Bleach: The Afterlife Saga
*Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or any of its characters. All the characters mentioned in this story, with the exception of OCs, are the property of Kubo Tite.
Chapter 25 Breakdown of the Scientist
"Here are the documents you requested captain," said Ichigo, as he plunked a huge pile of papers upon Shinji's desk. "All of them have been completed." Shinji, the captain of the 5th division, took a glance at the top of the pile and smiled.
"You certainly are efficient Ichigo. You've done them quicker than I expected," said Shinji. "It's a pity I can't say the same about Sarugaki-san over there." He jabbed a finger towards his left, where Hiyori was carrying around a stack of documents awkwardly. She accidentally tripped over a book and fell, causing the entire pile to land messily beside her.
"Ah stuff this!" swore Hiyori. "I quit this boring job!"
"Now, now, Hiyori-san, don't go crying over spilt milk," said Shinji. "If Kurosaki could finish his work in time, you should be able to as well."
"Liar! You purposely give me extra work so that I'm forced to finish late!" shouted Hiyori as she pointed a finger at Shinji. Ichigo watched the pair squabble in amusement. He had grown used to Shinji and Hiyori's antics, and had come to regard them both as he close friends.
"Captain, do you mind if I take some time out?" asked Ichigo.
"Sure thing. It's a reward for finishing early," said Shinji. "You just leave me to sort out Hiyori-san's problems." Ichigo smiled as he left the captain's office, still hearing the sounds of Hiyori and Shinji's squabbling. He walked through the grounds of the 5th division barracks and headed for the front entrance. The division guards there greeted him as he passed through. Ichigo flash stepped towards the Shiba Manor. It had been nearly six months since he had discovered he was not only a member of the Shiba Family, but was also the new head. It had been more than eight months since he had joined the Gotei 13 as the 5th division's 3rd seat. In that time he had come to regard Seireitei as his home, in the same way Karakura Town had been his previous home. He had also grown accustomed to his powers. Though he was nowhere near as powerful as he was when he was a Substitute Shinigami, he made up for his decreased power for a wealth of increased combat experience and level headedness. He had received an award from the Captain Commander himself for his success in his mission to the real world five months ago, where he, Rukia and Renji had stopped a group of rogue Quincy from upsetting the balance between dimensions and brought his human friend Ishida Uryu to his senses.
Ichigo arrived at the front gates of the Shiba Manor a few minutes later. He unlocked the gates and walked through, passing the vast front courtyard of the manor. He went around the left side of the manor grounds before he reached the residential quarters at far end. Upon entering the living room, he was greeted with hugs by his two sisters, Karin and Yuzu.
"Welcome home Onii-chan!" they both exclaimed. Ichigo smiled. He was pleased with their growth over the past eight months. They no longer looked like girls anymore, but full grown, beautiful woman.
"How was school Yuzu, Karin?" asked Ichigo as he sat down beside the dining table.
"It was great. I aced the Zanjutsu test," said Karin.
"And I scored top marks in the Hohou practice," said Yuzu.
"That's great news," said Ichigo. His two sisters had started the Academy in June. Like himself, their strong spiritual powers qualified both of them for the elite freshman cohort. The fearsome reputation Ichigo had built in his first and only year at the Academy made the other freshmen and even the seniors frightened both Karin and Yuzu, though the sisters never really took advantage of their reputation. They had both been hard workers and high achievers and though neither of them were as good as Ichigo was, they were on track to finishing their course before the six year deadline.
"Do you have a day off today Onii-chan?" asked Yuzu.
"Yeah, I finished my work early," said Ichigo. "Tonight we can enjoy dinner as a family." With that Ichigo helped his sisters prepare for the evening meal.
In another corner of Seireitei, a short teenager with white hair was busy filling documents beside a desk. He was rudely interrupted when a blonde bombshell of a woman with busty breasts gave him a hug.
"Taicho! Let's have some time out!" shouted Matsumoto Rangiku in an unusually cheerful mood.
"What do you think you're doing Matsumoto?" asked Hitsugaya Toshiro. The captain of the 10th division was frequently frustrated by his lieutenant's laziness and occasional binge drinking. This moment was no exception, for he detected a whiff of Sake in Matsumoto's breath.
