Author's note: Hey, sorry for a mistake in chapter two. I meant to have lines of 's to separate the different captain's reactions, but I am still getting used to the formatting that uses. If anyone here knows how to separate sections well, please email me, or leave it in a review.

Yamamoto left Kansoki Ryaki in the highest security jail cell in the First Squad's headquarters. The old man could not remember, in his long time spent as a captain in the Gotei Thirteen, ever having had a prisoner like Ryaki. The man had been perfectly respectful, compliant, and cooperative, yet had refused to answer any of Yamamoto's questions.

"I apologize, Yamamoto-sama," he would say. "I would rather not answer any questions until the other captains convene to decide my fate." Yamamoto had been unable to get any other response out of him.

The man's appearance alone raised questions in Yamamoto's mind. Ryaki wore a shinigami uniform, but it did not bear the insignia of any of the Thirteen Squads. However, it was not a uniform of a student in the Academy. Yamamoto intended to find out soon where this shinigami came from.

Yamamoto sighed. He knew that, like every other captain, he would not miss Mayuri. But, he knew that he couldn't tolerate this sort of crime in the midst of the war against the arrancar.

With the Room of 46 gone, it would be up to the remaining captains of the Gotei Thirteen to decide Ryaki's fate. Yamamoto intended to call the captains into a meeting tomorrow.

Nemu walked in a trance towards the jail cell. She walked through the sewers underneath Seireitei, thought to be known only to members of the Fourth Squad. However, during his many experiments, Mayuri had thought to launch of study of the underground tunnel system. He had sent Nemu to create a map, and she knew the tunnels better than anyone.

At first she had not known where she was going. She had done almost no thinking at all since she had seen her father's body on the ground. Almost immediately after she had answer Yamamoto-sama's questions, she had meandered back to the lab to look at the spot where his body had fallen. After a while, she made her way into the tunnel system and found herself under the grate that would bring her into the First Squad's jail. Not knowing what to do, she lifted the grate and climbed out.

She found herself alone in the jail. She looked around herself, and saw that all of the cells were empty. That is, all but one.

When she saw Ryaki, she didn't know what she was feeling. At first she thought it would be hate, that it was loathing telling her body to become cold and clammy, to raise goosebumps on her skin, to make her eyes begin to burn with the beginnings of tears.

Then, she thought it might have been grief, grief for her father, grief for herself. Or maybe even relief. She did not know. Without even knowing what was guiding her actions, she began walking towads Ryaki's cell.

Ryaki had his eyes closed when Nemu arrived, but he was not sleeping. He knew it would be a long time before he could sleep again. It was guilt keeping him awake. He did not feel guilt for Mayuri's death, for he knew that the man had deserved to die more than almost any other. It was guilt, guilt for a friend long since passed away, guilt he thought would be relieved with the death of the Twelfth Squad Captain. Guilt that had not ceased in the least with the fulfillment of his vow.

Lost in his reflections, and his memories of that night eighty years ago, Ryaki didn't hear Nemu until she had reached his cell. Even had he not been aware of her presence by then, however, he would surely have noticed the noise when she drew her sword and cut through the bars of his cell.

Ryaki did not have his zanpakuto with him, having relinquished it to the shinigami who came to arrest him. Even if he had had it, however, he would not have raised it against this woman. He knew who Nemu was, and knew what she must have been going through. Perhaps even better than she did.

He did not move to dodge as she came at him with her sword raised. He showed no fear in the rapidly approaching face of death, the face that manifested itself in Nemu's blank visage, in her confused eyes.

He did, however, show surprise when Captain Hitsugaya and his zanpakuto were suddenly between him and Nemu.

Nemu had seen the bankai of Hitsugaya Toshiro, had seen its icy glory destroy entire groups of hollow. However, she knew that right now, Hitsugaya's eyes were colder than Hyorinmaru had even been. Nemu knew, suddenly, that she had committed the worst sin imaginable, in Mayuri's eyes.

She had lost control.

Nemu had always been watched over by Mayuri. Although he had been far from a loving father, he had provided her with guidance, with rules, with objectives. She had been with this guidance her whole life, and she knew now that in the absence of Mayuri's watchful eyes, she has lost control.

Oblivious to Hitsugaya, Nemu fell to her knees. She began to do something that shook Ryaki, who had been firm in his resolve. It warmed the eyes of the Tenth Squad Captain.

Kurotsuchi Nemu, the daughter of Kurotsuchi Mayuri, began to cry.