." she said to him. But a smile grew on her face. She was not even trying. She was letting herself die, not even wanting to fight it. No struggle, just acceptance. "M-Mayuri… sama." she breathed out.

He knew that it was not him that she was seeing, that it was not him she was calling out for. "Taicho!" he fruitlessly called out.

Unohana and Mayuri

He got up from the covers.

"Is something the matter?" Unohana asked him, her breath panting.

He looked over his darkened shoulder as he picked up his clothes. His captain, his lover, had just died and he was already in some other woman's bed?

Unohana, nude, moved closer to him, "Are you okay?"

He did not want to look at her anymore. He had not even finished when he found his libido failing him. What had he been thinking. "Sorry. I'm… I'm tired." It was a lie. "I'll make it up to you." So was that one.

"It's not your fault." she assured him. Her hand smoothed his back. "I thought that you didn't want to be alone so…"

He got off her bed and adjusted his shihakusho, retrieving his zanpakuto on her sword stand.

As he was about to exit her rooms, she called out to him, "Do you want me with you at the will reading tomorrow?"

He didn't want to look at her, didn't want to fall to another one of her spells; what had lured him into her bed before. "No. I don't want you there."

He left abruptly, shunpo-ing out into the streets. He walked outside back to the Twelfth barracks.

The moon was full outside, autumn moon.

Many a desolate autumn have I known, but never have my tears flowed as tonight.

Of course he wasn't crying. But he could not help but to look up to the moon and imagine the blinding skin he had touched so many years ago for the first time. Yes, this was a most dreary autumn.

Alternate introduction of Nemu

The comb moved through her hair like a knife through hot butter. It was a darker sheen than anyone else's hair and he took pride in her appearance as though he constructed her himself. He may as well have. Yet as he brushed her dark hair, he could not keep his mind on anything, let alone her, but the woman he had known what felt like a lifetime ago.

"Mayuri-sama?" she asked as she turned around. Nemu peered at him as he sighed. "Is something the matter? Do you need me to get anything for you?" she asked so innocently.

He tugged at a lock of her hair. "Nothing's the matter, Nemu-chan. Sit still or you'll have more tangles in your hair. Honestly, I should cut the whole thing off so that I won't have to comb through it for you anymore." he answered.

"Yes, Mayuri-sama." she said but then as though she thought back to what else he had said about her hair, she seemed to be about to protest.

His chortles interrupted her, "Dear me, so worried over just hair! No, I'm not going to cut it because it just so happens to be my favourite part of you. But I won't allow you to act vain on that account."

"Yes, Mayuri-sama." and he heard relief in her voice.

She looked thirteen to his advanced age that he definitely looked the part of a father. But she was not of conventional origins that others would expect whenever he introduced her as his 'daughter'. No, she was not really his daughter. She was his captain's daughter, his sister's daughter, his mother's daughter. The whole relation was entirely incestuous and he chose better to think of her as his daughter than anyone else's. He thought back to the first day he had her. The day that his life seemed bleak and suddenly promising.

Mayuri tries to be different from his father

No matter what he did, it did not seem that he could ever deviate from resembling his 'father'. He wanted to keep the black and white scheme of his face because he covered up his dark skin most of all among other reasons. And he enjoyed the golden cones on his ears that ameliorated his hearing exponentially that he could very well be the best gossipmonger in all of Seireitei. He did not consider himself a vain man, but he was definitely not going to dye his hair or shave all the blue off simply for cosmetic reasons.

But a phase of his life was occurring now and he wanted a change. He looked at the portrait of his 'father' before he would have the thing and any other portrait carted off to storage. As much as he hated the man, it appeared that he had taste.

When he appeared before Unohana, Kukichi, and the Soutaicho for his captain proficiency test; there was a gasp and he could hear the whispers outside the hall of the room. They spoke of how it was like the Twelfth Captain had returned from the dead. There was no chance out-running the plans of a dead man.

He pulled out his zanpakuto that hung in front of his legs.

Mayuri's inauguration as Captain

Once Mayuri was inaugurated as captain, the first thing he did was take down that portrait of his 'father' in the Main corridor of the SDRI. It would not do for people to go mistaking him for that man and if he thought it was embarrassing before when he was lieutenant, the embarrassment only grew when he was captain. Better get rid of it quick.

Nemu does not remember Mayuri

"Ah." Nemu faltered before the dark skinned man in front of her. She backed away from him and tried to not let her eyes draw low to his naked form, scarred and toned. But she could not help herself when she saw the colour of blue contrasting with the dark skin and this was not at his head. She let out another "Ah!" She had never seen a naked man before.

