Chapter 28: War V

An explosion could be seen from afar as the department of research and development had been destroyed. Standing high above the wreckage and destruction of the once glorious building is the previous captain of squad twelve, Kisuke Urahara. He was wearing one of his concealing cloaks that both he and Sosuke developed to avoid detection and watched with a mixture of sadness and contempt in his eyes. On one hand, he knew this building needed to be taken out so as to cripple the Seireitei's advantages against hollows and to deliver a strong blow to the soul reapers in order to have the strategic advantage. On the other hand, all of his work, all of his research, years and decade's worth of information he's gathered in his time within the squad was taken away from him in a glorious blazing inferno. It was a tough decision to make, but one he had to do once he found out who his replacement was and what he was doing.

Mayuri was always a wild card. Intelligence and madness all rolled into one, but he had his uses when put on a short leash. Kisuke made sure that leash was tight as well and vetoed many of the man's mad ideas. Every once in a while, the mad man had a moment of clarity and brilliance that even Kisuke had to acknowledge and accept. Mayuri was never meant to be anything more than a third seated officer with Hiyori being one step ahead of him and Kisuke in charge of him. Now though with no one to keep that leash tight, the mad man ran the division behind his captain's back in a perverse and disturbing way.

Kisuke sighed as he knew this was necessary and decided to take care of his own personal issue, he unfortunately freed. "Ichigo, you better be right about this."

He looked down and saw multiple researchers leaving the inferno in various stages of injury. Some were completely fine; others were burned slightly, and some were worse for wear. Kisuke watched as the familiar and unfamiliar were leaving to get to safety only to be captured by the arrancar waiting for them led by Halibel and her fraccion. He continued to watch as the men and women were gathered and rounded up only to notice that Mayuri was nowhere to be found among them. If Kisuke was a betting man, and he sometimes was, Mayuri was most likely somewhere inside saving what he could. Knowing what he had to do, Kisuke soared down into the still burning building to confront a future problem.

Days ago, Kisuke and Yoruichi's room

"What I need from you Kisuke is to trust me." Ichigo said to the man as he was stilled leaned back in his chair.

Kisuke was still taken aback by the whole 'from the future' thing, though it all made sense in the end. "So, you're saying he causes more problems than ever in your time?"

Ichigo nodded his head and began to list off the various things Mayuri Kurotsuchi does in his time. From experimenting on hollows and souls alike, to the deaths of certain, innocent Quincy's that needed to live this time to change certain individuals. Kisuke was shocked and yet unsurprised by what he heard. He knew freeing Mayuri was a risk, but this was more than he bargained for. He had been keeping tabs on his old squad for all these years and knew that while Akon was the captain, Mayuri was undermining his authority heavily.

"I know what this means to you." Ichigo continued as he leaned back in his chair and carefully watched Kisuke with a stern eye. "I don't trust anyone else to deal with Mayuri than you. Whatever you need to do, end it because you owe them that." Kisuke looked to the man. "You released this monster," Ichigo stood up and went for the door and did not stop his stride as he opened the door. "Now it's on you to kill that monster."

Present day

Kisuke was walking in the still burning building of the research and development squad. He ignored the flames engulfing everything and focused on the familiar energy deep within. Using his senses, Kisuke rushed through the building and followed the energy to a hole in the far wall. He scowled as this used to be one of the secret compartments he kept when he was captain. If things were similar, then navigating through here would be simple as before. Right as Kisuke went through, several traps began to set off.

"Of course he would screw with my stuff." Kisuke grunted as he dodged several spikes, pitfalls filled atrocious hollows, and even spiked walls that closed in on him.

Fortunately, Kisuke was fast enough to avoid such traps and even briefly used his mask to power through some areas. The move did rip apart his concealing cloak, so he discarded it completely. It didn't take him too long to get to a fairly large room with a various assortment of things all over the walls. Kisuke looked around as the flames were nowhere near this secret lab and saw the many disturbing items within beakers, vials, containers and the like. Body parts from not only hollows but also even soul reapers as well. Harvested organs from who knows what. There were even several disfigured bodies within large containers on the far wall. All of them were warped in some sort of way. Some had parts of their bodies, such as their arm, mutated with that of a hollow. Some had heads too large for their bodies. Some were too small, almost like a fetus of some kind, with things like spikes or even talons growing from their spines. They were a grotesque display of just how cruel Mayuri is and how much of a mistake it was to free him. Kisuke walked through the lab and noticed a blood trail going to another room away from the bodies. Kisuke sighed as one of the containers was empty and the trail started there. He moved and was not surprised to see the mad scientist moving to put things together and gather important notes and tests subjects.

"It's funny," Kisuke started as he stood there and saw Mayuri quickly turn around to see the one person he never thought he would see again. "I thought by freeing you from the Maggot's Nest you would be grateful and not stoop so low to even experimenting on your own comrades."

"Urahara?" Mayuri was wide eyed and shocked to see the man, and in the same outfit as the enemy attacking the Seireitei.

"The one and only." Kisuke started as he looked around the room. "This is new."

"Tch. Of course it is you fool." Mayuri started as he watched the man he despised the most with a careful eye. "Did you really believe that you could hide this from me, and did you really believe that I wouldn't improve on your archaic designs?"

Kisuke smirked a bit. "You know something, I'm not all that surprised."