"Have you been drinking again Matsumoto? I told you to get the paperwork done."
"Don't worry Shiro-kun, I've got them done for Rangiku-san," said another woman's voice. Hitsugaya blushed when he saw Hinamori Momo handed him a bunch of papers.
"Um, thank you, Momo-chan," said Hitsugaya. Hinamori also blushed at his compliment. The two of them were still unable to openly express their feelings for each other even though Hinamori had been at the 10th division for the past six years. She had felt much more comfortable as a 3rd seat under Hitsugaya's command then she ever was as the former 5th division lieutenant.
"Oh my, look at your faces!" laughed Matsumoto. "Come on, you should both just admit that you love each other."
"Shut up!" yelled Hitsugaya as he pushed Matsumoto away. The ditzy blonde lieutenant collapsed onto the floor.
"Rangiku-san!" called Hinamori as she rushed to Matsumoto's side.
"Don't bother helping her Hinamori. She's just passed out from drinking too much."
Similar scenes were occurring inside the offices of the all of the division barracks of the Gotei 13, as the evening sun slowly descended. For the past three years Soul Society had enjoyed a period of unprecedented peace and prosperity, with few major incidents. With the last of the former 5th division deserters having been rounded up and sent to the Maggot's Nest, even the vast expanses of Rukongai were mostly trouble free.
All of that was about to change however, for as night finally set in, three shadowy figures crept about the streets of Seireitei, unnoticed by the occasional Shinigami patrol. The figures were headed for an unlikely place, the Research and Development Institute, Soul Society's scientific quarters, owned and managed by the 12th division.
At this moment, inside the Institute's main complex, the division's captain, Kurotsuchi Mayuri, was typing furiously at a computer terminal that resembled a strange, giant organ. Mayuri was perhaps the most eccentric of the thirteen captains and perhaps the strange Shinigami in all of the Gotei 13. His entire body had been completely modified beyond human recognition with his skin now bone white. He wore an elaborate headdress shaped like a goat's horns and his face was half covered with blue paint. But it was his mind that was the most complex aspect, for he was making up to ten thousand individual calculations a second as he was typing at the computer terminal, constantly thinking up new ways of conducting his research. Unfortunately for Mayuri, even the most brilliant of scientists experienced their setbacks, and just as he was one of the verge of a breakthrough discovery, the computer screen suddenly flashed red.
"Oh bother, looks like the auxiliary power generator has malfunctioned again," sighed Mayuri. "I'll have to get it replaced some time. Nemu! Come here!" A short while later a woman with black hair curled up in a ponytail and wearing a short black skirt instead of a normal hakama rushed to Mayuri's side.
"Yes Mayuri-sama," said Nemu with a bow. As Mayuri's lieutenant and his daughter, Nemu had been mentally and emotionally programmed to obey her master's every command.
"The auxiliary power generator that powers the security field around the secret underground storage chamber has somehow short-circuited. Go there and see if you can fix it," said Mayuri.
"Yes Mayuri-sama, I'll fix it right away." Nemu bowed her head again and quickly left the room. Mayuri resumed his work at the computer terminal.
What neither Mayuri nor Nemu were aware of was that the failure of the auxiliary power generator was not an accident; it had been intentionally sabotaged. As the sparks of electricity crackled around the wreckage of the power generator, the sword that had pierced it mere moments ago retracted. The wielder of that sword, a man with silver hair, had been standing more than a hundred metres from the generator, outside the grounds of the Research and Development Institute. He, along with two other figures, watched as the force field around the institute lowered.
"The shield is down; now is the time to strike," said a woman wearing a red kimono beside the white haired man. The two of them, along with a third figure wearing a black hood and with two pairs of wings growing from his back, jumped down from the wall they had been standing on and quietly infiltrated the Institute. As it was already quite late, there were few guards patrolling about at this hour. The three figures crept through the various alleys and corridors of the institute until they reached a long flight of stairs that should have been barred by a force field. With the power to the area temporarily cut, the trio swiftly descended the stairs.
When they reached the bottom, they found themselves in a vast underground chamber filled with numerous vats, storage tanks and computer server networks.