He stepped forward and she stepped back. He asked her for the towel that was in her hands, that was intended for her father.

But where was he? She had heard him calling and hurried to find him a towel and when she finally did, she saw him nowhere. Nemu handed the towel to the stranger and kept her eyes glued to the ground, not daring to look at the dark man any longer.

"Why so untalkative? You're usually chatting my ears off."

She recognized the voice and looked up and saw the golden eyes of him. She bowed swiftly, "I apologize, Mayuri-sama."

He covered himself with the towel. He moved past her and she caught scent of soap and shampoo and him, the combination made her stomach flutter.

"Hmph. Maybe I should expose to you if ever I want more peace and quiet." he said to her like a joke.

When he left the room, she had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from squealing in her palms. She was composed, going to his closet and pulling out his clothes for him.

Nemu falls in love

She could not understand the attraction of it, really how she could continue with her feelings, and even if she did she was so sure that it would frighten her witless. He was handsome, he was strong, he was intelligent, he was of a good age, he was elite, he was creative, he was artistic... and he was her father. He was her father and fathers and daughters loved each other in a very specific way.

She turned her head, the pillow almost obscuring her view. They were always sleeping in the same bed and she did not wish to change it and so she never made any suggestion to it. His arms remained wrapped around her and his dark lids were closed. She heard him lightly snoring. Oh, she had fallen in love with her father.

When? The first time she had seen him? How? Because she knew that she was not really his and yet he insisted on raising her as a daughter, there seemed to be no malicious intent. Something tied her to him, demanded that if she ever left him she would be better off drowning herself.

Her lips brushed by the bridge of his nose as she murmured, "Mayuri-sama."

He gave a groan, "Sleeping."

Her lips moved over his forehead, "Mayuri-sama. You have to wake up." He had told her to wake him up, no matter what, yesterday after he had come home so late. Her lips moved lower over his closed lid, "Mayuri-sama."

"Go to sleep, Nemu!" and he pulled her closer to him.

Mayuri teaches Nemu

"And I add this solution to this precipitate." she concluded. There was a reaction of gas and then it settled as violet.

She looked to him for approval and saw him yawning. "Yes, yes. Very nice."

She was worried that she was boring him. "I apologize, Mayuri-sama, for wasting your time. But I -"

She was interrupted with his finger on her lips. "Shut up. No talking about anything else unless it's what I'm teaching you."

She nodded her head, "Yes, sir. Sorry, sir."

He pulled out a beaker from somewhere on the table and asked her to identify it.

She did so.

"Good. Now do you know what will happen when you add this compound to that compound."

She could not answer and so stayed silent.

"Dear me, what sort of reaction will this have? Will it be endothermic or exothermic? You're creating an explosive right now! Try to concentrate!"

Nemu at the academy

Mayuri walked through the familiar Academy Halls that he had walked through some hundred years ago. The instructor was going on and on about something that Mayuri had begun to tune him out. He stopped outside the training halls for hakuda classes. The class was co-ed, a gaggle of girl shinigami standing against the wall cheering for Nemu while it appeared that most of the boy shinigami were cornering his daughter, Nemu.

Mayuri pointed this out to the instructor who assured him that he had no reason to worry about his daughter's well-being, he should be worried instead about whether she would be able to have opponents for next time. "She's perfect in her form and skill." he complimented.

"No one is perfect." Mayuri told him, "It's a fact of life that there's always room for improvement where there's will and concentration. Nobody is the exception."

In a white kosode, red hakama, and her long dark hair plaited down her back; he watched as she swiftly and efficiently lifted two - three shinigami above her head and tossed them away from her. Her speed was admirable and her skill and manipulation of her own body was almost hypnotising to watch. As though like in a dance, she moved effortless around her opponents and disabled them one at a time all the while stalling them off until it was their turn. After a good period, all those who had fought against her were down and out for the count.

The instructor nudged Mayuri's arm, "What do you think, Kurotsuchi-taicho? Your daughter has quite a talent for Hakuda. I can easily imagining her joining the Onmitsukido with ease!"

"She will be joining the Twelfth." Mayuri informed him.

"Kurotsuchi-taicho, I recall that you were brilliant in your academics as well as Kido, and you prevailed in the scientific community of the Twelfth. Though bright your daughter is, I cannot imagine that she would be better placed in the Onmitsukido."

Mayuri glared him down, "My daughter, my choice."

He entered the training hall and was greeted by Nemu. "Mayuri-sama." she bowed low to him and the gaggle of girls that had stood watching suddenly began squawking.

