Nemu heard the sound of porcelain breaking and watched in complete surprise as an old urn went flying out the open doors of the room she shared with Jushiro, followed by a bit of white stone. The two Thirteenth Division Third Seats were standing near the doorway, looking transfixed with horror, but as she approached, Kiyone spun around and stretched out her arms to block Nemu's path.
"Nemu-san," she said somewhat breathlessly. "I don't think you should go in there right now."
Nemu pushed the girl aside and stepped past Sentaro as well. The sight that met her eyes was so improbable she stopped in surprise. The entire room was torn apart. The futons, pillows and comforters had all been split open and the cotton filling spilled out across the tatami mat floor. Books Jushiro treasured and kept safely stored in the closet were dumped in a careless pile on the floor. The room's decorations, a pair of painted scrolls, vases that had held flowers, a tea set they used at night and a porcelain figurine had all been tossed out onto the grass along with several small white stones Nemu didn't recognize but assumed must have come from the room her normally calm, rational husband, appeared to be hellbent on destroying. He was currently prying up a tatami mat.
"Shiro-chan, what are you doing?" Nemu asked, unlike the others she assumed he must have some reason for what he was doing. He'd been perfectly sane in the morning. A man did not lose his mind over the course of a single day without some sort of extraordinary outside influence.
"Nemu, do you see those white rocks in the grass?" he asked, as he looked quickly over the flooring under the mat and pulled up the next one.
She turned her head. She did in fact see several small white pebbles. The two Third Seats saw them as well and looked relieved to find their beloved captain's actions were not completely inexplicable. "Yes, what are they?"
"Sekiseki," he answered, pulling up another.
"But why would there be sekiseki in our room, Shiro-chan?" Nemu asked, and behind her Kiyone gasped.
"According to Ichimaru Gin it is the result of a joke he once told Aizen," Jushiro jerked a mat from the floor and tossed it out the wide doorway.
Nemu was glad to see it flew quite a way before it collided with a decorative boulder. Her husband was clearly recovered from the fighting.
"Was it an amusing joke?" she asked.
He straightened and turned to look at Nemu. She was watching him calmly, with only a vague curiosity showing in her eyes. Behind her, his two Third Seats looked a disturbing combination of worried and shocked. Kiyone's eyes kept darting from him to Nemu, and she seemed to be growing more upset by the second by whatever she was thinking; he didn't even want to know. Nemu's calm was so much more helpful. He felt himself relaxing just looking at her. Everything would be alright.
He drew a deep breath before he answered, "I found it to be in very poor taste."
Nemu nodded. "I have noticed Captain Ichimaru tends to have a cruel sense of humor. I hope it was not worse than continually poisoning you using my cosmetics. I did not find that amusing at all."
"This is cruel in an entirely different way, although the goal is the same, to prevent me from working with your father. Apparently, Aizen found my ability to work with the man galling. Gin-kun tells me it's not personal and if Aizen could destroy every positive relationship the captains share, he would. Ours was simply the easiest."
"How could he easily destroy your relationship with my father? He has never worked so well with any captain before. He has told me you are only somewhat irritating rather than absolutely unendurable like the others. I do not understand how that is easily destroyed."
"All it took was the addition of a few rocks to our room," Jushiro said, looking very sad. "I do not think Captain Kurotsuchi and I will be working together again any time soon. You did not mess up a kido, Nemu. The reason you are pregnant is because an agent of Aizen planted sekiseki in our room. Kurotsuchi believes that is reason enough to force you to terminate it even if you continue to object. I will not allow him to make that decision for you. He believes he can persuade General Yamamoto to his way of thinking. I am afraid the General has never been very comfortable with your existence and may side with him. That makes no difference to me. As far as I am concerned neither of them have any say in this, however you may have to step down from your position to be able to refuse."
"I could quit?" Nemu said in surprise. Such an idea had never occurred to her. She had been created as the Lieutenant of the Twelfth. It was the only identity she had ever had.
"Any pregnant shinigami can choose to resign. Kurotsuchi does not own you, Nemu. You are your own person with your own will. This is your decision. Do you want this baby?"
Nemu stared back at him. It still surprised her sometimes, the way he would leave decisions, even important ones, up to her. Before, her father had made all of her decisions, even so far as telling her what she liked and did not like, and she had never questioned him. If her almost instant attraction to Jushiro had not amused him he could easily have told her to think no more about him, and she would have obeyed.
Jushiro could easily have taken her father's place, ordering her life outside work as completely as her father had, but that wasn't who he was. He had never wanted to own her. He simply wanted to walk beside her, sharing her joy as she discovered the world beyond the Twelfth and her self beyond Lieutenant Kurotsuchi.
Now her life was her own, but there were still times she wasn't altogether sure what she wanted to do with it. She had only discovered she was pregnant two days before when she had run a routine pre-mission health check, only two weeks pregnant, and her father had ordered her to dispose of it--but she couldn't, not Jushiro's child.
It wasn't until she was walking with Yuki the day before that she had realized it would also be her child. That was much more worrying. Despite what Jushiro said, Nemu knew she was lacking. What sort of mother could she be when there was so much about being a person that she simply didn't understand? All she could do was the same as she had always done, try her best, learning as much as she could from every available source, and hope that her artificial beginning would not always define her. Her one comfort was that she seemed to share the parental instincts she had observed in others. She had only known of the possibility of its existence for two days but she felt a need to protect it, even if all it was currently was a possibility.
"I want the baby," she said softly, meeting Jushiro's dark eyes with a soft smile. "I want our baby."
In that moment she saw just how hard it had been for him to let her make that choice. Relief and happiness shared equal parts in his smile. "Then we will do what it takes to keep it."
She nodded and stepped closer. "Whatever it takes," she agreed.