"Wow, this place is just like the basement of Musa and Saiga-san's fortress," said the silver haired man. "Just look at all of these specimens."
"Quiet, we don't want to make a sound," said the hooded man. The three of them walked through the chamber, examining numerous subjects suspended in liquid tanks or encased in hard preservative jelly. Eventually they reached the very far end of the chamber, where a large set of liquid nitrogen vats were bolted to the wall. The woman went to the console in the middle of all the vats and fiddled all of the buttons. A few seconds later the vats started heating up, with gas rising out of the holes at the top of the vats. As a huge cloud of gas built up near the ceiling of the chamber, the woman pressed more buttons.
These buttons had the effect of causing the various vats to slowly open, revealing their contents. Suspended inside each of the vats were swords of various shapes and sizes, with each one having an intricate design.
"Look at all of these Zanpakuto," said the silver haired man. "In can't believe this Kurotsuchi guy was able to make all of them."
"He appears to have done all of the work for us," said the black hooded man.
"Indeed. The five month wait was worth it," said the woman with a smirk on a face. "We can finally set our plan into motion. Now then, let's gather up these swords and get out of here."
The three of them proceeded to remove the Zanpakuto from the vats, one by one.
Nemu flash stepped to the entrance to the room where the auxiliary power generator was located. When she entered the room, she was taken aback at what she saw. The power generator was severely damaged, with a massive hold on its left side, from which sparks were still coming out.
"This doesn't look like an ordinary power malfunction," said Nemu. "Someone must have vandalized it, but who?" She looked at the windows behind her and saw there was a crack in one of the windows, about the width of a katana blade. Her eyes widened in panic as she realized the implications of the crack. Oh no, if someone purposely destroyed the power generator, they must have intended to lower the force fields! Nemu quickly exited the hole and got out her Danreishinki. She dialed her captain's emergency contact number.
"Mayuri-sama, Mayuri-sama, there's something urgent I have to report," said Nemu.
"What is it Nemu? I'm busy at the moment. And what's taking you so long in fixing that generator?" asked Mayuri on the other side.
"Mayuri-sama, the power generators didn't malfunction, they were sabotaged by outside vandals! Someone must have wanted the force fields to be lowered!"
"What? Are you serious? I'll be down there immediately. Alert all division members if you can, and head for the secret underground storage room! We can't let anyone get inside there!"
"Yes Mayuri-sama!" With that Nemu hung up on the call and texted an emergency message to all division members within the institute. She then started flash stepping towards the entrance to the underground storage room. When she got near the flight of steps leading down the underground storage room, she froze in shock. At this very moment, walking up the stairs from the underground storage room, was Captain Mayuri himself, accompanied by two strange looking people, a man with silver hair and a man wearing a black cloak and hood. The two people were carrying a bunch of swords in their arms and had some swords strapped over their shoulders.
"Mayuri-sama, what is the meaning of this?" asked Nemu.
"Hmm, what do you mean Nemu? Why are you here? I thought I said I was busy at the moment," said Mayuri.
"But, you told me to rush down to the underground storage room as soon as possible, and I thought you were still working at the database console," said Nemu. Beads of sweat flowed down her neck. While the person in front of her looked like Mayuri, there was some odd about him, as if he wasn't the genuine article.
"Nemu, you really are hopeless. Just don't get in my way, and don't inform anyone about where I've been," said Mayuri.
"But, those swords are the most top secret research material! You told me yourself they were not to be touched! And that anyone who did would get the death sentence from you! So why are you allowing these two strangers to carry all of them out from the storage room?"
"Do I really have to answer all of your incessant questions? Remember, I am your captain and your father. If you disobey me once again, I'll be forced to punish you." Nemu backed away as she saw Mayuri and the two other strangers approached her. In an instinctive reaction she pulled out her Zanpakuto and held it in her arms.
"This isn't like you Mayuri-sama! Tell me who those two strangers are!" Before Nemu could say anymore, Mayuri thrust out a hand and impaled Nemu straight through the heart.
"Like I said, you're such a bother Nemu," said Mayuri. Nemu's eyes widened with shock as she felt his hands grasp around her heart.