Mayuri paid them no attention. "Nemu." he returned with a nod of his head.

"You did not write to me that you were coming today. I was expecting you next month. What is the reason for your visit? Has something happened?" Despite the time he had spent teaching her, she was still so child-like.

He rolled his eyes, "Can't a man see his daughter whenever he wants to?"

Runs in the family

He shrugged his shoulders casually, "Sure. Incest is a harmless practice for us." She was blushing like mad. "Look, if you're going to act like that now that I've told you then you shouldn't have asked me in the first place." He chastised.

She nodded, "Yes, Mayuri-sama."

He rolled his eyes, "I handled the news better than you when I was your age."

She did not understand.

"The only reasons why incest is considered a taboo is because of genetics, they fear what sort of malformed progeny may rise from related loins. Hence, they don't need any freaks among us. Though our sexual organs are functioning well, we are of course sterile from the constant interaction of chemicals. So there's nothing to worry about if we consent to use each other like that. Even the insane can get lonely."

She nodded, "Yes, Mayuri-sama."

A group of students passed by the window. "You've been hearing the rumours, haven't you." he observed.

She nodded her head, "Yes, Mayuri-sama."

"Does it bother you?" he asked.

"I… I was only curious."

"I asked if it bothered you." she was always avoiding the question, answering obliquely.

"Not at all."

He got up from his seat, he had taken too much time that month seeing Nemu at the Academy.

As he was about to exit, Nemu asked him, "But did you and the last captain…"

He answered her, "Yes. And she with her captain before that. Lord knows what that man got into before. Seems to run in the family, doesn't it?" He chuckled.

She stood up, the red hakama rustling, "Mayuri-sama!"

"What? You want to have your curiosity satisfied?"

She hesitated. He left the room feeling that the conversation was going to lead to something not worth discussing yet.

Nemu in the Gotei 13

"And just what" he eyed his daughter from head to toe, "are you wearing?"

She had become more outgoing since he had made her the lieutenant almost as she had simultaneously graduated from the Academy in six years. "Sadako-san gave it to me. She insisted that I wear it."

He looked at it some more. "As long as you don't distract the others." he told her. He was already foreseeing the disadvantages of his daughter wearing a skirt that showed off her slender legs and the wide obi that made her torso look slimmer and longer. If he had to admit it, she looked rather adorable in an adult way.

Her eyes lowered to the ground as she hugged her portfolio to her chest. There was a blush on her face. "I wouldn't dream of distracting anybody else, Mayuri-sama."

Akon and Nemu

Akon did not love Nemu as he had loved the previous. It was because it was not her. It was the same form and the same soul(as proven by the zanpakuto) but it was not her. Just like the Kurotsuchi Mayuri who strutted around the labs with his painted face and zanpakuto in the front of him was not his Chief. The two people he had loved were gone to be replaced with copies that would only pale in comparison to them.

Though he might find himself respecting his captain more than he should or finding himself staring at the lieutenant longer than he ought to, he still reminded himself that those two were not the same people he knew and cared for. Even when her hand would brush by his and he felt the same beating of his heart as he did for her progenitor, it was the voice in his telling him that it wasn't her that kept him from loving her.

Mayuri won't let Nemu have her zanpakuto

"I don't understand, Mayuri-sama." she confessed as she reluctantly handed him her zanpakuto: Kuri Akutareguchi. She thought it rather strange that he should push her to learn Shikai as quick as possible and when it was demonstrated that she could use it effectively against a Hollow, it should be taken away.

He sighed as he placed it on the sword stand in a corner of his office, "You don't understand much, do you? Here, I'm putting away your zanpakuto. You are not to use it unless I saw so. You and I know that you are as capable in Hakuda as anybody working in the Maggots Nest to take down anyone with your bare hands. And that you can perform Kido spells up to level 85 without a single incantation. Your zanjutsu and your zanpakuto, on the other hand, is sub-par. You just toss yourself into battle and let your zanpakuto do the work while I have to end up fixing and healing you." He came close to her and gripped her shoulders, "Listen to me, I am a captain and you are merely a lieutenant. My Bankai is unnecessarily dangerous that I hardly need anybody else on the field with me, everyone is considered baggage."

She directed her eyes to the hilt of his zanpakuto, "I can fight."

"I know you can fight and I know you're going to get killed with your fighting style. It's no difficult task to save you, but I don't want you fighting with a zanpakuto. You're useful enough that my Konjiki Ashisoji Jizo and other poisons doesn't affect you, but I don't need you fighting on the field. You think that just because you're tougher than average and can withstand bombs that you won't get hurt with your zanpakuto. Nemu, I've seen my captain die because she thought like that."