He walked over to a shelf that had empty vials and beakers on it. He took one of the vials and sighed to himself as he remembered simpler times before Ichigo ever showed up. How things were either predictable, expected, calculated to the smallest decimal, or even blatantly done on purpose. It was a slow and boring time, but it was one he was in control of. One that he knew the outcome of practically everything that could have or would have happened to himself, the ones closest to him, or the Seireitei as a whole. Everything was so simple and easy going that he most likely would have made that Hogyoku just to spice things up. Foolish really. All it really took was one man time traveling to shatter his livelihood and change everything in one fell swoop. Now here he was, following that man's orders in order to stop many things from happening that is, in one way or another, his fault.

"Why are you here Urahara?" Mayuri, irritated at being ignored, interjected on Kisuke's little soul-searching tour. "And why are you dressed like that?"

Kisuke sighed as he put the vial down on the shelf and rubbed it in acceptance before turning around. "Simple really." He drew his blade from his side and gave Mayuri a death glare that sent a shiver up the man's spine. "I came here to correct a mistake I made years ago."

Mayuri drew his blade but was too slow as Kisuke was already on him in seconds. He already received several cuts on his body that drew blood heavily and all the pale man could do was leap away from his former superior. Kisuke didn't want to leave anything to chance at all.

Not offering the man an inch, Kisuke used shunpo to reach the man and continued his assault. Mayuri couldn't keep up with his speed or his power as each strike was stronger than the last. The clown leapt from one area to the other and tried to release his Shikai only for Kisuke to stop him with kido or even a bala. Yes, Kisuke knew how to use both bala and cero now through intense training with some of the Espada.

Mayuri could feel the killing intent in each of Kisuke's attacks and knew that there was no way for him to stop the man in a conventional way, so he decided to go for broke and did something drastic. Luring Kisuke to the containers with grotesque bodies in them, Mayuri slashed at each and every single one of them, causing the bodies to fall out and give the man some space. The bodies that were able to stood in between the two and went berserk as they attacked anything in their way. Unfortunately, that included Kisuke as well. They weren't that much of an issue as they were just swinging at anything with no real power behind those strikes, but that gave Mayuri enough time to activate his Bankai.

"Bankai: Konjiki Ashisogi Jizō!"

A large and disgusting figure with what looked like a Jizō head appeared from behind Mayuri and began to breathe out some type of purple gas. Kisuke grunted in frustration as he cut down the experimented bodies with ease and looked to the large creature with a scowl. Mayuri on the other hand was grinning from ear to ear in a sinister way. This was finally his time to get out from Kisuke's shadow and end the man who looked down on him all those years.

"HOW DOES IT FEEL, URAHARA!?" Mayuri screamed out as he sent a large gust of the gas towards the man. "I'M GOING TO ENJOY KILLING YOU AND DISSECTING YOU FROM THE INSIDE OUT!"

Kisuke stood unfazed by the gas as it engulfed him completely all the while Mayuri laughed maniacally. The gas is supposed to be highly poisonous and able to kill anybody with a small dosage over time, but Kisuke took the full brunt of it all and Mayuri was enjoying it all.

"Perhaps after I'm done with you, I'll find more specimens to experiment on." Mayuri started once more as the gas was thick all around his target. "I wonder. If you're here dressed as the enemy, then I wonder if that insufferable Shihouin woman is here as well?"

That was a mistake.

The pressure was cranked to an eleven as the gas parted from Kisuke. Mayuri was shocked by this pressure but was completely stunned by what he saw in the gas. Kisuke stood tall there and had on a hollow mask of a doll's mask. His eyes were pure black with red pupils and black iris'. He looked to Mayuri, and the clown could feel the anger and hatred exuding from his former captain. Mayuri felt unimaginable fear for the first time in his life as Kisuke stared at him with those blood red eyes.

"A-A-Attack him my-"

Before Mayuri could even finish his command, his large Bankai was split in half in less than a second. He turned to see his creature split apart and fade away in mere moments before shakily turning towards his adversary. The last thing he saw were those eyes staring down at him as the powerful figure brought his blade down on the clown. The attack Kisuke sent was a fully charged strike from his zanpakuto as he wanted to ensure that nothing remained of the man he once thought could take the squad to a whole new level. The mad scientist didn't die in a grandiose fashion or even a loud explosion. No. He died in silence as the red wave engulfed his entire body and erased him from existence itself.

Kisuke saw that his work was done and breathed a deep breath before his mask vanished from his face. His eyes returned to normal and looked around the secret lab. There was really nothing that was of interest to him, so he decided to use kido and set fire to this room as well. Nothing in here deserved to survive if it was made by that mad man. At least that was what Kisuke thought until he heard a loud cough back in the room he saw Mayuri in. Making his way back there, he saw huddled up on the ground and covering herself with her hands, a small child with black hair. She was unconscious and bleeding from her side ever so slightly but was otherwise okay. Wrapped around her right ankle, Kisuke saw a tag with the words 'Project Nemu' written on it. He also saw that the blood trail from earlier led to her. The name was definitely familiar as Ichigo had told Kisuke of Mayuri's Shikai and Bankai and that he would probably have an assistant named Nemu by now, but this was different. She looked too young from what Kisuke was told of her in the future.

"No time to ponder this then." Kisuke made a judgement call right then and there. While he knew next to nothing of the girl aside from her programmed loyalty to Mayuri, he would ensure that that would no longer be the case and fully erase Mayuri's name from history.

He picked her up bridal style and left every atrocity in that lab to burn into nothingness.

And that is the end of Mayuri. Wanted to have a chapter dedicated to Kisuke Urahara as it makes sense why he would want to stop Mayuri before he does anything heinous according to Ichigo.

Really glad this one turned out the way it did. This story is nearing its conclusion. Next chapter will have Ichigo in it.

Stay awesome and as always...

PEACE!