"Mayuri-sama…why?" she croaked. At this moment, another voice shrieked.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?" shouted a second Mayuri. This one had come down a flight of stairs from the upper levels of the institute. Nemu stared at the second Mayuri. For some reason, she was positive that this Mayuri was the genuine version.
"Mayuri-sama?" she asked. The Mayuri standing on the stairs regarded the Mayuri who had impaled his right arm through Nemu's heart with outrage.
"Who are you imposter? What are you doing with daughter? And who are those two beside you?" asked Mayuri frantically. His eyes fell upon the swords the two men had in their arms. "It can't be! Those are my greatest research specimens! How dare you steal them!" The imposter 'Mayuri' grinned evilly. His voice somehow changed so that it no longer resembled the real Mayuri's voice.
"You've come just as I expected," said the fake Mayuri. At this instant the fake Mayuri somehow changed his appearance before the real Mayuri's eyes. In his place was a woman wearing a red kimono with white lilies. Mayuri's eyes widened in horror.
"Who are you? How the heck did you manage to disguise yourself as me?" he asked in anger. He unsheathed his Zanpakuto and held it in his right hand. Before Mayuri could attack, the woman wrenched her hand from Nemu's chest. An instant later Nemu's eyes went vacant and she collapsed onto the ground, with blood flowing freely from a gaping hole in her chest. The woman had a small green object in her bloody right hand.
"Do you know what this is?" asked the woman. Mayuri's eyes widened in pure horror. For the second time in his entire life, his entire body trembled in fear.
"No! DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH THAT!" shouted Mayuri. He released his Zanpakuto Ashisogi Jizo and charged at the woman. Before he could get her the woman mercilessly crushed the green object in her hand. Mayuri collapsed onto his knees in utter despair. The green object had been the soul of his daughter Nemu, who was actually an artificial human created by an advanced gikongan inserted into a modified human gigai. It was the only one of its kind he had ever managed to create.
"No, Nemu…" said Mayuri. For the first time in his life, he started sobbing. Though he had treated Nemu with constant disrespect and had used and abused her many times before, to the point of severely injuring her on several occasions in battle, he had still loved her as his own flesh and blood. He had an attachment to her that went far beyond a father to daughter relationship. Now, to see his daughter's soul shattered forever broke his heart completely.
"How pitiful. I had no idea a man as twisted and immoral as you actually had a heart," said the woman. "To think that you actually cared about someone other than yourself. What a pity, for the great scientist Kurotsuchi Mayuri to be reduced a sobbing wreck." The woman's words caused Mayuri to snap. He screamed a primal, almost bestial howl of anguish. He grabbed his Shikai in his hands and shouted "BANKAI!"
His Zanpakuto transformed and expanded enormously. It quickly grew into a gigantic, grotesque monster, resembling an overgrown caterpillar with a baby's head. The creature breathed poisonous gas from its mouth and under what appeared to be a red napkin around its neck the monster numerous ten foot long blades suddenly appeared.
"Go Konjiki Ashisogi Jizo! Kill them! Tear them apart!" shouted Mayuri. The baby monster let out a shriek as it charged forward. The two men jumped out of the way but the woman let herself be impaled by the blades. Mayuri grinned in satisfaction.
"I'm going to tear you to pieces, bitch," said Mayuri.
"Oh, are you sure about that?" the woman asked. Despite being horribly impaled she was still somehow alive. "Are sure that you've really impaled me?" Mayuri's eyes widened when the woman suddenly disappeared and in her place was Nemu's corpse, which was now horribly mutilated by the giant blades, to an extent that her body was barely recognizable.
"NO! IT CAN'T BE!" wailed Mayuri. Not only had he impaled his daughter by mistake, but now the woman and the two other men were nowhere to be seen. The realization that he had doomed himself by his own hand drove Mayuri past the brink of despair and caused him to lose all sense of his sanity. After he ordered his Bankai to drop Nemu's corpse to the ground, Mayuri then went charging back up the stairs, with his giant monster following after him, crushing the stairs beneath its caterpillar like feet. When Mayuri got back to the computer terminal he ordered his Bankai to attack it. The baby monster smashed into the computer, smashing the screen and causing the circuit boards to explode. This triggered an alarm that went out across the entire Research and Development Institute.