"You're willing to use me as a shield." she pointed out.

"Because I can fix you if you get hurt and because you still need me around more than I need you right now. Besides, when was the last time I used you as a shield? I usually let them chase you around for a bit and then I kill them." He let go of her and sat at his desk, "Now get out of here and back to work."

Mayuri and Nemu read a book

Mayuri laid lengthwise on the couch in his office, his arm shielding away his eyes. Nemu sat on the ground, leaning against the couch, she was reading Genji Monogatari out loud to him. At one point, he told her, "This story is dull."

Nemu pointed out that it was a psychological thriller. "It's very exciting, very poignant. Genji falls in love with his stepmother, Fujitsubo, who is supposed to resemble his mother, Kiritsubo."

"It all sounds very oedipal." he murmured.

She continued, "When Fujitsubo leaves him, he finds a little girl who is her niece and looks identical to her named Murasaki. Although he still thinks fondly of Fujitsubo, he also loves Murasaki who he raises to be his ideal woman."

He felt that she was trying to tell him something. "These foolish romances. You've borrowed this one from Kyoraku-taicho, didn't you?"

"Ise-fukutaicho lent it to me." she corrected.

He had not expected that. "Should I be allowing you to read such frivolous things? They seem to be a waste of time."

Megane walks in on Mayuri and Nemu

In the midst of talking as Nemu was reading out the past weekly evaluations to Mayuri who sat at his desk, he interrupted her by commenting, "Nemu-chan. I think you tore your stockings."

She stopped reading but did not lower her portfolio. "My stockings, Mayuri-sama?"

He motioned for her to come closer and she obeyed without hesitation. He and his chair retreated back, Nemu took it to be invitation to move in front of him between him and the desk. With swift hands, he lifted her off the ground and seated her on the edge of the desk. His hands ran over her knees, the tops of her thighs, cupping her calves… all the while his golden eyes and his maniac's grin was directed only with her face.
"Where" he said in a sing-songy voice, "can that tear be. I can't even see it anymore." His grip on her legs grew firmer and she was inclined to bring her knees together. He would not have that and his fingers dipped into her inner thigh, teasingly touching her. His fingers were already hidden underneath her skirt.

"Mayuri-sama!" she cried.

"What is it?" he asked, still looking at her and smiling that Cheshire grin while his fingers moulded over the sides of her thigh.

"I'm not wearing any stockings." Then as to demonstrate her point, she wiggled her tabi-covered feet.

"Dear me." he smiled, "I'm getting old before my time that my eyes must be playing tricks on me."

"And your hands, Kurotsuchi-taicho?" came a voice. Megane walked in with paperwork. Nemu tried to compose herself, but Mayuri's hands on her thighs kept her in her place. Megane chided, "People might start talking, Kurotsuchi-taicho, if they caught you and your lieutenant like this."

Mayuri let Nemu go who promptly made her clothes neat. "It'd feel just like old times, I bet. Eh, Megane? Father-taicho and daughter-fukutaicho caught in a compromising pose. The gossipmongers would definitely eat that up. Perhaps we could make a tabloid of it and sell it to raise our funds."

"I guess." she said with a smile, placing the paperwork on his desk, "Still, the Chief never put up with talk or stuff like that." The original Kurotsuchi Mayuri was forever remembered as the Chief and it seemed that not even his clone would be able to replace him. "There were suspicions here and there, but no one was ever sure."

Casually, Mayuri leaned over his desk, an arm propping his head, and picked up one of the papers to have a look-see. "And when have I ever really cared what others thought of me?"

"Never." Megane said.

First time

Hot and sticky skin. The air barely cooling them both. The sheets ruffled. Perspiration and whatever else dampened everything they touched. Mayuri leaned back against the headboard of his bed, cradling his daughter in his arms. She was still crying, though no sobs went past her lips. He rubbed her back, "There, there, baby. Nothing to cry about."

She apologized, burying her warm face into his shoulder.

She wanted it and so had he. It ought to be applauded, waiting so long for her when he may as well have taken her once she began looking like a woman. He had tried to be nice about it, waited until it seemed that she was ready to take on a lover and so she had offered herself to him. He did not understand why she should be crying now. If memory served him correctly, she had more than enjoyed herself while it lasted and he felt their thoughts together move through him and out of him. Women and their first time, he would never understand it.

He leaned her backwards, inciting her to finally face him again. "If you keep crying like this, I'll set you up in another room and spend my nights with Unohana-taicho." he warned her.

She embraced his neck, "Please don't!"

He rubbed her back, already feeling more stirrings inside of him. "Then stop crying."

He kissed away her tears and she returned the sentiment eagerly.

Mayuri's death

Nemu could only blankly think, as she sat in the room where already three generations of Kurotsuchi had sat before, that her father, Kurotsuchi Mayuri, was dead.

The will-reader began reading out loud.

Upon Memories

There was reason to why they could be called descendents rather than whatever it was other stubborn shinigami called them.

Nemu looked over memoirs of the Twelfth's past captains and lieutenants, each one chronicling different events from each other and different thoughts that contrasted almost significantly to the same-sex parent. Despite the recorded appearances and their zanpakutos, which were the same as the ones before, she realized that they were all different people from one another. The similarities that she remarked upon were the romantic affiliation that appeared to stay only within the family between parent and child, the first and second seats were always Kurotsuchi folks, and the Twelfth's lieutenant was always bound to be the Captain by matter of bequeathing(though that fact appeared to be hidden since the death of a captain marked the date of the lieutenant taking the Captain Proficiency Test).

She closed the journal of one of her early predecessors: the sixth Kurotsuchi Captain.

How torturous it would be to live for as long as this family's name, she thought. It was a written rule in the journal of the second Kurotsuchi Captain that no child afterwards she have the memory of whom he or she was the child of by the instruction of the first Kurotsuchi Captain and progenitor of this dynastic line in the Seireitei. Nemu realized that she might be the first one of the line to question and conclude why. Imagine, having to live out five lifespans and remember all of its worth. Any one would go mad from it, too much input. The realization of such a vast existence ahead would be too much for any shinigami. Perhaps it was easier to only live a while and then die, someone else ready to take up the mantle afterwards; no fear that the centuries of hard work would be ruined by anybody other than Kurotsuchi created and raised.

"Nemu-sama." Mayuri greeted her as he stepped into the room.

Nemu looked to him and greeted him, "Mayuri."

He looked at the books spread about on her desk. "What are you reading those for?" he asked as he crossed his arms over his chest.

She smiled slightly and tilted her head, "You never think about your family history?"

"There's not much to think about, it's all quite incesteous and oedipal. Men and women who wanted to live as long as possible and could not let go. You're needed on level Seven right now, Taicho."

"Very well. Coming, Mayuri?" She stood up, her white haori billowing behind her, and her lieutenant followed behind faithfully.

Epilogue

The room is ablaze with white and light.

From anybody passing by the room upstairs, they would see only two shadows: one standing at the window and the other leaning against a desk. The room is good for the spring that even these two first and second seats feel inclined to go up for an hour or so a day rather than live forever in underground labs. We see only shadows, a world beyond our own that makes us feel perverse to enter and so we observe. The two can see each other clearly, do not care what anybody outside their circles might see.

Mayuri and Nemu look out the window. The cherry blossoms fall outside like snow, how fleeting life can be.

It's been almost a thousand years since the first Kurotsuchi Captain of the Twelfth. They have become only shadows of the second chief of the SDRI and his lieutenant. Their fates laid out by genetics and technology, by selfish reasons and tradition. The day is too bright and it is too hot. The white captain haori lies draped over a chair, the emblem of the Twelfth distinct against the white and folds. The lieutenant armband of the Twelfth rests askew on the far corner of the desk, unnoticed and certainly not belonging there. Trying to see who is or even looks the older of the two, it is difficult nowadays to tell who might be the current captain and who the current lieutenant. We wait only when they put on the uniforms that designate their posts.

Mayuri fingers the red ribbon in his fingertips, Nemu tries to tangle her fingers in his hand. They're not the same.

Every lieutenant of the Twelth will one day be the captain. A Kurotsuchi woman will always have exactly one son and a Kurotsuchi man will have only a daughter. While their order stays the same, change outside of them occurs. The inauguration of the new Soutaicho, the eventual death of the Eleventh Captain, a Kurosaki-taicho in the Seireitei once more, Kukichi daughters wed the Kyoraku sons... People they've known have died and more have come to take their place. Unfamiliarity is everywhere... outside of them.

They are the only ones that have been consistent, unchanging in their roles at the Twelfth. But even they can not carry on the same wishes and desires as those who came before them. Minds changing, thoughts changing, feelings changing… the heart and soul remains constant.

Mayuri and Nemu bravely face the vast length of existence, born to replace a man who did not want to die and a woman who did not want to face the world alone; and others afterward who continue on the tradition for selfish ignorant reasons.

Their red fates are twisted and knotted together.

They and life goes on.

The next players are waiting.

Um... so, what did you think?