With the computer terminal destroyed, Mayuri and his Bankai charged towards the Institute's main labs. Along the way they encountered many of the 12th division's researchers and scientists. All of them were shocked and horrified at their captain running at them with his Bankai.
"Mayuri-sama!" they shrieked as they ran towards the entrance of the labs. They quickly shut the gates to the labs tightly in the hope that it would stall their captain's insane rampage. The attempt was futile. The giant baby monster smashed through the gates like paper and charged through the labs. Any hapless scientists that ended up in its way were impaled by the blades at the front, trampled by the monster's feet or succumbed to the poisonous gas.
"Destroy them! Destroy them all!" shouted Mayuri. His Bankai obeyed his command and proceeded to swing its body against all the computer terminals, storage tanks and compartments it could find. Within minutes it had turned the entire lab area into a warzone. Mayuri himself destroyed as much stuff as he could, going as far as punching into computer terminals with his bare hands. After the main labs were completely gutted, Mayuri and his advanced to the heart of the Institute, the fusion reactor that powered nearly all of the institute's systems, and supplied Seireitei with a vast quantity of electricity.
In a suicidal state Mayuri ran to the gangway at the centre of the fusion reactor, an enormous device that descended down nearly two hundred metres below the surface. He ordered his Bankai to smash itself into it. The grotesque baby monster did so, tearing a twenty foot hole in the reactor's superstructure. The sudden loss of the reactor's integrity caused it go into full scale meltdown. Within seconds the bulk of the highly radioactive fuel that had usually lain dormant inside the reactor ignited, with catastrophic results.
The entire reactor exploded outwards in a colossal fireball that engulfed the entire Research and Development Institute, with the outer shockwaves of the explosion reaching the 12th division's barracks. Hundreds of division members screamed in terror and ran for their lives. The fireball soon grew into a mushroom cloud that stretched all the way into the sky.
The explosion was so huge that it could be seen, heard and felt throughout all of Seireitei. Every single captain, lieutenant and senior officer sensed the explosion and rushed outside. None of them could believe their eyes. The sight of a smoldering fireball rising into the night sky was truly something out of their worst nightmares. The implications of it sent waves of horror through nearly all Shinigami who saw it, for they knew that somehow the entire Research and Development Institute had been utterly destroyed in the greatest explosion in Seireitei's recent history. It would take the other divisions hours before an emergency team could be scrambled to sort out the scene of chaos at the epicenter of the disaster.
As Soul Society reeled from the destruction of the Institute, no one saw three figures creep along the back streets of Seireitei, having fled from the 12th division barracks a few minutes before the cataclysmic explosion. Two of the figures, a man with silver hair and a man wearing a black hood over his head, carried an assortment of Zanpakutos in their arms or over their shoulders. They were following a woman wearing a red kimono with white lilies.
"My god, that was some explosion," said the silver haired man as he looked back at the smoldering fire behind him. "Did you really have to go that far, Kyoka Suigetsu-san?"
"Well, perhaps I didn't expect Captain Kurotsuchi to go to such extreme lengths," conceded the woman called Kyoka Suigetsu. "But his…enthusiasm, is nonetheless convenient for us. His actions have ensured that all of the blame for this night's incident will be pinned on him alone, and all trace of our involvement will have been completely eradicated."
"The way you put it, it does sound like a rather ingenious plan," said the silver haired man.
"So where are we going to go now, Suigetsu-san?" asked the black hooded man.
"We lie low for the next day. I need time to awaken these Zanpakuto, and for the attention of the Shinigami to be distracted by the inevitable clean-up operation. When their guard is down the most; that is when we'll strike."
With that, the three individuals, the instigators of this night's terrible incident, disappeared into the maze of Seireitei's streets.
Notes: This chapter officially marks the beginning of the second major arc in this story. As a lot of readers may have suspected, the main antagonist of this arc is Aizen's Zanpakuto, Kyoka Suigetsu. No prizes for guessing who her accomplices are ^^.
As for Nemu's death and Mayuri's descent into insanity-well, part of it was me liking the beginning of Fade to Black, but also part of it was to finally develop Mayuri's character beyond that of the completely immoral scientist. I guess an element of karma is in there as well.